San Diego City councilmembers slammed Mayor Todd Gloria Monday afternoon for improperly spending millions in city dollars, even as he vetoed funding for homeless services and other aid organizations to tighten the city’s budget.
Councilmembers Kent Lee, Sean Elo-Rivera, Henry Foster III and Joe LaCava unloaded on Gloria for cutting funding to key community services and urged the council to overturn all of his vetoes during that afternoon’s vote.
It’s the latest development in the city council and the mayor’s tug of war over San Diego’s budget for the upcoming year as the city works to solve a $258 million deficit.
“(Gloria) labeled community investment, like cultural events and nonprofit support as a ‘discretionary slush fund’ for the council,” Councilmember Foster said. “The council has not paid for employees that were not identified in the budget.”
“That has been the practice of this administration, the practice of this mayor and it’s time for that to end.”
Throughout his administration, Gloria added $155 million to the city budget for contracted employees without the required pre-approval of the council, according to a city audit.
Foster blasted Gloria’s years of unauthorized spending and lack of cooperation for striking down the “balanced and equitable” budget that the city council delivered to his desk earlier this month.
Opponents of Mayor Gloria’s budget vetoes gathered to wield signs reading “Protect our parks,” and “Override the veto,” as councilmembers blasted the cuts. Gloria’s vetoes would cut millions in funds to lake recreation, arts events and other community services.The nearly $5 million vetoed by the mayor would cut funding for some of the city’s most underserved communities, including aid organizations, homeless outreach, the arts and the city’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice, which Gloria created in 2020.
“The council has been extremely unified with the approach that we want to take: We want to step up for our communities,” Elo-Rivera said. “The mayor’s position has been to retreat.”
Funding for homeless services, wildfire prevention on the line
Over the last few months, the city council and mayor have wrestled over how to fill the massive hole in the upcoming city budget.
While Gloria has favored unpopular budget cuts that would’ve closed libraries and recreation centers on certain days, the city council has fought against the sweeping cuts by creating new initiatives to generate money for the city, like a new trash fee.
The city council squeezed out a major win when it successfully restored funding for libraries, pools, recreation centers and other community services that were on the line earlier this month.
But Gloria’s vetoes cut funding for many other needs that the council has fought for throughout the budgeting process, including for stormwater infrastructure and wildfire prevention.
While the city council expects its new initiatives will generate millions to pay for these needs, San Diego Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica has warned that those hopes may be optimistic at best. Gloria agrees.
“As mayor, I cannot in good conscience allow a budget built on shaky assumptions to move forward — not when we’re facing national economic uncertainty, global instability and real threats to the federal and state funding we rely on,” Gloria said when announcing the vetoes.
Gloria warned that layoffs may wrack the city, and libraries and recreation centers may close completely if the city doesn’t have enough money in the middle of the fiscal year.
Ahead of the council’s vote, council President LaCava urged the mayor to work with the city council to pass a budget they could all agree on. At this afternoon’s vote, two more councilmembers must join the four who are against the vetoes to strike down all of the mayor’s cuts.
“The vetoes were guised as measures of responsibility,” Elo-Rivera said.
“There’s nothing responsible about pulling a lifeline out from the nonprofit organizations that serve this community and help keep foster kids housed, hungry people fed and seniors connected to vital resources.”
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