Politics Report: More from the Mayor

This week, we published a story in the words of one person “broke the San Diego political internet.” The story detailed disappointment with Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration after his first five years in office. 

The story was obviously not great for the mayor. It said out loud a thing that has been known in certain circles for more than a year: Even a great many of Gloria’s allies are saddened he has not accomplished more of what he set out to do. 

But in the lead up to the story, the mayor spent an hour on the phone with Will Huntsberry. We wanted to share some more from that conversation. 

From Will Huntsberry: As I reported the story, several people put the hypothesis to me that Gloria is conflict-averse or cautious — to the extent it has a bad effect on his political decision-making. He described himself as practical.

Todd Gloria: “I think my parents would agree: I was basically born an adult. And, I think, they would argue that I was raising them in some ways. And maybe that’s what comes to this work: that I feel the weight and responsibility of this job. And I try and comport myself in it, being responsible, being practical, finding whatever place to get progress. 

“Growing up when we didn’t have a lot of stuff… As someone that relied on a lot of help as a kid, I wasn’t going to get to college, if someone was promising me financial assistance that wasn’t going to be there, right? So what I would say is I think there’s a practicality that I bring to this work that maybe for some folks is insufficient. But if you want a mayor that’s going to go around running his mouth and saying crazy stuff I don’t see how that helps the city.”

I told the mayor that it wasn’t so much a question of practicality or incremental progress that has people upset. As Kyra Greene, director of Center for Policy Initiatives told me, many people feel Gloria hasn’t even made incremental progress.

Gloria: “I realize there’s always a ‘What have you done for me lately?’ component to this stuff. But whether it’s the citywide minimum wage and paid sick days to the Climate Action Plan, I don’t think my progressive bona fides are up for debate.”

Huntsberry: They are, though. In the city, they just really are. 

Gloria: “Listen, lifelong Democrat. I refuse to accept that. I have advanced in partnership with councilmember [Sean] Elo-Rivera tenant protections, hospitality minimum wage. We’re advancing sustainability, multimodal transportation options. Is it ever at the, at the pace that ideologues may want it to be? Probably not. Is it to the pace that I would want? I’m mayor, you know, I’m not king. The name is Todd, not God. I don’t control all things.

…

“It is not inconsistent to be a practical progressive. Progressives want to see progress. That often requires a love of practicality. And to anyone who feels as though we haven’t gotten everything done yet. Well, the good news is we’ve got three more years.”

Gloria did acknowledge it has not been easy to bring the “Big City Energy” to the job that he promised during his campaign. He and his team pointed to the pandemic, Donald Trump’s presidency and intense inflation as examples. 

Gloria: “It has fallen to my administration to lead this city during extremely challenging times. And to the extent that we’re driving homelessness down, new home construction up, crime is going down, road repair is up, I believe that we are delivering upon the priorities that I laid out in both of my campaigns for mayor. I’m hoping this is not a legacy piece, Will, because I’ve got almost three years left here. And I go to bed each night praying for better macro-level atmospherics to allow me to do that work.”

That last remark about “macro-level atmospherics” makes it sound like Gloria sees his job as existing underneath those macro-level forces, rather than having to contend with them. 

The place Gloria and I had the most trouble finding a shared reality was his relationship with councilmembers. I cited multiple high-profile examples of his breakdowns with the council on important votes. 

Gloria: “What I hear you referencing is a single digit number of votes against what are probably hundreds and more, maybe thousands, that have gone smoothly. I would characterize the situation as extremely functional, and we’re moving the city forward…

“I don’t meet with the council members once a month, because I don’t believe in collaboration. I don’t attend their events, because I don’t think that they are valuable. Quite the contrary. I was a councilmember. That’s part of why I’m constantly in touch with these folks and try and collaborate and share information with them.”

As if on cue, the insistence that he has a great relationship with the Council came right before a public fall out with Vivian Moreno. He felt a lot of criticism was unfairly personal.

Gloria: “What I find in this job is that something that is just a general function of these positions or just being a human being on the planet is described as some personal failure on my part. When that is just isn’t the case. Go to any other city, you’re going to find the mayor and the council will have honest disagreements on policy issues. That’s just the way things are. Spouses have disagreements. These things happen.”

In talking to dozens of people close to City Hall, almost no one had criticisms of Todd Gloria, personally. In fact, they all really like the guy. They felt bad for thinking he was ineffective or having trouble as an executive — and in many cases they blamed the people around him, rather than Gloria himself. 

Mayor Pledges ‘Spring’ Council Vote on Midway Rising

In his speech, Thursday, Gloria acknowledged that the city’s loss in court on the second vote to remove the building height limit in Midway had “caused some doubt to the future of the project known as Midway Rising.

But it wasn’t going to stop the project.

“This spring I will bring this project forward for public hearings and a vote from the City Council,” he said. But he still did not say that he agrees with the developers who say they didn’t need to remove the height limit anyway. They are building affordable housing and so they can build higher than the city’s 30-foot limit.

City may be pursuing legislation: Even if he agrees with the developers, the mayor may want the state to wipe away any remaining concerns that a lawsuit could kill or significantly delay the project. Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Rams and the major funder and equity holder in the Midway Rising project, sought an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act when he built the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

It sounds like the city may like to see something like that.

What would the Council decide: The vote “this spring” will be about whatever lease deal the city makes with the developers for that nearly 50 acres of city land and to review the project’s environmental impact report. (Hopefully they have better lawyers than the city did.)

Notes

He’s even more back: KPBS has a story about Nathan Fletcher getting back into politics . He’s lobbying for a veterans group that supports “psychedelic-assisted therapy” for veterans.

Trump pardons South Bay felon again: A few months ago, our Jim Hinch wrote a story about Chula Vista Mayor John McCann’s relationship to a brother and sister who had been convicted of fraud but given clemency by President Trump. Then they got prosecuted and convicted, again, for fraud.

They had gone right back into a con: “Their illegal scheme involved lying to manufacturers to sell wholesale groceries and other goods at steep discounts by promising the goods would be sold in Mexico, or to prisons or rehabilitation facilities. Instead, the defendants sold the products at higher prices to U.S. distributors, for the U.S. market,” so reads the Department of Justice’s account of the case.

Trump has now pardoned the sister again.

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

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