{"id":476131,"date":"2026-09-26T05:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476131\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:12:11","slug":"on-heels-of-trash-fee-error-mayor-todd-gloria-launches-national-affordability-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476131\/","title":{"rendered":"On heels of trash fee error, Mayor Todd Gloria launches national affordability tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gloria<\/a>Mayor Todd Gloria, president of the United States Conferences of Mayors, announced a national affordability tour at a press conference on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026 (Photo by Drew Sitton\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

Mayor Todd Gloria stood up at the close of a week dominated by City Hall\u2019s latest management crisis and explained how he approaches his responsibilities as mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a job. This is a lifestyle. There\u2019s not a day that I don\u2019t work,\u201d Gloria said of his role, which includes serving as the city\u2019s COO and president of the United States Conference of Mayors<\/a> (USCM).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI feel the pressure of the fact that no matter how good or bad a job I do, I only get to do this job for eight years, and so I\u2019m going to make the most of every single day that\u2019s there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He made the remarks Friday in front of the fall leadership gathering for the Conference of Mayors. Gloria was flanked by dozens of other mayors at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel to announce an upcoming \u201caffordability tour\u201d to show how cities are responding to the high cost of living. <\/p>\n

The press conference came two days after the city admitted<\/a> to trash fee errors that led to some residents receiving property tax bills up to $2,700 higher than they expected. Others were undercharged. The mistake affects more than 87,000 customers.<\/p>\n

Allies, though, touted his advocacy on the national level.\u00a0 Lincoln, Neb. Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird defended Gloria\u2019s record of sending both dollars home and contributing to legislative solutions, including the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, passed by Congress in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a formidable advocate,\u201d Baird said, noting Gloria<\/a>\u2019s leadership in shaping the massive bipartisan housing bill<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been there in those meetings, sitting at the table and explaining what San Diegans need, as well as what cities across the country need,\u201d Baird said. \u201cEspecially in his role as president, it\u2019s impressive and it\u2019s making a difference.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city, meanwhile, announced Friday that it sent corrected trash fee information to the San Diego County treasurer\/tax collector office.<\/p>\n

It is now the county\u2019s role to correct the flawed property tax bills, action which the city said would begin Saturday. With property taxes due on Nov. 1, officials urged residents not to pay the current listed amount until they are sent corrected bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Residents received bills associated with the wrong address, according to a FAQ on the city\u2019s website.<\/a> While half of people were undercharged, others faced costs substantially higher than the trash service they received.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s new figures show that 87,681 customers were affected. Of that total, 44,041 are seeing an overcharge. The largest share of them, almost 14,000 properties, received an overcharge of less than $100. But a sizable number, 639 customers, saw bills with charges between $1,101 and $2,700 higher than the correct total.<\/p>\n

For some council members, the error can be explained by Gloria jettisoning the city\u2019s former COO, Eric Dargan<\/a>. Gloria eliminated his role, the city\u2019s top administrator, in February 2025, electing to take on the duties himself amid a budget deficit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dargan made $375,000 per year. Councilmember Kent Lee said this week that the position should be restored. His colleague, Henry Foster II, called on Gloria to resign.<\/p>\n

The trash fee mistake has led to conversations \u2013 among councilmembers and other critics \u2013 about whether Gloria is taking on too much. On Friday, however, he defended his ability to get everything done. Beyond overseeing the city\u2019s basic operations, that includes keeping in touch with council members, city executives and constituents, he said, along with continuing to use roles like his Conference of Mayors presidency to represent the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI will guarantee you, taxpayers in this city are going to get their money\u2019s worth out of me over the next couple of years,\u201d Gloria said Friday. \u201cI make the most of every day, including making sure that San Diego\u2019s voice is heard at a national level.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mayors at Friday\u2019s news conference touted their jobs leading cities as uniquely positioning them to inform federal policy because they know what Americans need day to day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no other group in the United States that actually get things done like mayors, doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s technical solutions to protect our community, getting the trash picked up,\u201d said Mayor Daniel Rickenmann of Columbia, S.C. \u201cOur focus is to outcomes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That focus has shifted to affordability outcomes, no matter the mayors\u2019 political bent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to serving the people we represent, doesn\u2019t matter what political party you are, doesn\u2019t matter the differences that you have,\u201d Rickenmann said. \u201cNobody gives a damn as long as that pothole gets fixed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In USCM\u2019s biggest study ever on affordability<\/a>, 93% of mayors surveyed said that costs had risen in the past year and 96% said their residents were very or extremely concerned about the affordability crisis..\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study prompted October\u2019s tour, in which Gloria plans to meet with residents struggling to afford rent, healthcare, food and other costs, then leaders addressing those issues. It begins in Albuquerque, N.M. with a look at childcare expenses, then continues on to Austin, Texas to see the city\u2019s response to housing costs, followed by Columbus, Ohio regarding\u00a0 healthcare. The tour will conclude in Atlanta with a focus on food and grocery costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWashington should take note because this is what mayors do: we listen, we solve problems, and we deliver,\u201d Gloria said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Todd Gloria, president of the United States Conferences of Mayors, announced a national affordability tour at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[51111,74,76,75,3235,2074,141800],"class_list":["post-476131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-city-budget","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-todd-gloria","tag-trash-fee","tag-u-s-conference-of-mayors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476131","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=476131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}