SANDAG board power weighs heavy on those that have less

A new front has opened up in the ongoing battles among board members of the San Diego Association of Governments — and it’s a dispute over democracy itself.

The agency’s direction is not simply guided by who has the votes, but what kind of votes they have. It’s a procedural matter that can have tremendous impact on residents across the county. Most significantly, the voting process has powered the shift in SANDAG’S emphasis toward transit over automobiles.

That policy dispute has triggered bitter infighting that at times has pushed the board to the brink of dysfunction.

Five years ago, state legislation gave the board’s population-based voting system priority over its simple tally system. Yes, SANDAG has long had two kinds of votes, and that can be confusing.

The weighted vote gives greater power — ruling authority, actually — to representatives from the larger of the board’s 19 jurisdictions, including the cities of San Diego and Chula Vista and the county of San Diego.

The board still takes tally votes that are equal. But any four jurisdictions representing a majority of the county’s population can call for a weighted vote. That’s what happened on Jan. 13 when county Supervisor Nora Vargas was elected chair of the board. San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-rivera was elected vice chair.

Representatives of several smaller cities walked out mid-meeting in protest. For the most part, the board split is between smaller, more commuter-oriented cities and more populous ones that are prioritizing mass transit. The dispute also sometimes — but not always — falls along partisan lines, with Democrats in charge in the bigger cities and Republicans, mostly, leading smaller ones.

Board members on the short end contend the weighted vote is unfair.

“It immediately disenfranchised nearly half of the San Diego County population and eliminated the voice of most cities in San Diego County,” 10 cities said in a letter asking that the voting process be set aside.

That’s similar to the

argument big cities had made in supporting the change, maintaining the previous system gave outsized power to small cities.

Before the weighted vote took precedence, both the simple tally and a weighted vote were required for items to pass the SANDAG board.

“This is about proportional representation, and I do not believe that the residents of Del Mar are 350 times more important than the residents of San Diego,” Elo-rivera said during the Jan. 13 meeting.

This is not a perfect analogy, but consider the SANDAG board as a combination of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Delaware (population 1 million) has two senators. So does California (population 39 million plus). Delaware has one representative; California has 52.

Now, imagine that however the Senate votes, the House vote is the final word. Granted, a given state’s House delegation doesn’t always vote the same way, but you get the picture.

In any case, there are competing views of what is a majority at SANDAG. As an aside, majority rule is anything but absolute in government. It takes a two-thirds vote in the California Legislature to approve taxes, as it does with many tax ballot measures. Super majorities are often required for veto overrides at various levels of government.

And then there’s the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

The SANDAG voting change was made in 2017 through Assembly Bill 805, carried by then-assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. The measure was introduced after the Voice of San Diego revealed that SANDAG, which was proposing a tax increase, had overstated previous transportation revenues and understated project costs.

The weighted vote was the centerpiece of the bill, enhancing the potential for the SANDAG board to put more emphasis on transit projects. But Gonzalez Fletcher, now the head of the California Labor Federation, included other notable provisions.

AB 805 created a new auditor and audit committee to oversee SANDAG. The bill also pushed SANDAG to give preference to union workers in hiring for large construction projects and allowed the Metropolitan Transit System and the North County Transit District the power to propose tax increases within their service areas, rather than having to go countywide.

The division on the SANDAG board is often viewed through a partisan lens, for good reason. GOP members tend to oppose new taxes, or at the very least are more cautious about pursuing them, than Democrats. Republicans often chafe at contract preferences for unions.

But that only goes so far. The board members who sent the letter to SANDAG requesting the weighted vote not be used were from Coronado, Del Mar, Escondido, El Cajon, Imperial Beach, Oceanside, Poway, San Marcos, Santee and Vista.

In seven of those cities, Democrats have a voter registration advantage over Republicans, to varying degrees (Del Mar, El Cajon, Escondido, Imperial Beach, Oceanside, San Marcos, Vista). Some of those cities — El Cajon, Escondido, San Marcos and Vista — have Republican leadership.

Del Mar Councilmember Terry Gaasterland, a Democrat, led the effort and noted in a release the bipartisan nature of the coalition.

Partisanship and the weighted vote did not play into one of the board’s most recent high-profile decisions: to oppose a per-mile road charge on automobiles that would help fund a longrange, $160 billion transportation plan and, in theory, persuade more people to take mass transit.

Democrats including San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and then-encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear, now a state senator, urged the fee be dropped.

Assessing such a fee can be a political liability under the best of circumstances, but it became a particular flashpoint as gas prices skyrocketed.

Still, representatives of the protesting cities want further discussions about an agreement not to invoke the weighted vote in future matters.

Good luck. There are a lot of long shots in this world and the notion of politicians giving up power voluntarily is one of them.

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