San Diego is struggling to shoulder the surging cost of water from the San Diego County Water Authority — and the City Council is fed up.
The Council delivered an unprecedented public bashing of the Water Authority during Tuesday’s meeting, with one councilmember suggesting the city’s Public Utilities Department just refuse to pay their water bill.
“The County Water Authority has been a bad actor. It’s time they get called out,” said District 2 Councilmember Jen Campbell at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
The main problem is that the Water Authority’s water prices are hard to predict, public utilities staff say, so it’s difficult to forecast how much local water prices can and should rise to cover both the cost of buying water from the agency and the city’s own water infrastructure needs. Buying water from the Water Authority is the city’s second largest expense and the city is currently grappling with a $258 million budget deficit.
The department asked the City Council to make their life easier and grant them authority to automatically pass on Water Authority costs to customers without a vote by elected leaders. The City Council said, we get that, but actually we’d prefer to publicly scrutinize the Water Authority every time they want more money instead.
Why the Latino Vote Swung Right in Southern San Diego
Through our Public Matters reporting partnership, inewsource explores reasons why Donald Trump garnered significantly more Latino votes in parts of southern San Diego.
“Most Latinos go to church. Most Latinos are conservative. But they’re not Republican yet,” said Hector Gastelum, a Chula Vista resident and former mayoral candidate who voted for Trump in each general election. But the high cost of groceries, gas and housing under Biden punished regular citizens, Gastelum said, and more are joining the Republican Party.
The owner of a feed and supply store in San Ysidro said his taxes went down during Trump’s first term, and his customers had more money to spend.
Trump gained 13 percentage points in San Ysidro, where 90 percent of residents are Latino, in 2024 compared to his run in 2020. And in Chula Vista, where 60 percent are Latino, Trump gained 7 percentage points respectively.
Local political scientists opined further that Democrats are generally “demoralized” and didn’t turn out to vote as they did in 2020.
Activists: Imperial Beach Tenant Protections Too Little Too Late
Imperial Beach just became the latest San Diego County city to approve protections for renters facing eviction ahead of remodeling projects.
The Imperial Beach City Council voted 3-2 Wednesday to increase required payouts to evicted tenants and whittle down the types of remodeling projects that justify eviction.
Yet, as our Jim Hinch reports, the new protections won’t come soon enough for residents in two large Imperial Beach complexes facing eviction in coming weeks.
Activists who rallied the City Council to approve new rules in response to mass eviction notices that went out at the two complexes also don’t think the new rules go far enough.
In Other News
- Fox 5 San Diego reports that county Supervisor Jim Desmond is running for Congress. (ICYMI, our Tigist Layne previewed the race to replace the termed-out Desmond on the county board earlier this week.)
- NBC 7 San Diego revealed another setback for Las Cuatro Milpas in Barrio Logan: The beloved Mexican restaurant failed a second health inspection and must remain closed for now.
- CBS 8 reports that a civil suit against ex-county supervisor Nathan Fletcher will go to trial in September.
- UC San Diego is the fastest-growing UC campus in the state, the Union-Tribune reports.
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.