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Search Begins For Next General Manager Of San Diego County Water Authority

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority has hired an executive search firm and is seeking public input as it begins a search for its next general manager. Longtime general manager Maureen Stapleton retired in March, and acting General Manager Sandy Kerl will lead the agency’s staff during the search process. Los Gatos-based William Avery & Associates has has been hired to lead the search, which will include outreach to civic, business and community stakeholders to help guide the water authority board’s assessment of candidates. “The water authority has had a profound, positive influence on this region over the past 75 years, and it’s crucial that we find a visionary general manager to help write the next chapter of our story,” said Board Chair Jim Madaffer.

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Temperatures Near 100 Expected Inland As San Diego Heats Up Tuesday

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Lauren J. Mapp

Southern California’s weather is expected to continue heating up on Tuesday, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees in San Diego’s inland valleys, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service‘s local office. On Tuesday morning, “patchy dense fog could make travel hazardous” along the coast, according to the weather service. Then temperatures will begin to heat up. “The heat will be on again today as high pressure aloft peaks in strength over the southwest states,” the weather service said.

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County Receives State Grant to Control Smelly, Invasive Weed

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Debbie L. Sklar

San Diego County has received a two-year grant of $53,966 from the state Department of Food and Agriculture to contain an invasive weed species, county officials announced Wednesday. Ward’s weed has been found in Carlsbad, Del Mar, Otay Mesa and Camp Pendleton, in the only known infestations in North America, according to county officials. The weed is native to the Mediterranean and southwest Asia and threatens local fragile plant species and habitats by dispersing thousands of seeds.

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OPINION: San Diego Needs An Environmentalist Mayor To Avoid Becoming Los Angeles

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Colleen O'Connor

When did San Diego become so ugly? It’s a horrible question, but one that needs asking. How else might we stop the “Los Angelization” of our once beautiful “Camelot by the Bay?” Take a drive—any drive—or better still a walk or bike ride to see for yourself. It is not just the homeless—though the task of moving the tent cities and river bank and bridge encampments is part of the problem. Just last week, that became more obvious as the usually hidden homeless had to be hustled out of view for both the Padres home game and Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.

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OPINION: Wetlands Restoration On Mission Bay Is More Important Than Ever

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Jim Peugh

The last several years have seen a deluge of news about infrastructure in San Diego. Whether it’s the future of the stadium site in Mission Valley, the extension of the Blue Line trolley to UCSD, or the push among urbanists to revolutionize housing in our city, refining our development footprint has taken up a sizable volume of bandwidth in our civic conversation.

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Water Authority Proposes 4.3% Rate Increase To Local Agencies In 2020

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

San Diego County Water Authority staff have proposed a 4.3 percent increase in the cost of treated water in 2020, citing cost increases and continued investment in local supplies. Authority staff said the increase is driven by higher costs for water supplied and transported by the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District, as well as increasing maintenance costs for reservoirs at Lake Hodges and San Vicente, and spending for upgrades to the desalination plant in Carlsbad.

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Census Bureau: San Diego Posted 8th Largest Population Increase Among Big Cities

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

San Diego posted the eighth largest population increase between July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018 among cities with populations of 50,000 or more, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday. During the 12-month period, the population of “America’s Finest City” grew by 11,549 people, a near 1 percent increase from the previous year. Phoenix saw the largest population increase in the country during the period, adding 25,288 people, according to the Census Bureau report. San Diego was the only city in California to make the top 10 for largest population gains in the latest report, while Texas had four cities make the top 10.

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San Diego Names New Director for Troubled Public Utilities Department

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Debbie L. Sklar

The city of San Diego Thursday announced the hiring of a new director for the Public Utilities Department, which has been without a permanent director since last summer. Shauna Lorance will assume the position from interim PUD Director Matt Vespi, who took over for former Director Vic Baines after he announced his retirement last August. Lorance is the interim general manager at the Monterey County Water Resources Agency and will remain in that position through the end of June, according to the city.

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North Vs. South And Farm Vs. City Conflicts Continue To Roil California’s Water Politics

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Dan Walters

As 2018 was winding down, one of California’s leading newspapers suggested, via a front-page, banner-headlined article, that the drought that had plagued the state for much of this decade may be returning. Just weeks later, that same newspaper was reporting that record-level midwinter storms were choking mountain passes with snow, rapidly filling reservoirs and causing serious local flooding. Neither was incorrect at the time, but their juxtaposition underscores the unpredictable nature of California’s water supply. The fickleness of nature has been compounded by a decades-long, multi-front struggle among hundreds of water agencies and other interested parties over allocations of the precious liquid, not unlike the perpetual religious and ethnic wars that consumed medieval Europe.

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San Diego Climate Change Group Advocates For Local Green New Deal Support

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Lauren J. Mapp

A San Diego-based group of environmental activists launched a 100-day campaign Monday calling on the region’s congressional representatives to support the Green New Deal to mitigate the effects and exacerbation of climate change. San Diego 350 hopes to convince Reps. Susan Davis and Scott Peters, D- San Diego, and Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, to support the resolution by inundating their offices with calls and postcards from constituents between now and the August congressional recess.

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