Mayor Gloria’s Admin Ousts Climate and Sustainability Director

Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration officially sacked the person spearheading the city’s battle against climate change on Tuesday. 

Shelby Buso, the city’s chief sustainability officer, confirmed the news Wednesday but declined to comment further. The move follows a slew of actions initiated by Mayor Todd Gloria that shrink the powers of the city’s department responsible for reducing planet-warming emissions and making San Diego more bikeable and walkable, which Buso led.  

Gloria essentially eliminated the Sustainability and Mobility Department in February when he was forced to make budget cuts. The work of the department was spread under five other departments. Buso acted as the deputy director of that department until it was eliminated. 

As part of the reorganization, the mayor eliminated seven vacant positions in Buso’s department, touted as a savings of $914,000. Buso moved under the direction of the city’s Planning Department.  

It’s not the first time city leaders have put climate programs on the chopping block in budget crunches. Gloria’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget pulled $8.5 million meant for climate equity programs before councilmembers restored it. 

Nicole Darling, a city spokesperson responding on behalf of the mayor’s office, said the city is “fully committed to the critical work of climate action.” She pointed to the reorganization of the Sustainability Department as evidence that its work is now happening across multiple city departments. 

But climate work was, in theory, already baked into the work of each department. Departments already compiled reports each year, showing how their work furthered the goals of the Climate Action Plan. 

Darling said a new chief sustainability officer “will be identified shortly.” 

Environment and climate activists say Buso’s departure is just another piece of evidence that San Diego isn’t doing enough to make good on Gloria’s Climate Action Plan. 

“I think firing the chief sustainability officer is not a sign that person’s duties are important to the city or that whatever was on that person’s plate will actually come to fruition,” said Livia Beaudin, lead attorney at Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation. 

Gloria updated the climate plan in 2022. The Climate Action Campaign and Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation sued the city, alleging the goals passed in 2022 did not actually come with a roadmap for becoming a reality. The parties settled the suit in February of 2024 after the city released a more specific plan for cutting planet-warming emissions from its economy.  

According to the most recently available report, San Diego actually produced more emissions than it cut between 2022 and 2023.  

Beaudin said there’s evidence the city already isn’t holding up its end of the bargain on its settlement with environmentalists. If San Diego isn’t following its Climate Action Plan, it could jeopardize how quickly developers are able to build certain projects in the city. That’s because the Climate Action Plan is how the city meets state Environmental Quality Act rules on behalf of those who want to develop in the city. Without such a plan, some developers would have to do an arduous amount of studies on their own to build in compliance with California climate law.    

The city was supposed to announce new laws requiring buildings eliminate natural gas and run all-electric. That’s the centerpiece of Gloria’s Climate Action Plan, which he announced three years ago, but the city has yet to release a proposal.  

Kelly Lyndon, with the Building Electrification Coalition, said she was surprised at Buso’s ousting. She attended a meeting with her at noon Tuesday, the day she was let go.  

“I get it’s tough to balance a budget and there’s a lot of competing interests,” Lyndon said of the cuts to the city’s climate team. “What irritates me is (the city) won’t acknowledge they’re deprioritizing this. Don’t gaslight us that everything is great and we’re still doing it all.”  

Eddie Price, executive director of the San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition, said it’s been harder to work with the city on sustainability issues, since the work of the sustainability office was spread across multiple departments. 

“It appears that communities of concern and assistance is merely a press conference and there’s no real outcomes,” he said.  

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