Encinitas City Councilmember Joy Lyndes recently announced she will not seek re-election to her District 3 seat when her term ends later this year.
Lyndes shared her decision in a Jan. 5 news release, saying it came after careful reflection on both her professional work and personal circumstances.
The San Diego City Council reconvenes on Monday after a two-week winter recess with a host of contentious issues to deal with. One of the first orders of business is a report on the five-year financial outlook of the city’s water and wastewater utility funds. Last October, the council approved two years of steep water rate hikes in order to pay for federally mandated water infrastructure and the rising cost of water purchases.
The financial outlook report, however, states that two years of rate increases will not be enough to keep the utility funds solvent. Finance officials say, barring significant changes in costs or revenues, the city will have to raise water and sewer rates by 11.5% in fiscal year 2028, 11% in fiscal years 2029 and 2030 and 5% in fiscal year 2031.
Officials with the Otay Water District are working to determine what caused a main break in East County near Jamul. The water main break was reported in the area between 12563 and 12575 Old Campo Road between Spring Valley and Jamul on Wednesday.
According to the district, staff are working to identify what led to the main break and determine what repairs are needed.
The popular idea in San Diego these days is that we’re not growing – and if we are, it’s probably out in sprawly areas in the North and East County.
But new data from state demographers reveal the opposite is true. In the last three years, San Diego has added more population than any other county in the state except Riverside – and the vast majority of that growth has taken place in the city of San Diego.
The large amount of recent rains has provided the county with some benefits. NBC 7’s Todd Strain has more on the upside of all this wet weather.
Lemon Grove unanimously approved a proposed amendment to a Metro Wastewater Joint Powers Authority agreement that is intended to establish fairer billing for pure water program costs and shift voting requirements for major decisions from unanimous to a two-thirds majority.
Metro Wastewater JPA is a coalition of 13 cities and districts in San Diego County that partnered with the city of San Diego to manage regional wastewater, giving non-agency cities a voice when it comes to rates, treatment and sustainability of wastewater treatment.
The weather forecast for the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 will likely include rain showers and cloudy conditions for San Diego County.
Santa Ana winds will continue to blow throughout the region, especially in the mountains and inland valleys, early in the week. Some gusts could reach up to 65 miles per hour in the mountains and up to 35 miles per hour inland.
When budgets are tight, political promises that fight climate change or pollution tend to take a backseat. That’s true nationally, as the climate news publication Heatmap explained last month, pointing out various Democrats in Congress who backed off policies to combat global warming out of concern for the high costs they could impose on voters. San Diego is no different.
What’s not being calculated in government financial departments run by elected decisionmakers is the future cost of climate change on its residents – the more frequent flooding, heat waves and depleted natural resources. But, as Heatmap aptly put it, voters don’t go to the polls for lower costs in 2075. Voters want lower bills now.
A water district drawing down water from its own reservoir should not be controversial. It should be expected. That is, quite literally, what reservoirs are built for: to store water in wet times and use it wisely when conditions allow.
Yet in recent weeks, after one of the wettest Novembers in recent memory, Sweetwater Authority’s transfer of water from Loveland Reservoir to Sweetwater Reservoir has generated debate. That debate misses the larger point.
