County Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer may soon pitch major reforms that could shift current realities on county government leadership and processes.
Our Lisa Halverstadt reveals that Lawson-Remer is working with groups including the Center On Policy Initiatives on potential proposed changes including an extension of term limits for supervisors like her and making the county’s top bureaucrat an elected position.
Lawson-Remer and Kyra Greene of CPI emphasized the proposal they’re working is much broader than those two pitches, which have spurred lots of chatter among county insiders.
Lawson-Remer gave a laundry list of other issues on the table including budget transparency, ethics reform and evaluation of county programs.
Any changes to how the county elects its leaders would require voter approval – and three board votes to place a related measure on the ballot.
Padres Owners Settle Some Disputes
Wednesday news broke that Sheel Seidler, the widow of the late principal owner of the Padres, Peter Seidler, had settled her lawsuit with his brothers. It led fans and pundits to immediately speculate that a sale of the team must be imminent. But later updates to the story made clear that she still had beef and had ongoing litigation on a couple of points. From the U-T: “That means Sheel Seidler still maintains the two main claims in her lawsuit — that the trustees have failed to allocate the trust and that she has not received all the income she is due.”
Who may buy the team: The U-T story again mentions Joe Lacob, the lead owner of the Golden State Warriors NBA team. He visited San Diego recently. But Sportico reports others, including two European soccer billionaires are in the mix (or they’re at least hoping to be seen as in the mix).
“Dan Friedkin, whose Pursuit Sports owns Everton and AS Roma, and José E. Feliciano, whose Clearlake Capital is a backer of Chelsea, are two of a handful of potential bidders engaged in the ongoing sale process, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private,” Sportico reported.
Inside the Battle Over Trans Care at One San Diego Hospital
Voice of San Diego contributor Randy Dotinga reports that Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego is facing dueling threats from Washington and Sacramento over transgender care for kids.
Hospital officials last month announced the closure of the Center for Gender-Affirming Care. That’s amid the Trump administration’s threat to financially cripple any institution that provides trans care to children.
Last week, California’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the hospital alleging that its move violates a legal agreement with the state. An emergency court hearing is scheduled for today.
Dotinga explains what’s at stake in a new story.
Read more here.
New School Board Candidate… Race Over?
Hayden Gore, a teacher who unionized the High Tech High charter chain, recently launched his campaign for school board in Point Loma this past weekend.
That means the race to fill the open seat on San Diego Unified’s board may already be over, reports our Jakob McWhinney in his newest Learning Curve.
Gore was endorsed by San Diego Unified’s powerful teachers union months even before his campaign kicked off. That may be enough to scare any other Democrats away from running for the seat, since the teachers union has such deep pockets.
It’s hard to imagine a candidate checking more of the union’s boxes, reports McWhinney.
Read the full Learning Curve here.
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In Other News
- Correction: We updated the story, “Cross-Border Truckers Win Fight to Unionize” to correct that the remediation plan reached under the Rapid Response Mechanism is an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments. Read the updated version here.
- Councilmembers are discussing — and will be for months to come — the painful budget decisions they have ahead. The city is short on revenue so far this year and will have a $110 million budget deficit to close in the next several months. They acknowledged it will be painful and floated the idea of a hiring freeze. (FOX 5 & KUSI)
- President Trump has pledged to bestow the Medal of Honor on a 100-year-old Korean War veteran from Escondido. The man took on seven Russian fighter jets and shot down four of them. (Union-Tribune)
- The Black, Ocean Beach’s most well-known head shop, is closing. RIP. (U-T)
- The federal case against a former San Diego sheriff’s deputy who shot an unarmed man in the back and killed him in 2020 will go forward. The man’s lawyers had tried to delay the trial, arguing that recent law enforcement shootings could bias a jury against him. (CBS 8)
- South County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre on Wednesday sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Secretary Lee Zeldin, urging him to meet with local residents affected by sewage pollution in the Tijuana River during an upcoming scheduled visit to the San Diego Region. In a statement accompanying the letter, Aguirre said that though residents appreciate recent federal efforts to end the pollution crisis, they “are frustrated that conditions in their daily lives have not meaningfully improved.”
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, Scott Lewis, Will Huntsberry and Jim Hinch. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña and Scott Lewis.