S1: This week on Kpbs roundtable. A special election is underway in San Diego County. We're looking at the three races on the ballot , starting with the race to fill the empty district four supervisor seat.
S2: It's a low turnout election , and it's a low turnout election and a race that a lot of people don't understand what county Board of Supervisors are.
S1: Plus , Chula Vista residents are voting to elect a new city attorney. It's a strange.
S3: Position to have an election for , but it comes out of distrust in local government , at least in Chula Vista.
S1: And later the election to see if two North County water agencies are going to be leaving the region's larger water authority. Part of what some are calling the water divorce. Don't go anywhere. Roundtable is coming up next. Welcome to Kpbs roundtable. I'm Matt Hoffman. There's an election underway right now , and this special election will decide the balance of power at the San Diego County Board of Supervisors , determine who will be the city of Chula Vista top attorney , and will find out if two North County water agencies will be leaving the larger San Diego County Water Authority to buy their water elsewhere. Mail-In ballots have already gone out for the November 7th election , and starting this weekend , voters can cast their ballots at select voting centers as well. Joining us to break it all down are NBC San Diego's political reporter Priya Schrader , Axios San Diego reporter Andy Keats and Kpbs border reporter Gustavo Solis also joins us. He covers the South Bay and later in the show , Kpbs North County reporter Alexander Winn will join us. And that's part of the election that's dubbed the water divorce. I want to welcome you all here to roundtable. Priya , we're going to start here in the county's fourth supervisory district. There's a vacancy on the board , and that's after Supervisor Nathan Fletcher resigned. That was following some sexual harassment allegations.
S4: So there obviously has been a vacancy since March , which is when Nathan Fletcher resigned from that position. And there were two options that the county Board of Supervisors had to vote on to fill that vacancy. One was they could appoint someone to sit in that chair. The issue that they had when they were discussing this idea was Nathan Fletcher had just got elected to this four year term began on January , in January of 2023 , and was set to end in January of 2027. So that would have been a very long time to have an appointed San Diego County supervisor. So the other option was to have a special election , which obviously costs a lot of money. And the other thing they also had to consider is depending on how many candidates wanted this job , whether or not this could be resolved in one election or two. And , of course , you know , there was no candidate in the primary election of the four candidates that were running who was able to get a majority of the vote. So now here we are coming up on November and we're having a general election. So that seat has essentially been vacant for about six months. But hopefully , you know , in a matter of weeks that'll all be resolved.
S1: And we'll get into who those candidates are in a minute. But Andy , if you could , you know , we know that Fletcher was part of the Democratic Party and obviously he won this seat twice.
S2: So Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 3 to 1 in the district. Nathan Fletcher won his initial race in that seat by over 30 points. He defeated Amy Reichert , who is running again just a year ago , by over 20 points. So and if you were to combine the Democratic votes in the primary and compared to Amy Reichert , the Republican and another Republican who ran in the primary , that would also be a very lopsided victory. So none of that determines what the outcome of this race will be. But by voter registration and recent voting history , this is a heavily , heavily Democratic district. And I think that's part of why there's been considerable investment in the primary among Democratic groups and labor groups who are aligned with them. This is a what they would count as a reliable seat.
S1: And we know that this is a special election and not a huge ticket item on this. Maybe the supervisor's seat is the biggest , so who knows what could happen. But Priya , we did mention it up at the top. But this seat will ultimately decide the balance of power at the board. And we know that technically , supervisor seats are nonpartisan. But right now we have two Democrats there and two Republicans sitting on the board. I guess generally like , why is that balance of power important ? Like , could it ultimately decide , you know , the direction of priorities for the board or what can you sort of tell us there ? Yeah.
S4: So historically , the county Board of Supervisors had a majority favoring the Republican Party up until 2020 when the Democrats flipped the board and it went for the first time in San Diego's history , from red to blue. Of course , now we're at a 5050 party split with supervisors Nora Vargas and Tara Lawson Riemer on the Democratic side , and Supervisors Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson on the Republican side. So whoever ends up getting this job , Amy Reichert is a Republican. Monica Montgomery step is a Democrat that will determine which party has the majority on the county board. The main areas that I've seen the two parties split on the county board are most. Recently , anything relating to any sort of gun control or gun reform. And then secondly , as you guys know , we've been covering this issue a lot. The influx of migrants that we started seeing being street released in San Diego County since around September 13th. I think the numbers were at 10,000 the last time I checked in a matter of four weeks. So the county board has also had pretty lively debates about that specific issue. The Republicans thinking that the federal government needs to step in and provide them with provide all the nonprofits that are helping these migrants with money. The Democratic supervisors say the county has a role in this , too , and that they should be allocating money for that. So those are sort of the two big ones that are happening right now that , you know , if Amy were to get the job , she would potentially favor Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond's opinions on those two items. And if Monica Montgomery step were to get the job , she would probably vote along with Nora Vargas and Tara Lawson Reamer. All right.
S1: So let's let's dive into this. Now , the top two vote getters from the primary , we have Republican Amy Reichert and Democrat Monica Montgomery Stepp.
S5:
S2: Amy Reichert , you know , sort of made her her raised her profile and became well known to a lot of people as an organizer and as an activist around the opposing the county's response to the Covid pandemic closures , mask mandates , vaccination mandates , and she that she sort of elevated herself , especially at the county level. During that she ran against Nathan Fletcher in the most in the 2022 election on those grounds. And then she's continued to to to sort of have that profile and have that base of support from , from folks aligned with that view. Monica Montgomery step , you know , is has been an interesting person in San Diego County politics. She was a staffer in the city , in for the city council and in the mayor's office , and then ran against her former boss , Myrtle Cole , who was a county supervisor. Excuse me , was a city council member and council president. And , you know , when she ran against Myrtle Cole , Myrtle Cole had the unified support of the San Diego County Democratic Party of most major labor unions in the county. She had endorsements and support and fundraising from basically every major elected official on that side of the aisle. And Monica ran a very grassroots focused campaign , and she won. And at the time that she won , this was in 2018. No incumbent city council person had lost a race in San Diego since 1992. So what she had really , truly defied the odds to to win that race. Now , granted , two city council members knocked off incumbents in that 2018 election , but she was one of them. And then very quickly , she became sort of a and embraced figure on the progressive left in San Diego County. Democratic politics. She has been outspoken on police reform issues. She has and , you know , she represents southeastern San Diego. And she's been sort of an advocate for the community getting its fair share. And the idea that that , you know , resources don't necessarily flow to that south of eight community that's , you know , an old sore of San Diego politics , but one that still resonates with a lot of people. So for her , her to make the decision to jump over to the county was an interesting one. Just because she was she was just reelected last year.
S1: And Priya , we know that you've hosted at least one forum with both Amy and Monica. What are your takeaways about how these candidates are similar or different or sort of some of the topics you guys might have covered ? Yeah.
S4: So I think when you ask any candidate , regardless of their party or their stance on anything , they're going to say the same top issues and priorities across the board , which are , you know , homelessness , affordable housing , cost of living. And they pretty much agree on those issues. The biggest difference , I would say , is that that came up in the most recent candidate forum that I hosted with the two candidates was what I was discussing earlier regarding the migrant situation. Amy Reichert basically said in the in the debate that she would not have allocated county money for the nonprofits who are helping the migrants , whereas Monica Montgomery said she absolutely thinks that the local governments need to be playing a role in this as well. The other disparity that they had was about the new San Diego homeless encampment ban , which bans camping on the sidewalks within a two block radius of schools , homeless shelters , transit stops and canyons and parks and riverbeds. Um , the San Diego City Council voted 5 to 4 to move forward with that ordinance. Monica Montgomery voted against it , and some of her biggest issues when it came to this was she felt that because the black population of homeless people , it's such a bigger percentage than their percentage in the general population. She felt like this would disproportionately impact people of color. That was one of her concerns. And she also discussed her thoughts about this potentially criminalizing homelessness , which is something that many opponents of this idea had brought up as well. Amy Reichert , on the other hand , thinks that this is a great tool to have in the toolbox. And as you guys remember , earlier this week , the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted on whether or not there should be a countywide homeless encampment ban. And what's fascinating about that vote was it was actually proposed by Supervisor Joel Anderson , and all four supervisors voted to move forward with county staff drafting up a proposed similar ordinance. So that is one major issue as well that Monica Montgomery and Amy Reichert disagreed on.
S1:
S3: Looking at the. Uh , what ? Priya was talking about the difference in policies when it comes to dealing with the migrant situation. Um , that's an interesting kind of difference of opinion , right ? One just pointing the finger at the federal government and the other one just saying , like , maybe we should do something about it. I think the Democrats would also like to point the finger at the federal government , but they recognize that the federal government isn't doing anything about this. So if the county doesn't do anything , then nobody will. Right. I think on the ground , advocates are at a point where they don't care who steps up. They just need somebody to step up. And I've just heard it over and over again that , you know , the state is pointing the finger at the feds. The feds are pointing the finger at the county , and everyone's busy pointing their fingers. And meanwhile nothing is getting done in the streets. So the idea that that the county is just , again , just engaging that , oh , it's not our problem , let's not do anything about it , I don't think would resonate very well to to folks on the ground and I haven't I'm not covering the race , obviously , but I do live in the district. I get some of the mailers really only for Montgomery Step. I haven't gotten any Amy Reichert mailers , so the only time I ever really saw her was at a press conference I went to earlier this week where Jim Desmond was calling to close the border , and she was there kind of supporting that over these weird kind of conspiracy theories about Hamas fighters trying to enter through the border illegally that were shut down by a lot of experts. But if that's kind of the expertise that Amy brings to the table , I don't think it's going to take her very far in the race. I mean , I don't like it. It's we've kind of talked about it a little bit with the demographics and everything else , but. But is anyone like , does she have a shot at winning this ? I don't from an outside looking in. I don't see her as a serious candidate , especially if her rhetoric hasn't changed since the pandemic days. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I mean , I think the numbers , the cold , hard numbers are an uphill climb , to say the least , I think. And that would be true for for any Republican. When I try to look at , I think journalists are typically not especially good at forecasting. But when I try to , what I mostly do is look at what people are actually doing , people who are involved in politics and in this case , what you don't see a lot of is major groups that may typically be aligned with the Republican voters investing in this race. You don't see much much spending and you don't see much campaigning. And I think that's typically an indication of of how seriously they they , they take it. So , you know , it's a low turnout election and it's a low turnout election and a race that a lot of people don't understand what county Board of Supervisors are. You know , Monica Montgomery has high name ID for news junkies , I think. But , you know , does she have especially high name ID across the district ? A lot of this area , she's never run in. So you know , that introduces some uncertainty. And you know , you should you know people should wait to see the outcome. But the the people who you would expect to be spending a lot of money on this race if they thought it was a very serious , you know , a close one , aren't doing that.
S1: And then quickly , Andy , before we move on to the Chula Vista City Attorney's race , Perry talked about some of the issues that she saw as different from these candidates. We know that there's a lot of , you know , hot button issues right now , homelessness , all these all these reports that are coming out saying that San Diego's the most expensive place to live in the whole nation. We know that you spoke with both of these candidates. Any top line things stand out to you in terms of what their priorities are or the biggest issues facing them ? Yeah.
S5: You know , the two other things.
S2: That I think are are sort of just big topics on any race in the county right now to to your point , transportation and housing , I think on on housing outside of the , you know , the acute homelessness issue. I think Amy Reichert would be more in favor of the county opening up land for single housing development , you know , extending the development footprint of the of the region and making room for , you know , for more single family housing tracks in , you know , unincorporated areas. And I think Monica Montgomery Stepp has sort of aligned herself with a more urbanist philosophy , infill development , public public transit oriented development , and sort of continuing to do that. The city of San Diego has more ability to impact that sort of development than the county Board of Supervisors. But but not entirely. And so I think she would be more aligned with that sort of infill development type mentality to to try to lower prices. And on public transportation , you know , the county Board of Supervisors has a significant say at the San Diego Association of Government. You know , that's not necessarily a given that whoever wins this race would be on on sand eggs board , but they could. You know , if not initially at some point during their term. And , you know , so that in that sense , they would have a significant impact on decisions on where to where to invest public infrastructure funding for whether it's for freeways or public transit. And and I think those they they diverge pretty significantly. Monica Montgomery stepping much more interested in investing in transit , and Amy Reichert being much more interested in continuing to invest in freeway and car infrastructure.
S1: Just ahead on roundtable. Our special election coverage continues with a look at the race for Chula Vista City Attorney. That's coming up next , just after the break. Welcome back to Kpbs roundtable. I'm Matt Hoffman. Today we're digging into the races on this year's special election ballot. With us is NBC San Diego's Priya Schrader , Axios San Diego's Andy Keats and Kpbs Gustavo Solis. Okay , so now , guys , we'll turn our attention to the race for Chula Vista next. City attorney and , Gustavo , the origins of this race. A little odd , right ? They go back to 2022. A candidate was elected , but he was deceased.
S3: Right. The the leading candidate , Simone Silva , who had worked already in the city attorney's office , had all the endorsements from folks in Chula Vista and was was going into the race , was the favorite to win it. He passed away from from cancer before the election , but after the ballots could be changed , so his name remained on the ballot. Now , there was a bit of controversy in that in between time , where the county Democratic Party told voters to to vote for him , to elect him , even though doing so would would , would result in a special election , kind of what we have now. The mayor of Chula Vista at the time , Mary Salas , had Simone Silva campaign sign on her lawn. She said it was a tribute to to her friend , but many interpreted that as campaigning for a deceased person. And if you're Johnny Taxpayer in Chula Vista , you're going to be on the hook for at least a million , potentially to on a special election. So that's rub some people over there the wrong way. And we're at a position now when we're about to have an election , a special election here in November. But there are three candidates. So if there's no majority , there's going to be a second special election with a runoff over there. So so this may not be the end of what really is still the 2020 election or sorry , 2022 election.
S1: And , Andy , we know that we have three candidates that Chula Vista voters are going to be seeing here. Obviously , they're all already attorneys. Some have some background in city government. Can you tell us who is on this ballot ? Yeah.
S5:
S2: So Bart Masefield actually used to be Chula Vista City attorney. That was before it was an elected position , because Chula Vista used to have an appointed position and he he he was in that role. Then he's running again. And Marco Verdugo is , you know , he works in private practice but a private practice that represent that does municipal law. So , you know , in that capacity I think he represents Coronado , Solana Beach and Coronado and Solana Beach. He has been endorsed by the county Democratic Party. So to Gustavo's point , you know , the county Democratic Party's support for a person who was literally deceased was able to prove pivotal in a race before. So I think we can safely say that that is important in terms of who wins here. And then we have Dan Smith , who ran in the previous election as well. He's a Republican and he's running again. So those are those are the three who are running. And , you know , not none of them have raised a significant amount of money , considering that Chula Vista is a is a large city and has a lot of voters. So there's a lot of people you have to communicate with to to get your name out there and to collect votes. They have not been able to raise much money , which is , you know , understandable. Chula Vista city attorney's race is not one that that typically generates lots of campaign spending , but that usually ends up being to the benefit of people who have institutional endorsements , such as the county Democratic Party. That becomes the primary way that voters are communicated with is through communication from the from the parties. So so Verdugo has endorsement from the San Diego County party. It's difficult to overstate the importance of that. And I think.
S1: Somebody mentioned it earlier. Some people may not know what a supervisor does. Some people may also not know what a city attorney does , especially one that's elected. Priya , what could you sort of tell us there about what this job responsibility is ? Yeah.
S4: So the primary function for a city attorney is to advise city council members who are trying to enact policies about the legality of them. So in the case of the city of San Diego , for example , we remember the sidewalk , this sidewalk vendor ordinance that was recently passed , right. There were some legal issues that were brought up related to that ordinance , and that's kind of where the city attorney would step in and tell city council , hey , you know , here's the way we have to word it so that we make sure we're covering all our bases. And this isn't going to be challenged every single time we enforce it. So that's a hugely important role , because oftentimes the people who are proposing policy don't have that legal background. So they really need a subject matter expert to be able to look in and research and see what kind of potential flaws there are. This city attorney's office has ten attorneys is another thing that the city attorney oftentimes does is deal with any sort of litigation against the city. And in those cases , they'll sometimes look to outside counsel for help with , like special issues that arise. And then also they can prosecute sort of misdemeanors , which would be things like domestic violence or drunk driving. What's interesting to is the city of San Diego has been floating the idea of trying to divide the responsibilities of the elected city attorney , so that the elected city attorney only dealt with criminal matters , and then city council would appoint a municipal council who would essentially be the person who would advise them on the different policies they're trying to propose. So that's been another very interesting debate locally about whether or not the city attorney who advises on policy should actually be an elected person.
S1: And as we wrap up the show here , Gustavo , one more to you.
S3: The city attorney is kind of on the other side of that. The city attorney works every day in Chula Vista. He's working behind the scenes with every single city department , the police department , the fire department , parks. He's working on some of the Bayfront Project , things that that are going on , some of the contract negotiations with the employees. I know Glenn Goggins , the former city attorney , was very active in trying to get illegal marijuana shops out of Chula Vista. So it's a strange position to have an election for , but it comes out of. Distrust in local government , at least in Chula Vista. Back when there was a ballot measure to to change it from from an appointed position to an elected position , there had been a couple of recent scandals in Chula Vista , and it was framed as a way to have a city attorney not be appointed by the council and be beholden to the council there. There was worry that it was kind of backroom deals and a little bit too friendly over there. So the idea of an elected city attorney is that he would be beholden to the the voters , and they would serve as almost like a watchdog role for the city council , almost like like Mayor Elliott in San Diego has kind of embraced that role a little bit , kind of butting heads with some of the other elected officials. So that's kind of the the history of where this where this election comes from. But I think there has been some talks , maybe whispers or murmurs of of reversing that and maybe drafting a ballot measure to , to bring it back and make it an appointed position , just because it is kind of odd to , to vote for , for this type of position.
S1: And we're going to have to wrap up this show there. We appreciate you , all of you guys , being here and helping break down these two races. I've been speaking with NBC San Diego's political reporter Priya Schrader , Axios San Diego reporter Andy Keats , and Kpbs border reporter Gustavo Solis. And all of you. Thanks so much for being here.
S3: Thank you.
S6: Thank you. Thank you.
S1: When roundtable returns San Diego County's water divorce how voters in two North County communities will have the final decision in a years long dispute.
S7: Ratepayers in Rainbow and Fallbrook have been saying for years that they were paying too much for water , and that the rates have been going up without any real benefits.
S1: That's next on Kpbs roundtable. Welcome back to Kpbs roundtable. I'm Matt Hoffman. Our special election coverage is continuing to north County water districts want to leave the larger San Diego County Water Authority. It's being called the region's water divorce. The final decision is now in the hands of voters living in Fallbrook and Rainbow. But the rules of how smaller districts can leave these larger ones , as is the case here , will soon be changing as a result of new state law. Here , to give us a breakdown of what's at stake is Kpbs North County reporter Alexander Nguyen. He's been following this story and keeping us updated on roundtable. Alex , great to have you here again.
S7: Yeah , it's great to be back.
S1: All right.
S7: And you know , the issue the voters are voting on is to whether to approve the proposed detachment from the San Diego Water Authority.
S1:
S7:
S1: Stay , or should we leave or should we stay ? And so these water districts , they say they can save money buying water elsewhere. I mean , are we talking like a lot of money or do we know any details. Is.
S8: Is.
S7: Quite a bit. Ratepayers in Rainbow and Fallbrook have been saying for years that they were paying too much for water , and that the rates have been going up without any real benefits. And according to an analysis from the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission , Rainbow and Fallbrook could save an estimated $7.7 million a year just by switching to Riverside Eastern Municipal Water District. Now the water authority , which obviously is against those two agencies leaving , says that if Fallbrook and Rainbow leave , it would cost San Diegans roughly $140 million over a decade for infrastructure improvements that are already in place or planned.
S1: Yeah , and I think you've brought that up on this show before. Like there's a lot at stake here because the Water Authority is basically saying , we've done a lot of these improvements , and you're going to leave us with a bill that you guys are responsible for paying.
S7:
S1: And we've seen a lot of people coming out against this , right. When I say people , I mean like politicians and local electeds. Yeah.
S7: Yeah. So we have people from other water agencies and other districts , such as San Diego Mayor Todd Glory is against this , as well as Colin Parent from la mesa and Helix Water District.
S1: And so we know that Governor Gavin Newsom , he recently signed into law a new bill that would make it harder for what Fallbrook and Rainbow are attempting here in the future.
S7: You mentioned is Assembly Bill 399 , which is sponsored by North County Assembly Member Tasha Berner , and it will require the entire county to vote for detachment. However , the law is not retroactive. So for right now , Fallbrook and Rainbow , it doesn't affect them. That said , if voters choose to not to detach from the water authority , any detachment attempts in the future by Fallbrook and Rainbow would be subject to this law.
S1: So it almost be harder in the future. And like this is their last chance , so to speak.
S7: To basically if they want to leave in the easy way that they've done in the past , this is the only chance. If they choose to do it later , they would have to be subject to this law and be subject to the whole entire county voting on it.
S1: And so I guess maybe a larger picture. What does this mean for residents or customers outside of the Fallbrook and Rainbow districts if they should leave ? I mean , do we know if there will be like an immediate impact in terms of what the Water Authority is saying is people are going to have to pay more.
S7: So if they should , should these two agencies leave there is a projection out there from the Water Authority. And at first they said it was around $200 million. And now they're saying it's $140 million. But the ratepayers for each agency's that will probably pay a little bit more depending on their agencies. For example I believe that in San Diego the rates would be increased roughly $1.20 or something like that. And in helix it would probably be like , you know , $0.75. Now don't quote me on these numbers , but but just to give you an example , because it's just all depends on how much they buy from the water authority and how much infrastructure improvement that they paid for.
S1: And we've heard about polling and things like congressional races , mayors races , county supervisor races.
S7: Because again , this issue is very passionate for a lot of them. They went in front of the Lafco Commission to advocate for them to. Approved the detachment.
S1:
S7:
S1: And along those lines , I think at that meeting you spoke with , like like there's a lot of farming that goes on up there , and they seem like they're looking forward to something like this happening.
S7: Yeah , a lot of them said , you know , the it costs them so much water to farm. So they're switching over from less water intensive , you know , farms and products and grow produce. And at the same time , we just got the economic impact of the farming in San Diego County. And it is a sizable chunk of our economic output. So it actually does matter a lot to these farmers to be able to afford doing what they're doing.
S1: So there's definitely a trickle down effect here. So this water divorce , it's been playing out for a couple of years now. I know you've been like , you know , knee deep in all this. I'm curious if you have any takeaways , you know , covering this sometimes complicated ongoing dispute on water.
S7: Well yeah. The one thing I learned is that what we pay for water is not actually the cost of the water itself. A lot of it is infrastructure planning and the delivery of the water. In San Diego , the water authority has been saying that , you know , they have been planning for drought years and future growth. So that's where a lot of their spending is coming from.
S1: And we just did a roundtable on that with Kpbs , Eric Anderson and voice of San Diego's Mackenzie Elmer. So if you missed it and you want to learn more about some of the background here , as you mentioned , the water is free until we move it. Go check that one out. I've been speaking with Alexander when he covers the North County for Kpbs news. And , Alex , thanks for being here.
S7: Well , thanks for having me.
S1: That sound means it's time for roundup. I'm Matt Hoffman , and you're listening to Kpbs. Roundtable producer Andrew Bracken is here with us with a list of some other San Diego stories he's been following. Andrew. Happy Friday. Hey , Matt. It's the last roundup before Halloween. Plants.
S9: Yes , we have a yearly sort of Halloween party for the kids , so that's coming up this weekend.
S1:
S9:
S1: Do you have any.
S9:
S1: 1980s wrestler.
S9: Halloween is on Tuesday. And then you're going to do the.
S1: Trick or treating thing with the.
S9: Kids , or they're going to do it on their own. We're getting to that age where they kind of have their own plans.
S1: Well , the 80s wrestler can join them. It could be fun. All right.
S9: You know , she published an article about this effort to get a ballot measure , potentially on next year's ballot. And it's by this group , Power San Diego. And it's sort of looking at electricity and how how the city works with SDG and on , you know , getting that electricity and potentially changing that and having the city take over more of it from SGA. Now , SGA has warned against this move , saying it would actually cost a lot more for the city. But there's also been evidence. I think Mackenzie's reported on it , of a city report that says potentially , you know , city customers could save money from this as well. So there seems to be a lot of , you know , back and forth on that , but it's a long way from even potentially being on the ballot to make it to the ballot. The measure would need to get more than 80,000 signatures. So it's still a long ways off.
S1: And so it sounds like we're talking about like the infrastructure to actually deliver the power , because I know , you know , the city of San Diego , they have that San Diego community power , which is , you know , different than SGA , but they like buy power , but they're not the deliverers of power , if that makes sense. That's like San Diego gas and electric. So this is a move to kind of go in on that territory.
S9: Yeah I understand it's kind of take I mean , I think the city renegotiated its contract with SGA. What was it last year. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. To be the city's power provider.
S9: You know , it's we were recently called. Well , that was some of the highest electricity rates in the nation in San Diego. So it's something that I think , you know , residents here are always kind of trying to look for solutions to make things cheaper. Yeah , that.
S1: Was the franchise fee that the SGC had to pay. But I think , as you noted or Mackenzie noted , like 80,000 signatures have to be collected. So we're still in the early stages here.
S9: Yeah , definitely a long ways off.
S1: All right. What else is.
S9: Next ? Well , kind of on those high electricity costs we were just talking about , there was a report from US News and World Report that voted San Diego the most expensive place to live in the United States , the whole US , and again , the entire country. And we're seeing a lot of reporting , kind of , you know , jumping off that or related to that , I knew sources. Cody Delaney , he had an article recently kind of looking into the survey from the University of San Diego that found that nearly two thirds of San Diegans are considering moving out of the county. And also in that report , it kind of delved into what its top issues were for people in San Diego. And homelessness was number one , but affordable housing was was second. So you're seeing a lot of reporting also , Kpbs , Katie Hutchison , she had a related story on another report that found nearly a third of San Diegans struggle just to meet basic needs. The high cost of living in San Diego continues to be a big story.
S1: And you mentioned that in that one report that homelessness was the top issue in that survey , and then affordable housing was number two. And we know that those are intertwined , right ? I mean , if there's not enough affordable housing , where are people going to go ? Absolutely.
S9: Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And it also makes you wonder too , I feel like we see these kinds of reports a lot about like San Diego highest rent or second highest rent. And you got to wonder , like what impact that has on residents. You know , just like seeing those reports because you live here and you kind of sometimes go , oh , I know that , right ? Yeah.
S9: I mean , but it might go back to , you know , what , that headline from Cody's story , you know , with that , two thirds of San Diegans considering leaving the region just because they see these prices not going down and these high prices.
S1:
S9: Week earlier we've we've talked about this company crews that started testing in San Diego this summer.
S1: You mentioned it before on roundup. Yeah.
S9: Yeah. And they have these autonomous taxis that were were up and running in San Francisco , and they were testing in Los Angeles and then starting to test in San Diego. I believe those were with drivers. But this week , California's DMV basically suspended Cruise's driverless taxi program. And it's a result of various accidents and problems with it. I mean , there have been reports of of pedestrians being hit. It really puts , you know , this new form of transportation that got a lot of publicity when it when it launched in San Francisco. It really puts it into question with this suspension. Yes.
S1: Yes. It sounds like bottom line , don't expect to be seeing any of these around the streets.
S9: Well , I don't know if it's like grounded there because they have programs where drivers are in them , but they're still kind of testing the autonomous but definitely not those driverless. Yeah. Fully autonomous vehicles. Okay.
S1: Okay.
S9: What's next. On earlier episodes of roundtable , you know , we've we've talked about this problem of cross-border sewage flows along South Bay and how it's impacting communities there. Well , the Biden administration has formally made a funding request to Congress to get this , you know , $310 million to expand the South Bay wastewater plant and hopefully solve some of these issues. This is something it could be big. Yeah. And the community's been , you know , asking for this from the state level , from the National. They've been really putting pressure on leaders to to take some action here. And this is the first example of it from the national level.
S1: And it has to go through Congress at this point.
S9: Yeah , it was a funding request made to Congress. So now it's in their hands to take action.
S1: But no indication that a state of emergency from the federal government would be declared. I remember on the previous episode we talked about how Newsom said that , you know , not a state of emergency that he could declare or anything that he thinks would add to it. But this doesn't come along with the state of emergency. It's just it's the funding to help kind of correct some of these sewage flows. Correct.
S9: Correct. Yeah. There's no state of emergency along with it. But , you know , getting that money to at least kind of do some of the stuff that they've been working on with that wastewater treatment facility , I'm sure will be much needed there.
S1: I think a lot of people in the South Bay would argue that that's long overdue. Okay.
S9: Kpbs arts reporter and editor Julia Dixon Evans. She's working on some reporting on that right now. And Irwin's work is kind of hard to describe. I think a lot of times he's referred to as an installation artist. He worked a lot with light , but he did an interview back in 2007 here on Kpbs , where he talked about this famous installation he had that was been installed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. It's called one degree , two degree , three degree , four degrees. And here's a little of how he described it.
S10: That's why one dimension two dimension three dimension four dimension. You take the frame in a painting which is two dimensional , and suddenly you let sound in , you let the air in , you make it interactive. The light is moving all day long. A pattern of those three squares is on the floor , so it's in motion continuously. And so it becomes phenomenological.
S1: And it looks like. If you're interested , Kpbs has been covering this artist for many years. I mean , I'm seeing back as far as you mentioned , 2007 even before that , and some of the work does look pretty cool. Looks like it's been at museums or exhibits all over San Diego , and I'm sure even further.
S9: Oh , I mean , he's a , you know , internationally renowned artist. And like I mentioned , I think you'll be seeing a lot more reporting from Julia Dixon Evans on his , you know , his work and his legacy. And it'll be really interesting to kind of dig into that more because his work is really unique.
S1: Something definitely to look forward to. Okay.
S9: What else ? Well , time magazine came out with this list of the best inventions of 2023 , and on that list was an invention from UC San Diego. It's their alert California Wildfire Identification system. It's like a bunch of video cameras that use artificial intelligence to help discover wildfires before they really are seen , or before they really get too big , like when.
S1: There's smoke and everything. We've used them a lot here at Kpbs to track fires , and I'm sure Cal Fire everybody does.
S9: Yeah , and I think in the little write up , you know , they mentioned some 77 fires that have been found before even anyone called them in. And it quotes one of the people involved with alert California at UC San Diego , Falco Questar. And he says , you know , the greatest success stories of the system are the fires you never hear about. And I thought that was an interesting way to kind of just point how important it is. But , I mean , this is coming at a pretty important time. I mean , the award is great , but , you know , it's also a time where I think we might have fire warnings next week , potentially. So it's something that will be used and be important to us here in San Diego.
S1: I think it's Santa Ana season coming up here with those strong , powerful winds. But that was a great quote that they had. Yeah. It's like the ones that you never know about where systems like this can just somehow detect the smoke. They see it on the screen and then , you know , the air drops come right in. And , and I'm sure that technology is going to keep evolving and just get even better and better at spotting those fires. Andrew Bracken , thanks so much for being here on the roundup.
S9: Thanks a lot , Matt.
S1: That's going to round out roundtable for this week. For more coverage on the special election and how you can vote and who all the candidates are. Check out the Kpbs Voter Hub over on our website. We appreciate you joining us this week. If you have any questions or comment about anything you heard today. Leave us a voicemail. (619) 452-0228. You can also reach out to us via email roundtable at pbs.org. If you missed any part of the show , check out the Kpbs roundtable podcast wherever you get your podcast. Our show airs on Kpbs FM at noon on Fridays , and again on Sunday at 6 a.m.. Roundtable is produced by Andrew Bracken. Rebecca Chacon is our technical producer , and I'm your host , Matt Hoffman. Thanks so much for being here with us.
UU: Have a great weekend.
