SAN DIEGO — The San Diego City Council's Rules Committee voted Wednesday to send roughly a half dozen proposed March and November 2020 ballot measures to a second committee review session.
The committee considered 16 proposed initiatives during the meeting. Approved proposals will be drafted by the city attorney's office and then brought back to the Rules Committee, save for one, and then sent to the full council for final approval to place them on the ballot.
The committee voted 3-2 in favor of one of the highest-profile proposals, a $900 million bond proposed by the San Diego Housing Federation to build affordable housing for military veterans, homeless families, seniors and disabled people.
The housing federation initially planned to put the bond on the 2018 ballot but elected that June to push it 2020. The proposed bond initiative as approved by the committee would be placed on the November ballot.
"The only way we can effectively address homelessness is to build more supportive housing," said City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, who voted in favor of the initiative. "This is housing the private sector can't build, doesn't make economic sense for them. This is housing the public has to build."
Councilman Mark Kersey opposed putting the proposal on the ballot because of his prior support of a hotel tax increase to fund a convention center expansion, homeless services and infrastructure improvements and argued it would be bad politics to hold public votes on both in the same calendar year. The council voted 5-4 in April to place the hotel tax hike initiative on the March 2020 ballot.
The committee unanimously approved a proposal from City Attorney Mara Elliott to allow the city's Community Review Board on Police Practices to retain its own independent legal counsel. Currently, the city attorney's office is the board's chief legal counsel. The committee chose to send the proposal to the council's Public Safety and Land Use Committee instead of bringing it back to the Rules Committee for a second review.
The committee also approved a proposal from Councilman Scott Sherman to move the responsibility for the city auditor appointment process from the mayor's office to the council's Audit Committee. Currently, the mayor appoints a city auditor candidate to serve a 10-year term.
Under the proposed initiative, the Audit Committee would recruit and choose three candidates for the city auditor position. The council would then choose one of the three candidates to serve as the city auditor.
"I am thankful to my colleagues on the Rules Committee for supporting this common sense solution to a flawed process," Sherman said in a statement. "I look forward to working with all stakeholders to draft an acceptable charter amendment for the March ballot."
Proposals that are approved in committee a second time are scheduled to go before the full council in October and November. The city attorney's office must file approved ballot measures with the county Registrar of Voters by Dec. 6 to be placed on the March 3, 2020, ballot.
