Over the last two years, several departments within the city of San Diego have turned to one company for gear needs: Omni Equipment Solutions.
Omni is owned by Giovanni Tilotta, a man convicted of three felonies for his involvement in a sensational law enforcement scandal that centered around disgraced sheriff’s captain, Marco Garmo.
Since Tilotta’s conviction in September 2022, various city departments — including SDPD — have purchased more than $1 million in equipment from Omni, our Will Huntsberry reports.
In the Garmo scandal, Tilotta was convicted of using his firearms-dealing license to make a gun-trafficking scheme look legitimate. Tilotta was convicted of three felonies.
Even while Tilotta was serving a six-month prison sentence, the city continued to do business with him.
Over the course of five transactions, SDPD bought more than $70,000 worth of gear from Tilotta, while his sentence was being carried out.
Multiple city spokespeople did not provide clarity on whether the city would continue to do business with Tilotta.
“The city will need to further evaluate Mr. Tilotta’s role within Omni Solutions to determine the future of the business relationship,” one wrote.
Why Nora Vargas Doesn’t Want That Superfund Designation
County Board Supervisor Nora Vargas recently pushed back against a proposal to try to get the Tijuana River Valley designated as a Superfund site. Here’s why.
Remember: A Superfund designation is given to sites that are severely polluted with hazardous waste and pose a threat to human health or the environment. In these cases, the federal government steps in to manage the cleanup and often holds the parties responsible for the pollution accountable for the costs.
Last month, Vargas got her Republican colleagues to help her stall a Superfund designation proposal introduced by Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer.
At the time, she said county leaders needed to better understand what the status would mean, but sources told our MacKenzie Elmer that there may have been another reason for her hesitation: She unveiled a project earlier this year to enhance the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park, and a Superfund designation could impact it.
Read the Environment Report here.
Oceanside’s Esther Sanchez Takes Slight Lead in Mayoral Race
That’s right, it’s been two weeks since Election Day, and the race to become Oceanside’s mayor is still neck-and-neck. Now, though, incumbent Mayor Esther Sanchez is slightly ahead of challenger, and City Councilmember, Ryan Keim.
Sanchez, who was initially trailing Keim, has been steadily gaining momentum. She holds a narrow lead according to updated election results, up by only 31 votes.
The next batch of election results will drop Thursday evening.
In Other News
- The civilian oversight board in charge of monitoring the county Sheriff’s Office recommended almost 100 policy changes and improvements since January 2020, but almost two-thirds of those were rejected or delayed, a new analysis found. (Union-Tribune)
- The San Dieguito Union High School District Board will have its four high school foundations independently audited after a “whistleblower” report by students questioned the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation’s financials and salary disclosures. (Union-Tribune)
- A group of South Bay residents filed a lawsuit Monday against the operator of the South Bay water treatment plant contracted by the International Boundary and Water Commission alleging that the company has failed to prevent raw sewage from flowing into southern San Diego waters. (KPBS)
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry and Tigist Layne. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Scott Lewis.