This post first appeared in the July 15 Morning Report newsletter. To get our stories directly in your inbox, subscribe here.
We updated this story.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and his office are making clear none of their employees are on the chopping block.
As part of the new fiscal budget this year, the City Council made the unprecedented move of cutting specific jobs from the mayor’s staff to help address the looming $350 million deficit. The Council specifically cut two employees from the communications department, two deputy chief operating officers, and two management roles in the police and compliance departments.
After a tense back and forth that included a mayoral veto, the Council managed to include the final staff cuts in the budget approved on July 1.
Voice of San Diego learned the mayor decided not to fire anyone.
“As noted by the City Attorney’s Office, the Mayor alone is responsible for making decisions for his office, which includes the City’s executive team and other mayoral departments,” shared spokesperson Rachel Laing. She added that the mayor will continue to make staffing decisions based on what the mayor thinks is needed to run a responsive and effective city government.
Keeping these positions would cost the city over $1,300,000 annually, but the mayor emphasized those roles are crucial for city operations.
According to a memo by City Attorney Heather Ferbert in early June, the mayor needs to provide the council with written notice of reductions of programs or services affecting the community. In this case, since the mayor’s actions do not result in either, he did not have to notify the City Council.
Still, the action has sparked some tension.
“After months of public hearings and debate, the majority of the City Council put forward a balanced budget that included the elimination of certain positions within the administration in order to cut costs during difficult budget times,” said Councilmember Raul Campillo in a statement.
“The savings from those positions are in part what allowed the Council to keep libraries, parks, lakes, and other critical city services open for our residents,” he said. “If the mayor deliberately games the budget and snubs his nose at the Council, I’ll be asking him in December when we have to rebalance the budget just whose fault it is.”
We’ll all be paying for parking, at the parks we’ve already paid for, just so Gloria doesn’t have to lay off any of his highly paid buddies. That’s what the citizens wanted, right? They didn’t want more roads paved or storm drains cleaned, they wanted Gloria’s gravy train to keep feeding his friends. Gloria should be recalled!
So how are they supposed “pave the roads and clean the storm drains” without staff?
Despite what Mayor Gloria thinks, it is possible to repave a road without having a highly paid member of his communications staff make a post about it on Facebook.
How exactly do you decide which words to capitalize in a headline? Is there any rule?
This is politics 101, non pareil. What do expect, folks? You can’t be that dumb. When you elect those of the two major political parties, this standard public policy. I’m running for D2 SDCC, but voters prefer what they rail against since they are hypocrites. The commenters have no shame. They speak no truth. They are dishonest otherwise; they would not support the GOP and Dems. TRUTH THAT!!
So what’s the story here VOSD? Investigate this.
https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/san-diego/report-nearly-200m-in-unspent-fees-may-be-owed-to-san-diego-property-owners/
They will increase fees across the board for you and me! Yay!