San Diego County Board of Supervisors candidate Paloma Aguirre has made the county budget a centerpiece of her campaign. “Control of San Diego County’s $8 billion budget and the direction of our region for years to come depend on who wins this election,” she recently emailed supporters.
But Aguirre’s own debts, including unpaid property taxes, lawsuits filed by multiple creditors and a 2015 bankruptcy filed by her husband have become a campaign issue in their own right.
Aguirre, a Democrat currently serving as mayor of Imperial Beach, still owes more than $2,600 in three-year-old unpaid property taxes and penalties on her Imperial Beach condo, our South County reporter, Jim Hinch, learned.
Creditors in California and Washington, D.C. have sued her on multiple occasions for unpaid credit cards and other debts totaling nearly $7,000.
Her husband, Jose Bacalski, filed for bankruptcy a year after he and Aguirre married, seeking relief from more than $31,000 in debts owed to banks, credit card companies, bill collectors, department stores and a payday lender.
Aguirre’s Republican opponent, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, says the money woes show Aguirre is unfit to oversee county finances.
“Paloma Aguirre can’t even pay her own bills – yet she wants to manage an $8 billion county budget?” he recently posted on Facebook.
Through a spokesperson, Aguirre said she has paid off some of her debts and is on track to repay the rest, including the unpaid property taxes, which she said stemmed from an unintentional oversight.
“Most people in South County have faced rising costs and unexpected bills and tough choices. Paloma understands that because she’s lived it,” Aguirre’s campaign consultant, Dan Rottenstreich said. “That’s exactly why working families trust Paloma because she understands them and she fights for them.”
Central Elementary Safe Parking Is Back from the Dead
The budget adopted Tuesday by San Diego’s City Council walked back many of the cuts Mayor Todd Gloria had proposed to close the city’s yawning fiscal gap.
There were even a few additions – including one that could be likened to a miraculous resurrection.
Councilmembers allocated $250,000 for an on-again, off-again – and now apparently on-again – safe sleeping site for families with children at San Diego Unified’s currently vacant Central Elementary School campus.
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera spearheaded the funding restoration. His district includes the school and he has been a staunch advocate for the project, even after city officials essentially left it for dead.
“We have a moral mandate to do what we can,” Elo-Rivera said of his fight to bring the parking site back to life.
The inevitable yes, but… Mayor Gloria could still send the parking site back to the grave using his line-item veto. And funding for the entire city budget remains contingent on optimistic revenue assumptions Councilmembers relied on in final voting.
In other words, supporters are optimistic – but not taking a victory lap quite yet. Elo-Rivera said he “would fight very, very, very hard” to keep the project on track.
Another Budget Status Update: The Midway Homeless Shelter
Back in April, Mayor Todd Gloria decided against including funds for a Midway homeless shelter in his draft budget in hopes that the county would step up to pay for it instead, putting the shelter’s future in question.
A lack of operating fund commitments from the county and the City Council’s budget vote sealed the shelter’s fate. It will close by Aug. 31.
The City Council voted to include $488,000 to buy more time for the shelter that would have otherwise had to close by the end of this month. That means nonprofit Alpha Project and city housing officials will have more time to transition shelter residents to other shelters or homes.
As of Wednesday, 94 people remained at the shelter. From mid-April through Wednesday, the Housing Commission reports that 48 people moved to other places including shelters and housing and 14 moved back onto the street.
Reminder: The city has stopped welcoming newcomers to many other city shelters as it ramps down the Midway operation. That means fewer homeless San Diegans can access shelter right now.
In Other News
- Immigration service providers and 11 foreign nationals filed a class-action federal lawsuit in San Diego on Wednesday, arguing that the Trump administration has made it virtually impossible to seek asylum by barring access at ports of entry. (Union-Tribune)
- A taquería, originally based in Tijuana, that’s been featured in the Michelin Guide for the past two years, opened its first U.S. location in National City on Wednesday. (NBC 7)
- Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed by federal agents from a Homeland Security press conference led by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, in Los Angeles, after attempting to ask a question. (KPBS)
- An Uber driver is suing the city after a police officer hurled derogatory language at him, berating the driver during a traffic stop late last year. (ABC 10).
The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch, Lisa Halverstadt and Tessa Balc. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.