The Union-Tribune Editorial Board launches its 2026 endorsements today by making the case for one of the most promising reformers to seek a San Diego City Council seat in many years and by backing the re-election of one of the handful of council members who spoke out against the deceitful machinations that Mayor Todd Gloria and Council President Joe LaCava used to impose new trash fees on more than 220,000 homeowners.
In District 2, which ranges from Clairemont to Point Loma in central and west San Diego, voters have two strong options: Mandy Havlik, a Point Loma community leader, and Richard Bailey, who was mayor of Coronado from 2016 to 2024. Both express pointed concerns about the handling of the trash fee and the city’s decision to begin imposing parking fees at Balboa Park. At a Wednesday forum, both opposed the city’s proposed tax on second homes that are vacant more than half the year. Both say City Hall often appears indifferent to residents’ concerns about quality of life and affordability.
But here’s what gives Bailey particular credibility: In former Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector John Moorlach’s January review of the basic financial data of cities in San Diego County, Coronado ranked first in fiscal health — and San Diego last.
Bailey has many ideas about how to change this picture, starting with having San Diego get out of the trash business and adopt “a competitively bid, third-party collection model, like every other city in the county” — resulting in better service at a much cheaper cost.
The $146 million budget deficit that Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council now face is the result of “years of irresponsible financial and management decisions,” Bailey notes. “The city projected these shortfalls years in advance through its own five-year outlooks yet failed to make meaningful spending or management reforms. Instead, it turned to new taxes and fees.”
This bracing clarity about City Hall’s dysfunction is desperately needed. The U-T Editorial Board endorses Richard Bailey in City Council District 2.
In District 4, which ranges from Paradise Hills to Rolando Park in southeastern San Diego, incumbent Henry Foster III faces what’s seen as a surprisingly strong challenge from Martha Abraham.
The registered nurse and community activist has depicted Foster as insufficiently progressive on housing equity issues. But at least some of Abraham’s criticism is demagogic, starting with blasting Foster for taking seriously the warnings of city lawyers about the legal risks created by abrupt changes in how the city evaluated housing projects that had won initial approval. Abraham is on much firmer ground when she knocks Foster for going along with the mayor’s hasty, chaotic imposition of the first-ever parking fees at Balboa Park.
But since Foster won a special election to fill the District 2 vacancy in March 2024, he has shown a willingness to take Gloria on. On the trash bait and switch — in which city voters cleared the way for new fees in 2022 based on grossly inaccurate claims about how low they would be — Foster has consistently said that the fees were developed and implemented in a way that lacked transparency and accountability, damaging public trust in City Hall. And during spring 2025’s budget battles, Foster spoke out against the mayor’s bloated staff and was key to the elimination of two deputy chief operating officer jobs that each paid about $400,000 annually in total compensation.
That reflects leadership of the sort that San Diegans need. The U-T Editorial Board endorses Henry Foster III in City Council District 4.