On this episode we are joined by Mayor of Coronado, Richard Bailey, to describe the inner workings of local politics. We discuss how municipal and county politics intertwine to affect our day to day lives and how important it is to stay involved.
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Phil is a San Diego based attorney who specializes in criminal defense and constitutional law both under the US and California Constitution. Review the Anchor.Fm Privacy Policy: Anchor - The easiest way to make a podcast
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If you're a California, conservative a Libertarian, a
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moderate Democrat. Believe in common sense or just
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the same person. This is the political podcast
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for you. It's the California underground
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podcast. What's going on everybody?
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Thanks for tuning in to another episode of California
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underground. Very lucky tonight to have the
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mayor of Coronado Richard bayly. Joining us right before Fourth
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of July weekend. I know it's a very busy weekend
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over in Coronado, so, mr. Mayor, thank you for coming on
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taking the time before I was very busy weekend to talk about
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local. I'll fix.
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How are you doing tonight? Hey, doing great.
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Thanks so much for having me on great.
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And as always, my trusty co-host Cynthia's here as well.
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And if she's got plenty of questions about local Politics
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as well. She's been looking forward to
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this one. Now, for people in San Diego, I
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would say, you're pretty well-known.
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You're like a local political celebrity, but for people who
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are not San Diego people, why don't you introduce yourself who
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you are, how you got into politics?
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You know, just basically your life story.
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So the people know who you You are.
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Yeah. In about 90 minutes or so.
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Wrap it up then. Yeah, about right.
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You know, Joe Rogan show how you got it.
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Yeah. So born and raised here in San
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Diego County and always had a fascination with public policy
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and politics. Probably beginning in high
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school went away to college and ended up, majoring in business
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finance and started my career in the corporate finance world.
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But I kind of always had that natural in Nation and
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fascination with with politics would be the first thing I
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checked in the morning when I woke up and the last thing I
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want to read before going to bed and so fast forward to 2012.
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I volunteered on a lot of campaigns in my free time, I was
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working in corporate finance then, but a lot of my free time
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was spent going to different political functions and it was
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in June of 2012. I was driving home one day
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driving across the bridge. Edge and back home in Coronado
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and it just kind of hit me that gosh.
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I'd really like to have more of a say in what goes on in local
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politics than simply cast, in a ballot for my Representatives,
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every 24 years. And so I kind of thought, gosh,
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like why not, why not run for local City Council in Coronado?
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And I was very fortunate that at the time, I had a great great
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work, environment that gave me the flexibility to pursue this
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kind of career in public policy and When that first city
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council, see back in 2012, ended up running for mayor in 2016 and
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then just got re-elected in November 2020.
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So been outed for a while now. Awesome.
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So now you've been mayor for a while now, that doesn't just
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mean, you're just mayor of Coronado.
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One reason you want to hop on here and chat.
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Tonight was specifically about local politics at this local
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level. And if anybody follows the show,
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they know, I always talk about how important pot local politics
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are how they have such an impact on your daily life.
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And we're going to get into some things that are affecting
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people's daily lives here in San Diego.
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One thing you're a part of that you've really educated me on.
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Is this organization called sand tag and I didn't even know what
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sandbag was it sounded like this big Mysterious World Government
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entity at least on a San Diego County level why don't you
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explain? What's and dag is in the context
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of San Diego. Absolutely, you know, ought to
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be honest, Phil, I think a lot of local elected officials that
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aren't on sandbag. Might have a hard time.
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Describing, what's hand? Actually isn't does so you're
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certainly not alone and viewers and listeners wouldn't be alone
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and not understand was handbag is all about either but it is
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arguably one of the most important government
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bureaucracies that our region has.
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So all throughout the nation and all throughout the state of
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California, there are organizations that are referred
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to as mpos, meaning Metropolitan planning organizations.
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And The federal government and the state government rely on
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these mpos to distribute state and federal funding in sandbags
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case Sandy a ghiz, the mpo for the San Diego County region.
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And it is primarily responsible for Doling out dollars for large
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Transportation projects within San Diego County.
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Its budget is about 1.3 billion dollars per year.
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Some of those funds come from the federal government, some of
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those funds come from the state and other funds are raised
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locally through various sales tax.
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The board of sandag is comprised of a representative from all of
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the 18 cities within San Diego County, and a representative
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from the county as well. So that's kind of the overall
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structure of what's handbag looks like.
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So, the general goal is in a big County like steamed, San Diego
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is to kind of get everyone to work together.
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Is that sort of the correct idea?
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Is that like, the idealistic way to put it that they want these
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local governments to work together, less about wanting the
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local governments to work together in more about that.
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Sandbag is a vehicle that can help Implement Transportation
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policy, transportation and housing policies within San.
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You County and because the board is comprised of representatives
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from all the local governments, ideally, you would hope that
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they would work together that often times, is not the case,
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especially lately, but ideally, that's what would happen.
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They were work together is solve transportation and housing
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related issues. And one of those issues that has
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been most controversial. Recently, is this idea that they
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were floating, which was, they wanted to create a mileage tax
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as part of the regional plan for transportation here in San Diego
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County, talk about that a little bit and how that got started and
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where what happened to it now. And is there a future for that
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type of plan? Insane deck, definitely well, so
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The bad news is that the mileage tax is almost certainly going to
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be something that San Diego County voters face at some point
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in the future, both from San Diego County and also from the
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state of California. But backing up for a second,
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kind of explaining how this came to be every five years.
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Roughly San Diego is obligated by state and federal law to
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develop what is known as a regional transportation plan.
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And that Regional Transportation plan is a 30-year
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forward-looking document the kind of help guides the
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organization and starts outlining what projects and what
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initiatives sandbag wants to take on to move the county
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forward in terms of Transportation policy, San
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Diego's ahead, and they, they put an estimated figure on all
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the major transportation projects.
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They want to do for the next 30 Years and then they have to come
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up with a reasonably anticipated funding.
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For these projects, the reason that's important, having these
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reasonable and anticipated. Funding sources is important is
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because oftentimes funding from the state in funding from the
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federal government is contingent on having so amount of local
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funding available for those projects, for example, the
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MidCoast trolley line that just opened up a few months ago.
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That was a 2.2 billion dollar project.
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Sandbag brought roughly billion dollars from local funds
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generated through, local sales tax to that project.
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And then the Federal Gun federal government chipped in a billion
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dollars as well. But if we hadn't had of Sandy, I
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cannot have that billion dollars with local funding available.
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The federal government would not have matched it themselves.
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So Regional Transportation plan, 30-year forward-looking
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document. They identify all the products
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they want in their they estimate the cost roughly and then they
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go ahead and start figuring out. They start identifying
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anticipated funding sources In this case, for the regional
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transportation plan, it's a 160 billion dollar plan, the sandbag
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board is hand. X staff had identified three,
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new sales tax increases to help fund this plan happening in
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2022, 2024 and 20:28. They also identified, including
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new tolls on, basically every single freeway in San Diego
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County. So they wanted to charge you for
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driving on the highway is an To the gas tax, your pain now and
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they wanted to add on a surcharge to every single Uber
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and Lyft ride, someone would tape.
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And then lastly and most controversially, they
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anticipated receiving a large sum of funds from what is known
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as a vehicle mile traveled tax or the short form, the mileage
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tax, which would charge drivers anywhere from two to four cents
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locally. Lee for every mile they drove
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and they take all those funds, then use that to build out the
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regional transportation plan for the next 30 Years.
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So, was there ever any discussion.
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I know you and I have talked about this, but was there any
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discussion about how they thought they were going to tax
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you per mile outside of work? I guess the most unobtrusive way
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is Theta, ask you to report your odometer year-over-year on,
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maybe a tax form or something like that.
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Or I mean I don't know. Anything more intrusive than
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that. I would imagine could be a
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Fourth Amendment violation. That they're going to start
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tracking your cars. Was there ever.
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Discussion of how they actually thought they were going to get
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get this accomplished. There is zero discussion about
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how this would actually be administered.
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Let me rephrase up there was a lot of discussion about how this
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would be administered but there was Zero Clarity on what the end
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result would actually look like. So you raised the question about
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privacy concerns, a lot of board members expressed privacy
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concerns as well but because the staff is completely unaware of
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how this will actually be implemented because and frankly
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the technology although it does exist.
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It's never been implemented like anywhere in California or the
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the country for that matter yet. They weren't quite sure how to
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answer those privacy concerns, the state of California and the
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federal government are moving forward with pilot programs to
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evaluate various ways that a mileage tax could be
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implemented. But so far, they have not rolled
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those out in a mass way. It is anticipated that somewhere
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between 20 28 and 2032 Weird, we will start seeing the mileage
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tax at the state level, and then almost certainly thereafter at
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the regional level. I mean I guess the question
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anybody listening and hearing this idea of a mileage tax, the
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first question that probably comes to mind is isn't that the
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point of what the gas tax was for right?
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Wasn't this the whole point that they promised?
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Oh if we just add this tiny bit of tax on your gas, then it'll
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just be a consumption tax. Obviously if you drive more,
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you'll pay more in tax and that will fix all the roads and
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transportation here in California and They're saying on
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top of the guys text, let's try out.
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How many miles you drive? Does that seem like the right
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concern for a lot of people listening and that was it that
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is a very valid concern and that was a concern.
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I raised, as a board member and sandack staff seemed to kind of
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get caught up in this, where they would tell the board.
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Oh, well we would never incorporate a local mileage tax,
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so long as the gas tax remain in effect.
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However, we Look at the regional transportation plans, funding
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you thought a significant overlap between revenue coming
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from the gas tax during the same years that Revenue was
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anticipated come from the mileage tax.
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So just from the revenue projections in ten tags on plan,
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they showed that, no, they weren't planning it, had the gas
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tax repeal before implementing mileage tax.
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They were going to implement both at the same time so that
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was that, that was a big concern of mine because I think like
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most most conservative, most Libertarians, most people that
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are Right now, I would argue probably even most Democrats,
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all believe in pain. You know, your fair share, we
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might have different ideas of what paying your fair share is,
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but I'm a big believer in. We should pay for the
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infrastructure you use, and if I drive a thousand miles on on the
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streets in an all-electric vehicle, And I effectively don't
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pay anything for the infrastructure I use.
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Well, that's not necessarily fair to the person.
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That's a drove. A truck that gets, you know, 20
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miles a gallon, who's paying quite a bit and gas tax for that
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infrastructure. So I think we can, we can all
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agree that we should pay for the infrastructure.
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We use think the question is, how do you do it in the most
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efficient? And fair way possible?
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And I think that when you look at that Regional Transportation
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plan, charging a mileage tax on top of a gas tax on top of you
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toll fees on top of uber and Lyft surcharges on top of three
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additional sales taxes, All to pay for essentially the 160
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billion dollar plan when only roughly a third of that funding,
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is going to go to roads and highways that to me it's not
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fair at all. And you had made the point,
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because a lot of this had to do with, they want to expand public
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transportation, right? One of their big goals is, we
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want to expand public transportation cost.
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The county we want to add more buses.
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They've added a new trolley line.
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But you did a, a piece. Remember, I caught it on KO SI
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where you started in Coronado? And we're trying to get to La
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Jolla all by public transportation and how long did
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it take you. Yeah.
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We started at City Hall in Coronado and I wanted to try out
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the new blue line. The new MidCoast trolley line
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extension. That was that 2.2 billion dollar
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project. I said it earlier we left around
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7:00 a.m. and it took an hour and 40 minutes I believe either
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an hour and 26 an hour and 40 minutes on public transit and we
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we mapped out how long it would take by car.
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We left the exact same time and it would have taken about 20 26
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minutes and that here it is. This brand new 2.2 billion
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dollar, trolley extension, that both San Diego.
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MTS are hailing as the future transportation in San Diego.
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And yet it takes so long to get to your final destination.
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And your final destination has to be within walking distance of
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where ever is Draught, where that transits dropping you off
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for you, to even use it that you are so limited in your
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destinations that you can go to that.
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Just my point was to try to demonstrate like how unrealistic
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this is for the average person and I think that segment kind of
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joke from that point and we're going to be doing a lot more of
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those leading up to leading up to November.
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And I remember one of the replies was I forget which
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politician he was either Glory or somebody like that replied to
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your this video and said well this is just proves that we need
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to invest more in public. Yeah.
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Agent Rossi and I think is MTS. Okay it was empty.
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I ask you said this just proves our point that you need to
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invest more into public transportation but it's one of
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those things where I feel like I don't think more is Never Enough
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when it comes to public transportation and a lot of the
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goals I demolish is a bottomless pit.
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Couple points that, you know, some of the viewers might be
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interested in. There is this narrative out
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there especially amongst some of the left hip center board
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members on San Diego that we can't vote.
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Keep extending freeways and we can't keep doing what we have
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been doing. In terms of transportation
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funding, we need to give even more to Transit.
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And it's based on this premise that we just haven't been
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spending enough on public transit over the past 24 years.
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But the fact of the matter is we have spent 55 percent of all
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Local transportation funding dollars on public.
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Is it over the last 24 years and yet Transit?
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Ridership as a share of overall commuters is down, it's less
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than 2% now. And it was at a peak around 3%
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before covid, but it's down to less than 2%.
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And that Trend was happening even before the pandemic.
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So, it just kind of begs the question.
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Like, you know, if you build it, will they come in?
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The answer is, no, the answer is no, they do not come and ride
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Transit. There's a number of reasons for
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that including San Diego county is.
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It's a very, Large geographic region, and one thing, you know,
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one of the many things I think, is hard for us and outdoor
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members to keep in mind, is that when you go visit New York City,
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where you go visit Paris, can you see this, this transit
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system, they have there and they come back and they say, gosh, we
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should be able to have a transit system like that here in San
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Diego County. Well, the fact of the matter is
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the Manhattan borough of New York, which holds 1.5 million
00:18:00
people could fit entirely within the Delimit events nearest,
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which has a single population of like, 50 or 60 people.
00:18:07
So you would have to increase the population density events.
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You just thirtyfold to basically have a population density that
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could justify the type of transit system that they have in
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Manhattan. The entire city limits of Paris,
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could fit with inside the city limits of Carlsbad.
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And so you'd have to increase this population density of
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Carlsbad by, you know, 24 to have Tablet, it would take to
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have that similar type of transit system, which gets to
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the question, I think of, well, are we here to serve the transit
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system or is the transit system here to serve us?
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And I think too often tend to a board members and my friends on
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the other side of the aisle? Kind of get that.
00:18:51
Exactly reverse. They look at us as here to serve
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a transit system versus a transit system serving us.
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So, speaking about, you know, friends across the aisle where
00:19:00
you're in politics and then fill my way.
00:19:02
All politics a lot too. So we're well aware of the
00:19:05
breakdown of where. Yeah we're following.
00:19:10
I casually follow politics. Yeah, yeah, we're well aware of
00:19:14
the breakdown of like so by Nature San dieg is technically
00:19:17
nonpartisan of the municipality elections.
00:19:21
They're technically bipartisan. But sandag, just saw the gist of
00:19:25
it doesn't seem like it, you know, for the viewers I think
00:19:28
they'd be curious about if at the top of your head or maybe
00:19:32
just too rough. Estimate like how partisan is
00:19:34
sandbag? Like how many people are
00:19:37
Democrats? How many Republicans?
00:19:38
Because in my opinion, I don't think it's no surprise that
00:19:41
there is, you know, a part of the sandbag the people that make
00:19:45
up sound AG, you know, they lie in the certain way in regards to
00:19:48
like the mileage tax and then there's some people who oppose
00:19:52
it. I know for the San Diego,
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Republican party, you know, for the elect for the people were
00:19:57
endorsing like for the Lincoln Club, you know, we were looking
00:20:00
at they were going to oppose whatever sandbag was I'm like
00:20:03
what's your take on that? Yeah, yeah, great question.
00:20:08
The all of the representatives to stand ag2r technically
00:20:12
elected through nonpartisan races, right?
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So like me being the mayor of Coronado although I have my
00:20:18
party affiliation when I'm up the ballot.
00:20:21
It's not like you seen our or a d next to your name.
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So all of this and our Representatives come from
00:20:26
nonpartisan offices. However, there is very much a
00:20:29
partisan bent to, to sandbag. So of the 19 board members right
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now we have 10 that are Left of center and we have eight that
00:20:41
are right of Center, and then the city of Escondido actually
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does not have a representative at this time.
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They actually pulled their representative and they don't
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have any representation as San Diego at this time.
00:20:51
So it's roughly a 10-8 or 7:49 left-of-center majority on
00:20:59
sandag now, prior to 2018, San Diego, had a really interesting
00:21:06
voting See jerr. So you have the 19 board members
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right 19 board members representing their 18 cities and
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then also the county and in order to pass anything at
00:21:19
sandbag, you had to have an affirmative vote from a majority
00:21:25
of the individual board members. So essentially, a tally vote.
00:21:28
So you how to how to an affirmative vote for majority of
00:21:31
the San Diego or numbers. But in addition to that tally,
00:21:34
vote to pass anything. You also had to have a vote from
00:21:42
enough cities that a majority of the San Diego County population
00:21:47
was represented So you have a how to have a majority tally do
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and you had to have a majority vote from the city's
00:21:54
representing majority of the population, San Diego County,
00:21:57
effectively, you could think of it as the US House
00:22:00
Representative population, vote in the US Senate, representing
00:22:03
the interest of those individual jurisdictions and that voting
00:22:08
method like really forced collaboration, right?
00:22:12
You couldn't have the bigger cities, just say, hey we're
00:22:15
going to take a bunch of tax revenue from all the smaller
00:22:18
cities. That are paying into this and
00:22:20
use it for how we want to use it.
00:22:22
And you couldn't have a lot of smaller cities that would try to
00:22:25
make their priorities for their smaller cities higher than what
00:22:28
the big cities wanted. So you everyone was forced to
00:22:32
work together in a very collaborative way.
00:22:34
Little cities could essentially block anything in big cities.
00:22:37
Could also block anything they wanted to but now the vote, if
00:22:42
it's the, after 2018, the voting procedures changed, this is
00:22:47
commonly referred to in the news as the quote weighted vote
00:22:51
Lorena Gonzalez. Introduced a bill that got rid
00:22:53
of that population and an individual City voting.
00:23:00
And they go now just strictly with population.
00:23:03
So you can have a situation where 15 board members feel a
00:23:08
certain way and they vote a certain way and they get
00:23:11
Overridden by for board members. Not just like not just a veto
00:23:16
but cramming anything through. So what we've seen happen is
00:23:20
we've seen votes happen where the city of San Diego.
00:23:24
The city of Encinitas, two of us at National City all get
00:23:28
together and they vote in a way that is at complete odds with
00:23:33
the other 15 more numbers in a passes.
00:23:36
Anyways, so to your point Cynthia, you know, there's a,
00:23:39
there's a lot of talk of how this and outboard skews now and
00:23:42
it does skew pretty far left because It can be entirely
00:23:45
driven by just those four cities.
00:23:50
And that's one reason why when we I was talking on the podcast
00:23:53
pretty show about how important local politics is and people
00:23:56
don't really pay attention to these races is getting people
00:24:01
like yourself into local politics, does have that kind of
00:24:05
Bubble Up effect of like, there are going to be more people and
00:24:09
you've talked about it as well, where we have to keep like,
00:24:13
Rebecca Jones up in San Marcos. We have to make sure she's
00:24:17
reelected so that we keep that seat and sandbag and it's Very
00:24:20
important about the balance of power.
00:24:23
It's not just that local jurisdiction.
00:24:25
It's the voice that you in representation.
00:24:28
You now have on sand at. Correct.
00:24:30
Exactly, that's really what it's all about.
00:24:33
And yeah. So if you are say you're in the
00:24:35
city of and if you're in the city of Santee you might have
00:24:39
nothing in common with someone that lives in Encinitas.
00:24:43
But I guarantee you you're both commuting to and from work and
00:24:46
to and from dropping off kids from soccer, practice to inform
00:24:48
the grocery store. Tune, From all these different
00:24:50
life events. You might have in your going to
00:24:53
want sound Transportation policy.
00:24:55
So you now being from Santi, you should care who the
00:24:59
representative is from Encinitas because that represented from
00:25:02
Encinitas is going to serve on this handbag board and is going
00:25:05
to be casting votes, that directly affect how you move
00:25:08
about throughout the county. So, recently, there was a little
00:25:15
bit of a scandal with sandack. I think it was the the head of
00:25:19
And what you call him, the president or the chairman was
00:25:24
found to be spending lavishly on steak dinners, and all this
00:25:28
stuff and it was improper use of funds.
00:25:32
Do you want to comment on that? And what happened with all that
00:25:36
if we're talking about all this money?
00:25:38
That's and I wants to raise for itself through all these new
00:25:40
taxes, we should know if they're spending it improperly correct.
00:25:44
Yeah, the short answer is. Yes, they spent some taxpayer
00:25:47
dollars in property is no question about it.
00:25:50
A few months ago it was discovered that standing leg
00:25:54
leadership, specifically, his Sonic Radha, who's the CEO of
00:25:58
the organization was spending using this and a credit card to
00:26:03
rack up some pretty sizable dinner bills with some pretty
00:26:07
high-profile politicians like such as Lorena Gonzalez and
00:26:10
Nathan Fletcher. I think it's a 300 dollar meal
00:26:14
at a nice steak house here in town, not bad.
00:26:19
Not bad, not bad. Even though neither Nathan or
00:26:21
Lorraine are actually on sandbags.
00:26:23
That was kind of interesting that he be taking them out to
00:26:24
dinner. Several other large
00:26:28
expenditures, which caught the Public's attention.
00:26:30
But I think really what's with spoke volumes to me is that
00:26:36
There were credit card receipts showing that Hassan had actually
00:26:43
put his coffee on the taxpayer dime and like, is that really,
00:26:48
are you really expecting the taxpayers to pick up your seven
00:26:51
dollar cup of coffee at Starbucks?
00:26:53
Like I know it just I know it seems so small and so petty.
00:26:57
But I think it really speaks volumes to how some have the
00:27:00
sandbag offices actually think of taxpayers.
00:27:05
Well yeah, I mean it's especially in times like these
00:27:07
where you're getting squeezed that the pump is getting
00:27:09
squeezed at the grocery store and it just seems like there's a
00:27:13
never-ending parade of taxes new ideas for taxes in California
00:27:18
and then you're supposed to be your idealistically.
00:27:21
You're supposed to be paying this money to sandbag to Pay
00:27:25
your fair share to pay for infrastructure and all this and
00:27:28
then you have the CEO who's wining and dining politicians
00:27:32
and it's funny. It just seems like those two
00:27:35
names, Nathan, Fletcher, and Lorena Gonzalez seem to come up
00:27:38
in a lot of situations. Yeah, they always seem to have
00:27:41
their noses and every kind of San Diego, San Diego, kind of
00:27:45
business. They have a large influence
00:27:47
here, they are a very powerful figures, they really are
00:27:51
obviously learning and Solace former selling woman and now Now
00:27:54
she was a powerful union leader and then she went to the
00:27:57
assembly and now she's an even more powerful, labor union
00:28:00
leader, and it's a pleasure, of course, chairman of the Board of
00:28:05
Supervisors and also chair of MTS.
00:28:07
So yeah. Are they make a lot of policies?
00:28:11
That's for sure. So how much of this and I want
00:28:15
to go back to real quick and then we can kind of transition
00:28:18
bringing up Nathan Fletcher to County Supervisors how much of
00:28:22
this money. Raised in the billions and
00:28:26
billions of dollars that then gets funneled back to unions who
00:28:30
then complete the construction projects in the transportation
00:28:33
projects, who then take the money that we've given them and
00:28:38
then they take that money and funnel it back to Democrats,
00:28:40
like Lorena Gonzalez Nathan Fletcher and all them whose
00:28:45
support unions because they say they support worker rights.
00:28:47
But right. Yeah, yeah, it would be, it
00:28:50
would be tough to put to put a dollar figure on it but I I
00:28:55
offer this up for the listeners and viewers out there.
00:28:58
And this is something that I was not as widely reported as it
00:29:02
should have been this to me was extremely underhanded and in my
00:29:07
opinion, I think it appears and darn near certain that sandbag
00:29:14
intense, whether they intentionally do this, or not
00:29:16
was effectively circumventing election, law are attempting to
00:29:19
circumvent election law recently, so I'll get to that in
00:29:21
a second. So backing up.
00:29:24
To fall of last year. Follow 2021, labor unions come
00:29:29
to San Diego and they say hey we want to project labor agreement.
00:29:33
Meaning that all future standout projects will have to be built
00:29:37
with labor union work at certain at a certain rate.
00:29:43
Well, the labor unions fact. A lot of candidates that are now
00:29:46
on this handbag board and so guess what?
00:29:49
San Diego border had in a split vote approved.
00:29:51
Those project, labor agreements, how do you play Arguments tend
00:29:54
to add anywhere from 10 to 25 percent to the total project
00:29:59
costs. Right now you're you're pulling
00:30:01
from the various much smaller pool of potential, laborers, and
00:30:04
contractors and you're only now going with labor union, guys.
00:30:08
So the cost get added pretty significantly to these projects.
00:30:11
So labor, unions back. Candidates those candidates for
00:30:15
office, then get on the sandbag born.
00:30:17
Those sandbag board members then vote to approve these project.
00:30:20
Labor agreements which benefit they were unions.
00:30:22
Okay. Fast forward a few months later,
00:30:26
December of twenty Twenty-One, San Diego board, approves the
00:30:30
regional transportation plan, which includes 160 billion
00:30:33
dollars in new projects. Well, guess who wants to see the
00:30:39
funding past to actually go out and build those projects.
00:30:44
The labor units dragons, they have a lot of wine now.
00:30:48
So what happens is Sandy has a choice for Sandy.
00:30:52
I can to put that first sales tax measure on the ballot, which
00:30:55
they anticipate it being on the ballot in 2022.
00:30:58
The sandbag board can with a simple up down vote.
00:31:01
Put that sales tax measure on the ballot in November voters.
00:31:05
However, if they do that, it takes a two-thirds Vote or
00:31:10
threshold of pass because it was initiated by Saint deck. but if
00:31:15
the labor unions, Put that measure on the ballot through a
00:31:19
citizen's initiative, it only takes a 50 percent voter
00:31:23
threshold pass. And here's the kicker sandbag as
00:31:28
an agency. Now, they're San Diego as an
00:31:30
agency, nor the board members on San Diego, are allowed to
00:31:33
coordinate with any citizens initiative.
00:31:36
It's illegal. So, again against election law,
00:31:40
So in San Diego said, effectively is hey you know this
00:31:45
funding for this extremely important 160 billion dollar
00:31:49
Regional Transportation plan. You know, the sales tax measure
00:31:52
that we said, yep, we reasonably anticipate coming to fruition in
00:31:56
2022. Well we are not going to put it
00:31:58
on the ballot ourselves. We are just going to hope that a
00:32:04
citizen's initiative comes through and puts on the ballot
00:32:06
for us. Guess what?
00:32:08
Labor union started to do that. So, sand X waited on the
00:32:13
sidelines, not lifting a finger to put their own measure on the
00:32:15
ballot. And as if I think was two weeks
00:32:17
ago, maybe three weeks ago, now, labor unions, trying to put this
00:32:21
measure on the ballot. They had to collect 100 and
00:32:24
something thousand signatures to qualify the measure.
00:32:27
It, they fell short of the number of signatures they
00:32:29
needed. And so now that measure is not
00:32:31
going to appear on the ballot. So now sandag is out of the huge
00:32:35
funding source that they were anticipating and this is going
00:32:39
to force handy egg into a corner.
00:32:40
That might require them to actually build or develop a new
00:32:44
Regional Transportation plan. So I look at this and just
00:32:47
thought man, this is Poetic Justice here.
00:32:48
You had Sandy egg, trying to circumvent election law by
00:32:51
getting in bed with the labor unions in the labor unions.
00:32:54
Drop the ball. So great.
00:32:56
That's that's where they get us for they deserve.
00:33:01
Yeah, it's on definitely a all Unholy alliances seems like
00:33:06
between the two of them, and it's just a vicious cycle of
00:33:08
money in money out. And I mean you can follow the
00:33:11
money with all this. I mean it's easy to follow who
00:33:13
donates to which candidate and most of them are unions and then
00:33:18
the Union money backs, Democrats pretty much 100% here in
00:33:22
California. It's just they raised a lot of
00:33:25
money and then you have people like the rankine's Al's who
00:33:28
create laws like a B-52. That then goes back to help the
00:33:33
unions and who I think she blocked me actually.
00:33:36
So I'm proud of that that you want to meet you on both our
00:33:39
personal and or assembly account the right of people walking.
00:33:43
Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:44
Connor I think I called her out too many times for you know, how
00:33:48
does she like her new cushy labor union job?
00:33:50
And then that was it, she blocked me.
00:33:51
So she didn't like that too much for someone who acts, like she's
00:33:56
very tough and that she can take it.
00:33:58
She likes to block as soon as possible.
00:34:01
A lot, I've noticed a lot of politicians tend to have some
00:34:03
pretty thin skin. That's that's very true.
00:34:07
And speaking of people with thin scan, Nathan Fletcher, who you
00:34:10
brought up who is the current chair of the County Supervisors?
00:34:15
And again, this is, I don't want to sound like a broken record,
00:34:19
but again, this is why local politics matters is, the board
00:34:23
essentially flipped from even though it's nonpartisan, it
00:34:27
isn't, it is a nonpartisan race but everyone sort of knows who's
00:34:30
running it. Did flip in the last election
00:34:34
and went from Kristin Gaspar. Who was a republican?
00:34:38
It was a 3-2, Republican County Supervisor report to right
00:34:41
around covid. Now all of a sudden we had
00:34:43
Lawson Reimer who jumped in who is a Democrat far left or
00:34:49
Democrat and because of that 32 majority.
00:34:53
Now you have Nathan Fletcher who was the chair of the County
00:34:56
Supervisors? Yeah, that's right.
00:35:00
That's right. And really when you fast, when
00:35:02
you rewind the clock, just maybe six years.
00:35:05
No, no, four years. Now the board was a 50,
00:35:08
Republican, Democrat majority. So there were no Democrats on
00:35:11
the board and within a short order now is the 32 Democratic
00:35:15
Republican majority and you've seen some drastic drastic policy
00:35:21
changes, right? Like you see the county, the
00:35:23
county is trying to take on everything now from trying to
00:35:26
cure racism, I don't know how government agencies go Going to
00:35:29
do that to try to redefine what a woman is.
00:35:33
I'm not sure we needed a new definition there.
00:35:36
It's like, hey, I guess we have got to get back to the basics of
00:35:39
what local government is all about.
00:35:41
We can't be all things to all people were often times.
00:35:44
Not good enough that, even what we're our core responsibilities
00:35:46
are. So I think really gotta get back
00:35:48
to focusing on the basics. And one thing that and maybe
00:35:54
this is just my tinfoil hat, is it feels like ever since Nathan
00:35:58
Fletcher has become the chair. It seems like San Diego has
00:36:02
become the testing ground for some of these National policies
00:36:07
that are being run out. So it was back last year in
00:36:11
August, they rolled out this resolution of we take, we're
00:36:15
going to start pushing back or we're going to.
00:36:18
It was very wishy-washy and mushy, how they?
00:36:20
To do it that they want to start going after misinformation and
00:36:24
in Nathan Fletcher's words, he wants a combat and use County
00:36:27
resources to combat what was called misinformation.
00:36:31
We then saw the ministry of Truth or excuse me, that this
00:36:35
information governance board will be rolled out at the
00:36:38
federal level. So it feels like ever since
00:36:40
then, we've been seeing a lot of those leftist policies, being
00:36:44
tried out here in San Diego County.
00:36:47
Look, I'll give Nathan Fletcher a lot of credit Nathan, and Hi,
00:36:50
are we do work together from time to time?
00:36:54
We are on very, very opposite sides of just about every single
00:36:58
issue. You can find but I'll give
00:37:00
Nathan credit, Nathan credit for this.
00:37:02
Like he's he is effective at advancing the policies for the
00:37:07
left of center of of San Diego County, like the far left of
00:37:11
center like he's been affected out that and I think that's to
00:37:15
the detriment of our County. I think that oftentimes has not
00:37:18
benefited, you know, every day The aliens but he has been
00:37:22
effective in advancing. Those far-left policies.
00:37:24
There's no question about it. And if you hadn't want to step
00:37:28
on your, you had a question, go ahead.
00:37:31
Oh, so and fun facts. You like you brought up, you
00:37:33
know. Combat misinformation.
00:37:36
I remember when he did that, he brags on Twitter that other
00:37:41
County Supervisors followed suit, and he bragged about that.
00:37:44
And then I also remember during the last session for the State
00:37:48
Assembly Aquila Weber dr. Kill Weber.
00:37:50
She also introduced a similar resolution.
00:37:53
I can't recall if it made it, if it garnered the votes, or fit me
00:37:57
about assembly, and it just kind of died because, you know, the
00:38:00
Appropriations just of timing so I tend fall.
00:38:04
Hi. Remember that question that I
00:38:07
had is also, you know, I'll be honest like talking about this
00:38:11
maybe some viewers or listeners. They if they're right of Center,
00:38:15
like they might think that there's no hope.
00:38:18
Do you think there's hope like, for example, like, one thing
00:38:21
that we try to emphasize it following along what's
00:38:24
happening, willfully? And I know, one thing that I
00:38:27
give you credit for, because you did look lead the effort on this
00:38:30
when there was a mileage tax or proposed, you are encouraging
00:38:33
everyone to as constituents. To call your elected officials,
00:38:36
who were members of Saint, who are board members of sandag, you
00:38:39
know, email and call these people, let them know that
00:38:41
you're opposed to this. Do you think those kinds of
00:38:44
things? Make a difference even to those
00:38:47
members of sandbag that, you know, for a fact are on your
00:38:50
side. Because I have also heard like,
00:38:53
hey, even if, you know, if you think that, you know, their
00:38:57
votes are depending on it, like, they could be sueded.
00:38:59
And then I've also heard, you know, the other side of advice,
00:39:02
even if you know that like, for example, like I know, You are my
00:39:05
representative like I know you both how I would want to vote.
00:39:08
But I've also heard like it's important, you still let them
00:39:11
know that you support this too. Because for example, I would
00:39:15
imagine, you know, if you are on a board meeting force and Ike
00:39:17
and you have like a data she like, oh hey, this is not people
00:39:21
called me, you know, that agree with me on this.
00:39:23
Like, do those things matter. Do you think it makes a
00:39:25
difference when constituents make that there are no their
00:39:29
voices now? Yeah, no question about it.
00:39:31
It definitely matter. I'll give you a quick example
00:39:42
leading into the adoption of the regional transportation plan,
00:39:45
which included that mileage tax. We had only received, I want to
00:39:49
say somewhere between 200 and 500 public comment on the
00:39:59
regional transit expectation plan with with about 72 with
00:40:07
about, with that 3 to 5 days left.
00:40:09
Before we going to prove, clamp all from special interest
00:40:12
groups, that had a lot to gain by us advance.
00:40:14
In this plan, whether environmental groups are locally
00:40:15
during Labour, using however, as we started, spreading the word
00:40:20
that hey regular folks in San Diego County.
00:40:21
Here's what's in the plan. You got this plan passes, you
00:40:23
are going to be on the hook. For all these sales, tax
00:40:26
increases, this mileage tax, Etc, contact your
00:40:29
representative. And we made it very easy for
00:40:31
them to contact all board members but specifically easy to
00:40:34
contact their board members. So if you were you're writing in
00:40:38
from Encinitas, you could write to all this and I board members
00:40:40
very easily but you could also write to Catherine Blake's beer.
00:40:44
Who's the representative from San Diego represented from
00:40:46
Encinitas. In those last three to five days
00:40:49
we had over 6 people right to the board and so if you're
00:40:54
from a small now 6 people and a county a 3.3 million,
00:40:57
might not sound like many people but if you are from a small City
00:41:01
like Imperial Beach or like even Encinitas, He's delmar's, Auntie
00:41:07
etc, etc. Most of the Cities here in Town
00:41:09
and County. If you see six thousand emails
00:41:12
come into your inbox like it was ping ping, ping, ping ping,
00:41:15
every day for 4 for 3 or 5 days that's going to make a
00:41:19
difference. And I know I made a difference
00:41:21
because the day before, the vote on the regional transportation
00:41:24
plan, you had every single San Diego board member of the
00:41:28
exception of one. Say we're going to adopt this
00:41:30
plan tomorrow and yes, it's going to include the mileage
00:41:32
tax, but I'm not actually for the amount of tax anymore and I
00:41:34
promise to voters, We will come back and take this knowledge
00:41:37
text app. So they were at least willing to
00:41:40
pay lip service because they saw just how many people who are
00:41:43
opposed to it. So yes, I do have hope I really
00:41:45
do. Have hope for the future of San
00:41:46
Diego County. You know what?
00:41:49
I actually have not given up on the Democratic party.
00:41:53
I'm registered Republican. I think we're the Republican
00:41:57
party. We haven't done ourselves.
00:42:00
A lot of favors over the last decade or two, but I do think
00:42:05
the I do think that the general thrust of the Republican party
00:42:10
of conserving government, making it smaller, bringing
00:42:13
decision-making closer to the closer to the people that
00:42:17
decisions actually affect and really focusing on the core
00:42:21
responsibilities of local governments are policies.
00:42:24
That resonate with the General Public Public Safety, sound
00:42:28
infrastructure, these Transportation projects making
00:42:31
it so that people can to. And from work easier, they can
00:42:34
so people don't have to join a A labor unions because they want
00:42:37
to be an independent contractor. Like, these are the types of
00:42:40
common-sense policies that register with people across the
00:42:43
political spectrum. And I think that if the
00:42:45
Republican Party can lead on policy versus trying to lead
00:42:49
with their party, they will appeal to a broad range of
00:42:53
Voters and whether or not it's a republican office or a Democrat
00:42:57
that was kind of brought to the center because of being in a,
00:43:00
you know, stiff competition with Republicans.
00:43:02
I think that will overall better serve our region so I haven't
00:43:04
given up on our region. I think the more we can focus on
00:43:07
policy, the better off our region will be Yeah, I mean I
00:43:13
agree. I think one thing that I always
00:43:15
gripe about the Republican party here in California.
00:43:18
Is that their major policy platform is?
00:43:21
We're not Democrats, right? And that can't be a policy.
00:43:26
You can't be the contrarian party.
00:43:28
The contrarian party or the contrarian candidate rarely ever
00:43:31
wins, right? You can't just be I'm not that
00:43:35
person because people want to vote for something and feel like
00:43:38
they are getting something right and You have a Republican party
00:43:42
who doesn't really propose anything outside of a lot of the
00:43:47
old and you know, I'm sorry, Lord Reagan for saying this but
00:43:54
strike me down if you want but saying the old Reagan talking
00:43:57
points of like the 80s and lower taxes and all this stuff.
00:44:01
There's a lot of issues that are specific to California.
00:44:04
Now, that require different policy Solutions than they did
00:44:07
back in the 1980s. Absolutely.
00:44:10
Absolutely. And in many ways I think local
00:44:14
government officials, they try to become something bigger than
00:44:19
what local government should be. Right?
00:44:21
You have these local government figures that are trying to talk
00:44:24
about. Talk about abortion, issues and
00:44:27
gay marriage, issues and foreign policy and immigration policy
00:44:31
and all this stuff is completely outside.
00:44:35
The core responsibilities of what a local government actually
00:44:37
does like local government. We For the public safety through
00:44:42
through, good policing through laws actually allow police
00:44:45
officers to apprehend people that are committing committing
00:44:48
crimes. We're supposed to focus on our
00:44:50
roads and our bridges, and our highways, and we're supposed to
00:44:53
accomplish those first two objectives.
00:44:54
In a fiscally responsible manner, and if We could just
00:45:05
focus on the basics like the red one.
00:45:08
You want to be nothing to no one and now we have politicians
00:45:10
talking about are we? Yeah I love it when local
00:45:13
politicians especially talk about.
00:45:14
We need to keep the earth's climate from changing.
00:45:16
It's like these guys can't even keep people from cracking on the
00:45:18
sidewalks of their own cities. Like hey start start their like
00:45:22
clean up your own backyard first before you try to keep the
00:45:24
climate from changing like let's just get back to the basics and
00:45:27
focus on doing what's right for our constituents.
00:45:30
And I think the voters will notice that and they will reward
00:45:32
those Paul. Makers that are filling those
00:45:37
obligations will even Gavin Newsom.
00:45:40
Today, put out that video. I mean, that is some quick
00:45:44
responsive video if he put on his shirt and his hat and ran up
00:45:47
to the the burnt-out forest to record that, I mean, talk about
00:45:52
taking advantage of a political moment to talk about the Supreme
00:45:54
Court ruling in the EPA just to talk about amongst all those
00:45:58
burnt out trees, this is why we have to focus in California on
00:46:02
climate change that it is. It's like Or or you could do
00:46:06
stuff that's in your power like wildfire management and Forest
00:46:10
management and water management and all these things that are
00:46:15
actually and your control. But you don't want to talk about
00:46:18
these because it's the bigger policy.
00:46:21
So right. And it's not you know, it's not
00:46:23
sexy it's not going to grab the headlines to say, hey this is
00:46:26
we're making update to our course management policy.
00:46:29
We're making an update to our water conservation policy, but
00:46:31
that doesn't sound nearly a sexiest.
00:46:33
Governor Newsom is Fifty four billion dollars to fight climate
00:46:37
change. Well, good luck, you know,
00:46:40
thanks for wasting more money. So, in kind of wrapping all of
00:46:45
this up because I want to kind of bring it back to Coronado and
00:46:50
how all of this big web of local politics interacts we've talked
00:46:55
about sandbag and then we talked about the kind of Supervisors
00:46:58
and just recently, you've been sort of going back and forth
00:47:01
with the County Supervisors specifically, dr.
00:47:03
Wooten, they changed the testing on the water in Coronado,
00:47:09
whether it's safe to go in the water or not, especially right
00:47:12
before Fourth of July, Is a big problem.
00:47:14
Talk about that for a little bit.
00:47:17
All right, so this is Rich and it's going to be reminiscent of
00:47:20
the various public spaces just discussion on closing down the
00:47:25
public spaces during the whole beginning of koban where things
00:47:30
were being shut down. The didn't make sense to shut
00:47:32
things down. So, The county of San Diego is
00:47:37
legally responsible. They've been tasked legally by
00:47:40
the state of California for doing water quality testing in
00:47:43
our oceans and Bays throughout San Diego County. they have
00:47:48
there are two state-sanctioned tests that they stand Diego
00:47:52
County Department of Health who's led by women Lewin can
00:47:57
utilize when doing these water quality test Now in Coronado,
00:48:02
historically, our beaches get closed on occasion, usually
00:48:06
only, after when there's been a large rainstorm, or if there's
00:48:09
been a big sewage impact into U1 either, they had to shut off the
00:48:13
the sewage treatment plant in Tijuana or there's a big
00:48:16
malfunction or something happened.
00:48:18
Those are usually, the only two reasons we ever see the beaches
00:48:20
in Coronado closed, we have never seen the beaches in
00:48:25
Coronado closed during the summer months.
00:48:27
Why? Because the water quality tests
00:48:29
that the county has done for You know, decade several decades
00:48:34
show that the water is clean and safe.
00:48:36
Enough swimming pool beginning, May 5th of 2022, San Diego
00:48:41
County, Department of Health, switched from one state,
00:48:47
state-sanctioned water, quality tests to the other, and they are
00:48:51
now, the only County in the entire nation that utilizes this
00:48:55
other test, From May 5th through today.
00:49:00
Coronado beaches have been shut down 18 out of approximately 52
00:49:06
days. So a third of all the days
00:49:08
during the summer months, put that in perspective.
00:49:12
We've once again, never had our beaches close at all during the
00:49:15
summer of all previous month. So sit down with the county
00:49:19
trying to get to the bottom of what's going on here, hmm?
00:49:27
I asked him under the other testing methodology because
00:49:30
they're still using both tests but they're only using the new
00:49:33
test to determine whether or not beach to be shut down.
00:49:35
So they still have the test results from the other tests are
00:49:37
using. I asked hey on this other test
00:49:39
you you have been using with the beaches because like I receive
00:49:42
any environmental changes, That any new sewage coming from
00:49:47
Mexico or are the environmental conditions than environmental
00:49:51
conditions are the same as they always have in?
00:49:54
There is no change in water. Quality conditions from May 4th
00:49:58
to May 5th to June 30th. Yet, those beaches beaches are
00:50:03
closed every single day then. And there is no change in water,
00:50:07
quality between what we see. Now, when beaches are closed and
00:50:10
what we seen every single summer for the past 20, 30 years where
00:50:14
the beaches were open. So we had a lot of back and
00:50:18
forth on this. I have some really steep
00:50:21
concerns that the threshold the county is using to shut down.
00:50:24
The beaches is not appropriate and is now reflective of a sound
00:50:27
public policy. Let alone actually protecting
00:50:29
the Public's health. So we've had a lot of back and
00:50:33
forth of the county and the county just as of today, decided
00:50:40
they were going to change their protocols on testing.
00:50:44
So they have this new test, they're still moving forward to
00:50:47
new task. But they've said, you know what?
00:50:49
Instead of closing down the beaches out, right?
00:50:51
We are just going to put up warning signs when thresholds
00:50:57
are surpassed on your beaches. Beginning tomorrow, well
00:51:03
tomorrow is the kickoff to the July 4th weekend so I thought
00:51:07
out asked him on the call. Are you only making this change
00:51:11
because of the July 4th weekend and they said effectively they
00:51:16
said? Yeah.
00:51:17
So I asked I said, look at the end of day we are only concerned
00:51:20
with is the water safe. So if you're telling me that the
00:51:24
water quality is the same on July 4th person, when you're
00:51:28
going to allow people to swim in the water as it is in June 30th
00:51:31
right now. When you're saying people can go
00:51:32
swim in the water. Well is the water safe today and
00:51:37
the beach you should be open or is there water dangerous on July
00:51:40
1st in the beaches should be closed?
00:51:41
Like one of those is true. They didn't want to answer that.
00:51:47
They didn't want to answer that and as for we're battling with
00:51:49
the county right now and for all the viewers out there like I
00:51:52
want you to know where am I going to be spending?
00:51:55
My fourth of July weekend is going to be in Coronado, in the
00:51:57
water because the water is safe. Water is just as safe this
00:52:00
summer as it has been all previous summer.
00:52:02
So if you've ever enjoyed swimming in our oceans and
00:52:04
previous Summers, you're going to enjoy swimming or ocean know,
00:52:07
I would, unless you have a gaping wound or you're drinking
00:52:10
the water, like you're gonna be just fine.
00:52:13
You're gonna be just fine, which you shouldn't be doing anyway.
00:52:16
I don't think exactly going in the ocean with a gaping wound or
00:52:19
drink. I don't drink a lot of you
00:52:21
water, it's not good, right? Right.
00:52:23
Don't do it. I'm not a doctor but his I'll
00:52:25
tell you this that's not good for you.
00:52:26
Yeah you ever see any of the dogs down at Coronado dog beach
00:52:30
when they go a little too much on the water and they start
00:52:32
drinking too much of it and see what happens.
00:52:35
This little naturally comes right back up so yeah it's not a
00:52:37
pretty sight so don't do that. Don't do that.
00:52:40
Don't do that. But no you're having your
00:52:41
question really kind of speaks volumes to how County policy can
00:52:45
affect local governments. And let's put this way.
00:52:47
The county does not update their testing protocol and put some
00:52:50
new procedures in place and hopefully go back to you.
00:52:52
The other state sanctioned test Imperial Beach will never be
00:52:57
open again, like ever for several years.
00:53:01
A beaches beaches won't be open. Yeah, and Coronado's Beach it
00:53:06
is, you know, we're we're on average.
00:53:11
We have a New York from may be like a week to two weeks.
00:53:19
Over the entire our year, on average for our beaches are shut
00:53:25
down. Our be teaches will well and
00:53:32
happy. Please 60, once again, not not
00:53:48
wanted to implement, it was a practice session.
00:53:52
There we go. And that's when yeah, a little
00:53:57
bit. Yeah.
00:53:58
Must be all the activity over, where your near and this is, I
00:54:02
guess is a good thing that end on when it comes to local
00:54:04
politics. And people always ask me, I post
00:54:07
something, it's something about, you know dr.
00:54:10
Wu and her people like this and they say, well, what can we do?
00:54:13
What can we do? And they always immediately want
00:54:15
to say, what can we sue them? Can we do this?
00:54:16
I'm like, Cheers, the, the God's honest truth.
00:54:21
You got to get out and vote. You gotta change your local
00:54:23
politics, you know, this is I think the biggest lesson people
00:54:27
should take away from this specific podcast is it's all a
00:54:31
big web and it's all a big cycle.
00:54:34
You know who you elect as mayor of Coronado, makes a difference
00:54:38
on who is in sandack who could possibly be running and County
00:54:42
of Supervisors, it all comes around and you know it's all
00:54:47
interconnected. Ed.
00:54:48
So don't like just skimp over those local politicians who's
00:54:51
running for your city council. Even if you think it doesn't
00:54:55
really make a difference, it does make a difference, right?
00:54:57
It does absolutely make a difference in the end of
00:54:59
different. We have the balance of power on
00:55:01
the County board right now, I know for a fact I could get the
00:55:04
county to change their testing standards in Coronado and let's
00:55:07
be honest here whether or not you can use the beach and
00:55:11
Coronado or whether or not you can have that pothole fixed on
00:55:15
your street or you can get to or from work on that new highwomen.
00:55:17
Highway like that. Actually affects your day-to-day
00:55:20
life, your quality of life, a lot more than who the senator
00:55:24
from Oklahoma is. Or I mean in many ways through
00:55:27
the present, United States is and that's not to say those
00:55:29
races are important, but your day-to-day life is always going
00:55:33
to be much more impacted by the people to represent.
00:55:34
You look like So, my last question for you is his, I
00:55:39
would, I was reading this article because you did an event
00:55:44
with San Diego, young Republicans.
00:55:45
And there was a, you know, a piece from the San Diego news
00:55:48
desk about it. And you had shared about, you
00:55:52
know, when you ran for city council a little bit, would you
00:55:55
be able to show a little bit lonely?
00:55:56
Because I thought it was a very interesting read.
00:55:58
I had read that you had won by like it was a very close margin
00:56:03
and when you're out walking precincts, you know, there
00:56:06
People that, you know, you had, you know, mixed bag of different
00:56:10
experiences when you're a canvas seeing and I think shouts abroad
00:56:13
grbl. IP talks to me that he's
00:56:14
watching the show right now and you met him when you're a
00:56:17
campus. Seeing he's a right hand man.
00:56:19
Love to be able to kind of close on that note.
00:56:22
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things you learn
00:56:25
about politics is that it politics just comes down to
00:56:28
relationships and whoever has the most relationships.
00:56:30
And I'm so fortunate to have a great team of people.
00:56:35
Most notably Brad grbl who I met early on in politics and has
00:56:40
become not just my right-hand man with campaigns, but also,
00:56:44
one of my best friends, and it's been a very, very rewarding
00:56:46
experience for me. But one of my favorite stories
00:56:49
to tell is when I was first running for office here, I was
00:56:51
26 years old in Coronado, running for city council and
00:56:55
Coronado's demographics, especially the ACT, you know,
00:56:58
ten years ago, skewed. A little more older than it does
00:57:00
today, actually and knock. I went and I knocked on every
00:57:04
single likely voters door. Credit that to help me win.
00:57:08
And the reason I credit that for helping me win is because often
00:57:12
times when I would knock on someone's door and I'd introduce
00:57:15
myself hear what they had to say.
00:57:16
Kind of make my pitch. Oftentimes, they would tell me,
00:57:20
hey, look, don't get discouraged.
00:57:23
You're a little too young. You're probably not going to win
00:57:27
but don't be discouraged or you're a good guy.
00:57:30
You're a good guy. I'd shake their hand, you know,
00:57:33
thank them for learn to thank them for their time.
00:57:35
Is that would turn No walk away. Oftentimes, they would say
00:57:39
you're not going to win but, you know, I'm still going to vote
00:57:41
for you. I'm so going to vote Korea and
00:57:43
that happens quite a few times. And I ended up winning that
00:57:46
first election by just over 100 votes.
00:57:49
And so, I'll never forget that. And to this day when I'm out and
00:57:53
about in town and talking to people like to this day, I'll
00:57:56
still have people say, I remember when he knocked on my
00:57:58
door, like 10 years ago, and it makes a big impact on people and
00:58:01
brings it back to, it's all about relationships.
00:58:03
And so if you have if you have Great relationships with a large
00:58:07
number of people. You can, you can win any
00:58:10
election and hopefully they'll help hold you accountable to do
00:58:12
what's right for for your community.
00:58:16
And 100 votes is when everybody says, oh my vote doesn't matter.
00:58:20
Why even vote. I say some of these races are
00:58:23
decided by less than 100 votes and they're very, very close.
00:58:28
So every vote does actually matter in the end.
00:58:30
So go out and do actually vote for your local politicians or
00:58:34
local politics. Richard.
00:58:37
Thanks for coming on. We don't want to take up too
00:58:39
much of your time. Heading into the Fourth of July
00:58:40
weekend. Where can people find you?
00:58:43
If they want to follow you? Have any plans outside of Mayor
00:58:48
of Coronado? If your future politics or are
00:58:51
you not ready to say anything quite yet?
00:58:54
You know, I was, I was previously contemplated.
00:58:56
I was going through with their run for Congress and just from
00:58:59
redistricting and didn't quite work out.
00:59:01
I'm a big believer, and there's, I'm hoping will be a blessing in
00:59:05
disguise and you never know what's around the corner.
00:59:08
So, I think after that, we'll get through this November, 20
00:59:12
22, election cycle and I think some things will open up.
00:59:16
For the, for the 2024 election cycle, and might be able to help
00:59:19
continue representing, Coronado on on a bigger and bigger stage.
00:59:23
So we'll see. Check back with me next year.
00:59:26
Awesome. And where can people find you?
00:59:28
And follow you on social media, Instagram and Facebook?
00:59:32
If they, they search for Richard Bailey I should pop up and then
00:59:36
Richard bayly.com as our website currently down through making
00:59:39
some updates to it. But yeah, looking say connect
00:59:41
with people out there, Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on.
00:59:44
I have a great Fourth of July weekend.
00:59:47
Stay cool. This weekend and don't drink
00:59:49
lots of. Yeah, don't drink lots of salt
00:59:52
water. Ha ha promise.
00:59:54
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll find something and don't go in with
00:59:56
any open gaping wounds or whatever.
00:59:58
So, thank you, Richard for joining us.
01:00:01
We really appreciate it. I know I made a post on
01:00:04
Instagram but honestly like I just want good human beings and
01:00:08
politics. I just feel like that's such a
01:00:11
hard request. I think like if Politicians.
01:00:14
In general were more like you, I feel like the world would be a
01:00:16
better place. So, you know, thank you for
01:00:18
coming on. I was really looking forward to
01:00:20
this. Yeah, so hopefully we can have
01:00:23
you back on in the future soon. Well, thank you both for having
01:00:26
me. And thanks for spreading the
01:00:27
word about local. A local issue could use a lot.
01:00:29
Appreciate it. Thanks.
01:00:31
And as I always ended every show, if you like this, touch
01:00:34
the friend, let them know. And yeah, have a good Fourth of
01:00:37
July everybody. Good night, I guess.
01:00:56
Thank you for listening to another episode of California
01:00:59
underground. If you like what you heard,
01:01:00
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