By Alex J. Chavez / OnlyinSanDiego / November 9, 2026
Todd Gloria needs to understand something: San Diego is not obligated to love him, defend him or continue giving him the benefit of the doubt.
And no amount of communications strategy, carefully crafted talking points or political spin will change that.
When I previously asked what Todd Gloria had delivered for San Diego, the question concerned his record. But the deeper problem is becoming impossible to ignore. Gloria has surrounded himself with a political team that appears more interested in protecting its own authority than earning the trust necessary to govern.
Now, with a recall effort underway, the mayor and his advisers face a reckoning they should have seen coming.
This did not happen overnight. And they did not arrive here by accident.
They Have Confused Access to Power With the Ability to Lead
Gloria entered office with nearly every political advantage imaginable: experience, established relationships, an initially friendly City Council and communities that believed he would represent their interests.
What happened to that promise?
For too many residents, the disappointment goes beyond policy disagreements. It concerns an administration perceived as inaccessible, dismissive and increasingly disconnected from the people it was elected to serve.
Communities that once stood with Gloria deserve to know why their concerns seem less important now than they were when their support was politically useful.
Requests for meetings should not become exercises in frustration. Constituents should not have to fight for basic engagement. Community leaders should not be left wondering whether promises made during campaigns were simply transactional.
And residents should never feel that disagreeing with their mayor means forfeiting the opportunity to be heard.
These are not communications failures. They are failures of public service.
Yet the administration seems convinced that better messaging can overcome deteriorating relationships.
It cannot.
You cannot write your way out of broken trust.
Paola Avila and the Politics of Burning Bridges
Chief of Staff Paola Avila was supposed to bring political experience, relationships and seasoned judgment to the mayor’s office.
But experience is worthless if it does not produce effective leadership.
Avila’s effectiveness deserves serious scrutiny. A chief of staff should know how to negotiate, de-escalate conflict, preserve relationships and recognize when political toughness has crossed into needless confrontation.
The criticism of this administration is that it has too often operated with an us-versus-them mentality, treating disagreement as disloyalty and criticism as something to defeat rather than understand.
That is an extraordinarily poor way to govern a city.
A chief of staff is supposed to open doors, not make people dread walking through them. The job requires diplomacy, discretion and the emotional intelligence to understand that today’s opponent may be tomorrow’s necessary partner.
Instead, Gloria’s administration has developed a reputation among critics for insularity and political combativeness.
Avila may have the mayor’s confidence. But confidence from one person is not a substitute for credibility with the people an administration must work alongside.
If your political strategy repeatedly leaves relationships strained and coalitions weakened, perhaps the problem is not that everyone else is difficult.
Perhaps it is your leadership.
Nick Serrano and the Danger of Political Entitlement
Deputy Chief of Staff Nick Serrano raises a different concern.
His career has been built largely within Gloria’s political orbit. That gives him familiarity with the mayor, but familiarity should not be mistaken for independent judgment.
San Diego needs executive leaders who understand how to build consensus, navigate complicated relationships and recognize political realities beyond the walls of the mayor’s office.
The question is whether Serrano has demonstrated those abilities or simply benefited from proximity to someone with power.
Being a trusted protégé is not a qualification in itself. Neither is knowing how to manage a politician’s image.
The real test is whether an adviser makes a mayor more effective, more accountable and better connected to the communities he represents.
If Serrano hopes to build a political future of his own, he should understand that the record of this administration is also part of his professional record.
He cannot inherit the political advantages of being associated with Gloria while escaping scrutiny of the decisions and governing culture he helped support.
Political loyalty may advance a career. It does not automatically produce political maturity.
Gloria Has Become His Own Greatest Liability
But the ultimate failure belongs to Todd Gloria.
He chose this team. He empowered it. He continues to defend it.
And every time the administration misses an opportunity to collaborate, fails to follow through or dismisses legitimate criticism, the responsibility eventually returns to him.
There is something particularly disappointing about watching a longtime politician become so consumed by the machinery of politics that he appears to have lost sight of the purpose of public office.
The titles. The national appearances. The carefully managed public image. The endless celebration of announcements.
At some point, the political performance becomes a substitute for actual leadership.
Gloria seems increasingly attached to the image of being an accomplished mayor, even as the people questioning his effectiveness grow louder.
It is a political vanity that risks becoming his defining legacy.
And perhaps that is the cruelest irony of his administration: a politician who spent years cultivating relationships now faces serious questions about why so many of those relationships have failed to translate into lasting support.
San Diego Is Not Bullying Its Mayor
The emerging recall effort is not proof that every San Diegan opposes Gloria. But it is an unmistakable warning that frustration has moved beyond ordinary political criticism.
Gloria and his team would be wise not to confuse public disappointment with personal persecution.
Residents are allowed to be unhappy. Former supporters are allowed to change their minds. Community leaders are allowed to conclude that the politician they supported has failed to deliver the leadership they expected.
That is democracy, not bullying.
The mayor is not entitled to sympathy because the consequences of his decisions have become uncomfortable.
And his advisers are not victims simply because people have begun questioning their competence.
No one forced this administration to adopt its governing style. No one forced it to prioritize political loyalty over broader confidence. And no one forced Gloria to surround himself with people who, in the judgment of his critics, have made him a less effective mayor.
These were choices.
Now come the consequences.
No Communications Strategy Can Fix a Leadership Failure
There is no slogan that repairs a neglected relationship. No press release that replaces a meeting that should have happened. No polished video that substitutes for following through on a commitment.
And no communications director, however skilled, can manufacture public confidence in leadership that has failed to earn it.
San Diego needs imagination, political courage and a willingness to collaborate. It needs a mayor who understands that governing requires listening to people who disagree with him, not merely surrounding himself with those who reinforce his instincts.
Gloria’s administration increasingly looks like a political operation trying to preserve a reputation rather than a governing team building a future.
That is not what San Diego was promised, and it is not what the city needs.
Todd Gloria may believe his greatest problem is that people do not understand what he has accomplished.
He should consider a much more uncomfortable possibility.
People understand his leadership perfectly well. They simply do not like what they see.
And no amount of political spin will make that go away.
