Look familiar? We pulled this from the Morning Report. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. It’s now been two years since San Diego County’s efforts to house homeless residents outpaced the number of people falling into homelessness for the first time. The Regional Task Force on Homelessness reported Tuesday that 1,337 people became homeless for the first time in March and 1,226 exited homelessness. What this means: For the past 24 months, local programs trying to combat homelessness haven’t been able to keep up with the flood of people losing their homes. One comm ..read more

Del Mar’s City Council voted to censure Councilmember Dan Quirk for the second time in just five months. The most recent censure comes after an independent investigation found he violated public meeting rules by discussing confidential information from a closed session with members of the public.  Here’s what happened: Repeated complaints from Del Mar’s city manager prompted the investigation. The findings include that Quirk spoke disparagingly about Ashley Jones and other staff and pressured them on how to do their work. That kind of direction falls outside the responsibilities of Del M ..read more

If you hang around a music scene long enough you get to see new artists pop up, evolve and branch out. It’s a fascinating and captivating thing. For me, Shelbi Bennett has been one of the most rewarding local artists to watch.  I first met her through a coworker and I vividly remember the first time I heard her sing: it was late and we’d all been drinking, and Bennett was perched up on the kitchen counter of my coworker’s Golden Hill apartment. Her voice was stunning, a velvety croon that transported me back to a smoky 1920s-era lounge. I literally got goosebumps.   From that m ..read more

The Del Mar City Council censured Councilmember Dan Quirk for a second time on Monday after findings from an independent investigation revealed he violated multiple City Council policies and the Brown Act.  According to the investigation, Quirk discussed confidential information from a closed City Council meeting with several members of the public, a violation of the Brown Act. He is also accused of inappropriate behavior toward the city manager and city staff, as well as repeatedly interfering with the city manager’s job and the jobs and duties of city staff.   The Brown Act i ..read more

A couple of months ago, Escondido city leaders adopted a new homelessness policy that prioritizes public safety and calls for a city-run homeless shelter that serves only homeless individuals with ties to Escondido. Inspiration for much of the policy came from Huntington Beach. City leaders visited a homeless shelter in Huntington Beach last year as part of their research process. They praised Huntington Beach’s large city-owned shelter that required sobriety and prioritized its own homeless residents. Escondido leaders also commended Huntington Beach for its lack of visible homelessness on t ..read more

Last year, a small group of Escondido leaders took a field trip to Huntington Beach.   Mayor Dane White, Councilmember Joe Garcia, Police Chief Ed Varso, a couple police officers and a representative from the city manager’s office piled into cars and headed to the Huntington Beach Navigation Center, a homeless shelter owned and funded by the city and operated by a nonprofit called Mercy House.  “I remember getting off the freeway and telling myself, ‘I’ll know when we’re close because I’ll start to see people loitering around,’” White said during a recent City Council meeting ..read more

Look familiar? We pulled this post from the Morning Report. Get the latest news in your inbox today. Mayor Todd Gloria on Friday unveiled a proposed budget that relies on a series of one-time moves and cuts to close a projected $137 million deficit. Among those moves, as detailed by the Union-Tribune: nixing $30 million in planned rainy day fund contributions, pulling $15 million from the city’s housing agency and skipping an annual contribution to a fund backing climate-friendly projects in low-income communities to free up $8.5 million. Also on the chopping block for the fiscal ye ..read more

Mayor Todd Gloria’s office late last week called off a crucial Thursday hearing on a proposed plan to transform a warehouse near downtown into a 1,000-bed shelter following questions about the proposed lease deal. Our Lisa Halverstadt broke the news Friday that Gloria’s office decided not to brief the City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee on a proposed 35-year lease for the Middletown warehouse after the Independent Budget Analyst’s Office raised “an issue that merits additional analysis and possibly negotiation.” Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica told Halverstadt his office h ..read more

I was out last week but I was very pleased our Tigist Layne jumped on the bizarre story about the Republican Party of San Diego County. That story, in short: The party had endorsed Andrew Hayes, for the 75th Assembly District. Carl DeMaio ended up running and trying to bury Hayes behind a Democrat in the primary. It didn’t work. Hayes made the runoff. Then, Paula Whitsell, the leader of the Central Committee, at DeMaio’s request, tried to claim the endorsement for Hayes was only for the primary and she arranged to support DeMaio. It didn’t work but she ended up throwing former City Councilman ..read more

It was a big week for things that used to be things. First up: the Republican Party of San Diego County. The one-time juggernaut lost its chairwoman after an internal battle over Carl DeMaio, who is running for state Assembly against fellow Republican Andrew Hayes. DeMaio served one term on the San Diego City Council in 2008. He’s since run for many seats unsuccessfully and has grown his brand as a polarizing conservative activist and radio talk show host. His opponent who carried the GOP endorsement during the Primary, Hayes, is a school board member in Lakeside and an aide to state Sen. Bri ..read more