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City Council

The People's Business: June 22, 2020

The City Council is back on Tuesday for its regular weekly meeting, and compared with last week's 22-item policy-palooza, it's a fairly short one.

As everyone surely knows by now, due to COVID-19, only City staff and credentialed members of the press may attend the meeting in person. However, anyone can participate and make comments by dialing 619-541-6310 and entering the access code 877861 followed by # when the item you're interested in comes up (full call-in instructions). Watch the meetings on cable TV channel 24 or AT&T channel 99, or stream them online.

If you'd like more detail on anything summarized here, click the agenda, then click on the item. Over on the right side of the page, you'll see links to a staff report and other pieces of supporting material.

City Council -- Tuesday, June 23

Tuesday's agenda starts with nine consent items that are considered noncontroversial and won't be discussed unless a Council member or a member of the public pulls them out for conversation. Let's look at the four matters on the discussion agenda, shall we?:

Earlier this month, the City Council's Rules Committee voted to advance to the full Council a ballot initiative that would dissolve the existing Community Review Board on Police Practices and create a new Independent Commission on Police Practices. On Tuesday, the highest-profile item on the agenda will be two resolutions related to this measure -- one that would ratify a recent agreement with the San Diego Police Officers Association (SDPOA) and one that would declare the Council's intent to place this initiative on the November 2020 ballot once the election is officially scheduled, which should be sometime in July.

San Diego Police carMembers of the proposed commission would be appointed by the City Council. The commission would be completely independent of the Mayor's Office and the San Diego Police Department and would have its own full-time legal counsel, as well as subpoena power to compel witnesses to testify. Its mission would be to investigate, regardless of whether a complaint is filed, all deaths occurring while a person is in police custody, all deaths resulting from interaction with a police officer, and all officer-related shootings, in addition to evaluating all findings and conclusions arising from investigations of police misconduct.

The one change to the initiative arising from negotiations with the SDPOA is the ability for officers to appeal any sustained findings of misconduct to the City's Civil Service Commission.

What else is on the agenda? Here's what:

  • Google map of  2426 Fourth Ave.4th Avenue Apartments: Back in March, the Council took a first step toward overruling a determination by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority that the proposed 4th Avenue Apartments development is inconsistent with the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan (ALUCP), a document that, as the title suggests, promotes development around the airport that is compatible with the airport.

The project, proposed for a vacant chunk of land on the west side of Fourth Avenue in Bankers Hill, between Laurel and Kalmia streets, includes 36 apartments, four of which will be set aside for renters with very low incomes, and a 1,174-square-foot retail suite. The ALUCP sets 22 units as the maximum allowable density on the property. Rather than voluntarily downsize the project, the developer is staying the course and asking the City Council to overrule the Airport Authority, which is allowed under the California Public Utilities Code. The rules say the Council must vote during two separate hearings to overrule, both of which require a two-thirds majority (six of nine members). This is the second of those hearings.

In April, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) sent the City a letter agreeing with the Airport Authority, but City staff believes Caltrans is off base. They're asking the Council to vote a second time to overrule the Airport Authority and approve a site development permit for the project.

  • Appeal of the Environmental Determination for Webster Gas: El Cajon resident Adel Somo has filed an appeal of a determination by the City of San Diego's Development Services Department (DSD) that a gas station project proposed for 4727 Federal Blvd. in the Ridgeview / Webster neighborhood is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. DSD will ask the Council to deny the appeal.

  • Federal Single Audit Report: Every year, the City is required to obtain what's known as a single audit from an outside auditing firm (Macias, Gini & O’Connell), ensuring that the City is in compliance with rules associated with any federal grant programs through which it receives funding. On Tuesday, the Council will get a presentation on the Federal Single Audit Report for fiscal year 2019. Spoiler alert: It's a clean audit.

Tuesday's meeting officially starts at 9 a.m., when the Council will listen to public comment on any items on the closed-session agenda. Then they'll retreat to closed session and return to open session at 11 a.m.

Next up: a post on a special meeting of the Council's Land Use and Housing Committee, which will go down on Wednesday, June 24. This will mark the first time a committee other than the Rules Committee and Audit Committee has met since the COVID-19 pandemic struck.


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