Santee City Council

SANTEE CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON 5 PERCENT RAISES

By Mike Allen

April 7, 2025 (Santee) -- Santee’s City Council and its mayor are looking at giving themselves a 5 percent pay hike at the Council’s next meeting on April 9, if they agree with the recommendations of the citizens salary setting advisory committee.

The committee voted April 2 to boost the pay for the council’s part time jobs, as well as giving them a $100 monthly raise in their gas allowance, and maintaining a $90 per month technology allowance.

The committee said the increases should apply to the next two fiscal years, 2025-26, starting July 1, and for the following fiscal year.

The projected pay hikes exceed the current national cost of living increase, which was 2.8 percent as of February, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and are more than the last round of pay increases the Santee Council approved in 2023, which was 4 percent for each of the next fiscal years.


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SANTEE COUNCIL MAKES FIRE PROTECTION ITS TOP PRIORITY

By Mike Allen

Photo by Scott Lagace:  Santee firefighters saved the life of an unconscious woman during a July 2024 fire that engulfed her mobile home, also administering oxygen to save a cat.

 March 14, 2025 (Santee) -- Santee knows it has to be better when it comes to providing fire protection to its residents, and after a sales tax-funded plan for new fire stations failed in November, its City Council made improving that essential service as its top priority.

 In fairness, the Council was already focused on getting a couple of new stations to double the current number—two—to serve a population of more than 60,000.

 It was building a temporary station off Olive Way where it formerly used to keep its maintenance operations, and was planning a new station in the north part of the city. Yet the Council was hoping the half-cent hike to local sales taxes would finance the improvements. Not so fast, said voters who rejected the plan.

 At its March 12 meeting, the Council set building new fire stations—along with finding new ways to pay for them--as its No. 1 goal from a list of ten.


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SANTEE FUNDS TEMPORARY FIRE STATION, SETS NEW PLAN FOR TOWN CENTER

By Mike Allen

Photo:  Santee Fire Department responding in 2023

March 1, 2025 (Santee) -- The chaos and disruption happening daily at the federal government isn’t permeating to the local level in Santee, where the City Council took several significant actions this week, including funding the remaining balance on a $2 million temporary fire station, adopting a new specific plan for its Town Center area, and hearing that its finances are in sterling shape.


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SANTEE INCUMBENTS WINNING HANDILY, MEASURE S SALES TAX INITIATIVE FAILING IN EARLY RETURNS

East County News Service

November 5, 2024 (Santee) – Santee Mayor John Minto has won reelection over challenger Kelli O’Brien, with 79.39% of the votes tallied thus far.  Councilman Dustin Trotter appears cruising to victory over Padre Dam Water Board member Augie Scalzitti, with 61.85%.  Laura Koval has also been reelected, running unopposed.


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SANTEE ELECTIONS INCLUDE MAYOR, TWO COUNCIL SEATS AND SALES TAX HIKE

By Mike Allen

Photo: Former Padre Dam Municipal Water District director Augie Scalzitti is challenging Councilman Dustin Trotter.

August 27, 2024 (Santee)-- This November, Santee voters are facing several choices on their ballots, one for mayor and one for District Four Council representative, as well as whether to enact a half cent increase to their sales tax.

In the 4th District, incumbent Councilman Dustin Trotter is being challenged by Augie Scalzitti. Development is emerging as a key issue in this race.


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JUDGE RULES AGAINST SANTEE’S FANITA RANCH; CITY MULLS APPEAL

 

Court finds City Council should have allowed citizens to vote on ballot initiative before approving project

By Mike Allen

Photo: Fanita Ranch site, courtesy of Preserve Wild Santee

August 15, 2024 (Santee) -- Santee’s Fanita Ranch project, which would put about 3,000 new homes into the northwest quarter of the city, was dealt another set back last week when a Superior Court judge ruled that the City Council didn’t follow its own rules regarding new development.


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SANTEE COUNCIL PUTS SALES TAX INCREASE ON NOVEMBER BALLOT

By Mike Allen

June 30, 2024 (Santee) -- The Santee City Council has unanimously approved an initiative to raise the sales tax charged within the city by a half cent for improved fire protection, including two new stations and firefighters.

The measure, which would increase the tax on items sold in the city from 7.75 to 8.25 percent, will expire in 15 years if passed by a a simple majority of Santee voters in November. Called the Santee Emergency Safety Protection Ordinance, the initiative was championed by the Santee Firefighters Association, which collected some 3,800 valid signatures from city residents to qualify for the ballot.

The Council voted this week to place it on the ballot and forego a detailed report on how the funds would be spent.


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SANTEE GETTING DUAL CAR DEALERSHIP

By Mike Allen

Image,left: Rendering of planned auto dealership project

November 4, 2023 (Santee) -- A long-vacant, rock strewn lot on Mission Gorge Road just west of Magnolia Avenue is slated to become the Santee Auto Center, following approval of the project by the City Council last week.

The 13.1 acre site at 10335 Mission Gorge Road once housed Santee Elementary School, which opened in 1891 and closed in 2003 due to declining enrollment. Santee-based Cameron Brothers Construction Co. plans to convert the site into two dealerships, one of which is Chevrolet.

The center includes two warehouse buildings of more than 33,000 square feet, an auto body shop, and car wash. It will have six entrances and 688 parking spaces, mostly for inventory and customer service.


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ALL SANTEE EMPLOYEES, INCLUDING ELECTED OFFICIALS, GET RAISES

By Mike Allen
 
August 30, 2023 (Santee) -- Santee’s City Council approved a series of two-year pay hikes for its unionized firefighters, and then gave all its employees, including themselves, raises for the next two years. All totaled, the salary raises approved at the August 23 Council meeting will mean the city’s amended 2023-24 budget increased by about $967,000, which will be funded from the budget’s reserves.

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SANTEE CITY COUNCIL DUMPS ROUNDABOUT PROJECT, COSTING CITY MORE THAN $800,000

By Mike Allen

Image:  Plan for roundabout by Dokken Engineering. Santee spent about $800,000 on engineering and design work since 2015, funds that will be lost if city doesn’t build it.

July 22, 2023 (Santee) -- Last month, the Santee City Council eliminated a project to build a roundabout at the Highway 67 off ramp at Woodside Avenue, costing the city about $800,000 it had spent on design and engineering plans going back to 2015.

The decision was made June 14, during a discussion of the city’s capital improvement program (CIP), essentially a wish list of projects over the next five years. While no formal vote was taken, at least three Santee councilmembers said the roundabout or traffic circle wasn’t necessary and would likely cause more traffic problems than the current, four-stop configuration.


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SANTEE APPROVES HOTEL AT TROLLEY SQUARE, GRANTS DEVELOPER $2.5M IN SUBSIDIES

By Mike Allen

April 29, 2023 (Santee) - Santee’s City Council unanimously approved a four-story, 97-room hotel at the Trolley Square Shopping Center to be operated by either the Hilton or Marriott chains at its April 26 meeting.


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NAKED DISPLAY OF TRANSGENDER ANIMUS AT SANTEE COUNCIL AS YMCA ALLIES DECRY LIES

 

Story and photos by Ken Stone,Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

January 28, 2023 (Santee) - Former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller took the lectern at Wednesday’s Santee City Council meeting and declared that she “identified” as Christynne Wood — and thus deserved the same three minutes of public comment time.

Boller, in her mid-30s, followed the real Wood — the 66-year-old transgender woman whose Santee YMCA presence “terrified” a 17-year-old girl in the women’s locker room.
 
So despite all other speakers being limited to two minutes, Boller ignored her time cutoff and rebuffed efforts by two other women to move her away.
 
On a night when dozens of friends and allies supported Wood — many with hand-painted signs reading “We (HEART) Chrissy” — the extremes of the issue were on naked display.

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SANTEE FINANCE DIRECTOR RETIRES

By Mike Allen

October 28, 2022 (Santee) - Tim McDermott has seen the good times and the bad times overseeing budgets for the city of Santee over the past 21 years, and now he’s presumably enjoying the best of times in retirement.


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NO CHALLENGERS FOR TWO SANTEE DISTRICTS, SO COUNCIL OPTS TO APPOINT

By Mike Allen

August 28, 2022 (Santee) -- In a first for the city of Santee, two incumbent members of the City Council were appointed to another four-year term and will avoid the November election, because no challengers in either district filed papers to challenge them.


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RONN HALL SEEKS THIRD TERM ON SANTEE COUNCIL

By Mike Allen

July 22, 2022 (Santee) -- Ronn Hall, a member of the Santee City Council for eight years, says he wants to keep the job and is running this November for another term.


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SANTEE COUNCIL LOOKS TO REGULATE CANNABIS, MOVES CLOSER TOWARD BALLOT INITIATIVE

By Mike Allen

June 28, 2022 (Santee) -- While members of the Santee City Council say they adamantly oppose marijuana use, they also can’t ignore the escalating tax dollars other cities are reaping from the sale of the drug.


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JUDGE TELLS SANTEE TO RESCIND FANITA RANCH VOTES DUE TO FIRE DANGER

By Mike Allen

April 12, 2022 (Santee) -- Fanita Ranch, the 3,000 unit housing project that was approved by the city of Santee two years ago, received another setback last week when a San Diego judge ruled the City must rescind all the legal permits for the construction.

The judgement by Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal made last month and filed April 6, calls on the city to vacate a series of resolutions that gave Fanita Ranch the green light in September 2020. Bacal faulted the city and its contracted experts for creating an inadequate environmental report about all the impacts from the project, particularly the lack of safe evacuation routes in the wake of an emergency such as a major wildfire.


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SANTEE INVOKES EMINENT DOMAIN FOR TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

By Mike Allen 

March 27, 2022 (Santee) -- One of the more controversial powers government agencies wield is eminent domain, the ability to acquire private property even without the owner’s consent for a project determined to be the public’s best interest.


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SANTEE MOVES TOWARD GIVING VOTERS A SAY ON LEGALIZING CANNABIS BUSINESSES

By Mike Allen

Photo:  Santee Vice Mayor Ronn Hall

March 11, 2022 (Santee) -- While it’s legal to use and even grow marijuana for personal use statewide, the sale of the still-federally prohibited drug is not permitted in Santee.

That could change given the path that the City Council has been on since last year, when it began exploring the potential of allowing some type of marijuana-linked business within its 16.5 square miles.


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SANTEE ASSESSES ITS DIVERSITY, CONSIDERS WAYS OF CHANGING DURING RECENT WORKSHOP

By Mike Allen 

Photo:  Richard Marks speaking

March 3, 2022 (Santee) -- As a city with one of the smallest minority populations in San Diego County and one that experienced some well-publicized racist incidents in recent years, Santee’s leaders realized they had to do something.


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SANTEE COUNCIL DENIES PERMIT FOR NEW GAS STATION/MINI MART ON PROPERTY TIED TO KALASHO FAMILY

By Mike Allen

File photos: Lina Charry and Ben Kalasho

February 25, 2022 (Santee) -- Santee apparently has enough gas stations, or at least enough on a stretch of Mission Gorge Road near the confluence of State Routes 125 and 52.

At its Feb. 23 meeting, a reduced City Council shot down a proposal to build yet another station under the Arco brand, a car wash and mini-mart on an oddly shaped, less-than-an-acre parcel at 9015 Mission Gorge Road.


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SANTEE COUNCILMEMBERS WEIGH WHETHER TO LEGALIZE AND STRICTLY REGULATE MARIJUANA BUSINESSES

Prospect of a pro-pot industry ballot measure leaves some members fuming

By Mike Allen

Photo:  Kathleen Lippett

October 14, 2021 (Santee) -- The Santee City Council held a third workshop Oct. 13 examining whether to allow cannabis businesses in their city, while making it clear they aren’t fond of the prospect


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SANTEE COUNCIL GIVES ITSELF RAISES AS PART OF $50M OPERATING BUDGET

By Mike Allen 

June 24, 2021 (Santee) -- Santee City Council has approved a $50 million operating budget for its 2021-22 fiscal year, including 1.5 percent raises for city staff and the five Council members.


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SANTEE ASKS ISSA TO OPPOSE GUN CONTROL BILL

By Mike Allen

 

June 2, 2021 (Santee) -- On the same day that a San Jose rail yard employee fatally shot nine of his co-workers before killing himself, the Santee City Council unanimously voted to send a letter to Congressman Darrell Issa opposing a bill in Congress that would place more controls on gun ownership, including more stringent background checks.


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SANTEE PUTS BRAKES ON COMMUNITY CENTER AND COMMUNITY CHOICE ENERGY PROGRAM

By Mike Allen
 
Photo:  llustration of the long-planned Santee Community Center, via HMC Architects
 
May 14, 2021 (Santee) -- The ongoing pandemic has forced everyone, including local elected officials, to reevaluate their previous plans.
 
That’s what happened May 12 when the Santee City Council pressed the pause button on two long-planned decisions, building a community center and joining a Community Choice Aggregation program.

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SANTEE GETS ITS OWN TV CHANNEL, ANNOUNCES SUMMER EVENTS AND GRAPPLES WITH NEW STATE ORGANICS RECYCLING LAW

By Mike Allen
 
All photos from concerts in 2019
 
May 3, 2021 (Santee) -- Santee is creating its own television station, one that will provide viewers with round-the-clock content on all things Santee related.  The Council also voted to boost the city’s budget by up to $25,000 at its most recent City Council meeting.

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SANTEE DIVERSITY PROGRAM GETS OFF TO ROCKY START WITH CLAIMS OF HYPOCRISY

By Mike Allen
 
April 22, 2021 (Santee) -- Spurred by negative press resulting from two ugly incidents involving racist maskers inside local grocery stores and later, violent clashes at demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the city of Santee set out to deal with its image as a less than welcoming place for minorities.

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SANTEE HOLDS VIRTUAL DISTRICT 4 TOWN HALL ON WED. APRIL 7

East County News Service

Photo: Councilman Dustin Trotter

April 6, 2021 (Santee) – Santee Councilman Dustin Trotter and Mayor Minto will host a special District 4 town hall meeting on Wednesday, April 7 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The meeting will be held virtually.  


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SANTEE COUNCIL SETS PRIORITIES TO REAP REVENUES, INCLUDING POSSIBLE LEGALIZATION OF CANNABIS BUSINESSES

 
By Mike Allen
 
March 30, 2021 (Santee) - While other East County cities such as La Mesa and Lemon Grove tap into taxes that legalized marijuana shops generate, Santee has staunchly kept these enterprises illegal.
 
But that could change. At its most recent meeting, the Santee City Council announced a list of 11 priorities it wants to address in the next two years. At No. 11 was one to “consider economic development and regulatory options for cannabis businesses in the city, with a funding ordinance for the November 2022 election.”

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SANTEE COUNCIL GETS UPDATE ON PADRE DAM’S BIG PROJECT

By Mike Allen
 
March 27, 2021 (Santee) -- Padre Dam Water District wants to keep everyone in the loop about its massive sewage reclamation project, especially the city where the project is located -- Santee.

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