I'm a little bit rusty and I hair caving.

And that's all if I've been really love.

And I feel like something's going to kill.

And I'm a little bit angry.

All right, good morning.

I will now call the city council meeting the Monday, April 20th, 2026 to order.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilbur.

Council President Pro Temli.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo?

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Ela Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting.

Thank you.

Also attending the meeting our city attorney Heather Ferber, independent budget analyst Charles Monica, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Quorum is now present.

We will begin this morning with an invocation by Clerk Fuentes, followed with the land acknowledgement and the pledge of allegiance led by Councilmember Whitburn.

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 Kubi Idacian are the original inhabitants of the unceded land, now known as San Diego.

Despite enduring the horrors of genocide and colonization, the Kubiai spirit remains unbroken.

We honor the resilience of their ancestors who fought to protect their culture and land.

Today they carry their legacy forward, ensuring that their traditions continue to thrive in gratitude and strength.

We stand with the Kobe I Nation connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Please face the flag, hand over your heart, ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

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

CS1, Brietta Cooper versus City of San Diego, CS2, Toya Jacia Welch versus City of San Diego, CS3, Daniel Patz versus City of San Diego.

Conference with the real real property negotiator pursuant to California government code section 54956.

Yes, it is separate.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I'll do all of them, please.

Okay, please proceed.

Okay.

Um, you know, just with your um, I mean, I guess with the constant litigation that comes forward, it's just ridiculous that we constantly, as the people have to pay more money for the negligence of this city.

And you know, when there's potholes and um, you know, we have litigation coming forward with that, and then you know, you go on the streets and you still see potholes.

It's like we're not, you know, making things better so that we're not gonna have constant litigation, you know, for who knows more decades regarding the infrastructure when it could be um managed better.

You guys could manage our money better.

I mean, instead, you want to come and you know, do things like um give uh parking tickets and things like that for maybe someone right going over their time um at a meter or whatever, but it's like I mean that whole thing is is a scam.

And it's sad because it's like you act like doing that is going to come in and you know, even better the roads and stuff like that.

And and I just if you can't already do that with money that's supposed to go forward to that, I just not sure how we're supposed to trust that you guys are gonna be able to um manage that kind of money that comes in wisely, and even just the you know, um the process obviously is I'm not sure exactly what their their claim is.

I do appreciate that you guys put some information, but I feel like um you know, there could be just more transparency as far as litigation um that comes forward um with the city um because you guys really tend to just obfuscate and hide things, and it's just it's it does it's not good for business.

I understand it's like set up that way, but it's set up that way on a purpose and for a reason and on purpose so that people can't um you know find out information about the negligence of the business going on with the people managing our money.

Um, and that goes into this whole midway um rising project.

I mean, I'm just wondering like at what point I don't even see a clock, is that coming you up in the council chambers we had a technical difficulty.

I've stopped your clock during your uh question.

You have 50 seconds left right now.

Oh, you did oh okay, great.

Um thank you.

I just I don't know why the Zoom is doing that.

So I don't really see a clock, and I guess you're just gonna have to tell me if I look, which you will.

Um, but everything that's going on with like all of these projects that you guys build.

There's some kind of you know, benefit that comes to someone someone knows, and you know, so you do things that you wouldn't do in in regular business that you guys wouldn't accept another business doing.

And it's just you know, makes you wonder like when that kind of stuff is gonna stop and when we're actually gonna be providing things that people need because people are suffering out on the streets, and like, you know, I mean I know you guys think I'm a broken record, but it's just sad to see that kind of stuff, and then we're in here talking about things that thank you that um you know you guys continue to do and not fix.

So um it's just the hope that you guys course correct.

Thank you.

That does conclude your time.

Next is Blair Beekman.

If you can please unmute, we were able to fix our technical difficulty.

Please let us know which item or items you wish to speak to.

All right, thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman items.

CS2, CS3, and CS4.

Thank you.

Have three minutes, please proceed.

Okay, thank you.

Um I thank you for fixing the timer issues.

Um I guess to start with CS2.

Um collecting delinquent parking tickets.

Um good luck how you go forward with this uh item, uh, how you'd be talking about it.

You made incredibly important strides in how you deal with downtown towing issues and towing issues overall uh that can serve equity.

And uh I hope that that I just wanted to remind, I guess maybe it's a better way to put it, that uh equity conversations and the good work you're already doing can be taking place uh and how to address these uh part delinquent parking ticket items uh like this.

So good luck in our in our efforts and our continuing efforts.

Um to go on to uh item CS3 is um uh this item has been to the uh council closed session a number of times.

Uh violations of Prop 218 uh charging for tiered water rates to single family resident residential water customers.

Is this an item that concerns you know the concepts of how you know people who live in low income areas can somehow get a more affordable water rates than people who have more money and who can afford higher water rates.

Now, that's a concept I think from the 80s that uh you know San Diego grasped onto fully that everything has to be equal and parsed and and and you know, nobody gets a free break.

But I I think we I hope we can really seriously consider that people of low income, just the basic logic that people of low income they need more help in in paying for services.

And people who live in higher level incomes, um they should be uh understanding that concept.

So good luck what we can do and understanding that concept and how it can relate to this item.

It's been here a few times, and that I hope it gets resolved, and we work towards a future that that people can uh who can't pay for things can have help in paying for things.

Or perhaps everything becomes uh a lot lower to pay for altogether.

That's another option and how to and how to create living expenses.

I'll to think of it another time.

And for the last excuse me.

Last item.

Uh uh the sports boulevard uh sports arena uh issues, uh, midway rising project issues.

Um, really nice words at last uh council last week.

Uh Catherine Rhodes offered some really nice words that surprised me, her being an engineer.

There can be ways to mitigate sea level rise change for the midway rising project area.

It sounds like she should be stating.

Um you guys have to make that more clear to us.

You have to make more clear that that there may be sea level rise issues is why you guys are going to court over the issue.

And all of those explanations need to be much better explained to the public.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The two-minute timer did conclude.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Mandy Havlick, your final speaker for today for closed session.

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

Good afternoon.

I'd like to speak to the sports arena, and then I'd also like to speak to the afternoon closed session regarding San Diego Housing Commission's performance review.

San Diego Housing Commission will be taken after this closed session.

They have to be in that meeting.

So just stay on and you can raise your hand for that one.

So you'll have one minute now, and then we'll get to your housing at the right time.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Again, I believe that the state legislating potentially the requirements that the state supreme court asked our city to do when with regard to the midway neighborhood of uh analyzing the traffic and the environmental impacts where we build and how high we build in coastal community matters, and I really wish that our city would work for us and not against us when it comes to this very large development that is on a peninsula in a coastal community with land that is owned by our city.

Again, I think we need to look at the traffic impacts as well as the environmental impacts.

Once we break ground, those impacts are real.

And again, just legislating away what the state supreme court asked you to do is something that is unconscionable, and we deserve better from our leadership here in San Diego.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

That concludes closed session.

All right, thank you.

Uh sorry.

Thank you, City Clerk.

Now we will adjourn as the city council to convene for a special housing authority meeting to take public testimony on the housing authority closed session item.

Clerk, please read the housing authority closed session item into the record.

Thank you.

Public employment performance evaluation pursuant to California Government Code Section 54954.5E and 5497 Special Housing Authority closed session item one.

President and Chief Executive Officer of the San Diego Housing Commission.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Please proceed with public testimony on the housing authority closed session item.

Thank you.

I'm sorry at five-minute timer.

The original, if you can please unmute.

Is it just a minute?

This is just a minute.

It's just the one item.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, yeah, for their like evaluating what is um taking place.

I just feel like um, you know, we need to really look at what's happening with the housing and what is and what isn't being provided and um how many people actually need this housing and how even the homeless uh situation is not good.

Um, like you know, tent cities not being uh mitigated, although there is litigation coming up, which is super exciting.

That's on May 7th.

So I'm excited to see what happens there.

Uh, because there's so many victims um that have been just trying to get into housing.

So I think that we need to look at those types of things and like the amount of human suffering that's increased and is going to increase as um you know, people are being pressed out of living just their daily lives.

Um, but yeah, so I need uh, you know, I'm sure you're going to give them kudos, you'll probably give them a raise um coming up and different things, but you know, let's like really live in reality and see that there's homeless everywhere.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm here today regarding the par performance evaluation of the president and CEO of the San Diego Housing Commission.

Performance to be measured by one simple question.

Are we making housing more affordable for the people who need it most?

Right now, residents at Mount Etna that are near the new um housing, the affordable housing at Balbo and Genesee.

They received an 8.8% rent increase at the beginning of the year.

These are people living in deed restricted, affordable housing, many on fixed incomes, working families, seniors, and residents who believe that they would have had finally had stability.

Instead, they are being priced out of the very housing that's meant to protect them.

How can leadership be rewarded when residents are being asked to carry that burden?

How can we justify increases or uh excellent performance reviews while struggling families are told to pay more?

We need rent relief for residents and deed restricted housing.

We need accountability for operators profiting off of uh affordable units.

Your time is concluded.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Um, Blair Beekman.

Thank you for the words of the housing commissioner on this item and on the previous uh consent calendar on the closed session agenda.

Um I'm not alone in my thinking.

Oh my gosh.

It's nice.

She said it sings very nicely.

Uh good luck in our review process, what we do together as a community towards uh it can be clear we can talk about our environmental concerns.

Thank you.

Uh to comment on this item, I wanted to comment that um I've been really impressed by the current um who's ever in charge of working the housing uh authority.

Uh I think she's been uh done a really good job, and she's trying to navigate a lot with the current new uh presidential administration, federal administration.

Um so I like her words, I like her approach and how she's trying to address things.

I think there can be ways to create good dialogue with federal agencies.

We have to find that that way that I think can be uh a really good mediation process.

Good luck to all of us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on the housing authority closed session.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

We will now adjourn as the housing authority and reconvene as the city council.

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

or shortly thereafter five.

One, two, three, four, five, so we can move on with the meeting.

Good afternoon.

I will now reconvene the city council meeting on Monday, April 20th, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell, here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

President, Councilmember Ila Rivera, and Council President Lacava.

President.

Also attending the meeting or assistant city attorney, Michelle Garland, Independent Budget Analyst, Charles Matica, Council Affairs Advisor and the Mayor's Office, Coda Zeiser, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Quorum is now present.

Before we begin, for those of you who've been here before, uh, but especially for those who have not, I know there's a lot of energy and passion in the room.

So I want to remind everyone about the city's practices and procedures for public comment at city council meetings.

The city welcomes participation at our council meetings.

Speakers may address the council during public comment and also in connection with a specific item of business on the agenda.

However, the city must make sure that no one person or group of people disrupt the meeting in a way that prohibits other speakers from expressing their ideas and opinions, such as excessive yelling, screaming, or speaking beyond one's allotted time, or speaking when others are speaking.

These are all examples of behavior that disrupts the meeting.

So to make sure that everyone here has an opportunity to address the council, I will alert an individual or individuals if I think their conduct becomes disruptive.

If the disruption continues, I will rule the individual out of order.

And if the disruption continues further, I will declare a recess so that we can restore order.

At that point, I will direct the individual to leave the room.

And if the individual refuses, police will escort the individual out of the building.

And if we have to repeat this process of warming and warning and recessing the meeting, all members of the public will be excused from chambers and credential media will be allowed to remain.

Once again, we have these practices and procedures to protect the rights of other speakers who wish to address the council and to allow the council to conduct the public's business.

Very strong visual.

If you hear things you don't like, rather than yell or protest, thumbs down.

Again, very strong visual.

If you have a sign, please be respectful of the people behind you.

We want everyone to have full view of a public speaker or the council when they're speaking to do that.

So we'll talk a little bit more about that on the next item, which I think is why most of you are here.

So before we get started with those two items on today's agenda, are there any comments from the mayor's office, council members, city attorney, independent budget analyst or city clerk?

Not seeing any.

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

Thank you, Council President.

I'd like to highlight the slide on the screen that reviews how the public can offer their public testimony during this afternoon's meeting.

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

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

Again, as a reminder, if you're seating time, please make sure that the person you're seating to and your slip are submitted together at the same time.

Council ambassadors are available near 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.

If you are unable to stay until you are you are called upon in person, you can also always connect via Zoom, www.sandiego.gov slash cc to keep watching the meeting and giving your comments virtually.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

So we're gonna take care of one item of business before we get on to the main attraction this afternoon.

Clerk, please introduce item 201.

Approval, thank you, Council President.

Item 201 is the approval of an affordable housing loan agreement with Alpha Street Housing LP in an amount of 4.5 million dollars for the 40th and Alpha Apartments Affordable Housing Project.

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

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Staff, I see you're settled in.

Please introduce yourselves a record and let us know how much time you need for your presentation.

Thank you, Council President Lacava, and Council members.

My name is Michelle Morano, Assistant Deputy Director with the Economic Development Department.

And with me is Christy Marcella, Deputy Director.

It's our pleasure to present this item to you today.

We request approximately six minutes for this presentation.

When you're ready.

Today we're requesting that the city council approve the staff report actions summarized on this slide.

The actions include approving the loan agreement with Alpha Street Housing LP for the 40th and Alpha Street apartments, authorizing the mayor to execute, administer, and implement the loan agreement, authorizing a loan of 4.5 million dollars for the project, and authorizing the $25,000 developer deposit for city costs and loan repayments to be deposited to the low and moderate income housing asset fund.

Before discussing the apartments, I'll provide a brief summary of the Bridge to Home Program.

The bridge to home program has proven to be a valuable tool in allocating gap financing to assist in meeting critical affordable housing needs.

Since 2021, the economic development department has issued seven rounds of its bridge to home notice of funding availability.

Round seven applications were received on April 6th and are under review.

Rounds one through six have resulted in 23 approved loan agreements, and today's agreement is one of the three remaining agreements for council's approval.

Altogether, these 26 loans will provide a total of one point I'm sorry, one twenty 123 million dollars in affordable housing funding, creating 2,528 total apartments, including 2,499 affordable rental homes.

And of those, 433 are permanent housing with supportive services.

An informational presentation on the bridge to home round four notice of funding availability process was provided to the EDNIR committee on December 11th of 2024, and six projects were recommended for loans.

Round four projects will create 592 affordable rental homes, including 96 permanent supportive housing units.

And now I'll take a few moments to provide a brief description of the 40th and Alpha apartments.

The 40th and Alpha apartments will be developed by a partnership owned and controlled by community housing works.

This is a California nonprofit developer founded in 1988.

The vacant site is owned by the city, and in December of 2024, the City Council approved a disposition and development agreement for the city to sell the site to community housing works to create affordable housing in conformance with the surplus land act.

The approximate half acre site is vacant and located on Z Street in the South Crest neighborhood of the Southeastern San Diego Community Plan area.

And it's within the San Diego Promise Zone.

It's in a residential neighborhood across from an elementary school in South Crest Park and is also within a transit priority area and within a quarter mile of multiple transit stops.

The proposed new construction includes a six-story building and a three-story building that will include 69 affordable one bedroom apartments and 22 two-bedroom apartments for families earning between 30% to 60% of the area median income.

There's also one manager's apartment and a 2,400 square foot child care center with an outdoor play area.

Amenities include an elevator, a community room, commute computer lab, kitchen, laundry facilities, bike parking, a courtyard, and a playground.

The project will be green point silver rated with energy efficient appliances and lighting, dual-pane windows, water efficient plumbing, and stormwater filtration.

The loan agreement will provide a 4.5 million dollar loan at 3% simple interest with a 55-year term to be repaid from residual receipts, and the 91 affordable apartments will uh be restricted at 30 to 60 percent of the area median income for 55 years.

These tables show the estimated projected sources and uses of funds.

The $4.5 million city loan provides approximately $49,000 per apartment or $39,000 per bedroom.

The city funding is leveraged with other anticipated financing sources, including $1.3 million in community development block grant funds awarded through the San Diego Housing Commission's notice of funding availability for acquisition costs.

The total acquisition, development, and construction costs are budgeted at approximately $59 million, which is $641,000 per apartment and $513,000 per bedroom.

Please note that these sources and uses of funds are based on estimates and assumptions and will be finalized at the closing once all financing sources are secured.

We'll now review the tentative schedule for the project.

The developer plans to apply for tax credits and other sources in 2026.

And if awarded construction could begin in the first quarter of 2027, which is essentially uh 180 days of award of tax credits, and the construction period is anticipated to be approximately 26 months.

Staff recommends approval of the requested actions summarized here, and representatives from the development team as well as city staff are available to respond to questions, and this concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for the presentation.

I believe the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst has a few comments.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you to the Economic Development Department and Community Housing Works for taking the time to answer our questions.

Our office would like to take a moment to highlight the sources of funding for the 40th and Alpha project.

The total development costs for the project today is approximately 59 million, a $7 million increase from when the project was last presented to the EDNIR committee in December 2024.

These increases are reasonable and associated with hard direct costs increases over time due to increases in labor and material costs.

Of the $59 million costs, the developer has identified all sources, but some of these sources have not yet been formally secured, which is typical with affordable housing funding, not including the 4.5 million residual receipts loan before you today.

The developer will still need to secure about $13 million in soft sources of funding before they will be able to apply for low-income housing tax credits.

The staff report indicates that the developer intends to apply for tax credits in May 2026.

However, the current unsecured soft sources of funding may prohibit the developer from applying for tax credits by May if they're unable to fill that hole.

This by no means would doom the project.

It just means the developer would have to wait till the next tax credit application deadline in September.

However, that would also include additional carrying costs and increases and pushing back any groundbreaking.

We note this discrepancy, not to alarm you about the project, but to highlight the highly competitive nature that exists for securing soft sources of funding to make projects financially feasible.

This project was preliminarily awarded this funding back in December 2024 and may not be able to break ground for two and a half years after that date.

Well, the city's low and moderate income housing asset fund has healthy balances.

We note that this council should continue to be disciplined in the affordable housing projects that they award funding to while balancing the costs and number of new units produced with the timing to get these projects fully funded.

Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

We always appreciate that input.

So clerk, please proceed with public testimony on item 201.

Thank you.

We have no speakers here in Council Chambers for item 201 going to those participating remotely.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you.

Hi Claire Beekman.

Um thanks a lot for this item.

Um it sounds like you're making attempts at affordable housing.

I mean, truly affordable housing.

Thank you.

Um I I think it's really important that we really have to work towards the emphasis of truly affordable housing.

And you you're trying to do that on this item.

Oakland.

They just passed an ordinance on their uh uh unhouse persons in the city.

It really follows the example of the San Diego a few years ago, and I'm not happy with it.

I think uh by this time we could start to be doing better.

And um so I I think the best way to do that is that we have to consider housing.

And what is accessible housing?

How can um everybody be involved?

I know Path has been doing some really good work in that field.

Um I wish that conversation could just be so regular and just so every day in in the public meeting process, but it's not.

But we all know the subject matter, and uh we all respect it a lot.

Good luck how to really make truly affordable housing an accessible, talkable, everyday subject uh for ourselves uh in our San Diego community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Andrea Ebbing, if you can please unmute.

Hi, this is Andrea Ebbing.

I would just um the only thing I really have to say about this is that it looks like this Alpha Alpha Alpha Street Housing just got some license on Sam.gov registered on 3126 as a nonprofit.

I would definitely look into this further uh in all parties involved through um through corporate wiki and this this needs like a deeper dive.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, and our final speaker is or the original, if you can please unmute.

Yeah, that's the thing.

The alpha um uh whatever their project, alpha apartments.

It's it's curious when we you know do engage with these NGOs, and when you guys sit here and claim that there's any kind of affordable housing.

I mean, people are barely able to pay rent.

And when you guys, you know, start including all of these like requirements as far as like mitigating vehicle miles traveled and all of these different things and studies that that increases the cost that comes down to the people.

And you know, people actually really need you when you're saying it's affordable for it actually to be affordable, and it literally is not.

But we you guys sit here and engage with these NGOs that you know will get these deed restrictions so they get like you know, tax credits and all of these these benefits that don't go down to the people.

So it's like you're willing to work with these entities to be like, hey, in order for you to do this, we'll like make you exempt in this, and like you know, give you all these perks, but when it comes down to actually giving the people what they need, they don't really get it, and there isn't affordability happening here.

And as we know, everything is just like skyrocketing in price, intentionally so because that you got to take the people down to the bottom in order for them to just be totally controlled, and so it's working really well what you guys are doing in that aspect.

But when there's you know quid pro quo going on with these, you know, NGOs that you guys engage with, kind of like dreams for change, who's supposed to be getting people into affordable housing, getting them off the streets, not having some you know, doctor and CEO say that she wants them to stay there as long as possible.

That's very detrimental to those people, and that's a racket in itself.

So anytime you guys are engaging with these entities, you have to question what's going on, why you pick them, who's friends with who, and what money is being passed around on the back end of it while you pretend to have the uh provider.

That concludes public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk, and I'll turn it over to my council colleagues for questions, comments, and entertain a motion.

And we'll start with council member Moreno.

Thank you.

Uh thank you for the presentation, and thank you to community housing works and the city uh for working on this loan agreement.

Uh, this project represents an important investment in our community.

Um, adding much needed housing in a location that is directly across from apart from a park and a school.

Um resources that are critical for working families.

Um I'm especially encouraged to see the development will include a child care component operated by say San Diego, which is going to provide essential support for parents and also caregivers.

Uh thank you, uh uh Mr.

Noah Fleischman from the IBA for um reminding us how delicate uh these uh developing affordable housing is, um, but I think it's our number one priority uh not only in the city of San Diego, but in the state of California housing is by and large the number one issue that folks bring up.

Uh so it's an honor for me uh to be able to move staff's recommendation um on this item.

Um I also want to point out that um I asked community housing works to go to the Southeastern San Diego Community Planning Group really early on in this process, and um they did it, which I think is important also to make sure that the community is well engaged in the process and has a say in the process.

So these 91 one and two-bedroom homes will be affordable over the long uh term uh to households earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area meaning median income, basically helping ensure that families of varying income levels can remain in and succeed in our community.

Uh so um I understand uh the concerns brought up, but I think this is part of the sausage making when you're talking about affordable housing.

Um, when you uh go and um apply for TCAC funding, they certainly look at uh the local jurisdiction having some skin in the game.

Uh this is our skin in the game saying we are standing behind community housing works, and we absolutely want to see more housing in our community.

So it is my honor to uh make the motion to move staff's recommendation.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

Uh so we do have a motion by Councilmember Moreno to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campillo.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll second the motion and thank uh Councilmember Moreno for her comments.

Uh completely agree.

I know that we heard about this particular development moving forward in ED and IR uh, I think it was in 2024, and here we are ready to go in 2026.

Uh it's going to be a public benefit, undeniably, so I will conclude my second with that.

All right, thank you, sir.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Moreno and a second by Councilmember Campillo to move the staff recommendation.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

Uh thank you, Council President.

Uh, just wanted to say thanks to staff for your work on this.

Definitely want to say thank you to the community housing works for their efforts.

And uh, Councilman Moreno, thank you for continuing to invite uh housing into your into your districts and affordable housing into your districts, as um you you said this is as important as it gets in terms of the future of our city.

Um the last thing I want to say, I I had the opportunity to represent this part of the the city um prior to the transition after um after the the most recent change in the lions and um this community deserves nice things.

Um community housing work has already delivered a very, very nice um a project uh right down the street from this.

Uh and this was this is the neighborhood that was impacted by the floods, and um seeing investment in that community after those floods is incredibly important.

Um while you know other folks have fled, other people have tried to um to take advantage of the situation that people find themselves in after those floods.

Um I'm really glad to see uh this sort of investment um uh from the homes that will be created to the child care space.

Um so thank you again for the work on this.

I'm very, very supportive.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

So we do have a motion by Councilmember Moreno, second by council member Campino, seeing no one else in the lights.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

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

That passes unanimously, eight to zero with Councilmember Von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Again, thank you to staff for the good work in bringing this forward.

All right, main attraction.

Clerk, please introduce item 200.

Item 200 is the presentation of the fiscal year 2027 draft budget.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please be sure to submit your speakerships to the front of the room in the clear box.

And if you are participating online, 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.

And with that, um, I welcome the mayor to make some opening remarks before we get the formal presentation.

So, sir, turn the mic over to you.

Thank you, Council President, and good afternoon, members of the city council.

I come before you this afternoon to present the fiscal year 2027 draft budget.

I want to start at the beginning by recognizing that this is a shared responsibility.

We won't agree on every decision in this proposal, and that's okay.

This is the start of a multi-month process, and this proposal will certainly evolve.

What we can agree on is that we all share a responsibility for enacting a balanced budget that protects essential services that San Diegans rely on.

That is the goal of this process.

My draft budget is balanced uh and responsibly confronts a 118 million dollar deficit, one that has been building for years due to rising costs, slower than normal revenue growth, and long deferred infrastructure needs.

This is the structural imbalance that we must confront together.

Every department contributed to closing this gap.

No one was exempt from reductions, including my office.

We have heard directly from residents, more than 11,000 San Diegans who have responded to our resident budget survey, and their priorities are very clear.

Public safety, neighborhood infrastructure, and homelessness.

And they want us to fund those priorities with our existing resources.

This proposal reflects those priorities.

It maintains funding for fires police and fire, avoiding fire station brownouts and police station closures that were considered earlier in this process.

This budget invests in the basics by committing funding for more than a 311 lane miles of road resurfacing and nearly 60 million dollars for safety improvements at key intersections, sometimes known as the Fatal 15.

And it protects our progress on homelessness by continuing to invest in the strategies that helped us to reduce unsheltered homelessness in our city last year by 13 and a half percent.

But these investments required serious trade-offs.

Beloved programming like library and recreation center hours will be reduced.

Grants to nonprofit arts organizations are paused.

And as I said before, no city department avoided reductions.

This draft budget proposes eliminating 198 general fund positions, including 48 management positions.

These decisions are not easy, and they will have impacts on all of us, but they are necessary to protect core services and meet our legal obligation to pass a balanced budget.

We are also approaching this year's budget process differently.

I began budget development far earlier than normal and with more collaboration with the city council.

This draft budget includes a zero-based review of contracts, reductions in middle management, and soon I will present you with data to help guide decisions on library and recreation center service levels so that we can meet the needs of each neighborhood and avoid across the board cuts.

That's where this work will continue.

Council, we face real financial pressures.

Costs are rising, revenues are not keeping pace.

Federal and state funding is uncertain, and macroeconomic and political conditions remain very unpredictable.

That's why we must make structural adjustments now to avoid deeper cuts later.

We have made real progress together, Council, on homelessness, on infrastructure, on public safety, and on putting our finances on more stable footing.

This draft budget builds on that progress.

I look forward to working with all of you to adopt a final budget that meets this moment and reflects our shared responsibility to the people of San Diego.

Now our Chief Financial Officer Rolando Chaval will walk you through the specifics of the fiscal year 2027 draft budget.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

So those seated for the presentation, uh, danify yourself for the record and then let us know how much time you will need.

About 25 minutes.

Okay.

One year 25.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, Council President, members of the City Council.

I'm Rolando Travel, Chief Financial Officer.

With me is Ben Battaglia, Department of Finance Director.

By way of overview, the FY27 draft budget totaled $6.4 billion citywide and an increase of about 5.2 percent.

The General Fund component totals about $2.2 billion, an increase of 3.3%.

This is the second year of progress towards addressing the general fund structural deficit.

This shortfall has been driven by rising inflation and slowing major revenue growth over several years.

The recently approved ballot measures that increase restricted TOT and refuse collection fees helped close this budget gap by decreasing the structure of shortfall, but not sufficiently.

This required additional mitigation measures, mostly from budget reductions.

This is the second year of major reductions to improve long-term stability, which include significant service level impacts across the organization.

Here you can see the budget for the FY27 draft broken down by fund type.

It includes FY26 and FY27 data for comparison purposes.

The general fund is increasing by about $71 million, mostly to maintain the same level of service after accounting for inflationary increases, and some limited additions mostly associated with legal requirements, mandates, and risk mitigation.

To highlight a few of the other significant changes from FY26 or special revenue fund expenditures are increasing by about 118 million dollars.

That's mostly related to additional projects for the undergrounding fund, uh issuance of the tax and revenue and dishabition notes expected for FY27, and additional uh reimbursements from the emergency medical service fund uh for eligible expenses in the general fund.

Enterprise fund expenditures are increasing by about 167 million.

Uh that's due to higher water cost, personal expenditures to support pure water phase one, energy consumption increases, and there is also increases related to the bulky item pickup in the refuse collection enterprise fund that was in that were included as part of the recent rate case that established the fee.

As the mayor stated, this year we've incorporated changes to the budget process itself.

There was greater collaboration with the city council and earlier information sharing, a zero-based review of contracts, analysis of middle management employees added over the last five fiscal years, data-driven analysis on recreation centers and libraries, continued department consolidations, and the resident budget survey that provided critical input in budget decisions.

The residents survey provided input by more than 10,000 residents.

The survey results confirmed that protecting public safety, neighborhood infrastructure, homelessness services, and housing is of top concern for those who responded to the survey.

Those priorities are reflected in this draft budget.

Over the course of the mayor's term, the administration has consolidated a total of 16 departments.

These consolidations allow for cost savings and better support for some of the smaller departments.

Further consolidations of departments during expected for FY27 include the Office of Emergency Services, which is being consolidated into the fire rescue department, the compliance department programs that are being moved into three different departments, and special events and filming, which is being consolidated with parks and recreation.

Moving back to the general fund shortfall, at the beginning of the this budget cycle, the CD's five-year financial outlook projected an 88.8 million dollar shortfall in the general fund for FY27.

As we moved through the budget development process, that gap grew to approximately 118 million dollars due to three key drivers.

Lower transient occupancy tax performance, a higher pension payment, and other fact factors such as the reduced below park parking revenue.

In addition to the revised 118 million dollars, we incorporated essential additions tied to mandates, legal obligations, and operational risk mitigation, after which the total budget that we had to solve for was about 146.2 million dollars.

The draft budget closes that 146.2 million dollar with a combination of labor concessions in the tune of 26.2 million dollars, about 76.1 million dollars in expenditure reductions, and about 43.9 million dollars in additional revenue and other sources, mostly from reimbursements from general from special revenue funds.

This slide shows the economic indicators used to develop major revenue projections.

The first five relate to property tax projections.

The first item in the table shows uh at a slight increase in the number of home sales compared to last year at about 11,000, close to 11,000 home sales, but this is significantly below the 16,000 home sales that we were seeing in more recent years.

Even with slowing home sales, the increase in home prices as reflected in the medium home price and case index, the land the next two uh indicators, those increases have helped offset some of this decrease in the number of home sales.

Foreclosures I noticed the default continue to be at historical healthy levels.

And the last two indicators which impact our TOT and our sales tax.

Um you can see there that unemployment rates continue to be relatively low compared to historical levels at 4.5 percent, holding steady compared to last year, and then consumer confidence.

That's where we have seen a decrease, uh significant decrease due to inflation concerns with the federal policies and geopolitical events.

This table shows how some of that, those projections translate now into our general fund revenues.

Um you can see major revenues growing by about 43 million and other revenues growing by about 28 million for a total of about 71 million.

Property taxes are growing at about 4.2 percent, while not as strong as a 5.5% growth seen in more recent years.

This is still represents a healthy growth for an increase of about $38 million in property taxes.

Sales tax growing at about $1.9%, while still positive, not close to the 3.5% increases that we've seen in average for this revenue source.

And TOT is really the most impacted revenue growing at just one and a half percent compared to the 6% average growth in prior years.

Much of the increased revenue that you see under other revenues is associated with reimbursements of general fund from other funds, and increased investment earnings assumed from the issuance of the tax and revenue anticipation note expected next week fiscal year.

This slide shows significant revenue increases in other resources.

The largest resource shown on this slide are additional TOT reimbursements to the general fund for eligible expenditures after reductions in penny for the R to about 11.8 million dollars.

There is an additional draw from the CalPRS trust to about $6 million to pay for retiree health care costs, increased reimbursements from the emergency medical services fund, parking revenue reimbursements for cyclic sanitation and city treasurer admin services, net interest earnings from the issuance of the tax and revenue anticipation notes, fire rescue reimbursements and adjustments from grants, special events, and other sources, and additional parks and rec reimbursements from the from growth in the environmental growth fund.

Earlier in the presentation and mention, I mentioned an increase in general fund expenditures of about 71 million dollars.

This slide showed some of the additions above baseline.

Legally required reimbursements to the DSD fund for general fund related right-of-way permits, adjustments to transportation overtime and asphalt.

Overtime had not been increased in prior years after general salary increases went into effect.

And in terms of asphalt, uh asphalt has close to doubled in cost, and this adjustment brings that budget to current price levels.

There is a legally required 1.9 million dollar expenditure for costs associated with services for residents that have not transitioned to a private trash hauler that need to be paid from from the general fund.

An increase of about 1.9 million for San Diego River levies engineering studies.

This is to maintain our FEMA accreditation and be it eligible for reimbursements should there be a natural disaster.

Staffing for new parks and facilities at about 1.8 million.

In an effort to increase county participation for additional beds for the homeless, we are adding about 1.5 million dollars to domestic violence shelter with an expected match of 1.5 million dollars from the county, about $700,000 associated with settlement for the air pollution control district litigation, and about uh half a million dollars for breakfast collection fee studies that we anticipate will allow us to bring additional revenue in future years.

This slide shows uh significant reductions.

You can see labor concessions accounting to about uh 26.2 million dollars as a mitigation.

Uh this was a cost that was factored into the outlook uh as projected expenses that uh we are avoiding.

Uh expenditure reductions uh remaining are about 76.1 million dollars, uh, and some of the most significant reductions include uh classified position reductions, about 9.3 million, the waiver of the climate equity fund, freezing uh some sworn police leadership positions, and increasing the span of controls of those remaining, a reduction in library and recreation center hours, homelessness programs reductions, the elimination of multimodal team, mostly related to bike lane improvements.

And yeah.

This shows we are dealing with a structural issue that requires a sustained multi-year approach.

Next, I'll discuss some of the programmatic adjustments in this budget.

Impacts from ongoing labor negotiations are not reflected in the draft budget, but they will be reflected in the May revise pending conclusion of the negotiations.

Overall, the general fund for the general fund, personal costs are decreasing by a net $4 million, and this is primarily due to the reduction of positions, which is offset by a decrease in budgeted personnel expenditure savings due to a projection of fewer vacancies next year, as well as positions added for staff to maintain new facilities.

Fringe benefits are increasing by net 17.7 million, and this is primarily due to an increase in the pension payment and workers' compensation costs, and these are both offset by a decrease in retiree health care contributions.

For public safety, the budget avoids fire station brownouts and additional decreases in overtime, specifically in the areas of neighborhood policing, clean SD, patrol, and youth services.

It implements cross-staffing for the bomb squad unit and reduced positions and NPE that are associated with training, recruitment, and community engagement in the fire rescue department.

For the police department, the budget preserves frontline personnel.

It holds sworn leadership positions vacant, expanding the span of control for existing leadership, and holds a number of police investigative service officer positions vacant.

The fiscal year 27 draft budget includes $97.1 million in funding for homelessness programs and services, including the police department's homeless outreach team and the environmental services department's Clean SD program.

The general fund budget is slightly increasing to $72.9 million, which is mostly supported by TOT, Measure C TOT, and opioid settlement fund reimbursements.

The remainder of the total homelessness services funding is primarily supported by various state and federal grants, including HAP and CDBG.

Homeless shelters continue to be funded, including the safe parking and safe sleeping programs.

Other programs, including supportive services, navigation programs, as well as community outreach or coordinated outreach, will continue next year.

The housing instability prevention program and the eviction prevention program will carry forward at current funding levels.

And finally, the budget includes programmatic reductions, which will be discussed in detail during the homelessness strategies and solutions department budget review committee presentation.

Notable adjustments in the area of community services include the strategic reduction of library and rec center hours, including a related reduction in security services.

Two libraries are planned for closure for renovation and expansion.

There's a reduction to the library donation match, and the Office of Child and Use Success is proposed to be eliminated.

Restroom closures in select parks is proposed to be reduced as well as a reduction to park rangers.

Additionally, the budget includes additional staffing and related costs to operate and maintain new parks and joint use facilities that are planned to open next fiscal year.

Other notable reductions include the elimination of arts and culture grants to outside organizations, various facility maintenance trade positions, decreased support for building and zoning code enforcement, as well as the elimination of city council CPPS funding.

Overall, the budget includes the reduction of 288 positions citywide, with 187 positions being added, primarily in the Solid Waste Management Enterprise Fund for a net reduction of 101 total positions.

The general fund includes a reduction of 268 positions, with 70 positions added primarily to support the operations of new facilities as well as parking enforcement, many of which are reimbursable for a net reduction of 198 positions.

To highlight a few notable adjustments in the non-general funds, additional funding is included in the Solid Waste Management Enterprise Fund for expanded services supported by the approved trash fee.

The environmental growth funds include $7 million to support wetland mitigation activities related to prior storm channel clearing work.

And the budget also includes funding to support phase one of the Pure Water Program, which is being beginning operations next year.

The fiscal year 27 capital improvements program budget includes $821.7 million for a variety of projects.

Key investments include continued funding for water and sewer pipeline projects, funding for the pure water program, continued investment in street repair, investments in other right-of-way assets, including traffic safety, funding for stormwater emergency projects, and other projects that are scheduled to go into construction next fiscal year.

The CIP budget includes significant investment in general fund assets such as city facilities, storm drain infrastructure, streets, sidewalks, and other right-of-way assets.

A total of 222.3 million in funding is supported by debt financing and other mostly restricted sources such as transnet and utility undergrounding fees.

Major considerations for funding were project readiness for construction and continued investment in streets and stormwater infrastructure.

Council Policy 800-14 is also used to prioritize projects along with mayoral and council priorities.

The draft budget includes $89.1 million for the city's street repair program.

This funding will support street maintenance, including slurry, cape, and scrub seal, pothole repairs, and trench restoration services, as well as street resurfacing.

The funding will support a total of 345 miles of street repair next year.

The city will also continue to make investments towards its vision zero goals next year, and the budget includes funding for a variety of right-of-way improvements that will support pedestrian, bike, and vehicle safety.

A total investment of approximately 60 million will support this effort, including addressing the city's most dangerous 15 intersections.

Stormwater emergencies continue to cost millions each year.

The fiscal year 27 draft budget includes 52.5 million investment in stormwater infrastructure, which is in addition to the $733 million WIFIA program.

The city is continuing to set aside funding annually for storm drain emergencies and is investing in other projects that are ready for construction.

Looking ahead, the IBA will be releasing their review of the draft budget on April 29th, and the budget review committee hearings are scheduled for the week of May 4th.

The Department of Finance will be releasing the May revision on May 13th and presenting it to the City Council on May 18th.

Finally, the City Council is scheduled to adopt the budget on June 9th.

The fiscal year 2027 draft budget is balanced and it prioritizes continued investment in public safety, infrastructure, homelessness solutions, and housing.

This is a second year of progress towards addressing the general fund structural deficit and additional revenue will be needed to address the city's growing capital improvement needs.

That concludes our presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions you'll have.

All right, thank you both for the presentation.

I'll turn it over now to our independent budget analyst, Charles Monica.

Sir Thank you, Council President, Council members, Mr.

Mayor, and the Department of Finance for your presentation.

As you know, the proposed budget was released last week on April 15th, and that kicked off a very intense two-week period during which my team is working tirelessly to translate the budget into a comprehensive report to help guide your budget review that starts in May.

Given the addition of the division of race and equity to my office this year, our report will also include additional focus on the equity impacts of various budget adjustments.

While the bulk of our analysis is still being worked on and will be included in a full report that will be released on April 29th, I do have some general remarks for today.

First, I want to acknowledge that this budget includes a number of substantial cuts, which were necessary to close a deficit of roughly 118 million dollars.

The city has been operating with structural deficits for years, and my office has warned of them in all of our budget reviews.

Cuts of the magnitude being proposed will be difficult, but they are also necessary to balance the budget.

It is important to understand how the city got here.

This deficit is not new.

The city's resources have been insufficient to provide for the services and infrastructure maintenance for decades.

The city realized this over 15 years ago in 2010, when it pursued a temporary half-cent sales tax measure, but that effort failed, causing the city to pull back on both infrastructure maintenance and employee compensation.

And in 2012, when the city began issuing bonds again to pay for its capital infrastructure needs, the city did so not with the expectation that infrastructure needs would be fully funded, but with the knowledge that bond funding would only allow the city to slow the rate at which its infrastructure deteriorated.

Beyond this, in the city's day-to-day operations, some areas have seen expanded services, while the city's actual revenues, particularly sales and hotel taxes, were and remain low compared to our peer cities.

Another attempt was made to address all of this in 2024 with a measure to increase the city's sales tax rate by one cent, but that effort narrowly failed.

Band-aids that the city has used in past decades, like keeping employee compensation low and deferring infrastructure maintenance have long-term consequences that we are dealing with today.

While the city has raised pay in recent years, new revenues for infrastructure have been limited, while the infrastructure needs of the city have ballooned from $1.4 billion in unfunded capital needs 10 years ago to $7.8 billion today.

First, I often read complaints about how much the city spends on bike lanes.

I want to be clear that the city spends a fraction of a percent of its budget on bike lanes in any given year, and that amount is generally associated with striping streets after repaving.

Most of the large and more costly bike lane projects in the region are completed by and funded by SANDEG, not the city.

Second, while some point to employee pay increases over the last three years as deficit drivers, it is also important to note that those raises were designed merely to bring city employee compensation closer to market rates and median pay.

Before those raises, the city lagged far behind peers and faced significant difficulty recruiting and retaining the workers that deliver city services.

Finally, while many point to admittedly bad real estate deals the city has made in the past, notably 101 Ash as drivers of the deficit.

It's also important to note that those were mistakes that the city has learned from, and that they also had by and large one-time costs, while the deficit that the city needs to solve today is an ongoing and structural issue.

In short, the city's budget issue, particularly when it comes to infrastructure, is fundamentally a revenue issue.

Now, given our current resources, there is no question that we need to make significant cuts to bring our operations into structural balance.

But I also want to be clear that even cutting entire departments would not free up enough resources to fix our infrastructure backlog.

That backlog will remain until and unless new revenue to address it is put before and ultimately approved by city voters.

But what we are faced with today is the budget that has been proposed and the deficit that needs to be closed.

Over the last year, the city implemented several new revenues to close the current year's deficit.

Moving forward, however, we cannot and should not rely on large new near-term infusions of revenue.

Cuts will need to be the primary tool to bring the FY27 budget into balance.

I know that we will hear about the negative impacts of those cuts.

Our IBA analysis will include discussions of many of those impacts and in areas where dollar cuts have been proposed without operational details, particularly in libraries, parks, and homelessness programming.

My team is meeting with departments to understand those cuts, and we will include additional detail on them in our report.

But ultimately, cuts will be unavoidable.

I expect that we will hear real and justifiable concerns, both from this council and the public about the cuts that have been proposed.

And over the next two months, we will have the opportunity to address some of those concerns through modifications to the proposed budget.

But we also need to be realistic.

We do not have the resources needed to maintain today's services, and any future infrastructure fix will require more revenue down the road.

In the meantime, we need to structurally balance the city's operations today to rebuild both stability and public trust for the future.

I would ask as groups come forward to oppose particular cuts that they also consider suggesting alternatives.

That will not be easy, but it is ultimately necessary because the city cannot spend money that it does not have.

With that, I will wrap up by noting that my team will deliver our full analysis on April 29th, and I look forward to working with each of you through the difficult discussions that we will have over the next two months.

Thank you.

All right, thank you very much, Charles.

Uh the input of the IBA, especially during this particular cycle is incredibly critical.

Uh but thank you for your candor.

Do we have any public comments?

All right, clerk, please proceed with public testimony on item 200.

Thank you, Council President.

We do have over 160 speakers here in person, and with those that have raised their hands online.

That is worth applauding.

Let that be the last clapping for the rest of the session so we can get through every 160 speakers.

Just one thing before I begin, we do have several seats available up in the front.

They are reserved for the speakers who are being called up.

So as I call your name, please be sure to come up to the yellow reserve seats at the front of the room.

If you are seating time, I will be asking you to raise your hand so that I can see.

Sometimes I'm a little short, so please make sure there's a person's here just to wave your hand around.

I will see you and we'll try to get through this as efficiently as possible for you all to be heard.

Jesus Gallegos Munoz.

Jesús Gallegos Muñoz.

Adriana Barraza, please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Adriana Barraza.

Please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Courtney Balitz Balinski, Patrick Stewart, Judy Voz, Sparky Mitra, Kevin Veno.

If you can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats, as well as Nicole Lilly and Travis Bachard.

Jesus, you can start, you will have one minute.

Thank you.

My name is Jesus Martín Gallegos Muñoz.

I am the community organizing coordinator for the Chicano Federation, a member of the Community Budget Alliance, and a former youth commissioner.

When this city first established a youth commission, I was ecstatic.

Finally, we weren't just talking about youth empowerment.

We were building a home for it.

But in all transparency, those early days were a struggle.

It felt like we were being thrown into a deep end and told to swim.

Thankfully, when we advocated for the support we desperately needed, the city delivered by creating the Office of Child and Youth Success.

Since then, OCYS has been the backbone of our community.

It has bridged the gap of for youth and our most marginalized individuals in our neighborhoods, giving us the tools to lead our own progress.

Eliminating this office isn't just a budget cut, it's a message.

When youth are not at the table, we're on the menu.

And cutting OCYS sends a clear message that our futures are not worth fighting for.

On behalf of Chicanofer, I ask you to reconsider and please keep the fight alive for OCYS.

Adriana Barraza.

Adriana Barraza, are you here?

Shaggy is coming in from another room.

No, no, Adriana Barrassa.

Good afternoon.

My name is Ivania Marlene Rubio, and I'm a current resident of District 4.

I'm also a former district one youth commissioner from the inaugural cohort of the city's youth commission.

The my experience as a as a youth commissioner introduced me to the Brown Act and taught me how to communicate with public bodies and promote that transparency.

And it eventually allowed me to have the basic skills that I needed to serve on the commission on police practices.

And as a young person who came from black and brown communities, low-income communities growing up, it was very important for me to serve and be one of the young people on that commission with retired individuals.

So I really urge you to really consider the the youth commission under the Office of Child and Youth Success.

I understand that we're collectively experiencing a lot of cuts, so I just really want to put forth our youth and really highlight that we're doing this for our young people as well.

Thank you very much for your time.

Courtney.

Courtney Balitzki.

Yes, Courtney comes up.

Yeah.

Snapping fingers if you're really excited.

But thank you.

Good afternoon, Honorable Council President, Council members, and Mayor Gloria.

My name is Courtney Baltiski with the YMCA and Children First Collective.

It's an honor to stand in allyship with young people today, and we're all confused about these budget decisions.

Why can't we have a tough fiscal conversation in a way that allows for vision, collaboration, and leadership?

It makes sense to maintain the dollars for the Office of Child and Youth Success.

Being in youth development, I know that a continuum of programs, collaboration and intention across a young person's life are critical.

OCYS works across community for and with kids, youth, and families to strategize for this.

We've seen much trust built, grants secured, and progress with the Office of Child and Youth Success.

We can't afford to lose it.

Thank you.

Patrick Stewart.

Good afternoon.

I'll make this quick.

I just want to point out a couple of things that I hope that we get a chance to discuss as we are considering uh the rest of the budget process.

One, I am concerned by the disproportionate um effects that this budget uh has proposed is gonna have on children, youth, and families, particularly the time when they need us most.

Two, I'm concerned by the either-or approach that this budget has taken, which has resulted in nearly eight million dollars in proposed reductions in art or in uh in library and park recreation hours, and a virtual near elimination, a near lim elimination of our arts and culture budget, either or there's been zero creativity in how we're going to be able to still uh bring services to City of San Diego.

And I'm concerned about the narrative that surrounds uh the survey.

Um, that we're using the narrative that 10,000 individuals or 10,000 responses is being done being used to drive a decision that will affect 1.4 million people.

It's designed and it's delivering.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Judy Voz.

Good afternoon, City Council.

My name is Judy Voz, and I'm the public affairs manager at Plan Parent at the Pacific Southwest.

Our zip code should not determine our care, our treatment, and our access to opportunities.

Defunding the arts and programs that promote youth success are not only harmful, but they also create more hardship and put a burden on service providers.

We cannot solve our budget crisis while maintaining essential services that promote creativity, community, and equity.

Our students deserve better.

Our nonprofits deserve better.

Southeast San Diego specifically deserves better.

The community is here.

And I want to be clear.

It's our jobs to share our stories, but not to find alternatives.

It is our jobs to share what we're going through so that y'all can make the decisions.

We voted you in.

We want you to listen to us and work with us, but it is not our jobs to do your job.

Thank you.

Sparky Mitra.

Hi, Council members.

My name is Sparky Mitra, a youth organizer, engineer, and district three resident.

I'm here today because I'm appalled at what the mayor has prioritized in his budget.

This is exactly what it is.

It's his budget proposal, not ours.

This budget does nothing for the community and for youth, and we won't stand for it.

The establishment of the Office of Child and Youth Success is one that has been the culmination of decades of work from youth organizers around the city.

With federal dollars already being stripped from investments in youth, at risk communities, and with the increasing demonization of migrants, our city should be stepping up.

Instead, the mayor is eliminating a program that has brought in 1.3 million dollars for refugee students.

He is stripping us of vital resources like youth job-in centers.

Let us be clear.

He is axing investment in our youth.

He is obliterating the success of our city's future.

The amount of revenue that OCYS has brought into the city is an order of magnitude greater than its operating budget.

It has brought in ten times the amount of uh money it costs to run.

This budget doesn't serve us.

Fund youth, fund the future, and fund the people.

Kevin Venell.

After that will be like Nicole Lilly, Travis Bashard, Omira, Yusufie, Lucky, Aiden, Mohammed Omar, Rachel Lozano Castro, Dean Shaleck.

If you can all please come up to the front row.

Please proceed.

Good evening, Council members.

Uh Councilmember Member Wukava.

I'm a constituent in your district and a board of trustee at the O'Hoy Community Planning Group.

I'm coming here today with Our Times Act, the youth-led 501c3 nonprofit.

Uh, urging you all to continue the funding for OCYS.

They only require $350,000 in funding while generating $3.5 million in grants that the city would no longer be able to receive if this department was not funded.

So you're not saving $350,000, but you're actually losing $3.5 million in potential grants that the city can no longer receive.

Uh further, Councilmember Wokava, I wanted to urge you to reconsider your stance on the police funding.

I know this is a difficult budgetary process, but this is something that I think comes at the extent uh at uh the expense of many taxpayers, uh, with many examples in our district happening with uh mismanagement.

And for example, on January 7th, there was a homeless man who locked himself in the La Jolla Cove bathroom.

The police responded with 26 cop cars, a swap vehicle, and a helicopter to someone walking themselves to the bathroom.

Thank you.

Nicole Lilly.

Hello, my name is Nicole Lilly.

I'm a 23-year-old resident in District 3 and the executive director of our Time to Act, an entirely youth-founded, youth-led 501c3 nonprofit, organizing powerful youth for an inclusive, equitable, and sustainable future in San Diego.

As a youth organizer who has had the privilege of working with the Office of Child and Youth Success, I can tell you firsthand what a catastrophic failure of leadership it would be to allow OCYS to be eliminated in this budget cycle.

The mayor's proposed plan slashes libraries, parks, arts, housing, and just about every social service while attempting to pit us against one another for crumbs.

Meanwhile, it pours money into invasive surveillance and an already bloated police budget.

A department that cries broke every year while sending 24 units for a single car chase, wasting millions on unlawful arrests, and harassing the very youth Gloria seeks to defund.

Today, organizations and youth from across the city joined in a united voice to urge you to fund youth, fund the people, not police and surveillance.

You have a duty to pass a budget that serves our present and future.

This community will hold you accountable.

Thank you.

Travis Bashard.

Travis, District 7.

Likely each one of you found your way into politics because you wanted to improve people's lives.

That's noble.

Congrats.

However, this budget is the antithesis of progressive politics.

Funding a surveillance state that disproportionately affects black and brown youth while defunding youth services is insane.

Like truly.

Allowing that to see the light of the day should be a what the fuck are we doing moment.

Block are not licensed flight cameras.

They are full motion video that capture kids walking to school.

You are selling our children's data.

Shame on you.

You can treat to ask people to ask you continue to give people crumbs.

As someone eloquently described earlier today, you've created a hunger game situation over and over.

People are done settling for crumbs, Mayor.

People are gonna come steal your cake.

If you don't do the right thing, fund your services, defund flock, fire Daniel Gold, the 30 million dollar call.

Fire Daniel Gold.

Fire Daniel Gold.

Fire Gold.

Omira, you're Stephanie.

We're gonna set the tone.

PD, escort the gentleman.

We gotta set the tone.

Let's all be civil about this.

We know how angry and how passionate you are about this.

We got 150 still to go, so let's get through it.

My name is Hamira Yousfi with the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans.

I'm here today to request that council redirects funding from WAC ALPR and restores funding in youth, parks, um, arts, and all the other essential services that we need as Dan Diegans.

We don't need more creepy surveillance.

We don't need um more cops on the ground that are gonna criminalize our youth.

We need to invest in our youth today.

PANA PANA's global village is adjacent to the um Troyas Triangle Park Restoration Project, and we were very disappointed to see that the mayor's budget provides zero dollars for the Choyas Creek Park.

It cuts out park rangers, playground maintenance, and the only city employees that um whose entire job was expanding equitable recreation.

Please redirect these fundings away from creepy surveillance like Flock Area ALPR and put it into our communities instead.

Thank you.

Lucky Aiden Okay, um good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Lucky, youth organizer with a partnership for the advancement of New Americans.

Our community depends on parks much so much more for just green spaces.

I know for my family, parks is where we gather to celebrate during aid picnics.

Um, this is where we create multiple multiple memories across multiple generations and have meaningful time together as families.

Recently, our youth have started a walk club and because they wanted to connect with their peers and be in nature and also stay active.

But the reality is that we often have to travel 30 minutes just to find a park or a trail to walk at.

For many of our youth, this is not accessible because of transportation.

Having a park or trail in their community is what we really need.

This is why it's really disappointing to see that there's zero funding for the Children's Creek Park.

This is not about building a park, it's making sure that there's a place where family and youth can truly gather.

Like Kamari said, defund flock and invest in community and youth.

Thank you.

My name is Mahamud Umar.

Uh I'm with the Partnership for the Devancement of New Americans.

I'm here today to respectfully urge the city to restore funding for the Cholas Triangle Park and the Cholas Creek Restoration Project.

We just listed on page 33 of your proposed budget as unfunded at 35 million.

For many in my community, parks are not luxury.

They are essential.

They provide a place to escape extreme heat, celebrate important milestone like birthdays, and connect with neighbors in the midst of a severe housing crisis.

Many families do not have access to backyards or equated spaces to space where people can come together safely and meaningfully.

We are deeply concerned that the Mayes proposed budget allocates no funding for the Cholas Creek Park.

In addition, it reduces support for park ranges, playground maintenance, and eliminates the only city position dedicated to expanding equitable access for to recreation.

This cuts impact not only existing parks but also the long-term success and sustainability.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Rachel Lozano Castro, you have time seated to you by Patricia Serrano.

Patricia, can you please raise your hand?

Thank you.

We're gonna need a speaker slip from you.

My staff will be over there.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon.

My name is Rachel Lozano Castro.

I'm a resident in District 4.

I also run a business in District 4.

I work in District 9.

Um, I'm with the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans.

Um I celebrated my 28th birthday in a city park.

Uh I go use one pretty much every weekend.

Uh, when I can, I take my lunch breaks at a city park.

Um, I have family members and friends, and I meet with them in city parks in Point Loma and Rancho Bernardo.

I use all of these regularly.

Um, so I'm asking to fund uh Troy's Triangle Park, fund the parks we already have, fund Choyas Creek Restoration, which is upstream from the communities that were flooded.

Um I'm also asking to make good on the promises that have been made with community input for the mid-city community plan update, which we're in the middle of right now, um, where every community member should be able to walk to a park.

CBOs like ours at PANA are wanting to work together to draw down state funds and apply for competitive grants.

So we're asking you to show up with us for the May revisions of this budget.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dean.

Dean Scheik, S H A I K, no.

Jermaine Germain Droko Corra.

After that, we'll have CJ Mendoza, Liliana Soriano, Claire Schneider, Wee Tran, Amy Win, Mariana Inojosa, Andrea Ognaco, and Alexandra Castillo.

If you can all please come to the front row.

I say I corrected.

We have 196 speakers to go.

Jermaine.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Jermaine Rokacorba.

I am a I work at PANA at the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans in District 9.

I also, my family is actually in District 4.

I am here today to ask you to please redistribute funding to both arts and culture, our libraries, as well as defunding Flock and investing it back in our youth.

Our youth are extremely important to me.

I actually went to SCPA in District 4, where I learned about arts and culture and what it means to save lives.

And to me, public safety is being able to have these safer parks just like the Choyas Creek, just like the Choice Park, as well as being able to ensure that public safety is also decriminalizing our youth by investing in our youth through arts and culture and different services.

Thank you so much for having me here today.

Thanks.

Thank you.

CJ Mendoza.

Hello, City Council.

My name is CJ, and I'm an outreach and organizing intern at Youth Well.

I've been in organizing positions before being at Youth Well.

I'm 22 years old, and in my journey of organizing and where I'm standing now was only made possible by adult allies who believed in young people and their success.

I'm urging the city to not cut OCUIS because in order to go from believing in youth, it means investing in their success.

The creation of OCYS is a symbol of strength and numbers, and the creation of this office was a community community-oriented journey.

The 20-year journey had young people, parents, educators, and organizers fighting for a dedicated city investment in young people's futures.

OCYS has accomplished many wins that include child care access, civic engagement, education, and so much more.

OCYS continuing to win means our young people in San Diego also win.

Invest in youth success today.

Thank you.

Liliana Sorgano.

Hello, Council.

My name is Iliana Soriano.

I am the director of policy at Youth Will.

We're a youth advocacy organization asking you today to not cut the office of child and youth success as outlined in the mayor's proposed budget.

This office was established in 2022 in response to not only the youth development needed in midst of a pandemic, it also is to humanize our social infrastructure investments.

OCYS is a powerful tool for intergovernmental and outside agency investments for youth.

It has supported with securing $2 million for a Measure H implementation, which supports families with child care access, as well as a 1.3 million grant in partnership with the largest school district in San Diego, the San Diego Unified School District to support refugee students.

The mayor's proposed budget is short-sided.

The elimination of OCYS sends the message that youth are not a priority.

We are asking you to restore the director level leadership of OCYS, maintain its operational budget, retain its staff, and Charles and Council respectfully, money can be divested from surveillance and invested in youth.

Thank you.

Claire Snyder.

Claire Snyder, you have time seated to you by Angelica Castillo.

Can you please raise your hand?

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Claire Snyder.

I'm with Youth Will, but today I'm going to be speaking on behalf of a youth that could not be here today.

Dear City Council, my name is Sadie Wheeler, and I serve as chair of the youth commission.

I am speaking on behalf of the commission to express our concerns regarding the 2026-2027 budget proposal, which disproportionately impacts youth in San Diego.

Youth voices are already underrepresented in government, and this proposal reinforces that reality by signaling that their needs are being underprioritized compared to other funding increases.

For example, cuts to library funding significantly affect youth by limiting access to safe, quiet study environments that students rely on daily.

Libraries provide essential resources, including books, technology, internet access, and after school programs.

They also serve as a critical space for academic support, college and job application assistance, and community connection, especially for underserved youth.

Similarly, reductions to parks and recreation funding will result in fewer safe spaces for young people to gather, which is vital to the well-being and development of youth.

It will also result in fewer sports programs, recreational opportunities, and summer after school activities.

We are also particularly concerned with the elimination of the Office of Child and Youth Success, under which the Youth Commission operates.

Removing this office weakens coordination of youth focused initiatives across the city and reduces support for mental health resources, youth development programs, leadership opportunities, and more.

Ultimately, it undermines long-term investment in San Diego's young residents.

This statement is being shared by Youth Will, a youth advocacy group.

We had hoped to present these concerns in person, but the meeting time during school hours creates an additional barrier to youth participation and civic engagement.

We understand that the city is facing a budget deficit.

However, we ask that you consider the impact of this budget on approximately 20% of San Diegans who are youth and are not able to be present today to represent themselves.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

We trend Hi, my name is the executive director of eight voices.

So back in 2018, maybe I walked with Jan Campbell, Dr.

Jan Campbell, and I remember how to tell the voters like how Kevin Faulkner would leave the administration with a 2.0 billion dollar uh behind backlog on infrastructure.

That would be us the way the conservative people do budgeting, they only fix the thing in front of them and they leave the infrastructure behind.

Years later, we still try to catch up on that.

So in the same situation that we have today, different administration, same budget.

Mayor Gloria just only focusing on fixing the little thing in front of him, but not worry about the infrastructure investment of the youth about art and culture.

People come to San Diego for that.

You want to bring more revenue into the city.

You want to not cut for art and then culture.

You want to bring the tourist here.

And the youth, if we don't take care of them now, 10 years later, you will have a generation of people that you will have to have to support them.

Amy Wynn.

Hello, council.

My name is Amy Huen.

I am a resident of District 9.

I work with youth, high schoolers, um, as a college advisor to make sure that they are college ready, that they are ready to find a job and be just overall adults.

The cuts to libraries are going to massively impact these students that I work with.

I have so many students from low-income title Title I schools who are struggling because they can't find proper Wi-Fi to do their FAFSA.

Like how are they going to pay for college?

We need more investments into our libraries.

They do not need police to be there when they need mentorship.

They need teachers, they need adults to be with them and teach them how the world is, how to be how to navigate this world.

Thank you.

Mary Ann.

Hello, my name is Marianne Nojosa, and I live in City Council District 9.

I'm here with YouthWill.

The proposed elimination of the Office of Child and Youth Success cuts a $350,000 program that has already secured over $3.7 million in external funding.

A return of more than 10 to $1.

That includes $2 million for child care expansion and $1.3 million for refugee student support.

Eliminating this office puts millions of dollars and hundreds of child care slots at risk.

Child care already costs families about $17,000 per year.

When supply drops, costs rise and access declines, forcing parents out of the workforce and increasing economic instability.

Reducing youth services also increases the risk of youth homelessness and long-term disconnection, which carries far higher public costs.

Are we prepared to accept higher rates of youth homelessness as a result of this cut?

Are we really?

I urge you to restore the $350,000 budget.

Thank you.

Andrea Ognaco.

Andrea Ognaco.

Alexandra Castilla.

Um Hello.

Um, my name is Alex Castillo.

I'm a constituent um from youth um from District 8th, and I'm here with Youth Will.

Do not cut the Office of Child and Youth Success.

OCYS helps families in San Diego by providing recreational, educational, and career opportunities.

This is an investment for San Diego youth and families.

When you are ripping away from them, it's a slap in the face to San Diego families in favor of police spending and surveillance that many community members do not want.

Family members of San Diego need assistance when the cost of living goes up substantially.

Gas prices, food prices, red prices, it becomes more and more challenging to pay for child care.

And the OCYS bridges that gap through its child care initiatives.

San Diego youth need to feel supported when day in and day out, they feel more isolated, overwhelmed by school work, by obligations, by growing up.

The OCYS is that support.

In cutting OCY OYCS, you are neglecting your constituents.

Remember, you are employed to serve us.

Thank you.

Tristan Barry.

Tristan Barry.

After Tristan, we have Carmen Penaloza Valdez.

If you've already speaking, please return to your seats spoken.

Carmen Penaloza Valdez, Somaya Vasel, Fazelle, Carlita Navarro, Ashley Tang, Paloma Guantanango, Belén Hernandez, Ali Arjona, Esmi Quintero, and Shay James, I think is what it says.

If you can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

And Tristan, you can come up to the microphone.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Tristan Beerie, and I'm a youth organizer here in San Diego, and I'm here with Youth Will.

Please do not cut the Office of Child and Youth Success.

OCYS is essential and is essential infrastructure and cross-departmental for cross-departmental and outside agency coordination to ensure youth's well-being is a priority in the city.

OCYS does an amazing job of encouraging civic engagement, which is critical for everyone to influence the city's decisions and visions.

That is why I'm urging the city to restore the director level's leadership to our OCYS, maintain OCYS operational budget of the full 350,000 dollars, retain OCYS staff and prioritize employee and empower interns to support the understaffed operations and divest from surveillance and into youth programs like OCYS.

Sorry, this is a little short.

Make sure y'all can see that.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Carmen.

I'm a resident of District 9.

I serve as the policy and research intern at Youth Will, and I'm here to comment on the mayor's proposed budget.

Do not cut the Office of Child and Youth Success.

San Diego's youth families and their children deserve more than empty promises.

They deserve meaningful investments in their future, such as child care access, civic engagement, education, and workforce development.

The OCUYS has notably been getting involved in bridging the gap between government and workforce agencies.

You all continuously talk about housing and affordability in the city, but we also need to emphasize the wages and the employment opportunities lacking in the regions, but specifically for the thousands of unemployed youth that there are.

Mayor Tom Gloria said that there was no revenue, but there was grants totaling 3.7 million in external revenue, so that's a lie.

Um retain OCYS staff and prioritize um their interns and cancel um the ubiquitous 2 million dollar contract.

Divest from surveillance, it's creepy and it's weird.

So Maya, good afternoon.

My name is Samaya Fuzzle.

I'm a resident of district seven, youth will enter an NSC student as I.

Please do not cut the OCS office.

This office supports youth families and creates real opportunities that makes a difference.

This matter to me personally.

I live in Afghanistan where many youth have no support, no safe space, and no opportunities.

I have seen consequences, struggle, fear, and sometimes crime because there is no other option.

Here in San Diego, I don't want youth to feel the same way.

As a civil engineering student, I'm learning that no extraction can last without a strong foundation.

So I ask everyone, specifically my how would you feel if I build a building for you in the future with high and beautiful top by weak foundation?

Would you trust and live in it?

I'm confident you will not because it will collapse, and that's exactly how what will happen with our community.

Removing the foundation by cutting youth support will cost a lot in future.

If you want in San Diego to travel must we must invest in foundation in our youth.

This the OCI's office is an investment for more than 20% of our city's future.

Thank you.

Carlita Navarro.

Hello, council members.

My name is Carla Navarro.

I'm a second year student at Miramar College, resident of District 9, and here with Mid City Cannes Youth Council.

As a college student, I have seen the essential parks and libraries have become such a space for our young folks, especially our Mid-City Cannes Youth Council.

We love to have so many projects there.

And currently have our Jeremy Henwood Revitalization project.

This is a space where youth can go to study, access internet, connect with friends, and feel safer after school.

For many students, such as myself, these spaces have become means of public support and provided tools that foster learning.

For many students as well, especially with those resources at home.

When this proposal of the budget came out, I was extremely disappointed, and it even worried me.

I have grown up around these parks, like the Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park and Teralta Park.

I always remember playing on the play structures as a kid and slowly growing up, hanging out with multiple friends, and now use these parks to walk or run.

These spaces have seen me grow.

Thank you.

Ashley.

Hello.

Um, my name is Ashley Tong, and I'm a youth and resident at City Heights in District 9, representing Mid City Kansas Youth Council since the students are at school right now.

And so we came here today against the budget cuts that will harm our park staff.

Like gardens that tend to the plants, these people maintain the spaces that will in turn nurture the sprouts of youth.

Every day they devote their energy to ensure the quality and the safety of spaces for youth to connect with the community, exercise, play, and simply enjoy time with loved ones.

Cutting staff will only bring about new threats endangering the safety of parks and the flourishment of youth, like their weeds growing, you know, through the cracks of cement.

So we ask you to continue funding for the parks and libraries and the recreation department if you advocate for the city's future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paloma Quautanango.

Nopalama.

Belén Hernandez.

Hello, honorable council and mayor.

I am here on behalf of Mid City Cannes and our youth council.

The mayor and the IBA today highlighted the ongoing shared concern about the deterioration of city infrastructure.

One of the places we see this is in the back lob of backlog of park repairs.

Cutting the maintenance staff and other key positions in the parks and rec department will only worsen park conditions and increase the cost of eventual repairs.

I have an alternative cut to propose.

Cut the amount of time and the amount of money it takes to repair parks.

Do you know how long it's taking to fix one park in city heights?

Five years and four million dollars to replace two playgrounds.

We believe this can be done by authorizing the parks department to take care of minor repairs in-house.

Grant them direct access to a deputized city engineer and protect the park parks asset management team.

Thank you.

Ollie?

Ali.

After Ali, we have Esmi Quintero, Shay, James, Tiana Fair, Pat Wilson, Nadia Keen, Ayub, Cara Vetter, Mike Warburton, Holly Merton, and Christine Martinez.

If you can all please come to the front row, please proceed.

Hello, I am 19 and I'm from Chilla Vista, who use your social work organizations.

If you cut these programs, you're cutting from other cities.

I know youth that travel up here for resources.

You are directly cutting my support, a youth from a low-income home.

Do you want to affect the youth in a negative way?

Cutting support for youth creates youth crimes and low mental health support.

You are going to raise police, but the same time raise crimes.

A never-ending problem.

The more you cut art and youth, the more crimes will show up.

Arts are for the youth and adults.

So cutting art will create mental health crisis along crime.

Is that what you want?

Do you want are you here for the people?

You want to be noble?

You want to make things right?

That's why you're here, right?

Here's a suggestion like you requested.

Even though it's your job, how about we cut the additional money you receive?

Be minimum wage.

Know how we feel, and then maybe you'll see why we fight the way we do.

Want to make a cut?

Cut your paycheck and be for the people.

I'd also like to say that I'm here as well with Mid City Can.

I'm here with Youth for support.

Thank you for that conclusion.

And LGBTQ services.

Thank you.

As me quintero.

As me quintero, no, Esme.

Is as me coming in from another room.

Slay shade James.

S H A Y.

I think it says James.

Shay James.

No?

No Shay James.

Shay James.

Tiana Fair.

Tiana Fair.

Oh, okay.

Pat Wilson.

Pat Wilson, you have time seated too by MC.

Thank you very much.

You tural day.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Thank you.

This is a cowardly budget proposal.

Instead of shifting through bloated department budgets, finding excess to trim, and making equal investments in city services that keep people safe and give them hope for the future.

The mayor has gone back to his tried and true tactics, giving more money to the powerful departments at the expense of the others.

As presented, this proposal does what it has always done.

Tie up all but a tiny bit of the general fund, leaving scraps for us to fight over.

We can do better.

You've asked us to find cuts for any funding we'd like to restore.

Fine.

Where's the detailed department budget data?

How can I access it?

The IBA's office recently released data on the released the audit of the police department's FI26 budget.

Thank you very much for that.

And reviewing that enabled me to find expenses that look to merit further review.

But I have no insight into whether those expenses were cut in making this fiscal 27 proposal.

This whole process is too opaque to the public.

What is the mean, the median, the mode cost of a fully loaded law enforcement officer?

Is overtime actually cheaper?

We'll talk soon about how cuts libraries, parks, and the arts are actively harmful to San Diegans residents.

You've already heard that today.

Thank you.

Nadia.

Nadia Keen Ayu.

Good afternoon, City Council members.

My name is Nadia Kinayub, and I am the executive director of Rainbow Spaces.

And in the five years of our existence, I've had the privilege of seeing the impact of city resources firsthand in the partnerships we share with the City of San Diego Libraries and Rec services.

It is difficult for me to advocate for simply housing youth or art services as all intersect to uplift our youth.

To cut these funds would impact those youth that use the downtown library as a refuge from an existence that no child should have to endure in a resource-rich metropolitan like San Diego.

Just a few trolley stops further, you'll find dozens of youth that travel from the surrounding schools to the Logan Heights libraries, where they access computers, STEM programs, and homework assistance.

I have seen librarians, rec employees, and nonprofits carry the weight of mental health supporters, food distributors, school tutors, and simply a shoulder as our youth carry the burden of an increasing mentality that's supporting our communities are a hinder comment while supporting our rich is growth.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Cara Vetter.

Cara, you have time seated to you by Deisha Cronover.

Thank you so much.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Uh thank you for this time to speak on how important city funding is to the arts and culture community here in San Diego.

My name is Kara Vetter, and I am part of the leadership team at the Museum of Us.

I'm also a resident of District 9.

Our museum is committed to removing access barriers so that all community members can participate in the arts and culture of San Diego.

This past fiscal year we have served over 115,000 visitors, with over 3,600 students and educators doing so through scholarships and free educator programs.

And 31,000 individuals received free access through our equitable access programs.

This work requires dedicated funding, and we have watched as city grant funding for our institution and others have decreased year over year.

The cuts uh proposed to the 2027 budget drops that number to zero and will weaken our ability to support our equitable access programs like Entry on Us and Discover and Go Passes and more.

These cuts mean it will be harder to remain affordable and accessible to our audiences.

And for smaller organizations, this means cutting or ceasing services to our communities altogether.

Many organizations will lose their ability to cost match grants for needed work, while others may not be able to keep or even grow their staff.

We in the arts and culture community serve our audiences with love and care while employing many dedicated staff across the San Diego region.

With grant funding from our city, our organizations are able to create vibrant events, programs, and exhibits that celebrate the diverse stories and histories of San Diego and are what draws so many people to our finest city as well.

We call on the city council to not cut this funding and to keep it in place so that we can continue to create and support the accessible and rich civic life that so many San Diegans are proud of.

We urge you to do the right thing and to come together with us and find a path that continues to the support the arts and culture of San Diego.

Thank you.

Mike Warburton.

Mike, you have time seated to you by Victoria Putner Sanders.

Victoria.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Mike Warburton, San Diego Moto Railroad Museum in Belbo Park, and what a slap in the face to see that opening graphic with the picture of the tower and the dome, given these cuts for arts and culture.

Um slapping and gut punching, uh, Councilmember Campillo had an interview this morning and talked about organizations in Belboa Park getting a double gut punch.

And honestly, we've been dealing with a triple gut punch.

The first one really is the lack of response and follow-through on deferred maintenance.

Seven times in six months.

I've had water come uh come into my exhibit spaces, right?

I've had sewer backups over decades.

Last year we had one, 170,000, and we closed for a week.

Um, so that's gut punch one.

Gut punch two, of course, is a paid parking, and we won't talk about what's happening there, and then this, of course, the loss of funding.

Um I really want to talk about that.

This goes beyond Balboa Park, though, that we're supposed to invest in the basics.

I think I heard uh the mayor say, but he's been pushing this fear that you can have arts and culture or firemen, and that's just not right.

We know that there's a huge difference between critical services and agenda-driven spending, right?

Uh Mr.

Motica, there is 11 million dollars in the budget for bike facility, and that's a fraction of the budget, but that's almost exactly what arts and culture funding is being cut.

Uh, we can go bigger, and 271 million, almost to a quarter billion is in the budget for climate action plan items.

So these are agenda-driven things.

Um, I'm not saying these are wrong to do, just they're not the right thing to do right now.

We're in a budget crisis, right?

Uh, and then the last thing I want to say is that this has been building over years, it's been said by the mayor and a number of people.

Uh almost everybody on this council has been here five and a half years, couple seven and a half years.

The mayor's been here five and a half years.

What happened?

Why are we here?

So restore it arts and culture funding.

Look at these items that are agenda-driven items and not critical services.

Thank you.

Holly Merton.

You have time ceded to you by Donald Rudison.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

All right.

Happy National Library Week.

I'm representing myself and Don Rudasil from the Friends of the Mission Hills, Hillcrest Knox Branch Library in District 3.

We urge council to reject proposed cuts to the library budget, especially staff, hours, and matching funds.

Eliminating matching funds is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

As you know, the budget was already cut by over six million dollars.

Those cuts really resulted in the closure of all 37 locations on Sunday and 20 locations on Mondays.

Our branch was one of those library closures.

Bookstore sales have already decreased 14%.

That's 14% less for programs, resources, and for matching funds.

Our community has been making its voice known through a grassroots postcard campaign.

We will be submitting those responses to Councilmember Whitburn's office soon.

The words safe space and community come up a lot, as well as, of course, books.

Closing libraries shows us that our mayor and council members think that we're expendable.

But from our standpoint, we're basically already paying taxes for services we're not getting.

Police and protective services are essential, but libraries build the communities that they serve.

Libraries and their skilled, trained staff members actively work every day to create the safe third space we need now more than ever to make positive connections on a face-to-face level.

A city without those social connections will be full of disengaged, disconnected individuals, unable to come together for the public good.

Nothing else in the city serves so many so well, as I think most of our other speakers here today have said.

Public libraries are the people's university, except for Sundays and Mondays in our community, and who knows when else.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Christine Martinez.

After Christina Martinez is going to be Bob Lehman, Jennifer De Poyen, Peter Kamiski, Josh Bohana, Joy Senata, Jordan Jake Hakovo, Delana Delgado, Andrea de la Rosa, Kate Burnite, Sophie Gonzalez, and Dale McCainy.

Naney, my apologies.

Please come up to the front row and please proceed.

Hi, Christine Martinez here from Arts and Culture San Diego.

If you're here for Arts and Culture, would you mind please standing up?

And in the overflow rooms, many, many more people.

And before that, at a rally before this meeting, hundreds and hundreds of arts and culture groups who were gutted by this proposal.

11.8 million dollars represents all of our grants.

Large and small organizations will feel this.

The small organizations may in fact fold, and that's an economic engine that cannot just rev up again when we have the money next year.

This is something that we'll feel for generations if we don't change it now.

We ask the city council to please stand with us, give us flat funding.

These are programs that are in your districts that serve all of the community.

Thank you.

Bob Lehman.

Council President, Council members.

April is Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month in the state of California and here in San Diego.

My name is Bob Lehman, Executive Director of Sandy Art Matters, and I'm here on behalf of hundreds of organizations, artists, and creative workers that make up San Diego's arts and culture community.

We understand the financial pressure the city is under, and we are willing to be part of that shared solution.

But this is not a shared reduction.

This is nearly a complete elimination of the city's investment in arts and culture.

And the impact is real.

Lost jobs, programs cuts from neighborhood festivals to major institutions, from youth programs and senior services.

This affects every district.

And we're here to work with you.

We urge you to restore this funding, stand with your creative workforce, and stand with your communities.

Thank you.

Jennifer DePoyen.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I represent Space for Art, a nonprofit that provides affordable artist spaces in San Diego.

I speak for the large diverse community of local artists and low-wage culture workers who provide essential services to some of the most vulnerable and under-resourced members of our community.

You all know that arts are essential to the city's economic and social well-being.

You all know that the arts are an economic driver with a return on investment, most Fortune 500 companies would envy.

We are not asking for the moon.

We are not even asking to keep pace with inflation, which is out of control.

We're asking you to maintain the very small but absolutely crucial cultural investment that the city currently makes.

We'll be back another year to advocate for more for an even greater return on investment.

But today we ask that you make the only choice reasonable that the only reasonable choice before you, which is to restore 2027 funding to 2026 levels.

Thank you.

Peter Kamisky.

Peter, you have time seated by Teresa Wolf.

Please raise your hand.

Thank you.

By Carlos Christiani.

And by oh, there were two Carlos Christianis.

So that is three minutes.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon, uh, Chair and Council members.

I'm here because we're facing a choice that will define the character and economy of San Diego for generations.

May Gloria's proposed FY27 budget doesn't just trim arts funding.

It effectively dismantles it with an 11.8 million dollar reduction, zeroing out OSP and CCSD.

It is far too easy and wrong to call arts and culture a nice to have.

Let's talk about what's actually at stake.

This sector is just isn't just simply galleries or stage lights.

It's the economic engine that drives 1.1 billion dollars in annual economic impact.

It supports thousands of local jobs, jobs held by your constituents who are now facing layoffs.

New data from Arts and Culture San Diego and San Diego Arts Matters shows that moving forward, we aren't just looking at fuel paintings on walls, fewer gallery hours.

We're looking at permanent closure of institutions that anchor our neighborhood and our cultural identity.

Once these organizations vanish, they don't simply come back when the economic improves.

They are gone forever.

You have each stated over multiple years that arts and culture are priority for your districts.

If it is a priority for you, it is a priority for our community.

And is that if it is a priority for our community, it must be a priority for the city budget.

We are calling on you today to reject these devastating cuts and maintain the FY26 funding levels.

Do not accept the narrative that this is an option.

This is the heartbeat of our neighborhoods and the backbone of our city.

San Diego can't be without a soul.

Please stand with the workers, the artists, and the millions of residents who rely on this sector.

Reject these cuts.

Cuts may be necessary, but I ask that you change the language and don't call these cuts necessary.

Thank you very much.

Josh.

Good afternoon, Council.

Josh Bohanin with Father Joe's Villages.

I'm here to discuss homelessness funding in the budget as proposed.

Uh the upcoming budget eliminates a day center altogether and for the city of San Diego.

Um, not just the closure of the New York Day Center, but there is no day center funding whatsoever.

And the day center is probably your most cost-effective homeless solutions program that you have operating within the city.

It's a standing site, the only standing site that can um work with large populations of people last year.

Saw 6,700 individuals, came through our doors seeking a shower, seeking um mail delivery services, um laundry, working with case managers.

Um we have to have a standing site where people can go who are experiencing homelessness, that they can connect to their outreach worker who's trying to find them to give them shelter, try to find them and give them housing, to meet their medical teams who are trying to refill the prescriptions without a physical location anywhere.

And there's not one that I'm aware of that's in the pipe homelessness services will fill.

Thank you, Joyce Anato.

After Joy Signato would be Jordan Jacobo, Delana Delgado, Andrea de la Rosa, Kate Burnight, Sophie Gonzalez, Dale McKenna, Richard Provencio, Crystal Pritamont, Nathan Jones, and Carmen Kinonis, if you can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats at the front.

Please proceed.

I am inspired by the words of President John F.

Kennedy.

Ask not what your country can do for you.

Ask what you can do for your country.

End of quote.

Dear public, all of you are at the very top of our city's organization chart.

Our city has a structural budget deficit.

Here are my inspired words for all of you.

Ask not what your city can do for you.

Ask what you can do for your city.

Thank you for listening.

Love to all.

And the mayor's proposed budget seeks to remove what little film engagement the city already has.

This is just one of many facets, San Diego arts that are of San Diego arts that are being affected.

I know that money is currently scarce, but can we really afford to defund an industry that has demonstrated a proven ability to alleviate our financial struggles?

All I'm asking is that you do right by all of your constituents.

Thank you.

Delana.

Delana Delgado.

Oh, then she'll raise her hand when we get there.

Andrea de la Rosa.

Andrea, you have time seated by Bill Lawrence.

If you can please raise your hand.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Council President, Council President, and Council members, and Mayor Gloria.

My name is Andrea DeRosa.

I'm a district two resident, a business owner operating in multiple districts, and I serve as a trustee of the San Diego History Center, which serves constituents across all your districts.

What if a relatively small public investment is helping protect more than a billion dollars in economic activity in our region?

That's exactly what's at risk today.

The city's proposed budget currently recommends potential cuts to the organizational supports program administered by the City of San Diego Commission of Arts and Culture, putting institutions like ours and others at real risk.

The funding is not excess, it is essential civic infrastructure.

In Balboa Park alone, arts and culture generate more than 350 million dollars annually and support roughly 3,000 jobs.

Across San Diego, the sector drives over a billion dollars in economic impact, fueling tourism, small businesses, and regional vitality.

These are not marginal contributions.

They are foundational to our community and economy.

For the History Center, the funding supports exhibitions, education, preservation, and access to our shared story.

It's the modest investment and an outsized return.

We are also uniquely positioned through the Center for Women's History, ensuring women's voices are not in a side, but permanently embedded in how our region understands its past and shapes its future.

At the same time, institutions across the park are already seeing declining attendance due to paid parking.

Creating new barriers at a moment when access should be expanding.

Cutting funding while access declines does not solve a deficit.

It compounds it.

If we're serious about fiscal responsibility, we must run our city like a business, protecting high performing assets.

Arts and culture are not discretionary.

They are revenue-generating infrastructure.

San Diego's story, its economic future are deeply rooted.

This is a whole master.

Let's protect and grow what drives our be fair, Kate Burnight.

Hi.

There will always be another pothole for the city to fill.

There will always be another ticket to write.

There will always be another initiative to hire somebody to manage.

But without having a museum to host something like the world-class exhibition of artwork that Alicia Keys and Swiss Beats have, or keeping Balboa Park and Chicano Park vibrant, or creating the kinds of cultural opportunities that make hosting a conference at the convention center worth the investment.

Those all take funds as well.

And those are things we consider to be core to the city.

As you all consider this budget over the next two months, you will define the foundational structure of the city.

Without supporting the cultural infrastructure that makes life fulfilling, a city is nothing more than concrete and rebar.

And that's not where we want to live.

Sophie Gonzalez.

I'm a student at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, a resident of District 8, and a proud participant in San Diego Junior Theater.

I'm a recipient of junior theaters, you will be found scholarship.

OSP funding helped provide these scholarships, and without that support, I would not have been able to participate in junior theaters programs.

That scholarship didn't just help me take theater classes, it gave me a place to grow, build confidence, and discover what I'm capable of.

The arts saved my life.

I'm also employed as a teaching aide, which means I help younger students have that same experience.

I've seen firsthand how important this program is, especially for students who might not otherwise have access to the arts.

The arts will save their lives.

If funding is eliminated, opportunities like mine could disappear for so many others.

Students like me deserve to chance to learn, create, and be part of something meaningful.

Please protect arts funding so that more young people in District 8 and across San Diego can have the same opportunities I've had.

Thank you.

Dale.

Hi everyone.

Oh my god, those loud.

My name is Dale McNenny, and I'm from the South Bay.

Like everyone here, I'm pretty disappointed with the mayor's proposed budget.

Um, we are one of the most diverse cities in the country, and with almost a million and a half people living in our neighborhoods.

Slashing funding for the arts by over 80% will harm everyone.

Our unique position as America's largest border city is inseparable from San Diego's artistic tradition, and this is worth protecting.

Art is how we communicate our complex culture and history with each other and the wider world.

Strong funding promotes tourism because you know, ask yourself like you've never wanted to go visit an ugly city.

We're very fortunate to have a very beautiful city with a ton of amazing artists.

Um strong funding also creates jobs and it stimulates local economies.

Um I understand the city is in a fiscal crisis, but such severe uh but such severe cuts to the arts will disrupt other revenue streams the city and county relies on.

Thank you so much for your time.

Richard Provincial.

Richard, you have time seated to you by Suzanne Renee Ovel.

Thank you so much.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

What a city council.

Happy 420.

Uh I wanted to say that uh my name is Richard Provencio.

I'm a district two member.

Uh I am on the board of Medium Photo.

I'm an artist and a father, and uh and a whole lot of other things, including a veteran and a former CPA, which is interesting.

I found some very interesting details about the presentations earlier that I'd love to talk about.

Um something that one of my friends, Steve from Vet Art always brings up, and he's been on a campaign to advocate for more art spending in our city because cities like New York City have 20% of their uh budget dedicated to the arts, whereas San Diego historically has only eight percent.

So already there's like a live a really small uh 12% difference.

Uh that's a mathematic little action there.

Uh but when I when I saw the presentation earlier, I saw the total budget was in the six billion uh mark, and uh 11 million divided by six billion.

That's uh point two percent of the budget is dedicated to the arts, and that's what we're going after.

It feels a little unfair.

Um so to my folks behind me, I can't see you because I gotta face the microphone, but just pay attention.

Uh just because someone wears a blue tie doesn't mean that they're for the people.

And if your city council members are also not for the people, then it's time to get these folks out of here because I'm tired of the library and the arts and everything that is for the people, third spaces.

This is what's always on the cutting block.

This is always what's on the cutting block.

Yet we have so much police spending, and we don't need it, and nobody raise your hand if you want flock up in here.

Okay, so uh we would love it if y'all started listening to the people instead of uh the politicians that are paid or you know, they get whatever, whatever kind of uh kickbacks or power or whatever they get.

Thank you.

Crystal.

Hi, my name is Crystal Predmore.

I'm a lifelong San Diego and a district of um or a resident of District 7 and a music educator of over 20 years.

This year I left my position in the Chula Vista Elementary School District because I was deeply discouraged by the systematic dismantling of our award-winning music and arts programs over the last 10 years or so.

I now serve through the San Diego Youth Symphony and through Guitars in the Classroom as a teaching artist, and both of these organizations are facing devastating cuts due to this proposal.

Uh we work with at you uh at-risk youth, uh, we work in public libraries, we are everywhere, home hospitals.

This is not just about the kids, though.

San Diego's art scene drives tourism, supports jobs, shapes our identities, and taxpayers benefit from a vibrant cultural life, not just basic services.

And I'm seeing a pattern.

Schools cut the arts as soon as there's a funding hiccup, and now the city is proposing to do the same.

And it's not okay.

These cuts dismantle an entire ecosystem that will not easily be rebuilt.

You cannot you cannot claim to support community and cut the arts.

Thank you for that concluding statement.

Nathan Jones.

Nathan Jones.

You guys were doing so good.

And I know you're getting excited and probably a little tired.

You have time seated by Evelyn Evelyn Maher.

Thank you so much.

You have two minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Nathan Jones.

I'm a district three resident, and I'm United States Marine Corps veteran.

I serve this country because I believe in duty, courage, and having a backbone to look at something wrong and stand up against it.

And to be a hundred percent clear, what we're seeing here today is wrong.

I'm not just concerned about these budget cuts.

I'm deeply disappointed and disgusted that this council is even considering eliminating arts funding.

In a city like San Diego, arguably the most beautiful city in the world, cutting what makes this city beautiful is not just a bad decision, it's a failure of leadership.

San Diego's identity is inseparable from its art and culture.

From the museums and performance spaces and the organ of Balboa Park to the unbridled legacy of the Old Globe Theater to the powerful community murals and Barrio Logan.

This city has a rich history in investing in creativity because it knows it matters.

As a Marine, I've seen firsthand how deeply art is tied and necessary for the service, starting from the very moment I stood upon the painted yellow footprints of this city's MCRD, where I vowed to protect my country, my brothers, and my core.

Art from yellow footprints to murals, allow us to tap into the truth of who we are, what we endure, and what we stand for.

To stand here and watch this council treat the arts as expendable is disgusting, and frankly insulting the people who built the city's cultural foundation and to the people of San Diego itself who would rely on it.

At the same time, public safety continues to dominate the general fund, with the police department alone set to receive 718.6 million dollars in funding.

Let's be clear a city that pours everything into enforcement while stripping away creativity, opportunity, and expression is not prioritizing safety.

It's neglecting it in a different form.

The arts are not a luxury.

They are connection and prevention.

They are healing, especially for veterans like myself who are trying to transition and find purpose after service, and especially to the vets who have been injured in service.

If you're not willing to stand up for something as fundamental as the arts, if you're not willing to push back and say this matters, then you seriously need to ask yourself why you're in those seats because leadership requires conviction.

You lack that conviction to stand up for what's right.

Step aside for someone who needs it.

Very passionate.

He was allowed to yell.

He was allowed to make his point.

Hold down the clapping, and then we can get through.

I don't know, what have we still got a hundred?

We still got two, four, six, eight, a hundred over a hundred still.

Carmen Kignonas.

And then as Carmen comes up, if I can have Sean Boyd, Alicia Prescott, Lauren Cook, Fred Adair, Jess Baron, Kate Burnight again.

She didn't come up the first time.

Kate Burnight.

Um, Janica Faulkner, Kaya Ortega, Michael Schmidt, and Valerie.

All please come up to the front row.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon afternoon, Council members.

My name is Carmen Kinonis, and I reside in Council Member Joe Lakava's district.

I grew up at San Diego Junior Theater, and the foundation I built there helped propel me to New York, where I became a Broadway producer.

The arts education I received at junior theater and within San Diego's vibrant arts and culture scene didn't just shape my career, it shaped my understanding of collaboration, leadership, and storytelling.

Those skills carried me into one of the most competitive creative industries in the world.

Today, I'm back in San Diego reinvesting that experience into this community through arts education.

With support from OSP funding, I've been able to return to junior theater as a director, working directly with the next generation of artists, creative thinkers, and community leaders.

I've seen firsthand both in New York and here in San Diego, how the arts contribute to a healthy economic ecosystem.

They create jobs, attract investment, and strengthen communities.

Things you all know.

Eliminating arts funding doesn't just impact programs.

It disrupts that entire ecosystem and limits what is possible.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sean Boyd.

Sean Boyd, executive director of Trinity Theater Company.

Arts and Culture is not a bargaining chip.

Last year, our funding was reduced by 1.8 million dollars, which led to a drop of TOT city revenue in excess of six million dollars.

The mayor's defenses regarding voters' tolerance for tax increases are disingenuous.

In 2020, we passed measure C, which increased the tourism tax by 3%, allowing funding for the convention center.

In 2022, California's passed Prop 28, which inserted funding for arts education and schools.

Both passed with 65%.

The discretionary penny tax did not.

Voters said they support the arts, not the mayor's discretionary spending.

The individuals in this room are experts in their fields.

We are experts in the economics and the arts.

We are experts in the economics of tourism, and we understand deeply inner uh the inner interdependency between funding of our institutions and the city's income.

The mayor does not.

Please restore our funding to 14 million dollars, and please invite us into the conversation before May revisions.

Alicia Prescott Good afternoon.

My name is Leisha Prescott, and I've served 20 years in the military, and I'm here because of the role that arts has played in my healing and resilience and those of my brothers and sisters in arms in San Diego.

The arts are not a luxury.

They are a part of a mental health safety net for service members and veterans.

Creative programs are built into residential and outpatient treatment programs across the region.

My peers and I personally benefit from programs like the Veterans Art Project, where art therapy helps manage PTSD depression and supports transit transition into civilian life.

These programs don't just help people leave the force, they help many of us stay in the fight and return to service.

Cutting arts programs means cutting a part of the prevention system.

Beyond health impacts, arts and culture supports thousands of jobs, generate reven reven and revenue, cutting this funding, and we should expect our homelessness population to rise.

I thought I was gonna have a job in the arts when I got out shortly.

I'm not sure about that anymore.

Twenty-two veterans a day.

Thank you.

Lauren Cook.

I'm Lauren Cook with the San Diego Architectural Foundation.

I'm the executive director.

Um we have a small amount of this uh uh funding that comes about it, but I stand with everyone here because again, there's no one in our city that isn't here.

Uh everyone is here, and we're all going to be cut.

Uh, there's nothing that we are not representing here today, and I think that you mentioned to in the budget analysis that you're going to be talking about that when you got to the bottom of it.

So I guess you really don't need to work on it because everyone is here.

We're all represented.

So I think we probably should just go home.

We're okay, right?

Uh, so what we do with our money is we use it for kids.

Something we all talked about it too.

Yesterday, uh Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they uh worked together, seventh, eighth, and ninth graders put together a city.

They built it, and then they talked about how it should be developed, and uh they got in a fight about coastal access.

That's what we taught them.

Think about that.

Thank you for that conclusion.

Fred Adair Hi.

Uh it's a pleasure to meet everybody today.

Your suits look very clean, well pressed, and uh I genuinely consider all of your haircuts to be very fashionable for the time.

Um, to everybody here, I'm proud of everybody that showed up.

Uh, you're all showing the guts that San Diegans need to have.

We all need to have guts because we're all part of San Diego.

Fact of the matter is my life was saved by the arts.

Uh my dad was a pedophile and a thief.

My mom is a drug addict.

My stepdad was the number one heroin trafficker in the Western Hemisphere.

His name is Mike Wheat.

Look it up.

Uh, when I was beaten by the people that abused me, I ran to Balboa Park and hid.

Uh I opened a comic book store here in San Diego called Crazy Fred's Comic Book Lounge.

And uh was here for 17 years before I lost everything in the riot six years ago.

Uh everything was burned down.

You can see me in the news.

I was the only guy crying because it sucked.

And uh it was my pleasure to bring the arts in that fashion, like with the San Diego Comic-Con and what uh what have you.

One of the things memories long.

Just they're gonna remember.

Jess Barron.

Hi, friends.

I'm Jess.

I'm the founder executive director of Guitars and Ukes in the classroom.

Thank you for your support.

Appreciate what you're doing and ask you to take a breath because this isn't easy for you guys, just like it's scary for us to get up and talk about this.

I just want to bring one thing to your attention.

Only point seven percent of San Diego responded to the mayor's survey.

I want you to think about the 97.

Right.

I would there's 99.3% of the people that didn't fill out the survey because most of us are buried in our inboxes, as you guys are, right?

And most of us are working two, three jobs, or we're working like me in the arts 70 hours a week, and it's really hard to get to an email survey.

So please take these speakers to heart today because they're bringing you the vulnerable population that we all serve.

We're representing San Diego and the San Diego you didn't hear from yet.

So please don't rely on a little survey.

Think about this.

Thank you.

Kate Burnett.

Kate Burnett.

Um, Janica Faulkner.

Janica, you have time seated to you by Eat Cell Maganda Chavez.

Please raise your hand.

Thank you.

As well as Ted Wamack.

Think you'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Thank you.

How come MAU to Menya Wi?

I am Janika, a D4 resident with Alliance San Diego and the member of community budget alliance.

Every year we fight for a people's budget that equitably spins public dollars, prioritizes communities and neighborhoods with the greatest need.

Our collective goal for people's budget actively combats systemic racism, discrimination, and income inequality.

The current budget does the opposite.

You cannot cut your way out of inefficiency.

You have to address it.

With about seven seventy-six million dollars in cuts, twenty-six million dollars in labor concessions, and forty-four million dollars in higher costs to residents.

It pushes over 100 million into the future, including $80 million in reserves and $30 million in risk funding.

The impact is landing on vital services families depend on daily, such as youth services, libraries, rec centers, arts and culture, and as well as the stormwater department that has been significantly underfunded for years.

We the people have the power to change the proposed budget targeted at the programs and services that our communities need.

We need libraries.

We need parks and rec, we need youth programs, equity offices, and climate justice initiatives.

We don't need to be pouring more money into criminalizing our communities.

These cuts strip away the city's capacity to address any emergency repairs on our stormwater infrastructure.

You don't remove capacity before you've built a more efficient system to replace it.

This current budget strategy has been cuts now, costs later, and residents paying the costs in between.

We need.

We need to make bold investments in our people, not punishment.

Please act now to uplift the people's budget and modify the budget to reflect the people's needs.

For the remainder of my time, I would like to take a moment of silence and honor the lives lost in the floods of January 2024.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Kaya Ortega.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Kaya Ortega, and I'm here on behalf of the Old Globe Theater to urge you all to reconsider the devastating arts and culture cuts proposed in Mayor Gloria's FY27 budget.

These cuts actively threaten our entire creative economy.

They threaten the art forms we're trying to preserve, and they threaten our collective capacity to deliver vital programming.

The Old Globe is an anchor institution.

We've been serving the city for over 90 years.

Last year we served over 250,000 folks through live main stage productions, and we served over 30,000 folks through free community programming.

We employ over 700 people each year.

And with this proposed budget, the city is telling artists, creatives, cultural workers, and the communities that rely on this programming that this city is not the city for them.

The globe generates more than 45 million dollars in economic impact for the city, supporting jobs, local businesses, and tourism that benefits the city.

Thank you.

Michael Schmidt.

Michael Schmidt, please proceed.

Well, hello, good afternoon.

Um Michael Schmidt with District 5.

I just want to point out I'm unhappy the fact that the budget just got approved that it's gonna cut, and I just appreciate uh, especially for people cutting down hours over at the libraries, including um downtown San Diego and near Richard Mosquitos.

That got almost shut down.

I it's just sad for me, and I don't appreciate it, but thank you very much.

Thank you, Valerie.

Valerie, please come up to the microphone.

After that, we have Robert Morales, Greg, Greg Sorizari Dad.

You can tell me what it is when you get up here, please.

I'd like to know.

Phil Jamman, Whitney Shea, Susan Peredo Swap, David Bennett, Nate Fairman, Mary Soriano, and Raul Salamanca.

If you can all please come up to the front row, Roberto Robert Morales, if you can please come up to the microphone.

Robert Morales.

And I didn't have a Valerie here.

Valerie.

No.

So Robert, you have uh Time City to you by Rudy Lombaria.

Thank you so much.

You'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Awesome.

Thank you, everyone.

Council members.

Good afternoon, folks.

Please stand with me.

This is important.

My name is Robert Morales.

I represent IOTSE Local 122.

I'm the business manager for them.

I represent more than 2800 workers across San Diego's arts and entertainment industry.

People who bring life to our stages, support our venues, and help power the local economy.

I want to be clear.

This proposed budget is not the numbers on a page.

The reduction in the arts funding will mean fewer jobs, fewer hours, and real hardship for working families.

We are seeing longer lines in our own food banks.

Our members are filling it now.

But we are not here just to point fingers at the problem.

We are here to ask for a better path forward.

The budget is not final.

There's still time to make adjustments that reflect true value in the arts in our city, not just culturally, but economically.

Our industry supports tourism, small business, and thousands of livelihoods.

We urge you to invest in solutions that grow jobs.

Supporting a stronger film office, that's a good thought here, would attract film and television production to our region, bringing in new jobs for our workers while filling hotel rooms, supporting restaurants, and driving revenue into our local businesses across the city.

Sustained our institutions, and ensure that San Diego's future still includes thriving arts and entertainment in our communities.

Our workers are not asking for a special treatment.

They're asking for a fair chance to continue working, to pay their bills, and to contribute to the city.

We are ready to partner with you, but we need a plan that includes all of us.

Thank you.

Greg.

You have time seated to you by Robert Welper.

If you can please raise your hand, thank you.

And Matt Carr.

Thank you.

You'll have three minutes.

I was not prepared for that, but I'll give you a good two.

And uh so good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Greg Sowizdrazal.

It was a good shot, though.

Um I'm here on behalf of IOTSE Local 122.

I understand the city is facing a deficit, and I understand that difficult decisions have to be made.

But cuts like these do not solve the problem.

They make them worse.

What is being proposed here does not just affect organizations on paper.

It affects people, it affects workers.

It affects the crews, technicians, and art workers whose jobs depend on these institutions and programs continuing to function.

These cuts would hit places like the Old Globe Theater, the San Diego Opera, where my members work.

They're the people behind the scenes who build it, run it, support it, and make it all happen.

When funding is cut these deep this deeply, the impact does not stop at a budget line.

It reaches the workers whose hours, livelihoods, and stability depend on that work being there.

And on the film side, this especially this is especially troubling.

San Diego is just beginning to see real momentum again for like the first time in like 15 years.

We're starting to see more activity, more interest, and more opportunity.

To eliminate the film office now, at the very moment that momentum is starting to build would be a major mistake.

Film production does not happen by accident.

It takes coordination, permitting, responsiveness, and city staff who understand how these projects work.

Weakening that capacity now does not put San Diego in a better position.

It puts us further behind.

If the city needs to restructure, then pause and do it with the community in this room.

Bring together the arts community, labor, and the stakeholders who will be affected and work out a better solution.

We're here for this.

Because once this kind of capacity is lost, it's not easy to rebuild.

I urge you not to move forward with cuts to this magnitude without first sitting down with the arts community and find a better path.

Thank you.

Phil John?

No?

No, Phil?

J-O-H-M-O-N.

Whitney Shea.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Whitney Shea.

I'm a second generation San Diego native and a tax-paying small business owner as a full-time performer here.

I've been involved in various nonprofit arts organizations in San Diego as a youth attendee, an instructor, and performer my entire life.

In 2020, being an artist was considered the most unessential occupation, but we quickly learned how truly important the arts were during that difficult time.

After COVID decimating many artists' careers, federal funding cuts from the Trump administration.

I am appalled that the city would propose full funding cuts to hundreds of arts and cultural programs.

Looking at the previous data shown in the proposed budget, what was not addressed was the loss of thousands of jobs that may that will be likely and the likely increase in crime rates by this proposed budget.

Today's impassioned testimonials across multiple organizations are a clear indicator that eliminating an entire sector.

Thank you for your comments.

Suzanne Perez OSWAP.

Thank you.

Uh honorable city council, mayor, and uh council president.

Thank you for your time and your service to the community.

I know this is not an easy decision, and yet somehow it's the easiest decision of all.

I am the founder of Vanguard Culture.

We're an arts magazine, and we serve I also serve on the Board of Women in Tourism and Hospitality International.

Um I'm a resident of District 2 and my office is in District 3.

Uh the mayor mentioned that revenues are not keeping up uh the pace with spending, and the reason for this is that we have not invested significantly in the cultural infrastructure that would attract significant cultural tourism to our region.

Studies show again and again that cultural tourists stay longer and spend more money in the cities they visit than a traditional leisure tourists.

The spend can be between 30 and 60 percent more.

Cultural tourists are more likely to stay at hotels than traditional leisure tourists, heads and beds equal increased TOT dollars.

We cannot attract cultural tourists without a thriving arts and culture ecosystem that requires investing and creativity.

Thank you.

David Bennett.

David, do you have time seated to you by Llewellyn Crane?

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon, members of the city council.

I'm David Bennett.

I'm the Joanne Clark, General Director and CEO of San Diego Opera, and I live and work in District One.

I'm here today to implore you to reject the disastrous elimination of arts and cultural program support in the mayor's proposed budget.

Today, the mayor before us chose to refer to this as a pause in his introduction, but it is an elimination.

No other city in the United States is a proposing complete elimination of art support.

This is not emblematic of America's finest city.

I recognize that balancing a budget is a complicated and nuanced process.

Ask any of the arts leaders that are here in the room or around San Diego.

Every year we go through the same process you're facing now.

When contemplating cutting expenses, I know that I have to understand the impact of those cuts on revenue.

It is generally not neutral.

San Diego's arts and cultural economic activity, the direct activity is around 1.2 billion, but the larger economic impact throughout San Diego is actually nearly 10 times larger.

Elimination of program support will absolutely mean elimination of programs, which will mean less economic impact on other businesses, which will result in less tax revenue to the city.

Vibrant arts and cultural activity is also strongly connected to a city's ability to attract new businesses.

Many San Diego arts organizations also provide desperately needed arts education programs to students throughout our city.

The opera alone spends nearly 300,000 a year on such programs, which leads to documented higher academic achievement and attendance.

Elimination of programmatic support will surely mean the elimination of many of these programs.

On November 12th, the Union Tribune ran an article stating that you, the City Council declared arts cuts would be off the table in budget discussions this year.

I ask you to honor this pledge and strongly reject the mayor's proposed elimination of arts funding.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nate Fairman.

Uh Nate Fairman, IBW Local 465, representing artists and educators at the New Children's Museum in downtown San Diego.

Please reverse the 11 million dollars in cuts to our sacred arts programs that our museums depend on.

We represent frontline artists and educators who provide essential services to thousands of children every single year.

They work alongside wonderful artists in the region and provide priceless art educational programs that spark a lifelong interest in the arts, imagination, creativity, expression, compassion, empathy.

These seeds are planted by the hardworking and selfless employees at the New Children's Museum, our union artists at the museum.

And with these cuts, our institutions like NCM will suffer.

Our members will suffer.

Artists across the city will suffer.

We plead with the council to reverse these cuts today.

Art is not an elective experience.

It is the lifeblood of a blossoming city and the heartbeat of a brighter future.

Don't blow out the candle of our children's future by eliminating the essential funding to our city's arts institutions.

Thank you.

Mary Sorriano.

Mayor's resident budget survey fiscal 2027.

Community feedback reflects strong dissatisfaction and choosing on choosing public safety funding over other essential city services.

We shouldn't have to sacrifice either.

City reserves eliminate CIP five-year 2027-2031.

Page 16.

Recent city auditor estimated deferred maintenance liabilities to exceed one billion dollars.

If reserves are eliminated, where is the city going to get the money?

Taxpayers, fire department, and lifeguards.

We can't afford to cut personnel.

Last year, on one holiday, lifeguards were watching over one million beachgoers.

Wildfire community relations, also known as wildfire prevention specialists.

Thank you for this.

Raul Salamanca.

You have time to see it too by Alexandria Martini.

Thank you.

You have two minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Council members, Mayor.

Thank you for your time and your service.

My name is Raul Salamanca.

I am the founder and artistic director of Golden State Ballet and co-founder and co-director of Golden State Ballet Academy here in San Diego.

And I'm also a resident of District 9.

I'm here today not only as an arts leader, but as someone who has dedicated his life to this field.

First, as a professional dancer, and now as someone leading an organization that serves this community.

The proposed elimination of funding for arts and culture is not just a budget adjustment.

It is a decision that will have lasting consequences for the cultural and economic health of our city.

The arts are not a luxury.

They are a core part of what makes San Diego a vibrant, desirable place to live.

They create jobs, they bring people to downtown, support small businesses, and provide a meaningful opportunity for young children and adults.

Through our company, we employ professional dancers and bring performances to our community at a high level.

Our production of the nutcracker at the Civic Theater in collaboration with the Cindy's uh Symphony brought in over 17,000 people together last year, contributing to the vitality of our local economy.

We also operate a school that works with inspired and inspires children every day, helping them to shape the next generation of artists and audiences.

That kind of impact does not happen in isolation.

It happens because there's an ecosystem that supports it.

Our nonprofit company is part of the art ecosystem.

It would be directly affected by these cuts.

When funding is removed, it weakens the entire arts community.

It reduces opportunities.

It limits what is possible for artists and audiences alike.

This is about more than numbers on a page.

It's about access, it's about opportunity.

It's about whether we are choosing to invest in a future where the arts remain part of everyday life in San Diego.

I urge you to reconsider these cuts, and I recognize the long-term value of sustaining arts and culture in our city.

Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you.

Alessandra Montezuma.

Alessandra Montezuma, if I can ask the following individuals to also come up to the front row.

Um, Akila Templeton, Nicole Verdes, Nicole Olga, Veronica von Barstell, Kristen Klein, Heather Rose, Gillian Quint, and Sherry Eden of Barber, as well as Ken Kendall Mull.

Now, Alessandra, you have several people seating you time.

If they can please raise their hand, Jake Selters, or setters or seltters, Gabriela Ponce.

Thank you.

Jennifer Corraz.

Jennifer.

I don't see a Jennifer raising her hand.

Uh Sarah Anderson.

Thank you.

And Jillian Kodama.

Julian Kodama.

Oh, thank you.

That will be five minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Alessandra Moctezuma.

I'm a resident of District 3 and I work in District 7.

I'm also the chair of the San Diego Arts Commission, a volunteer body that advises and supports cultural affairs.

We are the front facing advocates for the arts, and we have been leading the implementation of the Creative City Master Plan.

And I can tell you that this decision to zero out the budget for FY27 for our arts organizations came as a complete surprise.

It felt like a kick in the gut.

The timing could not have been worse.

We were in the middle of reviewing grant applications for what would have been our largest group of our Ds ever.

229 organizations.

These organizations, large and small, exist in every district in the city.

More than half of the programs provide that they provide are free and community facing.

For FY 2025, they including included 5.3 million free admissions.

Beyond the cultural value, they are powerful economic drivers.

San Diego's own data shows that the nonprofit art sector generates 1.2 billion in economic activity and supports near nearly 170,000 jobs and produces hundreds of millions in tax revenue.

That's not abstract.

When people attend arts events, they spend money at restaurants, on parking, on transportation.

For example, Comic Con received about 300,000 in city support and generated 16 million for the local economy.

San Diego Pride with a similar investment generated 30 million.

Anyone could tell you that an investment that grows a hundred times or 500 times is a good one.

And yet, we are cutting 12 million from a 6.4 billion budget.

How does that make sense?

Cutting the smallest amounts to balance the budget.

What does that say about equity?

In the current federal climate, many organizations have seen loss of funding with the cancellation of federal grants like the NEA, NEH, and IMLS.

In addition, the cancellation of city funding will also put a ri at risk matching grants.

So it's a double loss for many of the organizations.

This decision is disastrous and unprecedented.

Looking back at the funding for arts and culture for the last 37 years, the budget was kept mostly whole, even in the worst economic times after 2008 and during the pandemic.

Previous mayors never slashed the arts in this way.

If you want to look back at history, President Roosevelt actually enacted the WPA to deal with the Great Depression as a solution to the economic crisis, to provide jobs, but also to bring joy and relief.

As a professor of museum studies, I have spent 25 years preparing my students for careers in this sector.

Right now I have students whose families are in crisis.

This morning, one told me that his mother was detained by ICE.

Another has just been evicted.

How do I go back to my classroom and tell them that their city does not support them or the career path that they chose?

Which is hard for people of color, you know, to choose this path.

As an immigrant raised with within the Chicano Arts Movement, I have lived the power of art.

Places like Chicano Park, World Beat Center, Centro Cultural de la Rasa, the Chicano Park Museum, the Front in San Isidro, Asha projects, show us that the arts are not just an expression.

They are how commu they are how communities find agency, connection, and power.

The arts are not a luxury.

They foster economic growth, but just as importantly, they provide healing and hope.

Last fall, many of you made commitments to keep the arts funding whole.

Because this is not just about the arts, it is about the kind of city that we choose to be and the kind of future we want to provide to the next generation.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Akilah Templeton.

Akilah, you have time seated to you by Marshall Anderson.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, uh, Council President and Council members.

My name is Akilah Templeton.

I'm the CEO of Veterans Village of San Diego, which has served San Diego's veteran community for 45 years.

Our mission is to leave no veteran behind by providing housing, treatment, supportive services that assist homeless veterans and their families.

I actually want to switch gears here a little bit to talk about funding that we actually don't want.

Okay.

Right, that's right.

So unfortunately, the proposed 1.9 million allocation to create a 72-bed interim shelter for beds that actually don't exist on our campus threatens to put that mission at risk.

There is no guarantee that this money is going to go to veterans.

There's no plan for that money to go to Veterans Village of San Diego to administer the types of programs that we know work.

We did not request this funding.

We have not agreed to any program that would allow the city to rest control of our campus while displacing members of our homeless veteran community.

We have communicated these concerns directly to the mayor's office, the housing commission, and all of you.

Despite that, in a year with so many cuts, this uh item remains in the proposed budget.

Additionally, the proposal appears to have been developed and advanced without your direction as the housing authority and without stakeholder agreement and without ongoing funding.

It seems that we have a simple math problem here.

Take the money that we don't want and give it to these fine young people.

I am so proud of you guys.

Keep fighting.

Nicole Verdez.

Hi, my name is Nicole.

I use the she pronouns, and I'm the executive director of Lambda Archives of San Diego, the only LGBTQ plus archives serving the San Diego Tijuana by national region.

I'm here because archives exist at the intersection of arts, culture, and community memory, and this proposed budget threatens all three.

Cities that invest in arts and humanities invest in the conditions where communities thrive, connection, belonging, economic opportunity, and the sense that every person's story matters.

Larry T.

Baza, a San Diego arts leader on the LGBTQ plus community pillar, warned in 1991 that budget cuts to the arts would push us into a cultural war.

He called it the us and them syndrome.

That warning is not just history, it is this moment.

At a moment when our history is being actively erased at the federal level, cutting local arts and culture funding is not a neutral fiscal decision.

It is an additional threat to communities already fighting to be seen and remembered.

I urge you to reject these threats and invest in what holds us together.

Thank you.

Nicole Olga.

No Nicole Ogre.

Veronica von Barstow.

Hi, good afternoon.

Um, I am representing District 3, which Stephen and I have worked together on several projects, and I'm always, always so proud of our mayor.

We've worked together for a long time in all of the representation that you've done for the LGBT uh district of Hillcrest, and we respect and honor that, and thank you for your work all of this time.

But we it does need to be said that this measure does disproportionately affect our communities.

That's a safe area and a safe space for us.

The old globe theater and the La Jose Plant House send more shows to Broadway than any other place in the entire world.

We are represented anywhere that we go, and San Diego is the best of the artists that represent it in this country.

We are very rare and very few, and we are fighting to stay here, and we are fighting to be a part of this community.

We ask you to return our budget.

Thank you, Kristen Klein.

You have time seated by Catherine Reims.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

What up, Council?

I'm Kristen Klein, and I ate C Local 122 stagehand of District 9 asking you to reconsider the mayor's proposal.

For many people, the arts and entertainment are a luxury.

Concerts, plays, cons, and dance shows can be leisure escapes for these crazy times.

For us artists, this is our livelihood, our community, our lives.

We create, perform, and make art and events happen to bring people together in the good times and the bad.

Even just last year, when there was an earthquake, we brought an emergency meeting together last second at the civic theater next door.

Do you remember that?

We do.

We come together when times are hard, which is why there are so many of us here today.

America has always been known.

Sorry, San Diego has always been known as America's finest city.

And this is because our culture, just as much as our location is beautiful.

Keep our city a place worth visiting if you want your revenue.

We hold the famous Comic Con.

There's so many music and Broadway tours that start or end here in San Diego.

We're part of a larger entertainment ecosystem than just the scope of our city.

The arts mark the blueprints of our past, our progress, and are a teaching tool for our future.

They are inclusive for all and unify our human experience.

Cutting the arts and library budgets will not only cut the heart of San Diego, but of our collective souls.

Please listen to us, the people of San Diego, and bring balance to the budget by find funding more of our culture and find your cuts elsewhere.

Heather Brose.

This is like the day off.

I'm a proud union stage manager who works in professional theater.

And I came here in 2007 with the show and decided to stay.

I'm a homeowner and I pay my taxes.

And I expect you all to just do your jobs better.

What you are proposing is a line item for your budget, but it will affect every single one of our arts organizations, big and small.

This proposal says that the police budget is more important.

It just does.

Over the last decade, their budget has gone up by about 200 million.

And it's not because we have more officers, it's overtime.

I don't behoove them their pay, but without the arts and libraries, their jobs will be tougher.

Both the arts and libraries are safe havens for all, but especially those who feel on the outskirts of the main street.

Thank you so much.

Tax the rich.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Jillian Quint.

I'm here with the San Diego River Park Foundation, representing 60,000 local community members and supporters and partner organizations that are supporting and endorsing an important infrastructure solution to a critical gap in our transportation and parks network.

I want to begin by acknowledging the city's commitment to regional mobility, climate action, and vision zero.

But meeting that commitment requires us to confront what's coming next.

The area's population is set to triple by the year 2050, and our current transit just isn't prepared for that level of density in this area.

A West Valley River crossing for pedestrian and bikes would connect the San Diego River Trail and Regional Bikeway and is a recognized solution in the Sandag Regional Plan and the I8 Kumiai Corridor CMCP study.

A recent mobility audit found 60 bicycle and pedestrian injuries and six fatalities between 2020 and 2040 in this segment.

By prioritizing this link and reopening the CIP now, the city, thank you.

Thank you.

Sherry Eden Barber.

After Sherry, we got Kendall Muel, Greg Frank, Christian, Christian Frank, Danielle Savala, Rachel Hayes, Julie Porter, Juan Perez, and Carlos Angeles, if you can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon, Council members.

I'm Sherry Eden Barber, artistic director of diversionary theater, the third oldest LGBTQ plus theater in the country, and also former resident director of Hamilton, the Broadway Show, who fell in love with this city when we brought the show here.

Two years ago, through the Creative City Plan, the city declared the arts essential, supporting 170,000 jobs and generating millions.

Two weeks ago, many of you stood on our stage at our 40th anniversary gala celebrating that impact.

I'm reminding you the arts are prevention.

They build connection, reduce isolation, and increase public safety by giving people purpose.

Before I came in here today, I reread a letter from a student who came to our theater feeling hopeless, considering ending their life until this year they saw themselves on our stage and chose to say.

They chose to stay, and that is not the first time or the first letter.

This is what the arts do.

I am asking you to protect the arts, protect the purpose, protect the people of San Diego, and make this place not just livable but meaningful.

Thank you.

Kendall.

Hello, my name is Kendall Mell.

I was born raised and now work here in the city of San Diego, and I work to support children across the city, mainly working with children from Title I schools.

I'm here to speak out very much against the cuts to things like libraries, parks, and art programs, and just basically local social services as a whole, while giving more money to a police department that has already over 700 million dollars.

If you want a caring and safer community, then invest in that community and invest in the youth with programs and infrastructure that actually address the core causes behind the desperation.

We want to live in a city that actually funds our community and actually cares about us instead of focusing on persecution and surveillance.

Give us the programs that care that we care about that make our lives worthwhile, that make us all want to live here and pay our taxes and keep you in your seats.

Listen to your constituents and vote like you actually care about us.

Please.

We live here.

We love this city.

We want to be your support.

Give us that chance and a reason to do it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Greg Frank.

Hi, Greg Frank, District 6.

It is shameful to burden the arts community with fixing 10% of the deficit by essentially eliminating city funding for arts and culture.

Other people have spoken about the financial impact, so I would ask you to just pause and really consider what kind of city you want San Diego to be.

Do you want this to be a world-class city that is a hub for arts and culture and recreation?

Or are you willing to settle for this becoming the equivalent of some corporate town where the bottom line is more important than community?

You cannot continue to claim the moniker of America's finest city while breaking the promise to continue funding the arts.

Thank you.

Christiane Frank.

That was my husband.

I'm gonna take his 10 seconds.

Is that okay, babe?

Sorry, I have been waiting a while.

The throat is dry.

My apologies.

Um I'm one of Kent Lee's constituents in D6 in Mira Mesa.

I'm an audience member for donor two and volunteer with several local arts orgs, large and small.

I am shockingly, I know you've read the room, opposed to these extreme and short-sighted cuts to the arts as well as libraries, parks and rec and youth proposed by Mayor Todd Gloria.

So I'm asking you all truly, read the room, not just surveys that very few did.

I haven't heard a single person speak in favor of these cuts beside Todd and his minions.

But I'm not an idealist.

I know some cuts may need to occur.

However, obliterating all direct funding to local arts orgs jeopardizes their very existence.

They're grantmakers and private donors who may reduce or eliminate contributions if the city withdraws support.

They will see that as a sign.

That'll be an additional body blow on top of Todd's gut punch.

The only other place, pardon me, I want to quote Bob Lehman, executive director of San Diego Arts Matters, who was quoted in the UT last week as saying the only other place in this country where this type of arts cuts are happening is in the Trump budget.

I don't want to be in a city like that.

Thank you.

Daniel Savala.

Hello, City.

Thank you so much.

I am Daniel Savala.

I am a local actor here in San Diego.

Um I've had the pleasure of using many, many of the facilities that the community theaters have used here.

Um these facilities are severely severely underfunded.

I have had to change inside of closets.

I've had to change inside of workshops.

I've had to change inside of alleyways.

I have seen the sort of cuts that have happened.

I've seen the hours of unpaid labor.

I've seen the children that are exploited due to your underfunded institutions.

I know about the protective policies that were created to protect children, and your policies are going to cut every single one of those jobs.

Many of these people do not hire these protectors because of the lack of money.

And I've been to the San Diego Civic Theater a number of times.

I see their president's club and the patron inside do whisper, they do whisper, they do see the tarps in the bedrels outside.

They do see them.

It is embarrassing.

It is a stain on the San Diego community.

It is heartbreaking to me as an artist.

And I would just like to say I want to say thank you, Sean, and I want to say thank you, Kenschley.

We've seen your humanity today.

The rest of you guys, I mean, I'm not to speak about all of you guys, but you I understand you guys are doing your jobs.

But Charles Modic, I've seen your poker face this entire time.

I've not seen you must frown.

But you're not a very good actor.

I'm sorry.

Concluded, Rachel Hayes.

Rachel Hayes, please come up to the mic.

If we can please, we need to make sure that we're not clapping as much so that people can hear their names and come up to the microphone.

Anthony Pleva, if you can please raise your hand.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Hi, my name's Rachel Hayes, and I am representing myself and the arts community, which is really important.

My son, who is now Sarah Blanche Hayes, is self-taught on the piano, acoustic guitar, saxophone, and violin.

And now is on Broadway.

He went to Poise.

Elementary, actually sixth through 12th grade on La Jolla College campus.

And that's where it started.

Every generation in my family has someone of musical talent.

And my son won their first award on Broadway last year.

And I should say my daughter, his name is Sarah.

And you know what?

If it wasn't for the musical camps he went to every single summer during high school in the 2000s, he wouldn't, she would not be the star she is today.

And cutting funds like this.

It's inexcusable.

And it's heartbreaking to know that the youth of today will not have what the youth of yesterday had.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julie Porter.

If you can please come forward.

Hello, my name is Julie Porter, and I'd like to thank you for hearing me today.

It's been a long time.

I'm here representing myself and the arts community.

I have two fourth-generation San Diego children, my two children that grew up in the arts.

They attended San Diego Junior Theater.

I got around your parking thing in Balboa Park.

I went and got myself a well-deserved disabled placard, so I can park in Balboa Park for free.

I don't live in the city.

However, we've we use many, many of the arts programs in San Diego.

And I would hate to see what will happen to San Diego Junior Theater that both of my children grew up in.

Those are the some of the best memories I have.

Please don't cut these programs.

The kids need you.

Thank you for hearing me today.

Thank you, Juan Betis.

Juan Petez, you have time seated to you by Sarah Lopez.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes.

Hey, how's it going, everybody?

My name is Juan Perez.

I'm the organizer with Ayala 122, the Stage Hands Union.

Our stage hands set up for events at the convention center, the hotels, as well as theaters like the Old Globe, Playhouse, Civic Theater, among others.

Our workforce is critical to the tourism industry, which this city relies on for tax revenue.

It's no secret.

We've worked hard to make these jobs into careers with livable wages and benefits, retirement training.

But with these proposed cuts to the to the arts, that is a direct assault on our membership and on the arts community.

This is also an assault to our youth that begin their careers in high school theater programs with the hope to continue once they graduate.

But with these proposed cuts, we are cutting and ending their dreams before they even start.

Why not cut the police's budget?

Like they're overly funded, if anything.

Right?

Why not call flock surveillance?

You all voted for that, not all of you guys, but you guys voted it in to re-up their contract last year.

Why do we always have money for the police state and surveillance, but never for the arts or communities?

Read the room.

When when's the last time you've seen so many community members come out like this?

You all are politicians.

You're gonna be seeking unions' endorsements, the community's endorsements, organizations' endorsements, their support.

Read the room.

Don't turn your back on the community.

So screw the mayor's budget, meet with the community and the unions and the workers, and create a new budget.

Thank you.

Carlos Angeles.

Hello, council.

I was here before.

Last year for the same thing.

We came to argue for the penis for the art.

I explained the amount of work that we do and amount of things that we help for this community.

And today I'm just here to tell you what doesn't help us.

Um that'd be the bike lanes.

That's why about a million dollars per on the bike lanes, right?

Per mile.

And then you know what doesn't help us is the uh pandas that you brought over.

That's over a million dollars a year.

You know what doesn't help us too is that $30 million settlement for that kid the cops shot last year.

That shit don't help.

We could use a third of that to be sponsor our art programs in here, you know.

Last year we were arguing about it because you wanted to give money to the to teach the cops how to shoot better, but they shot another kid two miles or two blocks away from when I was painting the mural in the same year.

But that shouldn't help.

You know, they keep doing it.

I think you guys should listen to the people because the people that are here are the people that help.

This is the people you should listen to.

Daniel Alejandra, Alejandro, Daniel Alejandro Soraya, maybe.

Is there no Daniel Alejandro?

Next speakers are Jared Osoria, Jade Umla, Vanessa Ramirez, Ali Dressel, Angel Martinez, McKenzie Scholler or Scholar, Anne Marie Dice or Dyke Dice, Elizabeth Santianis, and Lindsay Segers.

If you can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Dia Bassett, Nicole Hernandez, Melina Martinez.

Is Daniel here?

No, Daniel.

Jared.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jared Gayelariano Soria.

And I would just like to say that today I'm coming as a citizen of District 7.

So hi, Raul.

And I'm also a representative of the San Diego Ballet, which has been a non-profit organization and an institution in San Diego for over 35 years.

That's longer than I've been alive.

But I'm honored to come after and before so many impassioned speakers today.

And I want to remind you all just that each and every one of them will feel these budget cuts as much as I will.

And those are funded directly by grants from the city.

So every performance, every class, every time that we every life that we touch with these arts will be affected.

Thank you.

For that concluding sentence.

Jade Hello, my name is Jade Verdeflor, uh resident of District 2 and born in our very own Balboa Park.

Uh I vehemently oppose the reduction of arts funding proposed in the budget.

A city community and society without sufficient support of arts and culture absolutely absolutely cannot and will not thrive.

If artists and culture bearers are not sustained, then we will surely see a decline in every um in and even disappearance of everything that makes our city wonderful.

By supporting the arts, you are ensuring that San Diego's and those who visit our fine city are able to live and to visit.

Without art, we lose touch with our own humanity, which will have catastrophic impacts on the health, safety, and happiness of all St.

Diegans, point blank, period.

Vanessa Ramirez.

Hello, my name is Vanessa Ramirez, and I'm a local San Diego artist and born and raised in San Diego.

Um and I'm representing myself.

And um I am really upset to find out about this.

I found out about it recently, and we cannot cut the arts.

Um the arts is very, very important.

And like I remember going to school and like seeing arts being cut like over time, and this would be very devastating because I've seen how art has um been such an integral part to so many people's lives, and myself included.

Like I I would not be here today if it wasn't for art.

And I know so many people that you know feel similarly.

So this would be a huge, huge mistake.

Please, please reconsider.

Thank you.

Allie Dressel.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Ali Dressel, and I am the emerging founder and artistic director for resiliency immersive, where our mission is to connect communities to resilience and sustainability through the arts.

I'm here to strongly oppose the proposed 12 million dollar cut to the arts and culture, which nearly eliminates the funding for arts at all, as you know.

But most much of our work is only made possible through grant funding.

And we are a tool for community and immersive engagement, education, creative communications, storytelling, and so much more.

So we really do rely on this type of grant funding.

And according to the Arts and Economic Prosperity Report, San Diego's nonprofit and cultural arts sector generates over one billion dollars in economic activity and supports tens of thousands of jobs, including my own among all of the others that you have seen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Angel Martinez.

Angel Martinez.

No, if I can have McKenzie, please come up to the microphone.

After that will be Anne Marie, Elizabeth, Lindsay, Dia, Nicole, Melina, Nancy, Wynne, Angela, Mendoza, Jordan, Coburn.

Please proceed.

I don't live in San Diego.

I visit San Diego because of the arts.

When my friends and I visit, we spend money in San Diego.

I know that there are a lot of people that live here because of the arts.

I know other people have touched on that also.

You know, it brings money in when you have a community when you have these things available to the people for the tourists.

I know the visits will drop if the arts are cut.

If you're so worried about the money coming in, nurture the people of San Diego, nurture the arts, nurture their culture, their youth.

They pay the taxes.

We're all telling you what's important to us.

And the world is really heavy right now.

And we have art, so please don't take that, don't kill that.

McKenzie.

Oh, that was you.

My apologies.

I'm almost at the end.

I had to mess up, right?

Anne Marie.

Anne Marie.

No, Anne Marie.

Elizabeth.

Hello, I'm Elizabeth Santillonis, and I live in District 2, a resident of San Diego.

I do notice that unfortunately, our council member is not present, I believe.

Council member Campbell.

I attended a fundraiser event last night for Moxie Theater and learned about the 11.8 million dollars in threatened cuts to the arts in the mayor's proposed budget.

This would cause the elimination of most arts programs and jobs in San Diego, and we will not stand for that.

People young and old need access to the arts for their health and well-being, especially in difficult times.

Without the arts, our society would lose its soul.

I'm proud to be here today, along with so many others to fight for the arts in our communities.

Redistribute money in the proposed budget to support the arts and libraries.

This is essential for the well-being of our youth and our community.

Thank you for that concluding sentence, Lindsay.

Lindsay Seegers.

Good evening.

Thank you for your service and your time.

My name is Lindsay Seegers.

I serve as the executive director of Voices of Our City Choir.

We are an arts nonprofit basing facing 86,000 in city grant cuts if this is passed.

Voices brought much pride to our city of San Diego just a few years ago, winning the golden buzzer on America's Got Talent.

Um, I reside in Councilmember Campillo's district, and council members Rivera, um, Whitburn, Lee, and La Cava have continued to attend the concerts of our um choir that's made up of people who are experiencing or at risk of re-experiencing homelessness.

Um, and they don't just come because we're a nationally recognized music nonprofit, they become they come because we are nationally recognized for using music and arts as a social intervention in the crisis of homelessness.

Mayor Gloria, our choir has opened for you so many times proudly.

Um, one time three times in one week.

We joked that we are the mayor's house band.

Please read.

Thank you for that concluding sentence.

Dea Bassett.

Dia Bassett, not here.

Nicole Fernandez.

Nicole, you have time seated to you by Javier Johnson or Xavier Johnson.

You can please raise your hand.

Thank you.

Since you clearly don't care about the problem, let me get into the solution.

Art is the culture and the very infrastructure needed to maintain the very economy that you blindly claim to protect.

At the intersection of this are the people, the people that are creating the very infrastructure that you are trying to destroy.

My name is Nicole Hernandez, and I was born in San Diego, California and grew up by national Tijuana, Mexico.

I'm an artist, athlete, and the founder and creative director of Nexus, where we highlight music, dance, and film.

Quit hiding behind numbers and statistics when your very people are underpaid, overworked, and exploited.

You choose surveillance over trust, extraction over transparency, pedophilia over protection, profits over people, while duality can exist, but your ego, greed, and pride keeps us in chains.

Present the alternative you may ask.

Invest in the people, invest and uplift the youth.

That is the future.

Fund marginalized founders like the black community that's held up to the standard of excellence while also being the most overlooked.

Like the Chicano and Latino community that upkeeps the deeply personal culture of Barrio Logan that's facing a gentrification that's turning Chicano Park into a tourist attraction, doubled with strategic corporate buyouts that push out the Chicano and Latin community that built it.

You can't continue to uproot the very systems that we build and sustain, the very businesses that we created in the very communities that we upkeep.

The people want to know where every dollar is going, and rightfully so, as this privilegeless use is unacceptable.

We demand a transparent financial breakdown, make the numbers public, undergo an audit, as that is not adding up.

We ask why.

Ask you question why we dare to dream and why we show up.

We ask you to learn, grow, and open your mind and do your job or retire.

Million Melina Martinez.

My name is Melina.

I am a first generation student and resident here in San Diego.

You claim to care about the youth and the interest of the people in San Diego, yet you are willing to cut the educational, environmental, and cultural funding that would promote and create equitable opportunities for future and current generation.

I am but a small voice in the Chicano community, and I have seen my people continuously exploited, overworked, underpaid, and underrepresented.

We have built the physical, cultural, and economic landscape the city is built on.

Yet we are barely able to afford the basic resources needed to support our family and so communities.

You fund police systems that are built to oppress people of color, yet claim to not have the necessary funding to support the creative and artistic programs that give these people the outlets and environment to heal and rebuild from these brutalities and inequalities.

Why is it that we are forced to create alternative opportunities for funding allocation?

Well, we are focused on mere survival.

We are barely able to afford rent, groceries, and utilities.

Give us what is rightfully ours, power to the people.

If you have not planned on giving it to us, we will take it ourselves.

Yeah.

Nancy Wynne.

And for those that have already spoken, please be sure to return to your seats so that others may be coming up.

No Nancy Wynn, Angela Mendoza, Jordan Coburn, Leisha Donnelly, Brad Taylor, Caleb Dade, Hilberto Vera, Athena Castro.

If you can all please come up to the front row, as well as our Arthur Lakshmanan and Richard Ciaba.

Angela, are you here?

Please come up to the podium.

No Angela.

Going once.

Angela going twice.

All right, Jordan.

Jordan Coburn.

No Jordan Covern.

Leisha.

My name is Leisha Donnelly.

I am a self-employed marketing and sales consultant.

I've lived here 50 years in District 5.

I've had no help from Ms.

Von Wilford.

I have had two cars impounded unjustly.

One was impounded for three bogus tickets and was just auctioned off, a late model car for $10,000.

It was a $35,000 car.

My second car was stolen.

And then it was re-impounded in to the San Diego impoundment.

Now they've got it up.

It is a $60,000 car, and it's now going to be auctioned off on the 22nd of this month.

Because I have no money to pay for this abomination.

Now I have had to rely on transit, which is wholly inaccurate for both the North and the South County.

We pay all the time.

Caleb Dade.

Caleb Dade.

Caleb Dade had several people seating in their time.

If they're still here and wish to speak, please go to the microphone.

Julia Hold, Leigh Tang, and Dale Fleming.

Any of those individuals?

Gilberto Vera.

Good afternoon, Council President, Council members.

My name is Gil Vera.

I'm the director of the Housing Justice Collaborative at Legal Aid Society of San Diego.

Legal aid is the grantee of the eviction prevention program that provides free legal services, education and outreach, emergency rental assistance, and case management to low-income San Diegans.

I know it's a difficult budget year, and I appreciate the council and the mayor prioritizing homelessness prevention.

Eviction prevention is one of the most effective and cost effective strategies we have.

Keeping people in housed avoids the human and community impacts of displacement and helps prevent homelessness before prevent homelessness before it starts.

For example, a state audit of homelessness programs show that a chronically homeless person can cost up to $50,000 per year.

In contrast, in fiscal year 2025, the EPP served over 1600 households in San Diego, averaging a one-time cost of about 1,800 per household of the EPP clients served in the fiscal year 2025.

Almost 90% avoided homelessness with 80% remaining in their homes and almost a 10% finding new additional stable housing.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Athena Castro.

Athena, you have time ceded to you by Luis Castro.

Thank you very much.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon.

My name is Athena Castro, and I am a high school student, classical musician, and cultural dancer.

I'm here to speak on behalf of my community and students, and the proposed budget cuts to the art funding and why they should be reconsidered.

Back in middle school, I fell unexpectedly in love with my instrument.

This found me in a time in life where I needed it most.

This love that I felt would then continue to grow and grow until I decided that a life where every day isn't filled with music is a life I never want to experience again.

This is not only goes for myself, but for many other children.

How can we call ourselves the greatest city in America if we view arts education as an extra or a luxury?

It is a core part of our education system for what is a school without visual and performing arts.

When art programs are accessible, they provide students an important outlet for expression and communication.

Removing or significantly reducing fund limits, these funding limits these opportunities and creates inequity.

Everybody, no matter your background, deserves art, it is how we live and how we learn to love.

Thank you.

Arthur Lakshman.

After that is Richard Ciaba, Phoenix Wing, Kofi Asante, Colin Kimizy, Sebastian Ruby, Nona G.

If you can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Please proceed.

Hello.

Um, my name is Arthi Luxhman.

I'm a local artist and small business order uh owner here in University Heights in San Diego.

I had the immense privilege to live in live my formative years in a place that was funded by the library and arts and art programs.

I learned how to read from my peers in summer programs and public libraries.

I learned how to manage emotions through music and painting.

I learned public speaking through cultural programs.

I taught music to children that were nonverbal and learned how to sing.

I am not alone in my fundamental need for arts and cultures here, as well as all of these people here and you guys as well.

Um I urge you to think about all of the programs that you are cutting laxidasically and slaughtering in the name of arts and culture.

I was a software engineer for and worked in data analytics for eight years, so believe me when I say that I know what goes into analyzing financial programs and choosing what success metrics to track.

Thank you for that concluding our narrative.

Please look at the data.

Thank you for that concluding sentence.

Richard Ciava.

Richard Ciaba, I also local 122.

We are working to build momentum for initiatives that could bring significant economic return, such as efforts led by my union to re-establish San Diego as a hub for motion picture production.

A local film initiative will create jobs to track outside investment and boost tourism.

Benefits that ripple across the entire region.

Cutting arts and cultural funding now undermines all those opportunities before they even have a chance to take a hold.

It sends the wrong message at the wrong time.

Signaling that San Diego is not prepared to invest in sectors that generate both cultural value and economic growth.

Maintaining funding for the fiscal at the fiscal year 2026 levels is practical.

Maintaining funding for the physical at the fiscal year 2026 levels is practical, forward looking, and it's a forward-looking decision.

It protects our workforce, supports tourism, and positions San Diego to compete for future opportunities rather than be passed over.

We asked the city leaders to stand with the arts community, protect these vital investments and keep San Diego moving in the right direction.

Thank you.

Phoenix Wing.

Phoenix Wing.

I am an artist and math tutor, and I am here today because Todd's math isn't adding up straight from the city's open books.

I made this chart just for you guys to see.

While 11.8 million is stripped from our arts and programs and 3.5 million from our libraries, the police budget is magically increasing by 14 million dollars.

It's almost like his plan doesn't actually solve deficit, just moves money away from the people into the police state.

I'm going to agree with you on something.

We do need to make some hard cuts.

So here's my suggestion.

Math informed.

Target the institution that eats up 14% of our city budget, not the libraries and arts that only take up five and one percent of our city budget.

I even have some phrasing ideas I got today from Mr.

Matica that you can tell the police.

Unfortunately, we need to make some significant cuts to solve the budget crisis.

These cuts will be difficult but necessary.

These cuts will be the primary tool to solve the city's program.

Cut the police, not parts and arcs, otherwise it adds to a budget that Trump would be very happy for.

Todd Gloria, you are a disgrace to the Mira Mesa community, and we are disappointed.

AAPI communities are disappointed, and you are a traitor to the community.

Kofi?

Kofi Asante.

No Kofi.

Colin.

Hello, Council members.

Uh I hope you're listening to the people today, because if you don't listen to the people, the people will listen to themselves.

We could have the friendly librarian, the gentle youth service worker, beautiful art.

But if all we have is the parking ticket, the surveillance camera lens, the tinted police window, all we'll have to talk to is ourselves.

We don't need to beg you for scraps.

We have dignity.

We need you to represent us.

And if you can't do that, we don't need you.

Sebastian Ruby.

My name is Sebastian Dionisha Ruby.

I am an immigrant working in the theater and arts industry as a stage carpenter on behalf of IATSI Local 122, resident of District 3, and I recently celebrated 13 years clean and sober.

I also come from a long line of entertainment industry professionals.

Cuts to arts, parks, and libraries don't just affect programs, they affect people like me and everyone in this room.

These spaces are where recovery communities meet, where creative creativity gives people purpose, and where many of us find stability.

Redirecting that funding toward policing, privacy invasion, and anti-homeless measures don't doesn't solve problems.

It deepens them.

It takes resources away from prevention and healing that your people desperately need.

San Diego is a city built on immigrants, culture, and community.

We should be investing in that, not tearing it down.

You say your goal is to help your constituents and improve San Diego overall, prove it.

Todd, if you want to help us like you're supposed to, get out of the way.

Nona G.

Nona G.

Good afternoon.

I'm Nona.

Um I'm Marnie's in your district, District V.

I grew up in San Diego.

I've never been to a council hearing, but this is promised to us as every citizen, and it's exciting to be a part of it.

Although it is very um demeaning in all the news that we've been seeing of what our countries, in which direction it's going, which I'm sure you all think about a lot.

Um, as everyone's come outside today on their time off.

I'm not sure how they do it, but we do it and we manage it.

Um to say these concerns.

Um I can't help but feel this trend is replicated in so many other parts of my life and going in university, not just in the news all around us, that we see our voices beyond just what seems to be the bare bones of uh infrastructure and of what we deem as innovation, uh, lacking so much um of a tone of listening to the constituents, um, even though I'm I'm sure everything is overwhelming.

Thank you.

If I can know the following individuals, please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

These are our final speakers here in Council Chambers.

Sheila Stanford, Sophia Blanco, uh Juwan Sanford, Hannah Park, Daniel Gutierrez, Ramses L, Hector Castro, Gabrielle Avavena, Sarah Large, and Desiree Clark Miller.

If you can all please come up to the front.

Shaila, if you can please come up to the microphone.

Hello.

Um working as a director at the num nonprofit Heartbeat Music and Performing Arts Academy, which Todd Gloria has recognized and supported in the past.

I've seen firsthand how much the arts transform children's capability to learn and keep them from becoming victims of the system.

Through the arts, we have personally helped many at-risk black and brown youth get full ride music and dance scholarships to major college colleges.

If you want to save money, then divesting in the arts is extremely counterintuitive.

The arts are the backbone of the community, not an accessory.

And it makes the city much more money than it costs.

As a major tourist destination, it's what draws in tourists and their dollars.

It's who the local businesses partner with to increase their revenue.

It helps burnt-out workers refresh and keep going, as we've seen in the Great Depression.

The film industry is one of the only industries that thrived.

Thank you for that concluding sentence.

Hi, I'm a born and raised San Diegan, District 3.

I represent Art Cipher in San Diego walkabout.

Additionally, I'm a local theater worker.

I'm constantly problem solving my way out of tight budgets and solutions.

How do we work together to solve this problem?

I invite and implore the city to work with the arts community to find an alternative to near elimination of the arts and culture budget.

I remind you that the cuts are not an inevitable solution.

They are a proposed suggestion.

Please serve the communities you swore to represent.

Thank you.

Joan Stanford My name is Juwan Stanford, and I'm an artist who works for regional and local theaters in San Diego, and I'm here to oppose the budget cuts to arts and culture, and additionally support libraries and parks and rec.

I can't fathom how such a small portion of what the arts brings to you monetarily and culturally as a city is being cut.

The arts bring in 275 million dollars in taxes alone to you and the city, and you're proposing not reinvesting, just a small point two percent portion of that.

US San Diego is uh defined by its arts, cultures, and beaches.

Are you really gonna cut the funding to two-thirds of what makes San Diego the great community and city that it is?

The arts are not some side show, they are the heart and soul of San Diego and the people in it.

They provide real jobs and livelihoods to 170,000 people in the city.

The arts are what attract tourism and bring money from in outside the city.

Uh arts save lives, they save my lives.

I know merse personally, many individuals who uh have said the same.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hannah Park.

Hello, my name is Hannah Park.

I'm a resident of San Diego District 7 and a singer and performing artist.

I would like to call attention to the proposed cuts to the arts to the tune of 11.8 million dollars under the section for special special promotional programs.

The bulk of this money is allocated to local arts nonprofit organizations, including performing ensembles like the ones I am a part of, including the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, the San Diego Master Corral, and Sakra Profana.

The proposed budget cuts present an enormous loss to local artists and performers.

Without this funding, many of these groups will face incredible struggles or simply cease to exist.

This is a significant blow to the continuation of arts in San Diego and a detriment to the broader San Diego community.

The arts make our city vibrant.

It also presents a threat to local tourism and quality of life for our region that will negatively impact the revenue the city currently sees from these avenues.

The city stands to lose much more than it will gain by cutting this 11.8 million dollars.

If the city intends to resolve its bread shortfall, cutting funding for the arts is the wrong move.

Cuts to the arts constitute a much larger impact than the initial loss in funding, which is also a drop in the bucket compared to the projected 120 million dollar shortfall.

Thank you for that concluding sentence.

Daniel Gutierrez.

How's it going?

Uh 47 million budget for San Diego PD over time.

This is confusing to me.

These are hours that have not happened yet.

And we're cutting uh hours that could certainly happen if we invest in our theater and arts community.

Uh Balbua Park is going from 900,000 to zero.

We've added parking meters.

Who's gonna go?

This is not smart.

Uh the support for special events is being restored from 2000 to 25 budget to 1.7 million.

Again, what special events are we funding here?

This doesn't make very much sense to me.

Um take it with a grain of salt.

I work at a coffee shop, I'm not an economist, but this does not make much sense.

This is not balanced.

Going from 100 to zero is not safe behavior.

You wouldn't climb a ladder like this.

You wouldn't go down from a ladder, it's not safe.

You'll hurt yourselves.

These uh these institutions won't make it after this year.

This is this is a a slight injury to those other institutions, but this is deadly to the ones that matter to us.

They will not make it.

Thank you.

Ramses.

Hello, council.

Uh I'm sure you guys recognize me.

Over the past year, I've been coming consistently to council to talk about the police budget and how it last year, especially, especially after the murder of Kanoa Wilson and another officer-involved death that January last year.

You guys slapped us in the face by increasing the police budget by 30 million.

And now we're getting the same exact slap in the face this year at the expense of the local community.

We know that's what's happening.

We know that we're just moving the money from one section of the account to the other, and we're just supposed to take it.

All I can do at this point is just say police had the opportunity to defend our community when ICE came, and they chose to say that they could do nothing.

So why should we continue to give them more money when they continue to do nothing?

That's all I have to say.

Hector Castro.

Hector Castro.

Hello.

Wow, it's been a day today.

Um hope you guys are okay today too.

Uh but good afternoon, council members and mayor.

Uh, my name is Hector.

I'm a resident of District 8, as well as a coordinator for the Front Articultura, an art gallery that is also in District 8.

Uh, Mayor Todd Gloria.

I'm here for the same reason I was here last year.

Uh why are you cutting arts and culture?

Uh have you seen AI?

It's it's incredibly ugly.

Not to mention terrible for the environment.

Uh I don't want AI having another opportunity in this city.

Um, I'm a community coordinator for an art gallery in San Isidro, one of only two art spaces that are within that little town.

I help organize events and exhibitions for people of all ages.

We provide art programs of all mediums.

Without funding, we lose an opportunity to provide a space for expression.

We lose an opportunity to invite our families or take a break.

Um, we lose an opportunity to inspire neighbors.

All else has been said today.

Um please consider the arts.

Don't cut us off.

Thanks.

Thank you, Gabrielle.

Avaena or Gabriel, sorry.

Gabrielle.

Gabriel.

Um, my name is uh Gabriela Ravena.

I'm representing uh district three and Teamsters for 81.

Um I'm here today because I was moved uh to talk by all the people in this room and everyone that came before me.

Uh specifically because one of the slides said Vision Zero.

And it reminded me something that I learned about in 2016 in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge by Paul Pot.

And this was an aggregation utopia, uh eradicating all previous culture, education, and modern technology resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 3 million people.

And I ask you, is this a regime, a governing body that you want to mimic and copy?

And I hope you can reflect on that question.

All power to the people.

Sarah Large.

Good evening, everybody.

Uh, my name is Sarah Large.

I am proud to live and work in District 9.

I'm also the development manager at Moxie Theater.

I hope you're all tired, because we certainly are.

Arts and culture not only heals and protects our community's mental, physical, social, and economic well-being, but it is one of the strongest avenues for the amplification of minority voices.

Slashing the arts and culture budget is not just an attack on painters and dancers and actors and musicians, but on people of color, on women, on the LGBTQ plus community, on disabled persons, and many other important members of our community.

So please remain committed to all of your constituents, not just the privileged ones, by restoring or even better, increasing the funds allotted to arts and culture.

Arts is public health, and public health is public safety.

Surely we are worth at least one percent of your financial.

Thank you so much for that concluding comment.

Desiree Clark Miller.

Desiree, you are our final speaker here in Council Chambers.

All right.

We'll have somebody go and talk to you right now, and we'll make sure to get you spoken.

Okay.

Okay, you'll be you'll be able to speak, ma'am.

Don't worry.

Please proceed.

Good evening.

My name is Desiree Clark Miller, and I'm the executive artistic director at Moxie Theater.

Moxie's mission is to create more diverse and honest images of women plus for our culture.

Um, and we are the only professional theater dedicated to the voices of women plus that was able to survive COVID, and we are entering into, we are in our 21st season.

Now I moved to San Diego in 2021 specifically because of the performing arts.

I knew of two large theaters here.

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

But what I found here was a robust and lush and vibrant arts community filled with a variety of organizations, and I know I'm not alone in this.

Artists move here because of the arts.

And we have a choice.

It is not easy or cheap to live here.

Uh, we don't need to be here, but we choose to be here.

So I strongly urge you to reconsider.

Thank you.

Kofi Asante, please come out to the microphone.

Good evening.

Uh my name is Kofi Asansi, uh, San Diego Native Local Artist, a global activist.

Uh have an organization here called Black Star Polo.

We focus on providing more opportunities for the youth and aquatics, and as a global activist for health and wellness and positive opportunities for the youth.

I can really speak on how the youth are affected when we do not invest in their futures, how it contributes to poverty and a terrible terrible quality of life.

I really want us to urge to not use the funds to go towards creating more agents of authorities, but using them to create ambassadors of freedom, justice, expression, and wellness for everybody.

I hope we can make a focus on not just keeping these life-changing activities, but also incorporating these life-saving activities in the schools, beaches, and the pools.

The future are the youth.

San Diego is my home.

I know the importance of coming back home to help your community, and I hope you can all do the same.

Thank you very much.

Valerie, can you please come up to the microphone?

I'm Valerie Triena of District 4.

The City of San Diego must not cut funding to our arts and music programs, our libraries, or any other cultural programs.

Societies can't and won't thrive if they don't support their artists and musicians.

Children can't establish a vibrant, intelligent future San Diego if their parents don't provide support for their spiritual expression.

The visual arts, music, dance, and every other form of cultural expression must be fully supported.

If City Council and Mayor Gloria are concerned about balancing the budget, they must cut funding to our police department.

It's common sense that if residents have their basic needs met, including their spiritual hungers, they are far less likely to commit crimes.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

That does conclude public comment here in Council Chambers.

Starting the five-minute time, we're going to those participating online.

We currently have 26 speakers in the queue.

Gunthery Leonard, if you can please unmute.

Guthrie Leonard, if you can please unmute.

I can't unmute for you.

I can't unmute for you.

I will have to move on in the queue if you can unmute.

The original, if you can.

Oh, Kelsey.

Kelsey Faye, please unmute.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

All right.

Thank you so much for hearing me.

First, I'm disappointed by the deceptive presentation of the slides shown earlier.

Between the two slides for notable budget increases and decreases, SCPD was only listed on the budget decrease slide, yet they get a net increase of 15 million after accounting for the 5.6 million reduction on that budget decrease slide.

Additionally, the slide focusing on public safety stated neither that increase nor the total budget of 718 million.

To gloss over the cost of the SPD is to attempt to manipulate the public into thinking that there are no options for adjusting the buzz it.

There clearly are.

Distribute that 15 million to the programs that will crumble without city funding.

Second, when discussing public safety, we need a research-based approach.

Studies dedicated to the impact of arts and cultural engagement on adolescents have found that children who participate in these programs are less likely to engage in criminal behaviors.

By cutting arts fundings and the Office of Child and Youth Success, you're setting up our city and county for a future with higher crime rates.

If you want a safer community, pay attention to research.

Thank you.

Next is the original.

Please unmute.

Yeah, wake up, Sandy.

Oh, because you need the book club.

Things are gonna get a lot worse.

This is absolutely an abuse of authority.

And the people on the bias and Todd are the drivers of the deficit as they sit here and shuffle money around.

You guys need to really start paying attention into what they are doing because they have 6.4 billion dollars of our money.

They are going to be cutting 198 positions.

How and when are they going to start cutting their salaries?

Because for the 118 million dollars that you guys are, you know, shuffling around from here to there, and you have to find from the people, you guys need to be the ones that are showing that you actually care about the people because this is a slap in the face to all of the people who work really hard, and you throw away their money.

So why don't you start saying, Well, you know what?

To show you guys that I'm loyal to you and that I do care, I'm going to take a cut in my pay.

I bet you guys could all give up about a hundred thousand dollars each, and then we'll have some more money in the buckets to spend.

Your time is concluded.

Ashley, if you can please unmute Ashley Proce, I do see that you are unmuted, but we do not hear you here in Council Chambers.

I'm not sure if the device that you're speaking into may be muted.

Ashley.

Are you able to hear me now?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay, sounds good.

Uh my name is Ashley, and I'm a sixth generation San Diegan, and I'm current uh resident of District One.

My family members are dancers, photographers, musicians, teachers, uh, old globe volunteers here in San Diego, they're painters, woodworkers.

Um, and I've always prided myself on being a San Diego because of the culture that we have here, and that's you know, it's shaped by uh our arts and cultural uh uh institutions in San Diego.

This budget doesn't really make sense.

I mean, ultimately it's still raising from what we've seen in 2026.

Um, we're also spending an extra from 2025 to 2027, we're spending an extra five million on golf courses alone.

Um, an extra two million is going to be raised for uh expenditures over in Mission Bay, which doesn't necessarily make sense to me.