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).
The times laid out by La Playa Heritage for public comments during the council’s budget process are key to know for those who wish to give City Hall some, uh, feedback.
This city is in trouble and the overwhelming majority don’t know the root cause of the problem,…
Start off by using Google AI to see what the answer would be if asked,… “what was the art protest in San Diego directed at Todd gloria about? did Todd gloria give any reason for the budget short fall?”
San Diego “Art” Budget Cuts Spark Protest
https://gemini.google.com/share/b994d8211890
…the AI response (see the link above), does not mention the BILLIONS in SD taxpayer backed pension liabilities nor the annual 13th public pension payments
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/12/31/san-diego-retirees-just-got-a-controversial-annual-bonus-heres-why-its-lower-this-year/?preview_id=9565283
Just sayin, billions in unfunded public pensions is the inconvenient truth why Gloria is proposing big funding cuts to the arts, it’s also the reason why the city this year started charging for parking in Balboa Park,…
https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2026/02/06/balboa-park-paid-free-parking-gloria-council/
Basically, mismanaged pension payments (which are ever growing), are a self-inflicted wound devouring funds that otherwise could be used to fund art programs, keep libraries open, fix potholes in roads, etc., etc., etc.
Learned of the April 20th city hall protest after the fact, but took the protest as a reminder that “art” is actually a great way to highlight a financial mismanagement problem that career politicians like Todd Gloria have allowed to happen,…
(4x6_PC) Todd Gloria yet another SD career politician.pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k1e6UO-A5iwembDvy9b_GN1Ad7K4Va2C/view?usp=share_link
PDF Todd Gloria Political Satire Analysis
https://gemini.google.com/share/ec528de66dcf
To fact check the details why there is ever growing debt (in the bilion$) caused by decades of annual 13th pension payments, see the “highlighted document” file @,…
http://www.SanDiegoDebtBomb.com
Anyway the other day I read this local news item,…
Giant Meteor Heading Toward the City of San Diego’s Budget
If voters repeal San Diego’s trash fee, city leaders say their only option would be to cut up to $150 million from city services like stormwater, fire and police departments.
“Outside of new revenue coming in, there’s no other option,” said Charles Modica, the city’s Independent Budget Analyst.
https://voiceofsandiego.org/2026/04/30/the-giant-meteor-heading-toward-the-city-of-san-diegos-budget/
On Monday, Mayor Todd Gloria staff stated that the 10% to 20% across the board raises for all the City Unions for FY-2027 have not been incorporated into the Mayor’s FY-2027 Draft Budget.
According to the Mayor, the 10 to 20% Pay Raises for all the thousands of Union Employees will be added to the Budget before the May Revised next Wednesday May 13, 2026 and the unions are still in negotiations with the City Council until then.
Where will the Mayor and City Council get the money for the 10 to 20% Union raises that have not yet been shown in the FY-2027 Budget yet? Will there be more cuts to the library budget?
How can the City Council think about giving the union massive new negotiated raises while cutting the library and recreation hours ? Where is the Silver Bullet to fund these unknown millions in imminent Union raises?
Thank you for the links you provided. The budget “options” are depressing. In reviewing the library option 3, I was struck by the city’s reason for considering the closure of the North Clairemont Library: “ This branch was identified for potential closure due to its poor physical condition, and given that two other libraries, Balboa and Clairemont, are in close proximity and offer nearby alternatives.”
The city has neglected the library to the point of disrepair, therefore justifying a potential closure. Clairemont is the most populous neighborhood in San Diego. The North Clairemont Library is across the street from the Clairemont Square, an area that is being transformed by the construction of ADUs and apartments. The recently updated Clairemont Community Plan includes the capacity for 14,000 more dwelling units, and SB 79 will allow tall apartment buildings near our trolley stations, so eliminating a library seems illogical.