REGION — The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on March 24 to create a Consumer Fairness and Public Protection unit to crack down on junk fees, scams and predatory financial practices.
The vote followed a lengthy debate, including pushback from District Attorney Summer Stephan, who argued her office was already handling critical consumer protection cases. Supervisor Jim Desmond cast the lone no vote.
According to Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer’s office, the new unit will tackle concerns such as cross-border pollution, deceptive and bad faith practices in health care coverage, predatory financial practices and debt-collection scams, toxic chemical contamination, and housing and tenant violations.
Supervisors will also have the chance to review public feedback, per a suggestion by Supervisor Joel Anderson.
Lawson-Remer announced her plan to create the CFPP unit last week.
“Its mission is straightforward,” she said. “The new consumer unit will enforce consumer protection laws, stop illegal practices that raise costs, and help residents recover money when they have been harmed.”
Lawson-Remer said the Trump administration was attempting to cut funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government watchdog agency created in 2011 after the 2008-09 recession.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila recently ordered the CFPB’s acting director, Russ Vought, to continue requesting funds to carry out the agency’s obligations. What that ultimately means could depend on how much President Donald Trump wants to cut the agency.
“The gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the one federal agency dedicated to fighting against big corporate fraud, is a travesty against us, normal people,” Lemon Grove Mayor and UC San Diego law professor Alysson Snow said last week.
Thanks to a state law passed in 2021, cities with populations over 750,000 can have a consumer protection unit. The law grants county counsels and city attorneys the “same pre-litigation investigative tools as district attorneys, allowing them to subpoena records and other non-public information” before filing suit under California’s Unfair Competition Law, according to a statement from Lawson-Remer’s office.
San Diego County’s 20-person unit will operate within the County Counsel’s Office and work on civil consumer cases. A board letter stated the unit could have up to 30 staff members within two years.
During Tuesday’s public comment period, most speakers voiced support for the new division. A member of the Legal Aid Society of San Diego said limited resources often force the agency to turn away people who need help.
However, a representative from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce said that while the idea “may be well-intentioned, we are opposed based on the unintended consequences it may create for businesses and consumers.”
Stephan told supervisors that when it comes to a complex issue such as consumer protection, collaboration among governmental agencies is built on trust.
“In this situation, unfortunately, I think that it’s premature,” said Stephan, who urged the board to send the proposal to the chief administrative officer as a way to “create something unique and good and beneficial.”
Stephan said her office “had five days to respond to a very complex letter.” She added that her office has been fiscally responsible and said there has never been a single issue with how it handled consumer protection cases in 51 years.
The district attorney said the only conversation she had regarding the county proposal happened March 4, when Lawson-Remer “raised her voice and said, ‘This item will pass.’”
Stephan added that Lawson-Remer told her that any feedback “better not be anything to limit this item.”
While Lawson-Remer did not directly respond to that comment, she said any allegation that her office did not give enough notice was not true. Lawson-Remer said she initially announced the proposal last April, which was widely publicized, so the District Attorney’s Office was well aware.
Lawson-Remer said she reached out more than a year ago to get input from Stephan’s office.
Desmond said he wanted to see more cooperation with the District Attorney’s Office before moving forward, as well as identifying any service gaps between law enforcement and the county. He said the DA’s Office has an effective consumer protection division.
“To me, this sounds like we’ve got a plan, but we don’t know what problem we’re solving yet,” he added.
Although he voted yes, Anderson said he wanted more time to review the proposal, along with more input from the DA’s Office and residents.
“Not one person in my district has brought this issue up,” Anderson said. “I’m not against this. I would just like to slow it down.”
Supervisor Paloma Aguirre thanked Lawson-Remer and Stephan for their comments and said she looked forward to continued partnership with the district attorney’s office.
“At its core, this proposal is very simple — it’s about protecting families,” Aguirre said. “Our responsibility is to show that government can step up.”
