San Diego City Council members are calling this week’s trash overbilling scandal unacceptable incompetence by the city and are demanding Mayor Todd Gloria give up his role overseeing day-to-day city operations.
“This speaks to the competency of the mayor,” said Councilmember Henry Foster, who said Wednesday that Gloria must turn over the duties of chief operating officer or face a ballot measure that could reduce the mayor’s power.
“This mayor has proven — has shown time and time again — that he does not have the experience, the knowledge, the skills to lead the operations of this city,” Foster said. “He has failed the city — he has failed the residents.”
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera agreed Wednesday that Gloria must hire someone to fill the job of chief operating officer, which has been vacant since early last year when the mayor fired Eric Dargan. Gloria has performed its duties ever since.
“San Diego needs someone who wakes up every single day with one job, and that’s making sure the city is clean, services work and residents’ bills are accurate,” Elo-Rivera said.
He was referring to revelations first reported Tuesday by The San Diego Union-Tribune that the city is dramatically overcharging many thousands of residents for trash service on recently arrived property tax bills, thanks to a technical glitch in data that city officials gave to the county tax collector.
City officials said Tuesday they were scrambling to assess the size of the problem, notify every overcharged customer and figure out how to handle refunds before property taxes are due Nov. 1. Some customers are being charged as much as $1,000 more than they owe. Others are getting bills for triple what they actually owe.
On Wednesday, Gloria issued a statement calling the errors “unacceptable” and vowing to get corrected billing amounts to the county by the end of the day.
An aide to Gloria, Matt Yagyagan, said Wednesday the mayor was confident all county tax billing accounts for affected city residents would be corrected by Friday.
The mayor has also launched an investigation to determine why the wrong data was sent, who is responsible and what safeguards can be put in place to ensure it never happens again.
Councilmember Kent Lee — who reiterated Wednesday his longtime demand that Gloria hire a chief operating officer — said he will be disappointed if the mayor tries to pin the error on a low-level employee.
“The responsibility starts at the top,” he said.
Foster spoke harshly about the mayor and the scandal for nearly 15 minutes Wednesday at the beginning of the monthly meeting of the council’s Budget and Government Efficiency Committee.
“This so-called mistake, this so-called error — this is unacceptable,” he said. “This is incompetence.”
Foster noted that he was one of three council members who had voted last year against a new trash fee for single-family homes and small multifamily complexes, which for years had gotten no-fee trash service from the city.
“This is why I voted no on trash,” Foster said. “This is why I voted no when it came to tying the fees to residents’ property taxes.”
He said the error, which could affect 75,000 or more of the city’s 220,000 trash customers, erodes the public’s trust in the city and the mayor.
“We can no longer continue to tolerate these kinds of missteps.” Foster said. “I am disgusted.”
Foster said the mayor needs to take quick and dramatic action to change the structure of leadership at City Hall.
“There needs to be change at the city of San Diego,” Foster said. “That change needs to start at the top. The mayor needs to look himself in the mirror.”
Foster expressed concerns about the city’s strong-mayor form of government, which San Diego voters approved two decades ago to replace its longtime city manager government. He said Gloria’s decision to act as chief operating officer himself has exacerbated those concerns.
“If he doesn’t do what’s right, then I will step in,” Foster said. “If I don’t see change, I will bring forward a ballot measure to repeal the strong-mayor form of government. The mayor needs to get this right, because this is unacceptable.”
Elo-Rivera said Gloria’s move to take over the duties of chief operating officer was supposed to save the city money — but he said the scandal and other city mistakes would wipe out those savings.
He suggested the city may have to reimburse the county for sending corrected tax bills to property owners who received incorrect bills.
He also said the city should pay any penalties for those who get property tax delinquency notices because of the billing errors.
Elo-Rivera also demanded more information from Gloria’s aides, including how many residents are affected by the overbilling, how refunds will work and whether the city can fix everything before property taxes are due Nov. 1.
Because some property tax bills haven’t yet been mailed, some errors could be corrected before those customers get a paper copy of their bill. But the county’s online billing portal already reflects the incorrect amounts for customers who have been overcharged.
City officials are urging customers to go to the city’s trash billing website, wasteportal.sandiego.gov, and check what they owe. City officials say these numbers are correct.
Then customers can go to the county tax collector’s website, sdttc.com, and see whether the amounts match up. If they don’t, the customer doesn’t need to take any action. The city will contact them to handle refunds.