San Diego, CA
South County Report: Supervisor Race Takes Shape
It’s a new year—and, just like that, an uncertain political future for South San Diego County.
Supervisor Nora Vargas’ abrupt – and, so far, unexplained – resignation last month threw her South County district into political tumult. (Our coverage is here in case you missed it.) As chair of the five-member Board of Supervisors, Vargas was the most powerful elected official in San Diego County and the symbolic political leader of her district, which stretches from downtown San Diego to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Vargas attributed her resignation to unspecified “safety and security” reasons. She had faced an unrelenting barrage of vitriolic personal attacks online and in person from political opponents from the moment she was elected. Rumors are flying about other possible reasons—but rumors aren’t news, and I’m not focusing on them.
Instead, I’m starting my coverage of this race by talking at length with each of the candidates vying to replace Vargas on the Board. So far, four local politicos have jumped in: Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, Chula Vista Councilmember Carolina Chavez, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno.
I’ll also be digging into what’s at stake in the race and identifying the major interest groups supporting each candidate. My goal is to give voters the information they need to make an educated decision. I need your help. Email me at jim.hinch@voiceofsandiego.org with tips, questions or just to tell me what matters most to you in this race.
One more thing. This race is important. In California government, county supervisors wield immense power. Supervisors in Los Angeles County have been called the “five little kings” because they exert vast influence over wide territories. It’s the same here in San Diego. Every aspect of your life—housing, healthcare, public safety, the environment—is affected by county government. With the board currently split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, South County voters hold the county’s partisan future in their hands. Your vote matters.
Immigration Leaps to Forefront
My first conversation, with Paloma Aguirre, will appear tomorrow. Today, the race to replace Vargas is already making news. Both Aguirre and McCann are out of the gate declaring their opposition to one of Vargas’ final signature policies: A controversial new rule, adopted last month, that limits county cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Both candidates told me this week they consider the law a “mistake” that could compromise public safety by making it harder for federal authorities to deport undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes.
“I do not support mass deportation. I do not support stripping naturalized citizens or asylum seekers from their rights,” Aguirre said. “But I think you also have to be realistic.”
Said McCann: “If you support law enforcement, you want to make sure murderers, rapists and violent criminals are taken out of your community.”
The policy drew national attention and was widely seen as a preemptive response to a possible anti-immigrant crackdown promised by incoming President Donald Trump. That Aguirre, widely considered the most progressive candidate seeking to replace Vargas, is already voicing skepticism suggests the policy’s future may be in doubt. You can read all about it here.
Fast Start for New Councilmembers
Chula Vista’s two new City Councilmembers are wasting no time acting on their campaign promises.
“It’s the honeymoon period,” said Cesar Fernandez, newly elected to represent District 4 in the city’s southwest. “I will be releasing a 100-day plan…this week.”
Fernandez said he expects his initial efforts on the council to focus on “workforce development, a walkable Chula Vista and all of it with constituent engagement behind it.”
He said he plans to meet with local school districts and community college leaders to discuss developing training programs that could position students to land jobs at the new Chula Vista Bayfront project currently under construction in and adjacent to his district.
“I want our constituents in all of Chula Vista to have first access to training and to be able to apply to those jobs and work in the city they live in,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez said he’ll also be seeking to improve streetlighting and sidewalk conditions in his district. And he’s planning a series of community forums that would enable residents to meet with city leaders to ask questions and share concerns.
Fernandez said he’s also gearing up for one of the less pleasant aspects of public service: Facing angry or just opinionated members of the public who lash out at elected officials during public meetings. “As disrespectful as it gets, you’ll find me with a pen in my hand ready to write down a problem that needs to be solved,” Fernandez said.
More Police, Possible New E-Bike Rules
City Councilmember Michael Inzunza, whose District 3 encompasses the city’s southeast corner, said his initial focus would be on what he termed “public safety.”
He said he would seek to boost the number of police officers patrolling Chula Vista’s streets by up to half a dozen officers. “How we do it is yet to be determined,” Inzunza said. “Either by hiring new officers or increasing the number of” officers on patrol.
Inzunza said he spoke with thousands of residents during his campaign, and a top concern for many was crime and police response times. “The idea is to increase police presence citywide from east to west,” he said.
Inzunza said he would also advocate for a new police substation to be built in his district. And this week he said he planned to ask City Manager Maria Kachadoorian to consider researching possible new rules governing young people’s use of e-bikes.
Inzunza said he had heard concerns from residents about students riding the bikes after school at high speeds on sidewalks and getting into accidents. He said Chula Vista could consider new rules similar to a policy in Poway, where students under age 18 and their parents are required to take an online safety course before receiving permission to bring their e-bikes to school.
“The goal is to educate youth,” Inzunza said. “We want to make sure students are safe.”
Possible Tenant Protections Advance in Imperial Beach
Paloma Aguirre let slip one piece of non-campaign news during my conversation with her on Monday. She said she and Imperial Beach Councilmember Jack Fisher followed through on their promise last month to hold a series of listening sessions about a possible new tenant protection ordinance in the city.
The issue arose after residents of an aging apartment complex packed a City Council meeting to beg for help after a new corporate owner bought the building and threatened to evict tenants to make way for a comprehensive remodeling project. (That story is here in case you missed it.)
Aguirre said she and Fisher had spent much of the Christmas holiday meeting with tenants, landlords and others with a stake in city housing policy. She and Fisher then drafted a new tenant protection ordinance (“right on Christmas Eve, I think,” Aguirre said) and plan to present it to the City Council next week for discussion.
“We had a number of tenants that were suffering and being affected,” Aguire said. “And we had a large number of landlords, small mom and pop landlords, that had concerns as well.” Aguirre declined to give details about the proposed ordinance, citing disclosure rules. But she pointed to similar ordinances in San Diego and Chula Vista, where officials in recent years tightened rules governing evictions in an effort to keep lower income tenants in their homes.
“We need to do a little bit of all of the above,” Aguirre said. “We need to keep people housed and we need to be able to put people in affordable housing.”
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — As the Muslim community prepares to celebrate Eid al-Adha next month, a San Diego teenager is working to bring comfort and joy to children impacted by the recent tragedy at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
Seventeen-year-old Sarah Abdin spent the past week fundraising, shopping and assembling nearly 100 Eid goodie bags for students at the mosque’s elementary school.
While many teenagers are focused on final exams, Abdin said she spent some nights working until 2 a.m. to make sure every bag was ready in time for the school’s upcoming graduation celebration.
The project was inspired by the recent shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, where children were present during the incident. Abdin, who attended the mosque as a child, said hearing about what students experienced motivated her to take action.
Each bag contains a variety of treats, activities and gifts intended to help children celebrate Eid, one of the most important holidays in Islam.
Abdin said community members quickly rallied behind the effort, helping raise funds and support the project. After days of shopping and preparation, she and her sister spent several hours assembling the bags ahead of delivery.
The goodie bags are expected to be distributed during the elementary school’s graduation festivities in early June.
Abdin said she hopes the gesture serves as a reminder that the children are surrounded by a community that cares about them and stands beside them during difficult times.
The fundraising effort received widespread support, helping cover the cost of the goodie bags and allowing organizers to expand their reach to more students.
How interesting that Donald Trump is deporting Brown people who pay taxes and contribute to our economy (though they will never reap any benefits from those taxes) and instead is using our tax money to import and set up South Africans (none of whom are anything but White) who have never contributed to our economy. Could skin color perhaps have something to do with this policy?
— Nita Herpolsheimer, San Diego
California’s assault weapons ban may have helped limit the ability of two attackers to take lives at the Islamic Center of San Diego last week, according to a prominent gun control organization.
But the executive director of a San Diego gun rights group said the fact the attack even happened is proof the ban failed.
What the two don’t dispute is that the video from the attackers’ livestream shows one of them using a rifle that appears to comply with California’s strict gun laws. While authorities have not confirmed what models of firearms were used in the attack, representatives of the two organizations identified it as a semi-automatic Ruger Mini-14 rifle.
KPBS is not publishing the video, which authorities have not released, the names of the two teenage suspects or their writings, where they wrote they were motivated to conduct the attack by a number of sex and race-related grievances. They wore emblems associated with white supremacists and neo-Nazis and lashed out in their writings against women, Jewish people, Muslims and LGBTQ+ people.
They wrote they were inspired by the 2019 attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 Muslims. In their writings, the suspects said they wanted to replicate the Christchurch attack in San Diego.
The attack in Christchurch prompted New Zealand to change its gun laws.
Semiautomatic rifles sold in California have to meet certain criteria that other states don’t require.
The barrels must be at least 30 inches long and may not have collapsible or folding stocks. They cannot have a pistol grip behind the trigger, nor one attached at the forward part of the rifle.
And they cannot have a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds.
“From everything I saw from the video, (the rifle) looked like it met those criteria and looked like a very stock firearm that you could purchase at many dealers here in California,” said Steve Lindley, a policy advisor for the Brady Campaign.
Lindley spent almost 30 years in law enforcement, according to his biography. He worked for the National City Police Department and spent eight years leading the Bureau of Firearms at the California Department of Justice.
Lindley said features such as pistol grips make rifles more lethal.
“Over time it makes it easier for the shooter to have the firearm to their shoulder and in their hands,” he said. “Less fatigue, and it lines up a little bit better with your eyesight. The capacity of the magazines and other features on the firearm make it more accurate and easier to use in close quarters.”
The video shows the body cam operator firing the Mini-14 until it appears to jam. He struggles to clear the chamber and appears to remove and reinsert the magazine. He works the bolt, apparently unable to chamber a new round.
As the video continues, he continues to struggle with the bolt of the rifle before giving up, drawing a handgun and stepping outside.
The attackers never made it beyond the lobby, where about 100 schoolchildren and staff were inside the center. Authorities say they were delayed by the three men killed in the attack: Mansour Kaziha, 78, Nadir Awad, 57, and armed security guard Amin Abdullah.
The Islamic Center of San Diego
“Looking at the reality of this, a good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy with a gun from killing a lot of kids. Full stop,” said Michael Schwartz, the executive director of the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC.
“The assault weapons ban that California has implemented clearly failed — it didn’t stop these two people,” he said.
Schwartz described the features banned by California as “cosmetic” and that the semi-automatic rifles function the same regardless of their stock, grips or magazine size.
“The idea that … the (high-capacity) magazine ban stopped them from getting a high-capacity magazine … there just isn’t any evidence or proof,” he said.
While high-capacity magazines can’t be bought or sold in California, Schwartz said anyone can travel to the next state over and buy as many as they want.
Although the Mini-14 used in the attack is capable of accepting 30 or 40-round magazines, said Lindley, the shooters appeared to only have a California-compliant 10-round magazine.
“If you have ten round magazines, you have ten rounds to shoot before you need to change magazines,” he said. “If you have a 30- or 40-round magazine, you can shoot 30 or 40 rounds before you need to reload.”
That’s important, Lindley said, because when shooters stop to reload, it gives victims time to either escape or attempt to subdue the attacker.
Schwartz said that didn’t affect the Islamic center attack.
“If he had a bigger magazine or he had a pistol grip or whatever, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome of this at all,” he said.
Lindley played a part in crafting more than 100 gun bills, according to the Brady Campaign. He said with so many guns in the United States, authorities can’t stop shootings — all they can do is try to limit the damage.
“We can prevent a lot of victimology by lowering the capacity of the magazines,” he said.
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