On the list of Let’s Go San Diego money backers are big labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 569, Laborers International Union of North America Local 89, and the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, based in Los Angeles.

Waste much, want more

Given the Democrats firmly in charge of both the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and San Diego’s City Council, plus a group of well-heeled contractors and labor unions lurking in the background, a raft of new tax hikes may hit local ballots this fall. But some local Republicans could be about to hit back with a secret weapon in the form of Miles Himmel, offspring of the late, beloved KFMB weatherman and TV comic Larry Himmel.

Two months ago, the city council’s rules committee voted to raise municipal sales taxes from 7.75% to 8.75. “That projected revenue amount would be 19.9% of the city’s General Fund, and it would go towards upgrading streets, roads, storm drains, and other parts of the city’s infrastructure,” per a KGTV March 20 dispatch. “Raising the sales tax to 8.75% would match the sales tax rates of cities like Chula Vista, National City, Del Mar, Solana Beach, and Imperial Beach.”

Miles Himmel, the smiling son of lovable Larry.

Also likely headed for the ballot is a measure ostensibly meant to fix flooding problems in the era of heavy downpour climate change. “The flood prevention measure would be a parcel tax on properties based on their square footage that is developed or paved,” noted the Union-Tribune in a June 6 report. “The median monthly cost would be $18.67 for single-family properties and $145.44 for other properties.”

In a bid to insure electoral success, the paper reported, “officials said they’ve written the measure to require only a 55 percent approval threshold, instead of two-thirds, provided California voters also approve a statewide November measure lowering approval thresholds for some tax measures.”

In the midst of the city’s tax-hiking fervor, a county-wide half-cent sales tax increase has been placed on the ballot by a group of out-of-town contractors and labor unions now calling themselves Lets Go San Diego. Officially titled the San Diego Alliance for Traffic Relief, Reliable Transit & Jobs, the political committee laid out almost $2.3 million in 2023 to qualify their measure for the ballot and is expected to spend heavily in the months leading up to the November election.

Corporations behind the big money include the Flatiron Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of Hochtief AG, a huge German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Last fall, a Flatiron partnership reached a $400 million settlement with the Texas Department of Transportation over allegedly shoddy construction practices at Corpus Christi’s Harbor Bridge, according to an October 23, 2023 report by Engineering News Record. “The six-lane span has been plagued with issues since construction started in 2016, and cost overruns have pushed the price from $806 million to $1.2 billion. If completed within the new time frame, the bridge will still be five years behind schedule.”

Another big corporate backer of the Let’s Go San Diego measure is global construction giant HNTB Corporation. That firm is currently enmeshed in a long-running controversy over its role as Tolling Systems Advisory Consultant in the flawed operations of the South Bay Expressway, a toll road run by the San Diego Association of Governments, which would be in charge of spending the cash raised by the Let’s Go San Diego measure if it is approved by voters.

Also on the list of Let’s Go San Diego money backers are big labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 569, Laborers International Union of North America Local 89, and the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, based in Los Angeles.

Gretchen Newsom: from mayoral hopeful to union operator.

The treasurer and one of three principal officers of the campaign committee, per a May 31 disclosure, is Gretchen Newsom. A onetime San Diego mayoral hopeful, she’s currently the powerful Political Coordinator for the Ninth District of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Enter a newly organized political committee calling itself Stop the SANDAG tax, which filed its statement of organization on June 11, listing its principal officer as Miles Himmel and treasurer as longtime Lincoln Club and GOP county bookkeeper and strategist April Boling. An ex-producer and online media guru at KFMB-TV when it was owned by members of the Republican Meyer family, Himmel is currently communications director for GOP County Supervisor Jim Desmond. In 2022, his total pay was $128,329, per the Transparent California website.

“His dad was a beloved TV reporter in San Diego for over 35 years,” says Desmond’s county website. “Miles is a native San Diegan, who started a foundation in memory of his father. The Larry Himmel Neighborhood Foundation helps those in need in San Diego.”

Art sale

As Arizona State University begins moving in on its long-exclusive turf, San Diego State University’s broadcast and website operation KPBS has gone looking for a short-term arts editor with a relatively hefty salary. “The salary range for this position is $7500-$8333.34 per month ($90,000-$100,000 per year) depending upon qualifications and is non-negotiable,” says a recent online help wanted advertisement.

“This position is grant-funded for up to three years. Continued employment is dependent on funding.” Adds the note: “The arts editor coordinates arts coverage in partnership with KPBS newsroom leadership for digital, social, video and audio platforms and leads special projects that innovate and seek to deepen connections with the community around arts engagement. The arts editor will lead the creation of a new Arts podcast, edit the weekly Arts Newsletter and the Arts in the Open series. The arts editor supervises a team of journalists, including two reporters, a podcast producer, a freelance video journalist and web producer.

“The arts editor understands how to leverage social networks to grow audiences for the arts hub on kpbs.org and broadcast platforms, emphasizing the value of connecting audiences with our content and engaging them in conversation.”....

Atkins unrelenting So-called local control advocates — who are trying to thwart an avalanche of state legislation raising residential density by overriding the will of city governments — finally have something to cheer about. But maybe not for long, thanks to San Diego state Senate Democrat Toni Atkins, reports online news website CalMatters in a June 18 dispatch. “The late April opinion from Los Angeles County Judge Curtis Kin held that a 2021 state law letting homeowners split up their houses into as many as four separate units regardless of local zoning restrictions had no effect in Redondo Beach, Carson, Torrance, Whittier or Del Mar. The reason: the five SoCal jurisdictions are ‘charter cities’ — jurisdictions with their own municipal constitutions that grant them extra independence from state law.”

But Atkins is already firing back. “Even some of those who welcomed the ruling as a victory for local control were tempered in their enthusiasm, if only because the ruling seems to invite the Legislature to simply fix its wording with another bill. San Diego Democratic Sen. Toni Atkins, who authored the four-unit housing law, is working on a bill this year, which aims to make it harder for local governments to obstruct the earlier duplex law by delaying approvals or imposing costly or unworkable design and setback requirements.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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