President Pro Temli.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Thank you, uh Clerk.

I noticed that Councilmember Whitburn has entered chamber, so please mark him as present.

And we do in fact have a quorum.

We will begin this morning with an invocation by Clerk Quentis, followed with the land acknowledgement and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilmember Campbell.

Grant those who hold office in this city, the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice, that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people.

We respectfully acknowledge that the community are the original inhabitants of the Calem.

Today is a couple of standing between the items.

Clerk, please go over how the public can offer their testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll highlight the slide on the screen that reviews how the public can offer their public testimony today.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip.

Look at the entrance of chambers and bring it to the front of the room.

No in-person testimony will be taken once the council begins virtual testimony for better meeting management purposes.

Each speaker will have one minute per item per person.

If you are in the virtual queue, now is the time to raise your hand for closed session.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

With that, please read the closed session items into the record.

Conference with the old council existing litigation pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.9 D1 is CS1 Dorset William J versus City of San Diego.

CS2 is Jacob Triska versus City of San Diego.

CS3 is Rodney Edel Height versus City of San Diego.

CS4 is Livable San Diego versus City of San Diego.

Conference with Property Negotiator pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.8 is CS5.

Property 7th and Market, 55,000 square foot site located downtown San Diego between 7th, 6th Avenue, Market Street, and Island Avenue under negotiation price and payment terms related to unsolicited offer for the potential redevelopment of the 7th and Market site located on the block bounded by 7th, 6th Market Island in downtown San Diego.

Conference with the existing legal council existing litigation pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.9 D1 CS6, Brietta Cooper versus City of San Diego Conference with Legal Council anticipated litigation initiation of litigation pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.9 D4 is CS7, number of cases one.

Going to those participating remotely because there is nobody here in person.

So I'm sorry, the five-minute timer, starting with Andrea Ebbing.

If you can please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Speaking to the closed session litigations.

Which one?

There are seven.

I'll take the last one you said.

Okay.

So I wish us all the best of luck in these litigations because we have things are emerging, obviously.

Like look at our harm reduction team, right?

They were supposed to be uh passing out in our camp, but instead they're gonna have plastic surgery and hiding all that medication or whatever that was reversal drug under a tarp in Alpine under 120 degree weather.

Um also included in the DA's um information that was distributed about this thing.

Um it is clear that we are not charging uh people for major narcotics.

We were gonna test their drugs for them.

We're gonna test their drugs to make sure they were safe to consume, safe to consume.

I mean, the whole thing is backwards, so God help us.

I have no idea what these litigations uh actually are, but what I do know is that we're in big trouble as a city and a county in all the malfeasance, all the corruption is shining, and it's rearing its ugly head, and it is horrifying.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Blair Beekman.

If you can please unmute after that is 8700, please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

You'll have one minute, please proceed.

Yeah.

Um, hi, Blair Beekman.

Um, CS5 is the item about uh development issues for the seventh and market area.

I don't know if it's actually bounded by Sixth Avenue.

Um, I I don't know if this is exactly the place, but there's a huge parking space on uh between 7th and 8th Avenue that is uh of interest to myself.

I don't know if that this is this item.

There is a hotel on the corner of this large parking lot that you want to redevelop.

It's a very very old hotel, and it has a deep history of African American uh heritage or uh African American history about it.

That um I hope whatever development will be there in the future that will honor that building what it used to be about.

Um it's important.

Uh portable, very truly affordable housing is a good idea.

Um, please think in those terms.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And eighty seven hundred, if you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Item one through six, please.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Uh, Joyce and Yada C D three.

Um, number one, even though the letter of the law, the First Amendment rights drives the litigation.

The spirit of the law must drive the outcome of both involved with fairness and justed justice.

Dear public, take a look at qualified immunity.

Two words qualified immunity.

Uh CS two, three, and six.

Cracks, trenches, potholes, skateboards, bicycles, motorcycles.

The only way to get our arms around these obstacles is the public needs to point them out.

The public needs to do their own safety advocacy.

Be alert and aware.

And the city needs to do their best.

And we're all doing our best, aren't we?

Hold a minute.

Dr.

Paper on the floor.

We must all work together to shape sustainable development that serves all.

CS5, seventh and market.

This feels like my third lifetime in this project site.

The first two were very bumpy.

Dear Robert Green Company team.

Put on top of your to-do list for the seventh and market deals.

One people, one San Diego, and diddle for council mayor and all involved in this price and payment terms.

Thank you all for your consideration.

Have a beautiful week and love to all.

Thank you.

That concludes uh public comment on the closed session agenda.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

We will now recess into closed session and reconvene council today at 2 p.m.

or shortly thereafter.

All right, good afternoon.

I will now reconvene the city council meeting of Monday, February 23rd, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tim Lee.

Here.

Council River Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

President.

And Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Present.

Council President, would you like to read the Microsoft?

Councilmember Larrera, we did hear you hearing Council Chambers.

If you'd like to say your statement for the record.

Yep.

I'm notifying the council that I will be attending the meeting today remotely due to just cause related to child care.

Pursuant to the Brown Act, I'm disclosing that there are no individuals 18 years of age or older present in the room with me.

And I will update this disclosure if it changes during the course of the meeting.

And for the record, I do need to call Council President Lacava present.

Present.

Also attending the meeting, our assistant city attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analyst, Charles Modica, Council of Affairs Advisors Advisor in the Mayor's Office, Coda Seizer, and myself for City Clerk Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

With that, a quorum is now present.

We'll start off if are there any comments from uh mayor's office, city council members, city attorney, independent budget analyst, or the city clerk.

Not seeing any, we'll move right along.

So before the clerk goes over the public how how how the public can offer their public testimony, just a notice to the public, uh, we do have we had a morning session, we're having an afternoon session, and we're going to have an evening session starting at 6 o'clock.

Uh we will be taking public non-agenda public comment after this afternoon session.

Uh, we're not going to make you sit through the 6 o'clock session uh for that.

So again, at the end of this afternoon's session, we will take public uh not agenda public comment, whether you're in person or remote.

Uh after we take that non-agenda public comment, the council will then recess and reconvene at 6 p.m.

for our evening meeting that will take public input on the development of the fiscal year 2027 budget.

So again, non-agenda public comment will be taken at the end of our current session, the afternoon session, and then we'll reconvene at 6 p.m.

So with that, clerk, please proceed with how public can offer their testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll highlight this uh slide on the screen that reviews how the public can offer the public testimony during this afternoon's meeting.

The order can be found on the agenda summary found online or at the table in the back of the room.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and bring it to the front of the room and place it in the clear box.

Council ambassadors are available in the entrance of chambers and can assist with questions and speaker slips.

No further in-person testimony will be taken once the council begins virtual testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And with that, please introduce item 200.

Item 200 is the fiscal year 2026 mid-year budget monitoring report.

If you'd like to speak to this item, now's the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Or if you are participating here in person, please be sure to submit your speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box for better meeting management.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And as our good folks from the Department of Finance settle in, please identify yourself for the record and let us know how much time you need.

All right, when you're ready.

This is the second budget monitoring report for the fiscal year.

In December, we presented the first quarter budget monitoring report to the City Council, and this was based on only three months of financial activity.

It also had a limited focus, primarily on major general fund revenues, as well as overtime projections for the police and fire rescue departments.

The mid-year budget monitoring report was developed in coordination with departments based on five months of financial activity.

It includes a full analysis of projected revenue and expenditures for all general fund departments as well as several non-general funds.

Since the release of the report, there have been a few recent positive developments, and we will discuss those with you today.

The development of this report was a team effort.

I'd like to thank all departments for their valuable contributions.

We've requested departments to attend today to assist with any questions you might have.

I'll now turn it over to Chris to walk through the specifics.

At a high level, the report projected general fund expenditures to exceed revenues, resulting in a bottom line deficit of 16.8 million.

This comprised the projected 13.6 million decrease in revenues and a slight 3.2 million increase in expenditures.

The decline in revenues was within both the major general fund revenue category and departmental revenues, while the increase in expenditures is primarily due to personnel expenditures.

Since the release of the report, we have received additional information that has a positive impact on the bottom line.

These include the anticipated receipt of $8 million of insurance proceeds related to flooding at the old central library, revised SDG and E franchise fees that will have a positive $6 million impact on the general fund.

An additional sales tax distribution, which increases our projection by $2.6 million.

These positive updates are slightly offset by a further decline in transient occupancy tax of approximately $350,000, and the recent announcement of changes to Balboa Park Parking, which reduced anticipated revenue by 1.2 million.

When factoring in these recent developments, the revised net projected activity is anticipated to be a deficit of 1.8 million.

As discussed in the report, major general fund revenues were projected to end the fiscal year $7.2 million under budget.

The primary drivers of this decrease are in the transit occupancy tax and other major revenue categories.

Transit occupancy tax revenues in the general fund were projected to end the fiscal year $7.4 million under budget due to a significant decline in international travel and tempered growth in both leisure and business travel.

As previously noted, recent updates have further reduced this revenue by an additional $350,000.

Other major revenues were projected to end the fiscal year $6.7 million under the current budget due to reduced interest earnings and a decrease in the one cent TOT transfer, driven by the noted decrease in TOT revenues.

With the recent updates about the anticipated receipt of insurance proceeds, this projection would increase by $8 million and is now anticipated to end the fiscal year $1.3 million over budget.

These are partially offset by a projected increase in property tax of $2 million due to increased collections.

Additionally, sales tax was projected to be $2.1 million higher than assumed in the budget, and this is now anticipated to increase by $2.6 million.

Lastly, franchise fees was projected to be $2.8 million over budget, primarily due to increased tonnage at the Sycamore landfill.

But with the cleanup payment recently received from SDGE, this is expected to increase by an additional $4.5 million.

When including the updates after the release of our report, major general fund revenues are now expected to exceed the budget by $7.5 million.

The report included projections reflecting the anticipated decrease in departmental revenues of $6.4 million.

But this is now anticipated to be $6.1 million with including the recent updates.

That reduction included lower Balboa Park parking revenue in parks and recreation due to shifts in the program's implementation timelines and adjustments to fee structures.

And this has been further reduced by the recent announcement of changes to be implemented in March.

Details regarding Bubba Park parking will be discussed on the following slide.

Additionally, there were reductions anticipated for wayfinding kiosks, telecom and lease and concession revenue within economic development, reduced parking citation and parking meter reimbursement revenue in stormwater, and a continued decline in cannabis business tax revenue and city treasures.

These decreases are partially offset by increases in fire rescue for reimbursements related to the junior lifeguard and paramedic programs, as well as strike team deployments.

Police also anticipates additional reimbursements for work performed on special events.

Lastly, offsetting some of the projected reduction in parks and recreation is the portion of the increased SDGE franchise fee revenue previously discussed, which will be deposited into the environmental growth funds and available to reimburse eligible expenditures in the general fund.

Here we see a breakdown of how the projections for Baboa Park Parking program have changed over time.

When the adopted budget was approved, the anticipated revenue for this program was $12.5 million based on city staff's assumptions and the modifications made by the city council.

In September, city staff presented to council an updated proposal for how rates could be structured to achieve revenues that closely align with the amount included in the adopted budget.

This proposal was projected to generate $12.2 million in revenue, approximately $300,000 less than the budget assumed.

The proposal was ultimately approved with an amended resolution that implemented implementation would begin only once quarterly annual quarterly and annual passes were available and with modifications to the proposed fee structures.

In November, staff returned to council with the requested changes to the proposed fees.

These changes included periodic passes, tiered rate changes, free hours at inspiration point, resident versus non-resident rates, and the delayed implementation to align with the availability of quarterly passes.

Incorporating those changes resulted in revenue projection of $3.7 million and represented a further reduction of $8.5 million from the proposal originally presented in September for a total decrease of $8.8 million from the budget.

Lastly, on February 6th, the mayor announced that he was expanding free parking zones for city residents and limiting parking enforcement to end at 6 p.m.

rather than 8 p.m.

These changes are expected to take effect in March.

With these changes, projected revenues are approximately $2.5 million, reflecting a further decrease of $1.2 million from the November projections included in the mid-year report and a total decrease of $10 million from the budget.

This slide provides a breakdown of expenditure categories tied to city staffing.

When combined, personnel expenditure and fringe benefits are projected to exceed the budget by $15.1 million.

The overage in personnel expenditures is mainly attributed to increased overtime cost of $12.9 million, and this is primarily within three departments.

Fire rescue, to maintain constant staffing, dispatcher training, and deployment backfill.

As noted, the increase is anticipated to be partially offset by increased reimbursements.

In police, this is due to support higher activity at special events and parking enforcement.

And again, this is projected to be partially offset by increased reimbursements.

Lastly, transportation's increase is primarily to support emergencies and callbacks.

As in prior years, the projection does include an estimated historical savings adjustment of $3 million combined across salaries and fringe benefits to account for anticipated differences between what a department may project and year-in actuals.

For non-personnel expenditures, when excluding fringe, these are projected to be under budget by $11.9 million.

This includes a $2.8 million net decrease in contracts, primarily due to a decrease in contributions to the public liability fund, as that fund received insurance proceeds that will be available to support current year payments.

Those savings were partially offset by higher contractual equipment, maintenance, and service costs across transportation, police, parks and recreation, and fire rescue.

A 1.9 million decrease in information technology due to the IT fund's operational efficiencies and the use of their available fund balance to offset non-discretionary costs.

And a 1.4 million decrease in debt due to timing of the helicopter leases in fire rescue and police, which reduce the anticipated number of payments in the current year.

Offsetting these savings is an increase of $3.4 million in energy and utilities, primarily within parks and recreation due to water rate changes.

Lastly, we analyzed recent mid-year reports against year in actuals and incorporated an estimated $10 million historical savings adjustment, which is approximately $1.7% of projected expenditures.

Here we have the requested appropriation adjustments.

For the general fund, we are requesting a reallocation of budget among departments with no bottom line impact.

The savings within the general savings within the citywide program expenditures department are tied to the previously mentioned decreased contributions to the public liability fund, and reallocating those savings will ensure continuity of operations and that required obligations are met for the five departments noted in the table.

For non-geners, each of these requests is supported by available fund balance in those funds and are critical for those funds to operate.

Before we conclude, we wanted to provide a look ahead at fiscal year 2027.

As you remember, the five-year financial outlook released in November 2025 reflected a projected baseline shortfall of 88.8 million.

Since the release of that report, the projected shortfall has increased by approximately 30 million due to increased expenditures and decreased revenues.

Some items contributing to this increase are the removal of 5.8 million of property tax associated with the sale of Tailgate Park, a 5.6 million reduction in transient occupancy tax based on recent receipts, and the 16.4 million increase in the pension payment based on the updated actuarial valuation.

The city will need to be strategic in its reductions in service levels to address the projected shortfall, which will be incorporated in a balanced draft budget released by the mayor on April 15th.

To conclude, the report projects general fund revenues to come in under budget, while expenditures are projected slightly over budget.

Updates since the report's release show improvements in revenue, but a deficit is still projected.

If there are no more positive improvements, the general fund would need to draw from the stability reserve to end the fiscal year balanced.

We are requesting the reallocation appropriations between general fund departments to ensure continuity of operations and to meet required obligations without a bottom line impact.

Mitigation efforts will continue to be implemented by departments, and future reports will include updates on those efforts.

Development of the fiscal year 2027 budget will be difficult and will require strategic reductions in service levels to balance.

The Department of Finance will continue to monitor revenues and expenditures and will release the fiscal year 2026 third quarter budget monitoring report on May 13th.

That concludes the presentation on the MIDI report, and now we will turn it over to the police department so they can provide an update on their overtime and neighborhood policing as requested in the fiscal year 2026 appropriation ordinance.

And Chief, as you settle in, introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you will need.

Scott Wall, Chief of Police.

I'm uh joined today by Kyle Mukes, our CFO.

Uh, we'll need about five or six minutes.

All right.

Good afternoon, Council President Lacava and Honorable Council members.

We are here today to provide an update on two important areas required under the FY26 appropriation ordinance.

First is our police overtime spending, and the second is our neighborhood policing division.

I bring with me today some good news.

This update reflects real progress in how we are managing our resources while continuing to meet serious public safety challenges.

Our department's overtime budget for FY26 is about 45 million.

It is important to say that overtime remains a critical resource for our department as we are extremely we have extremely low staffing levels.

We rely on overtime to maintain service levels, maintain response times, and support special operations.

I've been very clear since becoming police chief.

While overtime is necessary, achieving maximum efficiency with the limited number of officers we have and spending our overtime dollars responsibly are part of our top priorities.

My commitment has been bringing our overtime spending back under budget, and I'm proud to say this year we did that.

For fiscal year 26, our non-cost recoverable overtime is on budget.

We did that in part by putting each commanding officer on a budget and by shifting our focus to cost recoverable overtime, areas like grants and special events.

We anticipate being 3.4 million over budget in those cost recoverable areas.

However, those areas are reimbursable.

All told, we're expecting to see a 6.5 million reduction in overtime spending compared to last year, the largest year-over-year decrease in more than a decade.

More importantly, we were able to do it without negatively impacting response times.

This reduction didn't happen by chance.

We knew if we were going to significantly cut overtime costs.

We built an entirely new monitoring process that gives command staff a much clearer look into how we're spending those overtime dollars.

That increased transparency allows for real-time oversight and better decision making.

The result is a leaner overtime budget and better stewardship of our employees.

I want to shift now over to our neighborhood policing division.

When I restructured the department, one of my goals was to strengthen our efforts in the area of homelessness.

To accomplish this, I immediately shifted each academy class to spend three months working with our neighborhood policing officers, learning their craft, and supporting them in their work.

Homelessness remains one of the top concerns we hear from residents, and it requires a consistent coordinated approach.

Our department uses a progressive enforcement model.

That means officers work alongside service providers, mental health clinicians, outreach workers, and registered nurses to offer education, outreach, and support first.

Enforcement is a last resort, but it is an important tool.

When people are offered help repeatedly and understand that there are consequences for refusing services, we see better outcomes.

This approach is not about criminalization, it's about using every part of the system to connect people to long-term solutions.

The strategy helped contribute to a decrease in the number of unsheltered individuals in the 2025 point-in-time count.

The first decrease since 2020.

NPD operates with a budget of approximately 29.6 million, with about 23% of that or 6.8 million being in overtime.

Importantly, the division is projected to be on budget this fiscal year while delivering measurable results for the community.

NPDE work isn't always the most visible, but it is very impactful.

It was MPD that took the lead in enforcing our oversized vehicle ordinance and vehicle habitation ordinances.

So far, they've referred over 400 individuals to the safe parking program at H barracks, resulting in 94 successful placements.

They've also helped complete 245 abatements and removed more than 176 tons of waste from freeway on and off ramps downtown.

Many of you have seen how that area had become out of control.

These efforts significantly improved the health and safety in those areas.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Being fiscally responsible is a top priority for me as chief.

The historic reduction in overtime spending and the responsible management of the neighborhood policing division reflects that commitment.

We are focused on using taxpayer dollars wisely while continuing to deliver the level of surface our community expects and deserves.

Thank you, and we'll be here if there are any questions a little bit later.

All right.

Thank you, G for that presentation.

We'll now turn it over to the office of the independent budget analyst, Mr.

Monica, for your presentation.

Thank you, Councilor President and Council members.

As my team comes up, I will just note that I'll be joined for today's presentation by Sergio Alcalde and Jordan Moore, although our whole team is here either in person or on the Zoom for questions.

Our office released a detailed analysis of the mid-year report on February 18th, and we will cover that in this presentation.

And Sergio, once you get settled in, perfect.

Go to the next slide.

Our report specifically covers general fund revenues and expenditures, and we provide additional context and updates to the mid-year's projections.

We also discuss additional items, including the city's reserves, homelessness programs, the development service funds, and the proposed appropriation adjustments that are included in the mid-year.

Beyond that, we include attachments to our report that provide status updates on various items, including modifications that council made to the budget during the budget's adoption in June, as well as the status of positions that were eliminated in the current year's adopted budget.

With that, I will turn this over to Sergi Alcalde, who will walk us through general fund revenues and expenditures.

Thanks, Charles.

The mid-year projects the mid-year report protects the city's general fund revenues to be a net $9.9 million below the adopted budget.

Of this major general fund revenues projected to end the fiscal year $7.2 million below the adopted budget, while the departmental revenues are projected to be $2.7 million below the adopted budget.

We'd like to note that the $2.7 million $2.7 million departmental variants in the table differs from the $6.4 million figure referenced in DOS presentation.

This difference is because our comparison is based on the mid-year projections against the adopted budget, while DOF compares projections to the current budget.

The difference between the adopted budget and the current budget is primarily due to an increase in budgeted revenue for the transportation department, which we will discuss later in this presentation.

Over the next few slides, I'll cover additional information and considerations on select revenue items.

Starting off with Sales.

While our office concurs with the current sales tax projection, there are some factors worth noting.

The reliance on consumer spending from high-income households may be a result of high stock market returns and the growth of AI companies.

This fiscal year's sales tax growth may mask increased risks associated with a potential overheated stock market that could lead to a large impact on the city's sales tax revenue if the market cools.

That said, elevated household spending may continue in the immediate future as consumers receive increased tax refunds from provisions in the one big beautiful bill act, which may act like a one-time stimulus payment.

One additional note on sales tax, a city just recently received a cleanup payment for second quarter fiscal year 2026 sales, which came in $2.5 million higher than anticipated in the mid-year report.

Similarly, regarding franchise fees, the city was just recently informed that SDGE's cleanup payments for fiscal year 2026 would be $4.5 million above mid-year projections.

Moving on to the transient occupancy tax, the general fund portion of TOT is projected to end the fiscal year $7.4 million below the adopted budget, while overall TOT revenue is projected to end the fiscal year at $19.4 million below.

The shortfall is partly due to reduced international travel to the United States.

Because revenue received from the general fund, special promo programs and council discretionary portions of TOT, as well as revenue from the TOT homeless fund, are used to reimburse eligible general fund expenses.

The decline in overall TOT revenue has a greater general fund impact than just the negative $7.4 million million dollar variance.

Additionally, since the publication of the mid-year report, TOT has come in less than budgeted budgeted projections for the month of January as well.

This equates to an approximately $400,000 reduction to the general fund and council discretionary portions of TOT.

I'll now discuss several departmental revenues, starting off with the revenue from the paid parking program in Balboa Park.

The mid-year report assumes that the program will generate approximately $3.7 million in revenue.

This estimate was based on limited data following the implementation of the paid parking program on January 5th.

Following the release of the mid-year report, however, the mayor announced certain modifications to the paid parking program on February 6th, including free parking for verified city residents at certain lots.

With these modifications, staff now projects the year-end revenue from the paid parking program to be $2.5 million, which is $10 million less than what was included in the adopted budget.

Additionally, expenditures to implement and operate the program are currently projected to be $55,000 under budget, resulting in a projected $9.5 million net impact to the general fund.

Regarding parking meter related revenue, transfers from the parking meter operations fund to the general fund are projected to be $3.6 million less than budgeted.

This shortfall reflects lower than budgeted revenues from initiatives including the adopted budget, such as event-based pricing, double meter rates, and expanded hours, as well as increased expenditures related to meter expansions.

These negative impacts are partially offset by additional unbudgeted revenue from loss of revenue fees and revenue collected from new parking meters.

Additional information on the parking meter operations fund can be found in attachment three of our report.

This shortfall is primarily due to continued decline in reported taxable gross receipts driven by increased competition from the illegal market and increased wholesale prices from an oversupply of cannabis products.

It remains unclear whether the 2% tax increase for retail outlets implemented in May of last year has contributed to the overall projected shortfall by driving customers to other jurisdictions or the illicit market.

Sales data suggests that the rate increase did not have a significant immediate impact on taxable sales as a downward downward trend seemingly driven by pre-existing factors.

Moving on to homelessness departmental revenue, $5.6 million from one-time Measure C revenue from for homelessness collect collected in fiscal year 2025 is included in the mid-year report.

However, rather than being used to offset the use of limited limited state HHAP grants as contemplated in the most recent financial outlook, is now projected to offset the decreases in TOT funding that supports homelessness.

Shifting over to general fund expenditures, our report largely focuses on salaries and wages, which are projected to go over budget by $18.2 million, with the most significant cost being overtime at $16.2 million.

We note that the departments with the largest overtime overages include fire rescue, transportation, and police.

This overage is largely due to constant fire suppression staffing needs and increased fire dispatch overtime.

According to the fire rescue department, this use of overtime is necessary to backfield dispatcher positions while recent hires complete dispatcher training.

The police department is projected to be $3.4 million over budget for overtime, with the general fund impact being reduced to $1.1 million after accounting for revenue from reimbursable overtime activities, including special events and grant or task force participation as well as enhanced parking meter enforcement.

It's worth noting that PD's projected overtime expenditures in fiscal year 2026 are lower than actual expenditures in fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025, indicating that the department's efforts to better manage overtime are proving effective.

I'll now pass it over to Jordan Moore to cover the most of the remaining slides.

Thank you, Sergio.

So on this slide, the first thing we'd like to point out is transportation salary budget, which the mid-year report projects to be $2.1 million over the adopted budget.

The report notes that this is mostly due to the department hiring at a faster pace than projected following the lifting of the request to fill process at the beginning of this fiscal year and prior to its reimposition at the release of the first quarter report.

What this indicates to us is that vacancies in the department are lower than what has historically been seen within the department's overall budget.

Regarding overtime, transportation is protected to be $4.6 million over the adopted budget.

However, we do note that the mid-reportion over should only be $1.2 million.

This is due to two previous actions taken by the council, which included the waiv of the community parking districts, which brought revenue into the general fund, as well as an increased revenue related to a sidewalk CIP.

Both of these actions also included the authority to increase the transportation department's overtime budget.

So you had both revenue and expenditures, and that is what led to the variance that Sergio noted earlier.

Overtime overages have become common for the transportation department over the last several years.

Particularly since fiscal year 2023, overtime overages have grown substantially.

Recent overdues, according to the department, have largely been driven by increases in priority one emergency responses or additional dig alert regulations.

Additionally, historical overages have enabled increases in service levels performed by the department that have not been budgeted.

However, these increases have sometimes resulted in other services being reduced to keep the department within its overall budget allotment.

Transportation noted to us that without additional overtime spending in the current year, when we asked if they could pull back, that they would be unable to generate the revenue currently assumed in the current budget.

To our office, this is just a misalignment between budgeted revenues and the level of expenditures required to generate those revenues.

Accordingly, we recommend the Department of Finance in coordination with transportation and serve that the fiscal year 27 proposed budget better aligned expenditure assumptions with revenue projections, and that in the near term we recommend transportation limit overtime to just priority one emergencies and storm response and or ensure that any additional overtime is directly tied to generating revenues consistent with the 26 budget.

On homelessness, the MINDEA report projects expenditures will be $1.3 million lower than budgeted.

However, what we do know is that there is a homelessness expenditure update that was not discussed in the MIDI report.

And this is the unknown cost of the January storm shelter relocation.

For context, following a storm on January 1st of this year, the 16th and Newton Sprung shelter flooded, requiring a temporary relocation of households to the San Diego Municipal Gym, resulting in unanticipated relocation expenses.

HSSD anticipates absorbing these relocation costs using projected budgetary savings once costs are known in March.

Other homelessness program updates include a combined $669,000 in projected savings to the staffing vacancies at the 20th and B and OLOT safe sleeping sites, as well as $148,000 in estimated savings from eliminating security services for public restrooms.

Moving to the development services fund, the mid-year report projects the fund's year-in revenue to exceed expenditures by $11.7 million.

Increases in revenue are driven by increases in DSD fees that took effect on May in May 2025.

The implementation of a dynamic pricing model that charges fees based on time of invoicing rather than upon completed application submittal and increased billable work.

The development service fund balance began fiscal year 2026 at negative 17.8 million.

With the projected revenue surplus, the fiscal year is anticipated to end with an approved balance of negative 6 million.

As the shortfall persists, the fund will continue with no reserve balance for fiscal year 26 and would not meet its reserve policy target of 19.3 million.

DSD has noted positive revenue impacts due to new state building code updates.

According to the department, historically, the month preceding COVID updates typically sees a 20 to 40 percent increase in permitting activity.

In December of 2025, the month before the latest code update, department revenues exceeded mid-year projections by $3 million.

This amount will be reflected in the third quarter report.

The mid-year report projects a $16.8 million revenue shortfall.

However, subsequent to its release, the Department of Finance was informed of an offsetting $8 million in anticipated insurance proceeds related to flooding damage of the old central library.

Consequently, if urine activity were to equal the mid-year revenue and expenditure projections adjusted for additional assurance proceeds, the general fund reserve would need to be tapped by $8.8 million.

And this table shows the impact on the reserve.

With a current reserve balance of $207 million, the impact of tapping the reserve by $8.8 million would bring the balance to $64.6 million less than the reserve policy target for this fiscal year of $262.9 million.

Given how the city's fiscal challenges have impacted recent budgeting process, the Department of Finance is currently working with the mayor's office on proposed revisions to the reserve policy, which are anticipated to be presented later this fiscal year.

It is important to consider that there is always some uncertainty in the media projections, and you've heard some of that from the Department of Finance here this morning.

Some more other significant areas of uncertainty in fiscal 2026 include impacts of departmental mitigation directives, such as the request to fill process, suspension of discretionary spending and non-essential overtime, and the zero-based review of external contracts.

Departments may also be able to identify additional savings as the year progresses, including through the potential implementation of FY 2027 expenditure modifications.

However, the Department of Finance also has incorporated an overall general fund expenditure savings adjustment of 10 million of $13 million, which is based on historical trends between mid-year projections and year-in actual expenditures and prior years.

If these savings do not materialize by year end, the resulting negative impact could be to further reduce the general fund reserve.

Turning to items that were not factored into the general fund mid-year projections, most of these you've already heard of this morning.

There were revenue updates, including a sales tax cleanup payment, franchise fees, and TOT reimbursements.

Again, examples of things that will change between now and the third quarter report that will give you a better idea of how much the general fund reserve will need to be tapped.

Additionally, the council is being asked to approve general fund appropriation allocations among departments involving non-personnel expenditures and two non-general fund appropriation increases.

In particular, regard to the general fund reallocations.

We note that these reallocations will not fully cover projected expenditure overages for relevant departments, and that those departments are still expected to identify savings or other resources to cover their remaining overages.

I'll turn it back to Charles.

Thanks, Jordan.

So in conclusion, as you saw, the mid-year report is projecting a current year deficit of 16.8 million.

There has been positive news since its release.

As you've heard, we will receive additional dollars through an insurance payment and two of our major revenues, sales tax and SDGD franchise fees have seen positive movement in the last several weeks, although others, uh hotel taxes and parking revenue in particular, are likely to further underperform from projections.

We know these projections will continue to shift as the year progresses, and we'll have additional information when the third quarter is released in May, but especially given the fiscal challenges that we are headed into next year.

It is important to understand the city's tenuous finances, and to the extent that new savings or budget budget mitigations are not identified.

The city may be forced to tap into its general fund reserves, which, while currently funded at $207 million, are already below policy targets.

To the extent the appropriation requests that are in the mid-year are necessary for continued city operations, we support them, but we also suggest that council may wish to ask about the need to make additional appropriations to departments that are already trending over budget, especially given the imminent need for budget cuts as we head into FY 2027.

Council may also wish to ask for more specifics about potential current year mitigations that the city could implement that could begin to address that looming FY27 deficit that will need to be closed.

With that, my team and I are also all available for questions.

All right, thank you, Charles, for the good work of you in your office.

Always very helpful.

With that, Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

I have no speakers here in council chambers to speak to this item.

I'm going to those participating remotely.

Sorry, the five minute timer.

We have three people in the queue.

Starting with Blair Beekman, you'll have two minutes, please proceed.

After that is 8700, then 8813, then 7499.

Blair, please proceed.

All right, thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman.

Uh thanks a lot for this item.

I guess for myself, I can go over some uh regular talking points I've been offering lately.

Hopefully they won't be tedious, but good reminders of things we can be doing at this time.

Um to begin, um, to again offer Paul Kruger has been mentioning uh fairly regularly for a while now that um in talking about the parking issues about ballpark, the revenues from the parking new parking issues isn't going to a Balboa park fund, it's going into the general fund.

And I think we have to be very clear on that narrative, if if he's accurate.

Um we can't be fibbing about these this kind of efforts.

We have to be honest with ourselves in how we're talking about the budget as a full community process.

The work I do with tech accountability, it's the same thing.

Um we just have to be honest and direct in how we have our dialogue on these on the subject matter.

For whatever mistakes you made, um, I hope you can make up and all is forgiven.

It's just a matter that we talk clearly about the subject matter.

Good luck in those efforts.

Uh it's a full community process, and cutting people out of it isn't a way to work.

Um with that said, um, congratulations that uh the police department is working on uh overtime issues fairly well.

I've heard in previous committee reports, they're at uh uh five million dollars uh less in overtime costs than last year.

Um so that's a hearty congratulations.

Uh keep up those sort of good efforts.

Thank you for that.

Um I I do believe parking uh for the Baboa Park issues uh again can really seriously be cut in half uh from what the fees are now, and it can still bring in a pretty significant revenue.

I hope that can be considered in the future for both uh resident and non-resident issues, and uh good luck in in uh looking into Oakland, how they're working their deficit programs, and then you can work the same sort of programs that respect social services.

Your time has concluded.

There are five speakers in the queue still.

8700 and then 8813, if you can please unmute 8700.

Uh thank you.

Uh, Joyce and Yata CD.

I'll start with the Department of Finance.

Uh expenditures exceed revenue.

That's so simple, isn't it?

And so basic.

Uh, a question is it appropriate to end the fiscal year with a negative budgeting fund balance?

I'm thinking of best practices and policies.

Uh KPIs, KPIs, KPIs.

Panda, we're calling to you performance and analytics.

Remember what you did when you shadowed the PUD.

You brought in sunlight.

You are so great in this work.

Let's do the KPIs.

Let's get it done, Panda now.

Love to you.

Um, please.

Uh uh my likes, big time, uh new overtime monitoring process allows for greater command oversight and control.

Love those two Cs, command and control.

Congratulations, entire department.

Uh, 23% or 6.8 million in overtime dollars for the neighborhood policing division.

Chief Wall, congratulations on this.

Remember when you came out of the gate.

I hope I get this right.

You said at the top of the priority list was the word trust and the work of doing that.

So I would love to, it's probably hard to speak to it.

It's so subjective, but I would love to get a report from you on that.

Uh, now moving to the IBA, uh 15.8 uh million uh GF uh budgetary deficit.

Projection somewhat uncertain.

So several notable items not factored into the projection.

Um more details on the appropriateness of the GF appropriations uh is recommended by them.

So this was fabulous, almost an hour.

This this was fabulous.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you.

Next is 8813, then 7499 after that.

8813, please unmute.

I can unmute for you.

Star 6 to unmute.

Okay, sorry about that.

Thank you.

Okay, so uh swelling here.

And yeah, I'm just uh thank you, Blair.

I fully agree with uh the first part of what you had to say.

Um, that was a loaded presentation, and uh I just chimed in, so I didn't catch all of it, but wow, I'm just saddened about how much money goes to things with minimal results um as usual.

But um I guess I'm even more saddened that every time I chime into these meetings, it's the same people who call in and who are paying attention.

Unfortunately, um Yeah, we got to do better with that.

You guys need to broadcast to the news, and people need to start paying attention to um how much money is going to places and like I said, with minimal results.

What a shame.

Okay, that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Next is 7499.

If you can please unmute 749.

After that is Andrea Ebbing.

Please continue.

Bob Kazuski here.

I just heard that there's a projected 16 million dollar shortfall.

I also heard that the new Balboa park parking fees are projected to bring in 1.2 million.

Well, gee, how much money is the business at Tori Pine's Glider Port making every year?

We know that the new lease has that business paying a whopping $3,412 and 50 cents a year.

But what are they bringing in every year, Joe LaCava?

Do you know?

Has that business reported their income to anyone in this city in the last decade?

The last reporting of their income that I could find was from 2010, 11 and 12.

The figures for those three years were 1.1 million, 1.289 million, and 1.361 million respectively.

And those numbers were from over 10 years ago.

Have you heard of inflation?

They could easily be bringing in over 1.5 million dollars a year in 2026.

So if you subtract the $3,400 in rent from about 1.5 million dollars income, you still get about 1.5 million dollars income every year.

That would more than cover all the money you're expecting from Balboa Park parking.

That would cover nearly one-tenth of the projected shortfall.

All the city has to do is run their own glider port and connect collect the profit for the city instead of giving it to a private business.

But neither Joe Lacava nor Todd Gloria will touch that business.

Why is that, Joe Locava?

What kind of corruption squeezes every dollar out of citizens while giving away our multi-million dollar park to a private business to make money?

If people wonder why they should care about the glider port, they should remember this analysis every time they're paying to park in our own Balboa Park.

That's it.

Thank you, Nexus.

Andrea Ebbing, then Catherine Douglas, the five-minute timer did conclude.

There were three people in the queue with their hand raised.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Andrea, please proceed.

Hi, this is Andrea Ebbing.

Um that's a great thing that we um SCPD's down uh six million in overtime um projected.

That's great.

Um I I wanted to um once again bring up other pay.

I haven't heard anybody discuss other pay in the entire year except for me, um, from the city standpoint.

So I don't really know how we can get those answers.

Um again on transparent California, it shows that city employees were paid 152 million dollars of other pay in the year 2024, uh, which doesn't appear to be uh pension benefits, regular pay, um, or uh any form of benefits.

So if like fringe benefits is 152 million for city employees, what is that fringe benefit?

Um, we're very curious about that.

Um I am concerned about one I you know I've heard some projections and um estimations, but I didn't hear anything about some of our programs like the Family Justice Center, which was a city initiative um for decades, and then recently, as of this last year, I guess, Summer Stefan, our district attorney who's a county employee, took it over.

So I don't know how that plays out and what you know how we factor in any of that money, but there was a massive issue when Mara Elliott was running it that the union tribune had picked up on the fact that they weren't actually um licensed to operate in the state of California and money was being filtered through it.

So that is a place we should probably look for money if we need money.

Um the uh reduced revenue and increased um budget deficit is concerning, especially with the Balboa Park parking situation.

It looks like some people have taken it upon themselves to continuously vandalize these uh parking meters, and that's very expensive.

So, all in all, uh and and attendance is down.

Very concerning.

Uh but thank you, that's all.

Catherine Douglas, if you can please unmute after that is 1384.

Catherine Douglas.

Shout out to the San Diego Police Department uh under the leadership of Chief Wall.

Um, and he certainly deserves credit.

So does everybody else on his team because I have seen the concerted effort that they have made to save the to stay within their budgeted over time.

I only hope that other departments will do the same thing and keep pace with what the San Diego police department has been able to accomplish.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And next our final speaker is 1384.

Please unmute Hello.

Ernie Casco, La Jolla resident, senior pilot.

Another shady deal at Torrey Pine's glider port.

The complaint is well documented on your desk.

We have a proven solution known as the San Diego recreational waiver that would end the dispute.

It's time for transparency to stop the corruption within your own administration administration, Joe La Cava.

Your leaseholder is caught.

It is illegal to turn our freedom into a privilege for a license and a fee under any terms, circumstances, or conditions.

I should not be forced to sign a leaseholder waiver when the city liabilities are already covered by California recreational laws.

This is misappropriation of public funding going into a private account and needs to be fully audited for transparency.

City, the San Diego recreational waiver stops city leaseholder internal corruption and revise by revising the permanent reinstatement of Tory Pine's advisory board uh with unanimous support from everyone as a proven solution.

This uh needs to be done for public safety, safety and oversight.

And uh would end the dispute.

The San Diego recreational waiver secures city city liabilities, restores recreational freedom, and addresses the victim and witnesses who have been damaged and assaulted within a timely fashion.

It's a win for city liabilities, restores recreational rights and freedoms for years to come.

It's the best decision city council and you could make Jolacaba.

If you want me to walk away, you're blatantly blatantly robbing America.

The city council is still liable and needs to address the victims and witnesses who have been damaged.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that concludes all the comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, we will turn it over to Council members for questions, comments, and entertain a motion, and we'll start with the chair of the budget committee, Councilmember Foster.

Um thank you, um Council President, and thank you staff for the presentation, and also thank you to the IBA.

Um we did have an opportunity to hear this report in the budget and government efficiency um committee.

So I'm going to keep my comments um brief as I did have an opportunity to provide some feedback there, um, as I'd like to hear from my colleagues that do not sit on the committee and allow them to have the time that they need.

Um I do have one question in the IBA's report um under conclusion, the last bullet, um, kind of said, hey, council may wish to request more details on the um appropriateness of the general fund appropriations.

I guess the question is the impact of departments.

Um, is there not an opportunity to absorb said cost overruns that are being projected or that we are seeing in this um mid-year?

Um if you can answer that quickly, or if there's any opportunity or if we need to take a look at and get back to us.

Yeah, we can address that.

Um these um appropriation reallocations are not addressing the entire over budget projections in those departments.

It's only doing a portion of it.

We are expecting them to find other mitigation actions within their operations.

Okay, and um I I guess you you know, the the the short answer, you know, of course, uh I'm looking forward to the third quarter uh monitoring, which is gives us uh a little more certainty as we um work to close out um this current budget um cycle.

So um with that, council president, um I will move um staff's recommendation.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

So we do have a motion by Councilmember Foster to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Council President Pro Tem Lee, who accidentally got knocked off the lights.

That's okay.

Thanks, Council President.

Uh and uh like our budget chair, Councilmember Foster, we did discuss this at budget and government efficiency.

Uh so I'll try to keep my comments um short as well.

Uh I think for me, there's just three things that are really on my mind that I thought I I would at least vocalize today.

One uh is just the fact that the council um approved the final budget that I know included uh some budgetary cuts that have to date still not been implemented and as I understand them will not be implemented.

Uh and that is just as we look forward, I think something hard for us not to continue uh thinking about how we move forward in terms of uh the council's authority with the budget.

Um second, I recognize that a chunk of the revenue shift um uh in the mid-year is allocated to Babo Park parking.

And to that, I will only uh note that much of the changes that I think have occurred to the program since it was first implemented have largely been focused on either reducing or now to this point making free um parking for residents.

And uh if that is the case, I will only leave the question that um given that shift in the revenue assumptions.

Um what does that say about how much the city was relying on charging residents in order to get revenue from Babbo Park?

Uh and then finally, uh as we look forward to the budget.

Um we know this is gonna be a challenging time frame.

I appreciate recognizing that there have been some shifts since the report was first compiled that put us in a better position than what we started.

Um as we look towards any uh reductions, whether it's in the mid-year or into the next year's budget, would hope that again we uh really consider what the impact might be on frontline employees and recognizing that we cannot simply have them shoulder the the greater burden of the same uh level of services that we must provide as a city with markedly less resources.

So with that, I will go ahead and second the motion.

Thank you, Chair.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Foster and a second by Council President Pro Tem Lee to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

I must continue to stress that passing a balanced budget as one of our most fundamental responsibilities as council members, as it is our job to ensure that expenditures do not exceed revenues.

The mid-year report before us is a direct result of last year's shortfalls and revenue over projections.

Deficit spending forces difficult corrective actions later and makes it harder to protect the core services that our residents rely on.

These fiscal realities must be taken into account as a foundation as we move toward adopting a fiscal year 27 budget.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, uh Councilmember Campbell for those good words.

We'll go next to Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh I will just offer a comment on Chief Wall's report.

Uh I am glad to see that the neighborhood uh policing division uh is on budget, and I want to thank the chief for having the Academy graduating classes engage with neighborhood police, and I think that is vital.

A significant number of the police department's calls involve people experiencing homelessness, so having officers learn how to effectively interact with the homeless population and help them get into services is crucial.

And we are seeing the benefits of that in many areas.

Uh most recently we got updated homelessness numbers from the San Diego Riverbed.

Uh people living in the riverbed has been a huge problem in a couple of different ways.

Uh obviously it's unsafe.

We've seen people swept away when the river rises during storms, but it's also unsanitary.

Uh according to the San Diego River Park Foundation, 65% of the trash in the San Diego River is attributed to people living in the riverbed, which obviously has environmental uh uh consequences.

Uh but the most recent homeless discount in the San Diego River was the lowest that it has been in years.

Uh and many of the people who are leaving the riverbed are going to our safe sleeping sites, uh, which are much safer and obviously much healthier.

So there are a lot of different elements of our homelessness system that work together, and we are seeing the results.

And I want to thank the chief and the department for its contribution to that effort.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Whitburn.

Not seeing anybody else on the lights, I'll offer a few thoughts and thank you, Councilmember Foster, for deferring to those of us not at budget committee.

So I want to thank Department of Finance and our CFO for the very good work that they do every year putting the report together, comparing their projections to the reality, and trying to put it together in a way that even us council members can possibly understand, given the complexity of how we uh the city operates.

Thank you to the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst for your insight and analysis.

It's good to have the two different perspectives put in front of us.

And as others have said, thank you, Chief, for the very good work.

You made a lot of bold promises, and you clearly have delivered without compromising public safety.

So we owe you a debt of gratitude.

And you know, I as was said, I also want to I'll take this opportunity to talk a little bit about overtime fire rescues in a position where they have to respond when there is an emergency.

Uh and um there is not much you can say about uh that while we can continue control, and I know Chief Logan didn't make the promises that Chief Wall did, uh, but I think he did keep a shared uh sharp eye on that, and I know some of that will be reimbursed at a later time.

And even in transportation, when we listen to our constituents complain about sidewalk cracks, potholes, uh, and street lights being out, uh, there has been a remarkable shift in transportation being able to accelerate and respond to that.

Um I think the conversation about our community parking different districts uh was really a game changer in that conversation.

And if we can just get transportation out of the business of dig alerts uh and get them focused on what our constituents want, uh, we'll do even better.

But I appreciate everybody in transportation and and what you've been able to do with the resources we've provided you.

I've said on multiple occasions that I stand ready to docket early actions uh to course correct and generate savings to balance this year's budget and get a jump on cuts necessary to balance the FY27 budget, and I'll continue to voice that commitment.

The mid-year budget monitoring report is one rather limited way for the council to weigh in on the budget outside of the formal budget adoption process we do in June.

And I recognize the mayor has used this executive authority to require mitigation measures, and I know that department directors are taking this budget crisis very seriously.

We cannot predict or control for everything.

The report highlights a predicted uh difficult reality of the 16.7 uh and for a change.

We actually got a series of good news, which uh feels like we've really been lagging over the past uh several months.

So I appreciate uh that reporting, and we're now getting down from 16.7 to 1.8.

Still have third quarter and fourth quarter to navigate, but uh at least it feels like we're on the right track.

Um budgeting for our city's needs, the complex balance of cash flow, long-range planning, and of course, addressing those emergencies.

I applaud Department of Finance for navigating this difficult work.

This is a year for tough conversations and a need for much greater scrutiny.

And I think me and my council colleagues will dig in probably a little bit deeper than we have in the past going forward.

So I have a couple of questions I want to build on Councilmember Foster's comments.

Um for the uh good news that we got in, how much of that is actually ongoing revenue that we can use to predict for FY27 how much of it is one time that the insurance recovery, I suspect is a one-time dollar amount.

That's correct.

Thank you, Council President.

So um $8 million for the old Central Library insurance proceeds is one time.

The revised SDGE franchise fee of six million is ongoing.

The revised sales tax and the TOT sales tax was an increase of 2.6, TOT is a decrease of about uh 400,000.

That's considered ongoing.

And then finally, the Balboa Park parking update of uh negative 1.2, that's considered ongoing as well.

Okay.

It and I guess I do want to be careful because sometimes we think of one time as kind of a bad use, but the insurance, we spent the $8 million already to repair the library, if I understand correctly, and now we're finally getting that insurance proceeds.

So it's not always a bad thing.

Uh, what about the uh appropriations that we're making?

How much uh how many of those are one time or do we actually anticipate they'll be ongoing that will be added to our FY26 baseline?

Uh it is a combination of one time and ongoing.

Um we can provide you details how that breaks out afterwards.

We don't have that right.

Um that'll be good to know again to inform us as we start thinking ahead about FY27 going forward.

Um, you know, I appreciate the question of council member Foster, our budget chair in terms of department's ability to absorb these costs, and as you mentioned, there may be additional uh overages that we'll have to figure out how to navigate those as we understand them to your point of whether they are ongoing or um one time costs.

Um but in order to keep uh the wheels on the bus, so to speak, it's uh the time that we do have those additional savings that we can allocate to, which I will admit costs me a little bit of heartburn, but on the other hand, we have to pay our bills.

Some of these, I'm sure are invoiced items that uh vendors are expecting um payment for that it and I always like to be careful because the the job that Department of Finance does when you look at them as line items, you think really we really miss that.

But against two billion dollars in the total, um they are a pretty small percentage and the kinds of things that will just kind of sneak through uh literally pennies on the dollar compared to the total budget.

So I appreciate uh the challenges of trying to manage every single aspect, everything that is built in in terms of um cost of living increases in our various contracts, etc.

It continues to be a challenge uh going forward.

Um I also kind of wanted to mention a little bit about Bell Park, which is an ongoing painful conversation.

Uh this council did try to accelerate Bellball Park uh by an additional quarter.

That didn't happen.

That certainly caused some of that reduction in cost.

Um the March update, which I had thought was about a $700,000 hit to the projected revenue.

I guess you're predicting $1.2 million now.

Um it's also I think important to remind folks this is just what we're getting in FY26.

We're learning a lot from this.

Uh FY27.

Some people have different ideas, but can actually be a full year's worth of revenue uh and perhaps some stabilization in the uh operations.

I know there'll be more conversation in that regard uh by some individuals, but I did want to point that the difference out there.

So uh this was a pretty fundamental change.

Thoughtful predictions were put together.

Um, how do we actually solve some of the issues as council president pro tem lee said about the impact on residents?

We're all I think very carefully uh navigated in the conversation.

Um so I'll close there.

I'll be supporting um the motion.

Um I appreciate your detail and the the other thing I'll close with.

God I gotta keep saying one more thing.

Uh but um there's a lot of things for people can be frustrated about.

But I think just in the five years that I've been in office and the 15, 20 years that I've been paying attention, I don't think there's been more transparency in exactly what our financial condition is, whether it is the general fund budget, whether it is the capital improvement program, the kinds of numbers that we're exposing could have easily been exposed 20 years ago and just never were, and maybe decisions would have been differently and uh adjustments would have been made over the years rather than us scrambling now that it's so much more front and center.

So thank you all for that good work.

Uh so with that, um we have a motion by council member foster and a second by council president pro Tim Lee to move the staff recommendation.

Clerk, please call the vote.

I'm sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

My apologies if we still have your own.

That passes unanimously, seven to zero, with council member um Camp Hugh and Councilmember Von Wilbur absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And thank you to all the uh directors and chiefs that uh stood ready for any questions we might throw at you.

So with that, uh clerk, please introduce item 201.

Item 201 is the creation of an annual allocation for the convention center modernization projects and approval of the fiscal year 26 itemized budget for the convention center revenue account under measure C.

If you'd like to speak to this item, now is the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

And if you are here in person, please submit your speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, staff.

Now that you're settled in, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Council President Lakaba, Council members.

I'm Elief Chitin, Director of Engineering and Capital Projects Department.

We will need 10 minutes.

All right.

Joining me today is Dominique Daas, interim deputy director with ECP.

Staff from the City Attorney's Office and the Department of Finance are also in attendance to support the item.

Before we start, I would like to acknowledge the San Diego Convention Center Corporation staff.

Mr.

Cushman's special advisor to the mayor and Rania Man, Chief Community Services Officer for their collaboration support and guidance in bringing the item forward.

I would like to um add that we are in receipt of today's San Diego County Lodging Association letter and understand Chair Gillison's remark uh Gleason's remarks made at the ATI committee.

We appreciate their constructive suggestions and look forward to their participation along along with other representative of the hospital hospitality industry.

In our stakeholder engagement process, this is soon to take place while making sure that we stay compliant with our commitments under the settlement agreement with Fifth Avenue Landing.

Now I will turn it over to Dominique to present the item.

Thank you, Alif.

Uh Dominic Dowles with Engineering Capital Projects.

Here to speak about item 201, the creation of the annual allocation of the Convention Center Modernization Projects and approval of the FY2026 budget.

So it's a brief summary of the requested actions.

One, we are looking to approve the annualized annual itemized budget for FY2026 for the Convention Center Revenue Account.

Also, we are looking to authorize the CFO to add a new line in the city's CIP for the convention center improvements.

And lastly, we're looking to have the CFO authorized to transfer roughly 20 21.4 million dollars from business area 9913 to the new newly created CIP line item to initiate the modernization projects.

The portion of the projected Measure C TOT revenues are shown in this table.

These numbers account for the 59% allocation of the overall TOT revenues that are allocate allocated specifically to the convention center.

The proposed actions uh today seek to to the authority to appropriate a portion of these uh revenues for the modernization projects, roughly 21.4 of the 45.6 million in projected revenue.

The identified modernization projects are shown here in the table uh in yellow.

Um the larger projects we're looking to focus on are the roof replacement and uh the overhaul of the central plant uh that supports the uh the facility.

Uh all projects considered uh for FY2026 are roughly 21.4 million dollars.

As a brief background for the facility, uh the convention center was originally erected back in 1989 and underwent a uh major expansion in 2001, increase in the total usable square footage to approximately 2.6 million square feet.

Uh the structure is uh primarily a cast-in-place concrete structure with pre-cast elements.

Uh the major building systems include uh central chilled water plant, large air handling units, gas-fired boilers, and emergency generators.

Uh the operational context for the facility is that it's a high-use, mission critical public facility requiring limited downtime.

Historic funding is focused on operations and debt service, unfortunately leaving insufficient funding for long-term capital renewals.

Increasing system failures of the recent include boilers and chillers, electrical infrastructure, plumbing, and uh the most recent rain events that we've experienced the past couple months, uh the roof leaks uh to the facility.

While the facility remains functional, it is aging and requires capital investment to maintain its class A standard.

Uh the projects we're looking to undertake would seek to limit the service disruptions and also quail the potential uh safety concerns that have been identified.

Back in 2022, the convention center hired a third party to conduct a property condition assessment without getting too technical.

Um that condition assessment yields a facility condition index, FCI, which is really just the cost for repairs to the total cost of replacement.

As that number trends towards one, you're looking for you're looking towards a full replacement of the facility.

FY 2020 2022's um assessment yielded about 0.023 as the rating, and extrapolating that to 2026, that rating increased to 0.035.

So right now we're at an opportune time to really imbue capital into the into the facility to get it back in right standing.

Um that that assessment also identified approximately 244 million in 2022 for 25 year capital needs.

Uh, when you account for the 5% inflation, that number is roughly 453 million.

Um the strategy for these CIP modernization projects that we're bringing forward um are looking to prioritize critical life safety and operational systems, uh restore uh near-term reliability and reduce uh risk reduction for the facility overall.

Um it's essentially a multi-year modernization with goals in sustainability and energy energy efficiency.

Again, a quick summary of the actions that we're bringing forward today.

Uh we're looking to approve the analyzed itemized budget for FY2026 for the convention center revenue account, authorize the CFO to create a new line item in the city CIP for the convention center improvements, and then lastly, uh authorize the CFO to transfer that roughly 21.4 million dollars for business area 9913 to the newly created CIP line item for these modernization projects.

All right, thank you very much for the presentation.

Uh clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

We do have some speakers here.

Um Sarmiola Estrada and Robert Gleason, if you can please come forward.

And Sarmiola Estrada.

Is okay, you submitted for 201 Yeah.

This is item 201.

So you're not want to speak to the modernization fund.

Hi, uh good afternoon, everybody.

My name is Ansadim Castrada, a political director for the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council.

Uh, I'm here to ask that you move forward with staff recommendation on this item.

Um I'll see you in a couple minutes for 202 as well.

But uh you know, I don't want to get out of my comments there.

But thank you so much.

Thank you.

After that is Robert Gleason.

Good afternoon, Council President, Council members.

Uh Robert Gleason, I'm the chair of the San Diego County Lodging Association.

Um, you received our letter this morning, and I spoke to those of you on the ATI committee previously.

So I just wanted to reiterate a few points here.

Obviously, recognize the situation that the city is in and want to move forward.

But as the last remaining member of the coalition that actually negotiated and wrote and put measure C on the ballot amongst hotels, labor council, building trades, and the chamber.

Um I'm the only person you'll hear from today that can just want to caution about the use of these funds.

This measure was never intended to be a uh a source, it was meant to be a source of new revenue for homelessness programs, streets, and convention center repairs.

Using it for anything other than that is not what the measure says.

It's definitely not what the measure intended, and it's absolutely not what was sold to the voters.

Um what's being proposed today is deferred maintenance, and it's disappointing that this is the first use of funds from Measure C.

However, um, all that being said, this uh convention center has very significant deferred maintenance.

The city um under previous administrations and previous councils and continued through these, um, has been underfunding those capital needs for many, many years.

So um, as I've learned to say in therapy, both things are true.

Um, we need to uh address the deferred maintenance, um, but we need to um really focus on the ultimate expansion and modernization of the convention center.

So, assuming you're gonna move this forward today, I'd ask you to keep an eye, particularly in the upcoming budget conversations, um, to make sure that measure C funds are used as intended, um not for deferred maintenance, not for operation, not for sales, not for marketing, but for new homelessness programs and ultimately for the expansion and modernization of the convention center in order to keep with public trust and the trust of the voters.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment here in council chambers, going to those participating remotely.

Currently have five people with their hands raised.

8700, if you can please unmute after that is Andrea Ebbing and then Blair Beekman.

Excuse me.

Thank you.

Uh Joey Center of District 3.

Uh City Clerk, how much time do I have?

We'll reset the clock for two minutes.

Thank you for resetting.

I appreciate that so much.

Uh okay.

Um, I like what that gentleman just said.

Uh I might not agree with everything just the way it was worded, but I especially like the caution on the use of the funds.

And so we need oversight, we need transparency, and we need monitoring.

You know, I I we have to remember, and this is new stuff that I'm saying right this minute.

But we have to remember that things have to be tweaked.

Things will change.

You know, it was said a certain way on the measure.

And now we might be tweaking it.

That's okay.

You know, things do change.

They're moving targets all over the place.

So let's not get too locked into the wording on a measure.

Let's work together on this.

So I didn't plan on saying that.

So FDCC, certainly a great asset.

Uh we um we have uh fallen short though for a long time on unsafety factors.

Uh you know, where was the prevention?

Uh all this deferred maintenance.

It happened over time, and it's just so sad.

I just I feel very sad about it.

And um, one other thing, I love the PowerPoint, but boy, did it go over my head.

I think you had to be uh uh President Lacava or uh, you know, a professor or I mean somebody who understands all that language.

So one question as I finish out here uh is a generator the same thing as a boiler, because you know I'm fighting.

I'm I'm uh trying to heal the big canary with the band covered with the band-aids, which is known as the boiler.

So I I just pray and ask that the boiler be part of the monetization.

It's deferred maintenance big time.

So uh is a generator a boiler, I don't know.

I tried to look it up on Google and then and it said they can be confused.

So uh thank you so much.

And it's a great, great report.

And thank you for that concluding comment.

Andrea Ebbing, if you can please unmute after that, Blair Beekman.

Hi, Andrea Ebbing.

Um, so for the modernization project, I'm um wondering this may not be part of this budget.

It may actually exist, and I don't know about it, but we used to have Convas Convention Visitors Bureau.

Um, I think to complement uh any upgrades or anything we're doing, we need to attract people too.

So if there's any portion of that budget that can be used to um collaborate and come up with initiatives to attract additional business, um coming to San Diego for more conventions, more room nights, that sort of thing, that would be so helpful.

I think uh we need to like consider a campaign to kind of like U-turn from like San Diego is the drop-off for all the rejects and addicts and all this stuff that's kind of like uh importing addicts from all over the country, now they're homeless.

Let's give them Narcan, that whole that whole thing, if we can kind of shift away from that into like let's have your amazing conventions in San Diego, room nights, uh patronize our nightclubs and restaurants and all of the different offerings that we have and events.

I think um, you know, a a portion of an investment toward that to complement the upgrades would be great.

Upgrade the technology.

Um obviously the parking situation there is a little wild, but um, anyways, I appreciate the uh the overview, and that's it.

Thanks.

Next is Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

And then final speakers 8813.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Um thanks for this item.

It it's been coming to council committee uh over the past few months now.

Last time it was a committee, uh Joyce and I wasn't around, and I I was just really I spoke of public comment time.

It'd be nice to hear Joyce on this item because uh it's really important to her, and it's nice she's returned and able to offer her two cents on the item.

Very nice public comment from the first person that um he's very nicely identified uh what this project is actually doing and how it relates to measure C funding.

Um yeah, I I hope uh this sort of project can be funded to have an identification of wordage of what it is actually doing.

That's important and good luck from there.

Uh, we can be funding this uh legally and and working in good terms.

Uh thank you for the PLA work on this uh that you'll be talking about in the next item uh in connection with PLA work and um just the overall uh project of this.

Um I always try to say for convention center items that if you work on the tech accountability practices in upgrades with the convention center, um, you know, have clear policies, make it a real cooperative shared process.

That will bring people to the convention center.

That will bring people to San Diego.

They want to be around that sort of thing and feel comforted by it and and to understand what our uh best practices of public accountability.

They I think people will want to see that, and that that's a very important tourist draw in the future.

So good luck to yourselves in considering that those sort of concept and working in good terms as a as a community process and not just as a government handing down dictates.

Thanks a lot.

Bye-bye.

And 8813, if you can please unmute.

I can unmute for you.

There you go.

Okay, thank you for being patient.

Um here, yep.

Um yeah, this presentation, yeah.

I agree, Joy.

It's uh it is it's designed to go over the people's heads because they truly don't want the taxpayers understanding what the city is being wasteful with.

And um, yeah.

Anyways, okay, expansion and modernization.

Just more waste.

Uh the convention center may need to be up to date, but not at the real sacrifice of real priorities and issues of the city.

And it's it's kind of like wow.

I don't know.

I just feel like if more people were paying attention to how you guys go about using taxpayer money, it would be a whole lot different.

But yeah, deferred maintenance.

There's nothing um you know, you guys are notorious or deferred maintenance and um you know, like I said, real priorities and real issues of the cities need to be uh the priority.

I mean, and if it's like me wanting to invest in plastic surgery, you know, and my kids are starving and my toilets don't flush.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, come on.

But yes, here we are in the system ruled by the establishment and uh people that just want us surviving and not thriving.

That's the game.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Okay.

That concludes public comment on item 201.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

We'll turn it over to council members' questions, comments, and retain a motion, and we'll start with council member Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll make the motion to approve the staff recommendation.

We heard this at the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee late last month that passed unanimously.

Uh these funds will address urgent needs at the convention center uh today that will allow San Diego to remain a competitive convention destination with a well functioning facility.

Uh, but I also will say that we need to get on with the business of expanding the convention center uh as soon as we can.

Uh, we need to expand the convention center if we're going to keep some of the conventions that we currently have, and if we're going to attract bigger ones, uh the public expects us to expand the convention center.

Uh so let's make the needed upgrades with today's action uh and at the same time keep our eye on the ultimate prize, which is an expanded convention center, which will keep San Diego in the top tier of convention destinations.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, that was a motion in there.

Made the motion up front, yes, to approve the staff recommendation.

I'm just draught that I forgot to introduce you as a chair of the active transportation infrastructure committee was so focused.

But we do have a motion by Council Member Whitburn to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to council member Campbell.

Thank you, uh Council President.

Thank you for the motion.

Um as one of the few remaining standing uh who in the original iteration of this way back in 2000.

Um I don't know if there's any council members left who voted for it and who supported it at that time.

Uh but I know I did.

And those were the days.

Those were days when the Republicans and the Democrats worked together.

Those were the days when the unions and the chamber of commerce worked together.

Those were the days.

And this was an excellent, excellent measure that was passed, approved by all the citizens of the city who voted for it, which was a majority.

And unfortunately, litigation has stopped it going forward for five years, which indicates to me that we need to we need to fix up our judicial system, but that's a whole other can of worms.

So let me just say that I am so glad that we have finally reached the end of the litigation point.

We are going to move forward with this.

And I am grateful for it.

I am happy to second the motion.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Whitburn and a second by Councilmember Campbell to move the staff recommendation.

I don't see anybody else on the lights.

I will not add any comments to the good work that you're doing.

I am grateful despite some of the concerns that we are moving quickly now that the litigation has been cleared to figure out how to spend that money and move on these items.

I want to make sure that if and when a conversation comes about modernization or even expansion, that there is actually a convention center there to work with that.

And at the pace we're going, there is some real risk there.

So with that, um for those of us that are not more intimately involved in the conversation.

What is the timeline that we can talk about?

Expansion?

We can't do that now, correct?

City attorney's office will comment on that.

Yes.

Uh senior deputy city attorney Kevin Rush.

The settlement agreement prohibitions are in effect through the end of this calendar year.

So the city is freed up to publicly discuss expansion and take actions in that regard starting next year.

Okay.

Thank you, Kevin, for that clarification and let folks know what timelines might be possible going forward.

And also just to confirm the allocation, this is cash.

We're not bonding.

We're just using the money that is, quote, in the bank for this.

That's correct, Councilmember.

Okay, great.

Thank you for clarifying that.

All right.

Again, we have a motion by Councilmember Whitburn, a second by Councilmember Campbell to move the staff recommendation.

Clerk, please call the roll.

I'm sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

Councilmember Elo Rivera, if I may get your vote for the record.

Yes.

That passes unanimously 6 to 0 with Councilmember Moreno, Councilmember Campillo, and Councilmember Von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you for that.

With that, Clerk, please introduce item 202.

Item 202 is the third addendum to the third amended and restated management agreement between the City of San Diego and the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, Inc.

and the designation of specific future convention center capital improvement projects as covered projects under the project labor agreement.

If you'd like to speak to this item, please be sure to submit your speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box, or if you're participating remotely, star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you.

So introduce yourself for the record again and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Council President Lacawa.

Um Council members, I'm still Elief Chitin, uh Engineering Capital Projects Director.

And here with me is Dominique Daas, uh, interim deputy director with the same department.

We will need 10 minutes, please.

All right, when you're ready.

Thank you, Leaf.

Um okay, moving on to item 202, the third amended to the third, sorry, excuse me, the third addendum to the third amended management agreement between the city of San Diego and the San Diego Convention Center Corporation.

Uh quick summary of the requested action.

Uh, we're looking to authorize the mayor or his designee to enter into the proposed addendum and to delegate any of the CIP projects to the Convention Center Corporation.

We're looking also to have the CFO authorized to transfer funds from the TOT revenue fund to the sp to the specific CIP projects.

And then finally, a resolution identifying the Convention Center capital approvement projects as part of the covered projects listing in the prior established project labor agreement the city put in place back in February of 2024.

So the original agreement, the third amended and restated management agreement uh went into place in May 20 uh 2005.

There was a first addendum to that agreement uh in March 2012.

Uh this allowed the Convention Center Corporation to enter into third-party marketing and promotion agreements and also address the allocation of annual operating surplus funds.

Later that year there was a second addendum in November 2020.

Um that was executed after the convention center corporation entered into a third-party marketing agreement, and then it closed the loophole uh for the surplus fund allocation, leaving that allocation to go back to the regular annual budgeting process.

Currently, the framework between the uh convention center corporation and the city of San Diego has the convention center uh operating as a day-to-day operator for the convention center as an independent contractor.

They are responsible for event booking and marketing, facility operations and maintenance, financial admin, and coordination of capital uh improvements.

Uh they are subject to the city's oversight and funding approval, and the agreement currently defines governance, financial reporting, and roles to support the economic development and tourism.

This third addendum that we're bringing forth today uh highlights a few key changes.

Um, one being the clarifying provisions that is a requirement of prevailing wages per state law, uh, establishment of a reimbursement process and compliance with all laws, permits, and approvals, and then ensuring that any San Diego Convention Center uh corporation contract includes the city as it and specified parties as additional insured and indemnified, and also requires payment and performance bonds for those construction contracts.

Additionally, we'll be looking to looking to establish a delegation process.

Um this would allow the city to delegate contracting oversight of certain CIPs, CIP projects to the conventional center corporation via individual delegation agreements.

The mayor then is authorized to enter into these agreements, setting the city's maximum contribution based off of council's appropriations, contracting and oversight requirements, and then ultimately um as mentioned before, these projects will be covered under the prior established project labor agreements under the quote unquote cover projects.

Again, a quick summary of the requested actions.

So excuse me.

All right, thank you very much for the presentation.

Uh clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

Unsermina, if you'd like to come forward.

I think we got our speaker slips confused.

This one says you don't want to speak, and the other one did, so that's why I got confused.

No.

Everybody, uh political director for the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council.

Um I want to thank you all so much for considering this item.

Uh the convention center, I mentioned last time ATI is a pillar of our economic uh health of the region and the the city.

Um, and our members of the Building Trades Council, 22 affiliated unions.

We bring skilled and trained forward to all the projects we work on, and we want to do that for the convention center.

We are happy that uh moving on moving these projects under the city's PLA is uh here for consideration.

Uh Councilmember Whitburn as chair, you mentioned that San Diego could only get by so long on its good looks, and we need a convention center that kind of matches that.

And I don't need to tell anybody here um just what the uh lack of uh maintenance has done to the convention center.

It's time for that to get addressed, and we're here and ready to do that work.

So please approve this uh item.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I've started the five-minute time we're here in council chambers.

There are no other speakers here going to those participating remotely, starting with 8700 and then AE13, 8700.

If you can please unmute, uh thank you, uh Joyce and Yata C D 3.

I think I see Mr.

Cushman.

Hello, Mr.

Cushman.

Uh I know that your uh work with I don't understand your work with the convention center.

Sorry about that, but just having you there uh is so strong, and I appreciate that so much.

So uh I approve uh the changes, and I I especially like the requiring of the prevailing wages uh to make sure that's it's being done.

Uh I uh for a long time I had he moved away to another state, but for a long time I had uh chat conversations with a gentleman who worked in the food uh aspect of the convention center, and uh he just loved it.

He he just loved every single moment of it.

And uh so uh I'm I'm so glad that the uh PLA is part of this, and you know how much I uh really enjoy these days looking at the EOCs and the workforce reports, and but I'll show you folks we have to do a lot more monitoring and making sure that the under-representation is changed and that they are represented and included.

So uh this is this is an important item.

Thank you for the presentation and love to all.

8813, if you can please unmute 8813.

Okay, come follow here.

Yeah, just chiming in to say uh remember your priorities.

City of San Diego and um Yeah.

Yeah.

No.

I think Daddy ate it.

Thank you.

Does that conclude your comments?

Yes, I'm sorry, yes, I'm done.

Okay, thank you.

That does conclude public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, we'll turn it over to council members for questions, comments, and entertain a motion.

And we'll start again with the chair of active transportation and infrastructure committee.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll make the motion to approve the staff recommendation on this item as well.

We also heard this at the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee where it was passed unanimously.

Uh I am, of course, pleased that we are designating these projects as covered under the city's project labor agreement that helps ensure that these projects will create good jobs so that the work will get done right.

So again, I'll make the motion to approve the staff recommendation.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

So we do have a motion by Councilmember Whitburn to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

I am happy to second this motion as well.

All right, we have a second.

So we have now a motion by Councilmember Whitburn, a second by Councilmember Campbell to move the staff recommendation.

Uh not seeing anybody else in the lights.

Um a couple of quick questions on this.

Uh this will be the first time capital projects at the convention center will be covered under the PLA.

That's correct.

And who will be monitoring that?

Um Cities uh PLA compliance uh office will be monitoring that with our support as well.

All right, even though the um good folks at the convention center will be contracting, we will monitor the PLA.

Correct, and then that will be handled at actually at the delegation agreements that we are going to have on project by project basis.

That will be one of the items as well, if I'm not mistaken.

Correct.

That's correct.

Okay, and then there will be a conversation between the convention center and their staffing and ECP and the city's staffing.

Yes, we have been coordinating leading to this point, and we are going to continue coordinating on the best ways to deliver these projects.

Okay.

Uh thank you for that.

And then one thing I forgot to ask last time, but appropriate this time.

Uh, one of the things that Mr.

Gleason asked for was for the lodging association to have some representation on kind of an ongoing committee, both on capital projects as well as the homelessness.

Is that in the works or can we get some want to get back to me later on that?

The application for the uh homeless um review oversight committee actually just went live.

Um, and so yes, it is our intent to have um representation from hospitality and lodging association on both.

On both.

Okay, great.

Thank you for confirming that.

So, Mr.

Gleason, we do read your letters and appreciate your testimony.

Um, with that, uh, we do have the motion by Councilmember Whitburn, a second by Councilmember Campbell to move the staff recommendation.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Elivera, if I may get your vote for the record.

Yes.

And that passes unanimously seven to zero with council member campillo and council member von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And again, thank you to everybody that worked on them, bro.

Bringing this forward.

So with that, we will now take up non-agenda public comment.

The council members respect and appreciate the public's input and are fully committed to protecting every participant's free speech rights at council and committee meetings.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Can you say it on the record?

Pardon?

Oh, um, I want to cast a yes vote on item 201.

Thank you.

I'll mark that for the record.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilmember Moran.

If there are eight or more speakers on a single topic, the maximum time for the topic will be 16 minutes.

I see no non-agenda public comment speakers here in council chambers, so I will be going to those participating remotely starting the five-minute timer.

We currently have 11 speakers in the queue.

Barbara Gordon, if you can please unmute after that is Kathleen Lippett, and then Brenda.

Um, thank you.

Um, as a public health advocate, I wanted to share a newly released Kaiser Permanente study found adolescent cannabis use linked to the to doubling the risk of psychotic and bipolar disorder.

This was published in the Journal of American Medical Health Forum.

The longitudinal study found over 465,000 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17, and through the age of 26, found that past year cannabis use during adolescence was associated with a significantly higher risk incident of psychotic, bipolar, depressive, and anxiety disorder.

Even after accounting for prior mental health conditions and other substance use, adolescents who reported cannabis use had a substantial higher risk of developing psychiatric psychiatric disorders, particularly psychotic and bipolar disorder.

This was said by Kelly Wolf Young Wolf, the PhD, who was the leading author of the study.

The study also found that cannabis use was more common among adolescents that were enrolled in Medicare, Medicare, Medicaid, and those living in more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods, raising the concern that expanding cannabis commercialization could exasperate existing mental health disparities.

As cannabis becomes more potent and aggressively marketed, this study indicates that adolescent cannabis use is associated with the risk of the two of the most serious health conditions.

I am urging the city to take a more aggressive action to limit the exposure of advertising and marketing by prohibiting billboards and the marketing image of marijuana on any signage.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

Next is uh Kathleen Lippett, if you can please unmute, then it's Brenda.

Thank you for letting me speak.

I appreciate Councilmember Campbell's reminder that deficit spending is the genesis of future city problems that will become increasingly difficult to deal with.

In the city's scramble to address their looming deficit, it turned to the will with which it is most familiar, and that's increasing taxes and fees.

Without ever any mention of decreasing city staffing levels, salaries, pensions, or benefits.

The burden of a deficit should be the responsibility of city leaders.

Cuts begin there before redirecting the burden to taxpayers who had no part in creating it.

Yet the city continues to maximize expenditures using sole source contracting, union workers, or supporting industries like the cannabis industry, who socialize the privatize their profits and socialize the costs.

And the socialization of those costs are paid on the backs of the city residents.

Most troubling, we do not see the city evaluating any of their policies for the future costs of those decisions or recognizing when funding has not resulted in mitigating a problem, but instead has shown that it is only created bureaucracy that has grown up to take advantage of the new funding availability.

Leadership should be grounded in reality, affordability, and responsibility.

And the deficits we see today are a failure at all three of those levels.

City policies, like its ongoing support of the marijuana industry, will continue to increase behavioral health problems.

That is not a question anymore.

That is a prediction that has been rooted in evidence.gov and we will distribute.

Brenda, please unmute.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council members and members of the public mining is Brenda Kaluoka and I serve as an outreach analyst and your liaison with the California Department of Insurance.

Under Commissioner Ricardo Lara's leadership, we're advancing the sustainable insurance strategy.

Great news is six companies have recommitted to growing in California with more expected to follow.

We are requesting that you do this in support of the following legislative bills that are being proposed.

Assembly Bill 1795, the Smoke Damage Recovery Act.

This bill would establish standards and protocols related to smoke damages from wildfires.

The goal is to give wildfire survivors a reliable health-oriented framework and inspecting testing, restoring and filing claims for smoke damage properties.

Assembly Bill 1680, the Make It Fair Act aims to reform the insurer of last resort, the California Fair Plan, by requiring it to adopt recommendations from recent Department of Insurance examinations, strengthen governance, and consumer protections, potentially expand policy limits and coverage options such as more comprehensive homeowners' coverages, improve transparency, and impose civil penalties for noncompliance, helping ensure the FAIR plan better serves Californians who get covered, who can't get coverage in the public market.

Senate Bill 876, which is the Disaster Recovery Act, and it really aims to seek to reform how insurers handle residential property claims in fire insurance claims, especially after a major disaster like the wildfires we just experienced.

This bill would require insurers to prepare disaster recovery plans, set clear timelines for payments, including earlier actual cash value replacement double penalties during emergencies.

Lastly, as your liaison, we would like to partner up and offer presentation opportunities to provide insurance information.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

After that is 1384.

Also note that the five minute timer also concluded during the last speaker.

And there were eight speakers in the queue.

No additional speakers will be taken after that.

I'll need to move on to the next speaker.

1384, if you can please unmute.

1384, you are unmuted, but we do not hear you here in Council Chambers.

Not sure if the device that you're speaking into may be muted.

1384.

We did hear the unmute, so it is just something on your device.

Is your phone muted?

Maybe we do not hear you here in Council Chambers.

We will need to move on.

Peggy Walker, if you can please unmute.

Thank you.

Hello.

As a public health educator, I believe it's in the public interest for policymakers to be aware of a mounting nationwide shift on marijuana legalization.

The Wall Street Journal and other media report referendum campaigns to roll back marijuana legalization are now underway in Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona, and other jurisdictions.

These referendums are not ideological but science-driven.

Peer-reviewed studies document sharp rises in marijuana-related ER visits and psychiatric emergencies.

One longitudinal longitudinal study of nearly 465,000 adolescents aged 13 to 17 found past year marijuana use is associated with significantly increased risk of psychotic, bipolar, depressive, and anxiety disorders by age 26.

The Massachusetts state referendum push follows findings from Mass General Hospital of a four-fold increase in marijuana-related psychiatric emergencies among adolescents since legalization.

Closer to home, San Diego County data show high ER admissions for cannabis hypermesis syndrome and psychiatric issues, particularly among those 10 to 24.

Further, a meta analysis by UCLA Health with contributions from Harvard, UC, San Francisco, Washington University, and New York University is among others concluding that scientific support for most quote medical uses of marijuana is weak to non-existent.

I therefore urge this council to join others reassessing marijuana policies in light of mounting health and fiscal consequences.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 8813.

If you can please unmute, then Larry Beekman's after that.

8813, there you go.

Okay, go and follow here.

So I wanted to say, isn't it something that the people who genuinely want what's best for humanity are labeled extreme or cuckoo?

Well, those behaving in truly extreme ways against nature, against humanity, against common sense, are protected, funded, and praised.

Uh govern local government agencies like this one are filled with war members who have become the real extremists, entirely out of touch with what it means to be human.

Many of you have lost your connection to reality, to community, and to consequence.

Everything that happens here is not for the benefit of San Diego County or City.

It serves a much bigger agenda.

And I will continue to name that agenda, meeting after meeting for as long as it takes until you wake up to what you are actually participating in.

And that is the United Nations agenda for the 21st century.

Some of you already know exactly what you're doing.

Many of you have sold yourselves to the highest bidder, the cava.

But understand this, you are not exempt.

You are disposable to the very system you serve.

You too will face consequences.

You too will suffer through what you have the power to prevent others from suffering through.

You've helped create unnecessary wasteful things like stupid bike lanes and now this uh whole convention center update stuff.

It's just so sad.

Anyways, well, families struggle to survive.

The money could have gone to uh could go to homeless veterans, people who fought for this country.

Um, yeah, they they fought only to come home and sleep in their cars, trying to make sense of what they sacrificed for.

Agencies like Sandag and this board continue to take advantage of a population that is stressed, exhausted, and barely surviving, and not to mention not paying attention.

You think you're helping, but this is an abusive relationship, and you are on the abusive side.

The system is sick, it is self-inflating, and anything that goes against humanity and nature will collapse.

Your time has concluded.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute after that will be 7499 and then Becky Rapp.

Blair, please proceed.

All right, uh Blair Beekman.

Thanks for the meeting today.

I'll be looking forward to the six o'clock meeting.

Thank you for it.

Um items I wanted to bring up at non-agenda public comment.

One is um I sent a letter to the clerk's office this morning.

Um you're talking about possibly ending um having an additional five minutes for people to uh raise their hand for uh virtual public comment time.

Um I hope you can keep it.

Uh I fully understand the house cleaning way you're doing it, and uh that Zoom is going to be it's mandated to continue now in California.

Thank you, that uh it is, uh, and that you're going to just you're doing some house cleaning measures and want to uh end Zoom virtual public comment time where you can raise your hand at the end of uh in-person public comment.

Um totally fair thing to do.

I don't argue with it at all, but it's just convenient as all heck for people uh and of the public to have that additional five minutes.

Uh you know, there are their mothers who are working on items and and for me I'm running around doing things.

It it really is helpful just to have that additional five minutes.

So um hopefully you can consider that, and that can be uh uh we can talk about it a bit more before any uh breach or final approvals.

Good luck in working on I sent a letter to better describe it.

Hopefully you can write back and we can talk about it as as needed as and such.

And uh to also with my remaining 30 seconds, San Jose.

I I've talked about Oakland and they've compromised uh to end Flock in two years, and in that time look for a new uh AOPR vendor.

I mean, I think that's like absolutely brilliant in terms of how to work with community towards future best practices.

They're working now.

Uh San Jose is considering divestment issues with um, you know, uh to address uh, you know, the future of uh detention centers and and Israel, in fact.

So good luck that we can be working in Diego on something.

7499, if you can please unmute, and then after that is Becky Raps.

All right.

Bob Kazuski here.

Nearly every week I talk about the problems at the Tory Pine Slider port, but those problems are really just a very specific example of a more pervasive problem throughout this city.

That problem is the unhealthy mix of government power and private profit.

Today I'd like to explore that broader problem.

Everyone knows that running a city requires purchasing goods and services that the city itself should not produce.

Examples run from pencils to police cars.

The city could try to make their own pencils and police cars, but that would be extremely inefficient, a huge waste of resources, and the results would be terrible anyway.

Pencils and police cars are much more efficiently purchased on the open market.

But does it make sense for the city to purchase outside police and other services?

Where should the city draw the line?

That's a complicated question, but let me suggest an important criteria.

In all cases, the city should never delegate direct power over citizens to third party businesses operating for profit.

Period.

The city should never, for example, delegate police authority over citizens to a for-profit business, as was done with the red light cameras.

The city should never delegate citizen communication to a for-profit business as you're doing with constant contact.

The city should never delegate authority of our parking structure to a for-profit business as you're doing in the Jones Park aid.

The city should never delegate authority over our parks to a for-profit business as you're doing at Tory Pines Glider Port.

In all of these examples, the city can't just delegate authority and then look the other way.

That's a recipe for abuse.

And we've seen that abuse in each example, including the glider port business refusing park access to people who've testified against them in court.

These are the abuses that arise when the city hires outside businesses and then shirks its duty to ensure that citizens are treated fairly by those businesses.

What's ironic is that all of you are left-wing council members and mayor would quickly accuse conservatives of putting business interests above the public.

But here you are doing it every single day.

Reactivate the Tory Pine City Park Advisory Board and implement the Torrey Pines waiver.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

If you raise your hand after the five-minute timer, we won't be able to take your call today, but you can definitely email in to Cityclerk at Sandieago.gov and your comments will be delivered to the council.

Becky Rapp, please unmute after that, 8700.

And Terry Ann Skelly.

No other speakers will be taken.

Good afternoon.

My name is Becky Rapp.

I'm a local parent concerned for the health and safety of our young people today, especially as they're bombarded with misinformation regarding drug use, especially marijuana.

Recently, the New York Times published an editorial titled, It's Time for America to admit that it has a marijuana problem.

National publications like the New York Times are recognizing that marijuana is not what the industry has told us, but that there are serious public health concerns that have evolved since they've been permitted.

Consumers were promised transparency and especially guardrails.

But many consumers have no idea how potent these products are.

Young adults are being exposed to levels of THC that research increasingly lit risk links to higher risks of psychosis, anxiety disorders, and long-term psychiatric harm, particularly in the developing brain.

And here in San Diego, we cannot ignore the significant problem many residents are facing as they struggle with addiction, overdose, behavioral health crisis, impaired driving, and homelessness tied to substance use.

So we have to ask ourselves are we trying to mitigate our drug problem or are we fueling it?

If we're serious about prevention, then we must be serious about guardrails, potency caps, meaningful warning labels, youth prevention funding, and enforcement against marketing that normalizes use.

San Diego deserves an honest assessment of where we are and whether our policies are reducing harm or expanding it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 8700.

If you can please unmute.

Sorry about the star nine.

I was in the queue for a while, and then I don't know.

I looked at my screen and I didn't see star nine.

You can start talking.

What's weedy?

Your time is going, so please uh start to your comments, please.

That's okay.

I knew it would start.

That's okay.

That's okay.

I got that.

So I I want to share this with all of you.

Uh I want to say that yes, it is good to be back participating in government.

Yet it does feel new to me, and I I can't figure out why.

But it feels new to me and perhaps a little bumpy in some ways.

So I just wanted to thank everyone for your patience and to let you know that I am uh glad to be back.

So I wanted to also, as as Blair Beekman just spoke on uh the five-minute rule.

I also want to say that um I'll leave it up to you because you can get the bigger picture and how it's going to impact on all the methodologies and everything.

But I will tell you this.

There have been times when I definitely could not honor that.

I wouldn't, I would not be allowed to speak.

And mostly if I remember right, it was housing authority items, where there was no presentation, like maybe even it was non-agenda public comment, but no presentation, nobody in the chambers.

So my question for you, if you could answer us for the public, what's going to be the trigger when we can raise our hands?

Do you have to begin with the agenda item?

Do you have to say now is the time for non-agenda public comment?

I don't get when we're gonna be able to raise our hand.

I just go by you know my phone.

So please let us know on that.

Uh and then one other thing, I don't have time for it today.

Uh, but uh maybe tomorrow I'm gonna be speaking on uh Western states again miss the deadline for water deals.

This came into the UT on Valentine's Day.

So I'll probably speak on that tomorrow.

So thank you, everybody, and love to all.

Thank you for your comments, Terry Ann Skelly.

If you can please unmute.

Good afternoon, San Diego City Council, Chair La Cava.

My name is Terry Ann Skelly, and I'm here as a planning group attendee and a community volunteer.

One of the teen and parent programs at our high schools that is important to me and the safety to all of us in the city is the Start Smart program provided to high school students and their parents by the California Highway Patrol.

Alcohol and drug use are a nationwide roadway safety concern, and almost one in three traffic deaths involve an impaired driver.

As you can imagine, insurance companies care a great deal about teen driving.

So I wanted to share today information from UCSD and from the California Department of Traffic Safety, OTS, regarding marijuana impaired driving by young adults, which shows that it is increasing in communities that permit marijuana storefronts.

The UCSD NOTS studies show that driving while under the influence of marijuana negatively impacts attentiveness, perception of time, and memory.

Perhaps it is time for a closer look at marijuana businesses' impact on the health and the safety of our city residents.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this afternoon.

Thank you.

That does conclude on agenda public comment.

Again, if you were not able to speak today because you raised your hand after the five-minute timer, please be sure to email City Clerk at San Diego.gov and we will distribute those communications.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

With that, does the city attorney have anything to report out from closed session?

Yes, thank you, Council President.

Today in a closed session meeting, the city council took the following action.

City council voted on closed session item number seven to authorize the initiation of litigation.

Once litigation is formally commenced, the action, the defendants and other particulars will be disclosed 20% upon inquiry, unless to do so would jeopardize effective service of process or settlement negotiations.

The motion passed six to zero with council members Val Wilpert, Campillo, and Elo Rivera absent.

That concludes my report.

All right.

Thank you for that report out.

Um as a friendly reminder to my colleagues, this is gonna be the end of our afternoon session, and we're gonna reconvene.

We need all five of us to actually be there at six o'clock.

Uh Councilmember Campbell has gone home a little bit under the weather.

Uh, we do need to have five in chambers, uh, irrespective of whether Councilmember Eli Rivera participates remotely.

So just that friendly reminder.

I see a lot of smiles on the faces.

Uh so with that, and I want to make sure that you're going to be here because of we're all committed, right?

All right, with that, we will now recess and reconvene open session at 6 p.m.

or shortly thereafter.

That we care about.

A road diet and a usable park will not only activate the corridor, but connect the various neighborhoods and communities of permanent residents and students that tend to be isolated from housing affordability to transit access, safe streets, welcoming public spaces, all directly affect whether or not students can focus on their learning, graduate on time, and build their futures right here in America's finest city.

The goal was and is to make the college area a destination and a place people want to live in.

This is smart growth.

It's growth that supports our city's climate goals, it supports our local small businesses, creates safer and more vibrant streets, and uh growth that reflects the reality of a major American university inside a top 10 American city.

The financing agreement is cash flow neutral.

We're essentially shifting our operating costs from energy bills over to loan repayment across a twenty-five-year term and with no upfront cost to the city.

So from July all the way to November, they were out here trying to get people into some type of shelter option.

So by the time that we came out here, there's already been months of outreach occurring.

So when we came, that was the day where we were actually gonna be getting all the trash, all the people, everything out of here, so it could go back to being what's supposed to be part of the river.

Since then, uh park rangers have been out here daily.

That's been a very big group effort.

So park rangers from all units, department wide have been coming out here to patrol.

This area right here, it floods.

It goes straight into the ocean.

We don't want people in this area because when it the rains come, the tide goes up, you know, we have to have our police department, our lifeguards, our fire department out here risking their lives for people living out here.

So getting them out of this area is very important, not only for them, but for our employees.

Uh, the area has stayed consistently clean.

It's super rewarding to come out here and see all the wildlife that's that's kind of re-emerged in the area and know that they now have a clean environment to habitate and and live their little happy lives.

78 tons of trash, over 1,300 pounds of uh hazardous and biohazards remit waste on these islands.

So getting all that, but when I see the wildlife that's out here, you see ducks, you see cranes, you see things that we didn't see a year, year and a half ago.

That's one of the ways I know that we did good out here is seeing the wildlife returning.

This work isn't done.

We're still here in the riverbed.

We're still engaging individuals.

I think something that's the larger celebration is that 59 are currently in permanent housing right now, whether it be through diversion efforts all the way to permanent supportive housing, and we have 42 that are continuing to work on identifying next steps in their journey.

I'm proud of the work that our teams did.

We put tax dollars to work, and people are just used to, you know, when you throw tax dollars at something, the problem doesn't necessarily go away.

So I'm happy to see that this area has maintained and that we are putting that money that we use for this to good use.

All right.

Good evening.

I will now reconvene the city council meeting of Monday, February twenty-third, twenty twenty-six to order.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tim Lee.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Present.

And Council President Lacava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting, our Chief Deputy City Attorney, Britt Bartellata, Independent Budget Analyst, Charles Monica, Council of Affairs Advisor in the Mayor's Office, Coda Zeiser, and myself, your city clerk, the NFUentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Clerk, please introduce item S four hundred.

Item S four hundred is an informational item.

It is the hearing for public input on the development of the fiscal year twenty twenty-seven budget.

If you are hearing Council Chambers, please be sure to submit a speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box.

And if you are participating remotely, now's the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

So in lieu of uh presentation, I'm going to make some opening comments, and I'm going to turn it over to Mr.

Monica of the IBA's office.

And then we'll conclude with uh Councilmember Foster, the chair of the budget committee, and then we'll open it up to the public.

So we're holding this evening's session as the first opportunity for the public to provide comment on fiscal year 2027 budget.

I want to thank in advance those who are here in chambers and those who are awaiting to speak online.

Last year's budget was challenging, but as a council, we worked hard to preserve essential services and trimmed what we believe were not essential operations.

Doing so required difficult decisions, raising fines, ensuring more services are cost recoverable, and charging for parking in Bellboa Park.

But I weighed the closing of rec centers, libraries, and public restrooms against those other options.

For FY27, if I am going to support an expenditure, I have to balance it with either revenue increase or by cutting another service.

Conversely, if I am going to support cutting or eliminating ongoing revenue, I need to see a replacement revenue or cutting expenditure.

We just have that difficult of a conversation.

I hope that all in this conversation operate with that same approach.

It is too easy to just say add this service or cut that revenue.

Help us understand your priorities and balance them against the trade-offs.

We can't have it all.

We can prioritize by the needs of each community, each neighborhood, each San Diegan.

This year I am again committed to that reality.

I will not, and this council cannot tell the public we will fund a service and then a few weeks later not vote for the same revenue to keep that promise.

Now, before I turn it over to the public, I ask for your assistance.

If you're going to be asking us to increase funding, tell us where you are willing to cut.

We have to balance this budget, and a priority S needs to come with a priority reduction.

This will not be easy, but we can and we will do this together.

Thank you.

And now I'll turn it over to our independent budget analyst, Charles Modical.

Sir?

Thank you, Council President.

I should just say ditto, but instead I will read longer remarks than that.

I did want to provide some context for discussions for the upcoming FY27 budget.

Most of this, you will have already heard this, but I do nevertheless think it is important for both Council and the public to bear in mind where the City finds itself and the difficult choices that we are facing in the upcoming budget.

As my office has noted for some time, the city has faced significant fiscal challenges for years, and our challenges today really have been decades in the making.

While San Diego is a large city, its revenues are generally lower than comparable cities, and they are frankly insufficient to support the city's operations.

The city has been able to get by for the last 20 years or so by keeping its costs low, but it did so largely through putting off infrastructure maintenance and keeping city salaries well below the median for comparable cities and even other cities in our region.

Both of those had long-term consequences and long-term costs.

Over the last several years, the city began addressing many of these issues, but the city was only able to do so by tapping into significant one-time resources that have since been exhausted.

While the city attempted to respond to this long-standing structural deficit through 2024's Measure E sales tax measure, that ballot item failed, which left the city needing to realign its ongoing services with its ongoing resources.

Last year, this time we were staring at a roughly $260 million deficit for the current fiscal year or FI26, which we closed through three main actions.

First, we delayed reserve contributions, which solved roughly $60 million of that deficit.

Second, we implemented a little over 100 million dollars in new revenues to offset expenses that would have otherwise fallen to the general fund, notably through trash fees, fines, and parking fees.

And then the final roughly 100 million came through other one-time resources and then cuts to city services, such as library hours.

This year, we are facing another deficit for the upcoming year.

It was reported at $88 million in the mayor's five-year outlook.

It has since grown to between $100 and $120 million.

That already reflects continued delays to reserve contributions.

I also think that it is fair to note that most new revenue sources that could be tapped into in the next year have already been tapped, and the appetite for new revenues in the immediate future seems limited, which means that the projected deficit we are facing will has to be closed by and large through cuts.

As you are aware, cuts are not easy.

It gives me absolutely no pleasure to say that they are required, but by law, the city's budgets need to be balanced, and we cannot spend money that we do not have.

To that end, as we have discussions tonight, and as we continue to have discussions about the budget over the next several months, we really need to be realistic about what we can fund with the resources that we have, and therefore I would recommend focusing our conversation on one core services that council and the public want to see maintained, and two, areas where the city should consider pulling back or reducing services, which will be difficult but necessary.

With that, I look forward to hearing comments from the public and from council members.

And at this point, I will toss it over to Councilmember Foster.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you to the IBA for your remarks, and thank you to the public for your participation this evening.

As indicated, the city is potentially facing a shortfall with our current FY 2026 budget, and we certainly have more work to do as we monitor third quarter and fourth quarter returns.

In addition, any shortfall to the current budget creates even more challenges for the FY 2027 budget cycle that is already projected to be a deficit of 120 million dollars.

As the mayor prepares his proposed budget in accordance with the charter, I cannot stress enough.

We cannot proceed with business as usual.

Simply, we are not in business as usual circumstances.

As the mayor assesses budget cuts, it's important that staffing levels align with the scope of services delivered, and operations must clearly communicate adjustments to service levels to all residents.

Staffing changes should be proportional across front frontline, supervisory and management levels, and service or staffing reductions need to preserve core functions.

In short, we must level set the organization and address unclassified upper and mid management positions.

Over the last several budget cycles, equity has been a guiding principle as the city invested in programs, services, and the city workforce to meet the unique needs of residents citywide.

Equity must remain at the forefront.

I do appreciate the update regarding recent revenues exceeding projections and further further mitigating the use of reserves.

However, just as updates come in, we are also met with challenges such as increased rainfall levels and the need for releasing of water that comes at a cost.

Let me be clear, there will be cuts as we approach the FY 2027 budget, but they cannot be across the board.

Over the last several budget cycles, equity has been a guiding principle.

Equity must remain at the forefront.

That means being mindful and strategic as we evaluate impacts.

Our goal must be to preserve core services and ensure we maintain clean and safe neighborhoods.

We must maintain our infrastructure.

We must maintain functioning libraries and parks, and we must do better at maintaining the facilities and equipment that our employees rely on to do their jobs.

We must be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and bring accountability to the table.

And we need the public's input.

Like tonight, we will have additional public comment meetings held in the evening.

So please mark your calendars for March 10th, May 4th, and May the 18th.

I strongly encourage residents to participate.

There are difficult decisions ahead, and the community deserves to be part of the conversation.

With that, I look forward to public comment and suggestions regarding what services you would like to see prioritized and services recommended for reductions and mitigations.

Our budget process cannot simply be about cutting for the sake of cutting.

It must be about building a sustainable, equitable, and structurally sound budget that reflects our values and protects core services for the long term.

Again, thank you, Council President, for scheduling this meeting, and that concludes my comments.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster, Chair of our Budget Committee.

Thank you, Mr.

Modega.

Rodensy Office of the Independent Budget Analyst.

With that, Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

Starting with Pat Wilson, if you can please come up to the microphone, and I can have the following individuals, please come up to the front row in the yellow reserve seats.

Sarah Orman, Vicky Granowitz, and Ramses, if you can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Pat, you have time seated to you by Patricia McFadden.

Patricia, you can please uh raise your hand.

You're seeding your time.

Sorry, Patricia.

Is that okay?

That's you.

Sorry.

Two people raised their hand at me at the same time.

Okay.

Um based on the amount of speakers, we're going to be at one and a half minutes, so you'll have three minutes.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Hello again, Council.

How are you all tonight?

Thank you for being here.

I appreciate the opportunity for the public to give input to council on our priorities before the mayor's proposed budget is finalized, even as I'm certain that what we want will have no bearing on what comes forth.

That said, I'm here once again asking you to stand up for libraries and parks, the beating hearts of our communities.

Especially in these times, people need a place to gather, socialize, and relax that doesn't cost them money.

We need spaces to decompress, learn new skills, and broaden our outlooks.

We need access to resources that we don't have at home.

We all need these spaces, regardless of demographics.

Every council district has residents who rely on libraries and parks to provide vital physical and mental health opportunities, no matter the median income of the area.

We must not pick winners and losers here.

All of these facilities are vital to their communities.

The fact that the mayor keeps coming back time and again to take money from all already too small budgets is infuriating.

I cannot accept that there aren't other places to look.

Council identified places in the night in the fifth school 26 budget where savings could be found, but these savings have yet to be realized.

And really, some things may just have to wait.

$2.4 million for slowing down traffic.

Come on.

I mean, I'm sure in this year, in this year, when we're when we're cutting back on vital things that already are here.

I'm sure there are other nice to have proposed expenditures that can wait for a year or two.

And since I've got time, I'm going to rattle off some statistics.

The library system last year in 2025 showed saw 4.8 million visits among all 37 branches.

We had 14,000 program attendees, and 736,000 uses of library computers and wireless.

And every council district in every branch has communities who depend on that library and that branch being open.

We know we lost Sunday hours.

What are those people doing now?

Half of our branches, more than half of them, are not open on Mondays.

People don't, people who need those resources can't get them.

So anyway, I implore you.

And I'm sure Patrick has shown you all the wonderful things that the Library Foundation has been putting together for you all.

You should have them in your council offices already.

Thank you very much for your time.

Good luck.

Sarah.

Good evening.

My name is Sarah Ormond, and I live at 427 Ninth Avenue.

My husband and I came to San Diego in 2012 from suburban Detroit as two retired librarians.

We were delighted to find ourselves just two blocks from the new central library.

Back in Michigan, we used to joke that we had the wealthy suburbs sewn up.

He was a school librarian in Growth Point, and I was a public librarian in Birmingham at the Baldwin Public Library.

At one point, Baldwin had the highest per capita budget for circulating materials in the entire state of Michigan.

Sadly, the same is not true for San Diego.

In fact, compared to other urban libraries, San Diego library systems fare very poorly.

Seattle has a population of just over 737,000 people.

San Diego has a population over 1,388,000 people, and we have 37 branches.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Vicky Granowitz.

Hi, I'm Vicky Granowitz with the San Diego Parks Foundation.

We want to thank you for restoring funding to ACDs, ours and Wi-Fi last year, and we're going to ask you to do the same this year.

We want to remind you parks and recreation is an essential service.

It provides health, safety, and education.

As our communities become increasingly dense, they're not going to have backyards.

Parks are going to be essential.

The other thing I want to say is that I'm going to apologize for Andy Fields and his team up front, but there has been an exponential growth at the management level in park and rec and we think that there is an opportunity to, in the short run, maybe consolidate some of those positions for the meantime while we're in budget crisis rather than doing cutbacks.

We also believe you could push back opening of new parks.

I know that pisses you off, so I'm at least doing equal opportunity pissing people off.

The other thing to piss off the public, to be totally fair.

We don't need rec groups at every park.

You could actually do them so that they're limited to one in a council district.

If you look at the attendance of rec councils, they're very small.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Ramses.

Hello.

Thank you guys for doing this.

Honestly, I am kind of impressed with a little bit of the work that you guys have done.

I want to thank you guys for all of that.

It was it was nice to see the overtime went down for police.

You know, I've been asking for you know reform on that aspect.

What I wanted to talk about was I know that we're in a budget crunch.

And I know that parks and everything are on the line, but we need to be really looking at the stakes of the immigration crisis right now.

And what I mean by that is we're a few steps below a Holocaust right now, and we need to get on this shit.

Because like yesterday I went to the OTIMAX detention facility, and that was my first time going.

You know, I've seen pictures of it, videos of it, but standing in front of it and just seeing what a massive facility it is, and knowing that there are women and children in there.

From my soul, it just felt so disgusting.

And it's bad.

Like while we were there, we had to leave at 3 30 because they weren't gonna allow anyone to go outside into the rec yard until all protesters had left.

So there was a strict deadline by the time we had to be out of there so that they could actually see the sun before they went to sleep.

Like that's that's the kind of depravity that we're talking about.

And like right now, they're sending pregnant minors to Texas.

That's a place where it's illegal to have an abortion, and none of that, none of this is an accident.

Like these people are our enemies.

Like, we need to be aware of this.

Like, I know they weren't a budget crunch, but yeah.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

That does conclude public comment here in council chambers going to those participating remotely.

Again, it'll be a minute and a half each.

We have 10 speakers in the virtual queue, starting with Catherine, Catherine Douglas, then after that is Madison and then Lori Lipsman.

Catherine, if you can please unmute.

Catherine Douglas, it goes without saying that public safety is your number one responsibility.

As you work in the 2027 budget, you must start afresh with zero-based budgeting across the board.

There is a need for more frontline workers and less middle management.

Many city duties should be outsourced to experts who can do the job for less.

Not assumptions, not optimistic projections, real numbers.

Pension obligations must be honored, but failing to plan for them responsibly deepens the deficit.

Delaying infrastructure repairs only guarantees higher costs.

Costs later, and without a clear financial picture, budgeting becomes guesswork instead of stewardship.

This is about this isn't about blame, it's about accountability.

Before raising taxes, cutting services, or approving new programs, show the public exactly where the city stands.

This is the minimum standard for responsible governance.

No more guesswork that has seen disastrous results, such as the trash fees and the Balboa parking rollout.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Madison, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you.

As you consider the 2027 budget, I urge you to prioritize investments that reduce long-term city costs by strengthening public health now, especially when it comes to youth cannabis exposure.

Last week, the public health institute announced findings from a major study published in GMA Health Forum.

The study followed over 400,000 adolescents and young adults and found that teens who reported past year cannabis use had double the risk of developing psychotic disorders and double the risk of developing bipolar disorder in young adulthood.

They also face significantly higher risks of depression and anxiety.

Untreated mental illness shows up everywhere in our local spending.

Behavioral health services, homelessness response, emergency room visits, law enforcement interactions, and lost productivity.

So prevention efforts would be fiscally responsible.

The study also found high rates of cannabis use among youth enrolled in Medicaid and those living in more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods.

So here are just two ideas as you shape the 2027 budget.

Ensure strong enforcement of local regulations that reduce youth exposure and high potency product promotion.

And second, evaluate cannabis related impacts through a public health cost lens, not just projected revenue.

If we want to reduce city costs over time, we must reduce preventable harm now.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next Lori.

After that is Arya.

Laurie, please unmute.

Hello, and can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay.

Thank you for including the public in this process.

I urge the city council to prioritize true public safety, the kind that helps communities not just survive but thrive.

That means investing in education, deeply affordable low-income housing, not the vague category of affordable, and ensuring access to comprehensive medical care.

It also means rethinking what does what does make us safer?

I'm asking you to decrease police funding and cancel the contract with Flock.

Surveillance and overplacing do not prevent crime or build trust.

A healthy, sustainable, projective, and joyful city is built through investment in people, not expanded enforcement.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next is Arya, if you can please unmute Good evening.

My name is Arya Grossman, and I'm the policy manager at Circulate San Diego.

And I'm urging you to fund the Vision Zero Coalition's budget priorities to one, fix the Fatal 15, two, fund speed management plan implementation while prioritizing school zones as the transportation department intends, and three, fund daylighting implementation.

The City of San Diego has not made progress on its commitment to end road deaths.

Nearly every council member names road safety as a priority.

Safety advocates are telling you that these three funding requests will save lives.

If you're serious about vision zero, please fund these priorities.

I want to make clear that this trade-off does not exist.

Transportation funding can only be spent on transportation.

What I'm asking you to do is choose these safety improvements over routine road maintenance, not other city services.

Please fund these requests to save lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The five-minute timer did conclude during that speaker.

There are 14 speakers with their hands raised.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Guthrie Leonard, if you can please unmute.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Hi, uh, thank you guys so much for starting so early on this and including us.

It really means a lot to have our voices heard.

Um love what Arya said on Vision Zero.

I don't have anything to add to that.

I think those are all worthy goals for our transportation funding.

And I also want to talk briefly about the 215 bus, which from SDCU to downtown.

I think this bus deserves further investment.

It was envisioned as more than it is now, and I think that money is well spent and results in higher ridership, which would you know fulfill the the money we're spending on it.

And I also just want to say that when it comes to transportation spending, especially when it comes to roads, bike infrastructure, and transit infrastructure lasts longer than resurfacing.

So if we're gonna spend this money in a way that makes it count, I think it's worth it to spend it on the stuff that's gonna last as long as in this case that's active in public transportation.

So please take that into account when you are choosing where those dollars go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Asma, asthma.

If you can please unmute.

Hi, my name is Asma Abdi.

I'm a constituent of District 3, and I'm here speaking in my personal capacity as a concerned citizen.

I was born and raised in San Diego.

I'm a daughter of immigrants.

Our families did not leave a frying pan just to end up in a pressure cooker.

We need protection.

We need investment in vulnerable communities, especially at a time when so many families are feeling uncertainty.

We recently had a lot of rain in San Diego, and it's clear the city's not investing in proper stormwater infrastructure.

We need to make sure that at the very least, people are provided with basic human needs, such as affordable housing for very low and low-income families, as well as a decrease in police funding and canceling contracts with Flock, which has been proven to share data with ICE.

So as you consider the budget, I urge you, please don't balance the budget on the backs of immigrant, black immigrant and refugee communities, um, communities that are marginalized, and um we need protection now more than ever.

So please invest in our communities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sally.

If you can please unmute thank you.

I do appreciate this uh early time for uh getting input from people, but didn't do a great job in in uh promoting this, obviously, with the uh same number of people online, let alone in person.

I wanted to request that you cancel flock.

Uh put the money towards uh the safety of of the people and the welfare of the people.

And for me, that means uh not the police, but towards uh parks and libraries.

I'm not saying you have to create new ones uh necessarily.

I agree with the vision zero efforts to slow speeds, especially in the areas with the uh with the number of deaths that we have uh this past year, it's still still too high.

I'd also like to request that you work on the middle management level of uh jobs.

I think that's where a lot of the cuts are.

The people that are on the ground need to be able to do their work, but the middle management, I think, in a lot of instances can be combined.

Thank you.

Please consider D4, 8 and 9 as communities of concern and our stormwater.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Next is Samantha Schwimmer.

Hi, good evening, council.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak on such a critical issue.

We are in a serious budget crisis, not only in our city, but our county or state in our nation, and it's time for our leaders to take serious looks at revenue options that don't punish our working families, but hold those accountable who have taken advantage of tax breaks for decades at our city.

I think it's time to make entities like Airbnb pay their fair share, and I'm really encouraged to see council taking a serious look at items that will bring in revenue to our city that we so desperately need to keep our roads safe, to keep our kids safe and have access to parks and clean air and all sorts of wonderful things that our city provides.

And I am in huge support of any revenue measures that hold those entities accountable who are again, like I said, not serving working families.

And I think fundamentally this is a moral crisis.

We have under served our communities for so long to the point where basic things like stormwater drainage are not being met, and we can't sit around waiting any longer for answers.

It's time to take serious action.

We have the wealth in San Diego, and I really encourage the council to look to address that in Kyo.

Thank you.

Next is iPhone.

If you can please unmute.

Hi, can you can you hear me, Diana?

Yes, please proceed.

Hey Diana, that's Michael Schmidt.

Hi.

Um, I was I'm calling to point out I think part of the budget should go to transportation and especially to um fixing the roads.

Um, but I appreciate all of you and um also for everyone.

Thank you very much to all of you guys.

Bye.

Thank you.

Next is 8700.

If you can please unmute.

Uh thank you.

Uh Jasonyata C D3.

Okay.

Um I wants are library, parks, equity, fair immigration, internet access, KPIs, KPIs, KPIs in all departments.

We need to get started on whatever we can do in the FY27 budget to fund those.

The cuts are very interesting in what's being presented.

I'm very surprised about the cuts being asked for in or suggested in part.

It makes sense in a way.

And yes, I'm on for the less middle management and tweaking that, coordinating it, combining it, and somehow I like the idea.

Maybe, maybe, maybe on the outsourcing to pay less.

Now I want to say, oh gosh, there's just not enough time.

I want to say one thing.

I'm I'm looking at a new way of us to come together as one San Diego.

And I won't go into it now.

I'll look forward to the budget meeting, committee meeting or something, but just wanted to put that out there.

I think we need to enlarge our one people uh pocket.

So uh council president Pro Tim Lee.

You said something that really, really woke me up, and I don't know what to do with it.

You said I think it was very recently at ATI, I think.

You said what to do on a daily basis to remove the structural budget deficit.

So I think we're doing it now in a way, but I want to know more about that.

So maybe you can save more time as you go along.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Sorry, Ian.

If you can please unmute after that is Ben.

Good evening, City Council.

My name is Ian Hembry, and I'm the advocacy and community manager with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition.

I'm calling in tonight to ask that you include the Vision Zero Coalition's budget asks for your upcoming for this upcoming fiscal year.

As a reminder, they are to fund improvements to the Fatal 15 intersections, fund the associated budget requests related to the speed management plan, and create a dedicated fund to daylight intersections across the city.

Increasingly, kids across the city are dying because of our cities' inaction on the traffic safety crisis.

Cities around the world have figured out how to reach the vision zero goal.

When budget season comes along in those cities, they allocate significant funds to keep their citizens safe.

I wish I could ask for significant funds, but instead I'm asking for pennies on the dollar to keep us safe.

We're asking for cost effective solutions to save lives.

Do it for our kids, our seniors, our walkers, our riders, our drivers.

Do it for all of us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is um Belyn, if you can please unmute Ben.

I do see that you've unmuted, but we do not hear you here in Council Chambers.

Not sure if the mic, if the device you're speaking into may be muted.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, please proceed.

Hey, I'm here on behalf of Mid City Can today, and I'm calling because we want to encourage all of you to take a serious look at maximizing city efficiency.

And I'm here to point out one concrete action that you could take, which is to allow the parks and recreation department to do repairs in-house.

The current system to carry out park improvements is too lengthy, too lengthy, and too costly.

By doing projects in-house, they can address the backlog of maintenance requests and reduce the much higher costs required to carry out major repairs when the park reaches a crisis point.

Complex projects can always be sent to specialized teams, but please let them do the small projects to save time, to save money.

And this could be a net zero expense if you really look into it.

So if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Mid CityCan.

We'll be circling with your offices.

Thank you.

If you can please unmute.

Good evening, council members.

I just want to stress my concern about any additional cuts to libraries and parks and rec.

Those were already cut last year.

So that would be the second time these communities, folks that need these libraries and rec centers, because they often cannot afford the private solutions of buying books every time you want to read or paying for a specific class.

It's uh much more expensive, not at a rec center.

So this will be the second year that these communities face cuts.

Um, and I think that's deeply concerning, and it's uh ultimately a distributional choice.

It's you know, it's a tax by any other means to force these people to lose that service or now have to pay for it out of pocket.

So while we are concerned about fees or taxes, ultimately, the people who will bear this will be those who have the least resources, which is deeply concerning, and I hope we can find other solutions to this.

Um, I mean, I'm aware aware that there are trade-offs.

I feel like blaming middle missing middle management is not always the exactly the best solution.

There's trade-offs.

I think city workers provide great resources, and I in fact wish there were more city resources to manage however the parking implementation went.

I feel like that would actually have made it better.

So I think there's a true trade-off there.

So blaming it on this so-called uh middle management will require a trade-off as well.

Hard decisions to come, but I want to make sure the emphasis on low-income folks are not born the bearing the brunt of this crisis.

Thank you.

Kevin, if you can please unmute Kevin, I can uh unmute for you if you can unmute by pressing.

There you go.

Can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay.

Hello, council members.

Um I just wanted to talk to you guys about the budget.

Um so it seems like you guys have been uh I think misallocating some of the budget.

So I've been a little bit disappointed with the police budget.

So I'm a D1 resident, and it's been disappointing to see that you guys have been talking about the police being underfunded.

However, there's been parking disputes in O'Hoya a couple of months ago where 11 cop cars showed up to the parking dispute.

11 cop cars, yet you guys claim that the police is being underfunded.

So I think that'll be one area to uh not necessarily cut the budget, but to reallocate where officers are going if there's some areas that are understaffed, because clearly some areas are being overstaffed.

Um I think it's also important to make sure that we're funding the trolley system.

Uh the trolley is actually one of my favorite parts of San Diego, and I think it would be great if we kept it funded also with SB79.

If you guys expanded the trolley, that would also be great.

Get more housing and more trolley.

So you could definitely use some more trolley.

So that'd be great.

Um I think the parks and libraries are also really important.

So make sure you guys are funding those as well.

Um yeah, and so that's that's overall.

Yeah, I think just reallocate some funding.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Next is Blair Beekman.

If you can please unmute.

Hi.

Thank you, Blair Beekman.

Uh, thanks for this meeting tonight.

Um, I was interested um from my public comment, non-agenda public comment today.

What I failed to mention uh that's relevant, I think, to this meeting today, is that you know, as Oakland and San Jose are both they're working proactively on items and issues to deal uh to address this new Trump administration.

That San Diego also worked well previously on park issues, and you took a break on more surveillance tech for parks.

You just have to really consider you know what the Trump administration is gonna do with data collection things.

Um I think we're afraid now.

We've seen best practices, we're afraid to move into the future of best practices.

I explained ideas from Oakland and uh San Jose that are they are working proactively.

I hope San Diego can too.

This being an election year, I hope you don't you're not afraid of things.

I hope you're not afraid that I've been saying consistently that we can be addressing the future of tech and we can be reducing tech and still offering the same public safety for a lower cost and a tremendous budget savings.

We could be working on block issues, finding a well-principled future ALPR vendor.

Um I hope you guys take the time and effort to want to do that sort of stuff.

Uh let's really do that in 2026.

And from that, I hope in 2027 we're dealing with a new form of budget issues at the at the end of this COVID era.

We have to be talking about new forms of money management.

And I hope you guys are up to those conversations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If you raise your hand after the five-minute timer, you will not be taken tonight, but you can definitely continue to submit your comments through City Clerk at Sandeo.gov, and those will be distributed, and there'll be other opportunities.

4937, if you can please unmute.

And then it's McLean photography.

Those are our final speakers.

4937, please unmute.

Hi.

Um I'm a I'm a constituent of district three.

Are you the same Stephen Whiteburn?

I noticed that you are also appearing at the Democratic Party Metro West meeting tonight.

Aren't you supposed to be working to serve your constituents right now?

Also, I support uh funding for transportation with the trolley in the buses.

Does that conclude your comments?

Yes.

Thank you.

Next is McLean Photography.

If you can please unmute.

Thanks for uh for having this meeting for us and letting us uh speak to the public.

Speak to you.

So anyway, um from Philadelphia, but I've been in San Diego for about 12 years, right?

And I'm a local photographer and a businessman.

But um prior to coming here, one of the things that kind of got me on track to change my life was the public libraries.

So in my neighborhood in Philadelphia, um, you know, West is pretty poor, and we had to go really far to even go to a library.

And uh luckily in Philadelphia the public transportation is pretty good.

So I had to take the train all the way in the center city, right?

Just to go to a good library and use the free services, you know, because I was poor at the time.

So I think it's really important for us to have access to libraries, number one, and reliable transportation so that people can have a way to change their lives, you know, um learn, research, networks, and be a community.

And also have um you know, situations where, for example, the Malcolm X library in Southeast San Diego, there's a new live well center there across the street.

Um my artwork is actually in that behavioral health clinic.

The again, because I think it's important to have a community space where people can actually congregate but also heal and also uh research what they're gonna do with their lives.

So for me, once again, libraries, transportation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That is include public comment on this item.

All right.

Uh thank you, City Clerk.

And again, as I said, thank you to everybody that showed up in person and those who participated uh remotely.

Uh information item, no motions required, but I want to turn over to my council colleagues if you have any additional comments.

And we'll go first to Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Uh thank you, Council President.

Um appreciate uh your comments, um budget chair Foster's, uh Charles yours as well, and thank you to the members of the public who participated tonight.

Um I appreciate the opportunity to get the budget conversation started early this year because it is going to be so difficult.

Um and I think what is positive is that there's no one pretending like we're not going to have difficult decisions or or a hard conversation over the next several months.

Um but I do think it's important for us to kind of ask what this all is for.

Um what are we actually aiming to be?

And I I I do think we're when I say we, I mean the council, I mean the mayor's office, I mean even the public to a certain extent.

What type of city are we actually trying to be?

And I I don't know that that's being articulated right now in a clear way that allows us to actually know what we're aiming for.

Should we be should we just be slashing?

Um are we satisfied with the amount of resources that we're working with?

I don't hear that from the constituents who I engage with the most.

We obviously need to be as efficient with the dollars that we have as possible, but you know, I think sometimes a fresh set of eyes um can be really useful.

And when folks move to San Diego and they they notice how our library system stacks up to other library systems in terms of per capita um investment.

Um I think that's useful for us.

I think it's useful for us to keep in mind that the cities that we often compare ourselves to that are resource resourcing their library systems better, their park systems better, their rec systems better.

It's they often have one thing in common that we do not do here in San Diego, and that's ask those with the most to pay their fair share.

Uh so I know I've said this before, I know I will say it again, and it's probably um getting old to a lot of people, but there is no way that in the city with this level of affluence, with people who are doing so well with corporations that are making so much, that all of the conversation should be about cutting, and that all the conversations should be about reductions because we're we can't ask residents to pay more, as if it is not an option to pay those with much much more to simply pay their pay their fair share.

So um I think about where we were last year and how we dug deep in order to preserve what we determined to be essential services, and those were rec centers that families depend on, those were libraries that families depend on, those are parks that neighborhoods depend on.

And I am under no illusions that this is not going to be difficult.

I'm under no illusions that we're not going to have to make difficult decisions, that we're going to have to make some reductions and some closures.

But I I do very much hope that in this conversation, we can in a much more clear way determine what type of city we want to be over the long term, so we can start to aim for that.

The headline was Recreation Centers to the Rescue, the Search for Affordable Summer Camp.

And this was just a great reminder of how for families in parts of this city absent our programming that this city provides.

It's not giving up on our rec centers.

It's not giving up our libraries in a way that doesn't increase that doesn't improve service level and aim to make this a better city for everyone, but especially our young people.

Again, thank you all for showing up tonight.