Hello and welcome back to The People’s Business, a preview of what the San Diego City Council and its policy committees will be considering this week.

The full City Council will meet today and tomorrow. The Audit Committee will meet at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, and the Environment Committee will meet at 1 p.m. on Thursday. This week’s Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee meeting has been adjourned.

Meanwhile, the City Council will convene a special annual meeting Wednesday evening so that Mayor Kevin Faulconer can deliver the annual State of the City address. The event, free and open to the public, takes place at the Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. Doors open at 5 p.m. The program begins at 6.

City Council — Monday, Jan. 13

The main event at today’s full council meeting is a proposed ordinance to regulate billboards advertising cannabis businesses. Specifically, the ordinance would prohibit billboards with cannabis ads within 1,000 feet of a school, playground, public park, day-care center, or youth center.

City Council — Tuesday, Jan. 14

Highlighting tomorrow’s meeting of the full council is the first step in a proposal to place a measure on the Nov. 3, 2020, ballot that would issue bonds to fund the construction of affordable and permanent supportive housing for veterans, seniors, residents with disabilities, and struggling families with children. This proposal is brought forward by District 3 Councilmember Chris Ward.

By law, in order to issue bonds of this kind, the City must make certain findings and determinations that make the factual and legal case that the bonds are necessary. The action being considered today is approval of a Resolution of Necessity, which will contain those findings and determinations. This won’t be the final action on this matter. The council will consider an ordinance to place the bond measure on the ballot at a later date.

The City of San Diego officially declared an affordable-housing emergency back in 2002. Last October, the City adopted the Community Action Plan on Homelessness, which details the scope of the challenge and recommends solutions.

Speaking of affordable housing, the council, acting as the San Diego Housing Authority, will consider moving forward with the proposed Hilltop & Euclid Family Housing, a proposed development in District 4 that would include 113 new homes — from studio apartments to four-bedroom units. Two of the units would be for building managers; the remaining 111 would be affordable for low-income families earning from 30 percent to 60 percent of area medium income (from $22,500 for a one-person studio to $69,360 for a family of five) .

Specifically up for discussion are a loan from the San Diego Housing Commission of roughly $8.5 million and a bond issuance of $29 million to facilitate land acquisition and project construction.

Also on tomorrow’s agenda is another matter aimed at reducing homelessness — a proposal to extend an initial agreement with Family Health Centers of San Diego to operate the City’s new Housing Navigation Center from Feb. 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020 (simply to align the initial agreement with the fiscal year), and then to renew the contract through the end of 2020 (to provide additional time to evaluate the operation).

Funding for the five-month extension of the current contract— $645,833 — is already in the Housing Commission’s current-year budget. The six-month renewal would be contingent on the City providing $775,000 in the fiscal year 2021 budget, which takes effect on July 1, 2020.

Meanwhile, the council will also decide whether to allow construction of a 360-foot-long underground tunnel connecting the new San Diego Central Courthouse on Union Street to the County Central Jail a block away on Front Street. The tunnel would allow for the safe and controlled transport of detainees back and forth between the jail and the courthouse. Currently, detainees are transported in public — by bus. Today’s actions include certification of environmental-impact documents and approval of development permits.

Audit Committee — Wednesday, Jan. 15

This week, the Audit Committee will discuss:

• the fiscal year 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), a statement detailing the condition of all city funds;


• a quarterly activity report on the City’s Fraud Hotline, which allows city employees or residents to confidentially report activity related to City personnel, resources, or operations if they suspect fraud, waste, or abuse;


• and a City Auditor investigation of the City of San Diego’s responses to requests for information under the California Public Records Act, an investigation that originated from a report to the Fraud Hotline.

Environment Committee — Thursday, Jan. 16

The lone discussion item on the Environment Committee agenda this week is a resolution to declare a climate emergency in the City of San Diego, brought forward by District 2 Councilmember and Environment Committee Chair Jennifer Campbell.

Councilmember Campbell believes the proposed resolution would underscore the City’s commitment to environmental sustainability, building on initiatives such as the Climate Action Plan and San Diego Community Power.

The resolution would commit San Diego "to work and partner with residents, businesses, and community groups to educate our community about the climate crisis, and to work to catalyze a just transition and a climate emergency mobilization effort at the local, state, national and global levels, to provide maximum protection to our residents."

Learn more about the City Council’s policy committees.