San Diego mayor Todd Gloria, facing an approximately $258 million budget deficit in the 2025/2026 fiscal year, announced personnel moves Tuesday that he said would save the city $5 million, or 2% of its shortfall.
Among the elements Gloria discussed are the elimination of the position of the city's chief operating officer, Eric Dargan, as well as the consolidation of several offices and departments.
"The elimination of 31 positions will net an annual savings of over $5 million taxpayer," Gloria said at a news conference that kicked off at 11 a.m. at city hall. "This is $5 million that we will have available to us to put toward keeping police on our streets, not browning out fire stations, continuing our progress of fixing the damn roads and getting more homeless into housing."
Gloria's office will assume the responsibilities formerly held by the COO, he said. Among other moves are the consolidation of the Sustainability and Mobility Department, the Department of Race and Equity, Office of Child and Youth Success, and the Department of Cultural Affairs into various departments.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Dargan, whose pay package totaled $448,812, was the only person let go by the city in connection to Tuesday's budget cuts, but 30 other vacant positions in various departments will not be filled, according to the mayor's office.
On Monday, the mayor's office said he would announce a series of budget cuts Tuesday "designed to generate cost savings and minimize service-level reductions," according to his office. Gloria's announcement comes as the city faces a significant budget deficit "following the narrow failure of Measure E — and after months of careful review and consideration of potential reductions and consolidations."
A one-cent sales tax measure that could have shored up the impending deficit narrowly failed in November. Gloria discussed the looming $252.2 million deficit during his Jan. 15 State of the City address. As expected, the budget shortfall — comprising around 12% of the city's total spending — made up the majority of that speech.
City of San Diego's Money Moves in Wake of $250 Million Shortfall
...
Since that time, city officials have doubled parking rates around town and are mulling extending the hours for parking meters into the evenings and Sundays — and adding meters where there currently are none, a figure one official speculated could (but probably will not) raise as much as $40 million. Also, San Diegans finally learned how much they may pay for trash pickup in single-family homes (a change passed at the ballot box way back in 2022 but which is just now getting organized), which could theoretically add another $60 million to the city's coffers. Also being considered is a roughly 20% increase in the costs of fees for everything from park rentals to fishing licenses. However, the city, which is currently losing money over its service fees, only hopes to make up that shortfall, since it can't charge more than the services cost. Still, any additional revenue from the fees would allow it to put its subsidies back into the general fund and help defray the shortfall.
The mayor said in January's state of the city address that he would address the structural budget deficit head-on.
"… make tough choices now, to insure that we can maintain the services that [San Diegans count upon," as the mayor put it on Tuesday.
However, on Tuesday, Gloria said he was looking to minimize affecting any services and avoiding any layoffs, but "there will be more budget news in the months ahead. This is not a budget introduction. These are cuts I'm taking now in order to yield savings for next year's budget. This is $5.4 million of budget cuts. More will surely come."
The city is also trying to renegotiate or vacate leases of privately owned facilities the city is currently using, Gloria added.
NBC 7's Joey Safchik asked the mayor about whether other moves were being contemplated — layoffs and otherwise — considering that only 2% of that $250 million budget gap was closed on Tuesday.
"In terms of were other things considered? Of course," Gloria said. "Everything is on the table…. We can leave no stone unturned. It's a $258 million budget deficit, and so, more cuts will come. Today's about $5.4 million, right? So … more will surely come, but, again, it's a comprehensive approach…. It's not just cutting our way to balance. It's making sure we do the structural changes that are necessary."
Pressed, the only new specific revenue generation Gloria mentioned involved a tourism tax increase that voters passed five years ago that, according to the mayor, "has not been resolved" but that he hoped would be completed soon so that it could generate additional funds for the city.
"You roll all that up, just those things I mentioned to you now, it's somewhere on the order of $150 million or so," Gloria said. "So, we're getting there, but my message to San Diegans is: There's a lot between now and final budget adoption in June that we're gonna have to go through."
The city will hold budget hearings in May, the mayor said, with final adoption the following month. The changes discussed Tuesday would go into effect immediately.
