There are two candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot running for San Diego County supervisors District 5: Republican incumbent supervisor Jim Desmond and Democratic scientist/water director Tiffany Boyd-Hodgson. Below are Desmond’s answers to a 16-question survey The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board emailed candidates.
Q: Why do you want this job? What in your background makes you a good fit?
A: I believe we are here to make this world a better place and this position is a good fit for my experiences as a husband, dad, county supervisor, mayor and community volunteer.
There are two candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot running for San Diego County supervisors District 5: Democratic scientist/water director Tiffany Boyd-Hodgson and Republican incumbent supervisor Jim Desmond.
Between now and early October when voting gets underway, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board is planning to publish dozens of candidate Q&As and nearly two dozen commentaries connected to a handful of San Diego city ballot measures and seven state propositions on the Nov. 8 election. Keep checking back as we fill in this voter guide.
My background includes volunteering, community service and leadership positions, starting at a young age in the U.S. Navy where I met my wife and began a family.
In my career as a pilot for Delta Air Lines, over half that time was spent as captain. I was solely responsible for the operations and crew of a large commercial aircraft and the safety of hundreds of thousands of passengers all over the world.
To set an example and spend time with my children, I started volunteering. I was the president of the parent teacher association in their elementary school. I was a Scout leader and an assistant coach and team dad in many of their sports.
My volunteer work in the community took me on a path for public office. While mayor of San Marcos, our city was fiscally sound and one of the safest communities in San Diego County.
As county supervisor, I will continue to protect residents from wildfires, to fight against sexually violent predators and crime, and to continue to address homelessness, mental health and addiction.
I will always listen and be a balanced voice for sensible and effective policy.
I’ve accomplished a lot in my first four years as county supervisor, and I’m excited to continue to serve North County and give back to my community.
Q: What would your priorities be for the next four years?
A: My priorities are to protect our communities. An immediate goal must always be to keep North County safe from wildfires and crime. I have fought for increased funding for fire services, firefighting helicopters and brush management along evacuation routes, and I will continue to respond to the threat.
Stopping the placement of sexually violent predators in North County is extremely important to me. Those convicted of horrible crimes have no place in our neighborhoods.
When I first came into office, North County lacked behavioral health facilities and resources. There were only a few crisis chairs at Palomar Health. Four years later, the North County is a hub for behavioral health services. Three of the region’s five Crisis Stabilization Units are located along the State Route 78 corridor in Oceanside, Vista and Escondido. There is $20 million dedicated to psychiatric beds coming to the Tri-City Medical Center, and we’ve opened One Safe Place, to serve women and families experiencing domestic violence, human trafficking and elder abuse.
Water conservation will always be a priority issue for our region. Serving on the San Diego County Water Authority, I strongly support conservation and reclamation to ensure ample supply for our future needs.
Helping to get the homeless off the streets and into effective public and private programs remains a priority for me. Related to that, I will continue to fight to reduce regulations and make housing more affordable. All families in San Diego County deserve a piece of the American dream.
Q: The county is trying to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2035. Do you believe climate change is caused by humans and an existential threat? How would you change the county’s approach to the climate emergency?
A: It is beyond argument now that human activity is a major cause of climate change and that global warming is, indeed, a global threat. That’s why I’ve supported the county’s efforts to change its practices and make addressing climate change a priority.
Last year, I voted in favor of the county creating an integrated regional decarbonization framework and design of an implementation playbook. This effort focuses on what county government can do to reduce its own carbon emissions and is working to provide guidance for the region beyond government facilities and operations.
I also voted to establish the Office of Environmental and Climate Justice to focus on areas of San Diego most affected by pollution, health disparities and the effects of climate change.
One of the most critical programs is the county’s Electric Vehicle Roadmap. To hasten the adoption of clean mobility, I strongly supported the Electric Vehicle Roadmap so we can identify the actions our county needs to take over the next decade.
And, with my colleagues, I support a new, legally compliant Climate Action Plan, including measures that effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As a policymaker, I try to balance effective mitigation strategies and costs to individuals and taxpayers. I believe we need to weigh and balance the already-high cost of living in San Diego, and the cost of measures to reduce emissions for the future. Through thoughtful implementation, we can balance both.
Q: What lessons did you learn from managing the COVID-19 pandemic and how would you apply those to other threats, such as the monkeypox health emergency?
A: As an engineer and an airline pilot, I was trained to evaluate data and manage risk. Early in the pandemic, data showed that seniors living in care facilities were most vulnerable. My interest was to create more precise targeting. We know that not all risks are equal. For example, we knew that someone who is 35 and healthy is at far less risk than someone who is 75 with diabetes. I urged the health department staff to focus on those at greatest risk.
As we were shutting down our schools, large portions of our workforce, many business sectors and our beaches and parks, I asked if there was a more precise way to protect vulnerable populations without widespread closures. In fact, we could have put more focus on our most vulnerable — quickly and completely securing our care facilities, for example. We eventually did that, but there were many tragic outbreaks early on in those facilities.
Perhaps young students suffered the most. Recent studies indicate that the closures set back learning dramatically, with the greatest harm done to low-income children, and many still haven’t been able to recover. Closures of schools also exacerbated adolescent mental health problems that may take many years to address.
No one got this 100 percent right. It was a complex problem, so that’s not surprising. Public officials must gather as much data as possible and then take a measured approach.
Q: You brought guests on your podcast who downplayed the dangers of COVID-19 or shared unsubstantiated information. Was that a responsible action? Assess your leadership during the pandemic.
A: I’m proud of my leadership during the pandemic. I consistently advocated for people to stay safe and take measures to protect themselves, for each of their situations. I advocated for protecting the vulnerable. I established North County testing centers and vaccination sites and promoted a healthy respect for the virus, while advocating policies supporting small businesses.
My leadership was a minority voice advocating for balance. I believed that San Diegans could wear masks, social distance and sanitize, but also the less vulnerable could continue to work and go to church and school. This is not what was broadly implemented, but I stand by my advocacy and voice that added much-needed balance and tempered more extreme, unnecessary measures.
As we know, throughout the pandemic, information and discovery was fluid. Learning more from outside experts was my goal. For example, I spoke with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a medical professor at Stanford University, and Dr. Martin Kulldorff, then a medical professor at Harvard University, both of whom questioned the efficacy of the extreme lockdowns.
No one person has all the answers. It is only through discussions with experts and with differing perspectives and opinions that we are able to have full understanding of a crisis of this magnitude.
Q: A significant part of the county’s budget is dedicated to mental health programs. How would you prioritize spending to improve mental health services? How would you address a regional shortage of mental health workers?
A: When I was first elected, we had a severe lack of behavioral health services in North County. With the suspension of Tri-City Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Unit, we were woefully short in offering services. Our local police officers and sheriff’s deputies were spending four to six hours driving to Downtown San Diego to help get an individual stabilized.
Now, North County has three of the five Crisis Stabilization Units in San Diego County. Hospital emergency rooms are not intended to be mental health facilities. Crisis Stabilization Units are designed to provide expert care to get individuals out of their mental health crisis, and then create a plan for their next steps. We have also worked with Rady Children’s Hospital to create a crisis stabilization unit just for children and adolescents. Additionally, I allocated $20 million for urgently needed new psychiatric beds at Tri-City Medical Center.
We do have a shortage of mental health workers and addressing it requires us to increase incentives for qualified staff for our psychiatric system. I support prioritizing funding to incentivize recruitment and retention to the behavioral health workforce. Another strategy is through our educational institutions. Palomar College and MiraCosta College are offering programs for more mental health services careers, and I will ask to my colleagues to support and enhance those programs.
Q: What would you do to address recruitment and retention issues in the Sheriff’s Department?
A: Over the last three years, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department saw a 12 percent reduction in hiring rates, a 40 percent increase in resignation rates and a 91 percent increase in retirement rates. The current vacancy rate at the Sheriff’s Department is over 14 percent. Those are staggering numbers, with ominous implications for the future.
To counter this trend, I co-sponsored a board action to address recruitment and retention issues in the Sheriff’s Department. We established night shift premiums, increased lateral incentive pay to $20,000 for new hires from other law enforcement agencies, established relocation allowances for deputy sheriff’s classifications for new hires who relocate to accept employment with the county of San Diego and allowed lateral transfers to accrue vacation at an advanced rate, based on prior experiences.
These policy changes are one of the reasons the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of San Diego endorsed my reelection.
Most law enforcement officers are from their own community. We need to grow our own, by recruiting within San Diego County, which I believe will also increase respect between the officers and the community.
A first, simple step is to bridge the divide between law enforcement and the public. Earlier this year, I expanded the Camp Lead program, which brings law enforcement together with a broad spectrum of local teenagers. We need to create a stronger bond between law enforcement and the community if we hope to increase the applicant pool for careers in law enforcement.
Training, equipment and facilities are critical to a strong, positive culture. I strongly support providing the resources needed for the Sheriff’s Department to be a workplace of choice for law enforcement.
Q: How could the Board of Supervisors use its authority to force the Sheriff’s Department to be more accountable for preventing jail deaths and improving public safety?
A: Jail deaths are a major issue the board is addressing. This trend of deaths in custody need to stop. Part of the reason we have seen so many is that our jails are the No. 1 provider of mental services in the county, which is absolutely not the right place for some suffering from mental health issues to resolve their issues. Additionally, the explosion of fentanyl use in the county is a significant contributor.
I support providing the Sheriff’s Department with every tool needed to address this problem. Recently, the Board of Supervisors took emergency action, unanimously, to increase the number of body scanners and add more cameras and more tools for the sheriff’s deputies to prevent illicit drugs from entering jails, causing overdose deaths. I look forward to working with the newly elected sheriff after the election and coordinating a new effort to make sure these deaths are prevented.
I believe all of our local issues tie together with mental health and homeless issues. Those suffering from mental health issues should not be immediately incarcerated. For those who suffer from mental illness and addiction who have committed crimes and are in jail, I’m committed to the staffing and training to treat and address the issues while the person is in custody.
Q: Drugs are getting into county jails. Who should be scanned before entry into county jails, and why?
A: I believe we need to take effective measures to prevent deaths and overdoses in jails. Scanning is a tool, but because fentanyl can be so easily concealed, it is not a panacea. I believe that screening, using drug-sniffing dogs, is likely more effective, but it’s not the only tool.
I’ve learned that it’s eerily easy to get fentanyl into our jails. It only takes 2 milligrams of fentanyl to kill someone. I’ve spoken to District Attorney Summer Stephan about this, and she has explained that the fentanyl is getting through underneath stamps on letters, underneath the glue on the envelopes and through other discreet methods.
Until we secure our borders, screening with trained canine teams would be a good first step to keep dangerous drugs out of the jails. The federal government must do more to stop the fentanyl flooding across the border. However, to also take action at the local level, I have worked closely with the district attorney and Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer to raise awareness of the dangers of fentanyl.
Q: What is your stance on the use of surveillance technology? How would you ensure it is used responsibility to maintain people’s trust and privacy?
A: Surveillance is a legitimate law enforcement tool. For example, electronic surveillance is used to ensure that sexually violent predators, who are being placed in San Diego County against my objections, are being monitored. In the case of Borrego Springs, the average response time is 28 minutes, so surveillance is vital for community safety. Personally, I think they should be monitored more closely, and I will never support a reduction of electronic monitoring of sexually violent predators.
Also, video surveillance is used by the county of San Diego to monitor rural North County for potential fires. The cameras warn firefighters so they can respond quickly before a fire grows out of control. As the supervisor for North County, I want our firefighters to have all the tools necessary to prevent wildfires.
My concern with surveillance technology is the collection, storage and confidentiality of personal data. I favor very strict oversight of law enforcement agencies and others who have custody of this data. There is no simple answer, particularly given the expansion of private businesses collecting such data, but county agencies must submit to strict oversight.
While the county of San Diego hasn’t had many discussions on this issue, if there was any attempt to implement cameras, along major streets and public spaces, for example, I would insist on significant public outreach and input in advance, and clear and transparent parameters for use.
Q: What should the board do in response to independent studies showing large racial inequities in traffic stops by sheriff’s deputies?
A: These studies raise troubling questions for our law enforcement agencies and for us as policy makers. Every person has the right to travel freely and without unfair encounters with police and deputies. An immediate action we need to take is to improve and increase law enforcement training.
I supported increasing the sheriff’s budget by $47 million for the 2022-23 fiscal year specifically to provide more training to our deputies. This training includes implicit bias training, which will help address these inequities moving forward.
We must continue to review and monitor all traffic stops. Also, we must continue to allocate resources for training and recruitment/retention for the best and brightest officers to correct this trend, and to recruit from the region’s neighborhoods, so the workforce knows and understands the people and neighborhoods they are charged with protecting.
Q: What should the county do to build more housing in San Diego County and make it more affordable?
A: Improving the supply of affordable housing can be done. I know, because I did it as mayor of San Marcos. When I left office, 7 percent of the housing stock in San Marcos was deed-restricted affordable housing. That was one of the largest, if not the largest, percentage in San Diego County.
To succeed, we must cut red tape and reduce the time and cost of processing and approvals. We need to be mindful of “cost creep” — incremental increase in regulations and new laws and policies that add to the cost of each home. Over time, the cumulative effect of small additions creates large costs that are passed on to future homeowners.
We must encourage and incentivize housing, especially for affordable housing. I support multifamily housing that is intended to be built along transit lines. However, there is not enough land available, and these efforts will fall way short of the needs for our next generation. I strongly support building single-family homes for the next generation to raise their families, near infrastructure that already exists.
I favor improving infrastructure around areas of opportunity for significant housing, incentivizing development and redevelopment in those older areas where roads and infrastructure are substandard. My office has initiated this, and it’s a now a priority for the future in the unincorporated area near State Route 78.
Q: Homelessness is rising countywide even as it gets more attention and funding. What more should be done? Do you support the concepts of safe parking and safe villages? If so, where should sites be located in the county?
A: Homelessness has worsened in the last few years as the national economy worsens and housing affordability declines.
Recognizing that, my colleagues and I on the Board of Supervisors have taken what I believe are effective steps to address the problem by expanding existing programs and identifying new efforts that can help move the homeless off the streets. We have invested resources in low-income affordable housing and in behavioral health programs that treat homeless individuals with drug and alcohol addictions. However, I do not believe homeless parking lots and villages are the right solution for the unincorporated areas of North County.
An important change was to establish the Department of Homeless Solutions as a separate agency to better coordinate how county resources are directed. This proposal, originated by Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and supported unanimously, has sharpened the focus of our services and ensured that we have better data for decision making.
I implemented, with Supervisor Lawson-Remer, a “by-name” list of the homeless receiving services in the county. This simple but vital change means that the public and private agencies that work with the unhoused population can properly identify and coordinate services for clients, some of whom frequently move.
Additional specific programs we have implemented include my plan adding 17 social workers to assist North County cities to improve services and move homeless into housing as well as working with county staff and the Sheriff’s Department Homeless Outreach Team to clear illegal encampments and ensure those homeless people are moved into shelter.
Q: What should be the future of agriculture in San Diego County, given the drought and the need for more housing?
A: Agriculture is a $1.8 billion industry in San Diego County, and we need to support our farmers and ranchers for the good of the region. Agriculture provides locally sourced plants and food for our region, as well as jobs and significant economic benefit.
According to the San Diego County Farm Bureau, San Diego is the No. 1 nursery producer in the nation. We have more certified organic farmers than any other county in the nation. This region is second in the nation for female farmers as the principal operator. We also have more small farms and part-time farmers than any other county in the nation. San Diegans should be proud of and support and encourage agriculture in this region.
Farmers are struggling with increasing costs, including water. Water is the lifeblood of the region, and the future for agriculture may be an evolution that incorporates water-saving technology to do more with less, and, to some degree, a pivot to crops that align with regional sustainability, costs and challenges. Most farms have already incorporated efficiencies and best practices and produce more with less inputs — less water, fewer less pesticides and fewer fertilizers.
There are some properties near the agriculture/urban interface where neighborhoods meet legacy farm fields. In some of these cases, there is a win-win opportunity for the farmer and a future housing project that may work. In these circumstances, we need to be thoughtful about the lost agricultural acreage, but also encourage the housing opportunities offered by these non-environmentally sensitive lands.
Q: What is your position on Proposition 1, which would establish the rights for Californians to an abortion and to contraceptives in the state Constitution?
A: I will respect the decision of the people of California on this issue. I take my oath to uphold the Constitutions of the state and federal governments seriously. However, except where a mother’s life in in danger, I personally remain opposed to late-term abortions.
Q: Why should voters elect you over your opponent?
A: I’m proud of my accomplishments — as a Navy veteran, an airline pilot, a 12-year mayor of San Marcos, a successful business owner and, now, as supervisor for North County.
My most important job every day to is to protect the people of North County. That is why I’ve worked so hard on stopping the placement of sexually violent predators. That is why I’ve worked so hard to protect San Diego County from wildfires and that’s why the CalFire, Oceanside and Escondido firefighters have all endorsed me.
I led the effort at the Board of Supervisors on fentanyl awareness and protecting the lives of our children. I have advanced innovative homelessness and mental health programs. I have been a strong opponent of the San Diego Association of Governments’ push to tax people for every mile they drive and an advocate to complete promised projects on Interstate 5 and State Route 78.
I listen to all sides in my work as supervisor and always place the needs of North County first in my decision-making.
My opponent, in contrast, has lived in North County less than four years and has few, if any, accomplishments. And her ambition caused her to begin campaigning for a new office less than a year after being elected to a special district board.
While the past four years have been challenging, I have responded with policy and purpose, not politics or party. I have worked to represent the wide diversity of North County, and I am proud of that. I look forward to serving another four years.
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