The city of San Diego is still two years away from picking its next mayor, but the names of those who might throw their hat in the ring are already circulating.  In a special live edition of the Voice of San Diego Podcast, three of the folks rumored to be running for mayor in 2020 — Rep. Scott Peters, Assemblyman Todd Gloria and Councilman Chris Cate — sat down with hosts Scott Lewis, Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts to talk about some of the biggest challenges facing the city but certainly, definitely, obviously not to debate because this was not a 2020 mayoral debate.  The podcast was recorded live at political affairs summit.  One of the big topics was the  to get a measure on the November ballot that would raise money to fund an expansion of the Convention Center, homeless services and road repairs. Lewis gave a quick rundown of all the failed efforts to expand the Convention Center over the years.  The crew also discussed affordable housing, wacky transit proposals, NIMBY outrage and more. Plus: A 12-year-old audience member when she nearly mastered a game that relied on intimate knowledge of local politics stretching back decades.

Rent control is one of the most contentious topics on the November ballot.  If passed,  would free up local governments to create new regulations limiting how much landlords can increase rents by repealing the , a law that seriously limits rent control policies.  On this week’s episode, hosts Sara Libby, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts are joined by former Voice of San Diego reporter Liam Dillon, who now covers housing and state politics and policy for the Los Angeles Times. The crew breaks down the arguments for and against Prop. 10 and discuss its possible impacts on California's’ affordable housing crisis. Some local leaders are , refusing to stay where they stand on the measure. City Councilwoman Barbary Bry, however, in a recent VOSD op-ed, and Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez said she supports it. Also on the podcast: San Diego County Regional Airport Authority's and the massive backlash its approach unleashed.  Hero of the Week The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General is our hero. by the agency unveiled serious health and safety concerns at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center near Los Angeles.  Goat of the Week The Sweetwater Union High School District gets goated this week. The district and is scrambling to find millions in cuts.  Voice now has a podcast texting club for listeners. To join, text the word “podcast” to 619-202-9051. We’ll send you links to new episodes weekly and solicit questions and ideas for future podcasts.

A City Council seat is up for grabs in District 8. Councilman David Alvarez is termed out, and two Democrats are vying to replace him. Vivian Moreno is Alvarez's community representative. Her opponent Antonio Martinez is a San Ysidro School District school board member who works at a community health clinic in Nestor. Both say they they're ready to take on the biggest issues impacting city's southern neighborhoods – Barrio Logan, Greater Logan Heights, San Ysidro and Otay Mesa. Moreno and Martinez don't differ much on most major policy issues. Both are liberal Democrats. But on this week's podcast, hosts Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis parse the two candidates' takes on some of the biggest issues in the district and pinpoint where they differ. One hot topic in District 8 is the . Community plans spell out what type of building can happen and where. There's long been a rift between the residents of Barrio Logan and the shipbuilding industry operating there. Residents say the businesses pollute and need to stop operating so closely to homes. The industry wants to stay put. Neither candidate had clear ideas on whether a compromise between the two sides is possible, or how the issue might be resolved. Both candidates said they are upset about homelessness and how much of the burden to shelter homeless people has fallen on their district. Moreno, though, is more of a vocal supporter of building a lot more housing. It seems like one area where she would really stand out – she was endorsed by the new YIMBY Democrats, who advocate for building more dense housing. Another area where the candidates diverged was on vacation rentals. Moreno didn't say much about the city's new vacation rental regulations. In contrast, Martinez supports strict regulations on vacation rentals. One more notable difference: the labor groups backing the candidates. The splintered support is the result of a long-running rivalry that was renewed back when Alravez ran for the seat. Moreno has the endorsement of SEIU 221 — the county’s largest labor union — and the San Diego Municipal Employees Association. Martinez landed the endorsement this week of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council. Voice now has a podcast texting club for listeners. To join, text the word “podcast” to 619-202-9051. We’ll send you links to new episodes weekly and solicit questions and ideas for future podcasts.

The battle over the future of the Mission Valley stadium site is fierce. Ads for and against SoccerCity and SDSU West are seemingly everywhere, all the time. But before the development proposals became opposing measures on the November ballot, the people behind the plans were working closely together to come up with a deal to transform the city-owned land into a joint soccer-football stadium. On this week's podcast, Voice of San Diego's Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Sara Libby explain . They introduce the players behind the plans, discuss the politics and more. Hero of the Week Gov. Jerry Brown and the state Legislature are the heroes this week. On Wednesday, Brown that says adults don’t need to wear helmets while riding electric scooters on city streets. The new law makes scooters accessible to more people. Getting more folks out of their cars and onto alternative modes of transportation is a good thing. Goat of the Week The Grossmont Union High School District and one of its former employees get the goat. The employee was a warehouse worker who the district found regularly made lewd comments about high school students as they walked into school. The district wanted to fire him, . Voice now has a podcast texting club for listeners. To join, text the word “podcast” to 619-202-9051. We’ll send you links to new episodes weekly and solicit questions and ideas for future podcasts.

Incumbents don't often lose in local political races. But in the District 4 City Council race, Councilwoman Myrtle Cole is as challenger Monica Montgomery's grassroots campaign continues gaining steam. This week's show kicks off our podcast series covering the most interesting races in the November election. In this episode, hosts Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis break down the biggest issues in , and discuss how Cole and Montgomery say they plan to tackle them. Montgomery sat down for an interview with Keatts; Cole did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. The hosts review the candidates' takes on police conduct and racial profiling. It's the issue that catalyzed Montgomery to launch her campaign against Cole, her former boss. At a City Council meeting in 2016, Cole said black-on-black crime justified racial profiling by law enforcement. Cole later . Montgomery said the comment inspired her to not only quit her job with Cole, but to run against her. "For me, there's really not a lot of turning back from there," Montgomery said. "The decisions that she has made with regard to police reform and accountability since that time have reflected those comments." The crew also discuss the candidates' positions on economic development and schools. Voice now has a podcast texting club for listeners. To join, text the word "podcast" to 619-202-9051. We'll send you links to new episodes weekly and solicit questions and ideas for future podcasts.

Voice of San Diego's didn't go over very well with district leaders. Former VOSD education reporter Mario Koran found that some of the school district’s lowest-performing high school students  — sometimes at the urging of school employees — which helped the district land a 91 percent graduation rate in 2016. The district worked aggressively to push back against those findings. It posted a web page aimed at refuting the reporting, and it hired a PR professional to spread the word about its grad rate achievement. And yet, a new with San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten revealed that the district did end up quietly forming a committee to look at grad rates. That committee released a , and the report confirms Koran's major findings, including that nearly a third of students left district high schools for charters. Among the report's recommendations is keeping tabs on the number of students who leave for district charters schools and identifying how many of them are behind academically. In this week's podcast, Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis walk us through VOSD's graduation rate investigation and the district's surprising reaction to it. The crew re-enacts segments of the U-T editorial board interview in which Marten and the district's chief public information officer, Andrew Sharp, who chimed in a few times, talk about forming the committee to look at grad rates. The hosts also bring to life another part of the interview in which Sharp responds to a question about lead in water at schools and the district's insistence that it needs new bond money to pay for new pipes, despite the fact that the district has said in two previous bond measures that it would replace pipes at several schools that have . Also on the podcast: legal pot shops like some officials said they would, and a few thoughts on that that broke the internet. Hero of the Week The hero is MTV, which launched "," a new reality television show that follows a young mom squad based in San Diego. Libby digs it. Goat of the Week Grain beetles are the goat. The microscopic critters were the Padres gave away to fans at a recent game. The jerk beetles ruined what was meant to be a fun, friendly promotion. Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.

Three went up in Barrio Logan, Midway and East Village near the beginning of the year. It happened quickly as part of the city's response to the deadly , which hit the homeless population the hardest. The city paid for the tents, in part, by pulling from funding set aside to build permanent housing. For a future funding stream, the city floated the idea of using more than $30 million from the $140 million a tax hike measure was expected to generate for expanded homeless services, according to a draft plan obtained by Voice of San Diego's Lisa Halverstadt. That ballot measure, though, . On this week's podcast, Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis talk about  that the money from the failed hotel-tax increase is off the table. The city said it will find funding to keep the tents open. But hasn't yet nailed down specifics on where the money might come from or how it could impact other city services. Also on the podcast: On Thursday, Share San Diego, HomeAway and Airbnb joined San Diego City Councilman Scott Sherman, homeowners, hosts, small business leaders and voters from across the city to announce they have to qualify a referendum to overturn the passed by the City Council last month. The hosts discuss the motivations behind the referendum and the possible outcomes. Hero of the Week The Union-Tribune editorial board is the hero. The board's is expansive and informative. The interview includes Martin responding to Voice of San Diego's Marten's Q-an-A is one of . All of the interviews are useful, and the board goes into them prepared and ready to ask sharp follow-up questions. Goat of the Week San Diego Unified School District is the goat. The district's Associated Student Body funds are often mismanaged and sometimes spent on staff-only events like parties or teacher training, .  Those accounts can be as big as a million dollars. The issue was uncovered by the lone auditor in the district’s auditing department. The rest of the district's auditors were let go during downsizing in recent years.  Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.

It's been a rough week for Rep. Duncan Hunter. Hunter and his wife are free on bond after they were arraigned on charges related to accusations they . The went into excruciating detail on Hunter's finances, including spending thousands of dollars on . In response, the congressmen accused the Justice Department of being politically motivated against him and President Donald Trump, who is also currently under investigation. Meanwhile, national news outlets have on Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is running against Hunter for California's 50th District congressional seat. But even though the recent developments certainly don't help Hunter's race, it is still hard say how things will turn out. In this week's podcast, Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts discuss Hunter's chaotic week and explain how the indictment impacts his re-election campaign. "It does seem like there has been a relative lack of context around just how conservative this district is," said Keatts. "And that even following this indictment, this is not close to a toss-up seat." Hero of the Week Our hero this week goes out to Padres Twitter, a group fans of the San Diego's baseball team, who demanded that the team stop welcoming to Padres events. The team agreed as a result of the fans' efforts. Goat of the Week State Sen. Joel Anderson, who represents the Alpine area, gets goatted this week. Anderson is facing a Senate committee investigation after . The state senator didn't deny the incident, but in an apology statement called the whole thing a "misunderstanding." Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.

San Diego is shifting. Historically, the region had been a Republican stronghold. But over the last decade, the county's demographics and politics have changed, . Sometimes, the shift has been powered by organic population growth, but other times the change has been engineered through changes in the way local leaders get elected. In this week's podcast, Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis explain recent election reform efforts at both the city and county levels. In 2016, the Democrats pushed and city voters approved  that changed city elections. Citywide races used to end after a primary if a candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote. Now all candidates have to go to a runoff in November. More people vote in general elections than primaries, and many of those people are Dems. Now it's the county's turn. But the process in getting a reform measure on the ballot has been far more dramatic. Lewis, Libby and Keatts walk through the series of complex legislative and legal fights that have led to an election reform measure on the November ballot that would boost Democrats’ chances of winning county races. Also on the podcast: the First Amendment is good, but the  by hundreds of editorial boards at newspapers across the country to denounce President Donald Trump's attacks on the media was not that good. Hero of the Week Eduardo Luna is the hero. The San Diego city auditor tendered his resignation this week, saying he would be , according to the U-T. The independent auditor position was created in the wake of a financial crisis and, over the years, Luna has uncovered several problems with city programs and services, including exposing weaknesses in the development system that could have allowed employees to commit fraud without being detected, finding that architects who shouldn’t have qualified for a program that fast-tracks development projects but  and more. Goat of the Week CBS 8 and reporter David Gotfredson get the goat. Gotfredson ran a one-sided story featuring an who talked to CBS 8 about what happened with Earl McNeil, a man who died after an encounter with National City Police. When the story originally ran, it didn't include Gotfredson's byline and was instead filed under an "Unknown Reporter," a moniker the stationwas toying with rolling out as a recurring feature. Not holding reporters accountable for their work is not a good idea, which CBS 8 has since acknowledged. Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.

The decade-long push to expand the Convention Center is dead. This week, Mayor Kevin Faulconer's top priority – a tax increase that would have funded an expanded Convention Center, homeless services and road repairs – morphed into the biggest failure of his tenure so far. On the podcast, Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis discuss the .