It was in January when The Star-News told you about a new Chula Vista nonprofit with old roots in the community that was working to address the immediate needs of homeless people to not only get them off the street but foster hope for a better life.
The organization, led by Executive Director Rosy Vasquez, gets them access to necessary resources and programs, educates them on their situation and ultimately shows them a concrete path to self-sufficiency.
The nonprofit came about following nearly a decade of working with the homeless population through St. Rose of Lima church and also in working with the Chula Vista Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team.
“What came to mind was a much larger program that focused on the unsheltered homeless crisis and food insecurity,” Vasquez said.
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2019 got off to a shaky start for thousands of federal employees who were affected by a government shutdown. National City Chamber of Commerce chairman Victor Gonzalez, owner of IC Public Safety, said he has friends who are federal government employees. They, like those across the country, have been affected by the federal government shutdown.
He and other local businesses in Chula Vista and National City stepped in to help alleviate any financial stress and help them get through the work shutdown that started in December 2018 and lasted most of January.
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When Alejandra Sotelo-Solis was elected mayor of National City she left a vacancy on the city council seat. In the first month of 2020, 12 people applied to be appointed. In the end it was Gonzalo Quintero who would be appointed months later to finish her two-year term.
MARCH
In March the annual National City Mariachi Festival was held at Chula Vista’s Bayside Park. The reason for the new musical venue?
“We outgrew our location,” said Jacqueline L. Reynoso of the National City Chamber of Commerce. The event has moved to Chula Vista, originally held at National City’s Pepper Park, but is still organized by the National City Chamber, which is partnering with the Port of Diego to stage the festival. The festival costs an estimated $200,000 to produce.
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Also in March Southwestern College introduced a new Vice President of Academic Affairs.
Minou Djawdan Spradley took over the role on March 1 after her hiring was approved by the Southwestern Community College Governing Board in late February.
Spradley, 58, replaced Renee Kilmer, who had been serving the role on an interim basis, in the seat left vacant by the retirement of Kathy Tyner in 2017.
“It’s a community I’m interested in serving,” Spradley said. “The college itself has a number of programs that are geared to certain students that I want to be involved in.”
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The Chula Vista Animal Care Facility was told it would receive a new $250,000 work and conference room trailer – after the city deemed the current trailer a high risk “red” asset.
The funds for the trailer were to be taken from the $500,000 allocated to the ACF from Measure P, a temporary half-cent sales tax measure which was approved by Chula Vista voters in 2016.
APRIL
Bonita Vista High School graduate Louis Jeovanny Rodriguez II appeared in the Netflix movie “Triple Frontier” with actors Ben Affleck, Pedro Pascal and Charlie Hunnam.
The movie, partly filmed in Colombia, centers around five former special forces operatives reunited to steal a drug lord’s fortune. Rodriguez plays the part of Duke.
Rodriguez, 25, said he was born in San Diego but raised, for the most part in Chula Vista. He was school president of Valley Vista Elementary for his sixth grade class, attended Southwestern College before transferring to the University of Hawaii where he graduated in 2016..
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Southwestern College and its students celebrated the opening of a new place for undocumented students to receive support from their campus community.
What was previously a math room has been transformed into what is being called the Dreamer Center.
The Dreamer Center was made possible by a $125,000 grant from the California Campus Catalyst Fund, awarded to the school last year, and will provide undocumented students with workshops, outreach material and scholarship opportunities.
MAY
A Bonita Vista Middle School student was recognized in May for being remarkable.
Kieler Muller, 14, is one of 25 teens who will be honored at an event put on by the San Diego Public Defender’s Office as part of its inaugural Remarkable Teen Program.
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Kaiser Permanente presented a check to the Chula Vista Department of Parks and Recreation staff, city officials, and Friends of Chula Vista Parks and Recreation members for $93,500 for a two-year grant, to fund their Operation Splash program at a May ceremony.
“We will use this money to teach close to 2,000 children to swim,” said aquatic supervisor of the city of Chula Vista’s recreation department Karina Craig.
JUNE
Chula Vista Councilwoman Jill Galvez’s decision to eliminate the position of the senior council aide in her office, a job held by Robert Moreno, could end up being a costly one.
Galvez announced her decision on May 21, during a 2019-20 budget discussion, and received negative public feedback during a subsequent council meeting on June 4.
Dan Gilleon, an attorney representing Moreno, considers filing a tort claim in response to the public layoff.
Gilleon said the claim has to do with the reason behind Moreno being let go, which he alleged is for a political purpose Galvez said she was “surprised” by Moreno’s decision to retain counsel, but maintained that she had done nothing wrong.
“I can’t imagine what a case against me might be,” she said.
Galvez, who wrote in a letter to the public on June 6 that Moreno had previously agreed with the councilwoman that she could function without an aide, said she had discussed different employment possibilities with Moreno but had gotten little response.
SEPTEMBER
Dressed in Disney-themed clothes and makeup, local drag queens Barbie Q, 29, and Raquelita, 30, read stories about love, family and acceptance to children at Chula Vista’s main public library.
The public service came about after a Torrance California man Arthur Schaper an organizer for Mass Resistance, a national conservative anti-LGBT group that has protested Drag Queen Story Hour throughout the country, got in touch with local parents and individuals who were against the program..
Originally Chula Vista’s Drag Queen Story Time was scheduled to take place at Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch library, but it has been relocated to accommodate an increase in demand and support after news of a protest became known.
Barbie Q and Raquelita, who are a couple, are both South Bay natives who work in education. Barbie Q has been doing drag for five years and Raquelita has been doing drag for seven years.
In the end, the number of supporters for Drag Time Story hour outnumbered the number of protestors.
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In a reversal of position sunder previous administrations, The National City Council in September voted to have city staff draft a regulatory ordinance that would allow up to three commercial cannabis businesses in National City’s industrial zones.
The council appropriated funds in July for the 2020 fiscal year to conduct a study on revenue projections and the impact of the cannabis industry in National City.
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Out of 22,000 teachers in San Diego County, 42 were nominated for San Diego County Teacher of the Year. Out of those 42, five were awarded, including Bonita Vista High School AP U.S. history teacher Don Dumas.
Dumas, 40, who has coached varsity boys basketball and taught at BVHS since 2014, said the award was nice but nothing compares to the rewarding feeling of seeing his students believe in themselves.
“That’s kind of been my mission, to teach students self empowerment and all the things that they can do to improve their own lives and the lives of the people around them in the greater society in which they belong,” Dumas said.
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On Tuesday night, the Sweetwater Union High School District Board voted to pass budget revisions 5-1, after the San Diego County Office of Education disapproved their original adopted budget in August — another mark on SUHSD’s timeline of financial problems.
Budget revisions would still leave the district with a projected structural deficit of $24 million by 2020-21, according to SUHSD Chief Financial Officer Jenny Salkeld.
NOVEMBER
In line with a state law passed Oct. 9, the city of Chula Vista will eliminate two requirements for accessory dwelling units, or granny flats, come Jan. 1, 2020, effectively getting rid of development impact fees for ADUs smaller than 750 sq. feet and no long
