San Diego Magazine this month lists voiceofsandiego.org editors Scott Lewis and Andrew Donohue in its "The Powers to Be" feature story on San Diego's young leaders.
Here's what it says:
The Christian Science Monitor called voiceofsandiego.org "a ray of hope for a troubled industry." Under the leadership of these two editors, the nonprofit online news site is growing while traditional newspapers are shrinking. For the Web site, which is funded by donations, growth means a jump from two staffers to 11. But Voice of San Diego is making an impact with an emphasis on politics and government -- and lots of scoops. In the past year, they've doubled their monthly page views to 1.2 million; they've increased funding with a number of large grants from prominent people; and they've partnered with NBC 7/39. "As a nonprofit, we aren't looking to make money; we're looking to educate, enlighten and sometimes entertain the city every day," says Donohue, 30; Lewis is 32. "We're really proud of where we are," says Donohue. "And where we're going."
Friday, November 21 -- 4:03 pm
I've been calling San Diego City Council members over past day or so to get a sense of where they stand on Mayor Jerry Sanders' proposal to close libraries and recreation centers, reduce the number of fire crews in the city and cut back police and fire academies. These are all crucial parts of a sweeping package of cuts Sanders proposed to close a $43 million midyear budget gap.
I haven't been able to reach everyone. But based on my conversations with four council members, and comments from Council President Scott Peters' spokeswoman, it's looking like the libraries and recreation centers will be saved. The lawmakers I spoke to did not seem as steadfast on denying the mayor his cuts to public safety, but I would count on at least some revisions to his proposal. There are eight council members and it takes five votes to approve a measure.
Here is a rundown of the council members I spoke to, and their comments.
Councilman Kevin Faulconer: "We have to find options other than closing down libraries and recreation centers. They are both very important. People are passionate about libraries, it’s a core service."
Regarding public safety, Faulconer said: "I am very concerned about emergency response times. I think we need to do everything we can to find other cuts and solutions."
Councilwoman Toni Atkins: "I do think [library and recreation center] hours will have to be reduced. But I do not want to close, entirely, rec centers or libraries."
On public safety, Atkins said: "If you cut the academies for longer than two years, we will run into the same problem we had two years ago." (In 2006, the city declared a police officer recruitment and retention crisis.)
Councilwoman Donna Frye: "No. I do not want to shut down libraries and rec centers. I truly believe that once they shut them down, that is pretty much it. I'm not convinced they will re-open. There are other solutions other than what has been presented. For once, I saw a little bit of a pushback, instead of just rubber stamping what the mayor wants."
Councilman Tony Young: "We need to struggle, scratch, fight to keep those facilities open. There is a much bigger picture here -- how it affects communities. There is about $30 million in various funds that we can tap into."
On public safety, Young said he tries "to put trust in law enforcement personnel. I'm cautious about saying public safety people don't know what they are talking about. They are putting their professional expertise on the line by saying there would be no impact."
Michelle Gannon, spokeswoman for Peters, said he "is not in favor of closing libraries."
Friday, November 21 -- 2:02 pm
Here's a fascinating tidbit I just didn't have space to fit into my story today about shoplifting:
Jose Limon, who used to head up loss prevention for Albertsons in San Diego and is now doing a thesis in organized shoplifting at San Diego State University, told me that the first day a supermarket opens is a bit of a free-for-all for shoplifters.
Here's why: Limon, who said he opened four stores in San Diego County for Albertsons, said that on a supermarket's opening day, it is absolutely vital for the chain to give a good impression to local people. As a result, he said, loss prevention officers and other employees at the stores are given strict orders not to cause any scenes that could sully the store's reputation on opening day.
That means not confronting shoplifters, even if they're blatantly just walking in, loading up, and walking out again. The scenes that often result from confronting suspected shoplifters are exactly what a company wants to avoid as it tries to cement its reputation in a community, he said.
"Usually, we'll say, like 'Do you need help with that liquor bottle in your bag? Do you need help paying for it? I can help direct you.' But they don't want any of that on that first day, because usually they'll have newscasters, they have the Chamber of Commerce there, so they don't want anything to happen that day," Limon told me.
Compounding the problem on opening day is that stores often want to put on their best face, so they stock the store with all sorts of fancy merchandise which, for one day at least, they don't lock behind glass cabinets, Limon said.
So, Limon said, word gets around that there's a new store opening, and shoplifters show up on opening day looking for a real bargain. Like the guy who Limon said showed up one opening day and swiped four $100-plus bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne, then went to the meat counter and loaded up on expensive rib-eye steaks before strolling out of the door of the supermarket.
That guy, who Limon said loaded up about $1,000 worth of merchandise, proved too much for one member of staff who, against all the rules, confronted him and he ran away. Limon said the employee who did the confronting probably got in serious trouble from his manager.
That brings me to another fascinating point that I couldn't squeeze into my story. Mike Hayden, who's worked in loss prevention at stores for more than 24 years and who worked for almost a decade at Longs Drugs, said that despite corporate policies, many store employees can't just sit back and watch as people steal from their stores.
At many of the large grocery stores, Hayden said, shoplifters target more expensive items than the typical "grab and go" shoplifter, who's normally just trying to grab a case of beer or a bottle of liquor. Shoplifters at large chains often load up with goods that are small but expensive like razors and baby formula, before making a run for it, he said.
Despite stores having strict policies that order staff to stand back and not to confront shoplifters, Hayden said, in the real world, adrenaline sometimes kicks in.
"There's not a manager in the world that's going to stand back and watch someone wheel $1,000 worth of baby formula out the door," Hayden said.
Hayden claimed that while stores have these strict policies, in reality store managers are often grateful to employees who are brave, or stupid, enough to confront shoplifters.
"Sure, they might write the employee up, but they'll be giving him a pat on the back at the same time," Hayden said.
Friday, November 21 -- 11:43 am
A draft audit of San Diego Unified gave the school district a clean bill of health, with only six problems noted. That is an improvement over the last audit, which noted 13 problems, all but one of which have now been addressed, according to auditors.
Among its findings:
Associated Student Body funds are poorly monitored and documented, and though no fraud was detected, the lack of adequate minutes for student councils and documentation of receipts and deposits could make it vulnerable to financial foul play.Schools sometimes purchase goods or services without filling out a purchase order, creating a risk that goods could be ordered twice or the expense might not show up on the budget.Staffers are misreporting attendance numbers for a state program that allows schools to get attendance funding for students on short-term or temporary independent study, claiming more than 5,000 days of student attendance improperly, or a total of $262,196 in funding. (There were no problems noted with long-term independent study.) That is an error rate of 25 percent. Auditors chalked up the problem to inadequate training for staffers and a lack of monitoring of short-term independent study contracts.One audit finding recurred from last year to this year: Employees are occasionally overpaid, partially due to a system that allows them to be compensated in advance. One of the recommended solutions, changing the pay cycle so that payments do not start until an employee is working, would require bargaining with employee unions. Friday, November 21 -- 11:43 am San Diego Unified just scored a $125,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation to develop programs that link schoolwork to the workplace, but also prepare them for college.
The grant hinges on an idea called "multiple pathways," which poses that career technical education, once known as vocational education, can and should coexist with rigorous academic programs. In the past, career technical education was stigmatized as an alternate and lesser path than college, and sometimes was cordoned off from the general academic program, leaving its graduates unprepared for the California university system. Multiple pathways are meant to engage students in their academic work by linking it explicitly to their career studies, increasing student interest and curtailing dropouts.
Gary Hoachlander, president of the California Center for College and Career, which was founded through Irvine Foundation money, said that schools should "prepare students for college and career, no longer one or the other."
"That is hard to do," he admitted in a speech to San Diego Unified staffers Thursday.
Superintendent Terry Grier applauded the idea, and recounted the story of a Tennessee student who received a scholarship and aced her Advanced Placement courses and exams, but said her favorite classes were welding and agricultural science, and later studied to be a veterinarian.
"You don't always have to go down one track or another track," Grier said.
Virginia Eves, director of the Office of College, Career and Technical Education, said the district is still determining how to use the money. San Diego Unified already runs a number of career technical programs, from construction technology at one of the schools-within-a-school at Kearny High to environmental sciences at another small high school in San Diego High. Eves said the group could help develop new career pathways and expand access to existing programs, so that a wide range of career programs are available to students in all areas of the city.
Friday, November 21 -- 9:41 am Doug McCalla announced today his retirement as chief investment officer of the city of San Diego's pension fund.
The fund has been back in the news in recent weeks as the its deficit has more than doubled to an estimated $2.78 billion in the wake of the global economic meltdown and the city's financial struggles.
From a release put out by the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System:
"I believe this is a particularly opportune time for a leadership transition in the Investment Division, despite this last year of distress in the financial markets. In preparation for my retirement, I have hired and trained an outstanding team of four investment professionals. Therefore, I will be departing SDCERS with the confidence that our Administrator/CEO, Trustees and exceptionally well-qualified investment team will continue the SDCERS tradition of seeking and achieving superior risk-adjusted returns on behalf of our valued participants and plan sponsors," said McCalla.
Mr. McCalla began his association with SDCERS in January of 1989 as an elected trustee representing the general employees and served on the Investment Committee. He joined SDCERS staff in September of 1991 as its sole investment professional after over 22 years as a city employee in the Park and Recreation, Personnel, Risk Management and Financial Management departments. Under Mr. McCalla's guidance and leadership, SDCERS' investment program, has ranked in the top 6th percentile compared to other public pension plans for both ten year and 19 1/2 year periods ending September 30, 2008.
Thursday, November 20 -- 3:55 pm Forbes.com published an interesting commentary today on the small high schools that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation created across the country -- including in San Diego Unified, where one such school is trying to secede from the school district as an independent charter school. The efficacy and affordability of small high schools has come under fire as budget cuts bear down on San Diego Unified.
Its author, Diane Ravitch, chronicles the schools-within-a-school movement, its promises, and its pitfalls on a national scale. This month the Gates Foundation said that the smaller schools "had not fulfilled their promise," Ravitch wrote, acknowledging that there were not dramatic improvements in college preparation.
The bad news about the Gates' initiative began to accumulate in 2005, when a Gates-funded study by the American Institutes for Research showed that students in traditional, comprehensive high schools were learning more mathematics than those in the Gates' small schools. ... Then in 2006, additional research commissioned by the foundation concluded that the Gates-funded small schools had "higher attendance rates but lower test scores" than other high schools within the same school districts in both reading and mathematics.
We must give the Gates Foundation and its founders credit for their honest self-scrutiny. Most proponents of education reform defend their ideas against all critics, regardless of what evaluations show.
Thursday, November 20 -- 10:21 am
The Centre City Development Corp. today unanimously approved a new policy that will require its next president to submit to a rigorous forensic financial analysis of his or her financial interests.
State law already requires such potential conflicts to be disclosed. CCDC, though, will become one of the country's first agencies to audit those disclosures to ensure they're accurate and complete.
The scrutiny only applies to one person -- whoever is president. While the new requirement will keep CCDC's top official from turning in incomplete forms, it won't stop other employees or board members from doing it. The change comes four months after CCDC's former president, Nancy Graham, resigned amidst questions about her financial relationships and disclosures.
I asked CCDC chairman Fred Maas why the board didn't require the same disclosure of any other staff members or board members. He said it was because of privacy concerns.
CCDC can require its president to make the disclosures as a condition of employment -- allowing the agency to keep any bank statements or tax returns secret and exempt from the state's open-records law.
But that same exception wouldn't apply to volunteer board members, Maas said.
Maas said he was willing to submit to such an audit, but did not want his bank records to become public.
"I don’t think with all due respect that I have an obligation to open up my financial records to Ian Trowbridge," Maas said, referring to the activist.
Maas said CCDC's next president would have to deal with the fallout from Graham's departure. Because of that, the person's integrity should be "unassailable," Maas said.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 6:06 pm
No salary increases and no bonuses for the Centre City Development Corp.'s 55 employees this year.
Though the City Council had budgeted 3 percent raises for CCDC employees -- $135,000 altogether -- and another $120,000 in incentive bonuses, the agency will not spend the money.
Agency chairman Fred Maas said the agency will also cut travel allowances for its board members, who have often attended Urban Land Institute conferences.
"Given the state of economic affairs of the city, I don’t think we can be considering raises and bonuses," Maas said. "It's the right thing to do."
Maas said he aimed to cut CCDC's $9.9 million administrative budget by 10 percent but wasn't yet sure where the rest of the money would be trimmed. The salary and bonus freezes will save $250,000; the agency would have to find another $740,000 somewhere. Maas said CCDC should first look at its expenses for consultants.
CCDC is also likely to fully repay the city's $11.3 million annual debt payment it owes on the money it borrowed to build Petco Park. It was previously supposed to pay $7.5 million this year after paying $5 million last year.
Councilwoman Donna Frye, activist Mel Shapiro and others have long advocated for CCDC to pick up the city's tab for the ballpark, as doing so frees up funds for the cash-strapped city to spend elsewhere.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 5:23 pm David Wescoe, the administrator of the city of San Diego's pension fund, showed up at today's City Council budget hearing and said there is no reason to panic over the staggering stock market losses suffered by the city's pension fund in recent months.
Quoting uber-investor Warren Buffett, Wescoe said: "Over the long term, the stock market news will be good." He went on to say that the city should avoid short-term mistakes "based on panic and fear."
Wescoe disclosed that the pension fund had lost 10.8 percent year-to-date as of Sept. 30, and said that if the market does not come back, it will be "bad for us -- and I don't want to sugarcoat it."
Then, knowing that City Attorney Michael Aguirre would talk next on the pension deficit, Wescoe said the data Aguirre would present is "not good data," and disseminating that data is "irresponsible."
Then it was Aguirre's turn. He displayed charts showing the city's contributions to the pension system since 2005, and $600 million in losses the fund has suffered since June 30.
"We have a pension system that is sucking all the resources out of our city," Aguirre said. He went on to cite the fund's estimated $2.78 billion deficit, a figure that has more than doubled in the past year.
Aguirre concluded by again advocating that the city consider bankruptcy. "If you go into reorganization, you don't cut libraries, you don't cut essential services," he said.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 5:29 pm
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders made it clear right off the bat at the budget hearing going on now that he is not happy with Independent Budget Analyst Andrea Tevlin's recommendation to put off his proposal to close libraries and recreation centers in the face of a $43 million budget hole.
"I recommend immediate action, she recommends procrastination," Sanders said. He added that every week that the City Council does not act on his proposals costs the city $330,000.
Sanders proposed that seven libraries, nine recreation centers and one gym be closed along with a myriad of other cuts. He has received significant pushback from city residents and City Council members on the closures.
On Monday, Tevlin recommended that San Diego City Council vote to keep libraries and recreation centers open at least until the city does a comprehensive review of all its facilities.
Today, Tevlin said that she agrees with all but about $2 million of Sanders' proposed cuts, but does not want to see libraries and recreation centers closed on a "piecemeal" basis.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 3:14 pm
School board member Mitz Lee just informed me that San Diego Unified will continue to grant physical education credit for Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps and for marching band, despite a new state law that requires all physical education classes to be taught by staffers with physical education credentials. Board president Katherine Nakamura has complained that the law could dissuade students from taking marching band and JROTC, potentially crippling the programs. Lee said that the board voted unanimously this morning to keep granting credit for the classes and fight the law.
"We are going to fight and go up to Sacramento and say, 'This is our interim solution, and we are not going to change it,'" Lee said. "But the community and the board has to be proactive in Sacramento."
Wednesday, November 19 -- 2:28 pm
The San Diego County Regional Fire Authority, a fire department that will cover almost 1 million unincorporated acres in the county, is now officially open, according to the Local Agency Formation Commission, which approved the creation of the body last year.
The creation of the authority marks the first step in a years-long effort to merge several dozen smaller fire departments that are mainly in the rural east and north of the county. The county Board of Supervisors has pledged $15.5 million annually to fund the agency, which will be run by the county.
"The San Diego County Regional Fire Authority is now in full force and effect," LAFCO Executive Officer Michael Ott said in a press release. "This marks the culmination of five years of diligent and collaborative work by LAFCO, public safety officials, policy makers and members of the public."
(I touched on the creation of the Regional Fire Authority in this Q&A with Augie Ghio, fire chief of the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District, one of the county’s largest rural firefighting districts.)
The new agency is not to be confused with what would have come about with Proposition A, which narrowly failed at the polls on Nov. 4. Proposition A would have created, in one swoop, a countywide fire department. What LAFCO has been doing, spurred on by county Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who has pushed the integration of fire services, represents a more incremental approach to merging the county's hodgepodge of rural fire departments.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 2:11 pm
In about an hour, San Diego City Council will hold a second hearing on Mayor Jerry Sanders' proposed budget cuts. This gives us just enough time for a deadline post of more reader budget suggestions.
As usual, most have to do with libraries. Here it goes:
Charge to reserve books and other library materials. Apparently, this was done in the past. "Let's say each branch has 20 reserves a day at $1 each at 300 days a year at 30 branches -- that's $180,000," said freelance writer Randy Dotinga. "Why not make it $2? That's $360,000."
Dotinga has more:
Increase fines for overdue books.
Charge a modest fee for internet usage. "Let's say you had six customers an hour for seven hours at each branch," Dotinga said. "That's $84. Thirty branches times $84 a day, times 300 days is $756,000."
Self check-out machines. "I think the Chula Vista library has this," Dotinga said. "Why don't the SD libraries?"
My colleague Emily Alpert had this question:
Could we consolidate the libraries in San Diego Unified -- some of which are brand-new facilities built under Proposition MM -- with city libraries? It might take some logistical work to keep the kiddies and the public separate, but one of the big complaints in the school district is that budget cuts are threatening to leave those beautiful new libraries unstaffed. Why not join forces?"
And finally, some thoughts from reader Joe Silverman:
My suggestion is more along the lines of a budget cutting strategy. I have some 50 years of bureaucratic experience in municipal, state and federal government. Although the details are different the budget process is generic. Typically, budget cuts are made by people at the top or by analysts directed by those people. Not surprisingly, the deepest cuts are made at the bottom, where the labor costs are cheapest and where the labor interfaces most directly with the public. So, a more rational reduction strategy would introduce cuts where the payoff is greatest (toward the top of the hierarchy). This has the advantage of saving more money while affecting fewer employees, and while still enabling a close connection of government employees with the public. So, for example, how many Rec Leaders = one P&R manager?
See you at the hearing.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 12:57 pm
San Diego Unified is threatened with a roughly $40 million budget cut this school year under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to winnow $2.2 billion from California schools in the middle of the year, district staffers told the school board today. The cuts could include reductions in childcare programs, principal training, class size reduction funding, and the elimination of cost-of-living increases.
Potential solutions floated by San Diego Unified to plug the budget gap include changing bell schedules, cutting more employees in the central office, paying less from their general fund into building maintenance, and closing under-enrolled schools. Many potential fixes would require negotiating with the teachers union, such as reducing pay for substitute teachers, cutting preparation time for teachers, making classes larger, offering a bonus to goad employees to retire earlier, and rolling back salaries across the school district.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 12:27 pm
The Centre City Development Corp.'s board will consider at 1 p.m. whether to require its next top executive to submit to a rigorous financial audit to ensure that whoever is chosen to replace its former president does not repeat her mistakes.
Nancy Graham, CCDC's former president, resigned in July and now faces criminal charges stemming from her failure to disclose $125,000 in income from developers with business pending downtown. She admitted receiving the money in 2007 while testifying under oath in a Florida court deposition, but didn't disclose it when filling out her annual conflict-of-interest forms at the city. Those forms are reviewed when they're turned in to make sure, for example, that they've been signed. But they are not audited.
If the board of CCDC, the city's downtown redevelopment agency, decides to approve the measure when it meets this afternoon, it would be one of the only local governmental bodies in the country to require such scrutiny.
But the scrutiny only applies to one person -- whoever is president. While the new requirement will keep CCDC's top official from turning in incomplete forms, it won't stop other employees or board members from doing it.
The recommendation stems from a review of CCDC's conflict-of-interest and ethics policies launched in the wake of Graham's problems. It comes from Bob Stern, the president of the nonpartisan, Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, whom CCDC hired for $50,000 to examine the agency's internal policies.
While Stern recommended the audit for the agency president, he didn't recommend it for CCDC's board members or any other senior staffers. All of them are required to disclose their economic interests on forms that aren't audited. Stern said he did not recommend auditing board members because it would dissuade people from volunteering for the posts.
The San Diego Ethics Commission has considered whether it should randomly audit disclosures, though it has delayed that discussion until next year.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 11:44 am Alex Kajitani, the Escondido teacher who was recently honored as one of five California Teachers of the Year by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, has now been selected as the sole California teacher to vie for the National Teacher of the Year. The winner will be selected by a panel convened by the Council of Chief State School Officers, according to O'Connell's press release.
Kajitani uses music to engage students in mathematics, earning him the nickname "The Rappin' Mathematician." O'Connell included a snippet from Kajitani's application in his press release on the nomination. Kajitani wrote:
No subject, especially the mathematics that I teach, can be truly learned if the students do not see the relevance of the information in their everyday lives. I am constantly looking for ways to 'meet them where they live.' On any given day, I am weaving lessons about the math the students are learning with issues important to them, such as advertising, the Internet, and popular music. Never will a student leave my class thinking that they will not use the information we have discussed.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 11:09 am
You might be curious about just how much time it takes for those San Diego Unified tests I wrote about last week. Many teachers have complained about the time consumed by district-required testing, while testing advocates have countered that the benefits of using data in the classroom are worth the time. But how much time are we actually talking?
Director of Assessment Services Erin Gordon sent me two handy charts with each assessment and how long it takes. Most take roughly 55 minutes, or one class period. The exceptions are the state tests, which take between 45 minutes (for the California Alternate Performance Assessment) and six and a half hours (for the high school exit exam). The shortest test is the Modified Sam Jr., a mathematics screening test required by San Diego Unified that takes only five minutes.
Most can be given to all students at once. A notable exception is a kindergarten reading and writing assessment. It takes only 15 to 20 minutes, but it must be given to each child one on one, adding up to 300 to 400 minutes for a class of 20 kids.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 8:19 am The North County Times today laid off 25 newsroom staffers -- a significant reduction of about 25 percent in its news staff. Nine other employees were laid off companywide, constituting about a 10 percent overall reduction in staff size.
It's the third time the Times has cut its staff this year.
The Times lost 16 newsroom employees in February as part of a voluntary buyout plan. It cut another 10 people in September, including one from the newsroom. Combining all the cuts, the newspaper's editorial staff has been trimmed almost a third this year.
Editor Kent Davy said the cuts were not made throughout the newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises, the Times' publicly traded parent company, which posted a severe profit decline last week. Davy said the layoffs were a result of the "general market and advertising market."
Lee Enterprises, an Iowa-based company, has seen its stock value battered in recent years as it has continued posting declines in advertising revenue. The company, which owns the Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 48 other daily papers across the country, was valued by stockholders at $2 billion in 2004. Today, all of its stock is worth $68 million.
The laid-off employees will receive severance packages, though Davy would not comment on what they include. Davy said he remained hopeful about his newspaper's future.
"The newsroom in this paper is composed of extraordinarily fine people, both those who we had to say goodbye to today, but also those who remain," he said. "I have every confidence we can continue to build a fine newspaper here. This is an extraordinarily painful day. One we're sad about. But I'm confident we will rebound. This paper has a future in San Diego and North County."
Update: The original version of this post incorrectly stated that Lee Enteprises posted a loss last week. The post has been updated to reflect a profit decline.
Wednesday, November 19 -- 12:04 pm I can't help but posting a funny coincidence:
Today at the City Council meeting there was a presentation on the implementation of automated external defibrillators. One of the presenters was Maureen O'Connor, but not that Maureen O'Connor, the former mayor of San Diego. This O'Connor was the project coordinator for San Diego Project Heart Beat, the AED program being discussed today.
And then, a man stood up to comment and lend his support for the program.
His name: Jerry Sanders. (He was quick to point out that he is not the current mayor of San Diego.)
Tuesday, November 18 -- 6:47 pm
The San Diego Unified school board approved a proposal Tuesday night to hire an outside group to help craft evaluation criteria and procedures for school principals, despite complaints about its cost and objections from the principals association.
The proposal to craft new ways to evaluate principals gained more poignancy on the heels of a San Diego Unified report that found the district delinquent in evaluating its principals and administrators. Evaluating staffers has proved thorny in the past: San Diego Unified has twice fended off lawsuits in recent years about improper firings or evaluations of principals, said school board president Katherine Nakamura, who estimated that some administrators had not been evaluated in over a decade.
Superintendent Terry Grier attributed the problem to vague language in the school district agreement with principals that made it unclear how to evaluate principals without avoiding legal peril, and said those agreements need to be renegotiated. Grier said the $250,000 contract with a Colorado-based group would help solve the problem.
"In the long run, if you want us to hold principals accountable," Grier said, "... there has to be a different instrument."
Several stakeholders found the $250,000 contract objectionable in light of the budget crisis looming ahead for San Diego Unified. Administrators Association Executive Director Jeannie Steeg said that the amount was excessive, even though a new evaluation system was "desperately needed." Her comments were echoed by school board member Shelia Jackson, who called the proposal "irresponsible" and insulting to district staffers who Jackson believed could do the same work at a lesser expense.
Grier countered that the firm was expert and the contract was worthwhile, saying, "This amount of money is a bargain." He also reassured the board that he and the firm would work collaboratively with the Administrators Association to hash out a common agreement.
The report on principal evaluation was produced as part of the coherent governance system that the San Diego Unified school board adopted this year. That system became best known for a short provision that barred board members from publicly criticizing the superintendent or his staff, and Nakamura has lamented that the policy overshadowed the larger system of internal monitoring that included the periodic reports on how San Diego Unified is functioning -- or malfunctioning.
"This coherent governance policy is really a roadmap to better accountability in our public schools," said school board member Mitz Lee, noting that the human resources department identified its own deficiencies. "That to me is very courageous."
Board members John de Beck and Jackson attempted to delay the motion, but were overruled.
Tuesday, November 18 -- 6:35 pm San Diego Gas & Electric got a boost today in its push to build the Sunrise Powerlink, a $1.9 billion power line proposed to connect San Diego and Imperial counties.
Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, offered a third alternative for his four fellow commissioners to consider when they discuss the proposal Dec. 18.
Peevey's proposal would allow SDG&E to build the Powerlink without any condition that the line be required to deliver green energy to San Diego.
The proposal points to a southern route that avoids Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and communities such as Julian and Santa Ysabel. It is now the power line's most likely path if it receives approval and would parallel the existing Southwest Power Link, the region's other major high-voltage transmission line, for 36 miles in Imperial County and far eastern San Diego County, turn north near the In-Ko-Pah mountain range, avoid the Campo Indian Reservation, turn south and loop around the Hauser Wilderness, sweeping north again to follow Interstate 8.
SDG&E had previously said the only viable route was one that bisected the park and ran through northern San Diego County.
Peevey's proposal is a win for SDG&E, which had been battered by the two other decisions proposed to date. When the CPUC discusses whether the power line gets built -- they're the state regulatory agency that decides whether it's a worthwhile project -- they will be able to choose Peevey's decision or one of the two others.
The decisions issued earlier had pummeled SDG&E's case for the power line. One proposal, issued by an administrative judge, said the project should be discarded altogether. The other, by Commissioner Dian Grueneich, said the line should be built only if SDG&E agrees to use it to deliver green power to San Diego.
SDG&E has said the line is needed to spur renewable energy development in Imperial County. Grueneich said without a green-energy guarantee, its construction would do more to exacerbate climate change and boost coal-fired power plant development.
Peevey said such a guarantee isn't needed. "Should SDG&E deviate from the stated purposes of Sunrise -- especially with respect to the development of renewable resources -- we shall not hesitate to bring forth appropriate sanctions," Peevey wrote in his 311-page decision.
Peevey wrote that the commission's existing regulations would be sufficient to encourage renewable development.
But those regulations haven't done so to date. SDG&E is lagging behind the state's other two utilities in its efforts to deliver a required 20 percent of its electricity from green sources by 2010 and has admitted it won't meet that target. It blames the failure on delays in the Sunrise Powerlink's regulatory approval process.
If SDG&E doesn't meet those renewable energy goals, it could be subjected to a $25 million annual penalty, though the CPUC has the discretion to not enforce the fine.
So for those keeping score, of the five members of the CPUC, one thinks the line should be built with green-energy conditions, one thinks it should be built without them, and three others are undecided.
Tuesday, November 18 -- 5:47 pm
Today the San Diego Unified school board will consider a year-long $250,000 contract with an outside firm to develop new ways to evaluate principals. Under the leadership of Superintendent Terry Grier, the district has already started using a new method to interview principals, also from an outside company. It is one of several contracts up for approval by the San Diego Unified board that could fall under a ban on spending and contracting proposed by board member Shelia Jackson.
Tuesday, November 18 -- 3:47 pm
Independent Budget Analyst Andrea Tevlin is recommending that San Diego City Council vote to keep libraries and recreation centers open at least until the city does a comprehensive review of all its facilities. A total of seven libraries and nine recreation centers are slated for closure as part of a package of midyear budget cuts that Mayor Jerry Sanders has proposed to close a $43 million budget deficit.
Tevlin's recommendations regarding the libraries and recreation centers were among several she issued yesterday in preparation for another council hearing slated for tomorrow on the cuts.
Tevlin also recommends the following:
The city consider using money from its library improvement fund help close the gap. The fund, which was established to cover future library expansion costs, currently has $5.3 million available, Tevlin said.
Sanders' proposal to reduce, on a rotating basis, the number of fire crews on duty during a given day be identified as a "temporary" solution through the end of the current fiscal year; and that reductions in police and fire academy classes be identified as "temporary" through fiscal 2010, which begins June 30, 2009.
The city institute a mandatory furlough for city employees for the remainder of the current fiscal year and fiscal 2010. Tevlin estimates that the city could save up to $2 million if a furlough program were put in place in the current year. City Chief Operating Officer Jay Goldstone has said the city already has a voluntary furlough program, and the savings would likely be less than $2 million because employees would no longer voluntarily go on furlough if a mandatory program was implemented.
Sanders consider an across-the-board user fee increase in the current year. On an annual basis, Tevlin estimates that a 3 percent-to-5 percent increase would generate between $1 million and $2 million.
Save the city's junior lifeguard program by increasing the fee so it covers the entire salary of the manager who oversees the program.
Tuesday, November 18 -- 2:53 pm Federal prosecutors have opened a grand jury investigation in the wake of the Southeastern Economic Development Corp.'s bonus scandal, subpoenaing computers and the public agency's computer server.
Subpoenas obtained today from SEDC indicate that federal prosecutors from Washington, D.C., requested computers as part of a grand jury proceeding. It appears that the prosecutors have requested computers used by specific individuals, although the names of the individuals have been redacted.
A voiceofsandiego.org investigation in July revealed a clandestine system of bonuses at the public agency that paid employees more than $1 million over five years. Agency documents revealed that over the past five years, former President Carolyn Y. Smith received more than $293,000 in the extra payments. Finance Director Dante Dayacap, her top deputy, received more than $195,000 over those five years. He has since left the agency.
Smith, who oversaw the bonus system without board or City Council oversight, was fired after the program was uncovered.
We've previously reported that FBI agents had interviewed at least two SEDC board members and seized agency computers.
The subpoenas obtained today confirm the involvement of prosecutors from the Department of Justice and the existence of a grand jury, which must ultimately approve or reject criminal charges sought by prosecutors.
Tuesday, November 18 -- 1:40 pm San Diego's City Council today voted to approve two water-rate increases, including a temporary hike that will fund a pilot study of sewage recycling.
The temporary increase, approved by 5-3 vote, will boost an average household's monthly bills by $1.12 and stay in effect for 18 months. The increase would raise $10.7 million needed to fund the pilot study, which is expected to take two years and begin in early 2009. Councilmen Kevin Faulconer, Tony Young and Brian Maienschein voted no.
Sewage recycling, a technology used in Orange County, purifies sewage to boost drinking-water reserves. Orange County recharges an underwater aquifer; San Diego would refill San Vicente Reservoir.
The council unanimously approved a separate rate increase that will cover increased costs being passed through by the San Diego County Water Authority, the region's wholesaler. It will increase an average user's bill another $3.31 a month.
Tuesday, November 18 -- 1:19 pm I'm back again with more reader-generated budget cut ideas. I received a detailed list of ideas/comments from a reader who is particularly well-versed on how the city operates, and wants to remain anonymous -- we'll call this person "Deep Budget."
Most of Deep Budget's suggestions focus on public safety, but they also encompass several other departments. Here they are, broken down by category.
Lifeguard Services:
Cliff Rescue Unit. It is redundant -- Fire Rescue Operations is qualified for 24 hour response. Lifeguards are called during the day. Fire Rescue Operations is available during those hours.
River Rescue Unit -- It is redundant. This service exists elsewhere. The Unit ends up patrolling the San Diego River and Tijuana River a couple of times a year. They spend a lot of money each year to send a team out of state for training.
Boating Safety Unit -- Give it back to Harbor Police -- from where it came. The current Lifeguard Chief came from Harbor Police when they took them off Mission Bay. They are still on San Diego Bay.
Fire and Lifeguard -- Span of Control. The Chief has a span of control of one captain. The captain position is relatively new. Either the Chief position or the captain position needs to go. With the Junior Lifeguard Program ending, one of the Lts. Positions can go too. The civilian manager position was hired to do the Lts. Job. I think they have a lifeguard acting as their budget analyst -- quite a struggle of loyalty.
Lifeguard Services -- Beach Bars and Mooring -- These are not cost recoverable programs. When is the last time someone took a look at the fees? Where else can you store a boat on the bay for $99 a year? The cost and administration of printing decals every year and fielding a million calls is something private sector can do.
Fire:
Fire Staffing at the Convention Center -- The Fire "marshal" assigned to the Convention Center is not cost recoverable. The Center gets free permits and does not pay required overtime per Local 145 requirements. The Convention Center uses political pressure to bend rules and regulations on interior building and activities.
Park and Recreation:
How much money is budgeted for each pool? The pools up north are beautiful with play areas blah blah blah -- it takes about 10 guards to (staff) them during the summer yet it cost a kid the same entry fee to go to a tiny pool at Colina De Sol with less open hours and maybe two guards. No one has been able to get the pool budgets out of Park and Rec. The individual budgets can be submitted. They will say the pools are older so they take more maintenance money. Show us. Where is the transparent budget?
Miscellaneous:
Community Service Centers -- The original purpose for center centers was to take government to the people. However, after great fanfare and expanding the centers every year, it never happened. Departments were supposed to site code enforcement, and EOCP, and Grafitti and Police reps, and Engineering and Planning officials. They would report to the Center Manager. The departments would not give up the power over employees so it never happened. The managers were not funded and so still had to perform there old job at a host department plus run the Centers. There was supposed to be time to work with the community to help them through the City morass. But they ended up doing the work themselves not the manager level work they were hired for. The Director is responsible for that -- a new-hire of Jerry’s Customer Services Department became -- a training program for Nordstrom’s -- she never understood the program was to help people become more knowledgeable with government not just make them happy. What a waste of time and money.
Stop building the Phase III of the Convention Center. Just stop. [Do an] audit NOW of what they are doing, how they are doing it, payment structures, contracts and how this affects the city. The Convention Center is public property. They are subject to paying the living wage and all of the other regulations regarding building, activities and permitting and paying City staff as anyone else.
Management Analysts -- Individual Departments -- Staffing management (budget) analysts both at the individual departments and divisions as well as Financial Management is redundant. It used to be fun -- when there was money. A game really -- a department analyst with loyalty to their department and FM analysts to thwart them. Department analysts would look for ways to get staffing and funds past the FM analyst. Every year, there would be a new strategy from FM to frustrate the department analyst -- zero-based budgeting, performance measures, blah blah blah. Busy work. This luxury is no longer affordable. Analysts should be beholden to FM not individual departments. Plus, there is no reason to have a Senior Management Analyst classification. Supervising Analysts should be unclassified positions.
Volunteers -- Volunteers CAN NOT replace paid staff. It is in the Admin regulations and the Union MOU. Lani Lutar must not have put very much thought into that one. The Volunteer Program was cut out years ago. Over the years the individuals in departments who coordinated the efforts have been cut also. You can’t just have people come in to volunteer when they feel like it. Volunteers are unpaid employees. They have the same rights as employees -- workers comp for example. Volunteers need to be background checked, they need identification for access, they can’t work around confidential information (HIPA) or water supplies per law. There is no one to recruit them, vet them, interview them, write job descriptions, train them, track their hours, support the required supervision , prepare reports of usage, handle ongoing issues and problems and interact with Volunteer San Diego for new ideas and other organizations to solicit funding for recognition of the volunteers.
Thanks much, Deep Budget. Do you have any more suggestions? E-mail me at david.washburn@voiceofsandiego.org
Tuesday, November 18 -- 11:43 am
Here's how it starts:
SAN DIEGO -- Over the last two years, some of this city's darkest secrets have been dragged into the light -- city officials with conflicts of interest and hidden pay raises, affordable housing that was not affordable, misleading crime statistics.
Investigations ensued. The chiefs of two redevelopment agencies were forced out. One of them faces criminal charges. Yet the main revelations came not from any of San Diego's television and radio stations or its dominant newspaper, The San Diego Union-Tribune, but from a handful of young journalists at a nonprofit Web site run out of a converted military base far from downtown's glass towers -- a site that did not exist four years ago.
As America's newspapers shrink and shed staff, and broadcast news outlets sink in the ratings, a new kind of Web-based news operation has arisen in several cities, forcing the papers to follow the stories they uncover.
Here it is VoiceofSanDiego.org, offering a brand of serious, original reporting by professional journalists -- the province of the traditional media, but at a much lower cost of doing business. Since it began in 2005, similar operations have cropped up in New Haven, the Twin Cities, Seattle, St. Louis and Chicago. More are on the way.
Their news coverage and hard-digging investigative reporting stand out in an Internet landscape long dominated by partisan commentary, gossip, vitriol and citizen journalism posted by unpaid amateurs.
Tuesday, November 18 -- 9:57 am
A quick tidbit from my colleague David Washburn that didn't make it into today's story on Gaylord's withdrawal from Chula Vista:
Westbrook told local officials that increased construction costs and regulatory hurdles were the reasons for the company's decision to pull out of Chula Vista, and the decision was not based on downward spiral of the global economy, which has hit the hospitality industry particularly hard. That said, the company's closing stock price on Monday was $8.46, which is 80 percent less than it was a year ago.
Tuesday, November 18 -- 9:35 am
The Southeastern Economic Development Corp. is reviewing consultant Angela Harris' billing records to the agency "to determine what, if any, action to take" in the wake of our story today examining her role at the agency, according to a statement SEDC spokesman Alexis Dixon just e-mailed me.
Dixon confirms in his statement that Harris no longer has a contractual relationship with SEDC, something that was reported in the story. And the statement refers to Herman Collins, another SEDC consultant, who was the subject of this follow-up post from earlier today.
Regarding Herman Collins, Mr. Collins’ last contract with SEDC expired on or about June 30, 2008 and has not been renewed or extended.
At this time, Mr. Collins continues to provide "limited services to SEDC on an as-needed basis" while both parties re-examine the scope of their relationship.
SEDC board Chairman Cruz Gonzalez told me a few days ago that he had recently signed a new no-bid contract with Collins while he was briefly in charge of the agency. I asked Dixon, by e-mail, whether that contract exists or not.
"I believe it was realized there was no board approval," Dixon replied.
Monday, November 17 -- 5:20 pm
This Just In Archives: Advanced Search
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A little recognition.
Friday, November 21 -- 4:03 pm
It doesn't look like the mayor has the City Council votes to shut down libraries and rec centers.
Friday, November 21 -- 2:02 pm
The first day a store opens, shoplifters have a field day.
Friday, November 21 -- 11:43 am
SURVIVAL IN SAN DIEGO
Retail and construction sectors lose a combined 10,000 jobs over the year in San Diego County.
Friday, November 21 -- 5:43 pm
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Time to pony up.
Thursday, November 20 -- 7:20 pm
CAFÉ SAN DIEGO
Follow up to your responses and questions.
Thursday, November 20 -- 7:07 pm
COMMENTARY: SLOP
It's not looking like he did.
Friday, November 21 -- 4:50 pm
COMMENTARY: RICH TOSCANO
Home sales have exploded in low-priced areas of San Diego even as they decline in pricier neighborhoods.
Thursday, November 20 -- 11:13 pm
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