Chula Vista City Councilmembers are moving swiftly to place an initiative on the November ballot that would overhaul the city’s government – and give themselves a $45,000 pay raise.
The initiative, authored and sponsored by a prominent local labor union, would raise councilmembers’ salaries to a minimum of $110,127. It would also give elected city officials an additional third term in office and make other changes to councilmembers’ responsibilities and city ethics and lobbying rules.
In a bonus for the city’s public employee unions, the measure would make changes to contract negotiation rules that could give at least some of the unions greater leverage.
The Council on Tuesday fine tuned the measure in a race to meet an Aug. 7 deadline to place it on the November ballot.
So far, the city has conducted no public outreach about the measure. Only a handful of residents at Tuesday’s meeting even seemed to have heard of it.
Mayor John McCann, the Council’s lone Republican, urged his Democratic colleagues to put on the brakes.
“We want to be able to get things right and listen to our citizens,” he said.
A Q&A with the New Fairgrounds CEO
In April, board members who control the Del Mar Fairgrounds abruptly fired their CEO Carlene Moore. The story on why has never been fully told, but our Tigist Layne has pieced together some details — like multiple lawsuits that named Moore.
Board members then installed Becky Bartling as the new CEO. Bartling previously led the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and, prior to that, worked in Del Mar for years.
Layne asked her about her vision for how she’ll lead one of San Diego’s iconic landmarks.
Bartling talked about how she hopes to steady the ship and plan for the future. She also said she plans to bring back a volunteer program that provides animals sanctuary at the Fairgrounds when there are local wildfires.
Read the full North County Report here.
Slow News Day: When to Call It an Encampment
NBC 7 ran a story this week about Otay Mesa residents’ problems with a so-called RV encampment.
But when is something big enough to call it an encampment?
NBC showed video from February of a single RV parked on a side road in Otay Mesa. The network then cross faded to more recent video of two or possibly three campers in the same area, one of which had a DIY, add-on structure.
This growth over the course of six months led the reporter to dub the area an encampment and say it was “under construction and growing.”
He also referred to the area as a “shantytown.”
Maybe three’s an encampment — but it hardly seems like a town.
Rabbitholed: The Cephalopods of Doom
If you feel like the world is ending… you might be right.
Cue the squid.
A frightening story in the science journal Nautilus does a deep dive on previous periods of mass extinction in earth’s history.
Those periods have something in common. They were followed by a rise in the fossil record of creatures called ammonites.
Ammonites are an extinct ancestor to our modern-day squids, nautiluses and other cephalopods.
They flourished after mass extinctions because they thrive in low-oxygen environments – such as oceans affected by a sudden warming of the earth’s temperature.
Surprise, surprise: cephalopods are flourishing again in our present era’s warming ocean waters.
Think about that next time you paddle out in this summer’s abnormally warm Pacific without your wetsuit.
Longer Days Call for Voice Summer Gear
Whether you’re catching a baseball game, heading to the coast or exploring, our Voice of San Diego tees and bucket hats are made for the season.
Lightweight and full of local pride, they’re the perfect way to show your support for independent journalism wherever summer takes you. Find your new summer favorite at vosd.org/mrsummer.
In Other News
- San Diego is granting $4.22 million to community organizations to expand job training and career support for disadvantaged youth, focusing especially on underserved regions with high unemployment. (Times of San Diego)
- Six cabins are set to open soon in Pacific Beach to give homeless people a safe place to sleep while they work paid jobs cleaning up the neighborhood. Similar six cabin villages are expected to open in Spring Valley and El Cajon next year. (KFMB)
- A judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit last Friday against KPBS over its reporting on a proposed Imperial County data center project, ruling under California anti-SLAPP law that the claim lacked legal and factual support. (KPBS)
- A group of San Diego Unified teens met with the Sheriff Kelly Martinez to push for reducing solitary confinement in local jails, arguing it worsens mental illness and has contributed to inmate deaths. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch, Naomi Granata and Will Huntsberry. It was edited by Will Huntsberry.