Editordude: Since the issue of “middle managers” employed by the City of San Diego has again emerged during the most recent debates over the city’s budget, we thought it appropriate to re-publish U-T reporter David Garrick’s piece on the subject from last July. And just to remind, Garrick, will be speaking on Saturday, December 13 on “This Just In: Covering the City Hall Beat.” See here for more.
By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / July 14, 2025
The recent fight at San Diego City Hall over how many middle managers the city employs could signal the start of a shift away from such jobs in the future, after years of their ranks quickly growing.
The battle over middle managers, which emerged during controversial budget negotiations this spring, pitted Mayor Todd Gloria against city labor leaders — and eventually most of the City Council.
Labor leaders lobbied for sharp cuts to middle management positions so the city could lay off fewer front-line workers like librarians and parks maintenance staff in its effort to close a $350 million deficit. The Municipal Employees Association stressed that there are more than five times as many high-paid middle managers known as “program coordinators” and “program managers” at the city as there were a decade ago. During that same time, the MEA says, the overall city workforce has grown by only 20% — making middle managers a significantly larger portion of the city’s 13,000 employees.
So research data justifying the size of the Mayor’s staff was compiled by … the Mayor’s staff. In other news, the Rag has done a study proving conclusively that Rag stories are read 50 times more than news from other media outlets.
To whom this may concern: Dear Middle Manager, I would like to accompany you on one of your work days. Just a few basic questions- ex: ‘What qualifications do you have for this job? ‘Who did you know working in the city prior?’ Afterward, just observation unless you have down time to converse. I promise to be objective, non-judgemental, and open minded. I’ll even buy lunch (unless you insist because you make 5X what I do or you have a daily per diem). Please reach out through this post.
Well, 293 x $200,000 = $58,600,000. Throw in all the people who go to meetings of official Committees, Boards, Commissions, and other similarly named meetings, and the budget crisis is reduced. Another idea floated was to get rid of the Planning Department, but that will never happen.
They already effectively got rid of the Planning Dept. Generations of San Diegans worked diligently to create community plans that reflected community desires. Now that’s all out the window as our elected representatives in Sacramento & City government know what’s best for us. Those pesky historic buildings are next.
I worry that the ‘middle manager’ scenario has been fed to the public and press by the Municipal Employees Union chief, Michael Zucchet. MidMans have no union to represent them or speak for them and have clearly become the MEAs target of choice.
But we don’t know who they are or what they do, and history shows that Zucchet is willing to misrepresent anything to protect MEA jobs. He has unfettered access to city council offices because he is not required to register as a lobbyist. So did he make deals there?
If you look through the city’s departments, you can find all kinds of job openings, despite what the city is saying about a hiring freeze.
And since the trash sniffers aren’t teamsters/drivers, you have to wonder where they came from.