Written by Michael Palomba
New Mayor of San Diego Todd Gloria gave his first State of the City address on Wednesday, calling the city “fragile right now.” Gloria spent the bulk of his time discussing his main priorities which include battling homelessness, reducing climate change, and promoting equity among San Diegans. He also took the time to mention that he “inherited” a $150 million budget deficit and to criticize former Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who endorsed him in the 2020 election.
“I’ve inherited a budget deficit that exceeds $150 million and will require difficult decisions to preserve neighborhood services,” said Gloria, This means that we are left with even fewer resources to fix our crumbling streets, city facilities and storm water systems.”
Gloria claims that this is the reason San Diego is “fragile” at the moment. He also said that despite the fact that vaccines are being distributed, “it’s going to be months before we can possibly let our guards down.”
Mr. Gloria said that he would continue a lot of the housing reform work that was initiated by Mr. Faulconer, but he didn’t stop there. He criticized Faulconer, saying his administration did “too little to address,” long-standing budget issues.
“Behind the ribbon cuttings and news conferences, the City faced structural budget deficits… We need to move beyond talk and into action,” he said.
Mayor Gloria neglected to mention that in 2019, Faulconer’s budget closed the city’s deficit without cutting many popular programs.
Faulconer served San Diego dutifully for 6 years and worked to improve the city in a multitude of ways. During his tenure, his administration worked to put neighborhoods first by making infrastructure a budget priority, set road repair milestones, improved education and career advancement, secured federal Promise Zone designation to encourage economic opportunity, and much more. Under Faulconer, 50% of all new General Fund revenue growth was directed to infrastructure and neighborhood investments every year. A list of the achievements of the Faulconer administration can be found here.
One of the latest achievements of his administration was battling the city’s homelessness problem. Under Operation Shelter, the Convention Center was converted into a homeless shelter that could house more than 1,100 people. With COVID-19 running rampant, getting the homeless off the streets was a major priority. Faulconer called the project “a public health success story.”
Meanwhile, one of Gloria’s first decisions as Mayor was whether to accept a salary increase that would more than double what Mr. Faulconer made. Despite the $150 million deficit Mr. Gloria griped about and the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic, he accepted the raise, bringing his salary up to $206,000 per year. In accepting that raise, he also approved a raise of $49,000 for City Council members. The City Council became a 8-1 Democrat supermajority after the November election.
It is undoubtable that Mayor Gloria has some work cut out for him. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a lot of strain on the city in a multitude of ways. However, pointing fingers and criticizing the last administration is not going to fix those problems. Mayor Gloria should be more focused on uniting San Diegans and fixing the problems that face the city.
