County supervisors call for a special election to fill vacant seat

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz. It’s Wednesday, January 15th.

County supervisors call for a special election to fill the vacant seat.

More on that next. But first, let’s do the headlines.

Mayor Todd Gloria will give his State of the City address today (Wednesday).

The city of San Diego is grappling with an expected 329 million dollar deficit.

Gloria had hoped city voters would approve Measure E, which would have increased the city’s sales tax and covered the deficit.

But the measure failed so Gloria set a plan last month to cut expenses.

“My goal in this endeavor is to avoid a series of deep cuts in successive budget years and instead right size our city services to the resources that we have without the expectation of increased revenue.”

The State of the City address will begin at 3 p.m. You can watch it on the city's website.

The San Diego Community College District has sold 850 million dollars in bonds since Measure HH passed in November.

It was approved by more than 60 percent of voters.

Measure HH will use 3.5 billion dollars in bonds to upgrade the community college district's campuses

The bonds will be sold over a decade or two to fund modernization efforts.

Those include affordable student housing at San Diego City College and an English and Student Resource Center at Mesa College.

San Diego County arts organizations were awarded more than 300 thousand dollars in grants yesterday (Tuesday morning).

Those grants came from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The San Diego Union Tribune reported that the grants were awarded to 16 local organizations.

And they cover a wide range of art forms, including visual art exhibits, free dance classes and Latino film and Juneteenth festivals.

Several grants were also awarded for arts training.

From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need.

The county board of supervisors have called a special election to fill the district one seat left vacant by Nora Vargas.

Last month she said she would not serve a second term.

The board could have appointed someone to fill the remainder of the term, or to fill in the interim before a special election.

But yesterday (Tuesday) they chose to leave the seat open until the special election.

District 1 resident Danyrea Megginson says they made the right choice.

“We wanted to give the power back to the people to make the decision on who they wanted to see in that seat, not leave it up to the Board of Supervisors or anyone else to make that decision for us.”

A primary will be held on April 8th, and if no one wins a majority, the top two vote getters will proceed to a general election on July first.

Reporter Kori Suzuki shares more about supervisor Nora Vargas’ decision to resign and how the race to fill her seat could upend local politics in the South Bay.

“Item that I’m proposing today is a board policy consistent with state law..” This is Nora Vargas speaking at her last meeting as chair of the San Diego County board of supervisors. “Members from being detained by local law enforcement then in 2017 Governor Brown signed..” This was back in mid-December. Vargas had been serving as a county supervisor for four years and had just won re-election with a solid lead. But less than two weeks later, she suddenly resigned. In a statement, she said only that she was doing it for “personal safety and security reasons.” Now, the process of choosing someone to fill her place has officially begun. It’s going to mean a lot for the county this year, of course. But it could also mean big changes for local politics in parts of the South Bay, which was Vargas’ district – District 1. That’s because local political leaders there already say they’re planning to seek Vargas’ seat – including two mayors and two city councilmembers across three different cities. Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre is one of them. She says the county should be doing more to address the cross-border sewage crisis, which has been polluting South Bay communities around the Tijuana River Valley for years. “District 1 has a lot of need. We've been in a lot of need for other issues around the sewage crisis where the county has a specific and important role.” John McCann, the mayor of Chula Vista, is also planning to seek the open seat. He points to public safety as a key issue for voters. “We need to create good, new ways to be able to recruit and retain our Deputy sheriffs. As well as making sure that we're communicating well with federal law enforcement.” Two other South Bay politicians have announced plans to seek the vacant seat: Chula Vista Councilmember Carolina Chavez and San Diego Councilmember Vivian Moreno. They weren’t immediately available for interviews. Regardless of who wins the special election there will be ramifications in the South Bay … including new rounds of special elections or a long appointment process to fill the seat of the winning candidate. In Chula Vista, the county’s second-largest city, McCann’s departure would be big news. McCann is the only Republican on the Council. And has almost 20 years of experience in city government. This year is also a crucial one for the city. Chula Vista is preparing to welcome a new film studio, programs from San Diego State’s Nursing School, and the long-awaited Bayfront resort and convention center. “I think it means a lot of things for Chula Vista, especially when we're in the middle of important developments.” Sebastian Martinez is a community advocate in Chula Vista. “We're also in the middle of, to be fair, a lot of difficult times that have been in Chula Vista, a lot of scandals, a lot of legal troubles that are happening right now at the city level. So I think all of those are worthy questions. So look into what the impacts of that could be with leadership, shifting.” Over in Imperial Beach, voters could see a similar disruption if Aguirre leaves. The mayor has been an outspoken advocate for more research and stronger public health measures around the sewage crisis. Her replacement might have different priorities. Aguirre acknowledges that the race will be disruptive. As a board member on MTS, the public transit agency, she says she saw firsthand the disruption it caused when another county supervisor resigned suddenly, two years ago. “That’s why I led with it’s unfortunate because the ramifications of this are vast. We lived that through the vacancy of supervisor Fletcher when he first left at the time, he was a chair of MTS. and I sat on the board of MTS, at the time.” The ripples from Nathan Fletcher’s resignation, she says, are still being felt today. McCann in Chula Vista says restoring representation at the county level is more important than anything else. “We all have to be flexible. Nobody ever thought the County Supervisor would be stepping down, I wish her well, but the reality is we need to have leadership.” Martinez, the Chula Vista advocate, thinks many South Bay residents are tired, especially after last year’s long election cycle. “You take the time to go out to vote for someone. I think you expect them to finish out the job and I think you expect them to finish out the job without scandal, hopefully. And that's been difficult to do in this district in general.” Martinez wonders how many people will be excited to see their elected leaders seeking a new job, just weeks into the new year. Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.

The National Weather Service is forecasting low temperatures in the 40s tonight (Wednesday) and tomorrow night (Thursday). Reporter Katie Anastas went to a downtown church that opened its doors to people experiencing homelessness last night (Tuesday).

54-year-old Lisa Rodarte [ro-DAR-tee] left her apartment in December. “Every time we got our Social Security increases, rent just took it away from us. And so it left me with about $200 to live off of. And I just couldn't do it anymore.” She stayed with family for a few weeks, but she says she didn’t want to burden them. She’ll stay at Living Water Church of the Nazarene tonight. “It's nice. It's better than the streets.” This is one of three locations in the city’s inclement weather shelter program. When it’s not raining, the program gets activated when forecasts call for temperatures of 45 degrees or lower. Pastor Chris Nafis says the program is meant for people who would otherwise be sleeping outside. The church is on the corner of 16th and Market Streets in the East Village, and their 28 spots fill up quickly. “We have new people that come every time we open, but we also have, like, pretty consistent group of people. Our church is really deeply enmeshed in the community here.” Father Joe’s Villages operates two other inclement weather shelters. The Joan Kroc Center has room for 61 individuals, plus 11 beds for single women or families with children. The Paul Mirabile Center can fit up to 62 people. Katie Anastas, KPBS News.

The November election saw widespread shifts away from Democrats and toward the Republican party. One of the biggest local changes came in Imperial County.

Back again, to tell us more, is Imperial Valley reporter Kori Suzuki.

It was a narrow victory. Decided by a difference of less than five hundred votes. But in December, the final election results showed that Donald Trump had won Imperial County. That’s a big change in the region – a farming county, where many families are working class and most people identify as Latino. Voters here usually lean Democratic in presidential elections. In 2016 and 2020, Trump lost by wide margins. It’s not totally clear why this election was different. Some experts say people probably share the national worries about the rising cost of living. Others say the results were a sign that voters in Imperial County feel abandoned by both parties. Carlos Bolivar lives in the city of Imperial. He thinks Trump’s win was also a result of the biases that Harris faced. “I think there's still people here in this Valley that are not too keen on having a female president, especially one of color. If a person was able to open their eyes and look beyond that and look at the qualifications, you should have had a different turnout.” Bolivar is a registered Republican. But he crossed party lines to vote for Harris after hearing Trump talk about being a dictator on day one. Bolivar is apprehensive now about what that victory is going to mean for the country. But he says, all he can do is wait and see what happens. In El Centro, Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.

That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Check out the Midday podcast this afternoon, they’re talking about the possible local impacts of a Trump presidency. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Wednesday.