Mayor Todd Gloria gives his 2022 State of the City Address at the San Diego Convention Center on Jan. 12, 2022. / Photo by Adriana Heldiz
During an election-year State of the City Speech Wednesday, Mayor Todd Gloria outlined his 2022 agenda, and at least for now it doesn’t include any of the tax measures aiming for the November ballot.
Gloria outlined the need for more money in multiple policy areas in which there are already potential ballot measures in the works: libraries and parks, stormwater, and transit. In each case, though, Gloria steered clear of mentioning whether he’d lead on those measures – or even if he’d support them.
After the speech, Gloria spokeswoman Rachel Laing confirmed that was by design. The mayor is not getting involved on any of the would-be ballot measures at this time.
Mayor Todd Gloria and Deputy Chief of Staff Nick Serrano walk toward city staff after the State of the City address on Jan. 12, 2022. / Photo by Adriana Heldiz
“The mayor is not getting out in front on the various citizens initiatives that are still in the conceptual phase,” she said. “He’ll evaluate each measure carefully once they’ve qualified for the ballot.”
The potential ballot measures, though, each represent key points of the agenda he outlined Wednesday.
Gloria, for example, described the city’s stormwater liability. The city last year estimated it had a $2.3 billion gap in the next five years between the money it expects to have, and all the infrastructure it needs to fix. Stormwater – the city’s flood management system – accounts for $1.7 billion of that gap.
Wednesday, Gloria said stormwater needs called for a massive fix, in the same way the Pure Water system the city is building to provide an independent water source.
“This is the kind of all-hands-on-deck approach we need to repair our stormwater infrastructure,” he said. “The fee we charge to maintain our pipes, culverts, drains and treatment facilities hasn’t been updated in almost 25 years, and as a result, we’ve fallen far behind on critically needed improvements to protect our beaches and waterways.”
City staff monitor Mayor Todd Gloria’s State of the City address on Jan. 12, 2022, at the Convention Center. / Photo by Adriana Heldiz
He did not say, though, whether he supported an attempt this year to put an initiative on the ballot to pay for those “critically needed improvements.” The Council’s environmental committee voted last year to work on a measure that could go on the 2022 ballot. Council President Sean Elo Rivera told us last month it’s still in the Council’s plans.
Parks and libraries supporters last year announced their own initiative to increase funding for city infrastructure, and while Gloria touted his goal of streamlining city funding for city projects from parks and libraries to roads and rec centers, he didn’t mention the ballot measure.
And while he announced that he’d launch a “collaborative, regional working group” of governmental agencies to bring as much money from the new federal infrastructure bill to San Diego, he did not mention the initiative, spearheaded by unions and environmentalists, to raise sales taxes to pay for regional transportation projects like roads, transit and freeways.
That initiative has done the most to leave what Gloria called “the conceptual phase.” It was endorsed by the San Diego County Democratic Party last month, and paid workers have been collecting signatures since just after Thanksgiving. Dan Rottenstreich, the consultant managing the initiative, said they have tens of thousands of signatures in hand already and are certain they’ll qualify by May 11 when they need to submit them.
“Democrats are fired up about it, the business community is fired up about it, everybody knows we need to do something about infrastructure, transit and traffic in this town,” he said. “We can’t wait any longer. We have the resources we need to qualify for the ballot and then some. I’m confident we’re going to qualify for the ballot, and then we’re going to win.”
Regional transportation would suffer a considerable setback if it doesn’t. The just-passed transportation plan for the county that Gloria voted for in December is already counting on voters approving a ballot measure next year, and for it to bring in more than $10 billion for new projects. It’s expecting voters to pass another similar measure on the 2024 ballot, and another on the 2028 ballot.
Prior to Gloria’s mum approach to tax measures this week, it was specifically his long-standing willingness to support revenue-increasing efforts that Michael Zucchet, head of the Municipal Employees Association, said separated him from other local leaders. On election night in 2020, Zucchet said he hoped Gloria would usher in a new era in which the city was honest with residents that they couldn’t get a world-class city on the cheap.
“Something has to fundamentally change in San Diego,” he said. “Citizens have been told for a generation that they don’t have to pay for trash pickup, that they don’t have to have the same taxes and fees as other cities not just in California, but in San Diego County, that we can do more with less. The fact of the matter is, we can’t. We want to have the best streets, the best parks, the best public safety, all at a discount. Something’s got to give here. The city is not in good shape right now. There’s going to be a fundamental decision, are we going to be the bigger city Todd has articulated, and we have to grow the pie with projects he’s talked about, or to grow revenue, or to reprioritize what we want to do as a city.”
Aguirre Will Sue the Chargers, NFL
We’ve written and talked about St. Louis’ incredible legal victory over the NFL and Rams owner Stan Kroenke. The city, county and sports complex of St. Louis sued the NFL and Kroenke and settled for $790 million, with attorneys pocketing $275 million of it.
The NFL and Kroenke settled for a lot of reasons but they faced enormous pressure after a judge allowed the St. Louis attorneys to start deposing NFL owners and searching through their records.
The settlement must be, by far, the most significant accomplishment of any effort by a city to hold the NFL accountable for moving a team after a city expends public resources to try to keep them or accommodate them. And many of us here in San Diego looked at it with happiness for our compatriots in St. Louis.
But it felt like something only actual big cities could pull off. And the city of San Diego, unlike St. Louis, had explicitly agreed never to sue the Chargers for leaving San Diego, in its 2004 revised lease with the team.
One guy thinks that’s not a problem for the city. Former San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre, whose career is mostly about public interest lawsuits like this and the potential settlements they deliver. He said he was inspired by the St. Louis lawyers’ work.
A fan holds up a sign at a 2015 Chargers-Dolphins game at Qualcomm Stadium. / Photo by Jamie Scott Lytle
This week, Aguirre alerted the city he planned to file a similar suit on behalf of taxpayers Jan. 21. It’s not clear who the plaintiff will be in the case, specifically, but Aguirre did offer the role to the Politics Report. We declined.
Aguirre had previously argued to us that the lease the city signed with the Chargers was illegal and thus void. But now he said the St. Louis case opened his eyes. And the lease has nothing to do with the target of a lawsuit here
“I wasn’t smart enough then to think of this,” he said.
St. Louis argued that the NFL had for years established a de facto contract with cities. They would no longer just move teams out of cities at their unilateral discretion. They would make the process a city could take to keep a team clear. St. Louis followed the process and spent nearly $20 million trying to keep the team through that process. But then, the lawyers argued, they discovered that the NFL and the Rams had no intention of respecting that process.
The NFL argued that its team relocation policy wasn’t a contract at all. The judge disagreed and set up a potential blockbuster trial where the city would try to prove that the Rams intended to leave the city no matter what, essentially misleading the city and violating the NFL policy and its de facto contract with cities. St. Louis wanted $4 billion.
Aguirre said it doesn’t matter that the city agreed never to sue the Chargers, this same violation occurred here. That at some point, the Chargers had no intention of staying here. The city’s lease may not have been violated but the contract with San Diego as a whole had been.
“We’re a third-party beneficiary. They have to act in good faith,” he said.
It still is not convenient that the city agreed not to sue the Chargers or NFL if the team moved. The new contract had been signed to keep them in San Diego for just three more years at a minimum.
“The City hereby acknowledges and agrees that the NFL shall not be liable to the City with respect to any such activities,” reads the lease.
Notes
Case rates may be peaking: Christopher Longhurst, the chief medical officer, at UC San Diego Health gathered some graphs Friday that seem to indicate “we are sliding down the omicron slope” — COVID-19 infections in San Diego may have peaked.
The fire: We very much hope the fire at the home of County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez was a random accident. Police say it is “suspicious.” We hope because the implications of arson are grave. No political system can be productive, or fair, if leaders face assassination attempts. Even if attacks don’t succeed, they deliver intolerable trauma to public life. If they do succeed, the consequences are horrific and destabilizing.
If you have any ideas or feedback for the Politics Report, send it to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or andrew.keatts@voiceofsandiego.org.
OTTAWA – Several federal political parties are expressing reservations about the prospect of fresh regulations to prevent foreign meddlers from tainting their candidate nomination processes.
Elections Canada has suggested possible changes to safeguard nominations, including barring non-citizens from helping choose candidates, requiring parties to publish contest rules and explicitly outlawing behaviour such as voting more than once.
However, representatives of the Bloc Québécois, Green Party and NDP have told a federal commission of inquiry into foreign interference that such changes may be unwelcome, difficult to implement or counterproductive.
The Canada Elections Act currently provides for limited regulation of federal nomination races and contestants.
For instance, only contestants who accept $1,000 in contributions or incur $1,000 in expenses have to file a financial return. In addition, the act does not include specific obligations concerning candidacy, voting, counting or results reporting other than the identity of the successful nominee.
A report released in June by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians expressed concern about how easily foreign actors can take advantage of loopholes and vulnerabilities to support preferred candidates.
Lucy Watson, national director of the NDP, told the inquiry Thursday she had concerns about the way in which new legislation would interact with the internal decision-making of the party.
“We are very proud of the fact that our members play such a significant role in shaping the internal policies and procedures and infrastructure of the party, and I would not want to see that lost,” she said.
“There are guidelines, there are best practices that we would welcome, but if we were to talk about legal requirements and legislation, that’s something I would have to take away and put further thought into, and have discussions with folks who are integral to the party’s governance.”
In an August interview with the commission of inquiry, Bloc Québécois executive director Mathieu Desquilbet said the party would be opposed to any external body monitoring nomination and leadership contest rules.
A summary tabled Thursday says Desquilbet expressed doubts about the appropriateness of requiring nomination candidates to file a full financial report with Elections Canada, saying the agency’s existing regulatory framework and the Bloc’s internal rules on the matter are sufficient.
Green Party representatives Jon Irwin and Robin Marty told the inquiry in an August interview it would not be realistic for an external body, like Elections Canada, to administer nomination or leadership contests as the resources required would exceed the federal agency’s capacity.
A summary of the interview says Irwin and Marty “also did not believe that rules violations could effectively be investigated by an external body like the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections.”
“The types of complaints that get raised during nomination contests can be highly personal, politically driven, and could overwhelm an external body.”
Marty, national campaign director for the party, told the inquiry Thursday that more reporting requirements would also place an administrative burden on volunteers and riding workers.
In addition, he said that disclosing the vote tally of a nomination contest could actually help foreign meddlers by flagging the precise number of ballots needed for a candidate to be chosen.
Irwin, interim executive director of the Greens, said the ideal tactic for a foreign country would be working to get someone in a “position of power” within a Canadian political party.
He said “the bad guys are always a step ahead” when it comes to meddling in the Canadian political process.
In May, David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service at the time, said it was very clear from the design of popular social media app TikTok that data gleaned from its users is available to the Chinese government.
A December 2022 CSIS memo tabled at the inquiry Thursday said TikTok “has the potential to be exploited” by Beijing to “bolster its influence and power overseas, including in Canada.”
Asked about the app, Marty told the inquiry the Greens would benefit from more “direction and guidance,” given the party’s lack of resources to address such things.
Representatives of the Liberal and Conservative parties are slated to appear at the inquiry Friday, while chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault is to testify at a later date.
After her party representatives appeared Thursday, Green Leader Elizabeth May told reporters it was important for all party leaders to work together to come up with acceptable rules.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – A look at David Coon, leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick:
Born: Oct. 28, 1956.
Early years: Born in Toronto and raised in Montreal, he spent about three decades as an environmental advocate.
Education: A trained biologist, he graduated with a bachelor of science from McGill University in Montreal in 1978.
Family: He and his wife Janice Harvey have two daughters, Caroline and Laura.
Before politics: Worked as an environmental educator, organizer, activist and manager for 33 years, mainly with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.
Politics: Joined the Green Party of Canada in May 2006 and was elected leader of the New Brunswick Green Party in September 2012. Won a seat in the legislature in 2014 — a first for the province’s Greens.
Quote: “It was despicable. He’s clearly decided to take the low road in this campaign, to adopt some Trump-lite fearmongering.” — David Coon on Sept. 12, 2024, reacting to Blaine Higgs’s claim that the federal government had decided to send 4,600 asylum seekers to New Brunswick.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – A look at Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.
Born: March 1, 1954.
Early years: The son of a customs officer, he grew up in Forest City, N.B., near the Canada-U.S. border.
Education: Graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977.
Family: Married his high-school sweetheart, Marcia, and settled in Saint John, N.B., where they had four daughters: Lindsey, Laura, Sarah and Rachel.
Before politics: Hired by Irving Oil a week after he graduated from university and was eventually promoted to director of distribution. Worked for 33 years at the company.
Politics: Elected to the legislature in 2010 and later served as finance minister under former Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward. Elected Tory leader in 2016 and has been premier since 2018.
Quote: “I’ve always felt parents should play the main role in raising children. No one is denying gender diversity is real. But we need to figure out how to manage it.” — Blaine Higgs in a year-end interview in 2023, explaining changes to school policies about gender identity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
