The City of San Diego’s projected $146 million budget deficit became more localized and testy as audience questions generated much of the discussion during the April 15 Pacific Beach Town Council meeting.
Savannah Stallings, representing City Council President Joe LaCava, briefly mentioned the release of the mayor’s draft budget earlier that day, before discussing three other items more extensively in her District 1 report.
“It is a draft,” she said. “Things may change. Things will change. But there still is a large budget deficit that must be balanced at the end of the day. So services will be impacted. Things will change.”
When the estimated 30 people present could ask questions, they focused on the budget. Some asked how the projected deficit leapt by 23.7%, rising from an initial estimate of $118 million.
Citing the most recent revenue report, Stallings showed that actual tax receipts are below initial projections and thereby growing the deficit.
“Sales tax is about 2% lower than what’s expected,” she said. “TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax), what we see from people coming to visit, tourism, that’s down because of lower international travel happening. There are other revenues across the board that are down.”
La Jolla Town Council President Mary Soriano, who presented questions from her members, referred to the recent budget survey from the mayor’s office that asked residents to select top priorities that should not be cut from the budget..
“The feedback we’ve gotten since we put this out, is this survey was pretty much an elimination of services,” she said.
Stallings said LaCava has been clear that should the community want specific budget items restored, they should also suggest cuts to achieve balance.
“I think that (the city) has been very blunt and upfront that there is a reduction in services,” Stallings said. “That will happen.”
Soriano said the survey’s entire premise was a setup, since most people will vote to primarily preserve first responder service, thereby giving the city a free hand to cut other services at will.
“It’s unfortunate because … a lot of necessities are maintenance, including public bathrooms being closed,” Soriano said.
Stallings said difficult choices were unavoidable.
“I think that that’s just the reality, where the city is at unfortunately,” Stallings said. “It’s not going to be an easy year. There are no simple and easy conversations ahead of us. It will be difficult conversations.”
An attendee who identified herself as Kathy (no surname given) criticized the survey for not providing other options, such as the elimination of middle managers or the delay of raises for city employees over the next three years that were recently negotiated by the Municipal Employees Association and the mayor’s office.
“How can they possibly get a pay raise when we have a deficit?” she asked. “It seems like they’re getting the pay raise so they could not have library hours and not have rec (center) hours. They’re actually taken away from us when this probably could be solved by not giving everybody raises.”
According to Stallings, the 2% salary increase this year and 3.5% next year will be offset by mandatory unpaid furloughs equaling the raise, resulting in zero net gain for employees.
She also said 50 city employees are on the chopping block currently, with 100 more possible. Combined with layoffs from last year’s deficit, she expects reductions in the “services that people need.”
“So people are losing jobs,” Stallings said. “Lots of people are losing their jobs.”
Soriano said it should not be on residents to find a solution when city management created the predicament.
“I don’t think any of us like people to lose their jobs,” Soriano said. “What we’re trying to do is get the city to be more efficient on how they hire, who they hire and the work that they do.”
Attendees also had a lot to say when members of the San Diego Police Department gave their report.
Although Sgt. Rick Escalante and his Community Oriented Policing team discussed their plans for the upcoming summer, e-bikes became the main focus during the Q&A session.
One attendee opposing the ban on any motorized vehicle on the Boardwalk said some seniors require the pedal-assist provided by e-bikes. In response, Officer Dustin Welsh said that until the law is altered, police have no options but enforcement.
“We can’t make the decision, hey this is OK and this isn’t,” Welsh said. “Because now, we’re picking and choosing the enforcement versus we’re going to treat it all as one, versus us getting better direction and they change the current law the way it is written.”
Soriano asked whether speed limits for all vehicles on the Boardwalk, which was 8 mph in the past, would be more equitable since the majority of older bike riders now use e-bikes.
Certified to estimate speed and distance by eye, Welsh said the difficulty in enforcing speed limits at such low speeds would preclude their use.
“Even if they put up a speed limit of 8 mph, to visually estimate the difference between 8 mph and 10 or 12 is so hard to where it’s better to say, hey Class 1 e-bicycles are allowed,” he said.
Noting that e-bikes are easily dismantled into ordinary bicycles, Dave Schmidt said he would take a ticket to court if he received one under such conditions.
“If you have an e-bike and take the battery off, which I can, really easily, I might get a ticket but I’m sure I’ll be able to fight that,” Schmidt said.
While not encouraging law breaking, Escalante said any clarification from the courts would be adopted by police.
“We have to go basically by what the law says,” Escalante said. “If it meets this criteria within the law, then that’s what we’re going to write the citation for. If later on, the judge or the courts rule that this is not a good direction that we’re going, then we’ll adjust accordingly.”
In other business, Pacific Beach Town Council President Charlie Nieto previewed the upcoming summer events organized and sponsored by the town council. Highlights included:
• The 16th annual Graffiti Clean-Up Day is on May 2, in which volunteers are given cleaning materials and detailed maps to clean tags and stickers already identified.
“It’s a great one-day event that happens once a year that makes a huge difference in our community,” Nieto said. “Graffiti tags are an issue in our community and this is a way for all of us together to tackle that.”
• The free, 45th annual Concerts on the Green series in Kate Sessions Park is set for Sunday, July 12, 19 and 26, and Aug. 2.
“This one is probably our biggest event by far,” Nieto said. “It’s the most beloved. It’s free to everybody. Very family friendly. It’s just a fun community event to get to enjoy our most beautiful park in town and some free music by local artists.”
• The third annual Pacific Beach Retro Fun Fair and Car Show will be on Saturday, Aug. 15.