The city of San Diego has got beef with San Diego County’s CARE Court rollout.
Our Lisa Halverstadt reveals that the city has been quietly lobbying for changes to state law to address its concerns that the county’s voluntary CARE Court program is leaving behind the most vulnerable people with serious psychotic illnesses who are often unwilling to accept treatment.
Now Mayor Todd Gloria is teaming with Sen. Ben Allen of Santa Monica and the California State Association of Psychiatrists on SB 367. The bill could revive a key concept in the law that hasn’t played out in practice: the consideration of conservatorships for people who struggle in the program.
San Diego County officials have said CARE Court isn’t a path to involuntary treatment and that no CARE enrollees have ended up in a conservatorship as a direct result of the program. They tout their CARE program as the most successful in the state with 105 voluntary agreements reached as of last week and argue they aren’t giving up on the most vulnerable patients.
Catch up: Halverstadt previously wrote about the mismatch between the rhetoric surrounding CARE Court and the local rollout and shared one family’s rocky experience with San Diego County’s program. She also wrote about how the law sold as a solution for people with untreated psychotic illnesses has also ended up serving San Diegans exiting involuntary treatment.
Why It Matters: Water Prices Gonna Rise
The San Diego City Council just voted to raise water rates by 5.5 percent — but that’s not even the bad news, our Scott Lewis reports.
“The city of San Diego last year projected water rates will rise 61% through 2029, adding about $57 per month to the average water bill. That’s almost $700 per year,” Lewis writes.
The ballooning costs are a product of how we get out water, which comes from multiple sources, including the Metropolitan Water Authority, Imperial County, a new desalination plant and an eventual sewage recycling facility.
Various water authorities have made major investments in infrastructure. They had to take out big loans to do it and consumers are still paying on those loans.
Don’t Miss Out! Tickets Are Selling Fast
Next week we’re hosting a conversation with some outstanding leaders in San Diego.
We will be joined by Rep. Sara Jacobs, CEO of the San Diego Symphony Martha Gilmer and Ebony Shelton, CAO for the county of San Diego. Our Managing Editor Andrea Lopez-Villafaña will speak with them about how their leadership has shaped San Diego.
It’s all happening on Thursday, March 20, at 5:30 p.m. at the Farmer and Seahorse, Illumina Theatre.
In Other News
- It’s going to be rainy and windy today. Drive safe. (Union-Tribune)
- The San Diego City Council approved a plan to transform an old library in Serra Mesa into a 60-unit affordable housing apartment complex for veterans and families. (CBS 8)
- Four fishermen from Indonesia are accusing San Diego-based Bumble Bee Seafoods of forced labor and allege that they were beaten regularly by captains of boats owned by companies that source tuna for Bumble Bee. (AP News)
- Last month, our Tigist Layne reported that leaders of the Del Mar Fairgrounds pumped the brakes on an affordable housing project after learning the city of Del Mar was in support of building an underground train tunnel underneath the fairgrounds – a plan the fairgrounds’ board opposes. Now, it seems the affordable housing project is back on the table because the train tunnel route under the fairgrounds is off. (Union-Tribune)
- It comes as no surprise to anyone living in San Diego that it’s very expensive to live here. Still, a new study found that San Diego has experienced the highest cost of living increase among major metros in the United States since 2019. (Fox 5)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Will Huntsberry. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.