The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.
Budget Review May 4 — May 8
The Council will spend all five days this week (May 4–May 8) in one continuous meeting to review the proposed FY2027 budget. Here’s the link to the week-long agenda of city department budget presentations
A quick review shows that Mayor Gloria is making good on his threat that the defeat of the 2024 Measure E sales tax increase would result in cuts to community services.
The “Community Services Branch Expenditures Summary” lists a reduction of 38 positions or 8.8% ($3.4M) out of 434 in the Library Department; 94 positions or 8% ($8.8M) out of 1,168 in Parks and Recreation; and 33 positions or 4.3% ($2.8M) out of 760 in Engineering and Capital Projects.
The Office of the Mayor, according to the Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) report, is adding 1.5 Deputy Chief Operating Officers positions ($668,000) that were eliminated last year.
The IBA notes: “While the Proposed Budget includes many budget adjustments, and many are detailed similarly to how they have been in prior years, three significant adjustments – library hours, recreation center hours, and homelessness services – have limited detail associated with them.”
The only opportunity for non-agenda public comment is during the 6:00 p.m. session on Monday, May 4. Written comments can be submitted via the public comment form:
Thursday, May 7: City Council, 6:00 p.m.
Item 600: Senate Bill 79 Phased Implementation and Exempting Non-Transit Oriented Development Areas
Why it matters: This is the long-awaited Council discussion of implementation of the density-on-steroids SB 79. Neighbors for a Better San Diego has once again shown leadership on this issue by reviewing the City’s proposal. Here is their statement:
“The City has to adopt a resolution to implement SB 79 before the July 1 effective date to apply the bill’s allowed limitation to no more than 1-mile walking distance to a transit stop and phased implementation of SB 79 in low-resource areas, high-fire hazard zones, areas subject to sea level rise, and historic sites.”
“The proposed phased approach gives the city the most flexibility as it follows the initial implementation with a detailed SB 79 Alternative Plan. In short, this proposal makes the best of a bad bill, and for that reason, we are supporting it.”
There are 15 more times for Public Comment for the FY-2027 Draft Budget on Tuesday through Friday, than just the Public Comment Period on Monday night 05/04/2026 at 6 pm.
05/05/2027 1x at 9am Public Comment + 1x at 2pm Public Comment.
05/06/2027 1x at 9am Public Comment + 1x at 2pm Public Comment.
05/07/2027 2x at 9am Public Comment + 2x at 2pm Public Comment
05/08/2027 3x at 9am Public Comment + 4x at 2pm Public Comment
The following are the 05/04-08/2026 Budget Review Hearings and IBA Presentations for all the City of San Diego Departments
(large file 899-pages).
https://tinyurl.com/20260504
The Library Department and Park and Recreation cuts will be discuss on Tuesday 05/05/2026 at 2 pm with Public Comments after both Library and Park and Recreation Presentation.
Please call in on Tuesday afternoon specifically for the Library Budget cut. Below are pages from the Budget Review hearing Presentations with the word “Library.”
http://tinyurl.com/20260505a
Potential solution: Ask the City Council, IBA, and City Attorney to fire all 300+ of the newly created post-2013 non-union Middle Managers created on City Council Consent Agendas through City Charter Section 117(a)(17).
https://docs.sandiego.gov/citycharter/Article%20VIII.pdf
This legal loophole to create the 300+ new non-union Middle Managers was first used by i-mayor Todd Gloria in 2013 to get around the 5 year pensionable pay freeze. The 5 year pensionable pay freeze from 2013 to 2018 would have fixed the ongoing pension debt problems by 2018.
Due to the leadership of i-mayor Todd Gloria, former Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and now Strong Mayor Todd Gloria, the long-term pension debt is up between $3 to $4 BILLION, instead of being fixed.
After all 300+ non-union, unprotected, and overpaid Middle Managers are fired, then hire them back as regular Union workers, at the regular approved salaries, that will be at least 1/2 price. Then have the IBA tell us how much we saved, for the same people, with the same job descriptions, during the same work, that got paid excessively because they are Friends of Todd (FOT).