With GOP incumbent Jim Desmond forced out by term limits, voters in county Supervisor District 5 — which ranges from Oceanside to Borrego Springs — face an urgent choice: Do they want to elect someone who has no objections to the Board of Supervisors’ emergence as a de facto arm of the county’s public employee unions?
If so, they should vote for congressional staffer Kyle Krahel, who supports the recent machinations of his fellow Democrats — Terra Lawson-Remer, Monica Montgomery Steppe and Paloma Aguirre — who make up the board majority. If not, they should vote for Vista Mayor John Franklin or San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones, who are Republicans.
This description of a county board doing the bidding of county unions is not an exaggeration. Example 1: In December, Terra Lawson-Remer, Monica Montgomery Steppe and Paloma Aguirre used an accounting scheme to approve dipping into county reserves on a simple majority vote of the five-member board, instead of the previously required four votes. Under state law, such reserves are only supposed to be used to respond to emergencies. Instead, the three used the reserves to pay one-time bonuses of about $1,000 to most county employees.
Example 2: Over the past two months, at the unions’ behest, Lawson-Remer introduced a package of purported county government reforms that actually would give supervisors — and their union allies — far more direct control of county programs. Reflecting the moral rot at the core of this power play, Lawson-Remer has openly advocated for dishonest ballot language that creates the impression that the “reform” package that will go before county voters in November strengthens term limits for supervisors. It actually weakens them from a two-term limit to a three-term limit — including, very atypically, for sitting members. The unions want their pliant board majority in place through 2032.
Example 3: After a signature-gathering campaign led by the Service Employees International Union Local 221, county voters are expected to be asked to approve a half-cent sales tax in November. The pitch to voters is that the $360 million or so this generates annually will be used to boost county health care, child care and public safety, and the response to the Tijuana River sewage nightmare.
But as the U-T Editorial Board noted in April, new sales tax revenue can be used for any purpose, and campaign promises about how it’s used are often not kept. There is no guarantee of any kind that any county program would be beefed up if it passes. Because of past labor deals, what is the only certain result if the sales tax is increased? A recent report revealed that if voters approve a measure that “generates revenue for the county’s general fund in 2026,” the county would be required to reopen pay negotiations with both SEIU Local 221 and Teamsters Local 986, which represents county construction and maintenance workers.
These examples cumulatively show that union power in county government has metastasized.
In their interviews with the U-T Editorial Board, both Franklin and Jones decried the course of the current board majority. Both make strong points about the need for North County to get more help with basic infrastructure from the San Diego Association of Governments. Both speak persuasively about the need to help unincorporated areas in North County and East County reach their potential. Both can legitimately claim to be effective, accessible mayors.
But Franklin is the more forceful and insightful critic of all the ways the county has gone astray. In going after Lawson-Remer’s claim that county government is underfunded, for example, he points out that “the county has grown its payroll by 13.5% or 2,433 full-time employees in the last five years” — a period in which county population declined by 40,000. Franklin may speak about some immigration issues in a blunt, unnuanced way that doesn’t square well with the U-T Editorial Board’s moderate, long-held views on these issues. However, when he says that polls show District 5 voters agree with him, that is a fair point.
If elected, Franklin may not be able to stop future Lawson-Remer-led schemes and power plays, but he can be counted on to put a critical spotlight on them as they unfold. The U-T Editorial Board endorses John Franklin for District 5 supervisor.