Former San Diego City Councilmember and now-state Assembly candidate Carl DeMaio is a prolific pusher of statewide ballot measures.
But as our Tigist Layne reveals, he doesn’t have a winning track record when it comes to qualifying them for the ballot. Layne found that DeMaio failed to deliver any signatures on five ballot measures he’s pushed since 2015.
He raised more than $2 million from 2021 through February 2024 for his official Ballot Measure Committee but it has not produced a ballot measure that has even attempted to make the ballot. His representative said that’s all part of the plan — to qualify an initiative in 2026.
Familiar questions: Voice of San Diego reported in 2021 that conservative operatives were complaining that DeMaio and his Reform California group sucked up resources intended to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom from office to promote himself. DeMaio was also part of the statewide gas tax repeal that made the ballot in 2018. Voters ultimately rejected both efforts.
Federal Lawsuit Alleges East County Homeless Sweeps Violate Constitution
A federal lawsuit filed earlier this week accuses the county, multiple cities and two state agencies of sweeping East County homeless camps without proper notice, taking unsheltered residents’ property and forcing them to move elsewhere without offering another option.
The proposed class action filed by nonprofit Hope for the Homeless Lakeside and 16 homeless plaintiffs urges the U.S. District Court to order the county, the cities of Santee and San Diego, Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol to halt these practices and create safe places for unhoused residents to sleep and store their belongings.
Among the allegations in the suit: Sheriff’s deputies, Santee city employees and others tossed one woman’s dentures, photos of her children and her deceased father’s ring during a sweep along the San Diego River in Santee last July. A woman rushing to clean up her belongings accidentally urinated on herself during a morning camp clean-up in Lakeside after Caltrans workers and sheriff’s deputies refused to allow her to use the port-a-potty they brought with them. A woman staying near the former Santee Drive-In Theatre looked on as sheriff’s deputies threw away the walker she relied on to get around plus her husband and son’s cremated ashes.
The suit filed Monday claims these practices amount to cruel and unusual punishment and violate due process and equal protection rights, among other violations.
Spokespeople for the county and its sheriff’s department, the cities of San Diego and Santee, Caltrans and Highway Patrol declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Leader of Country’s Largest Water Provider Put on Leave
Following accusations from his staff of retaliation, harassment and cultivating a toxic work environment, the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California put its general manager on administrative leave Thursday.
Adel Hagekhalil landed at Metropolitan’s top position in 2021 and San Diego’s board representatives helped install him. But a May letter obtained by POLITICO and addressed to the board’s chair from Metropolitan’s Chief Financial Officer Katano Kaisane revealed the depth of discontent among his staff.
Metropolitan controls San Diego’s connection to the Colorado River, still the main source of water for the region and a source of multiple legal battles between the two agencies. At first, Hagekhalil’s appointment signaled a cooling of tensions as Hagekhalil publicly stated many times he was optimistic the two could settle their legal disagreements over the cost of Colorado River water. And at Voice of San Diego’s 2023 Politifest, Hagekhalil bumped fists with the San Diego County Water Authority’s new leader, Dan Denham, on stage – quite a symbol from the two famously-warring water agencies.
Representatives from union labor, tribes and the Los Angeles Waterkeeper, a water watchdog group, spoke out at Thursday’s meeting against the board taking action on Hagekhalil’s position. After more than three hours of closed-door deliberation, the board placed him on administrative leave and appointed the assistant general manager, Devon Upadhyay, as the interim leader.
Metropolitan, like the Water Authority, faces long term budget woes as it sells less water to conservation-minded Californians but has to maintain huge pipelines and aqueducts that transport water to the coastal desert metropolises of southern California.
In Other News
- National City could appoint someone new to represent their city on the port of San Diego Thursday night. The previous appointee, Sandy Naranjo, was censured by her port colleagues and ultimately removed by her City Council. The council has five applications to consider for the seat: Former National City Treasurer Ruble Beauchamp, Alexander Fernandez, former National City mayor Nicholas Inzunza, National City Chamber of Commerce Vice President Cheddy Matthews, and cardiologist GilAnthony Ungab.
- The Poway Unified school district fired its superintendent earlier this year because she allegedly interfered with a school investigation into a student accused of bullying her daughter, records show. (Union-Tribune)
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted the city of San Diego a $32 million loan and a $5 million grant to help upgrade its aging stormwater system. (Times of San Diego)
- San Diegans are struggling to buy food. That’s one takeaway from the record number of people in the county enrolling in CalFresh, a state benefit that helps supplement low-income family’s food budgets. (10 News)
- The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego says it will file for bankruptcy in the wake of hundreds of legal claims from alleged sexual abuse victims. (KPBS)
- A new science research and development center that takes up six blocks of downtown and billed as an urban life science city on the waterfront is struggling to fill its 1.5 million-square-feet of acquired space. (Union-Tribune)
Correction: Yesterday’s Morning Report misstated who proposed scrapping a plan to pursue sleeping cabins for homeless San Diegans in Spring Valley. County Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas wants to rescind the plan.
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and MacKenzie Elmer. It was edited by Lisa Halverstadt and Scott Lewis.