South County Report: Allegations Roil Chula Vista City Council Race 

The most talked-about political race in Chula Vista this fall is the campaign to represent the city’s fourth council district. 

Candidates Cesar Fernandez and Rudy Ramirez are advancing different proposals to meet their working-class district’s needs. But all the attention is focused on a series of ethics allegations that have rocked the race, including a workplace lawsuit, a decade-old DUI arrest and a brewing recall effort against Fernandez, who currently sits on the school board of the Chula Vista Elementary School District. 

Both candidates accuse their opponent of disqualifying ethical lapses. An email from the Fernandez campaign recently accused Ramirez, a retired small business owner and former Chula Vista city councilmember, of failing to pay taxes and violating workplace safety rules at one of his businesses several decades ago. A caucus of local Democratic clubs allied with Fernandez voted at a recent meeting to declare Ramirez “unacceptable” because of what they called his negative campaign tactics and his lack of support for a union-backed local bond measure on this year’s ballot. 

The allegations against Fernandez are more wide-ranging. Supporters of the school board recall effort, who are now circulating petitions to qualify the recall for the ballot, recently created a website, dumpcesar.com, linking to a series of documents they gathered via public records requests. 

The documents include court records showing that in 2013 Fernandez pleaded guilty to driving into oncoming traffic while under the influence of alcohol. He was sentenced to five months’ probation. 

Also linked on the website are school district expense reports showing that on multiple occasions Fernandez charged the district for four-figure hotel bills at Hilton and Hyatt Regency hotels while attending school-related conferences in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Austin, Texas. 

During one San Francisco trip in 2023, Fernandez billed the district for a nighttime Uber ride from the address of a karaoke club in the city to the address of a bar called 440 Castro, where patrons are promised “Booze. Music. Fun” on the bar’s website. 

The recall website also links to a workplace lawsuit filed last year by Milena Aubry, the former human resources director for the Sweetwater Union High School District, where Fernandez currently supervises after-school programs. 

The lawsuit accuses Fernandez of being part of a pattern of nepotistic hiring and promotion at the district, alleging that he was improperly promoted in 2021 by his then-supervisor Eduardo Reyes as part of a quid-pro-quo arrangement that resulted in Fernandez being appointed to the Chula Vista Elementary School Board and then voting to hire Reyes as the board’s superintendent, a position Reyes still holds. 

Fernandez referred questions to his campaign manager, Dan Rottenstreich. Rottenstreich dismissed the allegations against his candidate as “ridiculous lies” spread by “a career politician with a record of failure.” 

Fernandez “made a personal mistake, apologized to his family for it and has moved on,” Rottenstreich said of the DUI. As for the hotel and Uber bills, Rottenstreich said they were a normal part of attending a school-related conference. “School board conventions have events all over town,” he said. “Do you prefer that he crawl to the events?” 

“Voters of southwest Chula Vista want change and a councilmember who cares about them,” Rottenstreich said. “Cesar’s commitment to education, kids and families is second to none.” 

Ramirez said Fernandez’s accusations against him are an attempt to deflect attention from issues raised by recall proponents. Ramirez said he is not involved in the recall and entered the race not because of Fernandez but because he felt his district has been overlooked and underserved by city powerbrokers. 

“We’re completely different people,” Ramirez said of Fernandez. “People…are appalled and upset at Cesar’s behavior. He’s stepped on a lot of toes. When you get promoted out of turn, people around that community notice.” 

I’ll be doing a deeper dive into this race later this week. Send tips to jim.hinch@voiceofsandiego.org. 

Gender Workaround Stirs Parent Debate 

Parents in the Chula Vista Elementary School District are riled up about a recent school board meeting during which district staff revealed that they had quietly modified a district record-keeping system to prevent parents from learning their child’s preferred name at school. 

A user on the neighborhood website NextDoor posted a link on Saturday to audio from the April 17 board meeting, during which board members discussed the district’s system for gathering personal and family information from students and parents at the start of the school year. 

The record-keeping system, called PowerSchools, asks students to include their preferred name at school, whether a nickname or some other alternate name. At the meeting, board member Kate Bishop, a staunch defender of LGBTQ rights, voiced reservations about the preferred name question, worried that parents using the system would be able to see that their child was using a name at school that signaled a change in gender identity. 

A district staff member reassured Bishop that the district had created a software “workaround” that blocked parents from viewing their child’s preferred name in the system. “Great, thank you,” said Bishop, who then joined other board members in voting unanimously to approve the contract. 

The NextDoor post has garnered 119 comments so far, with users debating which matters more, parents’ right to know their children’s school nickname versus trans children’s need to be shielded from unsupportive parents’ reprisals. 

At least one board member plans to address the issue at Wednesday’s board meeting, and parents may weigh in during public comments. 

Air Purifier Funding Secured 

County supervisors on Tuesday voted to direct up to $2.7 million in state funding to purchase air purifiers for residents in South County communities affected by the region’s ongoing sewage crisis in the Tijuana River Valley. 

The funding, provided by the California Air Resources Board and funneled through the county’s Air Pollution Control District, will enable officials to expand an initial pilot program that distributed 414 air purifiers to residents near the river. 

Scientists have measured high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas in the area, leading to what residents say are oppressively putrid odors and mounting health problems. Commenters at the meeting praised the board for securing the funding but also chastised officials for taking so long to address the problem. 

Supes punted on a related proposal to seek federal environmental Superfund status for the polluted river valley. After much public comment and debate, they decided to postpone the issue for 90 days. Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who is running for re-election, said she would continue to advocate for the Superfund designation on her own. 

In Other News 

An audit released Monday accuses former senior leaders at the San Diego County Association of Governments of withholding key information and rushing approval of a flawed contract for toll collection on state Route 125, resulting in a system that makes it hard for the agency to track and collect revenue. The contract is the second improperly vetted toll system approved by SANDAG, which is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. (Union Tribune) 

Union workers at the Hotel Del Coronado voted last week to authorize a strike if they are unable to secure a favorable contract from owner Hilton Hotels and Resorts by Oct. 31. Workers in the same union staged a walkout last month at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, part of a nationwide effort to secure better wages and benefits for unionized hotel workers. (Axios San Diego) 

Forty-one inmates at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Center are scheduled to graduate with associates degrees on Oct. 22 as part of Southwestern College’s Restorative Justice Program, which helps people with criminal backgrounds attend community college. Since its inception in 2016, the program has helped 1,500 students at the correctional center earn degrees in subjects ranging from business administration to American Sign Language. 

Correction: We’ve updated this story to correct the amount charged by Fernandez for hotel bills.