The fourth and final City of San Diego 2025 Budget Review Town Hall forum in Mira Mesa was the largest and angriest gathering of the series. Hot-button issues included the contentious trash fee proposal, inadequate road repair, city salaries and pensions, and the obscure management of developer impact fee (DIF) revenues.
Nearly 100 people gathered for the February 20 forum at the Mira Mesa Senior Center. There were no representatives from the Mayor’s office nor from any Council District office.
Throughout the two-hour forum which began with a slideshow from Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica, community members expressed outrage at City Hall’s persistent stonewalling of constituents.
They traced the erosion of public trust in local government from the still-murky 101 Ash Street debacle to the trash fee analysis that began with modest payments and ended with costly assessments.
The following excerpts from public comments provide highlights.
Andrea Ebbing, Linda Vista
“Wouldn’t it benefit the community to reduce ‘other pay’ that was $142 million in 2023? It’s a line item in the salaries [listed on] Transparent California. What is ‘other pay’? There’s ‘other pay’ and there’s ‘overtime.’ Overtime was $145 million. … And we are spending a tremendous amount of money on law enforcement and public safety, but nobody can get through on the non-emergency line, nobody can file a report.”
Shane Harris, President of the People’s Association of Justice Advocates
“I’m here to speak about a campaign to keep free Sunday and free holiday parking in San Diego. Taking away that parking would be a drastic challenge to the people of San Diego. We’ve got to do everything we can to stop this.”
Mike Fratelli, San Diego County Taxpayers Association
“Measure E [sales tax hike] was not a well-designed measure. There was no sunset clause, no guarantee that it would have been spent on infrastructure, and really no oversight. Is there any talk about selling excess property to raise revenue?”
Sandy Smith, Mira Mesa
“From what I understand, there was about $511 million in the DIF account as of 2023. Because of a bureaucratic quagmire, those funds are basically frozen. Somebody is getting paid 8 percent a year to manage the actual account. That’s $40 million a year. Where is that money going? Who collects it?”
Cecelia Comia, Mira Mesa
“When is the City going to fix the Gulf Coast and Parkdale roads? My kids tell me, ‘Mommy, we don’t have to go to Universal Studios to ride the Indiana Jones ride.’ When I moved here from the Philippines, I thought, ‘Finally, I will have nice roads to drive on.’ Is this a first-world country?”
David Seid, House of Pacific Relations, Balboa Park
“This past weekend, we had our Lunar Festival, and we did not see a park ranger on site or trash being picked up. We incurred about $4,200 in special event fees. There is a hotel tax and different grants from the Arts and Culture commission. How much money is budgeted for that?”
Michael Myer, Mira Mesa
“These budget problems started 20 years ago with raising pensions for city employees. The City has not raised the retirement age. … I would have gladly voted for the sales tax initiative if there was a term limit, but not forever. We are overtaxed by the state, by the federal government, and by the city.”
Donna Regalado, Bay Ho
“I’ve read that the City is paying a half-million dollars to lease an office building at a time when office rents have gone down. What’s happening with 101 Ash Street? … The City should consider charging fees to license e-bikes with reflective license plates that are identifiable. Citizens could jot down and report dangerous e-bike riders, and the City would get fees.”
Penn Pfautz, Sorrento Valley
“What struck me [about the budget presentation] was the way everything was segmented into pigeonholes. If we didn’t have all those pigeonholes, if there were more flexibility, would we be in the same shape we’re in now? When we see proposals that say, ‘We’re going to wall this off,’ maybe that’s not a good idea.”
Mary Soriano, President, La Jolla Town Council
“What is the purpose for the City’s reserves? What is the fully funded percentage of reserves now? Are you saying 16 percent fully funded is the acceptable percent of a healthy reserve for the City?”
Anna Chambers, Mira Mesa
“Regarding preventative road maintenance, we see more affluent neighborhoods getting their maintenance done a lot faster. We understand the importance of prevention. But when streets like Gulf Coast and Parkdale are so damaged, why doesn’t the City fix them before doing other preventative work?”
Judy Murphy, University City
“Do you have any idea of the total amount of the waived DIF fees that the Mayor has given to developers of so-called ‘affordable housing’? And why is the City forcing us to keep city-run operations for trash collection instead of putting it out to bid to private companies? My daughter in Encinitas only pays $30 a month. Postcards are coming out supposedly where we can vote ‘No’ for this.”
Crystal Trull, Clairemont
“A lot of decisions are made behind closed doors without public input, without taking into account our thoughts and opinions. Planning groups have been dismantled. … What are our government relations people doing to change things in Sacramento? And how do we compare with other cities in homeless funding?”
Coulda dumped Toad at the election. As long as we’re ticketing daylighting, or car cellphone use, there should be a ticket for anyone oblivious in a crosswalk with their phone in their face.
“There were no representatives from the Mayor’s office nor from any Council District office.”
Why does it surprise anyone that the Mayor’s office, nor any City Councilman (much less anyone from Kent Lee’s District 6 office, the district in which this meeting was held) failed to show up? Hasn’t it been clear for many years that local politicians couldn’t care any less about their constituents? I can attest from first hand experience that the Mayor’s office, and Counselman Lee’s office, could not care less about the issues I have brought to their attention. I can tell that based off the fact that those issues remain unresolved and by the placating responses I received from both of those offices over the past few years.
The police department not answering their non-emergency line in a timely manner, as well as poor police response times, have been an ongoing concerns for years. Yet, has anything been done to reduce these wait times? I recently wrote to the Chief of Police regarding this very issue and of course received no response from him. It was obvious to me that he could not care any less about serving the residents of San Diego.
No folks, nothing will change unless enough constituents get together and demand change. We had an opportunity during this past election, however too many folks simply voted for the incumbents (because they did such a great job, right?). We will have another opportunity again in the future. Hopefully those who simply vote party lines or place a check mark next to the incumbent will pay closer attention next go round and vote in competent leadership, because God knows we do not have that now!
If Gloria wants to keep his job the trash pickup fees should be lower as promised 23-29 instead 59-65! He lied to us!, second he needs to cut these 387 managers that get paid 350k a year for what?? Nothing family jobs program!
Roads need to be fixed, we should want an adit where is our money is going!!
I’m still waiting for the answer to my question- How much has Gloria waived in DIF fees to the developers of so called “affordable” housing? Does it exceed the $251 million budget shortfall? Like any other communication to the city, I will probably never get the answer.
A correction: The name “Mike Fratelli” is misspelled. It should be “Mike Frattali.” Sorry, Mike!