Monthly Archives: May, 2009
San Diego is changing! School board chooses community over traditional power interests
“San Diego is changing,” as John Lee Evans told the crowd at the San Diego Unified school board meeting Tuesday night. Developers and builders, accustomed to calling the shots here, are losing their grip in a sea change of increased community involvement and attention to the needs of working people.
Evans and his fellow board members Shelia Jackson and Richard Barrera are part of that change. They voted Tuesday to make sure the money from school construction and renovation bonds stays in the community and gives youth and families in the district a chance at quality jobs with health insurance and stable, middle-class careers.
Auditor dives into public pools
When I lived in North Park, I often walked by the Bud Kearns Memorial pool that is nestled in a convenient location in the Morley Field area, north of Balboa Park. It is an old building, probably one of the oldest pools in the city. Its glistening, heated water never fails to attract children playing nearby, youth in the fields, or joggers, strollers and picnic-goers in the periphery of Balboa Park. It is a charming edifice of facilities provided by the city in an accessible price-range: one of the few refuges in the heat of a penny-pinching summer. There are a variety of programs from water-polo to water-fitness offered here. Local swimming competitions, red-cross training, and swimming lessons make it bubbling with activity.
Our school bonds at work: Local jobs with career paths and healthcare
The San Diego Unified School Board is closing in on a crucial decision, a chance to ensure that the spending of $2.1 billion in bond funds benefits the local economy and local families as much as possible.
On the board’s agenda next Tuesday is a Project Stabilization Agreement (PSA) for school construction and renovation projects funded with Prop S bonds. Approving the negotiated agreement will mean that more of the 10,000 new jobs will:
The Lord of the Flies election
When I think about election day next week, the mental image I find most fitting is in the 1954 classic, the “Lord of the Flies,” about a group of teenagers stranded on a desert island that revert to savagery in their struggle for survival.
Californians struggling to keep important programs are on a different kind of island. The metaphorical island that we are on now is the one built by Proposition 13 and the Howard Jarvis tax rebellion of the late 1970s. That was the beginning of California’s descent from a once golden state of opportunity to a land starved of investment and resources.
Proposition 13’s tax caps, along with the requirement for budgets to be passed with a two-thirds supermajority, mean that a minority could thwart the aspirations of most Californians’ desires for high-quality services; great education that is the envy of the nation; a world-class infrastructure that is clean, green and essential for a productive business climate; and a health care system that meets the needs of all.
The mayor’s political weapons
The Mayor is taking a $6,000 cut, after giving himself a $65,000 raise.
Remember that last year, the Mayor was drawing a salary of $35,000. After he was re-elected Mayor on December 8th, he awarded himself a raise, without so much as squeaking to the press, whilst parks and libraries were being shut down. Now he announces a 6 percent cut to the world. Here is my calculation assuming the annual salary points at the beginning of the fiscal years:
$35,000 (2008 salary) + $65,000 (2008 raise) – $6,000 (2009 cut) = $94,000 (2009 salary)
Difference between July 2009 and July 2008 salary = +$59,000
