Rules Committee Meeting on Affordable Housing Bond and School Board Charter Amendment - March 11, 2020
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San Diego Rules Committee Meeting - March 11, 2020
The San Diego City Council Rules Committee met on March 11, 2020, at 10:00 AM (though the transcript begins with a "good afternoon" greeting) to consider two ballot measure proposals for the November 3, 2020 municipal special election. The primary item was a proposal to issue up to $900 million in general obligation bonds to finance the construction of affordable and permanent supportive housing for vulnerable populations. The second item proposed amending the city charter to include San Diego Unified School District school board members under Council Policy 000-21. The meeting included extensive public testimony, council member discussion, and votes on both items.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Supporting the Housing Bond: Numerous speakers expressed strong support for placing the housing bond measure on the ballot. Key supporters included:
- Steven Russell (San Diego Housing Federation): Detailed the proposal, highlighting that $900 million would leverage state and federal funds (3-4x leverage) to build up to 7,500 units (2,800 permanent supportive housing for homeless; 4,700 affordable units for low-income households). He noted 71% voter support in a November 2019 poll and called the tax an investment.
- Matthew Vasilakis (Climate Action Campaign): Urged advancing the bond, linking affordable housing to climate goals.
- Craig Benedetto (NAIOP San Diego/BOMA San Diego): Supported continuing the conversation but requested mitigation for property owners who already pay inclusionary housing fees, suggesting exemptions or sliding scales.
- Brian Trotier (Family Health Centers of San Diego): Emphasized cost-effectiveness of housing over repeated emergency services.
- Chris Arthur (Eden Housing) and Debbie Fountain (Corporation for Supportive Housing): Highlighted the need for local funding to compete for state/federal funds.
- Jeff Williams (Bridge Housing) and Matthew Jumper (Interfaith Housing): Urged the city to move forward to allow voter input.
- Zach Schlegel (PATH): Noted the measure would support the city's Community Action Plan on Homelessness and was critical given the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Youth speakers from the Cesar Travis Congress (Mia Montero, Angel, Jaden, Martin Dave, Adrian Moran): Spoke passionately about the moral imperative to house the homeless.
- Joe Barrett (HEAL Network), Heather Pollock Avrick (Affirmed Housing), Warsom Artana and Joshua Piedra (Youth Will), Brian Woods (San Ysidro Health), Carol Kim (San Diego Building Trades), Tom Lemmon (Building Trades), J. Powell (former City Heights CDC), Sue Reynolds (Community Housing Works), Ricardo Flores (LISC San Diego), JP Thurber (Grow the San Diego Way), and Gary Levine (individual taxpayer) all spoke in favor, often citing leverage, job creation, and moral duty.
- Concerns from Industry:
- Matt Adams (San Diego Building Industry Association): Had not taken a position but urged serious discussion about affordability for property owners already contributing to affordable housing.
- Tom Lemmon: Supported the bond but requested inclusion of prevailing wage and skilled/trained workforce requirements.
- No public comment on the school board charter amendment item.
Discussion Items
Item 1: Housing General Obligation Bond Measure
Councilmember Ward introduced the item, and his policy director Kathleen Ferrier presented the proposal. Key details:
- Bond amount: Not to exceed $900 million.
- Units: Up to 7,500 permanent supportive and affordable housing units for extremely low (0-30% AMI), very low (30-50% AMI), and low-income (50-80% AMI) populations, including veterans, youth, seniors, persons with disabilities, and those experiencing homelessness or at serious risk.
- Tax rate: Initial estimated $2.87 per $100,000 assessed value; highest estimated $19 per $100,000 assessed value (approximately $115/year for a median-priced home).
- Oversight: Administered by San Diego Housing Commission, annual allocation plan approved by City Council, citizen oversight committee, annual COO report, and independent external audit.
- Requested action: Direct the City Attorney to conduct legal analysis and draft ballot language.
Councilmember Montgomery seconded the motion and suggested including homebuyer programs (citing Santa Clara's bond). Council President Pro Tempore Gomez raised questions about average unit cost ($325,000 per unit over last five years) and innovation (modular construction). Councilmember Kercy noted the proposal had improved but stated he would not support it today, though he favored continued discussion. Councilmember Ward emphasized the need to leverage local funds and create prevailing wage jobs.
Item 2: Charter Amendment for SDUSD School Board Members
Alan Young (policy director for Councilmember Kate) introduced the item, recalling prior committee approvals. Deputy City Attorney Sharon Speedback presented draft language, noting that other potential school board reform measures might be considered in April and that careful drafting would be needed to avoid conflicts. The committee discussed whether to send directly to full council or return to Rules Committee. Councilmember Kercy moved to forward to full council pending legal analysis of other potential measures; Councilmember Ward seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- Item 1 Housing Bond: The committee voted 4-1 to direct the City Attorney's office to conduct all necessary legal analysis and draft general obligation bond measure language, incorporating input from committee members and the public. Councilmember Kercy was the sole dissenter. The measure will return to the Rules Committee or full council for further consideration.
- Item 2 School Board Charter Amendment: The committee voted unanimously to forward the proposed ballot measure to the full City Council, with the understanding that legal review of other related proposals could require the item to come back to the Rules Committee.
- The next Rules Committee meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, April 15, 2020, at 2:00 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Rules Committee meeting of March 11th, 2020. This meeting is now in call to order. Let the record reflect that committee members Bree, Montgomery, and myself are present along with uh Sharon Speedback with the City Attorney's Office. Show Mali's. Yes, yes. Crespo with the mayor's office. Jeff Kawar with Independent Budget Analysts, and from brand new Mama Ruth Martin, my committee consultant is here. We will start with the approval of the committee record of action from November 13, 2019. Is there a motion to approve the records of action? We have a motion to a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Moves unanimously. We'll move to non-agenda public comment. The public is limited to two minutes. We have one request. The last time I was here, I spoke about our advisory committees in general, but today I would like to address two in particular. What does bother me is the loophole in the mun in the municipal code that allows the chairman to serve an indefinite term. Both the chair and the vice chair of these two committees have been termed out for well over a year. And this is not an oversight. Yet the chair and vice chair are still there. This is not fair to the other members of the committee. Nor is it fair to the public. So I will come back again and address those issues. The solar seat has been vacant for almost three years now. The um seat for the sus uh filled by the Center for Sustainable Energy has been nominated by the mayor, but it has not been confirmed by the city council. The seat for the labor uh seat representative has been vacant for uh at least uh six months. And uh an additional seat uh has just been vacated in January. My understanding uh is that the city council, if the mayor does not appoint within 45 days of a vacancy or an expiration has not just the authority but the charter states that you shall fill those seats. And so I'm making a request and I'm transmitting to you the fact that the C board voted in December at their meeting requesting the city council and the mayor to fill these seats. The city council has the ability to do it, and certainly the mayor does. So for us, what I distributed to you was the agenda for tomorrow's CBOR meeting. We may not reach quorum in order to deal with those issues. And um, this has been a constant problem that we're dealing with. It's important when people are volunteering to help advise the mayor and the city council, and we'd appreciate your support in helping us do our job. Thank you very much. Thank you. And that concludes non-agenda public comment. We will now move to committee member comments. There are any comments from committee members. I see none. Uh does our city attorney, IBA, or mayor staff have any comments. Are there any requests from continuance? Hearing none, uh, we will now move to discussion agenda items. Uh do we have any consent items on our agenda? Our first item is item one, which is a consideration of the proposed ballot measure for November 3rd, 2020, municipal special election concerning the issues of general obligation bonds to finance the construction of affordable and permanent supportive housing. We will now turn it over to Councilmember Ward to introduce this item. Thank you, Council President. Well, everybody here understands that we have a housing crisis in San Diego, that San Diegans are struggling every day under the weight of an unsustainable shortage of affordable, attainable housing that they need.
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