5/22 – Evening Budget Hearing – Final Details
By Trinh Le | May 18, 2013 |
Budget Evening Hearing on Wednesday, May 22, 6:00pm at City Hall
How do we put neighborhoods first in San Diego? Together, we can continue to advocate, organize and work for policies and projects that will make each neighborhood a priority. Parks, youth bus passes, libraries, police stations…these are all important topics we will discuss May 22 at the San Diego City Evening Budget hearing at 6pm at City Hall (City Hall, Council Chambers, 202 C Street, 12th Fl., San Diego, 92101).
This is your final opportunity to share your concerns with City Council before they complete the budget for Fiscal Year 2014 (July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014). Join City Council and the Community Budget Alliance for the only evening budget hearing this fiscal cycle. Details below. You can email me directly to let me know that you will be there.
What time should folks show up?
Due to the unknown number of people who are attending, we are encouraging folks to get there between 5:00-5:30pm for guaranteed seating.
What is on the agenda?
There are two agenda items: Year End Budget Report and the May Revise. This may take 1-1.5 hours, which means residents may not be able to speak until 7:00-7:30pm or maybe even later depending on the discussion. If folks are planning to speak, they need to get there by 6:00pm to make sure their speaker slips are in on time. Speaker slips have to be in by 6:30pm the latest.
What time will it end?
We have no idea, but we’re hoping no later than 9:00pm or 10:00pm.
Parking
Street parking is free after 6pm. Please keep in mind that there is a Padres game in downtown starting at 7:10pm. Parking is Horton Plaza is no longer free, unless you purchase something for $10, and it’s only for 3 hours.
Interpretation
Interpretation in Spanish will be available. We need an exact count so that we know how much equipment to bring to City Hall (and the equipment is heavy!) If you know folks who need Spanish interpretation, please let me know how many people. My email: tle@onlinecpi.org.
RSVP Here or by emailing me at TLE@OnlineCPI.org. You may also call me at (619) 584-5744 x24.
I hope to see you there!
Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive
By Benjamin Carney | May 9, 2013 |
This Saturday, May 11, the letter carriers union will continue its 20-year tradition of service to the community and dedication to the alleviation of hunger. While delivering mail, letter carriers will collect bags of food for local food banks.
For the past two decades the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) has organized the Stamp out Hunger initiative, collecting and distributing over one billion pounds of food.
In San Diego, NALC Branch 70 collected over 500,000 pounds of donated food in 2012. You can help NALC Branch 70 collect even more this year! To participate in the Stamp out Hunger 2013 drive, leave bags of non-perishable food items by your mailbox on Saturday, and they will be delivered to a food bank.
This initiative has given much needed assistance to working families that go without because of the constantly decreasing value of their wages. Over 50 million Americans are affected by hunger, including 17 million children. Here in San Diego County, the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) has reported that 3 in 10 non-retired households in the county earn less than a “self-sufficiency” level; including more than 180,000 households with at least one person working full-time or part-time. Self-sufficiency levels are determined to be an hourly pay rate of $13.13 for a single person with no dependents in order to cover their basic needs.
The number of people living in poverty in the County is increasing. CPI studies have found one major reason is that inflation-adjusted earnings have decreased in 10 of the region’s 15 largest industries, with the lowest wages in the tourism and hotel industry.
Recognizing the immense need created by insufficient wages, CPI is proud to support this valuable effort to alleviate suffering in San Diego.
Benjamin Carney is a CPI intern. He is also a recent graduate from Point Loma Nazarene University.
May 10: Students for Economic Justice Happy Hour
By | April 30, 2013 |
Help us give a very special welcome to our 2013 class of Students for Economic Justice (SEJ). We are excited to announce that for the first time, we have expanded this valuable opportunity to eight incredible students from schools throughout San Diego. Through hands-on campaign experience, these students will develop the organizing skills necessary to become leaders in the social justice community. But with an expanded program, comes the need for additional funding to support the education and growth of these young adults. Please join us as we hold our first fundraiser for the Students for Economic Justice program of 2013.
May 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Click here for more information.
Recommended donations:
- Individuals – $25-$50
- Organizational host – $250, $500, $1000
- Students – $20
To RSVP please click here. For more information please contact Normita Rodriguez at Nrodriguez@OnlineCPI.org or at (619) 584-5744 x62
A Series of Budget Related Events
By Trinh Le | April 10, 2013 |
The Mayor released his proposed budget for 2013-14 on Monday (4/15), and the spending decisions made over the next two months will directly impact our neighborhoods and our families’ quality of life. We invite you to get involved! We’re planning a series of free events aimed at helping you understand the budget process and learn how to effectively advocate for the services and infrastructure needed to give every neighborhood a fair shake.
Join us online and in person:
A $3.6 Million Surplus?
By Corinne Wilson | April 2, 2013 |
A lot of accounting and technical terms are used when we talk about the city budget. This can be confusing for the lay person. CPI’s Research and Policy Lead, Corinne Wilson helps viewers understand what it means when the City reports a $3.6 Million Surplus. Drawings by Normita Rodriguez.
Like this? Check out our upcoming budget webinars and our popular education materials.
April 4: Learn How to Read a City Budget
By Trinh Le | March 29, 2013 |
The new city budget is coming! Decisions on City of San Diego spending for 2013-14 have begun. The new budget will take effect on July 1. A number of residents and community leaders have expressed concern over the complexity of the process.
Do you know how to tell if service levels or projects are being funded in your neighborhood? How can you determine if the investment in city service levels will improve?
This workshop will be a hands-on opportunity to learn how to access the budget online and how to interpret the data as it relates to projects in your community. Corinne will lead us in a review of the budget format, how to read key tables and how to review which projects received funding.
Will you join me and the Community Budget Alliance at this important workshop? To confirm your attendance please email me at TLE@OnlineCPI.org or call me at (619) 584-5744 x24. You may download flyers here.
Welcome Peter Brownell, CPI’s new Research Director
By Clare Crawford | March 19, 2013 |
CPI Research Director Peter Brownell, PhD
It is my great pleasure to introduce Peter Brownell, PhD, who joins CPI’s staff this month as our new research director.
Dr. Brownell comes to CPI from the RAND Corporation, an international nonprofit think tank that is well known for its rigorous empirical research on a wide range of issues relevant to public policy.
After an exhaustive national search, we found the ideal leader of our research team here at home. Dr. Brownell lives in San Diego with his wife and two daughters, and has been commuting to RAND’s Santa Monica headquarters.
While there, he led research projects investigating Mexican immigrants’ wages and the role of US policy on immigrants in the labor market. He is very familiar with the impact of low wages on working families and on the overall regional economy. He also has researched occupational health and youth health risks such as smoking and childhood obesity.
Dr. Brownell’s expertise and research skills will be a tremendous addition to CPI’s research and policy staff as we build on our track record of producing high-quality research that illuminates problems and advances policy solutions.
Our work will continue to focus on relieving poverty and inequity and enhancing access to good jobs, livable wages, affordable healthcare and quality public services in the San Diego region.
Please join me in welcoming Peter to CPI. I hope you’ll have a chance to meet him soon at one of our events or actions.
Victory for more than 100 San Diego families
By Quynh Nguyen | March 8, 2013 |
Great news! The new owners of the Hilton Mission Valley have announced they will retain all the workers. This decision means more than 100 San Diego families won’t be thrown into unemployment.
Thank you for your show of solidarity. Over 700 individuals sent Tarsadia executives emails urging them to retain all Hilton Mission Valley workers. More than a 100 people showed their support in person last Friday at the sit-in at the hotel. Great work!
The Center on Policy Initiatives is proud to advocate for San Diego families. Please stay connected (you can also find us on Facebook and Twitter) so that we may continue to work together to build a San Diego that works for all.
Thanks for Supporting Fair Wages
By Christie Hill | March 1, 2013 |
Thank you for supporting livable wages for the thousands of San Diego residents who work in the tourism industry.
The outcry against a 39-year, $1 billion subsidy for hotels paying poverty wages has been overwhelming! More than 90 of you have answered our call to write letters to the editor. UT San Diego published 24 of those letters here and here, San Diego Free Press thanked the letter-writers publicly and we have posted many of the letters on our website.
A special thanks to everyone who came to the City Council on Monday. We demonstrated strong public opposition to the Tourism Marketing District’s insistence on controlling $30 million a year in public funds while refusing Mayor Filner’s call for living wages.
Watch testimony from hotel workers and CPI here. We’ve collected much of the news coverage here.
At the end of the meeting, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith admitted that legally the TMD is “a gray area.” Several lawsuits have been filed against the city for enacting the 2% TMD tax without a public vote, in violation of 2010’s statewide Prop 26.
Monday: Join Us In Person to Stand Up to the Hotel Owners
By Christie Hill | February 23, 2013 |
When we asked for letters supporting decent pay and healthcare for hotel workers, we expected maybe 10 or 20 people would take the time to sit down and write a letter.
Wow. We underestimated you!
More than 60 passionate, thoughtful letters poured in overnight* – and they’re still coming! People are fed up with the powerful downtown hoteliers, who are demanding the city turn over $30 million a year for their marketing, while refusing Mayor Bob Filner’s request that they pay livable wages.
On Monday, will you join us in person to stand up to the hotel owners?
The Tourism Marketing District has been invited to make their case to the City Council at 2 pm Monday, and they have a slick presentation ready.
Hotel workers and CPI will be there with the facts. The hotels are profiting from San Diego’s location and from their employees’ hard work, and they don’t help the local economy by paying wages too low for people to live self-sufficiently.
Please contact Normita Rodriguez, NRodriguez@onlineCPI.org, if you can join us at 2 pm at City Hall, or you have questions. (And watch Normita on Channel 17 discussing how hotels’ low wages contribute to poverty in the region.)
Help us spread the word and bring more people out to support livable wages. Please forward this e-mail and share with your friends!
Thank you for standing with us. Together we are making San Diego better.
