The San Diego County budget leaped to the forefront of the race to fill a vacant South County seat on the County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday.

Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, the Republican in the race, staged an early morning press conference to decry a recent proposal by board Democrats tap up to $355 million in rainy day funds to prepare for possible federal cuts to Medicaid and other programs.

McCann said the Democrats’ proposal, which comes at time when the county already faces a $140 million budget deficit, “turns our emergency fund into a slush fund…We need to stop ignoring the real problem, which is too much spending.”

McCann and Republican Supervisor Jim Desmond, who also spoke at the press conference, identified several county programs they’d target for elimination before tapping reserves: A $7.5 million expenditure on free phone calls for jail inmates, a $5 million program providing free legal services to undocumented immigrants and the county’s recently created Office of Racial Equity and Justice.

Board Democrats Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe have emphasized that their reserve proposal is intended only to prepare for future budget emergencies, not power new government spending.

But McCann and Desmond said the proposal shows Democrats are not being prudent with taxpayers’ money. “Instead of spending on pointless projects, we need to prioritize the county’s core services,” McCann said. “Reserves [are] meant to fight wildfires and respond to true emergencies, not for political issues.”

The Trump card: McCann’s Democratic opponent, Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, immediately slapped back at the call for cuts with a sharply worded statement accusing McCann of “doubling down on the Republican MAGA plan to slash funding for Medi-Cal and children’s nutrition programs South County families rely on most.”

The slam echoed previous efforts Aguirre has made to tie McCann to unpopular Trump administration policies. But McCann said he has never proposed cutting either Medi-Cal or child nutrition spending and called himself a “strong advocate” for both programs. He reiterated his support for fully funding both, he said, as recently as an April 30 Head Start event in Chula Vista.

Asked to explain the Trump link, Aguirre’s campaign consultant, Dan Rottenstreich, acknowledged that, in fact, it was county budget staff who proposed reducing the number of county employees who enroll people in state healthcare and food programs, not McCann.

But Rottenstreich argued that McCann’s opposition to Democrats’ budget reserve proposal, along with a related proposal to delay the budget vote until after the Supervisor election, amounted to implicit support for the Medi-Cal staff reduction.

Divergent priorities: The clash over the reserve proposal highlighted the sharply divergent views at stake in the supervisor race.

McCann said that, under Democratic leadership, the Board of Supervisors had strayed from the county’s core mission, piling up extraneous programs and running the county into a budgetary ditch.

“Everyone wants government to do everything,” he said. “But…local government needs to focus on core services.”

McCann said he had kept Chula Vista’s budget balanced for years without staff or service cuts by “focusing on the core mission of the city and not going off on all these other issues that cost money.”

Aguirre on Wednesday framed the problem in opposite  terms. “The county doesn’t lack for resources,” she said. “It lacks the political will to take action.”

Aguirre said tapping the county’s reserves would enable long-needed investment in parts of the county that had been ignored for years. The county, she said, “has done next to nothing to end chronic neglect of our community. And it’s not putting tax dollars where they’re needed most – fixing the [Tijuana River] sewage crisis and helping people afford to live here.”

The post County Budget Muscles Into Supervisor Race appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

San Diego County’s two Democratic supervisors plan to force a vote on Tuesday on their proposal to give county officials greater leeway to tap fiscal reserves during a time of unprecedented budget uncertainty.

Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe, the Board’s two Democrats, know their proposal will fail. Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond, their GOP colleagues, already signaled they’re not fans of the idea (which our Lisa Halverstadt detailed here).

The Dems plan to ask anyway. They likely hope to emphasize the stakes of a July 1 special election to fill a vacant South County seat on the Board.

That election pits Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, a Democrat, against Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, a Republican. As our Jim Hinch recently reported, Aguirre and McCann have opposing views on the budget proposal.

Anderson’s other beef: He said on Friday the reserve proposal wasn’t added to the Board’s agenda until Friday, giving residents in his East County district less time to understand the idea and make plans to attend Tuesday’s meeting.

“I couldn’t support anything that leaves my constituents out of the decision-making process,” Anderson said.

Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe’s take: They argued on Friday the reserve changes are urgently needed as the county anticipates possible federal cuts.

“We can’t control what’s happening in Washington, but we can ensure San Diego County is equipped to act with urgency, compassion, and responsibility when we are faced with the impact of those decisions,” Montgomery Steppe wrote.

“This updated reserve policy ensures we can respond to real emergencies, protect core services, and stand up for the San Diegans who count on us most,” Lawson-Remer wrote.

Possible New Camping Rules in Fire-Prone Areas

Also on Tuesday, Supervisors will consider whether to modify the county’s existing camping ban to address the risk of fire in county-managed open spaces and public works facilities.

The plan calls for sheriff’s deputies to issue citations only when people refuse an offer of available shelter (though there’s an exception when there is “imminent risk of harm to public health or safety”). County staff already nixed shortening the notice requirement before clearing camps.

Politics Report and Podcast: The Water Interview

The latest Voice of San Diego podcast episode was a special interview with Daniel Denham, the general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. Host Scott Lewis went deep in the water with Denham but hopefully in a way that anyone could follow.

Check out the podcast here.

In the Politics Report: Lewis pulled out some of the most notable things Denham said and also has a farewell message for Walt Ekard, the former chief administrative officer of the county of San Diego who died recently.

The Politics Report is for Voice donors. You can see it here.

Come see the podcast hosts Wednesday: On Wednesday, May 7, we’re recording a live podcast episode at Soda Bar with special guest Keene Simonds, executive officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO. You can find more details here.

Simonds just sent a strong letter back to the mayor of San Diego after the mayor blasted LAFCO for determining that La Jolla separatists had secured enough signatures to begin the process of secession.

LAFCO is in the middle of water stuff as well and Simonds is prone to saying interesting things. If you’re reading this sentence right now, you are 100 percent the target market for this kind of party. See you there.

Sacramento Report: University Funding on the Chopping Block

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget would slash hundreds of millions from the UC and CSU systems, prompting concerns over hiring freezes, larger class sizes and reduced support services. 

While tuition hikes at both systems aim to offset some cuts, San Diego universities are bracing for leaner times. UC San Diego could lose up to $500 million. San Diego State University faces a $44 million shortfall and has frozen hiring and cut management positions. 

The budget cuts threaten a goal both university systems were on their way toward meeting: Admitting more in-state students. SDSU president Adela de la Torre said the school doesn’t have adequate funds to bring in more in-state students next year. 

Meanwhile…a bill to tighten California’s sanctuary state protections failed in committee. The bill, authored by State. Sen. Brian Jones, would have required local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE in cases involving serious or violent felonies. 

Read the Sacramento Report here. 

Johnny (Oak)seed Wants You to Plant an Acorn

Jim Crouch is a 73-year-old retired middle school science teacher who walks with a cane and maintains an unusual feature in his Escondido backyard: 2,500 tube-shaped pots with tiny baby oak trees growing out of them.

The pots are part of Crouch’s one-man mission to repopulate San Diego County with native oak trees.

The majestic trees once ruled the Southern California landscape but urbanization, invasive pests and a changing climate plague them.

Crouch’s solution: Raise oak seedlings and enlist a volunteer army to plant the trees around the county.

Writer Robert Krier recently spent time with Crouch and reports on growing interest in his project as well as fascinating details about the many oak species that grace San Diego’s landscape.

“Jim’s a good dude,” one volunteer said of Crouch. Said another: “This is a passion for him. And it shows.”

Read the full story here.

In Other News 

• Last week, hundreds of San Diegans joined nationwide May Day protests to call out the Trump administration’s impact on workers. (FOX 5/KUSI) Also last week, UC San Diego health workers staged a one-day strike at Hillcrest Medical Center and marched from the hospital to Balboa Park to draw attention to stalled contract negotiations. (KPBS)
• The city of San Diego has issued 4,200 tickets after San Diego’s daylighting law went into effect in January. (NBC 7)
• The former Village Grill in Balboa Park is getting a second chance at life as Panama 66 partners seek to revive it. (Union-Tribune)
• For 20 years, people have been talking about a giant resort and convention center arising in South Bay and it’s here. The Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center is set to open. The Union-Tribune offers a peek.

The post Morning Report: Showdown Over County Budget Reserve appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

I’ve written and spoken about my experience 14 years ago when we had to lay off several journalists. It was a terrible management failure on my part and a lesson I wish I hadn’t had to learn.

The layoffs were big news in our little community of journalism. Twitter had become the digital town square of San Diego politics and it was pumping every day with the latest in city drama and journalist battles. CityBeat was still around and the Union Tribune was just a week away from being purchased by developer Doug Manchester. Until that week, Voice of San Diego had been hailed as a bright spot in the dark media landscape – a model for the future.

But I had let a cash-flow crisis get out of hand and we had to make a major cut.

All the local media outlets wrote about the layoffs.

The morning of the cuts, I had to go give a scheduled speech. I was numb – the speech was a welcome diversion. I returned and checked my email and there was a note from Walt Ekard, then the chief administrative officer of the county of San Diego.

“Are you OK?” it read.

Right when I read it, I crumbled. I was not.

I hadn’t eaten much in a week. The weight of what was happening had left me nauseated. I felt humiliated. But Ekard had thought of me and that meant a lot.

…

Ekard and I had gotten to know each other as any journalist and public official might. We’d argue and trade information. He invited me to speak once. We weren’t close but we were talking often.

I ended up calling him.

He said great managers always had to go through things like that. He thought I handled the media well. He offered a couple criticisms.

And then he said the thing that scared me the most: If I remained a manager, it would have to do something like that again, maybe several times. There’d be lots of moments when I would feel lost or overwhelmed and that was the job.

After that, Ekard became a mentor. We’d meet and just talk about managing people and local politics. He was so convinced that if every agency just had a great manager, the world would be a better place. His dream was to get the state of California a manager.

One of his pieces of advice I think about every week was very simple: You should write out the 5 -10 things you are most worried about. He told me that no matter how stressed you feel or how much tumult you face, if you do that, you instantly calm down.

He was right.

He died last week. Now, one of the things I am most worried about is that this community won’t find more leaders like him.

The Water Interview

I hope you take the time to listen to my interview with Daniel Denham, the general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. Much of it will help people get up to speed about what’s at stake in the increasingly fierce rhetoric between leaders of the Water Authority and people guiding the city of San Diego.

But there were two areas where we went deeper than before.

Denham is not opposed to Pure Water: Except he kind of is. I really wanted to push Denham on the widespread concern among city of San Diego leaders and environmentalists that Denham and the Water Authority want to kill the planned Phase 2 of the giant project.

The main issue the Water Authority is struggling with is it made giant deals to secure water reliability for the next few decades. But San Diego is no longer growing and we have succeeded at conserving water which means the Water Authority is selling less water even though it has already bought an abundance.

Phase 1 of the Pure Water effort is underway. It’s why Morena Boulevard has been such a mess for so long. It’s a done deal (if it’s ever done). Phase 2 will be a major undertaking and it will allow the city to get 50 percent of its water from the water it already got.

If the city – the Water Authority’s largest customer by far — ends up getting half of its water from wastewater recycling, ratepayers will not only have to pay off the Pure Water project but all the Water Authority’s rising bills as well. Rumors were swirling that Denham was lobbying the city to stop the planning for Pure Water Phase 2 and considering some sort of legal action.

Denham said he did not oppose Pure Water, Phase 2. But he did suggest that they should reconsider it.

He pointed to the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, owned by a private company, that the Water Authority is stuck buying water from for decades. He said he’s just trying to warn them.

“We should be the canary in the coal mine when it comes to developing expensive sources of supply,” he said. “If you have to change course, if you have to evolve a different way, let’s do that together. Let’s do that collectively. We’re all in this water space together.”

I asked him if desalination was a mistake. He talked about how he was a believer in it when it was going through the approval process. But it was a different time. San Diego was growing and projected to grow.

“Not a mistake, but it is absolutely the source of supply, the project that is, uh, holding us in a position where rates are so high,” he said. He pointed out that the water from desalination costs about three times as much as the imported water they bring in.

Settlement talk: Denham hinted that a settlement was on the horizon in the long-running dispute with the Metropolitan Water District. I asked him about a proposal to settle it five years ago. I never understood why it didn’t happen.
“I think that our board was too risk adverse at the time. We were looking for sort of like this belt and suspenders approach to making sure that, you know, every ‘i’ was dotted, ‘t’ crossed,” he said.

It was not risk averse about desalination.

World Press Freedom Day

Today is World Press Freedom Day, a reminder that a free press is essential to a functioning and ethical society and is a critical force for public good. We have worked to make this an institution that will be around forever. But the future is uncertain.

I’m not asking for a donation today, however. I’m asking for you to secure the future of the free press by joining Voice of San Diego’s legacy society. Please add Voice to your will or as a beneficiary to your retirement, insurance, or donor-advised fund to support our endowment. Any pledge today provides a source of stability and sustainable funding to ensure San Diego has access to local news in perpetuity. 

All it takes is one email to let our team know that you are committed to press freedom. Email Erica Connell, Voice’s Director of Philanthropy, at erica.connell@voiceofsandiego.org to let her know about your plans to support our endowment. Thank you.  

If you have any tips or feedback for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.

The post Politics Report: Bye, Walt appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

I have a special podcast interview scheduled next week with Daniel Denham, the general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. It could not come at a better time.

This week, San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said it may be time for the city to begin discussing leaving or dissolving the Water Authority. It was a dramatic substantive follow-up to what seemed like radical, off-hand comments I wrote about a month ago from Councilmember Marni Von Wilpert, who was frustrated by the water rate increases city staff was asking her to approve.

The city of San Diego has been the steward of the Water Authority. City appointees have essentially controlled it for decades. They drove it to take on the massive debts, deals and projects that are forcing such high rate increases now. The suggestion that the city would now consider leaving it seemed ludicrous. One of the mayor’s top aides is the chair of the Water Authority and the city sponsored successful legislation to make it much harder for agencies to leave the Water Authority. But now the city leaving the Water Authority is apparently a thing.

“I think we have a responsibility to consider everything we need to consider to improve affordability in San Diego. If the current structure doesn’t make San Diego more affordable, then we’re acting irresponsibly to not consider structural reforms,” Elo-Rivera told me. (Axios was first with his suggestion.)

The city leaving the Water Authority isn’t actually a thing. If the discussion advances, it would be about dissolving the Water Authority.

How we got here: The Water Authority is finally facing the massive costs of the deals it made over the last 20 years to purchase desalinated water and water from the farmers in Imperial Valley. All of those are coming as local residents, farmers and businesses continue to use less water, which, paradoxically, means every drop costs users more.

The Water Authority bought the water as a wholesaler — those costs are fixed for the next two decades. People buying less water from it in the meantime means they all must pay more.

But that’s causing popular outrage. It hit a new high this week as the Water Authority prepared its long-term forecasts and planned rate increases. The Union-Tribune put as nice of a spin on the resulting discussion as possible. “San Diego County water rate hikes won’t be as painful as feared,” read the headline.

The projected potential hike was 12 percent next year! The city of San Diego was barely able to pass along rate hikes of 5.5 percent this year to its users and that provoked Von Wilpert to suggest what she did.

Yes, it could have been 20 percent or more but leading up to the meeting, the city demanded the Water Authority take big steps to change things going forward.

In a letter to Denham, the Water Authority general manager, Matt Vespi, the city’s chief operating officer, wrote that the city’s financial position was in jeopardy if the Water Authority didn’t make big changes soon. And one of the changes Vespi wanted is for the Water Authority to assume it will sell less water in the future.

“SDCWA must revise its long-term sales projections to align more closely with current and future demand trends and adjust budget and rates accordingly,” the emphasis was Vespi’s.

Elo-Rivera followed it up with his own letter saying he strongly supported Vespi’s letter.

“The recommendations contained therein are reasonable, achievable, and urgently needed. They reflect a pathway toward immediate rate relief and long-term fiscal sustainability for the City’s water customers,” Elo-Rivera wrote. (The two letters are both here.)

The problem is, the only reason the Union-Tribune could write that the rate increase is better than expected is because the Water Authority is assuming it will sell more water this year because of higher demand. If it assumes it will sell less water, that would mean higher rates sooner.

“Every single general manager who read [Vespi’s] letter says ‘What’s he talking about?’ Long-term, is this region, this board, ready to double down on double-digit rate increases? It makes rates higher, not lower. I do not think everyone at the city understands that,” Denham told me.

Vespi’s case seems to be that if lower demand is assumed, the Water Authority will have more stable rates and if it indeed does sell more water than planned, then it can manage debts better and pay some of them off.

“This action will reduce year to year sales variability and provide financial stability that can reduce the needs for higher levels of cash, rate stabilization reserves, and increases to fixed revenue all else being equal,” Vespi wrote.

I asked Elo-Rivera about the claim he was actually supporting increasing rates more now. Elo-Rivera waved it away: “Complexity is used as an excuse,” he said.

“People cannot afford to live here. One of the costs increasing at an alarming rate is water and the Water Authority has to figure out what it needs to do. It is unacceptable to me that there isn’t an acknowledgement from the Water Authority of the amount of struggle people are experiencing,” Elo-Rivera said.

The real fights coming: Dissolving the Water Authority would serve one major purpose: It may allow the region to get out of its deal to continue purchasing water from Imperial Valley, the Imperial Irrigation District, specifically. More than 20 years ago, we made that deal in a frenzy of efforts to secure water resources separate from the Metropolitan Water District. But now, combined with the Carlsbad desalination plant, we have more water than we need.

Denham thinks city officials are just uncomfortable with their own giant water deal: Pure Water, the wastewater recycling program.

He said Vespi and the city are pushing the water authority to lower assumptions of how much water it will sell so that it has to charge more for water so that the cost of the city’s wastewater recycling program looks more reasonable.

“This is about Pure Water. The higher the Water Authority rates are, the better Pure Water looks,” he said. When the city completes Phase 1 of Pure Water, it will need to buy 30 million gallons less water per day from the Water Authority, damaging the Water Authority’s financial position even further.

Denham denied he wants the city to halt its planning for Phase 2, which will eventually allow the city to provide itself almost half the water it needs going forward. Again, that would not be good for the Water Authority as things stand.

Denham said you still need the Water Authority to import the water for that process.

“When you flush the toilet for reuse, the water has to come from somewhere. The last time this region could rely on local supplies to do that was in the 1940s,” he said.

If the city dissolved the Water Authority, and abandoned its deal to purchase water from Imperial Valley, it would have to rely wholly on the Metropolitan Water District. Denham laid out that scenario. I’m just going to post his monologue on that:

“Our water from the Colorado River costs roughly $600 per acre foot. Nobody is going to get water at $600 per acre foot now. If you don’t have that, then you’re saying ‘We’re going back on Met.’ Well, take a look at where Met is. They don’t have that much water to supply San Diego. Do you put our region in the same situation as other parts of Southern California? They are still on water-use restrictions despite the fact that we’re in state of abundance. If you go to Met, Met must expand resource mix and enter into expensive projects. Those rate increases then still come and you’re right back in same spot you’re in but you don’t have local control. You’re back to the Stone Ages, beholden to Met and their resource mix and yet in the same spot financially,” he said.

What’s at stake: San Diego residents and businesses spend more for water than almost anyone else in the country and it’s only getting worse, quickly. When we’re excited about only a 12-percent increase next year, you know it’s bad.

The Water Authority has costs it can’t get out of. Denham wants to sell the excess water we have purchased. But that’s not easy. He must create a new market. In the meantime, his current customers are fleeing – two agencies left the coalition and now the biggest customer, the city of San Diego is threatening to. In short, the debts and costs are mounting and the Water Authority’s ability to bring in more revenue to cover them is constrained. The city and others may actually just refuse to pay more.

When an agency has debts it can’t pay and it can’t raise the money to pay them, it is insolvent. Denham and the other leaders of the Water Authority face nothing short of the challenge of saving the Water Authority or overseeing its demise.  

It will be fun to talk to him about it!

If you have any feedback or ideas for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.

The post Politics Report: Water Authority Faces Existential Crisis appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

On the morning of Jan. 20, 2021, Adriana Camberos, a businesswoman from El Cajon, was one of more than 151,000 inmates in the federal prison system. 

Convicted in 2016 of fraud for selling millions of bottles of counterfeit energy drinks, Camberos was a little more than halfway through a two-year prison sentence. 

On his last day in office, Jan. 20, 2021, then-President Donald Trump commuted her sentence. 

A White House statement said Camberos was a mother and a deeply religious woman who had mentored fellow inmates while incarcerated and “demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to rehabilitation.” 

Also in her favor, the statement said: The support of the then-deputy mayor of Chula Vista, John McCann, who had written a letter asking Trump for clemency. 

At the time, McCann was a longtime Chula Vista politician less than a year away from launching a campaign to become the city’s mayor. Adriana Camberos would go on to support McCann’s campaign – even as she and her brother, Andres Camberos, embarked on a fraud scheme even more elaborate and lucrative than the one that sent Adriana Camberos to prison, according to federal prosecutors. 

While both Camberos siblings were engaged in selling what an 11-count federal indictment unsealed in 2023 described as tens of millions of dollars’ worth of fraudulent merchandise, they were also immersed in Chula Vista public affairs.   

Andres Camberos opened Chula Vista’s first cannabis retail business and became a sponsor of high-profile city events, including the city’s beloved annual holiday Starlight Parade. 

In 2021, less than six months after exiting prison, Adriana Camberos bought a $1.6 million luxury condominium in Coronado. A real estate company owned by McCann had listed the condominium for sale previously but removed it from the market four months before Camberos bought it. (McCann’s company was not involved in Camberos’ purchase of the condominium, according to real estate documents.) 

A federal judge will sentence both Camberos siblings this week to up to 20 years in prison for what prosecutors described as “a years-long fraud scheme [that] made millions off of lies to other companies.” 

The Letter to the President 

The clemency for Adriana Camberos followed so soon by her involvement in another fraudulent scheme has provoked questions for McCann.  

He said he offered to help Adriana Camberos after meeting her brother during a late 2020 tour of Andres Camberos’ brand-new Chula Vista cannabis delivery business. Chula Vista city staff had just awarded Andres Camberos and two business partners the city’s first ever cannabis retail license. 

Andres Camberos, it turned out, had attended Chula Vista’s Bonita Vista High School, where McCann graduated in 1986, though the two men had attended the school at different times. After sharing reminiscences about Bonita Vista during the tour, Andres Camberos walked McCann to the parking lot “and said, hey, he had something he wanted to talk to me about,” McCann recalled. 

Andres Camberos told McCann about his sister’s situation and asked McCann if he could help, McCann said. 

McCann said he discussed the case with Adriana Camberos’ lawyer, did his own research, talked with the Camberos family and decided to write a letter on Adriana Camberos’ behalf. 

“I believe in giving people second chances,” McCann said. Adriana Camberos “had been described as victimized [by her then-husband, Joseph Shayota, Adriana’s co-conspirator in the fraud scheme.] She had been a model prisoner [and] had conducted Bible studies” while in prison. 

Court documents filed by Adriana Camberos’ lawyers said Joseph Shayota had subjected his wife to years of emotional, verbal and physical abuse and masterminded the fraud scheme for which she was imprisoned. 

“Understanding she was a mother with no prior convictions and had completed more than half of her sentence, I, along with other community leaders, provided a letter supporting her commutation to her family,” McCann said. 

The Camberos siblings, however, did not stay out of trouble.  

According to prosecutors, less than six weeks after Trump commuted her sentence, Adriana Camberos and her brother began sending wire transfers between a group of companies and bank accounts that were at the heart of an elaborate new fraud scheme. 

The scheme, for which both siblings were tried and convicted last year, involved buying discounted goods earmarked for sale in Mexico, relabeling the goods and illegally re-selling them at a markup in the United States. 

Following an 11-day trial in October, jurors found the siblings guilty of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud along with seven counts of wire fraud. They were acquitted on three mail fraud counts. 

Earnings from the siblings’ fraud scheme – $58 million in gross profits from companies involved in the scheme, according to prosecutors – fueled a spending spree on what prosecutors described as multiple houses in the San Diego area, a stable of luxury cars and multiple investment accounts, life insurance policies, a cryptocurrency account and other assets. 

The money also enabled the siblings to make more than $150,000 in local and national campaign donations, some of which went to an independent expenditure committee that supported McCann’s 2022 mayoral bid along with other San Diego-area candidates’ campaigns. 

Both Camberoses are scheduled to be sentenced on Friday. Prosectors have asked federal judge Cynthia A. Bashant to send Adriana Camberos to prison for six years followed by three years of supervised release plus forfeiture of properties purchased with fraudulent funds and restitution to victims. 

Prosecutors requested a sentence of four years’ imprisonment for Andres Camberos, followed by three years of supervised release, forfeiture of properties and restitution to victims. 

Joshua Mellor, one of the federal prosecutors who worked on the Camberoses’ case, said the siblings were not currently in custody prior to sentencing. 

Neither Camberos sibling responded to a request for comment made through their lawyers. 

McCann is now running for a vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, campaigning in part on a platform of public safety and increased funding for law enforcement. 

Asked about the Camberoses’ turn to crime so soon after Adriana Camberos was freed from prison, McCann said he “was saddened [Adriana] chose to engage in illegal activity after she was restored.” 

“Ms. Shayota was given a remarkable opportunity to restore her life,” McCann said, referring to Adriana Camberos by the last name she used before filing for divorce from Joseph Shayota in 2019. She “didn’t, unfortunately, take that opportunity.” 

McCann said neither Camberos sibling gave him anything other than a verbal thank you in return for writing the commutation letter. 

“I received a call and…they verbally expressed their appreciation,” McCann said. “I didn’t receive a card…They didn’t give me anything physically…I really had very little if any communication or interaction with them since the commutation.” 

The Siblings’ Spending 

Among the properties prosectors seek to force the Camberoses to forfeit at their sentencing this week is a $1.6 million two-bedroom condominium in a luxury beachfront high-rise complex in Coronado called Coronado Shores. Real estate documents show that Adriana Camberos bought the condominium in May 2021, less than six months after leaving prison. 

One of McCann’s primary sources of income listed in financial disclosure statements is a real estate company called Coronado Shores Co., headquartered a few blocks from the Coronado Shores condominium complex. The company provides real estate and property management services in the complex and elsewhere in Coronado. 

Christina Denning, a lawyer representing McCann, said that, though McCann’s company and the Coronado Shores complex share a name, they are not related and McCann’s company “did not list the property [purchased by Adriana Camberos] for sale, nor did Coronado Shores Company represent Ms. Shayota in the purchase.” 

Contrary to Denning’s statement that the Coronado Shores Co. did not list the property for sale, real estate documents show that, on July 25, 2020, McCann’s company listed the Coronado Shores condominium for sale on behalf of a Texas-based holding company run by a Houston interior designer and property investor named Lourdes Barroso. 

On Jan. 23, 2021, three days after Adriana Camberos left prison, Coronado Shores Co. took the condominium off the market – “likely due to the property not selling,” Denning said. 

Six weeks later, the property was for sale again but listed by a different realtor. 

On May 14, 2021, Adriana Camberos bought the condominium for $1,665,000.  

Asked about the transaction, McCann said he wasn’t even aware Camberos had bought a unit in Coronado Shores until Voice of San Diego brought the purchase to his attention. 

“I did not even know there was a transaction like that,” McCann said. “Our Coronado Shores Co. had nothing to do with sales, transaction, management, renting, anything” involving Adriana Camberos’ condominium purchase. “We had no conversation [with Camberos about the purchase] and had no knowledge of any of her actions.” 

When Voice of San Diego asked Denning about the fact that, contrary to her statement, McCann’s company had listed the condominium for sale shortly before a different realtor ended up selling it to Adriana Camberos, Denning replied that her initial statement that McCann’s company “did not list the property for sale” was “in direct relation to the transaction inquiry, not the history of the property itself. Real estate is very transactional in that every single individual transaction/sale/purchase is, in and of itself, singular and separate. The statement that The Coronado Shores Co. brokerage ‘did not list the property for sale’ was in response to the single transaction you inquired about. This was not a false statement, nor an intent to leave out any information. The Coronado Shores Co. brokerage did NOT list the property on this single transaction.” 

Denning acknowledged that McCann’s company “had a business relationship” with the owner who sold the Coronado Shores condominium to Camberos – McCann’s company had represented the owner when she bought the condominium in 2019, as well as when she bought another Coronado Shores condominium in 2020. And McCann’s company had provided property management and rental services on the unit Camberos later bought, Denning said. 

But Denning said the prior business relationship had nothing to do with Adriana Camberos’ Coronado Shores purchase. “Coronado Shores made zero money on the transaction and had no communication with Ms. Shayota about the purchase at all,” Denning said. “You continue to attempt to draw conclusions to make my client look guilty of something to fit the fictitious narrative you so desperately want to create.” 

Four months after Adriana Camberos purchased the Coronado Shores condominium, she and her brother embarked on a series of campaign donations that aided McCann’s 2022 campaign for Chula Vista mayor. 

On Sept. 20, 2021, Andres Camberos gave $7,500 to the Lincoln Club of San Diego, which at the time was a primary backer of an independent expenditure committee called the Community Leadership Coalition. Eight months after Camberos’ donation, the Coalition spent $8,066 on direct mail ads supporting McCann’s campaign. 

Campaign records show that the Community Leadership Coalition spent a total of $483,526 on political races in 2022, supporting or opposing candidates in more than a dozen races in the San Diego area. 

Three months after Andres Camberos wrote that initial Lincoln Club check, he and his sister both donated the maximum allowable amount – $360 – to McCann’s 2022 mayoral campaign. 

A few months after that, Adriana Camberos gave $20,000 directly to the Community Leadership Coalition. Campaign records show that, one week after Camberos’ donation, the Coalition spent $19,997 on attack ads against McCann’s mayoral campaign rival, Amar Campa-Najjar. In total, the Coalition spent more than $104,000 opposing Campa-Najjar in 2022. 

The Camberoses also made donations to the Community Leadership Coalition in the names of two of the companies identified by prosecutors as central to the siblings’ 2023 fraud case. The companies, Baja Exporting and Specialty Foods International, each gave $15,000 to the Coalition on Aug. 11, 2022. Specialty Foods employee Lauren Branham also gave $360 directly to McCann’s mayoral campaign. 

Asked about the Camberoses’ political giving, McCann said he had been aware the siblings donated to his mayoral campaign. But he said he had not solicited the donations. 

“The idea that each of them gave $360 out of a several-hundred-thousand-dollar race – we are appreciative, but it was not a major source of income,” McCann said. “We [had] a strict contribution list when I ran for mayor…I do not have any involvement in independent expenditures.” 

McCann pointed out that Campa-Najjar, his mayoral opponent, also had benefited from substantial independent expenditures. 

Camberos Lands First Legal Cannabis Dispensary in Chula Vista 

While donating to political races, Andres Camberos also kept himself involved in Chula Vista city affairs. Two months before his federal indictment, his cannabis company, Grasshopper Dispensary, announced it was sponsoring Chula Vista’s annual summer outdoor movie series in a local public park. 

The announcement, as well as a companion announcement from the city, described a child-friendly event featuring youth-oriented movies such as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse.” 

In an April 4 response to prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations in Andres Camberos’ fraud case, Camberos’ brother Alfonso Camberos urged the judge in the case to be lenient because “Andres has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to his community through various charitable initiatives and sponsorships.” 

In addition to the summer movie nights event, Camberos’ brother cited Andres’ support for Chula Vista’s annual holiday Starlight Parade, a cultural arts festival and last year’s 27th annual Lemon Festival on downtown’s Third Avenue. 

McCann said he had nothing to do with Andres Camberos’ cannabis business and had not interacted with Camberos after writing the commutation letter on Adriana Camberos’ behalf. 

“I actually voted no to have cannabis businesses in Chula Vista,” McCann said. “And the City Council does not approve any cannabis store. It actually all goes through the city manager’s office and the city [staff].” 

In an interview with the Emo Brown Podcast on Jan. 22, 2021, two days after Adriana Camberos exited prison, Andres Camberos described the process of opening his cannabis business in Chula Vista. 

Asked by the podcast host whether “there was one person at the city that was very instrumental in holding your hand and walking you through the [city’s permitting] process,” Camberos named McCann, who was deputy mayor at the time, and another Councilmember named Jill Galvez. 

“The actual [business] application was outside of their hands,” Camberos said. “But they’ve always been someone you could go inquire to, you know, and just like an advocate, you know. And John has been, I’m like, ‘Hey, John, we need this.’ Or, ‘We’re inquiring about this.’ And at the very least they can point you in the right direction, right? So you’re not making like a million phone calls and getting, like, a voicemail.” 

Camberos withdrew from ownership of Grasshopper and its parent company, Vista Holding Company, six months after his fraud indictment, following an order to divest sent by Chula Vista’s city manager. 

In her own response to prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation, Adriana Camberos marshaled more than 50 letters from family members and friends attesting to her character, including from Jeannette Lizarraga, the realtor who represented Adriana Camberos in her purchase of the Coronado Shores condominium. 

Like other letter writers in the sentencing response, Lizarraga described Adriana Camberos as a loving friend and an honest businesswoman who didn’t even realize her fraudulent activity was illegal. 

“I truly believe that Adriana had no ill will and truly believed in the [legal] advice she was given,” Lizarraga wrote. “Had she not, she would have shut the whole business down a long time ago. Nothing was worth losing her family and freedom.” 

In the sentencing response, Adriana Camberos’ lawyers objected to prosecutors’ efforts to seize her property, pointing out that she was a 54-year-old grandmother who cared for her own ailing parents and “has touched many others in ways big and small by putting their needs above her own.” 

In addition to the Coronado condominium, prosecutors asked for permission to seize a 7,300-square-foot mansion in El Cajon, a $2 million house in La Jolla, two additional houses in Chula Vista, a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta sports car and three Range Rover SUVs. 

“The bottom line is we helped somebody, and we were looking to give them a second chance,” McCann said of his involvement with the Camberos siblings. “We’re trying to help people in the community ethically…That’s pretty much the situation.” 

The post Chula Vista Mayor Helped Free a Felon Who’s Going Back to Prison with Her Brother – A Lot Happened in Between appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

There were two races ending Tuesday inside the South County special election to decide the future of the county of San Diego’s Board of Supervisors. With two Democrats and two Republicans, the winner of this election to replace former Supervisor Nora Vargas will have a major impact on San Diego politics.

The first race was to see if John McCann, the only Republican elected official running, could get to 50 percent. Voter registration in the district is heavily tilted toward Democrats but he’s one of the guys who could win in that environment.

He did not reach 50 percent.

The second race was to see who would go with him to the runoff. The answer: Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre.

Historical precedence: Forty years ago, Imperial Beach Mayor Brian Bilbray ran for county supervisor and won after making a name for himself as a fighter against the scourge of sewage pouring over from Tijuana. In 1980, Bilbray became famous for getting behind the wheel of a bulldozer to create a makeshift dam to redirect sewage flowing from Mexico. He did it again in 1990 as a county supervisor.

Decades later, Aguirre’s focus on the issue and her ability to message on it, from the same political position, has launched her into the position of favorite in the supervisor race. Bilbray went on to become a congressmember but never was able to make much of a dent in the sewage crisis.

SEIU wins, again: The largest union of county employees SEIU 221 spent nearly $450,000 as of April 3 to help Aguirre. They went up against another union, the Laborers, and others who poured in even more to help San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno.

SEIU was triumphant this week.

“I am thrilled that we are about to win a majority on the Board of Supervisors. I just didn’t think we would have to do it three years in a row,” quipped David Lagstein, chief of staff at SEIU 221. It’s true. With the sudden disappearances of both Vargas and former County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, SEIU has had to battle to hold onto their win. Lagstein was not concerned about McCann.

The runoff is July 1.

Labor strife: The big battle between unions may not be over. IBEW 569, the electricians union, long a rival to the Laborers, has put up a challenger, business manager Jeremy Abrams, to oppose the re-election of Val Macedo, the Laborers leader, for a spot on the executive committee of the San Diego Imperial Counties Labor Council.

Prebys Invests in Downtown

The Conrad Prebys Foundation announced Friday that it had closed on the purchase of the Wells Fargo building at 401 B St., across the street from Civic Centre Plaza downtown.

The purchase price was $40 million or $80 per square foot. And it will be part of the investment assets of the foundation. (The Foundation is a supporter of Voice of San Diego.)

The foundation began with the massive proceeds from the sale of Conrad Prebys’ real estate holdings. So this is a return to real estate investing. Downtown is going through a correction in the commercial real estate market and there are some ominous signs for how vibrant the city’s core will be. The Union-Tribune covered what was essentially the foreclosure of a nearby tower and the default of the Horton Plaza redevelopment project. Mayor Todd Gloria recently abandoned Prebys and the Downtown Partnership’s effort to revitalize the Civic Centre Plaza.

But then Prebys leaders said they’d go forward without the city’s participation. Now, they’ll own one of the most prominent towers in the area.

Grant Oliphant, the CEO of the Prebys Foundation, told me he hoped the purchase would help the market downtown and signal the foundation’s commit to the area.

“We have the capacity to be not just grantmakers, supporting the vision, but also to be investors. That’s one of the cool things about this foundation. I love that our board is willing to put the balance sheet to work to make things happen,” he said.

What about the deli: One of my first thoughts was about the Plaza Deli, a must visit whenever I’m in the building, which is rare since SANDAG left. I asked him if it would continue operating.

“As far as I’m concerned, absolutely!” he said.

Child Care Advocates Test Appetite for County Tax

The Children First Collective San Diego circulated a poll this week asking voters what they thought of a potential ballot measure that would require the county of San Diego to “annually allocate no less than two percent (2%) of the County’s locally generated unrestricted revenues in the general fund to provide funding for services for children and their families, including affordable, safe and high-quality childcare…” They asked about different taxes people may support, including a tax on property owners, parcel taxes, transfer taxes on property sales and other options.

Erin Hogeboom, the director of one of the partners of the collective, San Diego for Every Child, confirmed they were behind the polling and said she could talk more next week.

I wrote about Hogeboom’s sounding of the alarm about the dire state of child care a few years ago as part of our focus on the cost of living crisis.

Save the Date for Politifest: Mark your calendars for Politifest 2025 on Saturday, Oct. 4 at University of San Diego. We’ll be back with a great lineup of speakers and panel discussions.

If you have any ideas or feedback for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.

The post Politics Report: South Bay Mayors Face Off appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

This post first appeared in the Morning Report. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

Two South Bay mayors will race for the open seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre will appear on the runoff ballot July 1.

With 11,000 votes still to count, McCann, a Republican, had won 44 percent of votes. Aguirre had gotten 32 percent of votes counted.

Two other Democrats in the race, San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno and Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez, garnered too few votes – 13 percent and 8 percent – to overcome the frontrunners’ lead. Three other lesser-known candidates split the remainder of the vote.

McCann will come up short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright.

What’s at stake: Tuesday’s special election was called following the surprise – and so far unexplained – resignation in December of former District 1 Supervisor Nora Vargas. The district includes the cities of Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and National City as well as portions of southern San Diego and the unincorporated area of Bonita.

A Democrat, Vargas helped to wrest the Board of Supervisors away from generations of Republican control when she was first elected in 2020. Since her departure, the Board has been split evenly between two Democrats and two Republicans.

The winner of Tuesday’s special election will determine whether the county continues on its current leftward path or reverts to Republican control.

Reactions: “I’m very humbled, very thankful of the volunteers we’ve had and all the supporters we’ve had and all the people who voted for me,” McCann said Tuesday evening at an election night watch party at Karina’s restaurant in Chula Vista. “We’re excited that we will be in the runoff and we know that will be a tough battle. We’re going to continue to be on the ground talking to people, listening to people and finding solutions for South County.”

Aguirre issued a statement from her own watch party at Novo Brazil brewery in Imperial Beach. “It’s a clear message,” she said of her likely advancement to a runoff. “Voters want a Supervisor who fights on the side of working people, gets results on the sewage crisis and pushes for the more affordable San Diego County we need.”

Aguirre on Tuesday evening previewed campaign themes she likely will emphasize: “This runoff is a clear choice between Democratic values that put working people first, and a Trump Republican agenda that would be a complete disaster for all of San Diego County,” she said.

McCann said he was “fully prepared” for a runoff election and planned to focus his campaign on his record in Chula Vista. 

McCann said he had helped to make Chula Vista “one of the safest cities in the county,” reduced the number of homeless people on city streets and brought “thousands of new jobs” via signature economic development projects such as a soon-to-open luxury hotel and resort on the city’s redeveloped bayfront.

“I’ve been a leader to help elevate the image and job growth in Chula Vista, where Chula Vista is an economic engine for the region,” McCann said. “I want to make sure we create innovation and jobs in all of South County.”

The post Two Mayors Will Battle for Supe Seat appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Read our series of Q&As with candidates vying to replace recently resigned Board Chair Nora Vargas. Click here. 

Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez, a Democrat, is running to fill a vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The election is April 8. 

Asked why voters should choose her over six other candidates in the race, Chavez told a story about a pivotal meeting she attended two decades ago. 

She was in her 20s at the time, she said, working as an economic development liaison for a string of mayors in Baja California cities. One of her responsibilities was representing the interests of border cities in meetings of the San Diego Association of Governments, where decisions about transportation and other issues have profound effects south of the U.S.-Mexico border. 

“I was already involved in creating…regional solutions,” Chavez said of her liaison work. “Like when the Cross Border Xpress [a skybridge connecting the Tijuana International Airport with a terminal in San Diego] came to be, right? I was in those initial meetings.” 

Born in Tijuana in 1983, Chavez said she has straddled the U.S.-Mexico border for most of her professional life. That cross-border experience, she said, combined with jobs in both the public and private sector, make her uniquely qualified to lead an international and economically interdependent region. 

Chavez spoke with Voice of San Diego recently in the last of our in-depth conversations with major candidates running to replace former south San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas, whose unexpected resignation from the Board late last year upended local politics and threw leadership of San Diego’s border region up for grabs.  

South San Diego County “is such a unique, unique region that produces $60 billion in international trade,” Chavez said. “And people don’t factor that uniqueness into their policymaking.” 

Chavez started her career as a reporter for the Mexican broadcaster Televisa before pivoting to a series of government and private sector jobs. She worked for the mayor of Tijuana and other border cities, for a health insurance company that offers cross-border health coverage and as an economic development staffer in the office of San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn. 

She also chaired the International Business Affairs Committee at the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and served on the Chamber’s board of directors. On the Chula Vista Council, she represents neighborhoods on the northern and eastern sides of the city, where she said many of the business leaders she’s worked with live. 

It was those leaders, she said, who were among people urging her to run for the Board of Supervisors following Vargas’ resignation, despite her relative lack of experience in elected office. 

“Some of them called me up and they’re like, ‘Hey, we saw the candidates or the possible people that were going to run,’” Chavez said. “They really don’t understand the [economic] factor of what this region is.” 

If elected, Chavez said she would seek to leverage her relationships with San Diego’s business leaders to solve regional problems. She frequently proposed the same approach to a range of pressing issues, including housing, transportation, the Tijuana River sewage crisis and immigration: “I think there is nothing better than bringing the good actors to the table,” she said. 

Who are the good actors? “The people that are developing, that want to invest in this county, that have good paying jobs, good local paying jobs,” she said. “And we need to help hear from the community as well.” 

Editor’s note: The following interview, the fourth in Voice of San Diego’s series of in-depth conversations with candidates seeking to represent District 1 on the Board of Supervisors, has been condensed and edited for clarity:  

Q: Why are you running for supervisor? 

A: It’s very, very important that we have a representative that understands this very unique region. We produce over $60 billion in international trade annually that goes to the federal and state government. And we need to assure that someone that occupies that seat [on the board] really does understand the uniqueness of the region. That uniqueness can’t have policy or legislation like the rest of the country. Because we have a [cross-border] population and we share a workforce that we can’t house here. So, we have around 100,000 people crossing through that border that have to live in Baja because they can’t afford to live here locally. We have a retired community that also cannot afford to live here locally. We have students. We have veterans, a large community of veterans that have retired in Mexico. 

By the end of Covid, in meetings I had with [business leaders], they told me we are actually hurting because people with tourism visas could not cross [the border]. And that made our restaurants, our [healthcare facilities], our hotel owners lose millions. People don’t understand how much the [cross-border traffic] from Baja brings to us. And not just Baja, right, but all over. We are a very desirable city. 

Q: What would you do differently from other candidates to foster the economic development you’re talking about? 

A: Permitting reform, to start. I’ll give you an example. I’m not going to mention the names of the businesses, but they say to me, “I applied for my permits in the city of Chula Vista and it’s been two years and I haven’t gotten a response.” And I went and asked city staff about it, and they said that the person that was managing this permit process was no longer there, so they don’t have access to these emails and they don’t have other materials for the applications. 

So, that red tape stops us from creating jobs, from bringing good money, good investments locally. And that’s the story for many issues, right? For housing, for markets, for restaurants, for everything and anything you can imagine, that creates and keeps good paying jobs locally and contributes to the housing stock as well.  

The first week I was in office, I had a meeting with [Chula Vista’s] economic development department. And I realized that we weren’t being a partner to the community. Coming from the city of San Diego, we had a response time of a day or two to respond and connect with the heads of departments for any kind of issue that our community needed or our constituents needed, and we had a response time of about a week to resolve the issue. And I didn’t see that in Chula Vista. 

I want to say it’s getting better. I’m not saying it’s completely better, but I’m saying it’s getting better. There were a few structural changes in the department. Before, you would arrive and leave your paperwork and your layouts for the houses in a little box outside the department. And now they migrated everything to be online, and you get a response time online. That by itself is something Chula Vista had never done. 

Q: Do business leaders have the same complaints about working with county government? 

A: They say the permit process takes forever. I think the number one thing that we’re not focusing enough on is bringing good actors to the table. And when you’re creating policy, when you’re creating initiatives, listen to that [private sector expertise]. In Chula Vista, I proposed several things. One of them was creating a liaison between the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce and the city. Because that’s the voices of the business representatives. Unfortunately, that proposal was shot down by other Councilmembers. 

I think we need to be inclusive of everyone [in policymaking]. When I talk to constituents, they always say, we don’t feel like we’re heard. Many of the policy decisions feel like a one-way street. 

I can’t say I know everything about housing, right? Why not bring the good partners to the table that are knowledgeable, that this is their bread and butter? Why are we not bringing them to have these important conversations and to create policies that work for them as well as for the community? I think the Chamber of Commerce should be at the table, homebuilders. 

Q: Pivoting to another issue. Voice of San Diego and some partners recently took a close look at the November 2024 vote. Two things that stood out to us were a swing toward Republicans in border communities and a shift to the right in Latino voters’ attitudes toward immigration. What’s your approach to this issue, and what are you hearing from voters? 

A: These tariffs [proposed by the Trump administration on a range of industries involved in cross-border trade with Mexico] are killing a lot of the local business industries here. And just in my district alone, I have like 15 people that are crying bloody murder about this. And they’re like, “I literally lost millions with these new tariffs. I lost clients.” 

Q: Did those people vote for Donald Trump and now regret it? 

A: Yes. 

Q: What’s your view of the county’s so-called “super sanctuary” policy, which prohibits county employees from assisting federal immigration authorities, including in cases involving people convicted of violent felonies? 

A: I can be very clear on that. And this is a conversation that I’ve had with many different organizations and groups that I talk with. I am never in favor of anyone that’s committing crimes. Let’s be clear. I am not in favor of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents] going into schools. I’m not in favor of the emotional aspect and the persecution. Because we have to be mindful about the world right now. All that pain and suffering and persecution, the reason why many people are fleeing their country. We need to recognize that with compassion. 

But people committing crimes? I’m in favor of that deportation. If you commit a crime, you shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be treated the same as a good actor, a good community member that contributes to society. 

Q: You have a professional background in healthcare, working for many years for SIMNSA, an HMO licensed in California that provides healthcare and health insurance in Baja California. San Diego County faces numerous healthcare-related challenges, including possible cuts in federal funding and the recent departure of the county’s behavioral health chief. What would be your top healthcare policy priorities as supervisor? 

A: You mentioned behavioral health. One of the main issues I hear about from constituents is homelessness. The number one priority when we’re talking about the unsheltered community should be helping them get to a better state of mind so they can make better decisions for themselves. We don’t have enough mental health resources for the unsheltered community. 

Q: Do you mean help for people struggling with mental illness? Or drug addiction? Or both? 

A: They go hand in hand. I’m always talking about detox programs and offering more of them. I think it’s crucial because I’m going to be dead honest. When I talk to [unsheltered people], when I talk to their mothers, they say, I really wanted to get my kid that was living on the streets into a detox program or substance abuse program. And they’re not available. And so, in unincorporated areas, the sheriffs are being overwhelmed because they’re understaffed and overworked, and they’re covering many, many issues. 

Q: The Board of Supervisors recently debated adopting a countywide encampment ban. Would you favor that policy? 

A: Yes, as long as we had adequate shelter space to offer people. I also think, again, we need to bring more people to the table to address this issue. In a recent candidates’ forum, other candidates were saying we often have no power to clean up encampments because they’re on land managed by Caltrans or some other agency. No, we have the responsibility to work with those agencies and make sure they follow through. And we should be involving the business community, the business improvement districts, like I did when I worked for [San Diego City Councilmember] Stephen Whitburn. 

I’ll tell you something very important. The first week in office, I’m going to ask for an audit [of county spending]. I need to see what programs we are investing in, what’s being proven to work, and what has not. Because with an $8.5 billion budget, and heading into a deficit, we need to inform our community why we’re going into this deficit. 

Q: Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer recently proposed exploring the possibility of tax increases to shore up county finances. What’s your view? 

A: How can we come back to the community and ask them for more if we don’t have accountability for what we’re spending right now? If we’re not being completely transparent into why we’re going into this deficit, does that even make sense? 

Q: I’m noticing that on many of the issues we’re talking about, you sound more like a Republican than a Democrat. Why are you a Democrat? 

A: Here’s the thing with me. I care about people. And in many of these issues, I’m telling you right now that the community doesn’t care about parties anymore. They care about results. 

Q: Okay, here’s an issue on which voters want results: Housing. What will you do to increase the availability of affordable housing? 

A: We have to bring everyone to the table, right? There’s a lot of talk around the environmental aspect [of building houses in undeveloped parts of the county] and the Vehicle Miles Traveled policy [a county policy that evaluates building proposals based in part on how much driving they would generate]. And we have to have a discussion where we bring everyone to the table: The developers, the people that are advocating for the VMT. And we need to hear from the community as well. 

Q: Do you favor or oppose the VMT policy? 

A: I’m inclined to be against that because of the housing shortage that we have. I think that we need to be very clear that we can’t just have towers and towers of small spaces for whole families. People still have the dream of a white picket fence. And we need to be mindful of that and step out of our mindset of, I hate to say this, privilege. 

I myself only recently became a homeowner two years ago. I’m 42 and it took me this long to be able to afford to buy a house. We’re driving good people out of our community because we can’t create policy and get it together. In Chula Vista, we approved more housing so far this year than the county did all of last year. That lack of housing in the county creates a huge problem in our housing stock. 

Q: What did you mean when you used that word “privilege?” 

A: I’m not talking about anyone in particular, but sometimes people say, “Well, we have to keep development in the already-developed areas because of transportation and the impact on the environment.” But we also need to think that there’s whole families living in reduced spaces. And they also deserve that dream of owning a home, of having a yard. And we need to do better when we create this policy. 

I sometimes get in trouble for speaking my mind. But as someone that grew up in this region, my grandfather was a strawberry field picker. At age 14, he would work 16-hour days with no child protections. I don’t come from privilege. I rode the trolley downtown [early in my career] and I came back at 9 or 10 p.m. because, you know, you’re a hard worker and you always feel the need to prove yourself. And I was always seeing that we didn’t have enough [Metropolitan Transportation Service] staff on the trolley. And I felt very vulnerable. And when I had the opportunity to sit on the Board of Directors for MTS, we had a focus group where more than 90 percent of people on the trolley said they felt unsafe. But when I said we need more safety personnel, other people on the board said they were concerned about racial profiling. And I’m the person who supposedly would be profiled. And I’m proposing the policy! It’s a lack of common sense. Because a lot of the people that are creating the policies haven’t lived it. I’ve lived it. 

Q: Last question. What’s your bottom-line pitch to voters? 

A: I’ve been working on these issues for 22 years. Twenty years ago, I sat as an observer in the Board of Directors meetings. I was already involved in MTS. I was already involved in being part of the process. I’ve had the discussions with state and federal officials in Mexico. I am the only one who can work with all levels of government on both sides of the border. 

We don’t have enough leadership that has common sense, that has lived in this region without privilege and has struggled with rent and understands that even if you’re doing well today, you can be unemployed tomorrow and you will struggle with housing. We need someone that goes back to the basics. Public safety. Food on the table. People don’t care about political parties anymore. They care about how well they’re being taken care of, how safe they feel. The prices of food. The prices of gas. School programs. We need to talk about that and health care. I can go on and on. That’s the uniqueness to me. 

The post Chula Vista Councilmember Brings ‘Business’ Perspective to Supervisor Bid appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Two Democratic candidates for supervisor are urging the county to delay its annual budget vote until after a now-vacant District 1 seat is filled. That push appears unlikely to garner needed support from a sitting board majority but a 2-2 political split on the county board may mean the candidates get their wish by default.   

Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chula Vista Deputy Mayor Carolina Chavez argued Wednesday that residents of the South Bay district deserve a voice during the county’s upcoming budget process. 

“Passing a county budget without South County at the table isn’t just wrong — it’s a recipe for disastrous shortchanging of our communities,” Aguirre wrote in a statement. “Instead of rushing through the entire $8.5 billion budget without South County’s voice, the county should adopt an interim budget now with the full-year budget voted on by supervisors who represent all of San Diego County, including District 1.”  

Chavez struck a similar tone. 

“I definitely think we should hold back from making any decisions that would impact District 1,” Chavez said. “District 1 is severely historically underserved, and I think voting without a supervisor there that represents this unique district that will be heavily impacted by any decision taken, I think we should wait until after the election for any decision there.” 

At least two sitting county supervisors on opposite sides of the political aisle aren’t on board with postponing the county process that is for now scheduled to end with a June 24 budget vote.  

Meanwhile, the District 1 election is April 8 and if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of votes, the top two finishers will compete in a July 1 runoff. 

County code calls for the Board of Supervisors to approve the budget for the fiscal year that begins in July by the fourth week of June “unless the Board finds it impractical to do so.” 

That means a majority vote by the Board of Supervisors is likely needed to formally change that schedule. 

Supervisors Joel Anderson and Terra Lawson-Remer said Wednesday they don’t want to do that, meaning that’s highly unlikely to happen – at least formally. 

County spokesperson Tammy Glenn wrote in a Wednesday email that there has been “no action” by current supervisors to adjust this process and that Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton is preparing to release her recommended budget on May 1. 

Glenn also noted that the District 1 administrative staffers are continuing to support their constituents and that all board offices are sharing details about how to participate in the budget process. 

“The county is committed to proposing a balanced recommended budget that responds to the region’s needs while prioritizing mandated services and identifying ways to reduce costs given current financial challenges,” Glenn wrote, hinting at a projected $138.5 million budget deficit. 

Lawson-Remer says she’s not inclined to postpone the budget process including public budget hearings as the county faces federal cuts. 

Yet she expects current divisions between Republicans and Democrats on the board to translate into the delayed approval of the county budget – even with a scheduled June vote. She doesn’t expect a budget to be approved until a new District 1 supervisor is sworn in and believes that supervisor will be the deciding vote on the county’s budget. 

“Delaying an initial vote would only delay the public budget hearings, but given political realities would have no actual impact on when the budget is adopted,” Lawson-Remer wrote in a statement. “In short, this debate is a bit of a red herring because our Board is at an impasse split 2-2, so the reality is that no budget will be adopted until a fifth supervisor is sworn in.”  

Republican Supervisor Joel Anderson also doesn’t want to postpone the process and notes that the county approved a budget following former supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s resignation from the District 4 seat in 2023. Anderson also flagged his concerns about what he deemed a quiet campaign to postpone the county budget vote in a Times of San Diego op-ed last week. 

His position on delaying the vote hasn’t changed. 

“A delay in the passage of the county’s budget punishes over 600,000 constituents who live in the unincorporated communities,” Anderson wrote in a statement this week. “The county is 100% responsible for these communities, which I don’t expect those who live in the cities to understand.” 

He also added that the county can adjust its budget with four votes after June approval to incorporate potential changes. 

District candidate John McCann, a fellow Republican who is now Chula Vista mayor, also doesn’t seem interested in a delay. 

“The true debate is not about delaying the budget vote, but what the new District 1 supervisor would do to fix County’s $140 million plus structural deficit,” McCann wrote in an email. 

Democratic candidate Vivian Moreno, a San Diego councilmember who is also seeking the District 1 seat, didn’t respond to a request from Voice of San Diego on Wednesday. 

Spokespeople for fellow Republican Supervisor Jim Desmond and Democratic Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, who won Fletcher’s former board seat in 2023, also didn’t return messages. 

The post Supervisor Candidates Urge Delayed County Budget Vote appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

The former chief operating officer of Chula Vista Elementary School District is under investigation for a potential pay-to-play scheme involving a district contractor. The investigation relies on pictures that district officials believe are evidence of an inappropriate relationship between the former COO and a company that specializes in athletic flooring.

But the former COO, Jovanim Martinez, says the investigation against him is retaliatory and that he had no inappropriate relationship with the company. Martinez said the district’s superintendent, Eduardo Reyes and a board member, Francisco Tamayo pressured him to award contracts to certain companies. When he didn’t, he says, the superintendent put him on leave.

Martinez also says an assistant superintendent pushed him and another district employee, as part of their day jobs, to plan and throw a fundraiser for Tamayo and Cesar Fernandez, another board member at the time.

Through a district spokesperson, Reyes and Tamayo said they have not received gifts or money from contractors seeking to do work with the district.

Jason Romero, the assistant superintendent who Martinez says instructed him to take part in campaign work as part of his job, denied the allegation.

Martinez started working at Chula Vista Elementary School District in 2022, overseeing the facilities and planning department. A former Marine, he quickly earned a reputation as a hard worker and was promoted to chief operating officer.

Martinez says Reyes, Tamayo and Romero all asked him to do things he was uncomfortable with. When he didn’t go with the flow, the superintendent and assistant superintendent targeted him, he said.

“The district believes that it is important that you consider the source that is providing you with these clearly false allegations intended to re-write the history of his time at the Chula Vista Elementary School District,” wrote Giovanna Castro, a district spokesperson in an email.

The drama culminated last November at a district board meeting. The district was set to award a contract to a company called W2W Sport to resurface a playground for $160,000.

But at the last minute, just before the meeting began, Reyes pulled the contract from the meeting agenda.

District officials believed that Martinez had a “conflict and/or possible financial interest,” related to the contract, according to Castro.

Martinez says that wasn’t the case at all — in fact, the opposite. He says Reyes had been pressuring him to make sure another company got work with the district. The company, Dr. Build, had also placed a bid for the playground resurfacing – and lost – Martinez said.

**

Martinez’s story: Martinez says that a couple months before the district was set to award the contract to W2W, Reyes called him into his office.

Reyes was there with Al Renteria, the operator of Dr. Build, a company which specializes in ADU construction, according to its website. The two seemed friendly.

“‘We gotta hook this guy up,’” Reyes told Martinez, according to Martinez. “‘Just give him a small project.’”

After asking Renteria about his work experience, it appeared to Martinez that Renteria had mostly done residential construction.

Renteria did not respond to a request for comment.

Martinez says Reyes spoke to him on two more occasions about making sure Dr. Build got work with the district.

Martinez saw Reyes soon after the first meeting. He remembers Reyes saying: “‘Check into him. Give him a project.’”

Martinez did visit one of Dr. Build’s job sites. He saw an ADU being built in someone’s backyard. The skills required for residential construction are very different than what is required for most school district projects, Martinez said.

“We don’t build ADU’s,” Martinez said.

“Next thing you know, Reyes calls me again,” Martinez told me. “He said, ‘Hey man, what’s up with Dr. Build.’”

Dr. Build had been submitting proposals to the district, but none were qualified bids or met the district’s requirements, Martinez said. Reyes advocated on behalf of Renteria, saying Renteria felt he was getting the run around.

Martinez said he told Reyes he didn’t think Dr. Build had enough experience with the type of work the district needed.

And yet, Martinez felt the message to him was clear: Reyes wanted a contract awarded to Dr. Build.

Castro, the district spokesperson, said Martinez’s story regarding Dr. Build and the superintendent was “false.”

As far as the playground contract was concerned, Martinez said he had no control over who won it. As with all projects that go out for bid, his office was required to award it to the lowest qualified bidder, he said.

W2W placed the lowest qualified bid at $160,000, Martinez said.

Dr. Build also bid — and the bid came in lower — but Dr. Build was not qualified per California rules, Martinez said.

The contract in question was what’s known as a CMAS — or California Multiple Awards Schedule — contract. Contractors must be pre-approved with the state of California to win a CMAS contract.

Dr. Build was not CMAS pre-qualified with the state, so it couldn’t win the bid, even though its price came in lower. It was as simple as that, Martinez said.

Reyes, through Castro, the district spokesperson, said he has never accepted gifts or money from Dr. Build. He also denied having any personal relationship with Renteria, the operator of Dr. Build.

Castro did not respond to questions about how long Reyes had known Renteria.

**

The district’s story: District officials provided a photograph, a flyer and a video to Voice of San Diego that they believe is evidence of Martinez’s inappropriate relationship with W2W Sport.

The photograph shows Martinez and another person in W2W offices downtown, with a view of the baseball field at Petco Park in the background.

The flyer shows Martinez’s face. Above it are the words, “W2W Sport invites you to a celebration of achievement.” At the time, Martinez had just been promoted to COO of the district.

The flyer appears to indicate the event was solely about Martinez’s promotion. Martinez, however, says it was just a regular industry mixer – the type thrown by all sorts of companies all the time.

Martinez’s promotion was only incidental, Martinez says. The mixer had already been planned. Martinez was asked to speak at the event, as officials frequently are, and the company was simply promoting his presence at the mixer, Martinez said.

He said district officials frequently speak at networking and industry events which are promoted with flyers depicting officials’ faces.

Moreover, Martinez said he told two other people in the district about the event.

He texted the flyer to one employee in the district’s Human Resources department. And he also showed it to Jason Romero, assistant superintendent of human resources, Martinez said.

Castro, the district spokesperson, said Romero did not know the event was being held by a potential vendor. (Martinez said that Romero did know the event was being hosted by W2W.)

Castro also said that the other employee who saw the flyer cautioned Martinez the party was inappropriate. Martinez then “changed his story” to the employee and said the event was being hosted by a fraternity brother, Castro said.

That all occurred in a verbal conversation, according to Castro.

Martinez, however, provided a screenshot of a text conversation between himself and the H.R. employee. Martinez texted the H.R. employee a picture of the flyer. The employee responded: “That’s cool!!”

Scott Bohrer, director of operation for W2W Sport, said all of the company’s events are open to many industry professionals and follow standard practices.

“Our mixers have always been open to everyone in our industry,” Bohrer said. “They are designed to bring together vendors, architects, general contractors and other professionals across multiple markets. These events follow standard industry networking practices.”

Martinez said he arrived late to the event and then spoke briefly. Soon after, people in attendance went for drinks at Side Bar, a bar several blocks away from W2W’s offices.

At Side Bar, a video shows the same image of Martinez’s face from the flyer being beamed onto the bar’s walls. Martinez said the image only appeared briefly and that he stayed for a short time and then left.

He texted that video to Romero, the head of HR.

Romero responded: “Dude that looks amazing fuck.”

Castro said that once Romero discovered the event was hosted by a potential vendor, he reported it.

**

Martinez said he had very little interaction with Tamayo, the board member. But, according to Martinez, one day at a school function, Tamayo came up to Martinez and whispered in his ear: “I need you to make sure Gafcon gets some work.”

Gafcon is a major local construction management company that has done work in many local school districts.

Martinez said he was confused, but later he received a call from a Gafcon employee. The employee said Gafcon — or someone related to the company — had either already donated $5,000 to Tamayo’s campaign fund or planned to.

Castro, the district spokesperson, called Martinez’s claims “false.”

Castro also said Tamayo had never received cash or a political donation from Gafcon. Voice found no donations that appeared to be connected to Gafcon in Tamayo’s campaign finance disclosure documents.

A spokesperson for Gafcon also denied the allegations.

“These allegations are completely unfounded and malicious,” wrote Stephen Johnson, a spokesperson for Gafcon. “Gafcon has never promised or made any donations to any board member, including board member Tamayo. Additionally, Gafcon is not aware of any of its employees making such promises or contributions to any board member.”

**

Tamayo is facing a censure vote by his own political party for doing something incredibly unusual. Despite having two years left on his term as a board member at Chula Vista Elementary School District, he ran to unseat one of his fellow board members, who was also a fellow Democrat, last November — and won.

During Tamayo’s campaign, Jason Romero, assistant superintendent of human resources for the district, pushed Martinez and another district employee to throw a fundraiser for Tamayo as part of their district duties, Martinez says.

The fundraiser was also to help Cesar Fernandez, a board member running for the Chula Vista City Council at the time.

Martinez said he understood that assisting with the fundraiser was not only essential to his day job, but also his future in the district.

“It was pretty much direct orders,” Martinez said of putting on the fundraiser.

Romero also instructed Martinez to use his district rolodex. He told Martinez to make sure as many potential vendors for the district showed up to the fundraiser as possible, Martinez said.

Romero met with Martinez and the other employee during work hours in Romero’s district office as well, Martinez said.

Romero did say a meeting occurred in his office, which consisted primarily of youth sports coaches, but said he did not attend it.

Romero regularly texted Martinez and the other employee — who did not respond to a request for comment — about the fundraiser, including during business hours.

“We need to have 70 – 100 people tomorrow,” Romero wrote in a group chat. “Make sure this happens. We can’t fail tomorrow or are (sic) plans are [poop emoji.]”

On another occasion he texted: “This event can’t fail we need 80 – 100 people there.”

By “plans,” Martinez said Romero meant the plan to get Tamayo elected to fellow Democrat Kate Bishop’s board seat.

Bishop had at times not gone along with the other Democrats on the five-person board, Tamayo, Fernandez and Lucy Ugarte. Especially on queer issues, Bishop had been an irritant — pushing for a progressive stance in a majority-Latino district, where many people did not share the same social values.

Fernandez, who was running for City Council, said that Romero, Martinez and the other employee were connected through youth sports. It was his understanding that they were trying to rally their network of sports families to take part in the campaign — rather than being forced to fundraise for politicians on the district’s time.

He said the only discussion about the fundraiser he took part in occurred on a weekend over coffee. He saw no problem with it, as he himself often advocates for youth sports, he said.

“If any of this was happening during work time, that’s a cause for concern,” Fernandez said.

Romero, through the district spokesperson, denied having pushed Martinez and the other employee to work on the fundraiser on company time. Any suggestion otherwise would be “misleading to the public,” Castro wrote in an email.

Romero also texted the group chat looking for addresses where candidate signs could be placed.

“Candidate signs are here. We need 75 addresses for people to have signs at their house,” he wrote. “Reach out to your people and send me addresses.”

**

After Reyes pulled the item that would have awarded W2W the playground contract, Martinez’s career came crashing down.

Days later, Reyes called Martinez into his office. A human resources employee was there taking notes. Reyes asked Martinez if he had any personal connection to W2W. Martinez said he didn’t. Reyes, nonetheless, placed him on paid administrative leave.

Martinez ultimately decided to resign. He could see his values and ethics no longer matched those of Reyes and Romero, he said. He also resigned, he said, so that he would not be faced with a deal in which he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

District officials said there is other information in Martinez’s personnel file they would like to share with Voice. They insisted multiple times that Martinez waive any privacy rights associated with the file, so they could discuss it.

Martinez said he had nothing to hide and that he would be happy for Voice to see what was in his file, after he himself had seen it. He said he wrote a letter to the district in February, asking for any evidence against him – and provided Voice a copy of the letter.

At the time of publication, the district had still not provided Martinez with the contents of his file, he said.

“The district remains committed to transparency and accountability in all of its programs and activities,” wrote Castro, the district spokesperson. “Although the timing of the employee’s resignation and his allegations against various individuals in the district are highly suspect; the district will nevertheless be thoroughly investigating each assertion raised.”

The statement also read: “The Chula Vista Elementary School District is committed to the highest ethical standards and ensuring compliance with all legal requirements.”

The post Chula Vista School District and Former COO Trade Corruption Allegations appeared first on Voice of San Diego.