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Despite representing different geographic areas and coming from different parties, the SANDAG board often votes in lockstep even on the most controversial issues. Many board members say that's because they rely on the SANDAG staff to lay out issues and recommendations. But that doesn't always go well. At a SANDAG board meeting in December 2016, for example, the transportation agency's staff admitted it had been relying on a faulty economic forecast, resulting in a massive revenue shortfall. One might expect the board of directors to have a lot to say to staff about that, or at least something to say. But instead – crickets. Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, who sits on the SANDAG board, says that needs to change and that it's as much an indictment of board members as it is of SANDAG staff. He joined Andrew Keatts, Scott Lewis and Sara Libby on the podcast this week to talk about how the SANDAG scandal has spurred him to ask more questions and become a more vocal and active member of the board. "There have been many instances where the board essentially rubber-stamped what staff put in front of them," he said. "It's been difficult for the board to really understand the magnitude of the [forecasting] error because we have to rely so much on staff. So over the past several weeks, I have been raising a lot of these questions." Bailey also talks about his push for a suicide barrier on the Coronado-San Diego Bay Bridge. Also on the podcast, Keatts, Lewis and Libby discuss recreation councils, and the current push to overhaul the process that lets city money flow through the independent nonprofits. Plus: the never-ending feud over vacation rentals and how to regulate them. Hero of the Week Our hero this week is Diana Ocampo, whose story was featured this week on VOSD's I Made it in San Diego podcast. At the top of her career, Ocampo was diagnosed with cancer and ended up losing the business she built. But she didn't stay down for long, and instead built a new successful business. Goat of the Week This week, Bonnie Dumanis gets the goat The former district attorney claims she didn't know Mexican businessman José Susumo Azano Matsura was a foreign national despite meeting with him on several occasions. Azano has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for illegally donating to her mayoral campaign, and other local campaigns.

Diana Ocampo is a fighter. In a new episode of , Voice of San Diego’s podcast about the stories behind the region’s businesses and the people who made them what they are, Scott Lewis talks to Ocampo about the battles she's faced and the...

Next year's ballot might be bananas. The California Supreme Court made a bombshell ruling a few months ago that could lead to a bevy of tax increase proposals floated during the 2018 election. The ruling suggests that if a group of citizens in California gathers enough signatures to get a tax measure on the ballot, it requires only a simple majority to pass, not two-thirds of voters. That was how many people read the ruling, anyway. Yet some were skeptical. This week, though, the San Francisco city attorney issued the first memo on the ruling from a city official that we've seen, and his take was that the ruling indeed lowers the bar for voter-initiated tax measures. On this week's podcast, Lewis and cohosts Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts discuss how the California Supreme Court ruling could open the floodgates for local citizens initiatives seeking to raise taxes for things like an expanded Convention Center, homeless services, funding for Balboa Park, a boost to the San Diego Unified School District's budget and more. As Keatts points out, though, this could be a fleeting opportunity – a temporary loophole in the law that could be closed if someone takes the issue back to court, or if the Legislature changes the law. Also on the podcast, an important discussion about mascots, including the San Diego Chicken and Point Loma Nazarene University's Roary the Sea Lion, who is not in fact a sea lion, but rather an actual lion with seaweed on his head. We also have a bonus episode in the Voice of San Diego Podcast feed this week about a new documentary on San Diego's homeless, and a recap of what's happened during San Diego's hepatitis A outbreak. Hero of the Week Our hero this week goes to Poway Unified School District. The district, which is under new leadership, voluntarily handed over damning documents to their lawyers, the district attorney and our Ashly McGlone that showed how some district officials had been receiving special retirement pay without evidence that the board ever approved the payments. Goat of the Week This week, Mayor Kevin Faulconer's office gets goatted. The mayor and his staff held a press conference this week giving themselves a pat on the back for progress reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In reality, however, a lot of the things the city is claiming credit for are thanks to federal and state laws requiring decreases in carbon emission reductions.

As a homeless man living in downtown San Diego, Tony Rodriguez says he gets hassled constantly by police officers who tell him and his girlfriend to move along. As part of San Diego officials' response to the deadly hepatitis A outbreak, which has hit the homeless community the hardest, police officers have ramped up homeless enforcement and are keeping people off downtown streets and sidewalks to facilitate cleanings. Rodriguez says he understands the city's actions, but that not being able to stop and rest anywhere has been stressful. "It's got to the point where you develop a kind of phobia," Rodriguez said. "You just know that at any moment [the police] could stop and say, 'You're camping here, we're going to take you in.'" An interaction between Rodriguez and police officers who tell him to pack up his things and clear out is one of the scenes captured in "Tony - The Movie," a new documentary that looks at life on San Diego streets. In a bonus episode of the Voice of San Diego Podcast, I talk to Rodriguez and Dennis Stein, the director and producer of the film. "Tony - The Movie" goes beyond simply putting a face on San Diego's homelessness crisis. Stein and Rodriguez also explore long-term solutions to ending homelessness by going to cities like Houston, where leaders have successfully housed a large percentage of people living on the streets. Stein said the process of making the film has caused him to advocate for the Regional Task Force on the Homeless' plan to end homelessness, a document that lays out a strategic framework for ending homelessness in San Diego County. Stein even brings copies of the plan to the many screenings he's been holding around town. Also in the podcast, I talk to Lisa Halverstadt, who's been covering the hepatitis A outbreak as it's unfolded. She lays out the hep A timeline and describes the behind-the-scenes bureaucratic fumbling that prevented a faster response to the outbreak. Halverstadt also talks about what's happened since county and city officials kicked into gear, and some of the questions she'll be asking moving forward. "I'll really be looking to see: What are the long-term solutions to this problem to make sure that we don't have a crisis like this again?" she said.

Melissa Walter had a job at NASA. She did graphic design, illustration and social media, mostly for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. She loved the job, but she also started obsessing over the fine art she was making at home in her spare time. At...

Melissa Walter had a job at NASA. She did graphic design, illustration and social media, mostly for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. She loved the job, but she also started obsessing over the fine art she was making at home in her spare time. At the end of 2015, she decided to take the leap: She quit her full-time job so she could become a full-time artist. "I was sort of having more confidence in what I was doing, and more excitement, and that's all I could think about," Walter said. "I realized, OK, this is it. This is what I should be spending my time on." In a new episode of Culturecast, Voice of San Diego's podcast about arts and culture, I talk to Walter about her transition to full-time artist, and the science-based art that's been fueling her success. Many artists who quit their day jobs flounder, at least in the beginning. But Walter has quickly flourished, scoring group and solo shows, plus residencies that have allowed her to explore large-scale installation work. She's also the subject of a new documentary by The Artist Odyssey, a San Diego production company that produces short films about artists for its subscribers. The interest in Walter's art stems, in part, from her perfectionism. She's a bit obsessive-compulsive, which means she's able to intensely focus on her work and use time-consuming processes – like using thousands of tiny dots to create a shading effect – that result in attractive, detailed geometric images. People also appreciate her exploration of astrophysics and astronomical objects. Because of Walter's background in science-based illustrations and graphic design, she's got a knack for turning complicated ideas into intriguing and meticulous minimalist drawings, sculptures and installations. But even those who glaze over the dark matter, gravitational waves and other complicated concepts at the center of her art can still enjoy the clean images she creates. "You don't have to know any of this to look at my work or appreciate it," she said. "I like the idea that people can connect to my work visually, and then if they take the time to learn about it more in depth, then maybe they'll be more curious or inspired."

The case of a confidential city attorney memo on SoccerCity that was leaked to a developer by Councilman Chris Cate has taken another weird turn. This week, interim District Attorney Summer Stephan announced that she's passing the case to the California attorney general — but she declined to outline why she was conflicted or might appear conflicted on the issue. On this week's podcast, hosts Sara Libby, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts discuss the significance behind Stephan's decision to recuse herself from the Cate memo drama. Also on the podcast, Libby, Lewis and Keatts talk about the new developments in the neverending short-term rental dilemma. City leaders were set to move forward vetting plans to regulate short-term rentals. But at the last minute, City Attorney Mara Elliott voiced concerns about the legality of one proposal written by found Council members, which caused City Council President Myrtle Cole to cancel the hearing. "This is one of those moments where the city is literally incapable of solving this problem," Lewis said. "The whole things is this dysfunctional cartoon." Hero of the Week Our hero this week goes to the women who wrote a letter documenting their sexual harassment experiences while working in the California Capitol. Goat of the Week San Diego Unified gets goated yet again this week. Voice of San Diego got a hold of documents that show the district counsels struggling students to leave for other schools, something it has vigorously denied doing.

Parents who want to choose the best schools for their kids often get overwhelmed wading through test scores and other metrics. That struggle becomes especially real when San Diego Unified’s school choice window opens every year. From Oct....

San Diego leaders did a lot of feuding this week. City and county officials have been squabbling over who should foot the bill for ongoing efforts to stem the hepatitis A outbreak, City Attorney Mara Elliott and Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman disagree over SDPD’s approach to testing rape kits, the long-standing fight between the Metropolitan Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority rages on and local leaders of rural cities and larger urban ones don't agree on the dramatic shift in power happening at SANDAG thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. On this week's podcast, Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Sara Libby give a quick rundown of all the big beefs (or is it beeves?) brewing among San Diego leaders. Also on the podcast, Kim Kilkenny from the Friends of SDSU Steering Committee joins the show to discuss an initiative in the works to redevelop the Chargers' former stadium. "We would create a university campus that would have tremendous economic benefits to the whole of the region," Kilkenny said. Hero of the Week Our hero this week is French artist JR. After building an art installation depicting a young boy looking over the U.S.-Mexico border fence, the artist held a picnic where community members from both sides of the border shared food and drinks. Goat of the Week This week, the prototypes of President Donald Trump's border wall get the goat. Some of them look like silly, gigantic combs.

I had no choice but to try . It was years ago, and Ryan Smith was at the farmer's market in Hillcrest. He was so enthusiastic and wildly upbeat about his "bitchin' dips, so I stopped to give them a try. Yum. The sauces – which are...