County Health and Human Services Chief Out in November<\/strong><\/p>\n Another high-level official is preparing to depart county government.<\/p>\n Kim Giardina, who has led the county\u2019s massive Health and Human Services Agency for the past year, announced that her last day at the county will be Nov. 6.<\/p>\n Giardina wrote that she plans to \u201cexplore other options,\u201d in an email obtained by Voice. The decision came with a \u201cmix of emotions,\u201d she wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is a turbulent time for the county. It\u2019s facing federal cuts<\/a> that will impact services and has already endured other major departures. The county\u2019s top attorney abruptly retired in July<\/a> and its behavioral health director caught even insiders off guard with his resignation<\/a>. The county official who oversees Medicaid and food stamp programs that will be hit hard by federal cuts is also set to retire in December<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cChange can be hard, but it is expected in a large organization, and the county is committed to a smooth transition,\u201d county spokesperson Tammy Glenn wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n North County Report: Shaffer\u2019s Court Appearance<\/strong><\/p>\n Reporter Tigist Layne takes us inside the courthouse for Encinitas Councilmember Luke Shaffer\u2019s arraignment for hit-and-run charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dozens of supporters showed up for Shaffer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey offered each other condolences, hugs and words of encouragement. I heard people say things like, \u2018I can\u2019t believe this is happening,\u2019 and \u2018It will all be over soon.\u2019 One person said it felt like they were mourning,\u201d Layne writes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the full North County Report here.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n About Those Robots at City Council<\/strong><\/p>\n The City Clerk\u2019s Office confirmed on Wednesday that AI bots have not breached Council\u2019s online comments after a series of strange audios made their way to meetings this week.<\/p>\n City Clerk Diana Fuentes said in a statement that the city\u2019s system, ZoomGov, does not allow it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt appears that an individual chose to play a pre-recorded audio clip once they were recognized to speak,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are monitoring this matter and will continue to ensure public participation in City Council meetings is conducted in line with our established rules of order.\u201d<\/p>\n An Insane Bond Deal Exposed\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Back in 2012, Voice of San Diego published one of its all-time bangers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Poway Unified School District had borrowed $105 million for construction projects. Former reporter Will Carless discovered that the district would be on the hook to pay back roughly $1 billion \u2014 almost ten times more than it had borrowed!<\/p>\n The story led to national media attention, lots of pissed off residents and a new state law that capped debt-to-principal ratios on government borrowing.<\/p>\n This story is part of our 20th anniversary series on Voice\u2019s impact. Read it here<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In Other News\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry, Lisa Halverstadt and Tessa Balc. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafa\u00f1a.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In August, a Republican school board member of Escondido Union High School District had an announcement for the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":218031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,9081,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-218030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-morning-report","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115185419874370231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Luke-Shaffer_0003-1024x683.jpg\")
Defense attorney Isaac Blumberg and Encinitas Councilmember Luke Shaffer during his arraignment at Superior Court North County Division in Vista on Sept. 9, 2025. \/ Ariana Drehsler for Voice of San Diego<\/p>\n\n