San Diego County finally has a new top official, and she still needs to fill many other open leadership positions in the county.
The county board of supervisors appointed Ebony Shelton as the county’s new chief administrative officer earlier this summer after a difficult selection process. Now, our Lisa Halverstadt reports, it must hire about 10 other key county officials, including four deputy CAOs to oversee the county’s four branches of government and a new public health official.
A district spokesman said the surge in job postings was not a cause for concern because the district had left many positions vacant while hiring a new CAO.
But the openings also mean a major disruption and great uncertainty for the district.
The big question: Will the new hires take the county in the more worker-friendly, progressive direction that Democrats and union leaders have called for since the board switched from its longtime Republican majority to a Democratic one?
Read the full story.
The police are not happy with the statement of their potential boss
Larry Turner, a San Diego police officer running for mayor, sat down with our own Scott Lewis last week for a special episode of the VOSD podcast. Turner shared his ideas on how the city can address police problems and its budget deficit. (Listen to the episode here.)
Some of his comments did not please other police officers.
Lewis writes that the San Diego Police Officers Association was not very happy with Turner’s testimony. They disagreed with his comments on salaries, pensions and why police officers should not respond to some 911 calls.
Turner also said that San Diego’s new police chief is anti-vaxxer. Lewis was unable to get a response from Police Chief Scott Wahl.
Read more in the Politics Report.
Back to our regular program…
Aside from the special episode, the hosts of our VOSD podcast used our regular show to talk about sports.
The Padres made franchise history with their recent winning streak and VOSD podcast host Scott Lewis can’t wait to tell the crew about it.
Also in the show: A scathing investigation into how San Diego Unified handled allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse. And what we learned after a local foster care charity investigated it.
Listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your capsules.
Cliff collapse is not the only problem facing the railroad in San Diego
The state government and the federal government want to invest billions in repairing the coastal railway, which has had to be closed several times in recent years due to landslides and cliff collapses.
But while we wait, our Capitol reporter Deborah Brennan wanted to see how well the line is working now. Last week, she drove from Oceanside to downtown San Diego and found that geological faults aren’t the only problem with the rail lines.
She experienced a series of mishaps that delayed her journey for hours, from the inability to buy tickets to poor signage on the platforms. Most importantly, there are simply not enough staff to ensure that passengers get the service they need.
Readers expressed their own opinions about the trains. Some said they were looking forward to improvements, others thought the state should abandon the coastal rail line and spend the money on other transportation projects.
Read the Sacramento report here.
More news
- Need a quick news summary? Our editor in chief is here for you. Here are the stories you need to read to start the week. Read Cup of Chisme here.
- The Port of San Diego has cleared an encampment in Cesar Chavez Park in Barrio Logan that had housed dozens of asylum seekers in recent months. (Union-Tribune) As Voice contributor Kate Morrissey reported last week, many of the families who remained in the park said they had no other choice.
- Visitors and staff at San Diego County jails must prepare for heightened security checks. The new protocol calls for X-ray machines, drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors – precautions aimed at reducing drug-related deaths among inmates. (Union-Tribune)
- Marine biologists study the seagrass in Batiquitos Lagoon as part of efforts to protect the area’s habitat before a $165.6 million rail project begins. SANDAG plans to replace an old bridge with a new, wider one that will allow more trains to pass while improving the lagoon’s water flow. (KPBS)
- San Diego is ramping up its affordable housing construction. In the last 18 months, 27 new projects and more than 2,800 apartments have been approved – most of them close to transit. (Times of San Diego)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, Deborah Brennan, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Emily Ito. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
