Council Unknowingly OK’d Surveillance Gear for Secretive Police Group
As one of its final acts in 2020, the outgoing San Diego City Council gave city employees permission to buy cell-phone hacking technology as well as drones and rapid response vehicles without realizing it.
Illustration by Adriana Heldiz
As one of its final acts in 2020, the outgoing San Diego City Council gave city employees permission to buy cell-phone hacking technology as well as drones and rapid response vehicles without realizing it.
On Dec. 8, Council members unanimously agreed to apply for and accept $16.9 million worth of federal anti-terrorism grants. The item was placed on the consent agenda, without any additional information about how the money would be spent. None of the officials asked.
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Weeks after the November election, former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer continued to solicit and collect donations for his favored charities and projects, adding to what already was the highest-grossing year for such efforts in his six-plus years in office.
According to disclosures filed with the San Diego City Clerk, Faulconer reported $122,822 in behested payments after San Diego voters selected Todd Gloria as their next mayor.
Behested payments are contributions made by third-party donors at a public official’s request. State law requires that such cash and in-kind gifts be disclosed so the public can see who is donating money to a public official’s favored cause.
San Diego launching analysis that could revive controversial polystyrene foam ban [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
One year after San Diego halted enforcement of the city’s controversial ban on polystyrene foam food containers and similar products, city officials have launched a comprehensive analysis that could revive the ban.
The California Restaurant Association, which aggressively opposed the ban as an unfair hardship for small restaurants that still use foam products, filed suit in spring 2019 contending San Diego failed to fully analyze the impact of the ban.
City officials initially downplayed the importance of the lawsuit. But in late 2019 they reversed course and announced San Diego would halt enforcement, just before the ban took full effect, so they could conduct the analysis.
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Called an environmental impact report, it will analyze the impact of the new law on pollution, traffic and other elements of the environment. It is expected to be complete by this summer, so enforcement of the ban could resume.
City officials have not provided any reason why they waited a full year to launch the analysis.
Leaders of the local environmental community this week hailed the city’s decision to move forward. They also repeated previous predictions that the analysis will determine the ban has a positive impact on the environment, not a negative one.
Polystyrene is not biodegradable and has been blamed for poisoning fish and other marine life and damaging the health of people who eat seafood. The material continuously breaks into steadily smaller pieces, allowing it to enter local waterways and easily get consumed by wildlife.