By Kate Callen
Where else but San Diego would you see a Councilmember disrespect a community leader just minutes after the Council passed a measure to strengthen community engagement?
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera’s flippant response to a public speaker during a June 29 Council meeting exposed the root rot that plagues constituent relations at City Hall. No amount of tinkering with meeting logistics will fix that problem.
For months, the Council has worked to comply with Senate Bill 707’s overhaul of the Brown Act to embrace modern meeting technologies. The result was outlined in a report from City Clerk Diana Fuentes titled “Information Guide on Group Participation Updates and Council Determination of Community Engagement Efforts.” Her recommendations were adopted in a unanimous vote.
Changes regarding public input to Council go into effect July 6. Citizens will face a steep learning curve on organizing group presentations and offering virtual testimony. Once they get the hang of it, they will discover that their second-tier status will be, to quote the great David Byrne, “the same as it ever was.”
That’s because two characteristics of Council meetings will remain unchanged. Public commenters will still face speaking time constraints that do not apply to any other participants. And the disdain some elected officials feel toward their constituents will still permeate the chambers.
Which brings us to the ever-belligerent Elo-Rivera.
In a discussion of the city’s Affordable Housing Preservation Fund on Monday, Paul Krueger of Neighbors for a Better San Diego appropriately reminded the Council that San Diego has a sorry history of ruinous housing initiatives like the “Bonus ADU” program.
“There have been untold consequences of these programs that the Council refused to modify after years of concern,” Krueger said. “Please take the time to review those consequences when they are pointed out to you.”
(Full disclosure: Krueger is a Rag colleague and a friend. He is one of the most effective public speakers at Council – and one of the most courteous. He delivers harsh truths, but he never speaks harshly.)
A peevish Elo-Rivera responded with this: “There are some folks who will always find an opportunity to criticize everything that happens here and relitigate completely separate issues.”
That incivility was challenged by a subsequent speaker whose righteous fury carried the day. Here is what Joyce Sonyata had to say:
“Councilmember Elo-Rivera and Councilmember [Vivian] Moreno, I can’t believe the two of you are sitting there chatting while people are talking and telling you how they feel and what they care about. Why can’t I understand the movement of these funds, what you’re doing with these funds? Please listen to us.”
In all fairness, the Council was well-intended in looking at new ways for constituents to participate. And Fuentes worked hard on a package that would tie them all together.
But after months of workshops, portals, multilingual materials, and other outreach efforts, when the new procedures are in place, the public might feel like a motorist whose mechanic washed his car instead of fixing the carburetor. Yes, the car looks great. But the engine still knocks.
What steps could the Council take to treat community members as stakeholders instead of subordinates? Here are suggestions that would show greater respect to constituents and, in the process, make Council meetings shorter and more productive:
Thanks, But No Thanks: Councilmembers’ cloying habit of thanking everyone in creation – their staff, the Mayor’s staff, the City Clerk, Development Services, and on and on – is a cringeworthy waste of precious time. Stop fawning over salaried employees and get down to business.
Puzzling Proclamations: Attendees at Council meetings must sit through effusive proclamations honoring unknown people for vague reasons. Someone has run a successful business or chaired a Rotary Club chapter or organized a recycling effort. Do such endeavors warrant public tributes in meetings that always run too long? Move these performative accolades and their accompanying photo ops to off-hour events in Council offices.
Lead By Example: Public commenters are strictly held to time limits of one to two minutes. Presentations by staff and project applicants can stretch 15 minutes or longer. Council President La Cava often asks them, “How much time do you need?” Really? They get to choose? And councilmembers regularly burn up time with meandering speeches. Here’s an idea: Impose time limits on all speakers, enforce those limits uniformly, and display the same timer for everyone.
The affordability mantra is a farce when only pointed at housing and rents. The ADU policy is a joke when mini apartment complexes are approved. Elo caved at the corporate industry while pivoting to empty homes. At every turn, these policies cater and enrich the corporations while they struggle with rent increase protections or pet deposits to champion for the less fortunate. Is this incompetence real, or by design? And sad to say the State does this too. Corporate mass influx building. That benefits who?
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/real-estate/articles/free-down-payment-house-high-095201345.html
Kate, once again you absolutely nailed it and included accolades to Paul in your article. Kudos. Ever since Toddler became mayor, the at one time and for decades, City recognized neighborhood Community Planning Groups, have been ignored. It’s beyond time for the voters to stop voting for people who don’t have and never have had the qualifying skills to be a mayor or city council rep of a big City. Hopefully with the current regime, SD voters have learned what happens when they stay uninformed with the reality of unqualified candidates.
This is nothing new. When Symphony Towers was under construction, the community plan down zoned the “Slope” in Golden Hill to duplexes. I felt this was absurd under any concept of zoning, Duplexes… this being maybe 8 blocks from the large rendering of Symphony Towers that happened to be on display. When I spoke before the Council, the only Council member who paid any attention was Bob Filmer. Bob would listen, look back at the Symphony Towers rendering & ask a question. He was the only one that bothered to listen or engage. Say what you will about Filner’s failings, he showed the decency to hear out a constituent who took the time to present a valid point. It’s pointless to address this Council unless your name is Zucchet.
I appreciate your mentioning the decency of the late Bob Filner. Many remember Filner fondly. He was first and foremost a true democrat who served the people of San Diego as a school board member, city council representative, Congressman for many years and briefly as Mayor. He was a flawed hero whose implacable political enemies ultimately brought him down.
Progressives brought him down too. I recall Donna Frye being the one to bring his shenanigans to light.
I agree with everything you said except the time for staff presentations and comments. I don’t even know why they as “how much time do you need” because they aren’t going to cut them off mid-sentence like public commenters. Those should not have a timer at all. Staff should have enough time to do a thorough presentation and answer questions.
I like Sean, and I like that he’s my representative, but he falls into the same trap of paternalism that LaCava so well embodies. If Joy Sunyata – the perpetual ray of sunshine in those chambers who attends almost every meeting and makes a comment of peace and love each time – is calling out disregard so explicitly, it was bad!
Would love to know what you see as Sean’s positive traits?
Haha, don’t hold your breath.
I’m further to the left than probably anyone you’ve ever met (yes, Sean very much included), and I accept that very few people ever can or will move so far left as to meet me. :) Sean is the member of the current council most inclined to put forward policies with which I agree, and I have found him to be responsive and very engaged with his job! He clearly cares about the city, about the future, about how the council functions—even if most Rag readers disagree with how he intends to make change. I like that he keeps trying!
KB, you are encountering the Dr. Jekyll side of Elo-Rivera because you agree with him. For those of us who don’t, he is all Mr. Hyde all the time. He is one of the meanest politicians I’ve ever seen (and I’m from Philly). I understand he intends to run for mayor — God help us — but I think he’s alienated far too many people to stand a chance. Plus, he has more baggage than an airport.
P.S. I doubt that you are further to the left than Frank Gormlie.
I was asked why I liked that he is my representative, and I answered. In fact, you three have the opportunity to (virtually) point and laugh at me because I went so far as to agree that he is inclined towards a damning paternalism.
It is a little funny that your response is so condescending in reply to a comment where I agree with your critique of him for being paternalistic. :)
I do not see the Dr. Jekyll side where you see Mr. Hyde – I see a person trying their best and sometimes failing. An uncomfortable tension to hold, absolutely – but the people I disagree with are also, like it or not, people trying their best.
I promise you – genuinely, I assure you – there are a lot of people further to the left than Frank Gormlie, and I am one of them. The Overton window’s rightward shift has dragged many of you along with it, whether you’re cognizant of it or not.
I know that the sharp jabs and bitterness that permeate the Rag comment sections are because you all care so much about San Diego. And, I would gently invite you all to consider that this jaded pessimism is a harmful attribute for a platform which could actually facilitate some meaningful dialogue. What a bummer.
“KB, you are encountering the Dr. Jekyll side of Elo-Rivera because you agree with him. For those of us who don’t, he is all Mr. Hyde all the time.”
Isn’t that pretty much all people in elected positions in regards to their supporters and detractors?
If ever there was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, this is it. Sean Elo Rivera doesn’t miss an opportunity to point a finger at “those people in the community” whom he claims are not happy with anything or he perceives as anti-growth and anti-affordable housing.
Elo Rivera managed to do this recently at The Teralta grand opening, the affordable housing complex in D9 where, as part of his celebratory speech, he felt compelled to call out “those people in the community” who are supposedly not happy with anything. However, those supposedly “anti-growth and anti-affordable housing” community members were there with him celebrating The Teralta’s opening.
Sean obviously could have been talking about himself when saying: “There are some folks who will always find an opportunity to criticize everything that happens here and relitigate completely separate issues.”
I concur. Elo has to be the worst example of democracy in the history of San Diego.
LOL: “Councilmembers’ cloying habit of thanking everyone in creation – their staff, the Mayor’s staff, the City Clerk, Development Services, and on and on – is a cringeworthy waste of precious time. Stop fawning over salaried employees and get down to business.”
I actually mute Whitburn’s intro thank-yous. And note that Elo-Rivera usually does not thank the public for their comments. The people (“folks” – gag me) that take the time to get to City Council, wait for their turn, their agenda item, etc. are representative of the populace of this city that the City Council serves, and the reason they are sitting in those seats. And as Kate has pointed out, some walk out of the room during public comment, are looking at their laptops the whole time – La Cava had to actually take a brief recess until a councilmember returned from wherever because at that point there was no forum. Two councilmembers didn’t even show up for their job at council on 6/30. This is such disrespect. As far as Elo-Rivera, he does “relitigate completely separate issues” asks inane questions that clearly throw staff offguard because it’s not on point – he is so difficult to listen to because of his circuitous, everything but the kitchen sink, meandering, illogical, halting, sometimes incomprehensible manner of speaking – usually throwing in a jab at the Trump Admin. that has nothing to do with anything at issue. Last week, in talking about the “junk fees” (unnecessarily inflammatory), he rambled and regurgitated his same tired perceived oppressions of renters, instead of seriously addressing the business of the rental market in a business-like manner – as almost everyone else did – both commenters and other councilmembers. Thank you Kate for your accurate perspective.
Like a Trump cabinet meeting.
I was at the meeting where the city acknowledged a “Woman of the Year,” one for each City Council District. The City Council members read their glowing descriptions from 3 or 4 pages. There were numerous photo ops and later with the mayor. It was someone else who noticed, “The women never got to speak at all.” That’s San Diego.
KB, please re-read my comment. I spoke harshly of Elo-Rivera — I wanted to point out that his behavior runs to extremes — but I did not speak harshly to or about you. I don’t pull punches with elected officials, but I think Rag commenters deserve my respect, even when we disagree.
Chris, yes, most politicians are two-faced, but there are wonderful exceptions. Chris Kehoe has always been a class act. Stephen Whitburn (whom I unsuccessfully challenged for the D3 seat) is uniformly courteous to everyone. At the national level, Obama has always stayed cool and composed. Going back further, JFK’s storied charm was innate, a combination of impeccable manners and a wry sense of humor.
These “happy warriors” raised the level of political discourse. We need more of that kind of leadership.
I know I am showing my age here, but I remember fondly Council member Mike Gotch who really appeared to listen to all comments, no matter how inane (anybody remember “ombudscience”?). If he wasn’t listening he at least had the good manners to pretend he was.
Gotch was great. Whenever I ride over the Mike Gotch bridge in Mission Bay, I stop to remember.
Where’s the great Elo to defend the public from Todd’s regressive public policies? Do people need to become sick again while opening the next lawsuit.
https://www.sandiegoville.com/2026/07/san-diego-closes-nearly-half-of-mission.html#more