On this episode we discuss what is SANDAG, what authority do they have, and what do they actually do with all that money they raise in taxes? (Spoiler not a lot). We also discuss the issue of "weighted voting" and CEO Hasan Ikhrata's lavish dinners on tax payer money.
Links Mentioned in Show
https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB805/id/1626374
https://www.kusi.com/chula-vista-mayor-john-mccann-rejected-from-sandag-board-giving-weighted-vote-to-democrats/
https://inewsource.org/2022/04/07/sandag-taxpayer-funded-upscale-dining/
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00:00:00
What's going on everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another
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episode of California underground.
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I'm your host, Phil, as always, with me.
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My co-host, Camille the best and fastest researcher in the west.
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How's it going? Camille.
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I'm good, thank you. How are you?
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You still there? I hope to we freezer we lost
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her. We lost a right out the gate.
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That's that's not a good sign. When you lose your co-host up
00:00:24
that she's back. It does happens like every week
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for like two seconds. Like 42 seconds, your computer
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breaks out of me. How are you tonight outside of
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freezing on your your connection?
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I'm good. So I thought we were going to be
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in a drought again because we went like three days without
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rain but then it started raining.
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So I know, I really just tried to take our dog outside to go to
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the bathroom. It as soon as I got outside, it
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started to absolutely poor rain on top of us, like dumping
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buckets. And I looked at my phone and I
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was like, where did this rain come from?
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Doesn't even say there was supposed to be rain in the
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forecast. So I'm over it mostly also
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because you think it's good for us but 90% of its going back to
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the ocean so it's not doing anybody.
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Any good anyway. So but that could be a whole
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another episode is water mismanagement.
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Tonight we're going to talk about a different Style of
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mismanagement. We're going to be talking about
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sandack and most people don't really know about Saint Dyke.
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Give me, I'll be honest. How much did you know about
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Saint die? Before I start bugging you about
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it and like, raising a fuss about it in our text messages.
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I'd never heard of it. I'm at Orange County, not San
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Diego. It is specific to San Diego.
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I had never heard of it until you.
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Yeah, it's a it's an interesting organization and most people
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don't really know. Know what it is.
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I'll give you the quick background saying, dag is short
00:01:51
for the San Diego. Association of governments.
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The idea is that mostly they get together.
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All these different governments, they're coordinating on
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Transportation plans, because San Diego is a big County.
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I didn't really realize this. But did you know San Diego's
00:02:07
basically the size of like, Connecticut?
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That's how big the county is. I didn't realize that either.
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I did not know that I saw a tweet that said trying to make a
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county which is like the size of Connecticut work like Manhattan
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is just damn near impossible, which is what they're trying to
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do, and we'll get into that. But it's a big County.
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So they have to have all these different governments kind of
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like work together and say like okay we're going to pretend, you
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know, we're going to act like we know what we're doing, and we're
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going to get all this stuff together.
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We're going to make sure this trolley goes to this town and
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this works and all that stuff. Sounds like a good idea, right?
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We're going to build a trolley that goes from one city to
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another city to another city. You all kind of be will want to
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be on the same page. So that's mostly what sandbag
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does. Now you get different board
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members on this sandbag board. You get mayor's, you can city
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council people, they could send from, you know, whether city
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council wants to send, you are not one controversy that we were
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just discussing before we hopped on was there was a new Newly
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elected, Republican. Mayor of Chula Vista, which is
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the second largest city in San Diego County, John McCain.
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And it was sort of assumed that he would be the board member of
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force and dag represent Chula Vista.
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But because he, as a republican openly came out and said I
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oppose the per-mile tax, guess what?
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The Democratic city council said.
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Not not so fast. We're not going to send you
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this. Somebody else instead, which
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makes a big deal about the weighted vote.
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So it's I'm really kind of going all over the place, but this is
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how complicated this really is and Camille.
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You were telling me before, like, It's confusing.
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Like you start to really dive down and go down this Rabbit
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Hole like this gets way more confusing.
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The more you start to figure out what the heck is saying, Dyke
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doing. And like, what, what's their
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purpose, where they, you know, what are they doing with all
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this money? It's just like a huge web of
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like confusion, right? Yes, if I'm being honest, I need
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like another week to really dive into this and research and cross
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my T's and Dot my eyes because I have like 50 tabs open and I,
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Think I sent you half of those links and I'm still trying to
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figure out. How did we get here?
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Yeah, and just like a little behind the scenes inside.
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Baseball Camille likes to research and she's a fantastic
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at research and she'll be like, okay I'm going to send you an
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email with the stuff that I found this this week.
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This might have been the biggest email I've gotten from her with
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the links. I opened it up and it was just
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like, like, a whole bunch of links.
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I'm like, well, I, you know, I read pretty quickly but I'm not
00:04:53
going to read all those links. Stuff isn't real like 500 pages?
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No exaggeration. I think there's two documents
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like one was 250 pages and other 494 pages.
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So yeah, I didn't expect you to get through that in two hours
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and you asked me before you just came out and said you're like,
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I'm not trying to be funny. Here is San dieg like one giant
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Ponzi scheme, because the more you dive into it, it does seem
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like a Ponzi scheme, doesn't it? Like when you start to look at
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how much money they make and how little they've actually done, it
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is pretty crazy. That none of it has really done
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anything. They've raised a ton of money,
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they want to keep raising more money for all these promised
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projects and stuff like that. But they are, what have they
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actually done? There's a new trolley line, one
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new trolley line in San Diego, that cost, you know, billions
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and billions of dollars was way behind schedule and over budget
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the blue line which went from downtown San Diego.
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It extended all the way up into La Jolla.
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And if you know anything about say, Diego.
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La Hoya is sort of the glitzy Beverly Hills of like San Diego
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County. A lot of people with a lot of
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money live in La Jolla, and they were none, too happy that there
00:06:08
was public transit coming up to La Jolla.
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So also nobody in La Jolla uses public transit.
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Like they're not going to hop on the trolley, if they're coming
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out of there, you know, 15 million dollar house.
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They're not hopping on the trolley to go downtown.
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They're driving their Porsche or something downtown.
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So, But that was one of the big achievements.
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So where should we start on sandag, like, I don't even know
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where to start. There's so many things.
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Why don't you talk about a be 8:05?
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Our buddy Lorena Gonzalez flood shirt.
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She authored 88 05 a couple years ago and that has a lot to
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do with now, what's happening. So why don't you tell us all
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about a be 805 and what our dear friend?
00:06:56
Okay, Rayna. I will try to boil this down as
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best as possible. I made a post the other day
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about this idea of a weighted vote.
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And they came up with this idea of a weighted vote because on
00:07:13
sandbag before, it was one person, one vote.
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So if there was one board member, they would get one vote
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and the whole notion. Is purely Democratic that if
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there's one board member, you're going to get one vote.
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Well, Lorena Gonzalez, who is now Lorena Gonzalez?
00:07:35
Fletcher wife to Nathan Fletcher, who was the previous
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chair of Saint dag? Because he was also the chair of
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the County Board of Supervisors. Yes, it does get this,
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incestuous wrote and passed this bill.
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ABA 05, basically what it did was it implemented the weighted
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vote system And the rationale was well, why would the city of
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San Diego? Send one representative to
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sandbag and they get one vote and then a smaller City, like
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Carlsbad sends one representative and they get the
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same sort of Oak. So they came up with this idea
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that if you have more population.
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So the city of San Diego, obviously has the most Chula
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Vista has the second most of the second, largest city.
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You get more of a vote. It's more waited.
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So why is that an issue? Well, because as long as the
00:08:32
left-leaning cities like San Diego and Chula Vista outside of
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the fact that it does have a Republican mayor now that they
00:08:40
blocked from being on the board which would have made a big
00:08:44
change in sandack. Because if the to Lavista mayor
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who's Republican had that weighted vote, and he was going
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in and voting on these things, it would make a big difference
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if he would be blocking stuff left and right.
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So that's basically what happened was is she gave more
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power to the cities which not surprisingly are often more run
00:09:08
by democrats. So while it sounds like most
00:09:14
democratic politics latian is so it sounds really altruistic and
00:09:18
like this is It's better representation.
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And the video I posted earlier this week showed one of the city
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council members from San Diego kind of getting on his high
00:09:29
horse. About.
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Well, you're trying to tell me that the person of Carlsbad is
00:09:34
thirty thousand more times more powerful, and their voice should
00:09:37
be heard over my constituents and Bubba, Bo Bob.
00:09:40
Which is funny, because I think he's kind of making the argument
00:09:42
for the Electoral College because about representation,
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but, you know, I don't think he put two and two together.
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So, why is this a problem? It's a problem because you
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basically, if you're a smaller municipality in your on Sand,
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egg, your A voice is just not going to be heard because the
00:10:02
chair can just call for a weighted vote on anything.
00:10:04
She can just go. Okay, weighted vote weighted
00:10:06
vote. So basically every time a vote
00:10:09
comes up, they don't like it. Guess what happens?
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They call for a weighted vote prime example.
00:10:17
Nora Vargas, who is the current chair of Saint deck?
00:10:20
She's also the chair of the County Board of Supervisors.
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She was just implemented as chair last week.
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She did not receive a majority of the votes out of everybody on
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the board. So what did they do?
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They called a weighted vote. And guess what?
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As soon as they call the weighted vote, nor of Argos want
00:10:44
shocker, they did the same thing down the line.
00:10:48
They did it with Vice chair. The person that they put up.
00:10:50
As vice-chair did not receive a majority of vote.
00:10:53
They called a weighted vote. The second Vice chair.
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Same exact thing didn't get the majority of the votes.
00:10:59
They voted for somebody else and that person did not become
00:11:03
second Vice chair. So they got they call the
00:11:05
weighted vote, they got the person they wanted it.
00:11:10
So does that seem fair or Democratic to you?
00:11:16
It seems very unfair like Delmar what they have less than 5
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residents so they get what no representation.
00:11:22
Yeah, they basically don't they know their table, I know that's
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that's a part of what sandbags trying to push right now.
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It really cuts into Del Mar and there's even talk of eminent
00:11:32
domain because they want to build the railroad tracks.
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And here they basically don't have representation and their
00:11:39
one votes, probably just going to be vetoed.
00:11:41
Anyway, quick questions. How many people are on the board
00:11:45
of sand? Bag or how many?
00:11:48
There's 21 members. Yeah, I was going to say it's
00:11:51
around 20 or something. Okay, I don't know the exact
00:11:55
number but it's around 20. And do you know, all in all, how
00:12:03
many votes that equals to with the weighted vote?
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Because the representation with the weighted vote, I mean, I
00:12:12
don't know how the math breaks down.
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I just know as long as like the big cities, like Chula Vista,
00:12:16
and San Diego vote one way. That's all that really matters
00:12:20
like the big cities. If they vote one way that's it.
00:12:23
The little cities don't really matter anymore and there's a lot
00:12:25
of little cities and San Diego County who are not going to get
00:12:29
any representation. They're never going to get their
00:12:31
voices heard, it's always going to be San Diego and Chula Vista.
00:12:35
And some of the other big, Cities is the CEO of San Diego
00:12:39
voting member to their voting rights key.
00:12:42
I don't think so. No, it's just the CEO.
00:12:45
So he I guess he runs the day-to-day CEO, that's his job
00:12:51
and we're going to get into who the CEO is.
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Yes, there is a CEO of San dieg. He's the chief executive
00:12:57
operating, our officer of sandbag.
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So you have the board, they vote on stuff and then hits his job
00:13:03
as the CEO, to sort of implement it and make sure it works hasn't
00:13:09
had really a good track record. I don't think he's really gotten
00:13:12
anything done, but we'll get to him in a minute.
00:13:17
Yes, sir. Nora, I'm sorry.
00:13:20
No. You go ahead.
00:13:22
How she became the chairwoman you said she became mature woman
00:13:26
with a weighted vote. Who, who votes on the board
00:13:30
members of San Diego. Is that the County Board?
00:13:33
The County Board of Supervisors, Usually, it's customary that the
00:13:39
chair of the County Board of Supervisors is the chair of
00:13:41
sandag, but they have to vote on it.
00:13:44
So they have to still approve nor of August actually be the
00:13:46
chair of sandag. She did not receive the majority
00:13:49
of like the straight up. One, one vote.
00:13:53
Okay. And so, because they wanted her
00:13:56
to be the chair, they just called a weighted vote and she
00:14:00
got on. And that was a big controversy
00:14:02
as well. That sites like cake.
00:14:05
Yes, I have brought up so she didn't even win.
00:14:10
It's funny that like It's funny that Democrats like we talked
00:14:14
about this last week. Like Gavin Newsom.
00:14:17
They love democracy but not when it doesn't work for and this is
00:14:21
like, another good example, I have done Democrats really don't
00:14:24
like democracy when it doesn't doesn't benefit him because they
00:14:31
had a straight democracy. They said a straight Democratic
00:14:34
vote of nor of August, should she be the chair of the board of
00:14:38
San deck? She was not elected.
00:14:41
So what did they do? They just pulled this weighted
00:14:43
vote, and she won anyway, which is, I believe, they brought up
00:14:47
that whole thing about how Trump didn't win the popular vote, and
00:14:50
Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.
00:14:52
Sir, she should be president. Well guess what, nor Vargas
00:14:54
didn't win, popular vote, either she won the weighted vote, which
00:14:57
is not the popular vote. So that's a big thing.
00:15:02
I wonder I'm going to actually go to event next week.
00:15:05
I was invited as part of work. They're putting it on.
00:15:07
I think I told you about this for an or Vargas thing.
00:15:10
I'm not donating, I'm just To go because my work is paying for it
00:15:14
and I'm going to show up and, you know, make a good face for
00:15:17
it. Maybe I should ask her what her
00:15:21
thoughts on our own. The fact that she was, she did
00:15:23
not win the popular vote. Supervisor of artists.
00:15:26
Do you feel bad? You did not win the popular vote
00:15:28
to be chair of Saint deck anyway so that's what happened and now
00:15:33
she's chair and she's going to push things through.
00:15:37
Okay, clearly I see how confused I am about all this.
00:15:40
Like yes, I researched it. Fred, but I just felt like the
00:15:44
deeper. I went, the more I'm like I have
00:15:46
no idea what's going on here. I just know everyone's corrupt
00:15:49
and paying themselves, massive salaries.
00:15:53
Yeah, you put up somebody who's the guy you brought up before
00:15:58
Northern Transit after North County Transit District, because
00:16:04
chairman, and he's making like 500k a year.
00:16:11
And all those divisions that are working together like the
00:16:14
Metropolitan transit system, they're all working with sandag
00:16:18
Kenneth, like they're all together.
00:16:20
Hmm. You know, it's not bad like I
00:16:22
told you I'm going to go get a job in County Government.
00:16:27
I wish it were that easy aim high aim for the one that pays
00:16:31
500 thousand supervisors only 250 so much for being a
00:16:36
public servant and yeah, it is interesting when you look at it
00:16:42
and it's scary because once you know where these specific waited
00:16:49
votes line up, you know that these policies are going to pass
00:16:53
like this one that we've been trying to Ring the Alarm Bell on
00:16:57
that I think people are just not paying enough attention to is
00:17:01
this tax per mile. I just am blown away that more
00:17:05
people who have access to a large platform and can really
00:17:11
blow this up and kind of get people behind.
00:17:14
It are not worried about the fact that we're on the
00:17:18
precipice. Probably in this month, of a
00:17:22
vote being taken place, that San Diego's are going to have to
00:17:25
start paying a tax per mile for every mile, you drive.
00:17:29
Now, I don't know how they're going to implement that they
00:17:31
haven't really given out details.
00:17:33
But it is for this whole Regional plan where they want to
00:17:36
raise over a hundred billion dollars for more buses and
00:17:40
trains and stuff like that that people just don't use in San
00:17:43
Diego County because it's a big County and it's shocking to me.
00:17:49
I've started to see some bigger people pay attention to this.
00:17:52
I saw Steve Hilton tweet about it.
00:17:55
I just find it interesting that Steve Hilton with the big
00:17:57
platform. He has on Fox does not get as
00:17:59
much social engagement, unlike his Instagram or Twitter, but I
00:18:03
would figure he'd have a little bit more of that.
00:18:05
Anyway, that's not really the point but some people are
00:18:08
starting to raise the alarm Bells about this because
00:18:11
California, I also believe is trying to do the same thing
00:18:14
across the state and sadly I feel like San Diego County.
00:18:21
For the, you know, before covid was sort of this like reddish
00:18:26
purple County. Like we were kind of immune to
00:18:29
like the craziness of California but now I feel like we've gotten
00:18:34
to a point where where the experimental test tube lab for
00:18:39
all the crazy California policies.
00:18:41
And I think that has a lot to do with the fact that Lorena
00:18:43
Gonzalez and Nathan Fletcher down here and Nathan Fletcher, I
00:18:46
think wants to be Governor someday but it does seem I'm
00:18:50
like, there's a lot of stuff that they try out down here in
00:18:52
San Diego and see if it works. And this tax per mile is like
00:18:56
the first thing that I think they're trying out and they're
00:19:00
going to try and Implement across the state and that's
00:19:03
terrifying for people everywhere.
00:19:07
So, even if you're not in San Diego, this is a terrifying
00:19:09
issue that we should be paying attention to, and people should
00:19:12
be pushing back on like wildly right now.
00:19:15
On top of the fact that we have gas tax, We already pay the
00:19:19
highest registration, These in the entire country for our cars.
00:19:22
But I guess that's not enough when used to tax per mile,
00:19:25
right? Yeah, I have so many questions
00:19:28
about that, so many. Okay.
00:19:31
Okay. Okay.
00:19:33
I'll do my best to try to answer its tax for a while is to fund
00:19:40
public transportation? Is that correct?
00:19:43
Yes. Okay.
00:19:46
And so they would also like to get they want to discourage
00:19:49
people from driving their private Vehicles, because they
00:19:51
would like to save the world, Save the Planet.
00:19:55
So if you all tomorrow, stop driving, how are you going to
00:20:00
pay for public transportation? That's a good question.
00:20:08
It's sort of like and CEO. Hassan.
00:20:12
He went on KO SI and he had this interview and they kind of
00:20:18
pressed him on it because he makes five hundred thousand
00:20:20
dollars a year. Another cushy salary he makes
00:20:23
over 500 dollars a year and they the anchor asked him.
00:20:27
Point-blank and said, well, do you have an electric car because
00:20:31
you don't have to pay the gas tax and was The whole thing that
00:20:35
the gas tax was supposed to one fix the infrastructure but also
00:20:40
penalize people and force them to go into electric cars or kind
00:20:44
of persuade them to going to let your cars.
00:20:46
Now, that we don't now that they're losing out on that
00:20:49
Revenue because people are buying more electric cars.
00:20:51
They're like, wait a second, we're losing out on the revenue
00:20:55
that we use to deter people from doing this activity from doing
00:20:59
this activity. So now, we're going to have to
00:21:02
turn around and figure out another way to tax them.
00:21:05
Like wasn't that the whole incentive to get people out of
00:21:07
gas cars in until electric cars and now they're angry that
00:21:12
they're not getting the money from electric cars, correct.
00:21:17
And even he said, CEO Hassan said in this interview he said,
00:21:21
well, it's not fair that I don't pay a gas tax.
00:21:26
Well wasn't that the point of electric cars?
00:21:28
And now he's saying people who drive electric cars they should
00:21:31
be taxed per mile because they're missing out on the gas
00:21:34
tax. Okay, I'm trying to process all
00:21:40
this. This is strictly if you live in
00:21:43
San Diego and drive, if you're a resident of San Diego, like if I
00:21:48
come visit San Diego, they can't make me pay for my gas tax.
00:21:53
I believe. It's yeah, it's for San Diego
00:21:54
residents. So living, in San Diego County,
00:21:58
I imagine the easiest way for them to do it is you're going to
00:22:01
have to report your odometer like every year.
00:22:05
Like what was your odometer at the?
00:22:06
Beginning of the year is if anyone really keeps track of
00:22:09
like what their odometer says at the beginning of the year, but
00:22:13
you may have to otherwise I, you know, there's no way to put into
00:22:21
people's cars, like tracking devices, someone brought this up
00:22:23
to me is like a constitutional question.
00:22:26
They say well what are they going to do?
00:22:27
They're going to put tracking devices in and technically that
00:22:30
would be an invasion of like your Fourth Amendment rights.
00:22:33
You can't have a tracking device track you all over the place.
00:22:36
Case, there's actually a Supreme Court case.
00:22:39
I think it was Jones where they talked about, you can't have a
00:22:43
tracker on someone's car for a longer than what is needed to
00:22:47
figure out if there's probable cause meaning, you can't just
00:22:51
track people for the sake of tracking people.
00:22:54
So that would be a Fourth Amendment violation.
00:22:56
You can't track people with like GPS.
00:22:58
So, I imagine it would just be like reported You have to report
00:23:03
your odometer, if you're a San Diego County resident, but right
00:23:07
if you drove in from Orange County, they're not going to
00:23:09
tax. You are going to tax just us.
00:23:13
So if you go and you take a road trip to Arizona and you're like
00:23:17
an or even New Jersey like they're going to, you didn't use
00:23:23
those miles, but in San Diego, but they're me like, you have to
00:23:26
pay for in San Diego anyway way to save the planet.
00:23:30
Yeah, yeah. I just it feels like another
00:23:33
infringement on privacy to is silly as it is because it's
00:23:37
they're not tracking where we're going.
00:23:39
You just affect me yet. But uh, You know, like this
00:23:42
whole we have these new California ruled out the new
00:23:45
Organics trash cans and they were like, we're going to send a
00:23:48
random search parties to search random trash cans to make sure
00:23:53
that the trash is like, like no. Going to people's trash is
00:23:55
illegal, that's an infringement of privacy.
00:23:58
Hmm. Now yeah.
00:24:00
I mean we're gonna see how far you drive leave me alone.
00:24:05
It's small on details but I think they're starting to run
00:24:08
out of ways to figure out how to tax people.
00:24:12
And this is such a regressive tax and I don't understand why
00:24:16
they think this is a good idea. I continue to say this most
00:24:21
democratic policies show that they hate the poor because most
00:24:25
of them end up hurting the poor anyway, this would certainly
00:24:28
hurt the poor. Like you'd have to add on the
00:24:31
tax for driving. What if you live you have you
00:24:33
can't afford to live within the city of San Diego and you have
00:24:37
to live in a town, that's more like he's counting or something.
00:24:41
You have to drive 35 minutes every single day that's going to
00:24:44
add up after a while and you're going to have to pay every
00:24:47
single time that you get in the car and drive somewhere attacks,
00:24:51
it's going to be detrimental to people who can't afford it.
00:24:54
And I guess their idea is, oh, these people will just figure
00:24:58
out how to use public transit. There's not public transit
00:25:00
everywhere in San Diego, like you can't, then you can't get
00:25:04
from East County easily, into the city of San Diego.
00:25:10
You can't get from North. County Down unless you take the
00:25:13
train, the 1 train that's that comes down so there's not a lot
00:25:18
of options. They're trying to say it's all
00:25:21
because they want to put more buses and trains and trolleys
00:25:25
and stuff like that and trains. But less than I think it's like
00:25:30
only about three percent of the entire County uses public
00:25:33
transit and they're dumping 100 more than 100 billion dollars
00:25:37
more under this Regional plan, which begs Question.
00:25:41
I'm sure we could do a whole nother episode on this, who's
00:25:44
really making all this money building, all this Transit.
00:25:47
I'm sure if we dove into it and figure it out, more people who
00:25:52
are making the most money off of these contracts for public
00:25:55
transit are probably well connected to democratic
00:25:59
politicians. I'm just going to go out there
00:26:02
and say that. Yeah, I would agree.
00:26:06
I mean from the few salary so I looked up.
00:26:08
It seems that's the case. yeah, I was just thinking, when you
00:26:15
mentioned East County, I my brother-in-law used to live in
00:26:18
East County and a I feel like it's a whole different County.
00:26:22
I mean, it's kind of like the middle of nowhere.
00:26:24
When you go out there it's not what people picture of San Diego
00:26:28
near the beach. All the buildings.
00:26:29
You know, it's like it's literally Horse Town, of course
00:26:34
because there's no branches, branches and stuff.
00:26:37
Yeah. Feels very country, feels very
00:26:40
like. You're in the old Master
00:26:41
something out and he's County. My brother-in-law went from wet
00:26:44
from a beach house in La, Jolla to a ranch in Ramona.
00:26:48
And so I was actually quite familiar with both of those.
00:26:51
Here is that is a huge difference?
00:26:53
Those two towns? Yes, yes, more and more night,
00:26:56
is it? Yeah.
00:26:59
Yeah. I mean, it's a big County.
00:27:01
So anybody who lives far away from any of these places going
00:27:05
to have to drive and pay this tax.
00:27:08
So yeah I'm surprised that more people are not ringing the alarm
00:27:11
Bell on this. I want you know we tried to get
00:27:15
supervisor Jim Desmond. I think there was a scheduling
00:27:17
conflict tonight. Hopefully we can get them on at
00:27:19
another time to talk more. About this.
00:27:21
He's been one of the only politicians who's really been
00:27:24
ringing the alarm Bell on what sandbag is doing and kind of
00:27:27
bringing this to people's attention and but no more people
00:27:31
need to do. So because if you think it's
00:27:33
going to stop here in San Diego, it's not going to stop here in
00:27:36
San Diego. This will be the pilot program.
00:27:39
This will be the test ground. They will figure out how to do
00:27:41
it here. And then every County after
00:27:44
that, we'll start to go, oh maybe we should be taxing per
00:27:47
mile and it's going to get worse and it's going.
00:27:50
It's just going to continue from San Diego and Orange County to
00:27:53
LA County up to San Francisco. I'm surprised.
00:27:55
San Francisco doesn't do this already or Alameda or Santa
00:28:00
Clara those kind of counties. I'm surprised they don't do it
00:28:03
already, but it, this is a warning to the rest of
00:28:06
California that they're going to do this.
00:28:08
They're going to try and do this, and that they have the
00:28:11
votes right now, in San Diego, especially under this weighted
00:28:14
vote structure. There's not much you can do It
00:28:19
used to be well as long as we hold a majority or a slim
00:28:24
majority of people who are opposed to this, then we can
00:28:27
fight it. But not under this weighted
00:28:29
voting, they can just override everybody and shove this down
00:28:33
our throats. So was he, it'll five, the
00:28:38
weighted vote is that specific to San Diego County And okay,
00:28:43
yeah, it's specifically San Diego County, and, you know,
00:28:46
Scott wieners, totally taking notes, public transportation.
00:28:49
As like, this is a just loves public.
00:28:52
Transportation is nothing wrong with that, but he loves it.
00:28:54
I mean, talks about it every day, I follow him.
00:28:56
He loves all the Subways and the trains and all that stuff.
00:29:01
He just loves it. Yeah, he does.
00:29:03
He does. He's always so excited about the
00:29:05
central Subway. So yeah, you know, he's taking
00:29:10
notes. Okay, you guys are voting on.
00:29:12
On this soon. I think it's next week.
00:29:15
Yeah, I was trying to look up specifically, is this a part of
00:29:18
a bigger package or is this one thing they're voting on?
00:29:23
So they're trying to get this Regional plan going, so the
00:29:26
regional transportation plan is sort of like what they're trying
00:29:31
to do for. I mean, it's the whole point of
00:29:33
why they have sand tiger trying to come up with this new plan of
00:29:35
what they're going to do, what kind of Transportation they're
00:29:38
going to bring. But as part of that
00:29:41
transportation, And they have to show where we going to get the
00:29:44
money from and their proposals, one of the ways they're going to
00:29:49
get money is they're going to do this tax per mile.
00:29:51
And I think they also want to raise sales tax, like a half a
00:29:55
cent or something. Like, I don't even know how that
00:29:57
works out, but like that little bit is going to be added on to
00:30:00
everything. So they're going to rails, raise
00:30:03
your sales tax and they're going to do tax per mile.
00:30:06
Those are the proposals of how they're going to pay for it.
00:30:09
That doesn't mean that they Can approve this plan and then
00:30:15
remove the tax per mile. They could do that.
00:30:19
They could say, well we're going to approve the transportation
00:30:22
plan because we love trains and trolleys and all this stuff, but
00:30:27
we're going to take out this one tax per mile apart and then put
00:30:32
it off to the back burner. Something like that but that's
00:30:36
basically what it is. It's not just like they're
00:30:38
showing up in, they're going. Do we want to tax people per
00:30:41
mile? Let's vote.
00:30:42
Yea, or nay. They're kind of proven entire
00:30:45
plan but they have to show like, where you gonna get the money
00:30:48
from. This is just part of it.
00:30:51
I was reading about some of what they want to do as far as like
00:30:54
the new railroad lines because part of the issue that they're
00:30:57
claiming is that the cliff sides are just falling, you know,
00:31:02
they're crumbling. And so with tracks near the
00:31:04
ocean they obviously need to move them or Inland and so I was
00:31:07
reading that they keep looking into where and they've been
00:31:10
doing some Testing of the earth and whatnot.
00:31:13
But a lot of it, they're going to have to build under homes.
00:31:16
But apparently land like homeowners own the land rights
00:31:19
to basically, to the Center of the Earth.
00:31:22
And so they're going to have to get each individual homeowners
00:31:25
approval to even be able to go in and dig these tunnels.
00:31:28
And there's going to probably be a whole bunch of legal issues
00:31:32
there, which means even if they come up with a budget and pass
00:31:35
all this, it's not going to end there because suddenly there's
00:31:37
going to be all kinds of lawsuits, there's going to be
00:31:40
problems. There's going to be Possibly
00:31:42
eminent domain will come from this and then there's going to
00:31:45
be even more issues. And it just seems like this is
00:31:50
the NeverEnding think, whole money and legal issues.
00:31:55
Yeah, and I don't think they're really worried about actually
00:31:59
completing any of it. Anyway, I was going to say what
00:32:02
have they completed? And that's a serious question.
00:32:05
Like what has sand actually accomplished?
00:32:08
Yeah, I'm pulling up this tweet right now again.
00:32:10
Shout out to Jim desert. Urban did you do?
00:32:16
I'm trying to find he had a really good tweet about it.
00:32:19
Kaos is just retweeting whatever he said.
00:32:22
Okay so this was he tweeted this a couple days ago on January
00:32:26
17th this is about language that was used by sand.
00:32:29
I for the 2004 sales tax measure.
00:32:32
This is going back to 2004 as you see on the first fingers.
00:32:36
Yep. Voters approved the, with this
00:32:39
with the Assumption, the freeways i5s are State Route 52
00:32:43
and State Route 78 would be improved and their commute will
00:32:46
be quicker. So, this was their
00:32:49
transportation Improvement plan way back then, and their goal
00:32:54
was to relieve traffic congestion improve safety and
00:32:57
match, state federal funds by expanding all these different
00:33:00
highways maintaining improving. Popopo expanding commuter
00:33:03
express bus trolley and coast of services.
00:33:08
Then he goes on to say, here's the current list of projects
00:33:10
that have not been started by saying, Dag.
00:33:12
Essentially the same list that was promised to voters. 19 years
00:33:15
ago. San diego-ins were paying a half
00:33:18
cent sales tax but aren't getting the projects that were
00:33:22
promised. So all of that stuff that was
00:33:25
promised 19 years ago, none of it has even been started.
00:33:31
So in nineteen years, they haven't done anything, they've
00:33:33
raised billions and billions of billions dollars.
00:33:36
I think a whisper I brought on CEO Hassan and asked him like
00:33:40
where did all the money? Go you go.
00:33:42
Oh well we just we under budgeted what we really needed.
00:33:48
That sounds like poor leadership on your part like that doesn't
00:33:50
sound like you did your job. Final tweet.
00:33:54
He says, instead sandbag has spent two-thirds of that money
00:33:57
on public transit billions have been spent on Transit projects
00:34:00
yet. Ridership has decreased
00:34:01
dramatically in San Diego County.
00:34:04
So that's sort of the the track record of San dieg is they do
00:34:10
promise, they're going to do all these wonderful things.
00:34:12
We can improve. The highways, we're going to
00:34:14
prove the trolleys. We're going to prove, the buses,
00:34:18
and then billions are spent and years go by and nothing really
00:34:22
happens. And nothing really gets better
00:34:24
but we do have a new trolley line going up to La Jolla, that
00:34:28
literally nobody uses. It's funny because it kind of
00:34:31
runs through like my neighborhood.
00:34:34
Like the outskirts of my neighborhood.
00:34:35
So, like whenever I we drive by like, we never see anybody at
00:34:39
the trolleys, or getting on or off those trolleys.
00:34:42
So, but good job. I'm sure someone made a lot of
00:34:47
money and speaking of making a lot of money.
00:34:49
Let's talk about this guy. Hassan going to pull article.
00:34:57
Because there is a lot to talk about when it comes to Hassan.
00:35:01
You have any initial thoughts about him?
00:35:06
He makes a lot of money. Okay, so I told you I believe he
00:35:10
lives in North Riverside County from what I found his current
00:35:14
address, which he has been at for a while which is about an
00:35:19
hour, north of me. Meaning it is a good three or so
00:35:23
hours from San Diego. What the heck does he know about
00:35:28
San Diego Transportation? I mean, it's the counties are so
00:35:33
different. Well, he must be an expert
00:35:38
because they keep him around. Must be an expert in something.
00:35:42
I would imagine money. Laundering is his probably is
00:35:44
what he's an expert at because there was a scandal as recently
00:35:51
as last year. And this was, we love a good
00:35:54
Scandal, don't we? We love cats.
00:35:56
Can we love people involved in politics, many money, lavishly
00:36:00
on themselves. Not name-dropping.
00:36:04
Hear about anybody in particular.
00:36:05
Like, yeah, this is from i-news Source.
00:36:08
Taxpayers footing the bill for sandbag staff to enjoy filet
00:36:11
mignon. Other upscale dining staff at
00:36:15
the San Diego association. Governor sandbag, pulled out
00:36:17
their employee credit cards, hundreds of time to pay for
00:36:20
meals often upscale dining spots and with bills topping out, more
00:36:23
than a hundred dollars per visit.
00:36:26
A recent, internal audit of Santa already flagged question
00:36:29
will purchase on the credit cards, including unallowable
00:36:31
charges at local restaurants, but receipts and transaction
00:36:34
logs. Now, show the taxpayer Thunder
00:36:35
restaurant visits where regular practice for some of the
00:36:38
agencies. Highest-paid employees staff
00:36:41
dying to places such as radio. God o Donovan Steakhouse in the
00:36:45
u.s. grant Hotel restaurant. Now if you know the u.s. grant
00:36:49
to hoity-toity place it's like a Historic Hotel but it's very
00:36:52
nice. Donovan's is very Swanky ready
00:36:55
to God I don't know where that is but I imagine it sounds
00:36:58
really nice. We're pulling the meals as
00:37:00
business meetings and agency records while employees 8 with
00:37:03
fellow staff. They were also joined at By
00:37:06
elected leaders, other government officials board
00:37:08
members, consultants and lobbyists.
00:37:13
Interesting. They also found that the stand,
00:37:16
this appointed that they said Flamin you on.
00:37:18
I mean, if you're going to go to a steakhouse, you got to get
00:37:19
something better than flaming Lon.
00:37:21
Yeah, I never understood the whole fascination with filet
00:37:26
mignon. They filet mignon.
00:37:27
Just must have had a great marketing team because it's,
00:37:31
it's the most inferior of steaks on the menu.
00:37:34
I'm just gonna say it. I don't people love filet mignon
00:37:37
and like now he's gotta be a nice rib eye.
00:37:41
Nice, dry-aged rib eye or something.
00:37:44
It's all about the marbleization way off topic, but I am a big
00:37:49
fan of steaks and, you know, all the people who want to eat bugs
00:37:52
and drink soy milk and whatever, go right ahead, more meat for
00:37:56
the rest of us, more shakes or stake for me, that's all I you
00:38:01
eat your bugs and drink. Your soy fake.
00:38:04
Milk aisle. Drink whole milk and steak.
00:38:08
It'll be great. So many in the chat just said,
00:38:11
agreed on the rib eye steak. Thank you.
00:38:13
Yeah. Ribeye steak is the King of
00:38:14
Steaks. Anyway, we're getting really off
00:38:17
topic here Auditors last month. Yeah, it is very late nights.
00:38:24
Take places I see right now Auditors last month.
00:38:28
Found staff charge nearly 70 at local restaurants Over a
00:38:32
four-year period in almost two hundred fifty thousand dollars
00:38:35
on now. Non-working days.
00:38:37
The vast majority is expensive. 70, 70?
00:38:40
Yes, 70 thousand 70 at local restaurants Over a four-year
00:38:44
period. Okay, and almost 250 on
00:38:50
non-working days. The quarter million office,
00:38:54
non-working days. Let's see, one example that, I
00:39:00
knew Source found CEO, Hassan, and I'm going to butcher his
00:39:04
last name. I can remember, as a eek eek
00:39:07
rata charge. Nearly $100 in May 20, 19, A
00:39:10
Little Italy's craft and commerce.
00:39:12
Most places in the Little Italy are very Swanky, but failed to
00:39:16
submit an itemized receipt, a transaction log report, that he
00:39:19
and a staffer attended a dinner meeting with the San Diego Gas
00:39:22
and Executive learning. It grata.
00:39:29
One of the agency's most frequent Spenders that
00:39:31
restaurants charts seventeen thousand dollars in meals over
00:39:35
roughly two years and mostly at businesses in the county and
00:39:38
some months. Well, you know what, at least
00:39:41
he's supporting local business. I guess that's the one I'm
00:39:44
saying, you know what? I'm thinking, I bet you
00:39:47
anything, he has an expense account and if he is commuting
00:39:50
from Rancho Cucamonga, his gas is totally being paid for by the
00:39:54
government. Yes or his electric car because
00:39:57
he did admit, he has an electric car, our that okay.
00:40:02
You can't his out-of-town business brought some of the
00:40:04
most expensive restaurant charges with four other San
00:40:07
Diego. Officials at grata charge more
00:40:09
than $700 in 2019 at the whole high-profile Occidental Grill in
00:40:13
Washington, d.c., including Branzino for everyone at the
00:40:16
table. Appetizers and entrees such as a
00:40:19
$52 feature, meat dish and a nearly fifty dollar filet
00:40:23
mignon. That's actually pretty cheap for
00:40:25
Let me on so that's not really. Can you tell we go to
00:40:30
steakhouses a lot. Yes.
00:40:33
Ich Radha, who salary and benefits.
00:40:34
Total more than five hundred. Eighty thousand has headed the
00:40:37
agency since late, 2018. So the guy almost makes six
00:40:40
hundred thousand dollars and he's using taxpayer monies and
00:40:44
credit cards to pay for his lavish meals.
00:40:47
And he's probably got great benefits so he's basically close
00:40:52
to million dollars here. I wouldn't be surprised if just
00:40:55
And expenses, he's killing it. So I want to see if I want to
00:41:01
pull up this video. Let's see how excited you told
00:41:07
me about this video. This is a video.
00:41:11
So if you want to know the type of guy he is, I'm trying to say
00:41:16
this politely, he is a great, a douche nozzle.
00:41:23
He is, he's really slimy. And yeah.
00:41:28
So this was on KO SI. They kind of they asked them
00:41:31
about, like, well, what do you have to say to everybody about
00:41:36
all these fees that you are racking up?
00:41:38
And here's his response. It has been a board that's been
00:41:43
plagued with the some issues, not just the controversy with
00:41:47
The Ruck charge, but, you know, the misuse of credit cards on
00:41:51
lavish dinners. That was a big point of
00:41:53
contention as well. Do you feel as though?
00:41:57
You know, maybe it's time to move on or do you feel that with
00:42:00
the election and getting new members of the board?
00:42:02
It would be a more functional and efficient board.
00:42:07
You want to stop, because I'm for the audio listeners who
00:42:10
don't see what's going on. If you could see how much he's
00:42:14
fidgeting in his seat and like, wiping his brow and like he's
00:42:18
kind of like wiping stuff off. And like you can tell, he
00:42:21
doesn't like being in the hot seat and being questioned.
00:42:24
He's very, very uncomfortable in this video, but I just want to
00:42:28
point that out for anyone. Who's listening what the picture
00:42:30
looks like? You know, your station reported
00:42:35
in this since special news about misuse of cards and well, it was
00:42:39
an independent audit, was it? Not it was, but you misreported
00:42:43
actually and it's specifically they were definitely need for
00:42:50
policies and controls and we're working with the Auditors and
00:42:54
all that good. But, you know, for people to go
00:42:56
and give speeches in the news to just sensationalize things is
00:43:00
not. So this this idea, Can I just
00:43:04
say the fact that he's playing this off as like?
00:43:09
Oh well, I mean, there needs to be policies and controls about
00:43:15
how we spend all of your taxpayer dollars.
00:43:17
Like, obviously that needs to happen and clearly, that's what
00:43:21
we figured out. After this independent audit,
00:43:23
you're the CEO of San dieg, you're supposed to have these
00:43:28
policies and controls in place. It comes from the top down.
00:43:32
And I like how he's like, how dare the news report on this?
00:43:37
We are, you know, using your money but how dare the people
00:43:39
know what's going on? I love how he just going.
00:43:42
Oh they you're just trying to sensationalize this news.
00:43:45
Yeah, you're trying to make it this big thing and like you're
00:43:49
trying to give all these speeches and it's like no, no,
00:43:51
no actually it was an independent audit who came out
00:43:54
found out, you're spending 17 thousand dollars thousands and
00:43:57
thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on lavish meals.
00:44:02
And I kind of just Lauren. Sorry, I was interrupting you,
00:44:06
it's just Lauren. Shut up and go drive your car.
00:44:08
So I can expense your miles and have more steak dinners.
00:44:12
Exactly. For a guy who makes almost six
00:44:15
hundred thousand dollars a year with benefits, so can't afford
00:44:19
afford. Yeah, I can't afford.
00:44:21
Steaks can afford a fifty dollar filet mignon, so seriously
00:44:25
hungry right now. The, you know what, you know,
00:44:27
I'm just going to say it as if I already think this guy was a
00:44:30
slimeball, I have a lesser opinion of him now that he eats
00:44:33
filet mignons that's just You know, I have a thing for like
00:44:46
$52. I was like, what's that the
00:44:49
feature Meats? Like the feature being I mean,
00:44:53
is that like mystery meat Okay. Sorry, Carry On, We're Not
00:45:04
sponsored by Bray Chophouse. Although if they are listening,
00:45:08
we would be we'd be happy to be sponsored by Brad.
00:45:11
Stop. Anyone wants to gift cards to
00:45:14
us. We will put them to good use.
00:45:16
Yeah, yeah. All right, let's finish this up
00:45:22
work. My own terms and leave on my own
00:45:25
terms of listen fired by the what you want p and I could be
00:45:29
fired by the board. And I After that, from day one,
00:45:31
you know, from the first week here, you know, this Sensational
00:45:35
news, if I don't pay attention, I don't go to bed, losing sleep
00:45:39
over, who's going to make a political speech or fire?
00:45:42
Me, I don't go to bed. I don't lose sleep over any of
00:45:46
this stuff, clearly so much of other people.
00:45:50
We know other people we've talked about in the past, but
00:45:54
the valley was Take a shot. Everytime assistance, ational
00:45:59
Sensational. Yeah, I think he came on and he
00:46:01
said I'm going to get these questions.
00:46:04
So how do I respond to him? Just calm sensation.
00:46:07
I think it's been three times so far, so three shots over one
00:46:10
unless you're underage. Yeah.
00:46:15
I stand for the marriage with my team of what we're delivering to
00:46:19
San diegoans and all of that other stuff and all that Josh on
00:46:23
use is background noise as far as I'm concerned.
00:46:26
So again, I don't wanna elaborating the issue, but all
00:46:31
this news about misuse, they were no wrongdoing and the
00:46:35
auditor herself in her report, put that they were nor do no
00:46:39
wrong doing well. I don't think anyone saying any
00:46:42
of the actions were illegal but I I think what was reported was
00:46:47
just, you know, taxpayers it feeling as though they they want
00:46:51
to have their tax money being used in efficient ways and
00:46:56
that's where maybe the argument. So uncomfortable, I am all for
00:47:00
that. I am.
00:47:01
I am actually known professionally as to be very
00:47:07
very keen on good policies and controls and they were just the
00:47:11
audit issues were about policies and controls.
00:47:13
Well now maybe there's there's no controls very professional
00:47:16
about policies and controls just not these just not these
00:47:24
specifically like that, you know, he's very he's known for
00:47:29
being about policies and control but not when it comes to
00:47:31
spending your tax dollars at lavish steakhouses, just not the
00:47:35
three percent of the time but he promises from here on out, he's
00:47:39
going to continue to be really good about policies and control
00:47:45
And the fact that he's like, well there was no wrongdoing.
00:47:49
So I don't understand why everyone's getting upset about
00:47:51
this. Like it was asleep.
00:47:54
I'm not losing sleep over the fact that I spent your
00:47:56
hard-earned tax dollars that I ripped from you.
00:47:59
On lavish dinners. I'm not losing sleep.
00:48:02
Are you losing sleep over it? And you know, if you guys would
00:48:06
just stop, sensationalizing me going out to dinner like, just
00:48:11
just stop like making a big deal about it.
00:48:16
Some place that that will probably make that more
00:48:18
efficient, which is which is a good thing.
00:48:20
But I again I do appreciate you coming on to answer the tough
00:48:23
questions and we'll hear from the air resources board a
00:48:27
shortly as to whether you're listening on audio right now.
00:48:31
The look on his face says it. All right now he has this look
00:48:37
he's got like a side smirk or something going on.
00:48:41
Like is this damn interview over yet?
00:48:44
Why did I agree to come on? Here we focus on his look, his
00:48:50
facial expressions. Yeah, he just looks like he's
00:48:54
yeah, he's not having a good time.
00:48:57
He's thinking right now, man. Do I wish I had a nice 15 year
00:49:00
old scotch and a filet mignon right now.
00:49:02
So Or not. This.
00:49:09
And that's it. So that's a little preview of
00:49:15
CEO. Hassan for all those people who
00:49:18
don't know who he is, he's a, he's a character and he makes a
00:49:24
lot of money. And he's pushing a lot of the
00:49:28
policies that are coming down the pike, in terms of tax per
00:49:32
mile and he believes that he knows what's good for you.
00:49:37
Except his choice of Stack. They'll see, you're really upset
00:49:42
about that. I am, I am attentive of factors,
00:49:45
you know. Just.
00:49:46
I feel like I should have pointed it out the filet mignon.
00:49:50
No. Yeah.
00:49:52
It comes from the top and it there is a video and I don't
00:49:57
know if I want to pull it up because it's not really quite
00:50:00
that important. I did post it a couple days ago,
00:50:03
but when Nora Vargas failed her boat What happened was, it was
00:50:09
CEO, Hassan who did lean over to her and tell her call for a
00:50:14
weighted vote. You could read his lips.
00:50:16
He says, call for a weighted vote so that or maybe it was
00:50:20
because you posted it. Yeah.
00:50:22
So if you don't think he, even if he's not a voting member, if
00:50:26
you don't think, he has his thumb on the scale to push his
00:50:29
own personal agenda. Then you're kind of kidding
00:50:33
yourself because this guy has a certain agenda that he wants
00:50:37
people out of their cars. He wants everybody into public
00:50:39
transit, he wants to tax people like crazy doesn't bother him.
00:50:45
Remember, he does not lose sleep over this stuff.
00:50:49
Not when you're making six hundred thousand dollars.
00:50:51
None of this is really going to hurt him.
00:50:52
Also, I wonder if he lives in Riverside.
00:50:55
Would he be subject to his own? I guess he would he would he be
00:51:00
subject to this San Diego tax per mile.
00:51:03
If you don't look, he's lives in Riverside, if he's yeah, if he's
00:51:07
a County resident of Riverside, then he wouldn't even be part of
00:51:10
this tax per mile, but we could go on and on and on about
00:51:16
sandbag and I think Camille and I have started down the rabbit
00:51:21
hole. Maybe we do need to have another
00:51:23
episode about this more. And I'd love to get supervisor
00:51:27
Jim Desmond on to talk more about Out it because he has
00:51:29
really good experience being on San diegan can really go into
00:51:32
detail but I think that's a good intro and if you are yeah nope.
00:51:43
Yeah I was going to say, if you are new to knowing about sandag
00:51:49
is your first time here in about it.
00:51:52
And you feel like your blood is boiling after this?
00:51:56
That's good because you should be upset with what's happening?
00:51:59
What's and egg. And you should be paying
00:52:00
attention and more people should be paying attention because it's
00:52:04
scary what they're doing and it's scary what they're pushing
00:52:08
and I don't think enough people are paying attention to it if
00:52:11
nothing else. I hope this episode is a good
00:52:14
primer for a lot of people to kind of continue to go and look
00:52:18
more into sandbag and see. What they're trying to push
00:52:23
their own, power-hungry politicians who are using
00:52:26
corruption that these weighted votes and stuff like that to get
00:52:29
what they want scandals and wasting taxpayer money.
00:52:34
And the fact that they never complete any of the projects
00:52:36
that they actually promise. I mean it's honestly I think you
00:52:41
nailed it when we talked before the show and you said is this
00:52:44
one giant Ponzi scheme and it does kind of feel like sand bag
00:52:47
is one giant Ponzi scheme. It does go up to questions.
00:52:55
Two things, one. Did you get the tweets?
00:52:58
I sent you Lorena Gonzalez, Fletcher.
00:53:04
I can't see her tweets because I'm blocked.
00:53:06
Yeah, that's why I sent it to you.
00:53:08
I'll just read teeth. She tweeted out.
00:53:11
We worked hard to sculpt a law. Hashtag a be 805 so that
00:53:15
extremely tiny cities, like Delmar had a voice at the
00:53:17
sandbag table. It is insulting statistic, just
00:53:20
delmar's. Okay, residents should have an
00:53:22
equal voice on Chula vista's 280k.
00:53:25
They should stop acting like children.
00:53:29
I don't think she's currently a politician, but there you go.
00:53:33
You're if she was former politician, Nathan Fletcher's
00:53:37
wife. That's how she feels about
00:53:38
everybody. Stop acting like children for
00:53:40
have an opinion on how your tax dollars are spent.
00:53:43
Stop, having an opinion. On the fact that your mayor
00:53:46
doesn't get representation at Sand X table.
00:53:49
Mmm, Bill San Diego residents. What can they do?
00:53:54
Where do they go? What do they do to speak out
00:53:56
against this? Well whenever they have a board
00:54:00
meeting and this was told to me by Richard Bailey who was on the
00:54:06
board. Thank you still on the board,
00:54:08
he's got it because he's the mayor of Coronado you can file
00:54:13
opposition to a lot of stuff in sandag and it forces them.
00:54:18
They actually have to sit down and read it.
00:54:20
So that is one thing that they still have to do if you file.
00:54:24
I can't remember specifically what it is.
00:54:26
But if you go to their site, Right before the meeting, you
00:54:29
can file your opposition, you can email us or any mail, and
00:54:33
you can let them know and they have to go through every single
00:54:36
opposition. So if you're at a flood sandbag,
00:54:39
with hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of opposition saying,
00:54:42
we do not want this tax per mile, then they have to sit
00:54:46
there and read it and have to go through every single one.
00:54:48
You can also call in the day of the meeting, they have to take
00:54:52
calls. So, sandag will put you in a
00:54:54
queue, you can call up, you can Make your voices known and it's
00:54:59
just like going to it's sort of like showing up to a city
00:55:03
council meeting or County, supervisor meeting.
00:55:05
You can show up and make your voice heard.
00:55:07
So these are not entirely closed meetings, they are open to the
00:55:11
public and they are open to taxpayers to have their input.
00:55:17
I think the next one is coming up next week.
00:55:19
It's your Thursday or Friday, you can check its on sandbags
00:55:24
website. It will tell you exactly when
00:55:26
they're having it. What what number you can call
00:55:29
into to voice your opposition or support?
00:55:33
Hopefully you're not calling in to support the tax per mile but
00:55:36
these are things you can do and it worked before this tax per
00:55:41
mile thing is not this is not brand new.
00:55:44
They've been trying to get this tax per mile into the plan for a
00:55:49
while now for probably over a year.
00:55:53
And there was one time a bunch of people called in and wrote in
00:55:58
and all of a sudden all these politicians, like, Todd Gloria
00:56:02
who was for it. Now, all of a sudden backed off
00:56:04
when they saw, there was a huge blow back from the from the
00:56:07
voters. So if your voice is made and
00:56:09
enough people call up, then they will likely back off of this.
00:56:16
And I think this next coming week, if we can kind of nail
00:56:19
that down, I think it'd be a good idea, maybe get a post out,
00:56:23
share some stuff, and kind of organize, some sort of effort to
00:56:27
call in and get people to really push, push back on this, if the
00:56:31
votes going up next week. So that's what you can do.
00:56:35
Okay. You know I'm already I have
00:56:37
ideas but I will throw your way after this.
00:56:39
But is it beneficial if they call their sandag representative
00:56:45
like their mayor or whoever was elected?
00:56:49
And ask them to okay. So if I find out, who your yeah,
00:56:53
Find Out Who Your representative is and tell them, you know,
00:56:57
email them as well, specifically, because you can
00:57:00
say, hey, you're my representative and sandag do not
00:57:04
support this tax per mile, okay? And do they need to call the day
00:57:08
of the meeting? Yes.
00:57:13
Yeah. You won't get even email,
00:57:15
anytime. Yeah, I think it's like a day
00:57:18
that you can email before a day before something, they open the
00:57:21
email and you can file an email, which then they have to go over
00:57:26
and read but you would have to sit on the phone and when they
00:57:30
call in and you just kind of sit in a cube and make your voice
00:57:33
down. Okay and Sandow?
00:57:37
Gas? A ND AG dot-org.
00:57:40
So excite. Yep.
00:57:43
So you can push back and I think people need to push back and
00:57:47
they're going to keep trying to roll this tax per mile out as
00:57:50
much as possible. So even if we push it off this
00:57:53
time I think it'll still rear its ugly head down the line but
00:57:59
it's got to stay vigilant on this stuff and not let it
00:58:01
happen. So anyone watching, share this
00:58:04
with like every San Diego resident, you know, or put on
00:58:07
our social media, it's really important, exactly.
00:58:10
Yeah, this is, this is crucial stuff.
00:58:12
This is stuff that's going to affect everyday, Californians in
00:58:16
every aspect of your life, especially insane, right?
00:58:18
Well, only in San Diego? No, yeah.
00:58:21
But like you said, it'll eventually spread out, I guess.
00:58:25
Eventually going to hit everybody in California.
00:58:27
So get ready for that sooner or later.
00:58:30
It will be, it will be like a State law pretty soon.
00:58:33
They're gonna start doing tax per mile.
00:58:36
So but, yeah, that's my final thoughts on sandbag for now.
00:58:41
There's a lot more to talk about and how corrupt and crazy.
00:58:44
This organization is any final thoughts Camille from you?
00:58:47
Before we sign off tonight on Saint deck, just please, please
00:58:53
call your representative please contacts.
00:58:55
And dad, even though I'm not in San Diego, I don't want Orange
00:58:59
County trying to act like this. Yeah.
00:59:03
Let's nip it in the bud down here, in San Diego.
00:59:05
So I ever get the idea and, you know, any other counties to try
00:59:08
and do stuff like this. So I'm hungry.
00:59:12
So after all that talk about filet mignons instead.
00:59:15
Yeah. All right.
00:59:16
Yeah. On that note, as we always like
00:59:19
to end every show if you enjoyed this the best way to support is
00:59:22
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00:59:25
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00:59:30
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00:59:32
Subscribe and review helps with the algorithm.
00:59:35
Make sure you leave comments after this.
00:59:38
And that's basically, it will see you on the next one.
00:59:40
Every Thursday night live at 8, p.m. have a good night,
00:59:45
everybody.