Lisa Halverstadt

6 days ago | voiceofsandiego.org | Lisa Halverstadt

Police countywide arrested hundreds of repeat drug offenders in the months after California voters approved Proposition 36, which promised to offer treatment rather than simply jail time and a felony record. But until last month, the region didn’t have a formal process to connect Proposition 36 offenders with treatment and put the felony cases against them on hold.

2 weeks ago | voiceofsandiego.org | Lisa Halverstadt

As the county faces a budget deficit and potential federal cuts, Democratic Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe want to change the county’s reserve policy to supply an estimated $355 million windfall to preserve county services. The success of the Democrats’ pitch, which they expect to make at a Board of Supervisors meeting next month, is far from certain with the current politically divided board.

3 weeks ago | voiceofsandiego.org | Lisa Halverstadt

Democratic County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer laid out her proposal to fight the Trump administration during the annual State of the County speech Wednesday night. The county’s two Republican supervisors say she didn’t invite them to the show. But Lawson-Remer’s office says she did invite Supervisors Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond. Their offices failed to signal interest in attending as Lawson-Remer considered how to structure the event to comply with the state’s open meetings law.

4 weeks ago | voiceofsandiego.org | Lisa Halverstadt

Acting San Diego County Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer turned an annual county address long packed with reviews of bipartisan investments and plans for county government into a progressive rallying cry. Lawson-Remer laid out what she deemed San Diego County’s “local battle plan” to fight the Trump administration in a Wednesday night speech at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.

4 weeks ago | voiceofsandiego.org | Lisa Halverstadt

A long-simmering city and county battle over their respective roles addressing the region’s homelessness and behavioral health crises just got hotter. At the center of the latest battle: the future of a 150-bed Alpha Project shelter serving homeless San Diegans with behavioral health conditions outside the county’s Midway District health complex that could now be forced to close.