Politics Report: All the Downside

On Sept. 30, the San Diego City Council will have to vote on a series of major water rate increases.

They don’t have much choice. The city buys water from the San Diego County Water Authority and that agency has raised its rates. The Water Authority – led mostly by the city of San Diego’s representatives – made big investments that secured water reliability. That’s good but now we must pay for it.  

The problem is, the San Diego City Council just finished another week of hard things. The public is getting sick of them raising the cost of things, from parking downtown during Padres games to parking in Balboa Park and trash fees.

The Council is getting queasy.

“The number of us on the Council that are willing to say, ‘This looks bad. I’m going to regret this vote. But I voted for it at budget time and I’ve got to stick with it.’ That number is getting smaller and smaller,” said Council President Joe LaCava on our podcast this week.

“As Council president, I’m beginning to get a little concerned about how do we actually deliver all the new revenue we built into the budget,” he said.

When we pressed him on what is coming up that he wasn’t sure about, he pointed to the upcoming increase to water rates.

He doesn’t have much margin for dissent. The City Council only voted 6-3 to have the hearing to do the water rates. Losing two more votes would cause a … honestly I have no idea what would happen if the City Council rejected the planned rate hike. But now it’s something everyone may need to brace for.

The problem: The City Council and mayor are doing a lot of unpopular things. You can make a case for something like “making people pay for parking in Balboa Park.” But it’s really hard when there’s no obvious upside return.

For example, if you were to start charging for parking at Balboa Park but you could tell people you were using the money to replace 10 bathrooms in the park or you were addressing one of the other 100 dire infrastructure problems there, people may feel better. 

But all the fees they’re taking tough votes on now are just to balance the budget and preserve the services the city was already providing. Each vote then becomes a reminder of how badly the mayor and Council have managed their situation.

There was a last minute PR twist to the effort: The new fees would create a “dedicated revenue stream” for the park. Yes, the parking fees will stay in Balboa Park and relieve the city from having to pay for needs there with general fund dollars. But It’s not helping the park. It’s just allowing the city to do other things with the other money.

Mix in silly season: Then you have people like Councilmember Raul Campillo, who didn’t attend the meeting on the Balboa Park parking fees and thus didn’t have to take the tough vote. But he rallied people to oppose the new fees on social media. Yet he voted for the budget that was only viable because it assumed major revenue from charging fees to park at Balboa Park.

His motivation is obvious. He wants to run for mayor. Being against things people don’t like and being for things people like is part of that process.

Meanwhile, rather than stand together and make the case with a unified voice, the mayor and Council seem intent on hating each other.

Monday after the City Council went through the long process of approving the fees for parking at Balboa Park and trying to lower the rate and accommodate residents, Mayor Todd Gloria put out a statement. He praised the vote as a step to creating that dedicated revenue stream for the park. But he couldn’t help but deliver a backhand.

“There is still work to be done to realize this vision, as the program approved today falls short of the aggressive revenue assumptions for the program in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget adopted in June – a budget that, as Budget Committee Chair Henry Foster noted tonight, was based on shaky revenue assumptions by Council,” he said.

Think about what this is saying. In the process of talking about the fees creating a supposed exciting new dedicated revenue stream to help Balboa Park, the statement is also admitting the money is actually just replacing the city’s withdrawal from Balboa Park, which it had to do to balance the budget. And then the statement says the Council didn’t make the fees high enough to do that. And so, the mayor and Council may have to cut services and it’s the Council’s fault if that happens.

This is the “it’s not my fault” mayoral administration.

It is really hard to do things like raise fees. The Councilmembers with higher political aspirations will have to fight off attacks about these decisions for a long time. This work is like paying to get your car to get fixed. It’s the worst kind of spending because you feel like you must do it and it hurts and, in return, all you get is the same thing you had.

The ultimate version of that is coming in 10 days with the water rate hearing. They’ll have to vote to hurt people – to make them spend a lot more just to keep getting the same thing they’ve been getting. And the reason, the upside of the investment, is even harder to explain and has already happened. “You get to keep buying desalinated water you don’t need! How cool is that?”

It’s tough stuff. We are always saying we want politicians to make tough decisions. They will always feel the pressure to provide services and not charge for them. But for so long, city leaders have spent money they don’t have, all that’s left is to collect it. If they can’t come up with a better vision than to find the best way to blame each other for not doing it perfectly, it’s going to get really bleak.

If you have any feedback or ideas for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.

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