Remarks by Monica Montgomery Steppe
82 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 4
- Play at 21:20
“No items to pull. I'm happy to move the consent agenda. I do just... have a comment on item number three. And I just want to thank the Spring Valley Community Alliance for your work in using their lived experience and knowledge to bring attention to much needed local programs that would go above and beyond the Spring Valley Community Plan. I also want to thank PDS staff for their role as a collaborator in recognizing support and capacity needed for the alliance is partners and the residents of Spring Valley. So I appreciate everyone's work on this and the grant that is noted in item number…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:25:32
“I believe Jensen Hughes is here. I'd actually rather hear from the MS. That's what I was going to suggest. Thank you.”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:39:11
“Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thanks. I also want to acknowledge just the travel here for community members and that this, you know, we're faced with so many impossible decisions, having to balance so much. But I want to get clarity on the, any further action based on what the board decides here today. So, um, I'm, uh, I think Vince, you started out with sort of a, um, a summary about state law, um, and the requirements. And so if the board, uh, were to not approve this in this forum today, um, what would be the next step as far as the state is concerned? I'm, I'm, I am, um, And I heard…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:40:45
“The question is, would the project still be able to be approved at another level without the community benefits? Are there any kind of like appeals or?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:41:47
“OKAY, GOT IT. THANK YOU. THAT DID ANSWER MY QUESTION. CHIEF MEACHAM, DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO ANSWER All right, thank you. My other two questions are about the request from community members with regard to water testing. I think the chair made that distinction, right? There's one thing about water supply. My understanding is from what has been represented here today, that there is no There is no agreement yet with regard to the water supply, but the project cannot move forward without that agreement. Is that accurate based on the planning commission's conditions?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:42:45
“Okay. On the other side of that, what I heard, and this may be a little bit of my misunderstanding, but I think I'll try to see if my common sense is common here. that any project really, especially with a community such as Boulevard in the water supply, a project with this magnitude could impact that water supply just based on the building of the project. And so I think the request for testing is coming from that impact. And so I don't know if this is question for staff or the developer of both, what is the mitigation for those particular impacts?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:44:22
“Okay. I think what I'm hearing from community is in order to get the baseline first, though, that testing, they're requesting testing kind of now so that they can use those results to test against any other, to compare against any other type of testing. Sorry, I'm on the diet, so I think a scientist and an economist, and I'm neither, but...”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:44:51
“OK. OK. So a baseline now regardless of an incident though?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:45:01
“And so have you agreed to that already up to this point or is this breaking news?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:45:10
“Okay. Okay. So that's what I would like to, if possible, add that condition. I think that that is important.”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:45:19
“Okay. The only other thing that I heard, and I want to get clarification, because this was also in one of the videos, and I don't know if, is there anything anybody wants to say just to clarify? I think we got, is that settled?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:45:45
“Okay, great. Okay, one more issue. Thank you so much. That is around the fund. And so in one of the videos, I think is a clip from the planning commission, there was a request to front, well, really the group request is to front all of that fund from the beginning at the start of phase one. There was agreement to something in the video, but I'm not sure what that agreement was to. There was a planning commissioner that brought this issue up. I believe you said we're willing to do that. What was it exactly that you agreed to there?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:46:37
“Is that from the $800,000 to the $900,000? To a million. Okay, $900,000 to a million.”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 12:53
“Well, good morning, everyone. Today, I am truly honored to recognize Andrew Strong and his contributions to the County of San Diego before he sets sail for his new chapter, next chapter. We celebrate Andrew who is departing from the county after more than 18 years of service, a career that began fittingly with service to country as a Navy Corpsman. Andrew's journey began as an intern with the county and from there he rose to some of the most significant roles in county government. Chief of Staff to the Chief Administrative Officer, the county's first Director of the Office of Equity and…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 18:12
“I would just ask the supervisors to come down for the picture if you can. And if you want to say anything.”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 23:57
“Thank you so much, Chair Pro Tem. I'm really honored to be standing alongside you this morning, this September, as we celebrate Latinx Heritage Month here in San Diego County. And the inclusive language is the point, right? Because this month embraces identities across gender expansive, indigenous, Brazilian, and non-Spanish speaking communities. As the chair pro tem said, it is extremely inclusive and that's why the language is so important. This month didn't happen by accident. It exists because Congressman Edward R. Roybal and Henry B. Gonzalez and Representative Esteban Torres spent…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:20:56
“No need to pull anything, just a couple comments on item number 10. The approval of bonds for the promenade apartments in Hillcrest that will be built in District 4. This, I think, is a phenomenal project that unlocks $40 million in private capital to build 94 affordable homes for families in a high resource area under the criteria of the California Department of Housing and Community Development. What sets this project apart from most affordable housing developments are the amenities and services included, such as the Life Steps program. The program will consist of on-site financial…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:06:16
“Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and move staff recommendation.”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:13:36
“Thank you, and thank you, Chair Pro Tem, for bringing this item forward. We know that wage theft is not just a paperwork issue. This is about income that workers have earned but never received, and it can determine whether a family can pay rent, buy groceries, or obtain health care. More than $29 million in unpaid wage theft judgments has accumulated in San Diego County since 2017. A legal judgment means little to a working family if no one can successfully collect it. This proposal strengthens the county's ability to investigate violations, recover unpaid wages, and reach workers who may not…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:34:10
“Andrew, I know the one thing that you will miss in retirement is these meetings. Thank you so much for the presentation. Thank you for everyone that is participating. Just, you know, I was about a month into this job when the January 2024 floods happened. And I just won't forget that experience. I won't forget the devastation. I will not forget seeing and being with people who had lost everything in a matter of hours. We have no idea, right, what this weather pattern will do. We don't know that. But I think that from my perspective, I've been through that, and so I'm going to have a real…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:37:08
“Okay. Okay. And that was something instituted from the after action, like looking at our lessons learned from 2024?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:37:17
“Okay. On slide number eight, it has the Regional Emergency Coordination. What I recall about this last time is that the buck didn't stop anywhere. I just remember that we were kind of going round and round trying to make decisions about how we were going to mobilize resources on the ground. So my question with the operational area coordination with the county and 18 cities, the tribes and other partners, I remember sitting in a room also with Cal OES, where Who makes what decisions? Like, how do we decide who's in charge? Because that was a major issue, and we wasted, frankly, a lot of time…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:38:49
“Okay. Thank you for that. Let me just make sure that I have no other questions through the slides really briefly. So this is the last one, I think. For getting information, I know that you all are working on a specific landing page for El Nino. I did see it this morning. I think some of the links still need some work. But what I... I'm thinking about here, is there any, would it be 211 that people call like in the event that there is no, you know, cell phones are down? Would we go to a landline at that point? Like what is the alternative to like internet being down, cell phones being down?”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:39:45
“Yes, because I know right now we have a lot of information on the Internet, and then we have the text alerts that people can sign up for to get the information. I think if there is a disaster that impacts people's ability to get that information, what is that next step? At least we can share that with people now.”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:41:09
“Okay. All right. And we'll just discuss that a little bit more later because I do want to know, this is one of my questions, when we talk about partnership with CBOs, what does that mean when the disaster hits? That was one of the major issues we had last time because nonprofit organizations were filling in the gaps for at least two weeks before we can really step in. And so the partnership is, again, good right now because the agreement sounds like they're getting the information out to community members, right? That's cool. What will they, how will they be able to assist us in the disaster…”
Board of Supervisors · Sep 15, 2026