By Jeff McDonald / SD Union-Tribune / August 8, 2025
A Superior Court judge on Thursday, August 7, ordered attorneys for San Diego homeowners challenging the city’s recently imposed trash pickup fee to meet and confer with lawyers defending the city before he considers whether to expedite a trial.
Judge James A. Mangione issued the order after a 30-minute hearing at which the plaintiffs asked for their trial to begin in September, before the upcoming tax rolls are finalized. The parties will meet to discuss their differences and potential remedies over the next several days and present their positions to the judge at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
The plaintiffs argue that the trash fee adopted by the City Council in June violates the state constitution by exceeding the city’s costs of trash pickup and say officials plan to divert some of the new revenue to pay for other projects. They sued in May, weeks before the council voted 7-2 to impose the trash fee. Now they want a trial before the 2025-26 property tax rolls are finalized with the county treasurer-tax collector.
“The indirect evidence supports the reasonable inference that the city is doing this to plug financial holes,” said Michael Aguirre, the former elected San Diego city attorney who represents the 15 homeowner plaintiffs.
Lawyers for the city, who appeared at the hearing remotely from Oakland, said they stand by the legality of the June council vote but need more than six weeks to respond effectively to the allegations.
“What we are asking for is a reasonable opportunity to prepare our defense,” attorney Gabriel McWhirter said. “A Sept. 22 trial date, with all due respect, is not going to allow us to do that.”
San Diego voters in November 2022 narrowly passed Measure B, which overturned a nearly century-old rule that had barred the city from charging single-family homeowners for residential trash service. The ballot measure told voters the monthly fee was expected to cost between $23 and $29 per month. But earlier this year, after the city hired a consultant to develop a fee structure, officials said it would cost nearly twice that.
The fee was hammered down to about $43 per month before the City Council passed the fee in June.
The plaintiffs allege the assessment being placed onto tax bills due in November would generate much more than the $70 million the trash service cost last year, arguing the city is boosting the fees to raise money to help defray rising pension costs, damages from January 2024 flooding and other city services.
“We went from $70 million to $148 million,” Aguirre told the judge. “On its face, how can it be that this is a reasonable charge?”
McWhirter stood behind the city’s calculations and rejected any assertion that the fees adopted by the City Council violated the state constitution. He said anyone opposed to the fees can follow previously adopted protest rules or take their own case to court.
“If there are people out there who feel this fee is burdensome, they have a legal mechanism,” he said.
McWhirter said San Diego has already provided the county its updated tax rolls for the upcoming year, and any change would cost San Diego taxpayers even more. He also suggested the court set a trial date sometime next spring.
Why are city attorneys located in Oakland? And, if they are so good then they should be able to meet the 9/22/25 trial date or the judge should order the City to postpone any fees until after a trial is conducted.
I fully agree with your comment.
I addition, the “ballot” used to get approval of the trash collection fee was not even identified on the City’s mailing envelope. It was only at the end of a boring bit of language that a trash collection fee was mentioned.
It looked like “junk mail” and many people treated it as such.
The entire method the city used was deceptive and geared towards the result it wanted.
A non vote was counted as a positive vote.
When l called the Trash Disposal office several weeks ago asking what was going to be done with my existing trashcans, the woman told me that l “could use them for storage”.
Now the city is going to use taxpayer’s money to collect our old (in perfect condition) trashcans.
Is the city going to sell them to nearby communities or will l have to pay to dispose of them?
Recently, as a way for Mayor Gloria to empty the city’s bank account in the event he wouldn’t be reelected, he gave all he could (including perhaps himself?) a $40K going away bonus.
On its surface, the trashcan issue appears to be only a way to get money from taxpayers to fix poor management of the city’s budget.
No one is hurt but the taxpayer.
If the city was proposing doing something that would benefit the earth and society – like separating plastics into separate trashcans (and lowering what was dumped into general trash collection sites and ruining the earth) – l could understand making changes that improved trash disposal… but it is not!
Actions speak louder than words.
Are sham artists lying to the public so they can collect paychecks?
As things stand now, it appears that we’re victims of scam artists and our usable income goes down while a dishonest administration gets bailed out.
Has anyone investigated if/how much kick back is involved? Not even a local law office or the City’s legal office is involved in this scam?
Why?
Oh yes!
A Mayor must have citizens pay for a city car and driver. And, children and the people (especially the poorest) will no longer be able to afford to experience the finest cultural and educational environment they will likely have in their lives. Balboa Park will be only for the wealthiest among us. As a mother and teacher for 35 years, l personally know how much free parking and access has been a cultural gift to ALL of our community.
SHAME is what is making San Diego’s “America’s Finest City” motto no longer valid.
In my opinion, a new “honest” trash collection fee vote should be made – restoring free parking in Balboa Park – and perhaps a recall election for the mayor and council members should be where our attention should be focused.
If you have already submitted your container size from wasteportal.sandiego.gov log on again using your APN number and UNIQUE CODE and post this comment associated with your parcel number:
“This container size request is subject to the Court’s decision on Brown v LaCava, Case number 25CU025589C.”
If you haven’t made your selection, when you do, add this comment in association with your selection:
“Subject to the Court’s decision on Brown v LaCava, Case number 25CU025589C.”
A request for an injunction that would postpone the city’s implementation of the monthly trash fee for single-family homes. has been granted. On October 10, the judge will decide if the trash program implementation will be placed on hold. This will be before the property tax bills will be sent out with the trash fee assessment on the bill.
Is there yet an outcome of the lawsuit by homeowners re. the trash pickup charge?
A hearing for a plaintiff request for Preliminary Injunction is currently scheduled for 10/10/25, in Dept. C-75 at 1:30 pm.
To check status, go to sdcourt.ca.gov and open Register of Actions (not Family, the other register). Enter case number 25CU025589C.
Charging a trash pickup fee higher than what was voted on is fundamentally unfair and undermines the democratic process, as it disregards the will of the community. The majority of voters, who are not homeowners, should not have the authority to impose a fee that exclusively burdens homeowners, as they do not bear the financial consequences of this decision. Furthermore, the inflated fee is not a true fee but a disguised tax, as it exceeds the actual cost of the service and is intended to fund other city projects. This mischaracterization erodes trust in local governance and places an unjust financial strain on homeowners, who are already responsible for property taxes and maintenance costs.
My Social Seurity cost of living increase on 2025 was $64.00 more per month, which make it a little over $700.00 per year; now with this Pick-up Trash fee of $523.00 per year brings down my cost of living increase to $20.40 per month. I feel that me and many other Seniors are aboard the “Titanic” and we are about to hit an iceberg. I hope that a Judge can remedy this travesty that the City is doing the citizens of San Diego because of the poor job that our Mayor and the City Council has done creating the $558.00 deficit and now want us to fix the problem they created.
I am really upset at this as well! At the rate of all increases my property taxes will almost be as much as my actual mortgage. I read the reasons why some thought it would be fair to charge and scoffed at the “not fair” single family homes do not have to pay and multiple units have to pick up the cost. Well single family homes are just that, family homes, and thus do not make profits when owner occupied! Multiple units should pay for trash pickups as they likely have multiple cans and units. I too agree that I did not see any mailer ballot asking to dispute the fees! I demand a new vote and I’m sure the public will speak this time.