The City of San Diego\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Savannah Stallings, representing City Council President Joe LaCava, briefly mentioned the release of the mayor\u2019s draft budget earlier that day, before discussing three other items more extensively in her District 1 report.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a draft,\u201d she said. \u201cThings 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Citing the most recent revenue report, Stallings showed that actual tax receipts are below initial projections and thereby growing the deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cSales tax is about 2% lower than what\u2019s expected,\u201d she said. \u201cTOT (Transient Occupancy Tax), what we see from people coming to visit, tourism, that\u2019s down because of lower international travel happening. There are other revenues across the board that are down.\u201d<\/p>\n
La Jolla Town Council President Mary Soriano, who presented questions from her members, referred to the recent budget survey from the mayor\u2019s office that asked residents to select top priorities that should not be cut from the budget..<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feedback we\u2019ve gotten since we put this out, is this survey was pretty much an elimination of services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Stallings said LaCava has been clear that should the community want specific budget items restored, they should also suggest cuts to achieve balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that (the city) has been very blunt and upfront that there is a reduction in services,\u201d Stallings said. \u201cThat will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soriano said the survey\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate because \u2026 a lot of necessities are maintenance, including public bathrooms being closed,\u201d Soriano said.<\/p>\n
Stallings said difficult choices were unavoidable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that that\u2019s just the reality, where the city is at unfortunately,\u201d Stallings said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be an easy year. There are no simple and easy conversations ahead of us. It will be difficult conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can they possibly get a pay raise when we have a deficit?\u201d she asked. \u201cIt seems like they\u2019re getting the pay raise so they could not have library hours and not have rec (center) hours. They\u2019re actually taken away from us when this probably could be solved by not giving everybody raises.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
She also said 50 city employees are on the chopping block currently, with 100 more possible. Combined with layoffs from last year\u2019s deficit, she expects reductions in the \u201cservices that people need.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo people are losing jobs,\u201d Stallings said. \u201cLots of people are losing their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soriano said it should not be on residents to find a solution when city management created the predicament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us like people to lose their jobs,\u201d Soriano said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is get the city to be more efficient on how they hire, who they hire and the work that they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attendees also had a lot to say when members of the San Diego Police Department gave their report.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t make the decision, hey this is OK and this isn\u2019t,\u201d Welsh said. \u201cBecause now, we\u2019re picking and choosing the enforcement versus we\u2019re going to treat it all as one, versus us getting better direction and they change the current law the way it is written.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Certified to estimate speed and distance by eye, Welsh said the difficulty in enforcing speed limits at such low speeds would preclude their use.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven 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\u2019s better to say, hey Class 1 e-bicycles are allowed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have an e-bike and take the battery off, which I can, really easily, I might get a ticket but I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be able to fight that,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n
While not encouraging law breaking, Escalante said any clarification from the courts would be adopted by police.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to go basically by what the law says,\u201d Escalante said. \u201cIf it meets this criteria within the law, then that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to write the citation for. If later on, the judge or the courts rule that this is not a good direction that we\u2019re going, then we\u2019ll adjust accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other business, Pacific Beach Town Council President Charlie Nieto previewed the upcoming summer events organized and sponsored by the town council. Highlights included:<\/p>\n
\u2022 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great one-day event that happens once a year that makes a huge difference in our community,\u201d Nieto said. \u201cGraffiti tags are an issue in our community and this is a way for all of us together to tackle that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one is probably our biggest event by far,\u201d Nieto said. \u201cIt\u2019s the most beloved. It\u2019s free to everybody. Very family friendly. It\u2019s just a fun community event to get to enjoy our most beautiful park in town and some free music by local artists.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 The third annual Pacific Beach Retro Fun Fair and Car Show will be on Saturday, Aug. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of San Diego\u2019s projected $146 million budget deficit became more localized and testy as audience questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[120361,22383,48762,22386,74,76,75,9862],"class_list":{"0":"post-279185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-city-of-san-diego-budget-deficit","9":"tag-e-bikes-in-san-diego","10":"tag-joe-lacava","11":"tag-pacific-beach-town-council","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news","15":"tag-san-diego-police-department"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}