Morning Report: CSU San Marcos' Citizen Councilmembers Resign Over Building Name Removal

By Voice of San Diego, the Voice of San Diego

February 17, 2023

Former state Sen. Bill Craven’s many years of advocacy played an instrumental role in the founding of the CSU San Marcos, leading the university to name its first building after the late lawmaker. But demeaning remarks he made during his time in office about Latino immigrants, and his support for a controversial law have tainted his legacy in the eyes of many.

So in 2021, CSU San Marcos President Ellen Neufeldt created a task force to determine if the building should still bear Craven’s name, and in late 2022, the task force released a report recommending it be removed. Last month, the CSU board of trustees sided with the task force, clearing way for the name change.

While the change was welcome news to some advocates, it triggered the resignations of four long-time members of the university’s 40-person University Council, who derided it as a “miscarriage of justice.”

Read the full story here.

Pipe Blows Again in Tijuana, Sewage Spills into San Diego

Construction workers in Tijuana accidentally blew a hole in a major pipe transporting the city’s sewage to a wastewater plant along the coast.

That means, once again, untreated sewage is flowing into San Diego.

While that wastewater plant, called San Antonio de los Buenos, is actually broken anyway, once this particular pipe ruptured it meant the city of Tijuana had to shut-down virtually all of its important pumps that send sewage away from the border and toward the coast. When that happens, wastewater often escapes the collection system and drains untreated into natural channels like the Tijuana River or the canyons that makeup the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read more here.

Carlsbad Appoints Planning Commissioner to Vacant Council Seat

The Carlsbad City Council on Wednesday chose Planning Commissioner Carolyn Luna for the vacant District 2 seat, putting to rest the controversy that surrounded one of the other applicants — a real estate developer.

Luna, who served on the city’s Planning Commission for six years, was the favorite with all four councilmembers. They were asked to write the names of their top choices, as many as three, on a paper ballot to be read aloud. All four councilmembers placed Luna in their top three.

The council also appointed a representative to serve on SANDAG’s board of directors.

Read more here.

In Other News

• Del Mar Unified School District Board Member Scott Wooden was arrested in Florida as part of a human trafficking sting operation. Wooden was one of 213 people arrested and was charged with soliciting another person for prostitution. He was elected to the district’s board in 2010. (Fox 5)
• Encinitas is moving forward with expanding the city’s smoking ban to apply to sidewalks, parked vehicles and other locations. The city already bans smoking at beaches, parks, trails and outdoor restaurant areas. The new proposal won initial approval from the City Council Wednesday, but will have to go back for a second vote before it can go into effect. (Union-Tribune)
• A new state report details how much money California has spent on homelessness between 2018 and 2021 and what kind of results that money has yielded. According to the report, the state has spent nearly $10 billion and served more than 571,000 people. But at the end of 2021, most of those helped were still homeless. (CalMatters)
• State Sen. Steve Padilla says raising the minimum wage isn’t enough. He’s asking the Legislature to codify a definition of “living wage” that Californians need for basic needs and proper nutrition. (KPBS)
• An internet outage at Sweetwater Union High School District has lasted all week, and teachers are unsure if it will be restored by next week. Officials haven’t said if it was a cybersecurity breach and have released few details on what caused the outage. In the meantime, the district has given out hotspots and told teachers to keep their lesson plans offline. (Union-Tribune)

The Morning Report was written by Jakob McWhinney, MacKenzie Elmer and Tigist Layne . It was edited by Lisa Halverstadt.

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization supported by our members. We reveal why things are the way they are and expose facts that people in power might not want out there and explain complex local public policy issues so you can be engaged and make good decisions. Sign up for our newsletters at voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/.