The deal is done.
The current San Diego City Council has come to an agreement with the city’s former mayor, a former city attorney, and a former city councilmember, now the president of a city employee union. The deal locks in a trash fee and (surprise!) kills paid parking at Balboa Park.
“We thought the visual of having this motley crew assembled together would send a potent message about working together,” said Michael Zucchet, the former councilmember and president of the San Diego Municipal Employees Association.
Trash Fee Reduced: The deal locks in a trash fee maximum of $39 for the next two years. That is equal to the $29 originally proposed a couple of years ago, plus inflation, plus “future assumptions,” according to the dealmakers. The $39 is considerably less than what the fee had been scheduled to rise to: as much as $57.55 per month.
Goodbye, Balboa Park Parking: You heard it right. City Council plans to eliminate paid parking in Balboa Park effective January 1, 2027. The San Diego Zoo parking is not part of the agreement, which means the city can still expect some revenue from the park.
As far as the trash fee goes, this deal looks much better for current city leaders than the one they considered — and turned down — last week. That deal would have locked in the fee at $29 per month and it would have required the city to bring billing in house, which would have been costly.
By securing $39, the city’s current leaders take far less of a budget hit in future years — and most importantly they put an end to the effort to end the trash fee. As part of the deal, homeowners will drop their trash fee lawsuit against the city and signature gathers will stop their work to try to put a trash fee deal on the ballot.
It’s the biggest deal cut in the corridors of City Hall in quite a while.
“All of us care deeply about the potential financial devastation averted by today’s action,” said Council President Joe LaCava.
The deal will create a shortfall of just a few million dollars this year — which will have to be dealt with in the current budget negotiations. In the next two years, it will create additional estimated short fall of less than $10 million each year, according to Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who helped broker the compromise.
The Council supported the compromise unanimously in closed session, LaCava said.
A Vigil for Remembering
It is a sad fact of our world that even a mass shooting at a mosque by two radicalized teenagers likely will come and go from the nation’s news cycle without much trace.
Tuesday evening, hundreds of San Diegans gathered to show the city’s grieving Islamic community that the city’s memory would not be so fleeting. A diverse crowd packed Lindbergh Park adjacent to the Islamic Center of San Diego in Clairemont to pray in silence and remember.
I attended the interfaith vigil, though not as a reporter. My wife is a member of the clergy and we were there representing our church. Walking past the mosque, I saw what looked like bullet holes in glass and children’s lunch boxes and water bottles abandoned on playground tables.
At the vigil, I saw San Diego’s response to the violence. People of every faith and ethnic background were there. Muslims of every nationality, immigrants, lifelong Americans, children, grandparents, people in suits and people in shorts. The crowd went silent and pressed forward when members of the mosque said prayers and told stories about the men who died.
Kids ran around at a nearby playground. People chatted with strangers. The atmosphere was reverent but informal. People seemed almost buoyant that so many other people had come to show support. It turns out there is a laid back, San Diego way to pray. It works.
Many people tuned out when the politicians came up to speak. Less so with San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who gave a moving address. The mosque children threatened by the attackers “were ours,” Elo-Rivera told the crowd. “All of them. San Diego’s babies.”
“It is often said that once you have a child, your heart lives outside your body. Yesterday, San Diego’s heart was outside of us. In that moment, I think we found, in our collective terror, something about who we are,” Elo Rivera said.
Gathering with my city Tuesday evening in the golden light of another perfect San Diego sunset, I too learned something. I won’t forget it.
– Jim Hinch
Related coverage:
- The two teens suspected in the attack met online, where they were radicalized by white supremacist propaganda, law enforcement sources said. (Union-Tribune)
- Dashcam video shows the suspects fleeing the mosque and shooting at nearby residents from their car. (Fox 5)
- The Islamic Center of San Diego received nearly $1 million in funding to beef up security from a state program that faces cuts in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest budget proposal. (Times of San Diego)
- Correction: We updated yesterday’s Morning Report to correct that the suspects involved in the mosque shooting were found in a vehicle in Clairemont. You can read the corrected post here.
County Board Dems Advance Governance Reform Power Play
County Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer has won the war over competing county governance reform measures. Now her sweeping reform pitch appears headed for the November ballot.
Board Democrats, including Lawson-Remer, who appeared on Zoom with a newborn in tow, advanced the chair’s proposal over a rival one from Supervisor Joel Anderson.
Yet she also agreed to an amendment: “Lawson-Remer’s likely pitch to voters will no longer suggest that countywide elected officials including the sheriff and district attorney could be held to three terms,” writes our Lisa Halverstadt.
The change means supervisors must take a second vote next month to place the reform measure on the ballot.
- In related news: Supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday to direct $22 million in unlocked county reserve funds toward affordable housing projects and another $1 million for hunger-relief efforts. That means all of the $95.4 million in rainy-day funds unleashed by county reserve policy changes are spoken for. The county’s chief administrative officer this week also proposed using next year’s roughly $95 million available amount to address federal cuts and avoid cutting county services.
North County Report: Election Season Musical Chairs
The June 2 primary is less than two weeks away, and our North County Reporter Tigist Layne has a race-by-race guide to this year’s election.
You’ll need a guide — because the candidates are swapping seats with abandon.
The mayors of San Marcos and Vista are running for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors seat soon to be vacated by Jim Desmond…who is running for Congress in California’s 48th District.
Some councilmembers in both cities are running to take the mayors’ place if either becomes Supervisor.
And another Vista Councilmember is leaving…to run against Desmond in the congressional race.
Confused? You won’t be after reading Layne’s comprehensive guide.
Also: Layne has the latest on some hotly-contested North County housing developments.
Read the North County Report here.
Join Us for Brews and News
We are back! Bring a friend, have a pint and embrace your inner news hound with Voice of San Diego. We’ll be recording a live podcast at Soda Bar on June 11. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Meet our team of journalists and get the inside scoop on the latest local investigations at our Brews & News Live Podcast. Join Editor-in-Chief Scott Lewis and the rest of the podcast crew
- Play audience games with our podcast hosts .
- Enjoy a beer with our journalists and other tuned-in San Diegans
- Hear from special guests
Reporter’s Circle and Editor’s Circle members (annual giving $500+) receive two free tickets. Please email membership@voiceofsandiego.org to redeem your tickets or for any questions.
In Other News
- Fire crews Wednesday made progress battling a wildfire near Campo that has spread to roughly 1,000 acres and prompted evacuations. The blaze is now 25 percent contained and Interstate 8 is open through the area but with reduced lanes. (Union-Tribune)
- A long-awaited suicide barrier on the Coronado Bridge is nearing final approval and construction could begin later this year. (Union-Tribune)
- It’s that time of year again, when sea lions give birth at La Jolla Cove – and park rangers strive valiantly (and often unsuccessfully) to stop onlookers from bothering the animals in search of that perfect selfie. (CBS 8)
- It’s San Ysidro’s turn to pay up for parking. The city of San Diego plans to install 286 parking meters around the border-adjacent community as early as this summer. The proposed rates are $2.50 per hour. (inewsource)
- State Sen. Brian Jones has authored legislation aimed at neutralizing at least one of the lawsuits seeking to block the controversial Harmony Grove Village South housing development near Escondido. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Mariana Martínez Barba, Jim Hinch and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Will Huntsberry.