By Lisa Mortensen / June 16, 2025
San Diego Council President Joe LaCava does a valiant job of maintaining order at very heated meetings, like the one that will take place today when the Council votes on Bonus ADU program amendments.
But LaCava only does half the job. While he insists that members of the public respect the proceedings, he does not require the same respect from his Council colleagues.
At the June 9th meeting on the Solid Waste Disposal program, LaCava displayed a keen sense of understanding of the public’s passion for this issue. And the audience complied with his requests for order and moderation.
He needs to impose those same standards on the eight people sitting next to him. He should issue warnings to Councilmembers who display anger or disappear for long stretches.
Sean Elo-Rivera’s conduct was an embarrassment. His opening remarks about the National Guard in Los Angeles were pure grandstanding. When he was challenged, he threw verbal jabs at the audience. His vitriol set the tone for a combative meeting.
LaCava also has a responsibility as Council President to keep his colleagues present and engaged in the process – that is what they are paid to do. Elo-Rivera and Vivian Moreno regularly walk out of the chambers during public testimony. We know they don’t agree with public views. But that doesn’t give them the right to shut us out.
LaCava also should caution Councilmembers who compulsively text and check email in full view of the audience. The worst culprit is Stephen Whitburn. On June 9th, as is his usual demeanor, Whitburn stared at his laptop and refused to make eye contact with speakers throughout the 6-hour meeting. This display of arrogance is passive-aggressive behavior that only creates acrimony.
Raul Campillo, Marni von Wilpert, and Henry Foster III are to be commended for showing complete respect for the public. And of course, LaCava remains at this post throughout. The other five Councilmembers, all of whom voted “Yes” for the controversial trash fees, were obviously bored. They weren’t interested in hearing what the public had to say because they made their decisions in advance of the meeting.
LaCava must keep in mind that the public makes a far greater effort to participate in meetings than his colleagues do. Councilmembers receive generous salaries and perks like choice reserved parking spots. And they can (and do) speak for as long as they want. Members of the public – i.e., taxpayers – must take personal time and pay for parking, and they are limited to one minute of speaking time.
If the Council President would preside more equitably, and if he would advise his colleagues to show the public the courtesy we deserve, Council meetings might be more productive and less contentious.
100%. Who gets to sit in a meeting at work while staring at their phone or tapping away at their laptop? In the real world, your boss would call you out or at the very least ask everyone to put away their phones.
I’ve probably sat through more public hearings/meetings than the average person through my career choices and through my involvement in civic and environmental groups. I understand that it is far too easy to dismiss the comments from the public because they are: (1) generally very repetitive; (2) often uninformed, if not deliberately ignoring the truth; or (3) delivered by people who offer no respect to either the representatives or other members of the public, even if not actually crazy.
I’m sure that there aren’t a lot of people who remember City Councilman Mike Gotch. I was always in awe of his ability to at least appear as though he was paying attention and listening to public comments. If he wasn’t actually paying attention, he at least gave the appearance of doing so, unlike virtually all of our current representatives.
Council should have some rules on the use of electronic devices during a meeting. It’s plain disrespectful to the other members and to the public. And possibly a Brown Act violation depending on who they’re communicating with.
They have staffers at their disposal for any pressing needs, so their attention should be directed at the meeting, especially the hours of public comment.
I love to see public commenters calling out these councilmembers that don’t respect their time. If only we could see them during virtual comment too.
In private industry, many of us have had to suffer through job reviews at least yearly, although one place I worked insisted on quarterly reviews. But, that was the time when an employee who was doing well was praised for that and the one who was not doing their job heard about it. They would check off the boxes for what your job responsibilities were and grade how well you performed.
Maybe that is what we need now, to do reviews of councilmembers and highlight how well or badly they are doing their jobs as a whole. Certainly one box would be paying polite attention at meetings. We are paying these people to do a job and if they don’t do that job, they should be subject to removal, just like the private sector. Something like an ordinance that states a councilmember who falls below a certain grade will be relieved of office.