By David Garrick / SD Union-Tribune / Feb. 5, 2026
San Diego leaders are backing away from paid parking at beaches as a solution to the city’s budget crisis, opting instead for more internal audits that can lead to big savings and slashing middle management jobs.
Other ideas discussed Wednesday, Jan. 4, as ways to help close a projected $119 million deficit for the coming fiscal year include a hiring freeze and renegotiating under-market leases of city buildings and properties.
City Council members stressed their opposition to cuts that would affect neighborhoods equally, urging Mayor Todd Gloria to prioritize sparing low-income neighborhoods when he releases a proposed budget April 15.
An aide to Gloria said the mayor also opposes “across-the-board” cuts but added that his recommendations will rely on factors beyond income, including literacy rates, crime figures and the conditions of specific parks and buildings.
The mayor’s staff also vowed to be more transparent this winter and spring about cuts they are considering or actually decide on, including possible emergency cuts the city could make to close a $9 million deficit in the ongoing budget.
That deficit shrank from $17 million Wednesday when city finance officials announced San Diego will soon receive an $8 million insurance payment to cover previous flooding at the old downtown library on E Street.
Perhaps the biggest news Wednesday was that the number of council members supporting paid car entrance to Mission Bay Park and city beaches has dwindled from four to one since last fall. (Rag emphasis. Donna Frye told us this here.)
Council members had previously said the tumultuous rollout of paid parking in Balboa Park had made them worried about doing something similar at beaches and bays. But they made it official in budget priority memos released this week.
The slide in support comes after Gloria’s staff had already spent months discussing the issue with officials from the California Coastal Commission, which would need to approve any paid vehicle access to beaches.
Council members focused their memos instead on other ways to close the deficit, including proposals to perform internal city audits more frequently, because they often lead to significant cost savings.
“The city auditor provides critical oversight and operational recommendations that have resulted in additional revenues, cost avoidance and process efficiencies that can continue to help improve the city’s fiscal condition,” Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said in her budget memo.
The auditor, Andy Hanau, sent the entire council a memo in December summarizing recent savings and efficiencies his office has generated.
They include an audit of police overtime expected to help save $9 million a year, a pothole audit that boosted the number of potholes repaired each year with no extra costs and an audit of leases estimating the city is losing $2.2 million per year in potential revenue.
Councilmember Raul Campillo suggested that San Diego should increase funding for the auditor by more than 50% despite the city’s tight budget.
The city now spends just under $6 million per year on that office, and Campillo suggests $9 million instead, noting that’s the average spent among 15 cities considered similar to San Diego.
Council members were adamant that one idea isn’t an option: making budget cuts that apply to all neighborhoods equally.
“We really need to take a hard look and acknowledge that there is a clear difference between high-resource areas and low-resource areas,” Councilmember Henry Foster said.
Councilmember Kent Lee agreed.
“The Department of Finance and the Office of the Mayor must fully consider the disproportionate impact across-the-board service reductions may have on aging and vulnerable communities,” Lee said. “Communities that rely more heavily on city facilities and programs because of significant social, economic or health disparities should be prioritized where possible.”
Matt Yagyagan, the mayor’s policy director, said Gloria understands the council’s wishes.
“We are interested in including some additional threads of data as it relates to services offered in our communities,” he said. “One example I can give you is, when evaluating adjustments to recreation facilities or libraries, we’re interested in other data sets, such as literacy rates in communities and crime rates.”
In addition, Chief Financial Officer Rolando Charvel said the budget process this year will be more transparent, with the mayor’s staff including the independent budget analyst.
“There were a lot of lessons learned from last year,” said Charvel, referring to complaints that the mayor ignored many council requests and decided on cuts unilaterally. “We are definitely committed to transparency and making it a more open discussion.”
Several council members suggested cuts should include managers, not just low-level workers who deal with the public directly.
“Staffing changes should be proportional across frontline, supervisory and management levels,” Councilmember Henry Foster said.
Lee said some hires the city made last fall, before Gloria insisted in November on approving any new hires, will be hard to explain to the public when the city faces such large deficits.
Foster suggested that policy requiring mayoral approval of all hires should be strengthened to a full-blown hiring freeze.
Councilmember Vivian Moreno suggested cutting members of the city’s public relations staff, which includes 40 full-time workers costing $7.6 million a year.
Nearly the entire council included lease negotiation in their budget memos.
A 2022 audit found that renegotiating long-expired leases would result in an average 11% increase in rent revenue collected by the city — about $2.2 million total per year.
The projected deficit for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, was initially $110 million when city officials released a document called a “five-year outlook” last fall.
The $9 million deficit projected for the ongoing fiscal year will bring that total to $119 million.
