San Diego County Board of Supervisors acting Chair Terra Lawson-Remer called on it take a stronger role in providing for residents — including possibly establishing a public bank to pay for affordable housing — in Wednesday night's State of the County Address.
Even if the federal government is abandoning its responsibilities to the public, "we together can still fulfill America' promise," Lawson-Remer said to the audience at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
"We can wait, or we can lead," she added. "San Diego County, let's lead."
While touting previous county accomplishments such as the Immigrant Legal Defense Program and various improvements in behavioral health care, Lawson-Remer also proposed the county start its own managed care plan, change its budgetary process to allow for more spending and implement a one-time small transfer fee on the sales of the top 1% of the county's properties.
That transfer fee would "help break the stranglehold of our housing crisis," Lawson-Remer said.
"When Washington walks away, we need to be able to act," she said. "San Diego will step up and put our reserves to work for the people they're meant to serve."
Lawson-Remer said the county won't back down on health-related initiatives, including stopping the flow of raw sewage flows across the U.S.-Mexico border.
The vice chair proposed a $10 million matching fund, "using our freed-up reserves, to match every grant dollar spent by the state or philanthropy to protect our communities from the sewage crisis," she added.
She also promoted a bill by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, to use border toll money to pay for cleaning up the Tijuana River Valley.
Early in the speech, Lawson-Remer said she wanted to talk about progress, "about taking one step forward, and one step back. About building things up, and tearing things down."
While it feels like the entire nation is taking a step back, "we've been here before," she said. "We've faced tough times before, and know how to lead through them."
The speech received a standing ovation from the gallery, which included numerous elected officials.
Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe and officials from Baja California attended the speech.
Vargas told the audience about hiring Lawson-Remer when she was a teenager to work for him when he was a member of the San Diego City Council and her taking a stand against a proposed 10 p.m. curfew for youth.
"She'll work hard to do the right thing by this community," Vargas added.
During the speech, Lawson-Remer laid out how local government can rise up to fill a vacuum left by a federal government being slashed.
San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert attended the speech and told City News Service she was glad Lawson-Remer "wants to work hand-in-hand with the city of San Diego to address common concerns," including homelessness.
Elene Bratton, a program manager for county Case Management who attended the speech, said really appreciated it.
"I felt she was reflecting the values that I have," Bratton said.
The county has been fiscally conservative for many, many decades, and Bratton said she understands that, although such a policy can come off as miserly to some.
Bratton said she likes the idea of the county stepping into a more active role if the federal government steps away.
"Some of our county employees can't afford to live here," said Bratton, a 26-year county employee.
Lawson-Remer later said that the county has billions of dollars available, and instead of keeping that in the stock market, take a portion of it to create a bank to create affordable housing. The exact figure has not been determined.
Lawson-Remer said, adding "a lot of work" will be put into determining the amount.
Rafael Perez, a community college adjunct professor who lives in the Sherman Heights neighborhood, called the speech inspiring and "focused on the people of this county."
"I'm excited for her leadership," he added.
The Board of Supervisors, while officially a nonpartisan body, is split 2-2 between Democrats and Republicans. South Bay Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre finished 1-2 in a special election April 8 to fill the vacant First Supervisorial District seat and will meet in a runoff in July.
During last year's State of the County Address, then-board Chair Nora Vargas touted the county's efforts in building housing and helping migrants and people experiencing homelessness.
Vargas announced in late December that she would not serve her second term despite winning reelection in November.
"Due to personal safety and security reasons, I will not take the oath of office for a second term," she said in a statement at the time.
It was unclear what the "personal safety and security reasons" were, but board meetings have become increasingly rowdy in recent years, and Vargas was away from the board several times for unspecified reasons and had dealt with health issues resulting from nodules on her vocal cords.
