In announcing he supported “suspending” paid parking in Balboa Park for city residents on Tuesday, City Council President Joe LaCava was described in a U-T account as being “particularly persuaded by 51% of people participating in a poll sponsored by the Union-Tribune and 10News” saying they preferred budget cuts to the Balboa fees.
Since the poll was based on 500 respondents, pollsters would typically say there is a 90% chance that it is accurate to within plus or minus 3.7%. In other words, there is a 10% chance the poll is wrong by more than 3.7%. Delving even deeper into the math, this error range means there is about a one-in-three chance that there is actually less than 50% support for budget cuts over paid parking at Balboa Park among San Diego voters.
This is not to suggest the poll should be disregarded. And it’s definitely not to suggest that once again making Balboa Park parking free for city residents isn’t a great idea. It’s only to point out the absurdity of LaCava pointing to a survey with a small but noteworthy error rate as driving his thinking when there are two vastly larger surveys of San Diego residents — both with a 0% chance of inaccuracy — that he and every elected city leader have ignored for years.
In November 2006, San Diegans were asked whether the City Charter should be amended to make it much easier to save money by outsourcing city services through a “managed competition” process. And more than 60% of the 307,594 voters on Proposition C said yes.
In June 2012, San Diegans were asked whether the city should give most newly hired workers 401(k)-type retirement benefits instead of the extremely costly defined-benefit pensions that were putting massive strain on city finances. And nearly 66% of the 234,342 voters on Proposition B said yes.
The 2006 measure remains part of the City Charter, but the tool it provides is never used. The 2012 measure was invalidated by state courts on narrow legal grounds, but the guidance it provides is never followed.
Why? Because San Diego’s elected leaders’ primary loyalty is to public employee unions, not their constituents. The radical idea of imposing parking fees at beloved, extremely popular Balboa Park was only embraced by Mayor Todd Gloria and council members LaCava, Sean Elo-Rivera, Kent Lee, Marni von Wilpert and Henry L. Foster III because of the enormous annual sum — a record $563 million in the coming fiscal year — that the city must pay to cover the cost of pensions that both the 2006 and 2012 measures would have significantly reduced.
In a Jan. 14 Voice of San Diego story that described Gloria as being a disappointment as mayor to both his allies and enemies, county Democratic Party chair Will Rodriguez-Kennedy insisted Gloria is doing “as well as can be expected, given the structural issues our city is facing.”
But the most profound “structural” problem facing the city is one no Democratic official will ever publicly acknowledge: The city’s pension costs are unsustainable. This fact is why the tax- and fee-hike frenzy of the past year won’t ebb any time soon. At City Hall, it is the new norm.