The year started by nearly knocking everyone off their feet in January.
A series of storms brought volatile winds to Chula Vista and National City, knocking down power lines, toppling trees and straining public resources responsible for cleaning the mess.
California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency throughout much of the state because of the damage caused by the winter storms, while Chula Vista Mayor Mary Casillas Salas predicted cleanup efforts in the city could reach into the millions of dollars because of the rain and winds that pummeled the region.
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Instead of spending all of his days playing video games David Pack, 17, spent most of his time teaching children the science behind cooking.
When David was a sophomore at Saint Augustine High School two years ago he started C3K—. Chemistry, Cooking, Community for Kids.
The program allows David, a Chula Vista resident, to feed people while doing the two things he loves.
“I kind of just wanted to do something to help out the community but I wanted to do something meaningful for myself,” he said. “So I wanted to combine my passion for cooking, but I also had an interest in science so I wanted to combine those two to help out my community.”
St. Rose of Lima church contacted him to help create a recipe with some of the produce it gives out to low-income families who are unfamiliar with cooking vegetables.
David whipped up an orange jicama salad recipe and sampled it out in the food pantry line and passed the recipe along to those receiving food at the food pantry.
“We started off going to an orphanage [in Tijuana] and that’s how it kind of grew from there,” he said. “More people started contacting me and recognizing my efforts and really wanted me to get involved with other things in the community.”
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When Cesar Fernandez, 43, is not teaching 9th and 10th grade students at Otay Ranch High School he can be heard offering his opinion on his podcast “The Educated Guess”.
“In my 18 years of teaching, I’ve came across a lot of great, inspiring educators and I don’t think their stories are ever told,” Fernandez said. “I’ve always liked to be in front of the microphone to be talking…So for me this was an opportunity to be in front of the mic myself and then also tell the stories of other educators.”
“The Educated Guess” primarily focuses on topics revolving around education with some time dedicated to South Bay politics, sports and occasionally hip-hop music.
Fernandez said some of the most compelling stories for the podcast have come unexpectedly, like Episode 4. Fernandez said as he was getting set to record a fellow teacher came to visit him. That teacher had lost his brother 32 years ago in the San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre and had been interviewed about the tragedy in a recent documentary.
“That was something that my buddy had always kept close to his heart,” Fernandez said.
“But that day in the summer, I’m hooking up all my stuff and I’m like ‘hey, test this out let me hear how you sound’ and we started having a conversation and he told me about being part of that documentary. That ended up being episode 4.”
“The Educated Guess” can be heard on Blog Talk Radio, on Apple’s iTunes, the Tune In app and on Player FM. However, when searching for the podcast on iTunes EducatedGuess is one word.
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In February it was revealed the city of Chula Vista would have to pay more than $1 million to a former fire fighter who was fired from the department.
Former Deputy Fire Chief Jim Garcia sued the city in May 2015 claiming he was a victim of age discrimination, disability discrimination and a failure to take corrective action based on other cases involving discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
A jury ruled in favor of Garcia, 58, on the disability discrimination claim, awarding him about $1.2 million.
Garcia had worked for the department for 25 years.
Garcia’s attorney, Bradley Gage, said Garcia first injured his neck in 1998 in a work-related incident. Gage said at that time Garcia had neck surgery and missed a few months of work due to recovery, but came back and had a successful career.
Then about two years ago Garcia was fired from his job by newly appointed Fire Chief Jim Geering, Gage said.
“On. Jan. 14, 2015, [Garcia] told [the city] his neck was injured again and that he might need another surgery,” Gage said. “They fired him after that.”
In a statement, the city of Chula Vista denied Garcia’s firing was discriminatory.
“Former city employee Jim Garcia was terminated from his at-will executive level deputy fire chief position on January 14, 2015, after the prior fire chief retired, and a new fire chief was appointed,” the statement reads. “Garcia later filed a lawsuit alleging that he was terminated due to his age and/or neck injury, and that the city did not investigate allegations of discrimination. The city has always contended that Garcia was legitimately, and appropriately, terminated from his at-will deputy fire chief position by a newly appointed fire chief in the best interest of public safety and the city and fire department. This is because Garcia had been a member of the prior fire department management team which had subjected a Vote of No Confidence supported by over 90 percent of the fire department and local firefighter’s union. Further, Garcia had then been subjected to a National Censure by the International Association of Firefighter’s for having participated in decisions contrary to the safety and welfare of the city’s citizens and firefighters, urging that Garcia not be hired by any fire department in the entire country. It was time for new and respected leadership in the Chula Vista Fire Department in the best interest of the department and citizens. At trial in January 2016, Garcia dropped his claim for failure to investigate discrimination. The jury also did not find he was terminated because of his age. The jury found in Garcia’s favor for neck injury discrimination. The jury awarded Garcia about $450,000 in lost past and future wages, and about $650,000 in past and future emotional distress damages. The city is analyzing an anticipated appeal to exercise its legal rights to challenge the verdict and excessive damages awards. In the meantime, the city and fire department will continue to provide services to its citizens without interruption or disruption.”
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The Sweetwater Union High School District agreed to a multi-million dollar settlement in their favor.
Two construction companies agreed to pay $8.2 million to the Sweetwater Union High School District as part of a legal settlement for their involvement in a pay-to-play scandal that plagued three South County school districts nearly four years ago.
Originally the school district sought $26 million from both Gilbane Building Company out of Rhode Island and The Seville Group Inc. from California, but in the end settled on $8.2 million.
In exchange for the monetary payment, the Sweetwater district agreed to drop its lawsuits against both Gilbane and SGI.
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The National City city council chambers were crammed in February with people who wanted to know if the city would designate itself a city welcoming to immigrants.
The council was considering a resolution calling National City a welcoming city, a gesture that would have prevented city employees, including police, from inquiring about immigration status while at the same time guaranteeing city services to all residents.
Despite the public’s support, the National City council voted 3-2 against designating their city a welcoming city.
National City Mayor Ron Morrison did not support the item because he said he had a problem with some of the wording in the resolution and worried that National City may lose federal funding if it held a Welcoming City status.
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St. Rose of Lima Church’s Sister Dolores Outreach Program gives families facing food insecurity healthy fruits and vegetables through their Fresh to Families program.
Fresh to Families has successfully given out 5,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables to the community every week. On Wednesday’s for about two-hours, about 150 to 200 individuals will receive fruits and vegetables for their families.
The program is made possible by a Chula Vista Charitable Foundation grant and a grant from the county of San Diego, totaling $16,500. The grant allows the outreach program to purchase seeds, oils and other necessary materials.
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The Chula Vista Police Department partnered with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to bring non-communicative individuals with disabilities home through a photo recognition program.
The “Take Me Home” program is a photo and web-based information system designed to assist law enforcement during contacts with developmentally disabled individuals with Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Autism, Deafness, Down Syndrome and other developmental disabilities. The program is to help identify and locate the family of an individual who tends to wander and who may not be able to communicate with local authorities.
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A former Chula Vista firefighter who earlier in the year was awarded more than $1 million in a settlement with the city, filed a claim against the city for making defamatory comments against him about the same case.
Jim Garcia made a “demand for retraction and demand to remove defamatory statements from any and all public places, including without limitation ABC Web Sites.”
The city contended that Garcia was terminated “for having participated in decisions contrary to the safety and welfare of the city’s citizens and firefighters,” a statement Garcia’s attorneys said differs from the city’s sworn interrogatory answers in which he said the city specifically claimed different reasons for the termination.
In sworn statements the city had said Garcia was fired because of a reorganization in the fire department, which gave then- newly appointed fire chief to select his at-will executive staff.
Chula Vista City Attorney Glen Googins said at the time he was unaware of the claim.
The city would go on to settle the claim for $900,000 in exchange for Garcia’s dropping his legal action.
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San Diego Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh on Feb.28 ordered ex-Chula Vista police officer Roman Granados to pay $9,667 in restitution to Matthew McCormick, who was 16 years-old when Granados beat him up in an off-duty incident nearly three years ago.
In addition to restitution, Granados must also pay for future counseling fees, which will be determined at a later time.
Granados, 49, had pleaded guilty in 2015 to a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to a child by inflecting injury and an infraction for disturbing the peace.
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In April Otay Water District Board member Hector Gastelum was censured by his fellow members.
In February, Gastelum posted a series of tweets in which he called for more countries to be included in President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. The Tweets also refer to Muslims in those banned countries as “subhuman” and “scum.”
In other tweets, he called Muslims rapists and murderers.
More than a dozen people spoke at an April OWD meeting, all voicing their displeasure with Gastelum and called for his resignation.
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Harvey Souza, the longtime owner of Seven Mile Casino and who was indicted by the federal government on one charge of was indicted in 2015 on one count of failing to implement policies and procedures to maintain an anti-money laundering program that complied with federal regulations, transferred ownership of his card room to Stones South Bay Corp.
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Tish Berge, former director of finance and administration at the Rincon del Diablo Municipal Water District, was named Sweetwater Authority’s new general manager.
As part of her job, Berge will carry out the seven-member board’s policies to the 190,000 water customers in western and central Chula Vista, National City and Bonita.
Berge is the first woman to lead the Sweetwater Authority in its 40-year history.
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The Chula Vista Fire Department received a grant from the Department of Homeland and Security that will allow it to hire a dozen firefighters.
The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant provides about $3.7 million for staffing for the next three years. Of that amount, $2.3 million is Federal Emergency Administration grant monies and $1.4 million is the city’s contribution. A Chula Vista firefighter makes about $71,189 annually with no guaranteed overtime.
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Chula Vista Police Agent Fred Rowbotham and his wife Katie were in Las Vegas when a gunmen opened fire across the street from an open air concert venue.
Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, using a semi-automatic rifle and spraying the area across the street with bullets.
Fred and his wife were about 100 feet from the stage when the bullets started peppering the area. He was grazed on the left hip by a bullet that Fred said peeled off about three inches of skin.
He said his wife sustained cuts to her knees after she fell while running away.
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After more than a year of owing $28,337.28 for a campaign rally held at Kimball Park in May 2016, the Bernie Sanders campaign finally paid up.
Deputy City Manager Stacey Stevenson said getting what was owed them was not easy.
The National City City Council took matters into their own hands when they unanimously voted on Aug. 1 to file a lawsuit against the Bernie Sanders campaign, prompting the campaign to finally open its checkbook and pay a total including fees and interest of $32,156.99.
“I was contacted by the Sanders’ campaign attorney (Brad Deutsch) on Aug. 24. As a result of your news article reporting the City Council’s decision to file a lawsuit against the Sander’s campaign, on Oct. 4, 2017, the city was paid in full,” National City City Attorney Angil Morris Jones said.
