by Arturo Garcia / Times of San Diego / May 10, 2026
The San Diego City Council will consider a settlement in the lawsuit challenging the city’s trash fee during a closed session on Monday, May 11th.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, attorney Gabriel McWhirter, who is representing the city against a group of local homeowners, told Judge Euketa Oliver during a hearing on Friday that a proposed settlement is “currently on the table” regarding Measure B, which instituted a pickup fee for single-family households after being passed in November 2022.
The proposed settlement comes around a month after Oliver denied the city’s request to dismiss the suit, which argued that the fee violated Proposition 218, the state ballot measure stipulating that the cost of utility fees cannot exceed that of providing the intended services.
In her ruling, Oliver cited the city’s estimate that the fee would increase despite a discrepancy in the amount of households whose service would be affected. The city had originally said homeowners would pay between $23 and $29 a month. That cost was later revised to be around $43 a month in 2026, and an estimated $55 a month in 2027, though some households may qualify for financial assistance.
“The apparent inconsistency between declining service demand and increasing costs, coupled with unsupported assumptions and, at this point, unexplained deficiencies in the city’s analysis, creates triable issues of material fact as to whether the fee exceeds the ‘actual cost’ of providing the service,” she said at the time.
The council’s closed session will come a day before opening statements were scheduled in the lawsuit.
The fee had come under criticism from former Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who has spearheaded a push to repeal it in his current role as CEO of the conservative Lincoln Club.
McWhirter did not return a call requesting comment.
Pg 5 shows a shift of 360 postiions and 140M in costs.
https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/2025-08/fy26ab_v2esd.pdf
The Repeal the Trash Fees effort is sponsored by the Lincoln Club, but this effort is a grassroots effort to get the initiative on the ballot. I hope people will come by the pop-up tables that will be posted on Wednesday on various social media sites to sign the petitions. This is not an online effort so if you haven’t signed the petition, please come to one of the table events before May 30th.
This initiative will eliminate the trash fees from July 1, 2027 – July 1, 2029, which is the remainder of the current trash program.
So, whether you are a homeowner or not, this Trash Tax affects everyone.
Thank you
“So, whether you are a homeowner or not, this Trash Tax affects everyone.”
This statement is just not accurate. The city trash fee only applies to residents in single family homes or unit with up to 4 homes.
As a condo owner I have to pay a private trash company that charges MORE than the city charges. So Lisa, I do not want to have to pay for your trash as well, which is what we have been doing for years.
As a condo owner, you also chose your residence and by default your trash fees. You should let the process play out. Does it still get the signatures if a settlement happens. Time will tell. Your crying should be directed to your HOA to shop your fees. I would rather this goes to court and make these people testify and expose their shady dealings. Not get unfairly gouged, something you don’t care about.
I agree the previous system wasn’t balanced. Everyone was paying for trash via the general fund and then residents of 5+ multifamily units were paying additional fees.
So the city’s solution to that SHOULD HAVE been to separating the existing trash costs out of the general fund, thus reducing taxes for you. I’m a homeowner and would’ve supported that. (It should also hot have required hiring a $4.5M dollar consultant, since the services already existed and were funded.)
Instead they used it as a trojan horse to increase taxes on half the city’s residents without any new service to show for it. Well, I guess they did created a need for $20M in new bins by disposing of our 200,000 functional bins.
And then they misrepresented the measure as solving some class war between homeowners and renters.
Good points as well, kh.
Mel, just so you know, we are not contesting the fact we must pay a fee; what we are contesting is that the rate we paid was double per month to what was promised, we are having to pay this on our tax bills, and we are being overcharged for the first two years of the program (ending July 1, 2027) because they are assessing everyone the cost for the 95 gallon cans even though we are getting 35 gallons. You also should be aware that all private trash fee haulers have increased their rates since the city gouged residents with the $53 per month rate.
In addition, Mel, whether you have children or not, you pay for public schools, is that something you contest as well?
A percentage of our taxes are sent to the city for its budget. This includes schools and trash fees at public parks, etc.
But again, we are not contesting the fee, but the program has been a fiasco that the citizens did not have any input.
Mel, would you contest your HOA if it just arbitrarily assessed you on your property taxes and doubled the fee that they had promised to charge? That’s the point here.
Property taxes are to pay for things that promote the community welfare like schools, parks, libraries, first responders, etc. That is what we support but not to fund the city’s bloated salaries and robbing the department funds that we thought we had paid for through our taxes.
Chris Schultz’s post confirms my statements. I hope you now have a better understanding of the situation.
Getting rid of free trash collection for single family home owners was way overdue and I am glad everyone is finally seeing what trash is costing us.
Personally, I would like to see a system where owners are charged per pickup and size of can because we need to start avoiding trash creation. That’s a change in the fee structure I would support since my can simply doesn’t need weekly emptying.
And the city isn’t arbitrarily assessing you. You are paying for trash service. Yes, their estimate was off but so was the promise of Trump that he would lower gas and grocery prices. Are you going to sue him too?
Glad to see it’s going to court and everything can be exposed for the con the city has been caught in. Paying for trash was less of an issue, for homeowners, than the gunpoint hostage, cooking the books, violating prop 218 route the city took. But I know you don’t care. May your condo HOA double.
You and Lisa are quick to start with the insults and completely irrelevant arguments. I actually hope you behave the same way in court.
What does my HOA have to do with any of this? Also, HOA fees can’t just double. Any annual increase over 20% has to be approved by the majority of homeowners.
Edited from an email sent out by Lisa M:
“… the city council did not accept our very reasonable settlement agreement in private session today. This means we will be headed to a trial starting tomorrow,
May 12, 2026,at 1:30pm.
The trial will be in the San Diego Hall Of Justice
330 West Broadway Street, 6th floor, courtroom 75
San Diego, CA 92101
Judge Euketa Oliver will be presiding.
We hope you will show your support for our outstanding legal team and observe the trial for yourselves.
Hope to see you there!
The VOSD reported settlement.
– For two years, the fee would be rolled back to $29 per month, etc etc etc
Chris, read a little closer; there was NO settlement in which these conditions were part of the deal that didn’t happen:
– The Lincoln Club Business League and associated campaign committee would stop their effort to repeal the fee completely. – The city would take over billing for trash, instead of through property tax bills. (This would be a large expense for the city, to bring collection in house.)
The VOSD reported proposed settlement. I passed along what VOSD reported.
https://voiceofsandiego.org/2026/05/11/morning-report-huge-trash-fee-deal-in-works/
Key word: “proposed”. Your words: “The VOSD reported settlement.” I’m just clarifying that there was no settlement and the trash fee trial begins today.
Sure, for those living under a rock like Mel.
Sean Elo-Rivera and Joe LaCava will rue the day they turned down this settlement offer, even if they’re both termed out when the shit really hits the fan. It all but guarantees passage of the Lincoln Club initiative should it qualify (although the apparent lack of paid petition circulators is concerning). This leaves the city with nothing instead of half their projected revenues for two years. And I wouldn’t be so sure there’s not going to be a ripple effect on Measure A. Council won’t budge on the trash fee? OK, take *that*, Measure A.