‘Beers With the Chiefs’: Now We Know the Price of Access

By Lisa Mortensen / June 2, 2012

Remember the days when being a voter and a community member gave you access to City Hall free of charge? Judging from the invitation to the Building Industry Association of San Diego’s June 4 “Beers with the Chiefs” event at a Bay Park brewery, that access now costs $120.

Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera (District 9) and Kent Lee (District 6) have both spoken out as champions for equity in their districts. So it was a surprise to see Elo-Rivera Chief of Staff Molly Weber and Lee Chief of Staff Sara Kamiab serving as co-hosts of this pay-to-play PAC event.

Meanwhile, taxpayers are losing municipal services, library access, and recreation hours of operation. Balboa Park visitors will now be charged for parking. Public restrooms will be closed, and beach fire rings are being taken away. If ordinary San Diegans paid $120 at the door of City Hall, would we get more than one minute of speaking time at public meetings?

SANDAG just received $26 million for more underutilized bike lanes; Hillcrest is getting $17 million from the City for a Pride Promenade.  But there’s no money in the till to fix broken roads and traffic hazards.

The upcoming budget for 2025/2026 is being finalized. Every day brings fresh news of more cuts that will bring more decay to neighborhood quality of life. But the Mayor and the City Council refuse to deal with the elephant in the budget room: City Hall staffing and salaries that have risen by 46% and 57% respectively since 2020.

We hear that more raises are on the way. We hear the city has plans to bring the trash program, ambulance service, and animal welfare services “in house,” which would require more hires. The stubborn insistence on bringing any existing outside program ‘in-house’ is a failed business plan from the start. The added costs of staffing salaries and pensions, combined with expenditures to satisfy the Mayor’s appetite for shiny new equipment, will all come out at taxpayer expense.

If implemented, the controversial trash collection program will add 130 new hires, new trucks, and new cans two years before anyone receives the new services.  What will happen to the current trash pickup drivers?  Wouldn’t they be transferred to the new program?  Since the new program is projected to serve fewer households than the existing program, why do we need to hire 130 more people?

City Hall has two addictions: new hires and more salary raises. It’s obvious that those at city hall have a hiring addiction.  I think you all need to work on that or we will lose our city to this continued fiscal malfeasance.

In a May 26 article headlined, “San Diego Council Members Want to Reject Pay Raise Amid Budget Crisis, but City Attorney Says They Can’t,” David Garrick noted that City Hall “salaries are comparable to the state’s other high-profile cities, notably Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Of course, these cities have an overall higher cost of living. They also have elected officials more in touch with fiscal reality. The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that “Mayor Daniel Lurie plans to close San Francisco’s massive budget deficit by slashing about 1,400 city jobs and eliminating about $100 million in grant and contract spending.”

San Diegans have a lot to say to their elected officials and those officials’ chiefs of staffs. That’s why overflow crowds are attending recent Council meetings and the public is submitting hundreds and hundreds of angry comments.

You could argue that, given the high stakes of the budget crisis, $120 might be a good investment in getting face time with City Hall policymakers.

But here’s the catch: “Beers with the Chiefs” is closed to the public. The event flyer on the BIA website includes this caveat in small print: “This is a BIA Member Exclusive Event.”

Let’s get back to the days when being a voter and a community member gave you access to City Hall for free.

Our community voices are getting louder across the city each day. Because San Diegans believe free speech means that Our Voices Should Matter — at no charge.

Lisa Mortensen is a Mission Hills community leader and a frequent Rag contributor.