City Council members will decide Tuesday morning between two proposals that provide them more authority over the mayor’s mid-year budget cuts being held up by delays for the past several weeks.
The debate over the council’s role in overseeing the budget has turned out to be one of the sharper disagreements to evolve out of the strong-mayor form of government.
The council approved legislation on Feb. 5 that would require Mayor Jerry Sanders to seek the council’s OK for any change he wanted to make that would “materially or substantially” affect the level of services that the city provides.
The council opted not to finalize the proposal weeks later after Sanders, Council President Scott Peters and Councilman Tony Young negotiated a tentative compromise that would allow the mayor to cut up to $4 million or 10 percent, whichever is lower, from a department’s budget.
With those two proposals competing against one another, the council was set to vote last month, but City Attorney Mike Aguirre asked for more time on the day of the hearing because he said he needed more time to look at the legal implications of the legislation.
Tuesday’s hearing will take place at 11 a.m. in the City Council chambers, located at 202 C St. in downtown San Diego.