Morning Report: Supe Chair Pitches Extra Term, Other Reforms

the Voice of San Diego

Voice of San Diego

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer officially proposed an overhaul of county government that would give her and other supervisors an additional term in office and shift some power to new oversight officials appointed by supervisors.

Flanked by a coalition of labor leaders, activists, environmentalists and other supporters, Lawson-Remer said the proposed changes are intended to bring “accountability, transparency and change that will benefit everyone.”

If it goes on the ballot and voters approve it, the proposal would:

The proposed measure faces several hurdles. Lawson-Remer said she plans to present the proposal to fellow supervisors on April 21. If the Board of Supervisors approve it, the proposed measure will go before San Diego County voters in November.

Recently, Voice intern Rami Alarian reported on San Diego police helicopters breaking up college parties.

That led us to wonder: Why are there so many police helicopters flying around San Diego? What do they do up there?

Alarian looked into it.

Turns out, the most common activity for police helicopters is… watching stuff.

“San Diego’s police helicopters are equipped to fly around and look at things,” Alarian writes. “Inside are two police officers, one flying the helicopter and one looking through a variety of cameras to scan the ground.”

The department has four helicopters. Usually only one at a time is in the air, a police department spokesperson said. The monitoring they do supports officers on the ground.

Our Tigist Layne has recently been tracking the progress of North County cities toward meeting their housing goals. She recently wrote about how San Marcos, in particular, is crushing its goals.

But San Marcos is very unlike most other cities.

In her latest North County Report, Tigist provided updates on Del Mar, Encinitas and Oceanside.

Each city is required to permit a certain number of homes for people in four income categories: very low, low, moderate and above moderate. No city is hitting every target.

Encinitas, one of the most housing-resistant cities in California, is actually on track to hit its overall number, although most of the houses have been permitted in the above-moderate category.

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