Advocacy_Blog

 Public Safety Policy board email: 

.... composed on 26.09.18....

Additionally, on July 20, 2026, a scaffolding collapse occurred at 4062 Mississsippi avenue, near Polk St.   If there's a reason to be concerned about *ANY* build with scaffolding, this is it.
The scaffolding from that massive mid-rise project completely gave way, crashed right onto the adjacent Stuart Manor complex, crushed six parked cars, and forced the immediate evacuation of multiple apartment units. It was a miracle nobody was killed. Even worse, subsequent investigative findings revealed that the general contractor, Premium West, brought in a subcontractor with an already-suspended state license to clear up the debris.

Channel 8 picked it up.... watch it

"Ghost-Transit Fraud"   

• How City Hall paves over backyards for bus routes that don't exist

Watchdog Disclaimer & Submission

the mystery of school bonds

there are two measures asking to extend your property taxes for another 30 years.    They will put out pictures that may not be truth.    the dialog proceeds to make some sense.  I've added pictures to show that some of these school properties are getting massive facelifts for students who may not populate them.....

about BALFOUR BEATTY:   and their many projects throughout the city and county of San Diego.   Here's their footprint

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) heavily utilizes the Lease-Leaseback (LLB) procurement model, Balfour Beatty has been consistently cemented as one of the district's preferred "Group H" master contractors.

Public board disclosures and procurement pipelines highlight the staggering scale of their individual campus awards:

• Point Loma High School Whole Site Modernization: Public change orders and board revisions tracked the massive scale of this single campus project at over $1.18 billion ($1,180,886,929) in revised total contract allocation under contract #CZ19-0081. 

• Johnson Elementary School Modernization: The district entered into a master site lease with Balfour Beatty for extensive preconstruction and construction services. Recent 2025 and 2026 bid allocations include $1 million to $3 million just for temporary "interim housing" relocations to clear the site during active construction. 

• Boone Elementary School Joint-Use Field & Reroof: Records show Balfour Beatty pulling down multi-million dollar rolling phases under Measure YY bond funds, including a $1 million to $3 millionreroofing contract executed in mid

• Mission Bay High School (Phase II): The district's March 2026 bidding records continue the trend, showing Balfour Beatty as a leading pre-approved contender for the school’s major Phase II Whole Site Modernization project.

2. What the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (ICOC) Reports Reveal

By state law under Proposition 39, districts passing bonds must appoint an Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (ICOC) to review expenditures and reassure the public. While the district boasts that these 11-to-13 volunteer panels review monthly controls and business outreach, watchdogs point out how the oversight is structurally limited: 

• No Discretionary Power: The ICOC is explicitly restricted by law to checking if money is spent on the vague list of projects printed on the ballot. They cannot veto contracts, they cannot alter project scopes, and they cannot stop the school board from awarding massive lease-leaseback deals to top-tier campaign donors.

• The "Co-Mingling" Cloak: As the San Diego County Grand Jury formally discovered in its blistering investigation, SDUSD has historically managed its multi-billion dollar bonds via "commingled bond funds". This means funds from different bond ears (Prop S, Prop Z, Measure YY) are frequently pooled together, making it incredibly difficult for the public—and even the independent oversight panel—to trace precisely how much an individual contractor’s overhead costs are drawing from the pile.

• Obstructing Investigations: The Grand Jury report explicitly noted that when it attempted to dig into the internal accounting of the district’s multi-billion dollar construction programs, SDUSD officials "failed to respond to repeated requests for documents and some interviews, impeding the conduct of this investigation"—undermining the district's public claims of perfect transparency.

With San Diego County schools currently burning through nearly $11 billion on ongoing construction waves, this site is doing some tracking to keep them transparent.

Complicated?  You tell me.   No more spending on repeat pics of decrepit buildings.  Manage the taxpayer money you have.   No more funding.

When the San Diego County Grand Jury investigated San Diego Unified’s multi-billion dollar bond program, their report explicitly detailed how the district keeps taxpayers in the dark about the true cost of borrowing:

• The Annual Estimate Trick: The Grand Jury found that the district routinely hides the eye-watering total interest costs of these bonds. Instead of telling voters the final multi-billion dollar repayment price, the district’s summaries reverted strictly to an annual number (such as "$330 million annually while bonds are outstanding"). The Grand Jury noted this made it completely impossible for an average voter to calculate the actual total cost of the debt. 

• Hiding Cumulative Tax Creep: Jurors explicitly stated that the district fails to inform voters that property tax rate increases are cumulative. When a new measure like Measure M passes, it piles on top of the lingering unspent debt from previous measures (like 2008's Prop S, 2012's Prop Z, and 2022's Measure U).

• The $4.58 Billion Surplus Cloak: The report revealed that San Diego Unified currently has a staggering $4.58 billion in unspent funds left over from previous bonds that they haven't even issued yet. Despite sitting on billions of unspent taxpayer dollars, the district simply copies and pastes identical "boilerplate" facility project lists from decades ago to justify asking for new bonds.

2. The Campaign Donor Pipeline

Because these measures require a 55% majority vote to pass, a political action committee called San Diegans for Quality Schools (Yes on M) handles the campaigning. Since public schools cannot legally spend taxpayer money to market a bond, the campaign is funded almost entirely by private entities. 

Independent investigations by outlets like Voice of San Diego and inewsource have tracked the exact corporate donor breakdown for the region's school bond initiatives:

• 82% Business and Contractor Funding: Historically, over 82% of all financial contributions to pass San Diego school bonds come directly from business interests, major construction firms, and trade unions that stand to win the resulting building contracts.

• The 70% Success Rate Loop: A historical tracking analysis of local school bonds revealed a clear "pay-to-play" correlation: More than 70% of companies that donated over $5,000 to local school bond campaigns went on to win lucrative, bond-funded contracts from those very same school districts. 

• The Prime Donors: The primary financial engines pouring cash into local "Yes on Bond" committees include:

  • Mega Construction Managers & Contractors: Firms like Erickson-Hall Construction, EC Constructors, and major prime contractors who benefit from non-competitive "Lease-Leaseback" master agreements.

  • Political Action Committees & Trade Unions: The Infrastructure PAC of the Associated General Contractors and the San Diego County Building Trades Council, which represent the specialized labor forces guaranteed work under the bonds' Project Labor Agreements.

  • Architecture & Engineering Conglomerates: The corporate design firms that are hired to draft the campus overhauls before ground is ever broken. 

VOSD doubles down.

Scott Lewis  and Jakob W are doubling down with their AI slop fun depicting SD United Communities as "NIMBY AVENGERS"         VOSD is a sinking ship.   We recommend that you do not support them.   They look at it as "election noise",  Lewis laughs on the second youtube post.    Time to get our sources somewhere else.   Bye, felicia.