San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo here: Happy Friday!  

Welcome to this week’s Raul Roundup, your go-to source for the latest news, updates, and insights from our community and City Hall. 

Honesty and transparency have been at the heart of my term in office and sadly, some folks don’t like that.  

 

So, I found out with everyone else that I’d been removed from the Land Use and Housing Committee for 2026. No heads-up. No explanation. Just the consequence of asking uncomfortable questions and refusing to gloss over details the public deserves to see. 

 

I didn’t stay quiet. 

 

I appreciate the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board for calling this what it was and for describing me “the most honest elected leader in City Hall.” That’s not praise I take lightly. It’s a responsibility. 

 

My honesty is about respect for you, the public. You elected me to represent you, not to fall in line. Democracy only works when elected officials tell the truth, even when it’s inconvenient. 

 

When policies fail, our job isn’t to silence critics. It’s to fix the problem. Honesty means calling out mistakes and correcting them. I’d do it again 100 times, and I will keep doing it. 

 

Read the full SD Union-Tribune piece here. 

Since taking office, I’ve hosted 50+ town halls, and I’m proud to continue our annual tradition of four community town halls. Join me this late February and early March as we reflect on the past year and discuss priorities for the year ahead. You can RSVP for your specific community here: https://tinyurl.com/CD72026TownHalls, or by emailing vvettiyil@sandiego.gov  

This week, I joined hundreds of childcare leaders, advocates and providers in flooding social media with our opposition to $10 billion federal cuts to childcare funding. The statement I shared is below: 

 

Today, I stand in solidarity with childcare advocates, leaders, providers, and families in our common opposition to federal childcare cuts. 

 

As a parent, I am disgusted to see children being used as bargaining chips. As an elected official, I see and feel the uncertainty and exhaustion that permeate people’s lives every single day. This constant whiplash is designed to instill fear, hopelessness, and confusion. 

 

The fundamental need for childcare, and past administrations’ respect for that need, has buoyed families throughout changing administrations and political environments. What we are seeing now is the deliberate use of fear, which denigrates the basic humanity of all families and children in our nation. 

 

Costco boasts some of the best deals in town. One of its real attractions is the famed Costco Hot Dog, which I greatly enjoy and frequently reference. From the viewpoint of the Chair of our Economic Development Committee, I recognize the lessons to be learned from Costco’s staying power and its inextricable link to their hot dogs. Costco gets folks in the door, to spend more money, by offering a cost-effective, delicious lunch. It’s a basic economic principle that undeniably works. 

 

But Costo transcends even its own prowess as a super store for bulk goods. Costco has cultivated an image and accumulated fans, like me, who travel the world just to end up visiting a Costco for an anthropological experience—what are people from other countries buying in bulk?  

 

“I’ll take the extra time and transportation to get to a Costco over standing in line for two hours to get into the Louvre,” said Tommy Breaux, a 66-year-old retiree in Houston who counts a suburban Paris location among his foreign conquests.”  

 

This quote is pulled from a Wall Street Journal piece on the phenomenon. You can read the light-spirited article here.  

San Carlos resident Becky Baumwirt was on a walk with her dog, Bronny, when she spotted a vacant lot and had the idea to establish a neighborhood market. She then worked with her family and neighbors to navigate the complex permitting, scheduling, and vendor organizing process to bring her vision to life. 

 

BronnyB’s Neighborhood, Becky’s non-profit, now hosts the regular San Carlos Farmers Market every fourth Sunday of the month at 7849 Tommy Drive, San Diego, CA 92119.

 

The Market is already a huge hit and will, undoubtedly, continue to bring the community together in supporting small, local businesses and spending time outside! 

 

I led a proclamation declaring January 25, 2026 as “Bronny B’s San Carlos Neighborhood Farmer’s Market Day” in the City of San Diego. I invited Becky, her husband Doug, and their children Jude and Lily to chambers to accept the proclamation.  

 

We look forward to celebrating in person on January 25!