Getting to Know My State Senator

My 38th district State Senator, Brian Jones, emailed me yesterday. The subject line, “Will I see you?”made me wonder where I had met him, on what occasion, and where and when he hoped to see me again. But the senator’s salutation: “Dear Friends,” suggested his fondness for me only began with his discovery of my name on a list of his district’s registered voters.

My new friend’s form letter alerted me to his legislative open house next month. “Hundreds of local elected officials and community leaders have already RSVP’d,” he gushed. “Believe me, the Open House will be the place to be in East County this fall!”

Well, it won’t be the place for me.

I’m registered as an NPP, no party preference, voter. One in four Californians are now so registered. The percentage has doubled in the last ten years, from 12.5% to 25%, rising to the second largest number of registered voters.

Since I have no party affiliation, here’s how I evaluate each candidate.

Does the candidate have the experience and judgment to do the job?
Do their positions on the issues match my own?
Who is paying for their campaign?
How might campaign donors expect to be rewarded?

Here’s how I follow a candidate’s campaign money:

City elections: https://www.san-marcos.net/your-government/city-council/campaign-statements
County elections: https://www.southtechhosting.com/SanDiegoCounty/CampaignDocsWebRetrieval/Search/SearchByCandidateName.aspx
State elections:  http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Candidates/
Federal elections:  https://www.fec.gov/data/

Vote Smart: https://votesmart.org/ is my favorite website for researching candidates. Its mission is “to provide free, factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials to all Americans.” Among its founders were: President Jimmy Carter, President Gerald Ford, Senator Barry Goldwater and Senator George McGovern

Here’s what the worker bees at Vote Smart do:

Picture this: thousands of citizens (conservative and liberal alike) working together, spending endless hours researching the backgrounds and records of thousands of political candidates and elected officials to discover their voting records, campaign contributions, public statements, biographical data (including their work history) and evaluations of them generated by over 400 national and 1300 state special interest groups.

With this much information handy, there’s no need to attend bloviating political rallies to guide my voting choices.

Here’s what I discovered about my new State Senator pen pal on Vote Smart, and why I won’t have to drive to Santee next month for his open house.

BS, Business Administration, San Diego State University, 1988-1992
Senator, California State Senate, District 38, 2018-present
Assembly Member, California State Assembly, District 71, 2010-2016
Member, City of Santee Council, 2002-2010

Here are the titles of a few bills he voted against on issues that caught my interest. They easily passed either the House, Senate or both:

Urges the Federal Government to Pass Universal Firearm Safety Regulation
Prohibits Firearms with Detachable Magazines
Prohibits the Possession of High-Capacity Gun Magazines
Prohibits Purchasing More than One Gun per Month
Rescinds Federal Freeze of Environmental Deregulation
Prohibits Smoking on State Beaches and Parks
Prohibits Discrimination Against Transgendered Individuals

Although Jones, a Republican, rarely voted for a bill passed by a California legislature dominated by Democrats, here are two he supported:
Authorizes Bars to Remain Open Until 3:00 AM
Authorizes Sleeping in Vehicles

Vote Smart reports, “Brian Jones has failed to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by Our 2018 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests.” But Jones did respond to the issues identified on its 2010 test.

Calling himself Pro Life, he answered no to the question, “Should abortion be legal if a woman’s life is endangered?”

On State Spending he did not support any increases, with slight decreases for education and welfare.

On State Taxes he supported great decreases for corporate and gasoline taxes, and slight decreases in sales taxes and for income taxes of middle and high income families.

To balance California’s budget he supported mandated furloughs and layoffs of state employees, reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients, and privatizing certain government services.

On environmental and energy issues he supported state funding for both alternative and traditional energy sources, like coal and oil.

On gun issues he supported allowing individuals to carry concealed guns, rejecting additional background checks on their purchase and possession.

On social issues he believed marriage should only be between one man and one woman. He rejected same sex domestic partnerships, as well as affirmative action.

On legislative priorities he listed jobs and spending.  He boasted, “I am the only candidate, who, as an elected official, has actually contributed to creating jobs in the district.” He claimed his city of Santee, where he served on the city council, “has not raised sales taxes ever” and still balances its budget by cutting its budget.

Jones received $430,000 to fund his 2018 campaign. His most generous supporter was the California Association of Realtors, with a donation of $16, 400.

Jones isn’t up for reelection until 2022. I’ll check back for a Vote Smart update before casting my vote in that election.

North County Climate Action Plans: A Tale of Two Cities

A funeral was held last month at the site of Iceland’s Okjökull glacier. A century ago it covered nearly six square miles, measuring 164 ft. deep. Today, it’s less than one square mile, 49 feet thick. The shrinking sheet of ice can no longer be called a glacier. A tombstone plaque was placed at the site. 

A Letter to the Future

This monument is to acknowledge that we know

what is happening and what needs to be done.

Only you know if we did it.

August 19, 2019

A month later, an estimated 4 million young people filled streets in cities around the world, demanding attention to climate change. Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish activist, addressed the UN Climate Change Summit with these words: “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and yet all you can talk about is money. You are failing us."

What’s North San Diego County doing about it? I searched the city websites of San Marcos and Carlsbad to find out. 

San Marcos adopted its 147-page Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2013. It tells what the city will do to comply with the Governor's 2005 Executive Order to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, by 40 percent in 2030, and 80 percent in 2050. There have been no progress reports posted on the city’s website in the past five years.

Two years after San Marcos created its CAP, Carlsbad adopted its own 242-page plan. City Manager Scott Chadwick’s 2017 and 2018 annual reports are posted on the city’s website. The city put teeth into its plan for new business developments, adding the following two ordinances to its Municipal Code.

Electric vehicles

ORDINANCE NO. CS-349

The electric vehicle ordinance requires of new nonresidential projects:

• 10 percent of parking spaces, or a minimum of one space, must be electric vehicle capable.
• 50 percent of the electric vehicle capable spaces, or a minimum of one space, must be equipped with electric vehicle charging stations.

Transportation demand management

ORDINANCE NO. CS-350

All new nonresidential development projects where employees generate a minimum of 110 average daily trips are subject to the ordinance, which requires development of a Transportation Demand Management plan, outlining facility improvements, programs, incentives, education, marketing and outreach for a development project for review and approval by the city.

San Marcos chose not to amend its Municipal Code, but to add to the city’s General Plan measures to bring down GHG emissions, including the following:

Increase overall City fleet fuel efficiency by replacing gasoline vehicles with hybrids.

Work with individual departments with vehicle fleets and equipment to develop fuel saving policies and programs.

Implement programs and provide incentives to reduce annual vehicle miles traveled associated with City employee commutes.

Participate in SANDAG’s free iCommute program to develop and implement a customized commuter benefit program for City employees.

Implement improvements to smooth traffic flow, reduce idling, eliminate bottlenecks, and encourage efficient driving techniques.

Conduct education campaigns to promote fuel-efficient driving (“eco-driving”) practices such as reduced idling, slower driving speeds, gentle acceleration, and proper tire inflation.

San Marcos held several community workshops in May, open to all residents, to create a “2019 CAP Update.” A questionnaire was used to solicit opinions on various emissions reduction measures, many of which were already included in the 2013 plan.

Here’s a sample of the questionnaire used to solicit attendee opinions.

From the list of proposed strategies, below, please indicate up to five strategies that you support the most.

Here are just four on the list of 25 choices:

☐ Require EV charging stations at new multi-family and non-residential developments.

☐ Synchronize traffic signals along major corridors to reduce vehicle idling.

☐ Install roundabouts to improve efficiency of vehicle travel in the City.

☐ Install new bike lanes and upgrade existing ones in the City as stipulated in the General Plan. .

The questionnaire suggests those who don’t believe in the urgency of climate change, like the guy in the White House, together with those who do, had an equal say in the meetings. It seems the popularity of emissions reduction strategies, not climate science, will guide the city’s climate plan update.

San Marcos gets the credit for government transparency. It lists on its website all 50 major commercial, industrial, residential and mixed use development projects underway, together with maps and descriptions of the projects, the names of developer applicants, and the phone numbers of city staff for more detailed information.

Carlsbad could learn from that. The city’s website is not at all user-friendly for finding development projects. More transparency could have helped when a billionaire developer tried to put a shopping mall on the banks of the city’s pristine Agua Hedionda Lagoon a few years ago.

It appears San Marcos and Carlsbad could learn from each other. But the challenge to us all is reflected in a Washington Post survey, cited by Pulitzer Prize winning, environmental journalist, Elizabeth Kolbert, in her September 30, 2019 New Yorker article. Although more people are concerned about global warming, fewer than half said they would support a $2/month surcharge on their electricity bills, only a third would support a ten-cent-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax.

Looks like bad news for the shrinking glaciers.

North County Climate Action Plans: A Tale of Two Cities

A funeral was held last month at the site of Iceland’s Okjökull glacier. A century ago it covered nearly six square miles, measuring 164 ft. deep. Today, it’s less than one square mile, 49 feet thick. The shrinking sheet of ice can no longer be called a glacier. A tombstone plaque was placed at the site. 

A Letter to the Future

This monument is to acknowledge that we know

what is happening and what needs to be done.

Only you know if we did it.

August 19, 2019

A month later, an estimated 4 million young people filled streets in cities around the world, demanding attention to climate change. Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish activist, addressed the UN Climate Change Summit with these words: “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and yet all you can talk about is money. You are failing us."

What’s North San Diego County doing about it? I searched the city websites of San Marcos and Carlsbad to find out. 

San Marcos adopted its 147-page Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2013. It tells what the city will do to comply with the Governor's 2005 Executive Order to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, by 40 percent in 2030, and 80 percent in 2050. There have been no progress reports posted on the city’s website in the past five years.

Two years after San Marcos created its CAP, Carlsbad adopted its own 242-page plan. City Manager Scott Chadwick’s 2017 and 2018 annual reports are posted on the city’s website. The city put teeth into its plan for new business developments, adding the following two ordinances to its Municipal Code.

Electric vehicles

ORDINANCE NO. CS-349

The electric vehicle ordinance requires of new nonresidential projects:

• 10 percent of parking spaces, or a minimum of one space, must be electric vehicle capable.
• 50 percent of the electric vehicle capable spaces, or a minimum of one space, must be equipped with electric vehicle charging stations.

Transportation demand management

ORDINANCE NO. CS-350

All new nonresidential development projects where employees generate a minimum of 110 average daily trips are subject to the ordinance, which requires development of a Transportation Demand Management plan, outlining facility improvements, programs, incentives, education, marketing and outreach for a development project for review and approval by the city.

San Marcos chose not to amend its Municipal Code, but to add to the city’s General Plan measures to bring down GHG emissions, including the following:

Increase overall City fleet fuel efficiency by replacing gasoline vehicles with hybrids.

Work with individual departments with vehicle fleets and equipment to develop fuel saving policies and programs.

Implement programs and provide incentives to reduce annual vehicle miles traveled associated with City employee commutes.

Participate in SANDAG’s free iCommute program to develop and implement a customized commuter benefit program for City employees.

Implement improvements to smooth traffic flow, reduce idling, eliminate bottlenecks, and encourage efficient driving techniques.

Conduct education campaigns to promote fuel-efficient driving (“eco-driving”) practices such as reduced idling, slower driving speeds, gentle acceleration, and proper tire inflation.

San Marcos held several community workshops in May, open to all residents, to create a “2019 CAP Update.” A questionnaire was used to solicit opinions on various emissions reduction measures, many of which were already included in the 2013 plan.

Here’s a sample of the questionnaire used to solicit attendee opinions.

From the list of proposed strategies, below, please indicate up to five strategies that you support the most.

Here are just four on the list of 25 choices:

☐ Require EV charging stations at new multi-family and non-residential developments.

☐ Synchronize traffic signals along major corridors to reduce vehicle idling.

☐ Install roundabouts to improve efficiency of vehicle travel in the City.

☐ Install new bike lanes and upgrade existing ones in the City as stipulated in the General Plan. .

The questionnaire suggests those who don’t believe in the urgency of climate change, like the guy in the White House, together with those who do, had an equal say in the meetings. It seems the popularity of emissions reduction strategies, not climate science, will guide the city’s climate plan update.

San Marcos gets the credit for government transparency. It lists on its website all 50 major commercial, industrial, residential and mixed use development projects underway, together with maps and descriptions of the projects, the names of developer applicants, and the phone numbers of city staff for more detailed information.

Carlsbad could learn from that. The city’s website is not at all user-friendly for finding development projects. More transparency could have helped when a billionaire developer tried to put a shopping mall on the banks of the city’s pristine Agua Hedionda Lagoon a few years ago.

It appears San Marcos and Carlsbad could learn from each other. But the challenge to us all is reflected in a Washington Post survey, cited by Pulitzer Prize winning, environmental journalist, Elizabeth Kolbert, in her September 30, 2019 New Yorker article. Although more people are concerned about global warming, fewer than half said they would support a $2/month surcharge on their electricity bills, only a third would support a ten-cent-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax.

Looks like bad news for the shrinking glaciers.