By Kate Callen / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 30 – Feb. 1, 2026
Any government facing a financial implosion has three options: increase revenue with new or expanded taxes or fees, cut spending by reducing services and cut spending by shrinking the workforce.
The city of San Diego is aggressively pursuing Option 1 (trash fees, Balboa Park parking) and gingerly exploring Option 2 (eliminating services to neighborhoods). But Option 3 seems to be off the table. Why? Are elected officials too squeamish to take a painful but essential step? Too attached to faithful staff?
I know more than most San Diegans do about government reductions-in-force (RIFs). I lived through one in the 1980s while working as a science writer in the U.S. Public Health Service.
The experience was hellish. But because the agency handled it professionally, the payroll shrank appreciably, and few of us landed on the street. There is no reason, besides intransigence, that City Hall can’t do the same.
The humane way to reduce staff, to borrow a favorite expression of my Navy veteran husband, is to plan your work and work your plan. My agency’s RIF proceeded gradually and methodically, and employees were kept informed at every step.
The first step was attrition. There were no new hires — zero. Essential vacant positions were filled from within. Non-essential jobs were eliminated, which sometimes meant that non-essential programs were phased out.
Early retirement was offered to senior managers, who felt peer pressure to make way for younger vulnerable colleagues in a last-hired-first-fired system. The threat of unemployment spurred many of us to look for new jobs, which helped trim the payroll. And employees who were eventually laid off received priority consideration for future openings.
There is no way to sugarcoat the awfulness of those months of anxiety. But at least we knew the process was fair because there was total transparency. No VIP could pull strings to spare a favorite. No deals were cut behind closed doors.
Is the city of San Diego capable of anything like this? Not the way it operates now. Too many City Hall employees spend most of their time serving the political agendas of elected officials instead of the public’s interest. Without strict enforcement of RIF rules, management factotums would be given safe harbor, and workers who only serve the public would be sacrificed.
Ironically, a hiring surge of factotums has helped push San Diego to the financial brink. As Michael Zucchet of the Municipal Employees Association has pointed out, “program manager” and “program coordinator” positions have mushroomed over the past decade, from 70 to 393, a 461% increase.
At City Hall, salaries of such middle-management jobs typically start at $200,000. Those 393 jobs — 100 of which were created since 2023 — cost the city at least $64.6 million a year.
And the new administrators did not go through the standard application, review and vetting process that less-privileged city employees experience. They were hand-picked by the mayor’s office and comfortably ensconced with minimal fuss.
“You get to hire whoever you want,” Zucchet told Union-Tribune reporter David Garrick in July. “You don’t have to deal with any pesky rules, you get to pay them twice as much as you’d pay a classified employee and there’s not a lot of transparency as to what goes on with these positions.”
This has become a flagrantly abusive practice. A RIF presents a unique opportunity to curb it.
Recent middle managers don’t have the seniority that helps protect job security in RIFs. Their positions would receive the impartial reviews that should have happened before they were hired. What exactly do they do? How do they serve the public? What are their performance metrics?
I don’t want to see anyone lose a job. I almost lost mine decades ago, and it was frightening. But I also don’t want Balboa Park to suffer from a sharp decline in visitors. I don’t want my neighborhood infrastructure to keep eroding. And I definitely don’t want to pay ballooning fees and taxes for dwindling city services.
The harsh reality in both the public and private sectors is that layoffs can be necessary when finances crumble. There is a lot of fiscal pain in San Diego right now. It should be distributed evenly.
Callen is a former United Press International San Diego bureau chief, writer for the OB Rag who lives in North Park.
Thank you Kate. Before we dive into austerity and reduction in force mandates, the citizens demand that ALL of the comprehensive audits postponed that remain uncompleted be completed in their ENTIRETY. That way the People can properly evaluate the ENTIRE extent of the City’s catastrophic fiscal irresponsibility first, and demand accountability. Audits are the bedrock of fiscal responsibility, and the foundation for public trust. We have neither.
This statement in the article pretty much says it all about why Gloria (with of course help from his pet poodles on the city council) is in such a dire financial mess –
“Too many City Hall employees spend most of their time serving the political agendas of elected officials instead of the public’s interest.”
So true. we (by “we” I mean everyone, from community leaders to the common man-on-the-street) see it in action everyday – less productivity by a glutton of an expanded workforce, generating less and less services.
Great writeup Kate. I hope the Mayor thanks you for providing a road map on how to get out of this fiscal hole. What your piece really highlights is how little to no experience Gloria has in running anything in his work career, let a lone a multi-billion dollar operation.
When Gloria is finally gone I hope voters really look at a mayoral candidates work and life experience and their ability to surround themselves with competent people.
Great article. My open invitation to any ‘middle manager’ still stands. Let me spend one work day with you and I’ll buy lunch, even though my pay is one quarter of yours.
And thank you for the word factotum!
Thanks Kate–this covers very important information for us to consider as we evaluate our city government and officials. I had seen references to how many the present administration (Gloria) mid-level managers it has hired but this puts numbers on it. It also plays into the criticisms of how the city is handling the financial situation.
An interesting side note (and guilty confession by me)–I probably helped RIF you in the ’80s as I was working in HR for DHHS then. We hated the RIFs because they were very complicated to do right and always brought on litigation forever. Yet, as you correctly point out, the federal government has very clear rules about how to run a RIF as fairly as possible. What we hated was that it was generally politically inspired because of differences in how agencies should be run and financed and DHHS was almost universally understaffed because of that. But that’s another story.
Jay, all is forgiven! The RIFs were surreal. But they were done mostly right, and they present a road map for pruning the City’s stuffed management ranks. The Mayor will never consider that, but maybe saner minds (who have viable political futures) will get serious about budget and personnel reform.
What a great article. OB Rag has taken the lead on this issue and offers outstanding advice.
Agree. The solution is to get rid of all Middle Managers and let put them back into Classified Services that will reduce their pay and pension benefits for the same work.
https://www.sandiego.gov/humanresources/resources/compensation
In CY-2020, the City of San Diego had 308 Middle Managers positions making up to $184,330.
In CY-2024, the City of San Diego had 423 Middle Managers positions making up to $267,946.
In 4 years there was a +37% increase in Middle Manager positions, totaling 115 new positions. With an associated +45% salary increases for Middle Mangers of up to +$83,616 for all 423 positions. All without the required financial analysis or actuary reports.
https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/2025-04/2024-state-compensation-report.pdf
Search “267,946” in the City’s CY-2024 Employee Compensation Report to see 423 Matches of Middle Management employees making salaries up to $267,946, which also increases future pension costs.
On 08/30/2013, when Todd Gloria became I-Mayor he used the Middle Manager promotion loophole to override the 5-year pensionable pay freeze that started on 07/01/2013. Our City Charter Section 117 allows the City Council to exempt the positions from the Classified Service and Union Dues to give employees raises for doing the same work.
The City Charter Section 117 Exception creates Middle Managers with a massive increase in pay and future pension costs, without the required actuary pension report and financial analysis.
The scam is to give raises to 423 employees by Reclassifying their jobs to Management positions for the same work. Then instead of regular Union compensation rates, increase their base salary up to $267,946, with increases future pension debts.
Then get City Council approval to exempt the 423 Middle Management positions from Classified Service and Union dues.
Example 1:
The San Diego City Clerk’s office has 51 positions. With the official City Clerk making up to $351,125.
With 5 Middle Managers (1 Assistant and 4 Deputy Director) positions each making up to $267,946.
Example 2:
In 2024, Council Member Sean Elo Rivera salary was $183,545.
In 2024 “Council District 9” office has 11 staff positions making up to $156,437, with 9 “Intern-Mayor/Council” positions.
Now Council District 9 has at least 2 Middle Managers making up to $267,946, which is +$84,401 more than even Council Member Sean Elo Rivera makes.
On 11/18/2025 Council Member Sean Elo Rivera put forth his Consent “Item-58 Exemption of Council Representative Position in Council District 9 from Classified Service” for Two Exemptions from Classified Service for District 9 Staff positions. This Item-58 changed two District 9 employees into Middle Managers making up to $267,946.
https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecouncil/Documents/ViewDocument/O-2026-33.pdf.pdf?meetingId=6751&documentType=Agenda&itemId=252726&publishId=1039943&isSection=false
See my comments at Video time 1 Hour 6-8 Minutes, where Sean Elo River gave increases pay and benefits for the same work, and the City Council passed the item on Consent without discussion or the required financial analysis.
https://sandiego.granicus.com/player/clip/9338
Agreed. All we need to do is get rid of most of the Middle Managers.