Imperial Beach Spotlight AN INTERVIEW WITH Serge Dedina Mayor of Imperial Beach

IB Connection recently sat down with Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina. Mayor Dedina spoke to us about imrovements to the city and plans for the future. Here is his interview, in his own words. Working with our community members, business owners, city staff and fellow city council members to improve the quality of life for all in Imperial Beach has been very rewarding, especially as we have helped to make Imperial Beach one of the safest beach cities in San Diego County. Over the past six years we have carried out street improvements, alley paving, installed street lights, cleaned up and transformed trash-filled empty lots and torn down forgotten, rusty and dangerous chain link fences. As we have improved our neighborhoods and cleaned up our city, as well as opened new businesses, our crime rate has dramatically dropped. Over the past six years, we have attracted more investment and created more jobs with more new business openings than in any other period in Imperial Beach history. From the Brigantine and Mike Hess Brewing to the new Hampton Inn and Breakwater Plaza and the Bikeway Village project on our bayfront, we are helping create a new era of commercial development and job creation. But there is much more to do, especially along the long-neglected Highway 75 that offers the greatest potential for commercial growth and the development of affordable and market-rate housing. Obviously since we are in the greatest economic crisis in U.S. history, attracting new business investment is more challenging that ever. And without the past tools of a redevelopment agency that aided the Pier South Hotel project for example, it is harder than ever to get investors to take a look at Imperial Beach. We are lucky, however, that we still have a few projects that are moving forward. Despite opening during this crisis, the Hampton Inn at Breakwater Plaza is doing well, proving that Imperial Beach is a great place to build a business. Pizza Port, a well respected business institution in North San Diego and Orange Counties has submitted plans for a venue on Old Palm Avenue (my family and I have enjoyed Pizza Port outings after surf trips up north). Other projects such as the Blue Wave and the IB Resort project are currently moving through the pre-construction and or permitting process and I look forward to seeing these well-designed projects come to fruition and make a big positive difference in our community! It is also important that we continue to promote the importance of building affordable and market-rate housing throughout Imperial Beach, which is needed more than ever. We are fortunate to have had access to Cares Act funding to provide grants to local small businesses to help them with COVID-19 related operating expenses. Thanks to our city council and city staff we are streamlining the process of building and or opening a business in Imperial Beach and or reducing or eliminating fees that hindered economic development. I am especially thankful to our Chamber of Commerce, the IB Business Roundtable and all the small business owners who have adapted and pivoted during this ongoing crisis to find ways to operate and stay in business. There is much more to do, but thanks to everyone who has created a strong business team for Imperial Beach and all of you who operate your businesses here. One of the biggest things that has hindered all aspects of promoting a high quality of life in Imperial Beach is the pollution that has marred our beaches. That is why the City of Imperial Beach is working with the U.S. EPA and our state and local partners in the planning for the $300 million allocated under the USMCA agreement by Congress and the White House, to build sewage diversion infrastructure in the U.S. within the Tijuana River Valley. That project, which should be built within the next two years, will have a major positive impact on keeping our beaches clean. Additionally, federal officials from both sides of the border as well as state officials in Baja (who run Tijuana’s sewage treatment system) are looking for ways to make short-term improvement to Tijuana’s sewage collection and treatment system. Thanks to the installation of new pumps in Tijuana river flows have been reduced dramatically, and our beaches are now open. I recently met virtually with high level officials from the U.S. EPA and IBWC, together with representatives from around the

Mayor Dedina and his morning coastal survey of the City of Imperial Beach. region including Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas, IB’s Port Commission Dan Malcolm and County Supervisor Greg Cox. We all affirmed the need to continue to fast-track the design and construction process for the USMCA funds so that we enjoy our gorgeous coastline without interruption far into the future.

Mayor Serge Dedina Serge is the Mayor of the City of Imperial Beach. He is also co-founder and Executive Director of WILDCOAST. Serge received the Surf Industry’s Environmental Award, San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal as well as the California Coastal Commission’s “Coastal Hero” Award in recognition of his conservation achievements. He was named a UCSD John Muir Fellow in 2013 and was honored as a 2016 Peter Benchley “Hero of the Sea.” Before co-founding WILDCOAST back in 2000, Serge was the founding Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Baja California - Sea of Cortez Program where he helped to initiate successful efforts to protect Loreto Bay National Park, Espiritu Santo Island Reserve and Cabo Pulmo National Park. He grew up in Imperial Beach, California, and spent his childhood helping to preserve the Tijuana Estuary as a National Wildlife Refuge and has worked on water quality issues in the San Diego - Tijuana region since 1980. Serge is an avid surfer, swimmer and former State of California Ocean Lifeguard. He is the author of Saving the Gray Whale, a book based on the three years he lived in the gray whale lagoons of Baja California; Wild Sea: Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias; and, Surfing the Border. Serge has a Ph.D. Geography, University of Texas at Austin; M.S. Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison; B.A. Political Science, University of California, San Diego.