By David Garrick / Union-Tribune / Feb. 19, 2026
San Diego City Council members said Wednesday, Feb. 18, they’ve found a way to comply with a new state law on public hearings that won’t require them to limit public input.
The city will create a new type of testimony called a formal group presentation to comply with the law, Senate Bill 707.
Officials are choosing that option to avoid the unpopular move of barring meeting participants from donating their allotted speaking time to another speaker.
City officials and community leaders say allowing people to donate speaking time to someone with similar views on an issue is a good thing.
They say it allows the leader of a large group to make a longer, more detailed presentation summarizing the group’s views.
“One person speaking for 15 minutes is much more efficient than 15 people speaking for one minute,” Council President Joe LaCava said. “It’s also more robust.”
Geoff Hueter, who leads a resident group called Neighbors for a Better San Diego, said group presentations are crucial to public discourse.
“Presenting detailed analysis of proposed regulations is an important part of public participation, and public speech would be severely suppressed by elimination of organized group presentations,” Hueter said.
San Diego is being forced to make changes to its public testimony policies because of SB 707, which aims to give equal rights to people submitting testimony online versus in person.
The law is creating problems for San Diego because the city allows donations of speaking time between in-person participants but prohibits them between online participants.
City officials said they would need time to find technology that would allow donations of time between online participants without violating any state laws or city rules.
Another solution to the problem would be to prohibit donating speaking time for both online and in-person testimony.
Council President Joe LaCava said Wednesday that a better solution would be to allow donations both online and in person by creating a new type of testimony, called a formal group presentation.
That would change the structure of many public hearings.
Instead of all public testimony being taken together, group presentations — both online and in person — would take place after city staff conclude their presentation of an item but before individual public speakers get a chance to speak.
“This proposal would modify the flow of meetings to have group presentations, either in person or virtual, for discussion items after the conclusion of the staff presentation and prior to individual public comment,” LaCava aide Abbey Reuter said in a report.
LaCava’s colleagues on the Rules Committee endorsed the change Wednesday. LaCava said a more detailed version will come back to the committee March 18 for a formal vote and then possible adoption by the full council this spring.
SB 707, which was approved last year, requires cities to comply with its new requirements by July 1.
Committee members rejected a proposal to restrict groups donating time to somewhere between five and 10 speakers, contending there should be no minimum number.
“I want to make sure we’re not being exclusive to smaller groups that may struggle to have those five people in person or online at the same time,” Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said.
City Clerk Diana Fuentes said she suggested the range of five to 10 speakers to limit the number of group presentations for logistical reasons.
She said her staff will need to work with each group before each hearing and that limiting the number of groups would make that more feasible.
The committee didn’t endorse a policy change requested by local neighborhood groups that individual neighborhood groups be guaranteed speaking time when the council considers a project in their geographic area.
The lack of guaranteed time is a loss for the city, said Victoria LaBruzzo, leader of an umbrella organization for neighborhood groups called the Community Planners Committee.
“Valuable insights are lost, and the deliberative process is weaker for it,” she said.
Councilmember Raul Campillo endorsed the neighborhood groups’ concept, but no other members of the committee spoke in favor.
The new policy LaCava will introduce March 18 will also address two other issues: what happens to public testimony during technological glitches, and when the city can close a public hearing.
On glitches, LaCava’s proposal says meetings will be paused for one hour or until the technology is restored — whichever comes first.
On closing hearings, his proposal says online testimony will be limited to speakers with their hands up in the Zoom queue when in-person testimony ends.
That would be a slight change from existing policy, which limits online testimony to speakers with their hands up in the Zoom queue five minutes after online testimony begins.
San Diego faced a vocal public backlash in 2024 when Elo-Rivera proposed completely eliminating online testimony to shorten meetings.
