“Thank you to the Public Safety Committee for voting to advance the Smart Streetlight program,” tweeted Todd Gloria on July 19. “This technology has helped @SanDiegoPD solve hundreds of crimes and will help continue to keep communities safe.”

Gloria’s glorious spy machine

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, up for reelection next year, is doubling down on the city’s burgeoning array of surveillance tools, acting in cahoots with his all-fellow-Democrat city council. “I’ve spoken out against invasive surveillance and for greater transparency,” wrote Gloria in a June 12, 2020, Union-Tribune op-ed piece as he campaigned that year for his first mayoral term. But last week came a different story, as Gloria endorsed a 3-1 Council Public Safety Committee vote to go along with police plans to install and upgrade a bevy of spy cams and license plate readers on 500 city streetlights. “Thank you to the Public Safety Committee for voting to advance the Smart Streetlight program,” tweeted His Honor on July 19. “This technology has helped @SanDiegoPD solve hundreds of crimes and will help continue to keep communities safe.”

Todd Gloria: keeping an eye on things. Lots of eyes, really.

Meanwhile, Gloria and the council are moving ahead full speed on creating a city-run computer database of local evictions, requiring all property owners to file online or face legal action. “Landlords will use the portal to submit notice of issuing a termination notice to tenants for at-fault and no-fault just cause termination of tenancy,” says a call for bids on the project posted online by the city. “The portal will also collect, retain, and report data obtained from the landlord and tenant voluntary surveys. The system needs to be fully functional by April 30, 2024.” The new data horde will supposedly be used to “protect the rights of tenants by requiring just cause for termination of tenancies consistent with California Civil Code, limit the grounds for termination of a tenancy, require greater tenant relocation assistance in specified circumstances, and provide additional tenant protections.”

But skeptics fear that ostensibly confidential data — as was the case with a prior round of so-called smart streetlights under Republican ex-mayor Kevin Faulconer — could easily seep into the hands of police and other snoopy law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as tax collectors and building inspectors, creating information leak risks.

No cost is provided in the city’s bid notice for the system, but a June 9 Union-Tribune account of last-minute council budget maneuvering pegged the initial expense of the eviction registry at $500,000, to be funded “primarily by money from a national opioid settlement, excess cash from the ongoing budget year and savings from lower-than-expected costs to install Smart Streetlights and enforce street vendor laws.” As of last week, the notice had drawn only one bidder, a local concern called Worksters, according to the city’s website.

From the company’s website: “Worksters was founded in 2011 to provide superior technology and products to the United States government. Our competencies are centered in three areas: data collection and analytics, enterprise IT, and software engineering. We are a small business with a strong past performance history. Some of our clients include the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, United States Census Bureau, and many more. We pride ourselves on excellent customer service, building lasting relationships, and bringing on talented team members and partners who are among the best in their fields.”

Jared’s sandwich

A political consulting outfit run by Jared Sclar, once a top aide to city council Democrat Raul Campillo, has turned up on a list of those providing services to a campaign fund closely tied to Republican ex-mayor Kevin Faulconer. Jared Sclar & Associates picked up $3000 in consulting fees from the San Diego Shelters and Safe Streets Act Sponsored by the California Business Roundtable, according to a July 18 disclosure report on file with the city clerk’s office. Sclar took over as Campillo’s deputy chief of staff shortly after Campillo took office and left the city on May 6 of last year, per city disclosures.

Jared Sclar will consult with both sides when it comes to safe streets!

A LinkedIn profile showed he had been communications director for the Association of Cannabis Professionals and a field director for Congressman Mike Levin. Democrat Levin, whose seat is a perpetual target for Republicans, took a $14,322 seven-day trip to Israel back in February courtesy of the liberal J Street Education Fund, but didn’t file the legally required 14-day after-trip disclosure report until June 21, House records show.

Not so long goodbye

Back in 2015, when GOP kingpin Doug Manchester unloaded the Union-Tribune to Tribune Publishing of Chicago — later to rename itself Tronc, and still later to be gobbled up by the vulture fund Alden Global Capital — he held onto the U-T’s Mission Valley headquarters and printing press, requiring the paper’s new owner to rent office space downtown and move its printing to Los Angeles. Some maintained the U-T’s new building — once occupied by Bridgeport Education, which moved to Arizona, changed its name to Zovio, and went out of business in 2022 — was already double-jinxed, having been built in 1974 by Republican savings and loan mogul Gordon Luce, whose Great American Bank came apart during the early 1990s S&L meltdown.

But the U-T’s latest owner remained decidedly optimistic. Russ Newton, then-president of the Union-Tribune, “called it a ‘fresh start’ after multiple changes of ownership over the last decade,” per a November 2015 U-T dispatch. “The newspaper’s name will be installed at the top of the north and south sides of the 24-story building.” But now, following the U-T’s July 10 takeover by Alden Global Capital, the depleted paper’s 11th and 12th-floor digs at 600 B Street are up for lease, each as a “Full floor opportunity” of 14,869 square feet with move-in availability September 1, according to the online listing by CBRE.com. An accompanying brochure, featuring a photo of the building with its giant Union-Tribune sign airbrushed out, says the structure offers “panoramic views of San Diego Bay, Coronado Bridge, Balboa Park, and Lindbergh Field,” a “private park located on-premises,” and “nano-septic technology.”

— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)

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