Coming up next, more condo owners
face dropped coverage tonight.
We're hearing from farmers insurance.
We're working for you after squatters
take over an apartment with drugs,
violence and weapons.
The little city that could is
starting to strut her stuff.
San Marcos turned 60 and a look
back at the life of the iconic
Brickell Welch and the career that
started right here at our station.
CBS 8 News Live at 6 starts now.
More condominium owners are coming
forward telling us their farmers
insurance policies are being
cancelled due to wildfire risk.
The latest 115 unit complex in Scripps Ranch.
Good evening and thank you for joining us.
I'm Carla chichetto.
I'm Marcella Lee.
Tonight, for the first time,
we are hearing from farmers insurance.
As CBS's David Godfredson reports,
some HOA's are considering changing
their bylaws so individual condo
owners can carry their own property.
Insurance.
Our total premium went from 50,000
a year to almost 800,000 a year.
Condo owner Dave Sloat is talking about
the master property insurance policy on
the Village Woods complex in Scripps
Ranch that farmers insurance did not
renew in November due to wildfire risk.
The $32 million policy covered
exterior damage to the entire complex.
A replacement policy cobbled together
on the secondary market could now cost.
Each condo owner an additional
5 or $600.00 per month.
In addition to our premium going up by 16X,
our deductible has gone from $10,000
per incident to 250,000 per incident.
Because of the higher deductible
on the replacement policy,
the HOA is going to have to use its
own reserves to pay for this damage
that happened last month when two
eucalyptus trees fell destroying.
New garages.
But it's the wildfire risk that's to blame.
As CBS8 has reported over the past two weeks,
farmers Insurance recently dropped policies
on 338 condo units in Rancho Bernardo,
240 units in Mira Mesa and 320
condo units in Tierra Santa.
Combined with 115 units in
this Scripps Ranch complex,
more than 1000 homeowners are now
looking for affordable insurance.
Farmers insurance.
Don't comment on individual policies,
but emailed CBS 8A statement saying quote
similar to other insurers in the state,
we regularly review our market
exposure and make adjustments as
necessary to appropriately manage risk.
We're looking into private insurance,
but there's a problem there with walls
that are shared
with other residents.
Condo owner Mike Colmenero
says he's already pricing out
policies to cover his own condo.
But changing to individual coverage
will require changes to the HOA bylaws
requiring a 2/3 vote of all condo
owners in the Scripps Ranch Complex.
The bottom line is we're
getting screwed by the
insurance companies,
and our local representatives and
elected officials don't seem to
want to do anything to help us.
Now we're out here live in Tierra Santa
tonight because the owners of the Villa
Monterey complex are being asked to
cast ballots to change their bylaws.
Not only to make it so they have to
pay for their own homeowners insurance
for the each individual condo,
they're also being asked to approve
a $7200 special assessment for each
and every condo owner, and that has
to be approved by a majority vote.
David, that's $600 a month.
That is a lot of money, man.
OK, any progress at this point
by state lawmakers on a long
term solution to this condominium
insurance crisis we're looking at?
Yeah, well, state insurance Commissioner
Ricardo Lara says it's a top priority of
his to expand condo complex insurance.
But still no word tonight from his
office whether he's going to go along
with eighteen state legislators who
are requesting that he raised the
maximum on the state safety net
insurance plan called the Fair Plan.
Still no word from him tonight.
Condo insurance owners,
condo owners need.
Some insurance answers quickly.
David Godberson reporting
for us live. Thanks, David.
Some breaking news out of El Paso,
TX right now where multiple
police agencies are responding to
reports of a shooting at a mall.
This is happening at the Cielo Vista mall.
We're following the El Paso Sheriff's
Twitter account at this point.
So far no victims have been confirmed.
People are being warned to stay
away from the mall at this point,
but some news agencies online are reporting
one person has been killed and three
others have been taken to the hospital.
This has not been confirmed.
By police or the Sheriff's Department,
but we will bring you any
new details as we get them.
Today, South Bay Janitor pleaded
guilty to secretly filming more than
a dozen women in a school restroom.
It happened at Bayside Steam
Academy in Imperial Beach.
As part of the plea deal,
Freddie Mccollin will spend a
year behind bars and must register
as a sex offender for life.
4 victims talked in court today about
how his actions affected their lives.
Two teachers told CBS eight they left
Bayside because of what happened.
An apartment complex in Escondido is
being overrun by drugs, violence and
people experiencing homelessness,
and nothing is being done.
At least that's what the property
manager at Cross Creek Apartments told
us when she reached out to us for help.
CBS 8 Abby Black is working hard to
get answers and is already getting
some response from law enforcement.
The property manager says that
they had to board up this unit
because squatters kept breaking in.
But it's next door that's giving
them a lot of trouble.
They've been trying to get them evicted.
It wasn't until they contacted CBS8.
And when we started working for you,
the sheriff gave him a call.
Graffiti is so graphic we
can't show what it says on TV.
I've broken windows,
broken windows, broken sliders,
weapons out in the common area at
Cross Creek Apartments in Escondido.
The knives. They leave knives
sitting on trash cans.
Property manager Kathy Fox says
that they've cleaned up syringes
and had to hire a 24 hour security
officer who fled Ukraine last year.
I literally feel like I've
gone from one war into another.
We were there as people who
were told are not on the lease.
They were coming and going from the unit.
Moments later,
maintenance called 911 after a fight.
I have to use the words please and thank you.
Fox says that she's spoken to the
tenant through the door countless times
and I have been trying.
To get this unit out of here,
and I'm still waiting and I've
been waiting since May 2022,
Fox says. After the parents and
the unit passed away, their son,
who was their caretaker,
stopped paying rent in March 2022.
Since then, police have
been called several times.
She says that the police do show
up and talk to the troublemakers,
but then they drive off
and no one's arrested.
A police spokesperson says that they've
not been able to prove any crimes.
Have been committed since no
eviction notice has been served
and have troublemakers are invited
on the property by the tenant.
They can't find anyone for trespassing.
It's unbelievable.
The property manager tells me that
she started the process of filing for
an eviction in April of last year.
I emailed the Sheriff's Department
who handles evictions to find
out what's taking so long.
I notified Channel 8. Ironically,
we get a phone call this morning from
the Sheriff's Department sharing
that we're going to have a lockout.
But the date still isn't set.
A Sergeant who overseas North County
evictions told me that they did
not receive the writ for eviction
until January and it will be served.
It's hard. It's very hard.
It's super hard. I want nothing
but the best for my residence.
I want them to be in a safe environment,
working for you in Escondido.
I'm Abby black, CBS 8.
All right, Abby, thanks.
And remember, if you have an issue or
concern affecting you or your community,
e-mail us at working for you at cbsla.com.
County supervisor Nathan Fletcher
is getting more support tonight
in his bid for state Senate.
Today, he announced the endorsement
of the full San Diego City Council.
Right now, all Council members are Democrats.
Fletcher previously served
in the State Assembly.
He's running for the Senate District 39
seat currently held by Senator Tony Atkins,
who is terming out.
We don't know yet who might
challenge Fletcher for the seat.
Prime
real estate along Mission Bay is
undergoing a major environmental cleanup.
The city is demolishing the
remaining mobile homes near
Deanza Cove after a fight to clean
out the area spanned decades.
CBS8 Chris Growe has more on
today's demolition from Mission Bay.
This was years in the making and it
was quite a bit of a show here again to
be able to actually watch just one of
what will be many demolition jobs that
will be ongoing here in Deanza Cove and
hopefully again transforming the look.
Vote both for our eyes but also for
the environment. Take a listen.
There you go, one of the many
mobile homes being demolished again,
they are still working on a number
of other mobile homes and this
is going to take several months
to have this project completed.
But let's talk a little bit about
how it is that we got here now
several years ago that the city had
a lease for this land for housing,
but it expired and people who lived out
of those mobile homes on the land they
just left and some of those mobile homes,
they not only had junk left behind.
And also potentially asbestos.
We also know that vegetation here went wild,
the vagrants camped out,
graffiti became a common sight.
But all that is being cleaned up now.
We're actually told that some of
those mobile homes that contained
that of asbestos were actually
already taken care of prior to today.
And the work that's being done here,
this is also being done by the same
company that operates Mission Bay
RV Resort and Campland on the Bay.
That's who we heard from today,
as well as Mayor Todd Gloria.
They are removing these trailers,
cleaning up this area.
They're in charge of this.
Project.
In exchange,
they're gonna be allowed to put
up 147 campsites,
which promised to be affordable
and open to the public.
But we're also being told that
this is going to be a big boom
for the environment as well too.
This is in many ways a Herculean task,
but we are all rooting for this group, right?
We all want to see this be successful.
And what's going to happen is again
clearing out this debris in these
trailers and to to create a more coastal
access and an opportunity to enjoy
it both as recreation and in a more natural
state. And as you can see right there,
that mobile home in our time lapse video,
it does take quite a bit of time in order
to actually get the entire structure down.
You can see them actually spraying
water there as well too. Of course,
we live here in Southern California.
Any little bit of spark
could potentially be hazard.
So that is why of course while they're
tearing that down using that heavy machinery,
also spraying it down at the same time.
Now As for when potentially you could see
this done could be the end of the year,
the project,
the portion of the project that will be.
Complete, maybe by the summer
would be the improvements to the
pedestrian and bike paths,
something that people have still been
using even with these dilapidated
mobile homes still in view and a lot
of the growth and all the overruns.
So again, there will be improvements,
we are being told,
made day by day, month by month.
But the target end date here for
this project scheduled to be by
the end of this calendar year.
Reporting from Mission Bay,
I'm Chris Girl for CSA.
Iconic 60s sex symbol an International
Film star Raquel Welch has died
according to her family. She was 82.
They say she passed away peacefully
this morning after a brief illness.
Welch grew up here,
graduated from La Jolla High one local
beauty contests and actually worked
here at CBS 8 as a weather presenter.
Later that same decade she took Hollywood
by storm and the rest is history.
Coming up new tonight at 6:30,
we take a look back at Welch's.
Life's career and her
time here at our station.