Escondido keeps finding ways to plug its budget hole — but the city is running out of options to keep its current level of city services.
Many San Diego cities face a bleak budget situation in 2024. But Escondido has been has dealt with a structural deficit for several years, as our Tigist Layne reports in the North County Report.
This year, Escondido came up $18 million short in its budget. Budget staffers found a few ways to work around the hole. They plan to use nearly $5 million in Covid relief funds to help fund libraries, not fill 10 vacant positions and pull money from the city’s worker’s compensation fund.
This is the first year since 2021 the city has not pulled from its pension fund to plug the gap. Escondido currently has a $270 million pension liability — the difference between how much money a city projects it will pay its retirees versus how much it has invested in the pool.
“Even though we’re finding a way to manage through our current circumstances, there are looming deficits that we can’t keep pace with,” the city manager said.
Related: Mayor Todd Gloria has been holding press conferences urging San Diego City Councilmembers to pass his proposed budget. He held one Wednesday lauding the infrastructure aspects of his budget, which includes $88 million for flood control projects, as CBS 8 reported.
Superintendent Fired by Poway Wants Her Job Back
Former Superintendent Marian Phelps, who was fired last month by Poway Unified after a district investigation, is now trying to get her job back.
Phelps had been at the center of a controversy regarding her daughter’s Del Norte High School softball team after coaches, students and parents alleged she harassed members of the team.
Phelps has consistently denied the allegations. But after placing Phelps on paid administrative leave in February amid an investigation into the allegations, the district’s board ultimately fired her last month.
The news: Phelps has requested a judge overrule the district’s decision to fire her, the Union-Tribune reported. In a legal filing Phelps argued her firing should be reversed because the district had conducted a “sham investigation.”
Phelps also sought to tell her side of the story, casting blame for the situation on a member of her daughters’ team whom she alleged had engaged in bullying. A lawyer for a family who has filed a lawsuit against Phelps for alleged harassment said: “We are profoundly disappointed by Marian Phelps’ continued attempts to deflect accountability and harass teenage girls in high school and their families.”
That’s not all: The filing seems to have been spurred, at least in part, by a Union-Tribune public records request. Phelps’ lawyers sought to bar Poway from releasing the investigation it performed into Phelps or a letter informing her of why she was fired, specifically citing requests the paper made for those documents.
RIP Rubio’s
Rubio’s Coastal Grill — a San Diego institution that claims to be the home of the original fish taco — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday just days after announcing it would close 48 of its restaurants, including 13 in San Diego County. Eighty six locations across the Southwest will remain open as the company prepares to be sold, according to the company’s public relations firm.
The restaurant attributes its downfall to diminishing foot traffic in recent years (darn you, remote workers!) and the rising costs of doing business in California, where the minimum wage for fast food workers recently increased to $20 per hour.
But the fishy grill’s future was imperiled long before the living wage death knell rang. The company declared bankruptcy in 2020, which it blamed on the pandemic. Although I’d argue the chain lost its charm in 2010, when they got rid of the aquariums. RIP.
— Bella Ross
In Other News
- An investigation into Chula Vista Police Department’s drone program had several interesting findings. CVPD says it only uses drones for 911 calls and serving warrants, but the investigation found one in 10 drone flights did not have a stated purpose. It also found that most drone surveillance occurs in poorer neighborhoods. (WIRED)
- SDG&E says that scammers are targeting its customers with a new type of fraud. Customers get a text message saying there is a work order to immediately disconnect power at their house. They are directed to call a call center and then asked for payment to stop the disconnection. If this happens to you, in our opinion, you should not pay them.
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry, Jakob McWhinney and Bella Ross. It was edited by Scott Lewis.