San Diego’s City Council appointed three new members to the Privacy Advisory Board Tuesday in an effort to restore independent oversight of the city’s surveillance technology.
A recent KPBS investigation found the watchdog board has been hobbled by vacancies this year, which left more than half of its nine seats empty. As a result, the board hasn’t been able to meet since May. That means independent scrutiny of the city’s surveillance technology has been effectively sidelined for months.
Mayor Todd Gloria is primarily responsible for appointing members to the Privacy Advisory Board, according to the city’s municipal code. But the mayor has failed to send appointees to the City Council to fill the vacancies.
Now, the Council is leapfrogging Gloria’s appointment authority, citing a rarely-used section of the City Charter. If the mayor leaves a board or commission seat empty for more than 45 days, according to the charter rule, the Council “shall make such appointments.” In addition to the three new appointees approved Tuesday, the Council reappointed two current board members.
The appointments were approved unanimously.
Ike Anyanetu, chair of the Privacy Advisory Board, commended the City Council.
“This is a huge step forward for the Privacy Advisory Board,” he said in an emailed statement. “With seven of nine seats filled, this gives us the quorum needed to review and recommend technology.”
The board's inability to meet came at a pivotal moment. In recent weeks, the San Diego Police Department fast-tracked the rollout of camera-equipped streetlights in Hillcrest for the Pride Festival and around downtown for Comic-Con.
Some privacy advocates have pointedly blamed Gloria for the disintegration of the board. Khalid Alexander, a former board member, went as far as to say the mayor’s inaction was an effort to scuttle surveillance oversight.
“I think it’s intentional,” Alexander said, who also leads the social justice nonprofit Pillars of the Community, in an earlier interview with KPBS. “I’m not very surprised, honestly, that (the mayor has) been dragging his feet to appoint new people.”
Gloria’s office previously told KPBS it was unable to fill vacancies because of the board’s strict membership criteria. For example, one member must be a certified public accountant or auditor; another has to be a computer hardware or encryption professional.
Yet, this wasn’t an issue for the Council. Days after KPBS’ investigation ran in mid-July, Council President Sean Elo-Rivera sent a memo to fellow council members calling for nominees to the board. Now, less than two weeks later, the City Council has approved the new appointees.
The Council’s appointments are still subject to the mayor’s veto. Gloria’s office did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
At the Council meeting, Elo-Rivera thanked the appointees and the council members who nominated them, calling the Privacy Advisory Board’s work “super, super important.”
Ted Womack Jr., civic engagement manager at Alliance San Diego, was among the three new appointees to the Privacy Advisory Board. He said his experience being surveilled by police as a teenager in San Diego motivated him to apply.
“Everybody wants to feel like we can trust law enforcement and that we can be protected,” he said. “But before we can have that, we have to have trust.”
Womack Jr. was appointed to one of the seats reserved for a member of an equity focused organization. The two other appointees — Tim Blood and Brett Diehl — were appointed to seats reserved for an attorney or legal scholar.
