Board Acts on Small Business, Consumer Protection, and the Tijuana River Crisis
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The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has moved on several significant policy fronts in recent days. A unanimous vote approved a $300,000 revolving loan fund for local small businesses, brought forward jointly by Supervisors Joel Anderson and Monica Montgomery Steppe — a pairing across the board's ideological divide that underscores broad recognition of the access-to-capital problem facing the county's small business community. As a revolving fund, capital is disbursed as loans, repaid, and recycled to subsequent borrowers, allowing the pool to serve multiple businesses over time. The administering organization and loan-size parameters have not yet been publicly specified.
The board also appointed Alysson Snow — currently mayor of Lemon Grove and a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law — to lead its new Consumer Fairness and Public Protection unit. The unit's mandate covers consumer scams, hidden fees, unsafe products, unfair insurance denials, and pollution-related harms affecting residents and small businesses. The board approved the unit's creation earlier this year; Snow's appointment marks the transition from concept to operation.
In a separate action on September 1st, the board voted to build a county sewage-treatment system as a direct response to the ongoing Tijuana River cross-border sewage crisis, which has closed beaches and created recurring public health emergencies for years. The decision to construct county-owned treatment infrastructure represents a structural response — rather than a diplomatic one — and reflects an apparent board conclusion that federal or binational solutions have not moved at adequate speed.
Mayor Todd Gloria is in Japan this week for the 70th anniversary of San Diego's sister-city relationship with Yokohama, where he is meeting with Japanese government and business leaders on investment and economic development. No specific deals have been announced. No San Diego City Council vote or ordinance action from the preceding 24 to 48 hours surfaced in available public reporting.