A San Diego appeals court on Tuesday upheld the judgment and what amounted to a $1.775 million award to former news anchor Sandra Maas, who sued the company that previously owned KUSI, alleging it violated equal pay laws by paying her significantly less than her co-anchor.

The opinion comes nearly three years after a San Diego Superior Court jury also found for Maas in her whistleblower claim, in which she argued that her contract was not renewed because she pushed back for the pay disparity.

McKinnon Broadcasting Co., which had owned KUSI when Maas worked there, had challenged the verdict on various grounds, “none of which we find persuasive. We affirm the judgment,” reads the opinion issued Tuesday from the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 1.

Maas’ attorney, Josh Gruenberg, said in an email Tuesday that the appellate court “confirmed that the jury’s findings were supported by substantial evidence and that the process was impartial and sound.” He called the opinion “a true celebration of equal pay rights and of a judicial system that holds firm — even on appeal.”

“Most importantly, it brings long-overdue closure to a grueling chapter in Sandra Maas’s life,” Gruenberg said. “It takes courage to come forward, and even greater courage to withstand the blocks and tackles that followed in this case.”

Attorneys for McKinnon did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

According to arguments and evidence in the 2023 trial, Maas was paid a lower annual salary than male co-anchor Allen Denton during their years anchoring the TV station’s flagship newscast. In 2010, when they first teamed up, she was paid $120,000 annually, and he made $200,000.

When he retired, in 2019, his annual salary was $245,000. Hers was $180,000. That same year, Maas left the station. Maas’ attorney told the jury that when Maas asked for equal compensation, her contract ultimately was not renewed.

Pam Vallero, one of Maas’ attorneys, told the jury in opening statements of the four-week trial that the two anchors had sat “side by side at the same news desk, reading from the same teleprompter, anchoring the same newscast, but paid significantly different by KUSI.” That, she told the jury, “is why we are here.”

The attorney for KUSI told the jury during opening statements that Maas had been “paid fairly for her work in light of her experience, in light of her work ethic, attitude and overall value.”

Maas’ counsel argued that she had worked in broadcast television for 33 years, compared to Denton’s 37 years on TV. KUSI’s attorney said Denton had 48 years of experience, counting 11 years in radio before jumping to TV.

Maas, who worked at CBS 8 in San Diego in the 1990s, started at KUSI as a morning anchor in 2004. Denton, who had worked in the Bay Area, joined KUSI in 2010.

Aside from upholding the verdict, the appeals court on Tuesday also upheld the award of more than $2.3 million for Maas’ attorneys fees.

Now that a hotel tax hike San Diego voters approved in 2020 is on firm legal ground, the city is preparing to start spending millions of dollars on some key civic initiatives this fiscal year — fixing up its aging convention center and addressing homelessness.

Although the city began collecting the added tax revenue authorized by Measure C in May, it held back on releasing the money until after the last of several legal challenges spanning four years finally ended late last year.

It is now estimated that nearly $77 million in revenue will be generated this fiscal year, with $45.4 million set aside for convention center expenditures and $31.5 million for homeless programs, according to Mayor Todd Gloria’s office.

Measure C raises the city’s previous transient occupancy tax rate of 10.5% to a maximum of 13.75% for guests staying in downtown properties, closest to the convention center. For hotels in mid-range locations, the rate is 12.75%, while those farthest away from downtown charge guests a rate of 11.75%.

While one of the main objectives of Measure C was to finance a long-planned expansion of the city’s convention center, moving forward on such a costly project, at least in the near term, remains tenuous, largely because costs have escalated tremendously since it was first conceived. As a result, there would not be enough funds from the hotel tax increase to pay for it.

In the meantime, more urgently needed improvements, like a replacement of the center’s central plant that houses the center’s entire cooling and heating system, should be undertaken, said Steve Cushman, special assistant to Gloria for the convention center expansion. He says that the measure’s reference to “modernization” of the center legally permits the city to use the revenue for infrastructure upgrades while it continues to explore an enlarged center.

Cushman has proposed expenditures of $21.4 million this fiscal year and a total of $118.7 million over five years, but those will need to go before the City Council for approval before they can be spent on the convention center upgrades, he said.

“I would anticipate that the expenditures would commence in this fiscal year,” he added.

Toward that end, the council did a bit of legislative housekeeping on Tuesday to reset new implementation dates and deadlines, given the years-long delay in legally confirming that the 2020 ballot measure had passed with a simple majority as opposed to a two-thirds threshold that voters were originally told was the requirement for special tax initiatives.

The new set of Measure C dates that the council approved Tuesday is meant “to fulfill the expectations of voters,” said City Treasurer Elizabeth Correia.

As an example, the new effective date for the measure is now May 1, 2025.

One of the provisions of Measure C is to allocate revenue from the hotel tax boost in varying percentages, depending on the use. The largest share — 59% — goes to the convention center, but for the first 5 1/2 years, homelessness programs will get 41% of the funds before decreasing later on to 31%. The smallest portion of the tax money is reserved for street repairs, at 10%.

Under the measure’s original timeline, the increased funding for homeless services was to end in 2024. With the new dates approved by the council, it will extend through Oct. 31, 2030, and street repair funds will now kick in on Nov. 1, 2030.

To monitor how the tax revenue is being spent, periodic audits for each of the three categories of uses will be required, with the first of those due in 2029.

Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said she was especially relieved to see that there will finally be taxpayer money available to address longstanding maintenance issues and the modernization of the convention center.

In an update provided last year by the Convention Center Corporation, council members learned that the facility is facing $200 million in deferred repair work over the next five years, plus $200 million more over the next 20 years.

“Every year, we hear from our leaders at the convention center that it has significant needs for maintenance, and we as the city of San Diego cannot fill all those needs (from the budget),” von Wilpert said.

She noted that the Measure C money could be used to support the issuance of an infrastructure bond to provide long-term funding for the convention center.

“I want the convention center to think about this because this is one of the biggest revenue generators in our region,” she said. “We shouldn’t let this chance go because every year I’m hearing more and more about the needs for maintenance in our convention center.”

Cushman’s proposed expenditure plan, assuming it gets the approval of the council, would be to spend $7.5 million this year on a new roof for the western portion of the center, which opened in 1989. More than $9.5 million has been budgeted for the first phase of a central plant overhaul.

Last year, Convention Center Corp. Chief Operating Officer Corey Albright told council members that the No. 1 question from clients is whether the city is investing in its center. “It is weighing on booking decisions choosing San Diego as a destination,” he said at the time. “The answer simply cannot be, year over year, no significant capital investment.”

In addition to higher costs, a convention center expansion is also hamstrung by the city’s lack of control over a key waterfront parcel that would be needed to complete the project.

Fifth Avenue Landing currently holds a lease for that parcel, which expires in mid-2027. The city and San Diego Convention Center Corp. worked with Fifth Avenue Landing off and on for years to work out an agreement to regain control of the leasehold, and ultimately, a settlement agreement was reached in 2018, although it was conditioned on what was expected to be a November 2019 public vote. That didn’t happen until March of the following year, and it was believed at the time that Measure C had failed.

That agreement, however, remains in place, and it is preventing city officials from talking openly about the expansion project or taking steps to move forward with some kind of plan until 2027. Cushman, however, remains optimistic, but considerable work needs to be done.

“In light of the settlement agreement with (Fifth Avenue Landing), in 2026, we cannot do anything to plan for the project,” Cushman said. “However, I anticipate by January of 2027, when we can start working on the expansion part of the project, I will be looking for additional sources of funding.”

In addition to updating Measure C’s timeline, the council also agreed Tuesday to set up a special citizens advisory committee to the mayor and council on how to best spend the money set aside for homelessness programs, as required by the initiative.

David Rolland, spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, explained that the money budgeted for this year will help fund existing homelessness programs, including those that provide more than 2,600 shelter options, including what he described as traditional beds, safe parking and safe sleeping.

“I am absolutely delighted that this long dream of providing enough money to help with our homeless is finally over,” said Councilmember Jennifer Campbell. “This time has given us a lot of space to learn what is working and what is not. So the oversight of this committee hopefully won’t be too difficult, and they’ll be able to see from the auditing of the funding that things are going in the right direction.”

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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s TUESDAY, JANUARY 13TH

>>>> WHY PEOPLE LIVING IN THEIR VEHICLES ARE SUING THE CITY More on that next. But first… the headlines…#######

A COALITION OF MAYORS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTY ARE DEMANDING THE REPEAL OF NEW FEES TO PARK IN BALBOA PARK.  

SHANE HARRIS DESCRIBES HIMSELF AS SAN DIEGO’S PUBLIC ADVOCATE. 

HE SAYS SAN DIEGO MAYOR TODD GLORIA AND THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL ARE PASSING THEIR FAILURES WITH THE CITY’S BUDGET… ON TO THE PUBLIC.

PARKINGREPEAL 2A                  :20 

“Paid parking didn’t happen because residents demanded it. It happened because City Hall created a massive budget deficit, and instead of owning that failure, they decided to pass the bill onto the families, seniors, students, workers and visitors.”

GLORIA ISSUED A STATEMENT SAYING, IN PART, REPEALING THE PARKING FEES WOULD DISMANTLE THE CITY’S PROGRESS CREATING A DIRECT FUNDING STREAM FOR PARK OPERATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS.  

HARRIS SAYS IF IT’S NOT REPEALED, HE MAY BRING FORTH A VOTER REFERENDUM TO FORCE ITS REPEAL.

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IN OTHER NEWS INVOLVING THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND ITS MAYOR… THE CITY’S SAFE PARKING LOCATION IN BAY PARK IS GETTING A BIT OF AN UPDATE.

YESTERDAY MORNING, MAYOR TODD GLORIA AND OTHERS HELD A RIBBON-CUTTING FOR A NEW COMMUNITY SPACE AT THE ROSE CANYON SAFE PARKING SITE.

IT FEATURES NEW APPLIANCES, A LIBRARY FOR CHILDREN AND A MEETING SPACE.

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OPERATES THE SITE, WHICH OPENED IN 2023.

MAYOR GLORIA SAYS IT’S A SUCCESS STORY FOR HIS APPROACH TO TEMPORARY HOUSING.

SOT 0:16

“People understand that the folks here at this project are getting their lives together and going on to somewhere better. And I always like to use this as an example for other shelter suggestions that we have around the city to help people understand that I get the concern. But I promise you this is going to work well.”

THE ROSE CANYON SAFE PARKING SITE IS OPEN 24-HOURS.

BUT THERE IS AN ENROLLMENT PROCESS.

DETAILS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE CITY’S WEBSITE.

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THOUSANDS PEACEFULLY GATHERED OVER THE WEEKEND ACROSS SAN DIEGO COUNTY TO PROTEST ICE

PROTESTERS WERE SPEAKING OUT AFTER AN ICE OFFICER FATALLY   SHOT A MINNEAPOLIS WOMAN LAST WEEK

THE TWO LARGEST PROTESTS IN THE COUNTY WERE ON SATURDAY IN ENCINITAS AND ESCONDIDO. 

THERE WERE ABOUT ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE AT THE ENCINITAS PROTEST, AND ROUGHLY 500 AT THE ESCONDIDO PROTEST 

IN RESPONSE TO THE PROTESTS, DISTRICT 3 SUPERVISOR, TERRA LAWSON-REMER SAID QUOTE PEACEFUL PROTEST IS HOW COMMUNITIES HAVE ALWAYS FORCED CHANGE AND DEFENDED DEMOCRACY

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

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THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO HAS BEEN ISSUING CITATIONS TO PEOPLE LIVING IN CARS AND RVS… IN AN EFFORT TO MOVE THEM TO ONE OF THE CITY’S SAFE PARKING SITES.

FOR OUR WEEKLY WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT, VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S SCOTT LEWIS SAYS PEOPLE LIVING IN THEIR VEHICLES ARE FIGHTING BACK

RVDISPUTE(vosd) (1:13) last words “why it matters” (SS)

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San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria spent a year trying to turn the H Barracks site near the airport into a campus of homeless services. The abandoned military training facility seemed like a perfect fit.

H Barracks opened last year and offered nearly 200 spaces for people living in their RVs and vehicles.

Then the city began a major crackdown on vehicle habitation, especially near Mission Bay.

And between July and September last year, the city issued more than 1,000 citations and referred hundreds of people to H Barracks. Only 59 of them ever went to the safe parking lot.

Now, the city is being taken to court. Plaintiffs who received tickets say the city is violating a 2024 settlement that said the city could not issue citations unless it offered “reasonably available” alternative sites for people to park and stay in their vehicles.

The plaintiffs claim H Barracks is not a reasonable alternative. They have to leave each morning and come back in the evening. And that costs money, and it’s difficult for them to pack up their belongings day-in and day-out.

Now it’s up to a judge to resolve. If he agrees with the plaintiffs, people will be allowed to stay in their cars indefinitely in Mission Bay and in other areas until the city has a better alternative for them.

For Voice of San Diego, I’m Scott Lewis and that’s why it matters.

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A FORMER SAN DIEGO SAILOR CONVICTED OF SPYING FOR CHINA WILL SPEND MORE THAN 16 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON. 

MILITARY REPORTER ANDREW DYER WAS AT THE COURTHOUSE YESTERDAY (MONDAY).

WEISENTENCE 1 (ad)

At his sentencing Jinchao Wei apologized to the court and to the Navy.

Prosecutors say he was contacted by a Chinese intelligence officer in early 2022 while serving as a machinist mate, second class, on the U-S-S Essex.

For more than a year he sent thousands of pages from sensitive technical manuals to the Chinese. They paid him less than $13,000.Assistant US attorney John Parmley says he betrayed his military and citizenship oaths.

I talked to his shipmates. They feel he’s a traitor. They betrayed them personally. They can’t believe that he had done this.

And for was, relatively speaking, a small amount of money. So, in my view, when you betray your oath to your country, when you betray your fellow sailors, there’s really no other word other than that which is traitor.

Wei was convicted in August on six counts including conspiracy, espionage and violating arms control laws.

From the federal courthouse downtown, Andrew Dyer, KPBS News

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PHARMACISTS WORK IN NEARLY EVERY CORNER OF HEALTH CARE. NEW RESEARCH FINDS THE PRESSURES BEHIND THE COUNTER CAN BE INTENSE. 

HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO SAYS A NEW STUDY FROM UC SAN DIEGO SHOWS THEY ARE AT HIGHER RISK FOR SUICIDE.

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RXSTUDY 1 1:14 SOQ

The researchers found pharmacists were about 20 percent more likely to die by suicide than the general population.

KELLY LEE

Anywhere where a medication is dispensed, researched, used, pharmacists have to be at the forefront of that.

Kelly Lee is a psychiatric pharmacist at UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Her team looked at centers for disease control data from 2011 to 2022. They found male pharmacists had about a 25 percent higher risk than men overall. And female pharmacy technicians faced about a 22 percent higher risk than other women.

KELLY LEE

Most of who you will see in a community pharmacy are technicians.

Lee says more research is needed to understand why people in the field die by suicide more often than others. But…When pharmacists struggle, she says stigma keeps many from seeking help.

KELLY LEE

Would they be concerned about our ability to provide care?

Lee says the goal now is action, not just awareness.

Heidi de Marco, KPBS News.

ANCHOR TAG: IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW NEEDS HELP, CONTACT THE 988 SUICIDE & CRISIS LIFELINE BY CALLING OR TEXTING THE NUMBER 9-8-8.

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THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS RULES IN PLACE TO LIMIT LOCAL TV STATION OWNERSHIP. BUT THOSE RULES COULD BE RELAXED–OR REVOKED–UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. 

THIS COMES AS CONSOLIDATION EFFORTS ARE PLAYING OUT ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THE CORPORATE OWNER OF ABC 10 NEWS IN SAN DIEGO RECENTLY REJECTED A TAKEOVER BID BY CONSERVATIVE-LEANING SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP…AND NEXSTAR’S LATEST ACQUISITION EFFORT WOULD GIVE THE COMPANY THREE SAN DIEGO TV STATIONS. 

REPORTER AMITA SHARMA SPOKE WITH 10 NEWS ALUM LEE SWANSON AND POINT LOMA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM DIRECTOR DEAN NELSON ABOUT HOW CHANGES IN TV STATION OWNERSHIP RULES MIGHT AFFECT LOCAL NEWS.

SINCLAIR (AS) (4:43) “the whole situation changes.” (FEATURE)

Q. Dean, in its refusal of Sinclair’s hostile takeover bid last month, 10News owner EW Scripps Company said it’s open “to evaluating opportunities to enhance shareholder value.” How do you read that statement?

Dean Nelson: There are a lot of people who think it’s a signal of what is called a poison pill. The poison pill is to keep that hostile takeover from happening. The shareholder price of the shares would go down so that the current shareholders would buy more, and they would increase their ownership, which would elevate the price of the company. It’s a drastic way to go because it’s risky in that shareholders invest in things so that they can make more money. If they keep Sinclair from buying the station, is it possible that they ultimately won’t make as much money as they could? On the one hand, this is about journalism. But on the other hand, it’s actually about capitalism. This is the way the economy and big corporations work in America.

Q. Lee, as you know, the largest TV station owner in the country — Nexstar Media Group — owns two San Diego stations KUSI and Fox 5. It’s now in the process of trying to acquire a third – KFMB – the local CBS affiliate by buying rival media company Tegna. If the deal goes through, what would be the impact of one company owning three stations in the same market on local journalism?

Lee Swanson: First of all, they’re doing this because the TV news audience is diminishing. They essentially want a larger piece of a smaller pie so that they can keep their revenue up. And you can’t fault them for that. But they’re also cutting jobs, mostly in newsrooms. And in the case of Nexstar, they have a particular political point of view, and they want to express that through their stations. I don’t care if it’s liberal or conservative or what it might be. That’s not the way journalism ought to work. For them to have a plurality, at least, of the ownership of the markets in the station, there aren’t enough voices. You need more voices. You need as many voices as you can get to express the facts and the opinions in controversial stories.

Q. Dean, the FCC’s Local Television Rule limits a single entity’s ownership to two stations per market. The commission also has the 39 percent rule. Explain that rule. And what’s the point of both rules?

Dean Nelson: The purpose is to address Lee’s concern, which is just having dominant voices on media outlets. The 39% rule isn’t about how many stations you can own. The FCC’s 39% rule is how much of the market do you actually influence. For any station, whether it’s Sinclair or whether it’s Nexstar or whomever to have the voices that control maybe 39% or more of a particular market, that’s against FCC rules. Now, what the FCC is saying under Brendan Carr, and I think there’s actually some truth to it, is those FCC rules don’t matter anymore, given the internet. I look at my students at Point Loma Nazarene, and they aren’t getting their news from broadcast. They’re getting their news from YouTube. They’re getting it from Instagram. And so the FCC is saying it’s a shrinking market so why are we holding on to laws and regulations that were big and important when there were only three or four big broadcast outlets.

Q. So do you see those rules changing?

Dean Nelson: I don’t know how soon, but I definitely see them changing.

Q. Lee, Paramount is attempting a hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros Discovery which owns CNN. Is that attempt, along with the failed Sinclair takeover bid for 10News’ owner EW Scripps and the right-leaning Nexstar’s acquisition of a third local TV station all part of the same story of what’s happening to journalism?

Lee Swanson: I think so. As we talked about, the audience is shrinking, and so the revenues are down, and they’re looking for ways to stay relevant. And the companies are buying up more and more and merging more and more. And we’re not getting the television journalism we’re accustomed to. And the viewers are going elsewhere. And the potential Paramount combination of owning CNN, Paramount already has CBS, and if those two are merged, then the gloves are off. The whole market, the whole situation changes.

TAG: KPBS REACHED OUT TO NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP, SINCLAIR AND THE FCC FOR COMMENT BUT DID NOT HEAR BACK.

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That’s it for the podcast today. As  always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Lawrence K. Jackson. Thanks for listening and subscribing; by doing so you are supporting public media and I really want to thank you for that. Have a great day!