South County Report: Chula Vista’s Surprising Conservative Streak 

By the numbers, Chula Vista is a Democratic stronghold. 

Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one in San Diego County’s second-largest city. All but one member of the City Council is a Democrat. South San Diego County in general long has been considered a reliable part of Democrats’ voter base. 

But numbers don’t tell the whole story. This week’s Chula Vista City Council meeting was a perfect illustration of an increasingly noticeable moderate-to-conservative tilt in city politics. 

Before I explain, one more note about the numbers. Democrats might want to reconsider their assumptions about Chula Vista. In the past five years, even as the rest of San Diego County has turned more blue, Democrats’ voter registration advantage in Chula Vista actually shrank. 

In September, 2020, according to the County Registrar of Voters, Chula Vista Democrats outnumbered Republicans more than two to one. Since then, Republicans added more than 9,000 voters to their registration total in the city. Democrats added just 7,000. 

In other words, slowly but surely, Chula Vista Republicans are catching up to their Democratic rivals. 

Watching Tuesday’s City Council meeting, you might have thought you were witnessing a government run entirely by Republicans. 

In the same month that Democrats on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors spearheaded a move to increase civilian oversight of law enforcement, Chula Vista Councilmembers waived aside civil liberties concerns and made their city’s police department the first in the county to embrace a controversial suite of artificial intelligence policing tools. (See my coverage here.) 

Councilmembers voiced no hesitation about their vote. They lauded their police department’s reputation as an early adopter of law enforcement technology and boasted about Chula Vista’s low crime rate. 

Discussing the AI policing tools, Deputy Mayor Carolina Chavez, a Democrat, sounded indistinguishable from her Republican Council colleague, Mayor John McCann. 

Said McCann before his vote: “This is a very effective tool for making sure police officers save time on reports and can get back on the streets to serve citizens.” 

Said Chavez: “I will always be supportive [of our police officers.] The more we can give our officers to ensure their time is most efficient, that keeps our community safe.” 

Earlier in the meeting, councilmembers were equally laudatory toward District Attorney Summer Stephan, who addressed the Council to announce the upcoming opening on Oct. 6 of a new South County Family Justice Center in neighboring National City. 

The Justice Center will offer comprehensive resources to victims of domestic violence, elder abuse, sexual abuse and other family crimes, Stephan said. 

Once again, councilmembers voiced their support for law enforcement and praised the District Attorney’s efforts. 

“Thank you for this incredible step forward,” Chavez said. 

Only Councilmember Michael Inzunza sounded a note important to Democrats. He asked Stephan whether services at the Justice Center would be available to victims regardless of immigration status. 

“I’m hoping you can give us reassurance that the center will be there for undocumented victims,” Inzunza said. 

Stephan assured the Council the Justice Center would not check victims’ immigration status. “Everyone requiring services is treated the same way, with dignity and respect,” she said. 

The Council then pivoted to bidding an emotional farewell to retiring City Manager Maria Kachadoorian, whose last day on the job is Oct. 2. 

Kachadoorian has led City Hall for the past five years. Before that, she led the city’s finance department. 

Looking back over Kachadoorian’s years of service, Councilmembers focused almost exclusively on her economic and fiscal achievements. They praised her for shepherding the recently opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center and highlighted her fiscally prudent approach to budgeting. 

Echoing a theme from his recent campaign for San Diego County Supervisor, McCann said Chula Vista stands out among San Diego-area cities in regularly passing a balanced budget without cuts, layoffs or raiding reserves. 

During his supervisor campaign, McCann frequently contrasted himself with his opponent, then-Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, by saying governments are most successful when they focus on the basics and avoid entangling themselves in issues such as immigration or other hot button topics over which they have little control. 

Chula Vista’s Democratic Councilmembers sometimes voice frustration with McCann’s Republican views in private. In their votes, channeling the desires of their constituents, they seem remarkably willing to go along with a moderate vision of city government. 

It’s yet another sign that, in South County, Democratic politics are in a period of unpredictable flux. 

ICYMI: I spent the last several weeks reporting a you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up story about a wild drama consuming National City Hall. 

Reaction to the story has run the gamut. One source prominent in South County politics said her friends likened the saga to a telenovela. Another politico said he believes every accusation both sides in the City Hall feud have leveled at each other. “That’s just National City,” he said. 

Another reader likely spoke for many when she said it’s important to remember the everyday people whose lives are affected when city leaders lose their minds. “This [dispute] is no longer about friendships (that ship sailed a long time ago) or politics,” she said in an email. “It is about protecting one of the last true communities where history, peace and quality of life are still preserved.” 

Read the story and let me know what you think! 

In Other News 

San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre and state Assemblymember David Alvarez staged a joint press conference Thursday at the Tijuana River to press state water officials to direct $46 million in recently approved climate resilience funds to address a sewage hot spot on the river that Aguirre said is responsible for much of the air pollution related to the river’s ongoing sewage crisis. “Let me be clear. This is more than an environmental issue,” Alvarez said at the event. “It is a public health emergency, the most severe in the western hemisphere, and we must treat it as such.” 

Scott Chadwick, the Port of San Diego’s new CEO, is moving quickly to put his stamp on California’s fourth largest port. The port announced Thursday it has hired Matt Vespi, former chief financial officer for the city of San Diego, as its new chief administrative officer. 

The city of Chula Vista also announced two key new hires this week. Ashley Milo, a veteran city animal care specialist, will be the city’s new director of Animal Services. David Graham, formerly the chief innovation officer for the city of Carlsbad, will be director of Economic Development. 

inewsource wrote about two options Chula Vista parks officials are considering for an overhaul of Rohr Park near Bonita. 

KPBS previewed Chula Vista’s upcoming ArtFest art festival, which takes place 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at City Hall, 276 Fourth Avenue. The festival spotlights local South County artists, including two, Melissa Salgado and German Rojas, whose work is featured at the city’s newly opened Casa Casillas cultural arts center.