Ever since Measure E failed, the one-cent sales tax, City Hall observers and critics have been carefully watching what Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council do in terms of the budget and any potential cuts. Reportedly, there’s more than $1 billion budget deficit over the next five years.
About a month ago, Axios San Diego published a post that was astounding because it encapsulated ideas and concerns of Michael Zucchet, head of the Municipal Employees Association, who made a presentation to the council’s budget committee around that time. (Zucchet used to sit on the City Council representing what’s now District 2, Point Loma and OB, so he’s well aware of how the budget process works.)
Zucchet’s main issue was the astronomical growth of nonunion managers over the last decade, who earn higher pay and give the mayor more flexibility over their employment.
Simply put: there’s just too many middle managers. Check these numbers out.
In fiscal year 2015, the city had 70 so-called program managers or program coordinators. That number has now exploded to at least 393. From 70 to over 390.
For comparison, during that same period that witnessed this 461% growth in management-level positions, overall city staff grew by just 20%, according to Zucchet.
Zucchet added that these new middle managers represent at least $80 million in structural costs per year. Program managers and program coordinators make about double the comparable, union-represented position.
However, most of the positions are not added during the city’s regular budget cycle, but are added over the course of the year. The city created 45 last year, but 41 were added later individually. Zucchet told the council committee:
“This is big money. They don’t come to you in each budget, they come to you drip, drip, drip, one at a time.” .
Zucchet advocated for eliminating the 60 vacant program manager positions, which alone would save $15 million. Plus he asserted the immediate changes the mayor announced earlier in December don’t go nearly far enough and (along with the Hope & Vine shelter’s inclusion) represent “a bad start to this budget process.”
Axios reports, “Directors have been asked to prepare budgets proposing cuts of 5% for public safety departments, 10% for transportation and 20% for all other departments. The mayor will release a draft budget in April.”
Hope & Vine shelter is the Middletown warehouse Gloria wants to lease and turn into a 1,000-bed homeless shelter, and funding to staff and operate it, but the council declined to approve the acquisition.
Here’s the remainder of the Axios report:
The Finance Department projects a $258 million shortfall in the 2026 fiscal year, which it expects to gradually decline to $169 million in 2030, as revenue growth outpaces spending. That projection assumes the city continues to provide the same service levels — infrastructure repairs, library and rec center hours, public safety staffing — as this year.
Axios reports that “Some revenue relief could be on the way, with more than $100 million per year in new funding potentially available to stave off cuts.”
Voters in 2022 approved Measure B, which allowed the city to begin charging homeowners who receive trash collection a fee for that service. The city could vote next year to do so, bringing in an estimated $70 million every year.
In 2020, voters approved Measure C, a hotel tax increase, which has since been held up in litigation. That case is expected to resolve next summer, and a city win would mean about $35 million per year to cover existing homelessness spending.
The mayor and council could also increase what the city charges for parking to bring in another $10 million per year.
For every cut there’s likely a pet allowance being enabled by Toad Gloria which must be contested.