Has San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria jumped the shark, to use the snarky phrase coined in the wake of a particularly ridiculous 1977 episode of the TV sitcom “Happy Days”? The possibility leapt to mind this week after one of the most confounding front-page stories in U-T history.
Here’s the background needed to appreciate this description: For decades, city voters have recognized the problem of compensation costs eating up the budget and crowding out needed services.
It’s why they decisively approved a charter amendment in 2006 that permitted the city to use independent contractors for services if they could do so more efficiently than city workers. It’s why they gave landslide approval to a ballot measure in 2012 ending costly defined-benefit pensions for most newly hired city employees. That the first measure was mostly ignored by elected city leaders and that the second measure was thrown out on narrow legal grounds didn’t invalidate what their age said about voters’ wishes.
Meanwhile, the voters’ wisdom in trying to check pension costs has been repeatedly confirmed. In March, San Diego’s pension board unanimously approved a staggering $533.2 million annual pension payment for the city for the fiscal year beginning July 1. It was $44 million higher than the previous annual payment and $35 million higher than the pension system’s actuary forecast in 2024.
But on Monday, incredibly and mystifyingly, the U-T reported that Gloria may act to make the pension nightmare even worse. The mayor is considering scrapping his cash-strapped city’s successful 19-month-old partnership with private ambulance providers — even though it has generated $17.3 million in profits that the city desperately needs to plug budget gaps. Per the report, Gloria and Fire Chief Robert Logan have already repeatedly discussed eventually having all ambulance workers be on the city payroll — even though that would only add to already-immense pension liabilities.
Why? As the U-T report noted, “It’s unclear why city officials want to bring ambulance service in-house when the alliance model is generating such healthy profits.” And when the city is struggling with a 2025-26 budget deficit that was estimated at $258 million in December. And when voters who don’t trust City Hall rejected a 1 percentage point sales-tax increase in November. And when the city’s bait-and-switch move to roughly double trash collection rates for 200,000-plus households over what they were told to expect in 2022 has led to months of ongoing public fury.
It’s a cliche to say an elected leader who ignores inconvenient truths is in a bubble. But at this point at City Hall, that doesn’t go far enough. Gloria is on a different planet than his constituents — one in which up is down, left is right and right is wrong.
Here’s hoping the City Council yanks Gloria back to Earth. If that doesn’t happen, a ballot measure that uses state direct democracy laws to force responsible behavior on City Hall is the best hope — and maybe the only hope — for San Diegans to save themselves from the follies of their elected leaders.
