Open Letter to San Diego City Council: ‘Give Consideration to Constituents’ Suggestions in Bring City Expenses Down’

By Jim Varnadore

Now that we’ve begun making sense of the trash fees and the hateful parking fees at Balboa Park, you might give sober consideration to the suggestions your constituents sent you for bringing city expenses down to match its income.

One very helpful suggestion is to cut your personal staffs in half, eliminating the higher paid half but not increasing the lower paid half – neither numbers nor pay.  Your constituents would no longer pay staff members whose main job is to win your next election.

A similarly helpful suggestion is to eliminate all deputy department head and assistant department head positions. The incumbents would not leave city employment; rather, they would trickle-down to take lower positions. That would leave leaner departments and department heads in closer touch with the departments and their functioning.  It would advance good governance.

As a last-but-not-least change, you should eliminate the staff position you created to work your social media accounts.  You created the position, hired an incumbent, and set the compensation somewhere above $ half a million per year when retirement, holidays, medical, and other fringe benefits are calculated; and all that just for fiddling with a smart phone.

It’s time to stop.

Jim Varnadore is a civics-activist, former chair of City Heights Community Planning Group, and a resident of City Heights.