Morning Report: Bird Advocates Fight to Stop SeaWorld Fireworks

Mission Bay Park’s leaders took action against SeaWorld and other fireworks displays that bird advocates blame for the littering of bird bodies along the bay shore this Fourth of July holiday.

All nine members of the Mission Bay Park Committee decided to draft a letter to city and state officials stating concerns over fireworks displays launched at Mission Bay both legally and illegally. 

SeaWorld San Diego ignited over 500 pounds of explosives from Fiesta Island during the Fourth of July. The animal theme park lights fireworks every single evening during the summertime, and bird advocates want that to stop. San Diego Bird Alliance (formerly known as the San Diego Audubon Society) called on the city and state to revoke SeaWorld’s fireworks permit, arguing the pyrotechnics disrupt nesting sea birds, some of which are endangered. 

“We support the park committee’s emphasis on improving management of Mission Bay by removing these disturbances that affect and harm wildlife,” said Andrew Meyer, San Diego Bird Alliance’s director of conservation. 

The park committee plans to review and approve a draft of their letter at their October meeting. 

No Search for a New San Diego Unified Supe?

Some San Diego Unified board members are saying they have no intention of putting on a search for a new superintendent. 

As dedicated readers will know, San Diego Unified fired Superintendent Lamont Jackson abruptly last week, after an investigation found he’d sexually harassed two employees. Board members immediately appointed Jackson’s number two Fabiola Bagula to temporarily take the reins. 

But the arrangement may not be temporary. 

“There’s every intention that [Bagula] is going to continue forward as the superintendent and there’s not an intention right now to do a search [for a new superintendent,]” one board member said. 

Read the Learning Curve here. 

Another Judge Gives Measure C the Go-Ahead

A Superior Court judge late last week quietly ruled a hotel-tax measure voters considered more than four years ago can move forward but the fight over Measure C likely isn’t over yet.

The Union-Tribune broke the news of Superior Court Judge Wendy M. Behan’s ruling on Measure C, which would fund a Convention Center expansion, homeless services and road repairs. Behan decided there was insufficient proof that local officials were significantly involved in the measure, a sticking point since proponents had argued it was a citizens measure that should pass with a simple majority.

How we got here: For years, opponents and backers of the proposed hotel-tax hike battled in court over whether Measure C passed with 65 percent of the vote in March 2020, less than the two-thirds threshold traditionally required for tax hikes. The state Court of Appeal declared last summer that Measure C was a citizens’ initiative that passed with less than a two-thirds vote but directed the Superior Court to decide whether a now-former Convention Center Corp. official got too involved in the measure.

What’s next: The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and attorney Cory Briggs, who is representing California Taxpayers Action Network, told Voice of San Diego they expect to appeal last week’s ruling. Both declined to elaborate on the ruling itself. The U-T predicted appeals could translate into at least one-and-a-half more years of legal uncertainty.

The newspaper also noted that the decision allows the city to begin collecting increased hotel taxes but a spokesperson for Mayor Todd Gloria said Wednesday that the mayor’s team hasn’t decided how to proceed “given the uncertainty presented by the ongoing legal challenges.”

What the city attorney’s saying: “After nearly four years of frivolous litigation, the only thing plaintiffs have achieved is to delay the implementation of Measure C and the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that could have been used to address the homelessness problem, modernize the convention center, and repair city streets,” City Attorney Mara Elliott wrote in a statement. “That is a dubious accomplishment for organizations who claim to be working on behalf of our shared commitment to improve our city.”

In Other News 

• The police officer who was injured last week following a pursuit was released from the hospital Tuesday. Officer Zachary Martinez and his partner, officer Austin Machitar, were hit by a car that another police officer was chasing briefly on Aug. 26 in Clairemont. Machitar and the 16-year-old boy driving the car involved in the pursuit died. (Union-Tribune) 
• As our Jakob McWhinney reported, many school districts are considering banning cell phones on campus. KPBS reports that one school district in Carlsbad is already doing it, and that the county approved some funds for lockable phone pouches and lockers. 
• San Diego prosecutors are going after several individuals for fraudulently applying for pandemic relief funds and spending that money on diamond-encrusted watches and jewelry. (NBC 7) 
• The mayor of Imperial Beach is asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to seek a national emergency declaration over the cross-border sewage crisis. (CBS 8) 

The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer, Will Huntsberry, Lisa Halverstadt and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. 

The post Morning Report: Bird Advocates Fight to Stop SeaWorld Fireworks appeared first on Voice of San Diego.