Ethics Overhaul, Federal Training Ban, and a Coastal Housing Deal Gone Dark
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The Board of Supervisors approved two ethics measures Wednesday: a two-year lobbying cooling-off period barring former county officials from lobbying their former government, and a restriction on officials trading on prediction-market platforms — Kalshi and Polymarket were specifically named — when they possess relevant nonpublic information. The prediction-market rule is notably novel; platforms significant enough that an official with inside knowledge of a major contract award or zoning decision could theoretically profit from positioning. The Board also directed Ironwood Public Affairs, operating under a $320,000 county contract, to report its revenue-planning work by the end of September.
The vote that drew the most pre-session attention was a 3-2 decision to prohibit federal immigration-enforcement agencies from using county firearms-training facilities at Otay Mesa and Camp Elliott. Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer stated the policy is designed to prevent county facilities from supporting federal deportation enforcement operations. The margin was not incidental — two supervisors voted against the measure, reflecting genuine disagreement over whether the move constitutes appropriate local governance or political overreach that creates legal exposure for the county.
The decision sits alongside the county's separate and ongoing effort to assert its inspection rights at the Otay Mesa Detention Center — a facility it has legal oversight responsibilities for. Both positions reflect a county that has positioned itself as an active counterweight to federal immigration enforcement rather than a neutral service provider.
On housing, the 22nd District Agricultural Association — the board governing the Del Mar Fairgrounds — voted 5-3 on Tuesday to terminate its 2024 exclusive negotiating agreement with the City of Del Mar for an affordable-housing project on state-owned fairgrounds land. The decisive margin leaves Del Mar, a coastal city under state pressure to meet housing-production mandates, without a viable path at the fairgrounds site and potentially facing a restart of the partnership structure entirely.
The contrast with activity elsewhere in the county is stark. The county approved an affordable-housing and health-facility project in Logan Heights on August 18th, and construction is underway on Navajo Family Apartments in San Carlos — 45 units, eight designated specifically for residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities. That geographic pattern, in which inland and lower-income neighborhoods absorb affordable housing while coastal communities find reasons projects do not advance, is one housing advocates have documented repeatedly. Separately, a gut-and-amend maneuver in the state legislature, with Senator Akilah Weber Pierson expected to carry Senate Bill 344, could shield the long-stalled Midway Rising arena and housing project from certain environmental-review lawsuits — though the City Council has yet to approve the project and state-level legal protection is not yet in place.