COVID-19 relief

The federal government has allocated over $300 million to San Diego County for

COVID-19 recovery efforts. Each Supervisor has submitted their plans to the Chief

administrative officer for how they would like the money to be used. The

CAO will then take all the requests and the board will vote on the allocation of

dollars on Tuesday, June 8.

Some of my requests include helping our restaurants, assisting our first

responders and military families, and mental health services for kids.

The Dine-Out and Help-Out program is the perfect program to bring people

together and help our restaurants, who are still struggling. Customers would

receive 50% off their bill, with up to $10 off per person. The restaurants then

would submit their receipts to the county in order to be reimbursed the full price

of the meal. The discounts would be available on Monday, Tuesday and

Wednesday, typically slower days for restaurants. I have proposed to our CAO that we implement the Dine-Out to Help-Out program by using $50 million of COVID-19 recovery funds.

Another request is $40 million for first responder and military families who have

been financially affected by COVID-19. Many first responders and military

spouses or family members have lost jobs or have had to miss work while helping

their kids with schoolwork. This program would provide up to three months of

past due rent or mortgage payments per household, with a maximum of $6,000

per household for military and first responder families.

These are a few of my priorities. I will keep you updated with the progress and tell

you about a few other initiatives next week.