Candidates for the City Council seat in San Diego\u2019s southern neighborhoods clashed this week over cross-border sewage issues, the city budget, bolstering San Ysidro and the proposed \u201cempty homes\u201d tax on the June 2 ballot.<\/p>\n
The race is a battle between four Democrats with differing experience and priorities seeking to represent District 8, which includes Sherman Heights, Logan Heights, San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Nestor and Palm City. The candidates debated Tuesday night at the Logan Heights library.<\/p>\n
On the sewage issue, candidate Gerardo Ramirez said proposals for pump stations and other new infrastructure on the U.S. side of the border won\u2019t solve the problem alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Mexico doesn\u2019t do their end and if they don\u2019t address those issues there, the problem will continue,\u201d said Ramirez, who serves as chief of staff for termed-out District 8 Councilmember Vivian Moreno.<\/p>\n
Venus Molina, chief of staff to Councilmember Jennifer Campbell in District 2, agreed that Mexico must do its part. But she also said city officials must press the region\u2019s congressional delegation to prioritize the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to hold people accountable\u201d on both sides of the border, she said.<\/p>\n
Antonio Martinez, a longtime member of the San Ysidro school board, disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who passes the buck to Mexico and says it\u2019s Mexico\u2019s problem is really passing the buck to our community members that live down there and breathe the air every single day,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
He suggested expanding a sewage treatment plant on Dairy Mart Road and focusing on \u201chot spots\u201d where toxins get released.<\/p>\n
Rafael Perez, a real estate agent who also teaches college classes, said the best solution would be a new joint powers authority of local government agencies to create clear obligations and hone the effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt needs to be in a unified voice, coordinated with a plan and the dedicated staff to make it happen,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n
In response to a question about how to boost San Ysidro, Molina said whoever wins the seat must lobby city, county, state and federal officials for more investment in infrastructure and business attraction to make San Ysidro Boulevard thriving instead of mostly empty.<\/p>\n
Martinez said the city should use the revitalization of Third Avenue in Chula Vista as an example of what could happen on San Ysidro Boulevard. He said city officials should also speak with leaders in Tijuana.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to talk to our neighbors and see how we can create something beautiful,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
Perez said San Ysidro gets neglected partly because District 8 is geographically divided, with some of it located south of Chula Vista and National City, separated from the rest of San Diego.<\/p>\n
Ramirez said a stronger voice representing District 8 would help get more badly needed resources for San Ysidro.<\/p>\n
Both Perez and Ramirez said reducing border traffic congestion could also help improve the San Ysidro area.<\/p>\n
On the city\u2019s budget crisis, Martinez said officials should stop exploring cuts and start looking for new revenues, for instance by raising lease rates for city tenants or auditing local businesses to make sure they are paying enough taxes.<\/p>\n
Molina said the ideal long-term solution would be voters approving a sales tax increase. In the short term, she said it\u2019s important for the city not to lay off workers who generate revenues, such as those negotiating city leases.<\/p>\n
Ramirez said the city needs to seek more grants and eliminate wasteful spending by wiping out hundreds of highly-paid middle managers.<\/p>\n
Perez said long-term solutions include avoiding terrible real estate deals like the city\u2019s purchase nearly a decade ago of a downtown office building on Ash Street that was filled with asbestos.<\/p>\n
In the short term, he questioned the mayor\u2019s recent proposal<\/a> to increase spending on police while dramatically cutting<\/a> arts spending.<\/p>\n On the empty homes tax, which will appear as Measure A on the June ballot, Perez and Ramirez offered more tepid support than Molina and Martinez.<\/p>\n Ramirez said the idea \u201csounds nice on paper\u201d but expressed concern that it could be challenged and overturned in court. Perez said the measure was rushed and that he worried about what he called vague carve-outs.<\/p>\n But Molina said the measure is a win-win \u2014 more revenue for the city and an incentive for people to not leave homes empty. Martinez said the measure would help fight vacation rentals in Sherman Heights and generate needed revenue for a cash-strapped city.<\/p>\n Martinez, 41, lives in San Ysidro. Ramirez, 31, lives in Otay Mesa. Molina, 50, lives in Ocean View Hills. And Perez, 44, lives in Sherman Heights.<\/p>\n The top two finishers in the June 2 primary will advance to a November runoff, even if the first-place finisher gets more than 50% of the vote in June.<\/p>\n The forum was coordinated by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Candidates for the City Council seat in San Diego\u2019s southern neighborhoods clashed this week over cross-border sewage issues,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[989,181,23,205,100,13,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-281239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-elections","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-local-politics","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-headlines","16":"tag-san-diego-news","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}