That moment at the airport would ultimately propel Aguirre to where she is today \u2014 a newly elected county supervisor who now has a major platform to push for the county to play a bigger role in mitigating the crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so much that the county should be doing,\u201d Aguirre said. \u201cI remember thinking that if somebody that I see could be helpful to us steps up and runs, we\u2019ll back them. But they didn\u2019t. So here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aguirre\u2019s victory in this week\u2019s special election for District 1 supervisor also restores the board\u2019s Democratic majority, which has sought in recent years to chart the county out of decades of Republican rule.<\/p>\n
Aguirre\u2019s victory coincides with Congress\u2019 passage on Thursday of President Donald Trump\u2019s signature domestic policy legislation, a package that slashes Medicaid funding, imposes twice-yearly work requirement check-ins on patients who rely on it, offloads some of the cost of food stamps to states and boosts the budget of U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement twelvefold to $100 billion.<\/p>\n
Democrats worry about what impacts each of those changes hold for low-income residents, immigrants and those that struggle with mental health issues and homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job as a county is in a way to put a force field around San Diego to protect us from the worst impacts of the Trump administration and what\u2019s happening in Washington,\u201d said Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, the board\u2019s acting chair. Its acting vice chair, Monica Montgomery Steppe, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
A five-point plan<\/p>\n
Last month, supervisors passed a plan lobbied for by Aguirre that would get the county involved in the Tijuana River Valley sewage crisis more than ever before.<\/p>\n
![\"Newly](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SUT-L-Dems-006.jpg\")
Newly elected San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre poses for photo in Imperial Beach on Thursday, July 3, 2025. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Under that plan, the county would expand its study of the sewage crisis\u2019 health and economic impacts, expand an existing air filter distribution program and hire a staffer dedicated to the crisis. It would also eliminate a hot spot on the river at Saturn Boulevard where disruptions to the river flow cause greater aerosolization of toxic sewage gas.<\/p>\n
Correcting the natural flow of the river and building a bridge over the site would cost between $7 million and $14 million and require coordination with the city of San Diego, the Navy and the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Aguirre said.<\/p>\n
Under the legislation, county staff have to prepare findings on the plan\u2019s proposed measures for how feasible they are and how much they would cost to fully implement.<\/p>\n
Once Aguirre is sworn in on July 22, making sure county bureaucracy isn\u2019t slowing down research into those measures will be a top priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m absolutely going to dig into that \u2014 because if that\u2019s going to be used as an excuse to move slowly, then we\u2019re going to pass something to expedite it,\u201d Aguirre said.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s just political will\u2019<\/p>\n
For Lawson-Remer, her party\u2019s new board majority will work to implement a doctrine\u00a0for the county\u2019s role under the second Trump administration, as she sketched in her April State of the County speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to take control of our own destiny and protect our own community,\u201d Lawson-Remer said. \u201cAnd we can do it. We\u2019ve got tools, it\u2019s just political will and leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n Real price tags for the county are already materializing with Trump\u2019s signing of his domestic policy package.<\/p>\n With new cuts to Medicaid, the county will lose $10 million for behavioral health programs, according to a county analysis of Trump\u2019s legislation. The county will eventually need $136 million each year for new cost-sharing requirements for food stamps, set to take effect in 2028. Complying with new Medicaid work requirements will likely require more staff, though it\u2019s still uncertain how many.<\/p>\n