In the special election to fill the District 1 vacancy on the county Board of Supervisors, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board believes that Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre is clearly the best candidate. Here’s why: When it comes to South County’s biggest issue — its sewage spill nightmare — she has been the most powerful and cogent advocate pushing for a vastly improved federal response to the problem.
In the six years since the Editorial Board first called for the U.S. government to declare the constant spills a federal emergency, the response of far too many local and state politicians has been grossly disappointing. They accept the idea that the best San Diegans could hope for in repairing broken-down sewage infrastructure on both sides of the border is incremental improvements.
But that is not the best we should be able to hope for at all. Plainly written federal rules say that the president may declare an emergency to expedite relief when a disaster is so severe “that it is beyond the combined capabilities of state and local governments to respond.” That this was beyond state and local governments was clearly true in 2019. Six years later — after another 100 billion-plus gallons of feces-laced effluent from the Tijuana River have fouled South County coastal areas and closed beaches for years a time — it could not be more obvious. But Gov. Gavin Newsom still has never considered the issue a priority. And while of the local House delegation, in particular Reps. Scott Peters and Juan Vargas, have helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for repairs, a comprehensive fix is still many years away.
There is no way to know if Aguirre’s election will change this grim picture. But she is far less likely to ively accept it, and she frames the issue in a provocative way that makes it harder to ignore: “If toxic sewage from the Tijuana River … was flooding La Jolla’s beaches, no expense would be spared, but South County gets ignored because we’re not wealthy and well-connected. It’s wrong.” We have no doubt that Aguirre will never stop her relentless push for the rapid repairs that a federal emergency declaration could yield. Sewage infrastructure is no more difficult to quickly fix than broken freeways, which for decades have repeatedly been treated as federal emergencies.
But Aguirre is also the most impressive candidate on the second biggest issue in her district: preserving the wealth- and job-creating Cali-Baja economy at a time of uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s return to the White House. In interviews with the leading candidates, the U-T board found Aguirre to be more persuasive on how to build on the success of our cross-border economic integration.
San Diego Councilmember Vivian Moreno made a strong impression with her recounting of the personal nightmares her family has faced in her San Ysidro home because they have “to marinate in the stench” of nearby sewage spills. But though she has earned a reputation as a forceful voice, she sounds much more conventional than Aguirre in how she would seek to achieve needed sewage fixes going forward. Her best issue may be housing, where she says — correctly — that it is unacceptable that the city of Encinitas built more new units than the county last year in its vast unincorporated areas.
Chula Vista Mayor John McCann has made his city’s strong record on economic development and public safety the focus of his campaign. But in his interview, McCann showed only general knowledge of sewage issues and the challenges facing the binational economy. His warning of the dire threat posed to South County by violent illegal immigrants was jarring, unsubstantiated and unconnected to the rest of our discussion.
The fourth candidate we interviewed, Chula Vista Deputy Mayor Carolina Chavez, had her moments, especially in talking about how the high cost of living affected the quality of life for so many locals. But she lacked Aguirre’s fire and intensity on the sewage issue, and doesn’t have the experience of her three rivals.
On one key issue, we found all the candidates to be disappointing: how to compel Sheriff Kelly Martinez to do more to improve the county’s deadly jails, both to keep inmates alive and to save taxpayers from spending tens of millions of dollars to settle wrongful death lawsuits that build off the incompetence and indifference of those running the jail system. All four expressed deep concern. None sounded ready to do much more than that if elected to the board.
But this doesn’t lessen our enthusiasm for Aguirre. Given the appalling pace of progress on the sewage crisis, she is the right candidate at the right time. The U-T Editorial Board endorses Paloma Aguirre for county supervisor.
