SAN DIEGO
Cities across the state found creative ways to maintain and even broaden public access and government participation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, even as some are taking that away citing costs and staffing limits state lawmakers are moving to keep the online access open.
A collection of bills being considered by the Legislature would preserve teleconferencing, meetings over Zoom, Facebook Live, YouTube and other virtual methods used during the yearlong shutdown that allowed an often disenfranchised population to participate in government meetings.
Single parents, disabled residents, homebound seniors and others were able, perhaps for the first time, to hear and see in real time the decisions being made by their elected officials.
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By Eduardo Rueda, Investigative Reporter
chula vista City Councilman John McCann, Photo by Sean M. Haffey
Chula Vista City Councilman John McCann continues raising money to retire debt from his 2014 campaign.
McCann, a Republican, won a bitterly fought race against former Mayor Steve Padilla, a Democrat. The two candidates ended up tied on election night, and after a few rounds of re-counts and challenges, McCann emerged the winner by a margin of only 2 votes.
During the campaign leading up to the election, McCann raised a total of $41,129 but ended up spending $99,075. The majority of the outstanding debt was for campaign mailing services totaling $40,662, as well as $5,000 win bonus to his political consultant.