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PAGE A26 - JUNE 9, 2016 - NORTH COAST
FROM RUNOFF, A4 registration advantage with 38 percent of the electorate, while Democrats represent 33.2 percent of voters. Another 27.3 percent do not belong to a party. The district includes parts of the county’s central coast, as well as part of San Diego and inland cities. Abed and Gaspar hammered Roberts through the primary for a scandal in the first-term supervisor’s office last spring. Four of his staffers resigned and levied a series of allegations against Roberts, including an accusation that he offered a subordinate a raise and promotion if she mislead a county inquiry into his office. Three of the former employees filed official complaints that the county settled for $310,000. While Abed and Gaspar focused on Roberts’ scandal, Abed eventually turned against Gaspar and sent an attack mailer against her. Supervisor Greg Cox had no opponent and was re-elected in the First District. A moderate Republican, Cox’s political career started in 1976 on the Chula Vista City Council. He is facing term limits and the next four years will be his last in county office. For updated/more results, visit www.sdvote.com. — Joshua Stewart is a writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Note: In the pivotal District 1 City Council race, Democrat Barbara Bry had a strong lead Tuesday night but didn’t surpass the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a November runoff with Republican Ray Ellis. A Bry win in November would preserve the Democrats’ one-vote majority on the City Council. — David Garrick, San Diego Union-Tribune.
FROM MANAGER, A1 addition to any cost of living or base adjustments that we need to make,” Deputy Mayor Terry Sinnott said. Among a long list of major initiatives, in 2015 the city managed a balanced budget and enhanced the general fund, as well as acquired $400,000 in new grants and donations for the River Path Del Mar extension under Huth’s leadership. Del Mar completed the schematic design and design development
Center for Healthy Aging opens at UCSD BY WILL BOWEN By the year 2050, the average life expectancy will be 90 years old — about twice as old as the life expectancy at the turn of the century. New research, coming out of England, has suggested that soon, 30 percent of all senior women will live to be over 100! Mainland China now has about 500 million people over age 65. That is 200 million more than the entire U.S. population of 300 million! 20 percent of our 300 million, or 60 million, will be 65 years old by the year 2050. That’s a lot of senior citizens! As populations age, more services will be needed for older adults. Hence, the Center for Healthy Aging was created at UC San Diego. An inaugural event to open the center was held May 28 at Atkinson Auditorium at the Qualcomm Institute on campus. The overflow crowd necessitated the opening of a second room where late-comers watched the proceedings on a huge video screen. David A. Brenner, M.D., Dean of the School of Medicine and Sandra A. Brown, Ph.D., vice chancellor of research, introduced the program, which was six hours long. The first speaker was Dilip V. Jeste, M.D., director of both the Stein Institute for Research on Aging and the Center for Healthy Aging. Jeste considered the questions: Why do humans have such a long life span? How is this longevity beneficial to our species? What is the evolutionary significance of our long life span? He said most animals die soon after they are no longer fertile and able to produce offspring, but humans continue to thrive past that point, so there’s a reason and a benefit to longevity. Older people become wiser and more in control of their emotions. They are able to advise younger people.
phases of the new civic center project, which Huth directed though the environmental review, design review and community participation processes. The city also completed a request for proposals for temporary office space and analyzed alternative options for relocation, continued the master planning process for Shores Park, and completed $600,000 in annual street repair and drainage work, including the sidewalk construction project along Jimmy Durante Boulevard. Among other initiatives, the city
completed a citizen satisfaction survey and implemented a plan to address the community’s concerns, as well as launched EngageDelMar, an online community engagement tool that allows residents to provide input regarding city projects. Huth started as city manager in 2012. In June 2014, the council approved a three-year extension to his contract, effective Jan. 1, 2015 to Jan. 1, 2018. The contract requires that the council review his performance at least once a year. The council met in closed session to evaluate Huth’s performance. All
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Jeste pointed out that new research has shown children are happier and healthier when their grandparents are involved in their upbringing. Further, he said, many older people continue to make contributions in the arts, sciences and humanities that benefit the species. The next speaker was Gary L. Gottlieb, M.D. and M.B.A. and professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. He went into depth analyzing the rising costs of health care. His research is focused on trying to improve health care while lowering costs. He said 60 percent of all seniors are using social security and Medicare to pay for health services. Gottlieb suggested a way to go is to create complex care teams that look after individual patients. These teams coordinate information and get the best service at the lowest cost. Remote care with patients and doctors communicating information by way of computer “platforms” is an essential part of the process. Gottlieb’s experiments with care teams have shown they can save up to 7 percent of costs and produce better health outcomes for patients. Next to speak was a panel consisting of Ron Knight, Todd Coleman and Sallie Rafie. Knight, Ph.D., is a computer science and engineering professor. He studies the field of human microbiomes, which are like the beneficial flora that live inside intestines. This healthy bacteria, which some scientists call “our bugs,” has more DNA than our actual DNA. Our bugs live in our mucus membranes and on the skin. They appear to play an important role in susceptibility to disease. Coleman, Ph.D., is a professor of bioengineering. He studies wearable sensors and computational devices that monitor body
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functions, like pulse or blood pressure, and send the information directly to your doctor. Soon most of us will be wearing these devices, which are like the Apple watch. Rafie is a doctor of pharmacy in charge of medication safety at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Her job is to try and prevent prescription errors. She advocates for patients taking an active role in their care to make sure they get the correct prescription. John Feather, Ph.D. and CEO of Grantmakers in Aging, spoke about building communities conducive to healthy aging. He said we need to link housing with health care, transportation and social services. Feather talked about his mom’s senior housing in Texas. She lives in a great community, he said, but as soon as you step outside the main gates, there are no sidewalks and no street lights on the main drag, so she cannot walk across the street safely to go to the bank or the post office. Poor planning! To fix the problem would require a bond measure, but the seniors themselves voted it down to save taxes. After Feather’s talk, came another panel discussion. Jason Childers, vice president of Merrill Gardens, discussed getting seniors affordable housing and Eduardo R. Macagno, Ph.D., founding dean of the Division of Biological Sciences at UCSD, spoke about Alzheimer’s disease. Panel member Carmen Roa, a 74-year-old retired real estate agent, stole the show by laying down the law about not abandoning or neglecting seniors. “Find the time to visit and love your elders, they gave you everything they had when you were growing up,” she advised. ■ Want to know more? Visit aging.ucsd.edu
five members of the council individually completed a performance review of the city manager, which was consolidated into an overall performance score, Sinnott explained. Mayor Sherryl Parks and Worden also served on a subcommittee to evaluate city manager salaries and benefits. “It’s a short report, but it’s the result of a long, long process,” Sinnott noted. “We have been working with Scott on a performance-based evaluation where we communicate goals and
FROM SEARCH, A1 achievers and on college and after high school opportunities. One challenge presented was a disparity between north and south district schools. Many of the parents at San Dieguito session expressed concerns about the district’s special education program. They stressed the importance of a leader who is aware, engaged and knowledgeable about students with special needs and who ensures that those students have the same
he responds and reports performance to those goals.” According to the staff report, Huth’s annual salary is one of the lowest when compared to other city manager salaries throughout San Diego County. Del Mar’s “general compensation philosophy” has been to retain positions within 5-7 percent of the median, according to the report. The median salary for city managers in the region is $221,613. At an annual salary of $197,092, Huth’s salary was 12.4 percent below the median.
access to a great education as general education students. “Special education concerns have come out of every stakeholder group,” Verdugo affirmed. A challenge of the district the parents shared is the very divided board that has “frustrated parents with their lack of cooperation” as they are split 3-2 on almost every decision. Ecker said while a split board does present a challenge, “we’re richer when we come to the table with different ideas and that’s OK as long as one idea
is the same and that’s that we’re here for the children,” he said. In response to the challenge of a split board Ecker said they would look for a leader who is politically astute, has good management skills and is a good communicator and collaborator. The plan is for Leadership Associates to have candidates to recommend for the post by the end of August so the board will be in the position to name a new superintendent in September.