By Clifford Weiler
The City of San Diego will be sending letters this week about the trash fee. Silence will become costly.
The city is mailing homeowners a document deceptively titled “NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING.” However, the notice is much more than about a public hearing. Obscured in the document is notice of homeowners’ right to stop a charge, with that charge possibly being added to their property tax bills, as well as the need to actually file a timely protest, and that failure to file will count as a “yes, you can increase my property tax bill.”
Unless a majority of those receiving that mailing send in a protest form, silence literally becomes costly garbage, long term. And if approved, homeowners cannot opt out by using a cheaper private contractor instead of the city.
The 8-page mailer makes it difficult for the reader to find and figure out how to file a protest. Under the heading “Public Hearing Information” and below the blue box with high-lighted print “The public hearing will be held on June 9, 2025 at 2 p.m. at …”, on the lower left corner of the first page, is buried information about filing protests. The section explaining the right to protest is deep in the mailing, on page 6. On page 7 is a form, which if cut off, allows for submitting a protest (which means, no, don’t charge me for the proposed garbage processing). There is no address on that form or on its page 7 about where to file that protest form. And mailing (or personal delivery to the city Clerk) is required; electronic filing is not permitted despite today’s cultural means of electronic communication and the city’s multiple referencing of several internet links for other reasons. So to tell the city “no way”, one must find a stamp and envelope or personally file at the city clerk’s office.
The above is based on what was presented to the city council on Monday, April 14, 2025. If the form is changed, sorry – you will need to find those references yourself.
The substance of the proposal is also obscured. For example, the city proposes including on your property tax bills the costs of hiring up to 130 new employees (even though many will be laid off as the city reduces services as it tries to make up for the deficits it created) and the many new trash trucks for picking up everyone’s new trash bins, and all those trash bins will have electronic chips engrained in them. There are many more “bells and whistles” which are hidden from practical view, in voluminous documents including an over 240 page Cost of Service Report; a 191 page Operational Efficiency Report; the city’s Independent Budget Analyst’s 15 page document; and a 15 page staff report. To find all that to read (would homeowners?!) go to the internet, San Diego city council legislative calendar, then to April 14, then 4/14/2025, then Monday agenda, then agenda,, then item 201, then click on the bold title to get the attachments (on the right side) which are referenced above
The concept for the city charging for trash pick-up was narrowly approved by city-wide voters (Measure B, 2022). Now, you can send in the protest form which means, “I do not want these new charges, which could be added to my property tax bills.” But you cannot remain silent – you must jump through the procedural obstacles and mail in the completed and signed form.
Just say “no” by timely mailing in the completed, signed protest form, to Office of the City Clerk, 202 C St., MS 2T, San Diego, CA 92101, by 2 p.m. on June 9, 2025.
Silence or apathy will be costly for many years.
This trash tax is such a scam. I own rental houses in Los Angeles County, and the trash bill is a SEPARATE bill, just like electricity, and water. How is it legal to put trash as a FEE on a property tax bill? I live in another state, and pay San Diego property tax (live near Del Mar), but my house sitter is there during the day, then goes to back to his house in Carlsbad. There is NO trash as he eats fast food, and takes the trash with him. Don’t you love how they said it would be $25 per month, but by 2027 it will be $70 per month.
San Diego homeowners haven’t paid trash removal fees because a century-old city ordinance, known as the People’s Ordinance, previously prohibited the city from charging for trash pickup for single-family homes and small apartment complexes. However, in 2022, voters approved Measure B, which amended the ordinance, allowing the city to implement a fee.
Now, many homeowners who have not paid a SINGLE SOLITARY CENT for MANY DECADES to have their garbage disposed of, are belly aching that they finally have to pay a fee, and trying to OVERTURN THE WILL OF VOTERS who passed this Measure in 2022 !
Condominium owners have been paying for their trash removal for decades, It’s about time that all San Diego residents have to contribute!
John,
In the Notice of Public Hearing I got today, the City describes how everyone pays for waste removal through city sales taxes allocated to the General Fund for that purpose.
Additionally, the General Fund already receives a portion of all property taxes from owners that it specifically allocates for waste removal.
If you, John, are a payee of the private waste collection fee, as it seems you are, either as a property owner or a renter being charged by the owner and you don’t mind saying, how much is your fee to a private company for waste removal? I assume you live in a single-family home or condo on a “private street” or you wouldn’t be paying a private waste-removal company.
Interestingly, per the City Notice of Pubic Hearing, page 1, residents/owners of condos and single-family homes ONLY on private streets have to pay for private trash services. These residents/owners will not be affected by the new fee. But remember, you are already contributing through city sales tax and through a portion of your property tax, if you are an owner, that goes to the General Fund.
What is a private street? Example, please?
The City is mailing Waste Fee notices to 233,000 property owners. As for Measure B, it had a total of 402,607 voters [203,223 for, 199,384 against. The difference is 3839 voters. (That’s 50.5% for, 49.5% against)].
So, 169,607 voters that were NOT property owners participated in voting on Measure B. Huh.
So John, why the resentment about property owners on public streets not paying the City a fee to remove trash? I’d like to know if you own property or if you rent, if you live on a private street, and how much you pay for private waste collection. Is it more or less than $571/year? How about $735/year? Please tell us.
I received the notice in the mail today. If I’m reading it correctly, upon implementation, the city will be issuing all brand new trash, recycling, and organics containers rather than using the existing ones? And I believe that most of the organic containers are less than one year old since the majority were issued in July 2024. Unbelievable, if this is the case!
Yes! This is just incredible. What a waste! Where will they go? Are they recyclable? Miles and miles of thrown-away bins. Line’em up, all the way to LA. Ship’em to China?
In addition to all the very real concerns noted above, there is also some confusion re: how to fill out the simple form. The form asks for your name, address/parcel # and signature. It does not address whether one should put the name of a trust where it asks for “name”. It also does not address how to fill it out if there are two or more owners of a property (each one fill out a separate form, all have to sign one form, etc.) This is important because the City could use this to disqualify some opposition forms that are sent in. In addition, I was told by a person at my representative’s office that the forms will be counted by the same dept. (Enviromental) that will benefit from the money that this will produce. Apparently, no apparatus has been set up to assure that all “protests” will be accurately recorded and counted. When I called the number listed in the multi-paged form that was sent out, I was unable to get to a person with whom I could discuss these issues. Rather, I listened to a series of options which led to a series of other options, none of which were related to this issue. I never got to an actual person. It is so important that San Diego homeowners reject this attempt to get around barriers that have been set up to protect San Diegans from higher and higher taxes, fees buried in our property taxes, etc.
On April 8, 1919, by a vote of 12,204 in favor and 2,130 opposed, the voters of San Diego approved the original People’s Ordinance. That ordinance required the City to provide for the weekly collection of all City refuse.
In November 2022, Voters passed Measure B. Measure B was designed to allow San Diego to charge a fee for city-provided waste management services to eligible single-family residential properties and multi-family residential properties with up to four residences on a single lot.
Now many wish to overturn the will of the voters.
As a property paying condominium owner, I have been paying for my trash removal for more than 2 decades, while also paying property taxes. It’s about time that single family homeowners pay their fair share as well!