San Diego's Back-To-School Plan

Speaker 1: 00:00 When Lil San Diego's public schools put men to distance learning a data set, but a lot needs to go right, for a return to campus. The state's power companies haven't seen anything like it past due bills now exceed a billion dollars during the pandemic. And after years of debate, finally, a plan for San Diego short-term rentals. What does this mean for our beach communities and beyond I'm Ava Sharma and the KPBS round table starts. Now [inaudible] welcome to our discussion of the week's top stories. I'm in Mesa Sharma. Joining me on this remote edition of the KPBS round table are Joe Hong education reporter for KPBS news, Rob [inaudible] who covers energy for the San Diego union Tribune and KPBS Metro reporter, Andrew Bowen. Most San Diego students. Haven't seen the inside of a classroom in almost a year. During that time. Some of them have struggled academically grappled with isolation and even fallen into depression. Speaker 1: 01:11 Parents have had to juggle work and teach their kids that all may change. Soon. San Diego unified says it will reopen campuses a few days a week, starting April 12th. The announcement comes just days before a countywide vaccination program for teachers is set to start KPBS education reporter Joe Hong joins me to discuss how the reopening will work. Thanks for coming on the program, Joe, thanks for having me. Well, let's just get right into this. San Diego unified says it will reopen by offering a hybrid model, a blend of face-to-face instruction and online teaching. What are the specifics on how it will work? Speaker 2: 01:49 Yeah, so right now the specifics are frankly, a little unclear starting on Monday, the district is going to start serving parents to get a sense of how many families are comfortable going on campus for this hybrid model. The district will still be offering a fully online sort of distance learning program, but once they complete the surveys, they'll be able to know, you know, uh, what their staffing is going to look like and what, how many teachers that are going to need. And then there'll be able to determine how many hours they'll be able to teach students on campus for Speaker 1: 02:23 Now. Do other districts in the County have been using this hybrid model for some time? Do you have any idea on how many kids in those districts are actually choosing to physically go to school? Speaker 2: 02:36 Yeah, I, I don't really have, uh, an exact number, but, um, to give you a sense, uh, in the East Eastern part of the County, uh, Grossmont union high school district has been in a hybrid model, uh, since September and they've been at 25% capacity. So if 25% of its enrollment, you know, wants to be on campus, that's theoretically thousands of that are going to schools each day and learning in-person with their teachers. Speaker 1: 03:03 No, San Diego's reopen date is April 12th. We've heard these start dates before for schools to reopen new infection, not to drop below seven cases per 100,000. Right now, I believe are at about 15 per 100,000. How optimistic are school officials that the County can get there by April 12th? Speaker 2: 03:25 I think they are pretty optimistic. You know, I think at this point, uh, almost a year into the pandemic, um, officials are very wary of sort of the yo-yo effects that we've seen in the past year where schools are going to reopen, Oh wait, no, they're not. So now with this very concrete reopening date, it's really communicating S uh, I think a sense of relative certainty about bringing students back to campuses Speaker 1: 03:51 Then days the San Diego County office of education will offer COVID-19 vaccines to teachers. Will teachers be required to get the vaccine in order to return to work inside the classroom at San Diego unified? Speaker 2: 04:05 So, yeah, so, uh, teachers will be required to get the vaccine, but if they want to be on campus, but teachers cannot be mandated to get the vaccine to return to work. So there will always be a sort of a distance learning option for the teachers who might not feel comfortable, uh, getting the vaccine for any reason. Speaker 1: 04:26 And Joe, how are teachers and parents reacting to the news of San Diego Unified's planned restart date? Speaker 2: 04:32 Yeah, so I I'm sure, you know, the, the topic of reopening schools has become very polarized in the past year. And with this big news this week, the, the reactions were just came from across the whole spectrum. Some teachers really applauded the districts for prioritizing public health for requiring teachers to get vaccinated before going onto campus for requiring that the County go back into the red tier for COVID 19 cases before schools reopened. And then on the other side, you had parents who were angry saying this could have happened months ago. And, uh, this is too little too late. So yeah, you really got reactions from across the board, Speaker 1: 05:13 San Diego unified also plans to offer summer school this year to make up for some of the learning laws during the pandemic. How will those sessions work and will they be offered district wide? Speaker 2: 05:24 Yes, I summer school will be offered to all students and I'm not sure exactly how it's going to work, but yeah, a lot of the work is going to be figuring out how far students have fallen behind and making sure that they are caught up before the school year starts. But as of now, there aren't any real details yet, but still needs to be figured out. Speaker 1: 05:45 Okay. You were saying a little bit earlier that some parents have said for a while now that, uh, distance learning needs to be improved, what are the improvements that they're looking? Yeah. So Speaker 2: 05:58 This brings up an important point. I think distance learning will be a part of public education, even after schools reopen. And a lot of the complaints I've been hearing revolve around communication. Parents are having a hard time reaching teachers. Uh, students are having a hard time getting their questions answered about assignments or class material. And, um, I've been hearing a lot also about students who turned in assignments, but they on the platform, it, it appears as like a missing assignment and sort of getting those questions answered has been a real struggle for, for students and their families. So I think the communication issue is going to be key. Speaker 1: 06:39 This is the first time we've seen the district put a date on a large scale reopening plan. Does this indicate that district leaders and County health officials believe the peak of the pandemic is behind us? Speaker 2: 06:52 Yeah, so, like I said before, the, the issue of reopening schools has become extremely polarized and, um, therefore kind of delicate. And I don't think district leaders or County officials would be supportive of this plan if they weren't optimistic. And they're, they're very cautiously optimistic. And I think a lot of thought went into announcing this reopening date. So I do think that that optimism is there. And I, and I think it's a very calculated optimism. Speaker 1: 07:19 I've been speaking with Joe Hong education reporter for KPBS news. Thank you, Joe. COVID-19 economic relief is running on dual tracks this week, California lawmakers passed a $7 billion package that will deliver cash payments to some households at the national level. Congress is inching closer to passing its largest bill yet, despite the improving medical situation, the financial need is still there in interviewed reporter. Rob Nikolsky illustrated this in his latest story detailing more than a billion dollars in unpaid utility bills in California. He joins us this week on the round table. Hello, Rob, how are you? Good to be with you as well? I'm doing well. So Rob let's plunge right into it. Keeping the lights on is one of the most essential bills for any household, but you've found that more than 3 million Californians are past due. Just how much money are we talking about Speaker 3: 08:19 Here? We're talking about a lot of money, 1.2, $5 billion. So it's a 1 billion and a quarter dollars. Uh, and when you break it down, it roughly breaks down, uh, along the same lines of the size of the, uh, utility Pacific gas and electric for example, is the largest utility in California. And of that 1.2, 5 billion they account for about half of it, $600 million San Diego gas and electric is the smallest of the four big gas and electric utilities. And their portion of that is one, uh, $145.3 million. So we're still talking about a lot of money when you spread that out over the, you know, a little bit more than 1 million customer residential customers that San Diego gas, electric task. And also, I want to add real quickly, these numbers are just for residential customers. So these are average average, everyday Joes and Janes out there. Speaker 1: 09:15 Is there any historical comparison to the amount of money due by customers? And what I mean is during the great recession a decade ago, were delinquencies at this. Speaker 3: 09:30 That's a very good question. And, um, number of all the commissioners that are currently in the CPC, the California public utilities commission were not around back then. So there really isn't a good point of reference, but I would presume that these numbers are pretty much off the charts. When you go back to 2008, 2009, it was more of a gradual situation. It was serious, but it was more gradual. And so I w I would presume that these numbers have been much more precipitous than they were, you know, 12 or 13 years ago, Speaker 1: 10:04 But the local level you found nearly one in four SDG and E customers are behind on their bills. How is the utility responding to that? Speaker 3: 10:14 Well, the on overall level, the CPC has had a moratorium on disconnections and San Diego gas and electric cars. The very beginning of the shutdown of the, from regarding COVID last March, they also put a moratorium on disconnection for people who were not able to pay their bills. Also at the same time, San Diego gas and electric waived late fees, that basically has been extended statewide. And then just this past month, the CPC has extended the, that disconnection moratorium through June 30th. So there's been a little bit of help both on the local level and on the statewide. Speaker 1: 10:53 So clearly the state is taking this issue. Seriously, you quoted one of the state's public utility commissioners calling it, quote, extraordinarily frightening. What are their options right now? Speaker 3: 11:06 Well, first they did, they did extend that more tourism, uh, through June 30th. The other thing that they also directed all the utilities to establish what they call an a rear Ridge management plan. And that is a plan in which people who are behind on their bills. I think it's up to $500 or more behind on their bills. They can sign up for this plan, and if they're able to pay their bills on a monthly basis, they're able to pay them on time. They get a portion one 12th of that total amount reduced forgiven. So those are some of the things that the state has been doing to try to give people a little bit of help, sort of very rough period. Speaker 1: 11:49 Are there any other programs that customers might qualify for? Yes. Well, there's Speaker 3: 11:54 Something called, uh, the care and Farah programs and the care program as a California alternate rates for energy program. Farrah is a family electric rates assistance program and care. The care program is available to customers who have a household income that is at or below specific income levels. For example, for a family of four it's $52,400. And you can qualify that you can all that, and that program can reduce bills by about 30 to 35%. Now, Farrah is, uh, another program, very similar, but it's for people who are adjusted slightly above that income level. Speaker 1: 12:33 So what about the people who may not qualify for these programs? Is there any kind of repayments plan, uh, how is SDG and E and other companies working with customers? Speaker 3: 12:47 Well, one of the interesting things that came out of this CPC data was that you would think that the people who are really behind on their bills would probably be just proportionately in care and Farah programs. But one of the things that the data show was that roughly the same amount of people, almost the same amount of people who were not enrolled in that queue in those care and Farah programs were behind on their bills by a month, two months, three months up to six months. So one of the things that the utilities commission brought up and also something that in fairness to the utilities themselves individually have been trying to do is try to get more and more people to sign up for care and fairer programs. Because obviously there are a lot of people who are suffering out there just judging by the numbers of the people who are not in those programs, who are behind on their bills. Speaker 1: 13:41 So is there any plan in place in terms of what happens after the moratorium expires and for the people, again, who may not qualify for these programs, do the power companies eat the law? Speaker 3: 13:56 That is a very good question. And that's something that someone from the utilities commission brought up in Randolph, who's one of the heads of the energy division and he's quoting from him. Cause that was a very good question that I think the average reader would have. And he said, quote, additionally, the uncollected bills by the utilities are generally passed on to other rate payers. So that means that there's no plan in place to enable struggling households, to manage those bills and keep them affordable. Other rate payers ultimately will bear some of that burden. Now having said that, I think that there probably will be because of the scope of this. I think there's going to be a political debate about whether or not the utilities should eat some of that because utilities are guaranteed a guaranteed rate of return. Uh, and if this problem is as widespread and doesn't resolve itself, if we don't have a quote V-shape recovery, I think that's something that that's going to be a question of fairness because of some rate payers are able to pay their bills on time and they may be some fit. They may be physically strapped, but they are paying their bills on time. There does bring up an issue of fairness about whether they should pay a little bit more to make up for those who have not been able to Speaker 1: 15:15 Push back. Do you expect from those rate payers, should it come to that? Speaker 3: 15:19 We're not really sure right now, because at this point there's been no reckoning as far as how much this bills are going to come to, because right now the moratorium is in effect. And you asked earlier what they do after June 30th, the commission hasn't made up their mind yet. They haven't decided that yet, but I would presume that unless things get dramatically better between June, between now and June 30th, I would think that the commission would very seriously consider extending the, um, the moratorium for three more months or six more months, possibly till the end of this year. Speaker 1: 15:54 Okay, we're going to close it there. I've been speaking with Rob Nicole Leschi energy reporter for the San Diego union Tribune. Rob, thank you. Take a stroll through just about any beach community and you'll see the calling cards of an expansive vacation rental market, lockboxes, decorating Gates and windows signs. The subset of our real estate market thrives on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO. And until this week, San Diego city leaders were either unwilling or unsuccessful in regulating a business that critics say is harming neighborhoods, KPBS. Metro reporter, Andrew Bowen is here to explain what happened and what comes next. Hello, Andrew, thanks. First off. It's not official yet, but this week's vote makes it all, but a formality. What did the city council decide? And what's next in this process? Yeah, Speaker 4: 16:48 Just to dive briefly into some of the details of this ordinance, the council approved four license types for short-term rentals. The first one would cover any type of listing that is rented out for fewer than 20 days per year could be a whole home rental, a condo, a shared a room or whatever. The second type covers home sharing for more than 20 days a year. So say you're renting out a spare bedroom or you have a duplex and you're renting out the second unit. Both of those types, licensed types are unlimited. The third license type covers renting out an entire home for more than 20 days a year. And the fourth covers whole home rentals only in mission beach. And those second two types types three and four will be kept then. And the number of licenses available will be less than what we estimate as the number of listings that are actually on the market now. Speaker 4: 17:36 So we should see our reduction in the overall number of, of short-term rentals in San Diego. All of these licenses will come with fees that will cover more code enforcement. You know, the city, this is the city trying to crack down on noisy parties or bad actors. And you can lose your license if you're break caught, breaking the rules or failing to pay hotel taxes, as far as what's next to the council is there has to be a second reading of this ordinance. And that as you mentioned, is kind of a formality and the council later this year is expected to finalize some of the administrative regulations that, that cover some of the finer details. Speaker 1: 18:11 Now, there was only one vote against this proposal district one council member, Jill LaCava, why is he against it? Speaker 4: 18:19 This district includes LA Jolla, which is one of the main hotspots for short term rentals. And his no vote was not a surprise mainly given the fact that he was endorsed by San Diego, save San Diego neighborhoods, which is the main group that, that opposes short-term rentals. He in the meeting sought to make some amendments to the ordinance. He wanted to freeze the number of licenses for whole home rentals at 1% of the current housing stock. And it would not allow it. The number of licenses would not grow proportional to the growth in the city's housing supply council, president Jen Campbell, who had brought this ordinance forward, didn't accept his amendments. I think LaCava probably knew that they wouldn't be accepted because they were pretty, um, uh, substantive changes from what she had, uh, put forward. So that gave him a pretty easy reason to say, no, I can't agree to this. Um, but in general, I think he's just interested in making the regulations as strict as possible. And this compromise just didn't cut it for him. Speaker 1: 19:19 Andrew, even those who voted yes. Say more work needs to be done. Let's hear from council member, Monica, Montgomery state. Speaker 5: 19:26 I, with the understanding that we will revisit this, I'm going to put everyone on notice. I do not think the platform accountability measures that we have talked about here today have been even spelled out for myself. Like I don't understand what, uh, the penalty would be with regard to the platform. Um, I am going to vote. Yes, but I am going to continue to, uh, address that issue. Speaker 1: 19:53 One is council member, Montgomery step getting at there, what still needs to be resolved? Speaker 4: 19:58 Well, as I mentioned, the administrative regulations for this ordinance will be coming back to the council in the fall. And these are the finer details that are a bit more malleable than, than something that's written into the municipal code in an, in the form of an ordinance. Things like more specific requirements on how to obtain a license, uh, you know, how to verify that you're the legitimate owner of this home or the legitimate tenant details on noise restrictions and other quality of life impacts other kinds of rules that, that don't need to be written into the law per se. And just to, to make it clear what Montgomery step, when she was saying the platforms there she's referring to Airbnb and VRBO, she wants to hold them more accountable and, and, uh, make sure that they're holding up their end of the bargain and, and, uh, being good actors. In addition, you know, thinking further into the future, the city does plan on evaluating the effectiveness of these regulations. And so I think she's also saying that as we look into the future and are looking, are these working as we intended them to, they could be tweaked in the future and maybe she'll look at, at, um, making them strict. Speaker 1: 21:03 This is one of the first big non COVID issues tackled by the new democratic super majority. Is there any behind the scenes conflict or a deal-making that you find interesting Speaker 4: 21:15 Term rentals have never been a strictly partisan issue? Thinking back just a few years, uh, the most anti Airbnb members of the city council were Sherry Leitner, a Democrat and Lori zap, a Republican and some of the most pro Airbnb, uh, council members were, you know, maybe a Democrat or a Republican in this particular case, the ordinance passed eight to one and the one Republican left on the council voted with the Democrats. And then the one no vote on this ordinance was a Democrat. So this issue has been, you know, looking, analyzing the politics here. I think this issue has been such a drain on the political discourse in San Diego for so many years. Another noteworthy thing is that the majority of the city council now is brand new five council members were just inaugurated last December. And so I think that helped this ordinance. I think that a lot of them just, they don't, first of all, they don't have the baggage of having sat through all of these meetings before and having, you know, had taken previous votes on this. But I think that a lot of these new council members just felt like this is an issue we need to settle. This is a decent compromise. And we're just going to say yes to it, to put it behind us so that we can focus on other issues. Speaker 1: 22:25 Well, one of the faces of this issue at the city level is council president Jennifer Campbell, whose district includes many of the beach communities at the heart of this. What is her view on short-term rentals? Campbell Speaker 4: 22:38 Was elected in 2018 as a strong skeptic of short-term rentals. She, at that time supported a much more restrictive proposal that ordinance passed, but then Airbnb and its peers funded a signature gathering campaign that would have forced a referendum and the city council then had had a choice. They could either put these regulations to a vote and, you know, have to defend them against a very well-funded campaign or they could rescind, they were the regulations and try something later, they ended up resending them. And so what I think council president Campbell learned from that experience was that unless you can get these platforms to sign on to the regulations, it's going to be very difficult to let them stick. So she evolved on this issue and I think she has become much more amenable to allowing some kind of, uh, regulations and acknowledging that these are going to be a part of our city going forward. Many of her constituents see that as a betrayal and they see these, uh, regulations as crafted by the special interests behind closed doors. You know, she spent this time reaching out to the community saying, we want your input on this issue and then comes forward with a proposal that was not, they see as completely different than what they were asking for. Speaker 1: 23:55 Andrew. You just did a story for KPBS on the recall effort against council, president Campbell, how much does a short-term rental issue factor into that story? Speaker 4: 24:06 Well, it's really the main issue. That's motivating that recall campaign. There are other issues. She supported a council, president Campbell supported lifting the 30 foot coastal height limit in the midway district. Midway of course not being a coastal neighborhood by any stretch of the imagination and many of the residents and property owners, they're begging for lifting the height limit so that they could have a shot at, at revitalizing. What's kind of an, an armpit in San Diego. Another issue in the recall campaign is her decision to seek the position of council president over her colleague, Monica Montgomery step, who felt many felt, was more qualified for that position. People see her has to close to the police officer's union too close to SDG and knee as the city is trying to renegotiate a deal with that utility and get a better, a better bargain with them. So I think that there are a lot of different issues motivating that recall campaign, but really central to it. And the first issue that kicked off the effort to recall her is her support of these regulations for Airbnb. Now it's worth noting most recall campaigns in California fail, or rather more fail than succeed. So it's a, it's a long shot, certainly, but there are a lot of people that feel very, very passionately that that Campbell's ringing forward of these regulations was a betrayal of her constituents. Speaker 1: 25:27 Well, we'll be touching base with you a lot more on this issue. I've been speaking with KPBS, Metro reporter, Andrew Bellin. Thank you, Andrew. My pleasure amoeba that wraps up this week's edition of the KPBS round table. I'd like to thank my guests, Andrew Bowen and Joe Hong from KPBS news and Rob Nick Moleski from the San Diego union Tribune. If you missed any part of our show, you can listen to anytime on the KPBS round table podcast. I'm Amica Sharma. Thanks for listening. Join us next week on the round table.