Escondido considers short-term rental rules

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Wednesday, December 4th.

A north county city wants tougher rules for short-term home rentals. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….

Updated election results show Oceanside’s incumbent mayor holding a slim lead.Just 238 votes separate Esther Sanchez from challenger Ryan Keim according to numbers released Tuesday by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters.

Sanchez would win re-election if the results hold.

Keim, who is an Oceanside city council member, was ahead in the days after the November 5th election, but saw his lead evaporate as more ballots were counted.

Tomorrow is the deadline for counties to send their final election results to the California Secretary of State.

It’s been a year of transition for San Diego Wave F-C, and now the team is parting with its most prominent off-the-field member.

Team President Jill Ellis is stepping down, according to a statement released Tuesday.

Ellis plans to join FIFA, the organization best known for putting on the World Cup, as its Chief of Football.

There was some controversy at the end of Ellis’ tenure, with allegations of a toxic work environment that included a lawsuit from former employees.

Ellis filed her own lawsuit alleging defamation.

San Diego Eater has named Tara Monsod as its Chef of the Year.

It’s the latest accolade for the local chef, who has emerged as a rising star in the fine dining scene, specializing in Filipino cuisine.

Earlier this year, Monsod was named a James Beard Award finalist.

Reporter Jacob Aere interviewed her earlier this year for a feature story on her work.

"To be great at it, you kind of have to live, breathe it. It does take up a certain part of your brain that doesn't ever go away. Like I think about food all day everyday. I watch food at home. It's kind of ridiculous.”

You can find that story on the KPBS YouTube page.

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

Escondido is the latest city to consider regulating short-term rentals.

North county reporter Alexander Nguyen says the proposed ordinance is not like others in the county.

Currently, all short-term rentals in Escondido are unpermitted. 

Now, the city is going forward with a proposed pilot program to create a permitting process. 

It would also limit short-term rentals, or S-T-Rs, and ban them from operating within 500 feet of a school.

Attorney Jack Fernandes says the ban makes no sense.

“There's no evidence that this would help with anything. There's no evidence that STRs  have done anything aside from allow, people a safe and secure community-based place to stay for a short period of time”

KPBS contacted the city manager’s office for an explanation but did not get a response by air time.

The city council will vote on the issue at its meeting Wednesday.

Alexander Nguyen, KPBS News.

San Ysidro Elementary School District leaders are celebrating the passage of three local bond measures.

But reporter Katie Anastas says they won’t know about state matching funds for years.

Voters approved nearly $150 million in bonds for the district. Most of it will fund improvements to schools that serve Otay Mesa.

District leaders expect about 4,000 new students from the area over the next decade. 

Jose Iniguez is the district’s assistant superintendent.

“We anticipate the need to have to build one minimum, maybe two, schools within the next 5 to 10 years.”

In California, school construction funding comes from state and local bonds passed by voters. 

This November, California voters passed Prop 2.

It allows the state to borrow $8.5 billion to repair K-12 schools. 

Marilyn Adrianzen is the San Ysidro district’s chief business officer.

She says districts have to pay for construction costs before applying for state funds.

And it takes 8 to 10 years for a result, for an answer from the state.

She says projects funded by local bonds passed in 2020 are just getting started.

Katie Anastas, KPBS News.

There are more than 40,000 foreign nationals serving in our military.

And most of them are just one mistake away from being deported.

Reporter Gustavo Solis spoke to veterans advocating for a federal law that would make it easier for foreign-born soldiers to become American citizens.

Last month, KPBS spoke with a group of conservative men – mostly veterans – about immigration reform.

They didn’t mince words.  

“Bottom line is, they were guys that were serving our country keeping me alive, keeping my fellow brothers alive and that is why I am here today.”

Robert Blessing is a retired Army Chaplin. He’s talking about non-citizen soldiers who’ve  become deported veterans.

Right now, there are roughly 40,000 non-citizens serving in the armed forces. Those who don’t finish the naturalization process and get in trouble with the law risk being deported.

“This is outrageous. They fought for us, they swore to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, they get in trouble and we kick them out? I haven’t found anybody that says that’s a good idea.”

This is personal for Blessing. He visits deported veterans in Tijuana and once performed a naturalization ceremony during a deployment in Iraq.

“It was a wonderful experience to say welcome to America while you are serving our country in a combat zone.”

No one would confuse these guys for liberals. They say explicitly that they’re not woke. They’re not open borders. They’re not pro amnesty. They believe that immigrants who commit violent crimes should be deported.

Jim Sprout is a civilian who recently joined the deported veterans movement.  

“There are people that have been deported that I am glad are deported. But this is a select group, This is people who have served this country, they didn't do any heinous crimes.”

It hasn’t taken long for him to become an outspoken advocate.

“I have to say, I was appalled when I heard about this. So much so that I’m very glad to be here, very glad to bring this out into the open.”

And if Sprout is the movement’s new recruit, Robert Vivar is the battle-tested veteran. He’s with the group United U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center.

“The deportation of veterans is worldwide. We have deported veterans to over 40 countries around the world.  

Vivar says veterans are deported after a criminal offense like drunk driving, drug possession, having an unregistered firearm or domestic violence.

“There’s no secret, there’s no denying, veterans get into trouble. Why because they find it very difficult to reenter civilian life.” 

Vivar is lobbying for a proposed federal law called the Veterans Service and Recognition Act. It creates an expedited pathway for any service member to complete their citizenship process by the time they finish basic training.

The bill also calls for a committee to review cases of deported veterans to see if they should be allowed back into the United States.

Vivar says it’s been a challenge to get conservatives to support the bill. 

“The problem that were hearing, that we’ve been hearing for a long time is that they try to correlate it with an immigration issues. That’s where I think the whole subject gets blown out of proportion.”

Instead of looking at it as an immigration issue, he says it should be seen as a veterans affairs issue.  Others who served with non-citizen soldiers agree.

“For me, it’s a very personal issue. I worked alongside those guys and those gals.  

Andy Waters is a retired U.S. Navy veteran. He says immigrants are an asset to the military.

“They are people that have expertise and knowledge, language skills, other kinds of things that maybe you don’t get. You get what you get out of volunteers in an all-volunteer force, and sometimes we can’t from U.S. citizens recruit from all the people that we need.”

The bill was introduced last year and hasn’t made it out of committee. 

The advocates now see an opportunity with Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of the House and Senate.

Gustavo Solis, KPBS News

Coming up.... two law firms are using mass litigation to take on the company running the wastewater plant they say has contributed to the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

“Veolia has received millions upon millions of dollars of federal money to operate and manage the South Bay treatment plan, but has wholly dropped the ball.”

We’ll have that story from our media partner inewsource and more, just after the break.

Lawsuits are mounting for the company in charge of the federal sewage treatment plant on the U.S. - Mexico border.

inewsource investigative reporter Philip Salata explains what’s at stake.

It’s been a year of escalation around a decades-old problem that’s only gotten  worse.

“Veolia has received millions upon millions of dollars of federal money to operate and manage the South Bay treatment plan, but has wholly dropped the ball.”

That’s James Frantz, the CEO of the Frantz Law Group and head counsel for the latest lawsuit accusing Veolia of illegally discharging hazardous chemicals into the Tijuana River.

Frantz says the company has failed to fulfill its mandate in managing the South Bay International Water Treatment plant, and has harmed residents.

“The South Bay residents, including children, have been severely affected. Their health is in danger.”

Veolia is now facing four lawsuits for its role in the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

Two of them are spearheaded by powerhouse law firms casting a wide net for plaintiffs who say they have experienced a range of damages caused by the company.

That’s because Frantz, like Singleton Schreiber which filed a similar lawsuit in October, is using an approach called a mass tort.

Here is environmental Law Professor Robin Craig from the University of Kansas. 

“If you have these situations where a lot of people are suffering property and or health damage, they need to bring the tort lawsuit to get any recovery.”

It’s a kind of lawsuit where each client's damages are accounted for individually, allowing for a variety of claims.

It's what well-known environmental advocate Erin Brokovich filed against Pacific Gas & Electric for contaminating groundwater.

Law firms usually finance the lawsuits, taking on the often hefty investment and risk of significant losses.

But if they win, they can earn significant returns for both the firm and their clients.

Here is Craig again.

“The payoff is, if they get one of these multi million dollar verdicts, they're going to get a large chunk of it, so that’s the financial calculus they're doing.”

Which also suggests that the firms filing these claims believe they have a strong case that can win restitution for their clients.

U-C-L-A law professor Peter Reich says that what’s also at play is that the defendant is a private company with a deep pocket, not the federal government which has limited assets.

“Once you get a private contractor into the picture, particularly a multinational corporation, there's a possibility of getting more.”

South Bay residents have long been sounding alarms about health impacts from the pollution, including headaches, respiratory and gastrointestinal issues. 

Alarms were amplified when a team of scientists led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography ran studies on aerosolized pollutants emanating from the river they said were concerning for public health.

These lawsuits are coming together at a peak time of frustration among the South Bay community.

Here is Paul Starita, a lawyer with Singleton Schreiber.

“We're a national firm with national resources that acts on a local level. And every community that we are involved in, every community where we have a presence, we seek to make that community better.”

And in the South Bay that has meant winning back what many residents have lost.

“Coastal living is so central to who we are as San Diegans, and to have that disturbed in the most awful way. I mean, it's really, it's a travesty.” 

Veolia has pushed back against the accusations that the company is at fault for the pollution crisis.

Here is spokesperson Adam Lisberg.

“Veolia crews are doing the absolute best they can caught between a Mexican rock and an American hard place. Mexico is overwhelming the South Bay plant with more than it was ever designed to handle …In the meantime, America was not doing its parts to keep up with the maintenance of it.”

He also took a swing at attorneys bringing forth the legal claims.

“There is no amount of dishonest rhetoric from opportunistic lawyers that can change these facts. We will defend ourselves against their baseless accusations.”

Kristin Westphal is an attorney on the Frantz lawsuit.

She’s also an Imperial Beach resident and will be a plaintiff among what  the law firm projects could be hundreds or thousands of others.

“It's kind of a slap in the face to all of us that live down there, because they're saying we don't matter.”

For KPBS, I’m inewsource investigative reporter Philip Salata.

inewsource is an independently funded, nonprofit partner of KPBS.

The city of Oceanside has selected a spot to try to save its sandy beaches from coastal erosion.

North county reporter Tania Thorne has the update on the city’s re:beach project.

The majority of Oceanside’s coastline is in need of sand. 

So when it came to figuring out where to pilot the city’s re:beach sand retention project, staff had plenty of options. 

“We took the most eroded areas of the shoreline and divided them up into different segments.”

Jayme Timberlake is oceanside’s coastal zone administrator. 

She says different data analysis and outreach helped reach a decision to begin at Tyson Street Park. 

“From here, we'll be extending the project on down to Wisconsin Avenue and between Wisconsin Avenue and Tyson Street Park. Will be developing an artificial reef off shore with the two headlands situated at Tyson Street and Wisconsin Avenue.”

The headland and artificial reef design came from the Australian international coastal management team. 

For the next year, the design will need to be refined, permitted and funded. 

Construction is estimated to start at the end of 2026 or early 2027 and cost $31 million dollars. 

Tania Thorne, KPBS News.

That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Wednesday.