On August 24, the committee on the other side of the issue, calling itself Stop the SANDAG Tax — No on G, picked up $25,000 from the New Car Dealers Association PAC.

From paper to police

Is the Union-Tribune, cast off last summer by Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong , about to get a long-hoped-for second life? So believe an ever-hopeful few, as the paper advertises for new positions, earlier slashed by current owner Alden Global Capital in the wake of the vulture buyout firm’s bloody U-T takeover last year. “The San Diego Union-Tribune is seeking an ambitious, accomplished and tenacious reporter to join its Watchdog team and hold power to account in California’s second-largest city and beyond,” says an August 20 online recruitment notice for the position of Watchdog Reporter.

“This is an important, high-profile role in the nimble, award-winning newsroom of the region’s premiere news organization. It’s an excellent opportunity to produce impactful enterprise and investigative journalism — whether you’re a seasoned investigator, a data or public-records whiz, or a beat reporter eager to move to focusing on public accountability full-time.” Some key tasks of the new hire, says the job notice, will be to “report a mix of short-term enterprise stories and longer-term investigative work, with a digital-first approach and a focus on holding to account the institutions and powers to forces that shape San Diego and its residents’ lives,” and to “serve as an evangelist in the newsroom for accountability and transparency.”

Has Patrick Soon-Shiong thought about San Diego in the past year?

One problem, skeptics note, is that the U-T, having fled its downtown digs in a B Street high-rise, doesn’t really have a newsroom anymore, just a virtual web of staff Internet connections, making any evangelism a bit iffy. Another issue: “The hourly wage is $33.65-$36.06.” Doing the math, that would top out at around $74,000 a year. By comparison, California fast food restaurant workers get a $20 minimum wage.

Sam Shulz, the U-T’s government and watchdog editor, did some recruiting via her account on the social media site now known as X: “Great job alert: I’m hiring an investigative reporter to hold San Diego institutions to account & build up our Watchdog team. Come break news, pursue short-term enterprise & big projects, & work with brilliant colleagues at the @sdut.” She added: “But we’ve also got a handful of other open jobs around the @sdut newsroom, including 2 reporters & 1 sports editor. Details to follow...”

Along with the bevy of new help-wanted ads, U-T departures continue. “After 12 years at The San Diego Union-Tribune, I’ll be starting a new chapter doing community liaison work at the San Diego Police Department, says an August 24 X post by Lyndsay Winkley, listed on the U-T’s website last week as Reporter — Public safety. “Fully capturing the ways my hometown paper has shaped me is an impossible task. The privilege of doing work I believe in so deeply alongside such talented and dedicated professionals has been the honor of a lifetime. Good journalism, imo, provokes thought, inspires dialogue and drives change by encouraging communities to engage in the kinds of discussions that shape our society’s future. It’s my goal to continue that effort in a new and exciting way. Let’s keep talking.”

Winkley’s putative U-T replacement, in the newly titled role of Crime and Public Safety Reporter, per the recent round of help-wanted notices, “should have a good understanding of law enforcement operations and culture, and work diligently to mine sources within the police world and beyond. The successful candidate must also bring a watchdog mindset to the beat and embrace community-driven reporting. The hourly wage is $28.84-$35.67.” The paper is also “looking for a versatile editor who can assist with the daily planning of the sports section (online and print), plan and guide daily section production, work alongside full-time reporters and freelancers, and guide special projects as needed.”

Political homes

The California State Association of Electrical Workers came up with $100,000 on August 19 for Yes on G., San Diego County’s half-cent transportation sales tax increase on the November ballot. On August 24, the committee on the other side of the issue, calling itself Stop the SANDAG Tax — No on G, picked up $25,000 from the New Car Dealers Association PAC. Santee gun belt purveyor Kore Essentials gave $1000 to the No on G forces the same day. Meanwhile, RCS Harmony Partners, LLC, the luxury housing and retail developer that gave $15,000 on June 26 to a political committee calling itself the Homelessness Crisis Response Committee Supporting Kevin Faulconer for Supervisor 2024, came up with $10,000 more on August 23.

Clawback

California’s state auditor has called out San Diego for misusing state funding given in the form of a marijuana grant frenzy three years ago. “The 2021 Budget Act appropriated $100 million for the Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program to assist 17 selected local jurisdictions in helping provisional license holders that need the greatest assistance in obtaining an annual state license,” says an August 29 audit report.

“We found that not all grantees adequately tracked their expenditures and documented whether staff time charged to the Grant Program was spent on tasks related to the program.” In San Diego’s case, per the document, “The city used more than $6000 in grant funds to rent meeting space and provide translation services for the development of its equity program. However, developing an equity program is not an allowable use of these grant funds.”

Notes the report: “There is some ambiguity in the grant agreement about whether San Diego intended to use the funds to establish a local equity program. Nevertheless, the purpose of this program is to help existing provisional license holders obtain annual state licenses.”

A July 31 letter to auditors from Lara Gates, deputy director of the city’s Development Services Department, says San Diego is no longer seeking state reimbursement for the misspent $6000, but doesn’t say where the replacement cash is ultimately going to come from. “The City of San Diego requests that the report should include language that reflects that the subject $6000 line item for translation and room rental costs have been reversed and are no longer included in the grant expenditures.”

Lyndsay Winkley: leaving journalism to do community liaison work for SDPD.

Whether that will be enough to placate state auditors who are trying to claw back misspend marijuana money remains to be seen. “To reduce the risk that [the California Department of Cannabis Control] will require it to repay grant funds, by October 2024, the city of San Diego should review all expenditures it has paid for with grant funds, clarify with [the Department of Cannabis Control] whether the expenditures are allowable, and reimburse the grant funds from its general fund for any unallowable expenditures,” the audit says, adding, “The city of San Diego had earned more than $4800 in interest as of March 2023 on the $611,000 in Grant Program funds that [the Department of Cannabis Control] advanced the city — interest that San Diego credited to the grant.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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