Plaintiffs of a lawsuit and residents of the City of San Diego will hold a rally downtown San Diego to continue to express their strong opposition to trash fee at 10 a.m., Monday, August 18 in front of 101 Ash Street.
This past week the plaintiffs dropped a quick trial request and instead asked for an injunction to delay San Diego billing plan. They will file their motion supporting the request on Thursday, August 22, and the city has until September 19 to respond. The lawyers representing San Diego homeowners will get 10 more days to respond to the city’s opposition filing.
On October 10, the judge will convene a hearing to review the various arguments before making a decision on whether to temporarily block the trash fee.
The matter involves a trash collection fee being imposed on residents, many who are elderly and without sufficient funds, billed by the County Tax Assessor such that they will be made to pay before the matter is heard unless the case is specially set for trial or hearing.
San Diego voters narrowly approved a ballot measure in 2022 to repeal a century-old law that guaranteed free trash pickup for single-family homes. Voters had been told the monthly fee was expected to be between $23 and $29.
This year, after signing off on a $4.5 million study of what would be an appropriate fee, San Diego officials unveiled a plan to charge homeowners almost $48 a month in the first year, a figure they later reduced to $43.
In June, the City Council voted 6-3 to impose a $43 monthly charge — a fee they planned to add to San Diego County property tax rolls to make sure the city will collect all of the funds.
Even before the council adopted the fee, a group of property owners contested it in San Diego Superior Court, arguing it charges more than the service actually costs to deliver and therefore violates the California Constitution.
Hello. I’m Myrna Zambrano the Asst. Treasurer-Tax Collector.
The trash fee will be placed on the property tax bill that is sent by the Treasurer-Tax Collector, not the County Assessor. Your article says: billed by the County Tax Assessor .
Myrna, that’s even a worse situation as we have no way to dispute this charge on our property taxes. The consequences of not paying part of our property taxes is severe. You also can’t set up a “voting system” that states if people don’t vote it means they are in favor of this program. That is not a democracy.