The San Diego City Council’s vote June 10 to approve a budget reversing Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed cuts to recreation centers was largely in line with sentiments expressed by La Jolla community , though local response to the council’s decision to preserve beach fire rings was mixed.
The council’s 7-2 vote approved a compromise $2.15 billion general fund budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year that starts Tuesday, July 1. The decision culminated months of debate and public protests prompted mostly by Gloria’s proposals to shut down all city libraries on Sundays and Mondays and reduce weekly recreation center hours from 60 to 40 to help cut a deficit projected at up to $350 million.
Gloria also proposed to eliminate all 184 fire rings at city beaches to save money on maintenance. The Parks & Recreation Department lists a total of seven rings at La Jolla Shores.
The approved budget leaves the proposed Sunday library closures in place but restores full Monday hours at 16 of the city’s 37 branches, many of them in low-income neighborhoods.
The La Jolla/Riford Library branch, which currently is open daily, is not on the list to keep its Monday hours. It is now open from 1-5 p.m. Sundays, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays and 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.
The budget completely restores all proposed cuts to recreation centers, restores money for many public restrooms at city parks and beaches and uses county money to restore funding for fire rings at least through summer 2026. It also adds funding for brush management to help prevent wildfires and clear a backlog of flood channel cleanups.
Several La Jollans weighed in with the La Jolla Light about the proposed cuts before the vote.
Library visitor Janeth Highsmith called the idea of eliminating Sunday and Monday hours “not cool.”
“I know a lot of moms from schools that come here with the kids,” she said. “On Saturdays and Sundays, they just want to get the kids out, and they do have a lot of really cool activities here. My son loves it, so it’s kind of sad. … I come here on Mondays. It’s my quiet time and I love it. It should be a place where it’s open for the public.”
La Jolla Recreation Center visitor Keelin Moore said the idea of significantly reducing the center’s hours was “really hard to hear. I know the kids love it here and it would be hard for them not to play here all the time every day.”
Whether to keep or remove the beach fire rings continues to be a source of debate in La Jolla.
In recent years, of the La Jolla Shores Association have advocated for beach fires to be limited to smokeless propane devices rather than the traditional wood fires in the rings.
Additionally, some LJSA say allocating more funding to maintain public restrooms should take priority over fire rings.
“We fully understand and respect the community’s strong desire to retain traditional fire rings, as they hold significant value for getting together,” LJSA President John Pierce told the Light. “However, maintaining open restroom facilities at beaches and parks should remain a higher priority due to critical health, hygiene and accessibility considerations, especially for the elderly, disabled individuals and families.
“As an alternative, propane fire pits present a practical and beneficial option, offering similar warmth and ambience without the extensive maintenance, smoke or environmental impacts associated with traditional wood fires.”
LJSA board member Andi Andreae said he believes funding the fire rings “is a terrible idea” because they “have evolved into dangers to public health and safety, spewing toxic smoke, creating burn and injury hazards and attracting illegal drinking and violence.”
However, some of the La Jolla Parks & Beaches board continued funding for fire rings.
“I think it is a wonderful thing,” Melinda Merryweather said. “They understand the importance of the fire pit experience. It is our history, it is part of so many memories we all have of the beach fires, hot dogs, marshmallows and guitars.”
And beach visitor Nayeli Reyes said the rings “come in handy.”
“At night it gets cold,” Reyes said. “So it … [helps to] keep people warm or make some s’mores.”
Randy Reyes, a representative of Gloria’s office, told the Ocean Beach Planning Board on June 3 that the San Diego Police Department’s Northern Division, which includes coastal areas such as La Jolla, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach, told him that enforcement against illegal beach fires is more effective when fire rings are removed.
“If there is no fire ring, they’re able to easily enforce,” Randy Reyes said. “You’re basically doing a fire in a prohibited area. If there’s someone burning a mattress in the fire ring, that’s harder to enforce because it’s in the fire ring.”
City Council Jennifer Campbell and Vivian Moreno voted against the approved budget, with Campbell saying she has major concerns about the reliability of new city revenue proposed by her colleagues.
“I am not convinced that the entire list of things can be paid for in this particular budget,” she said. “I don’t want us to get into a situation where we are spending much more than we have.”
The primary sources of new revenue to help cover the newly approved budget restorations total about $10 million and include plans to start charging for parking in Balboa Park and at the San Diego Zoo sooner than expected, charging credit card fees at city parking meters and allowing digital billboards in the city.
The city’s independent budget analyst, Charles Modica, also expressed concern about the funding restorations as well as new spending, warning that many of the expected new revenues are uncertain and based on optimism.
Modica said the budget makes San Diego particularly vulnerable to an economic recession, which would shrink tax revenue and force immediate cuts or significantly deplete the city’s roughly $200 million in remaining reserves.
Randy Reyes indicated that expansion of the city’s corporate sponsorship program could be the best avenue for additional revenue in the future, highlighting a current project in which automaker Toyota exclusively provides all lifeguard vehicles for marketing and branding privileges.
“We’re having a conversation with the [city] Economic Development Department to figure out how we can better strengthen our corporate sponsorship program,” he said. “Things like having corporations have the opportunity to sponsor infrastructure — like the OB Pier is the Coca-Cola Pier or whatever. It could be comfort stations, bathrooms, lifeguard towers … like Lake Jack-in-the Box instead of Lake Murray. It could be anything.”
The budget restorations also rely on $2.7 million in cuts to management positions, including two communications officials and program coordinators and deputy directors in several other departments.
The management cuts aggressively target the mayor’s office, including a confidential secretary position budgeted at $133,000 and two deputy chief operating officer jobs budgeted at $400,000 each in total pay.
Deputy City Attorney Leslie Fitzgerald said it’s unclear whether the council has the power to be so precise about job cuts.
“Under the city charter, the council has the authority to set the budget, including funding or defunding certain positions,” she said. “However, the charter does not give the council the authority to direct the mayor to fill positions or fire employees in those positions. That authority rests solely with the mayor.”
Gloria said after the council vote that the new spending and related moves made him unsure whether he would sign the budget as ed.
The mayor can use his line-item veto power to eliminate new spending and make other changes. But the council can override such vetoes with votes from six — one fewer than approved the new budget.
The main architects of the compromise budget — council Henry Foster, Sean Elo-Rivera, Kent Lee and Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla — said the last-minute changes will help prevent damage to low-income areas.
“This budget is not only responsible but it meets the needs of our community at an incredibly trying time,” Elo-Rivera said. “We are asking visitors to this city to chip in when they are visiting a treasure like Balboa Park, to no longer treat our city like a free playground. While we’re not restoring everything we’d like to restore, this is a giant step forward.”
— Writer Steven Mihailovich and La Jolla Light staff writer Noah Lyons contributed to this report. ♦
