Mayor Todd Gloria has just over two years to put the good ship San Diego on an even keel and, in the process, rehabilitate his standing with the public.
Given the way things have been going, he has his work cut out for him.
Underlying many problems at City Hall is the historic municipal imbalance of more spending than available revenues, the so-called structural deficit. A main solution to address that during the Gloria administration has been the unpopular effort to add fees and cut services, policies agreed upon by the mayor and many council members. A 2024 sales tax increase was narrowly rejected by voters.
But the botched operational rollout of those new charges further heightened public frustration with the city, and the Gloria administration owns that. That’s been compounded by further operational problems and other controversial plans.
For much of the administration, “right track, wrong track” polls have shown confidence in city government sinking and, according to some internal campaign surveys, Gloria’s popularity plummeting. His 11-point victory margin when first elected in 2020 seems like a lifetime ago.
The right-leaning Lincoln Club Business League of San Diego is betting the mayor is a drag on candidates and has sent out mailers opposing Nicole Crosby’s bid for City Council District 2 that tie her to Gloria. Crosby, a deputy city attorney, is running against former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey for the open seat.
Meanwhile, Gloria has faced pressure to improve how he runs the city from allies and foes alike, with the occasional whisper of recall in political circles and, more openly, a yearning by some to return to a city manager form of government.
The mayor took a concrete step to change the equation Thursday by announcing the elevation of a top deputy, Bethany Bezak, to chief operating officer.
His previous COO hire, Eric Dargan, came from Houston and was heavily criticized. Since Dargan left in early 2025, Gloria decided to do the job himself — widely deemed a mistake. If Bezak proves competent, that will be a relief. City operations may not be the most exciting subject, but it’s important.
It’s impossible to say, of course, whether Bezak would have avoided the debacle of instituting parking fees at Balboa Park or overcharging for new trash-collection fees (after they were already higher than promised).
With the mayor termed out of office in December 2028, there would seemingly be plenty of talk about what’s next for Gloria politically. After all, he has been an elected official for nearly two decades and served in government before that.
At this stage, it’s hard to think he’s electable to, say, a congressional seat or anything else, for that matter. Not long ago, there was open talk about him pursuing an appointment in the Biden and (would-be) Harris presidential administrations. Similarly, there’s some speculation about whether there would be a post with the sure-thing Xavier Becerra gubernatorial administration.
Not surprisingly, Gloria publicly says he’s not looking at what his next step would be.
In a recent interview, the mayor insisted his focus was solely on his remaining tenure at City Hall. This was before any public inkling about the shake-up announced Thursday, though it likely was in the works.
“Whatever my future holds is going to be dependent upon how I spend these next two years, right?” Gloria said.
He said the resolution of “a multitude of long-standing civic issues,” along with the completion of or substantial progress on major projects, would be positive developments both physically and symbolically for San Diego.
Gloria mentioned several.
There’s 101 Ash St., the high-rise office building taken over by the city under the previous administration of Mayor Kevin Faulconer (a move supported by Gloria). That turned into a costly boondoggle, saddling the city with a building that remained vacant for years.
It became a symbol of ineptitude at City Hall and raised questions of undue influence and profits by private interests involved in the deal. Gloria engineered a hotly disputed purchase of the property for the city, and the building is soon to be turned into a mix of affordable housing, commercial enterprises and a childcare facility.
Another ill-fated attempt under Faulconer to turn an erstwhile indoor skydiving building downtown into a “navigation center” for homeless people is now on its way to being turned into affordable housing as well. That initial city project also raised questions about previous influential owners.
“That tends to get overlooked, but I think it’s equally frustrating for those of us who weren’t at City Hall at the time and wonder, was that a good idea?” Gloria said of the navigation center.
He cited action on long-dormant and decrepit once-iconic facilities as a signal San Diego is moving forward — the tearing down of the California Theatre and the city’s takeover of the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park — after decades of development proposals and preservationists’ hopes.
While acknowledging respect for historic sites, Gloria nevertheless said, “our commitment to kind of always revert to the past rather than try and understand what it is to be in the present and in the future has created a situation where we’ve had stasis.”
Though he may not have had much to do with them, Gloria cited the relatively new Rady Shell on the bayfront and Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley — along with the emerging San Diego State satellite campus there — as signs that San Diego can do big things.
“There are projects that have been delivered in recent years that are already beloved by San Diegans, and we shouldn’t forget that,” he said.
Gloria also put the planned massive Midway Rising redevelopment of the sports arena area in the plus category, prospectively. However, that project, which has a ways to go before breaking ground, has faced vocal opposition and come under scrutiny because of a developer’s financial backing for Gloria’s election.
He also suggested a continued decrease in homelessness and maintaining San Diego’s low crime rate would help put these next two years in a positive light.
Gloria said perhaps the most important issue to him is “the least sexy” — finally fixing the structural budget deficit. He said the city’s next five-year fiscal outlook may suggest it’s close. But he suggested not everybody will be happy with what it takes to get there.
“If that shows stability going forward… that’s tremendous progress,” he said, “but not without tremendous pain.”