A local activist Wednesday urged the San Diego City Council to override four line-item vetoes including brush management and community funding, which Mayor Todd Gloria highlighted in the 2025-26 fiscal budget.
Shane Harris, president of the People’s Association of Justice Advocates, made his requests in a memo to council President Council President Joe LaCava and his colleagues.
Harris also held a news conference earlier Wednesday outside of the City Hall, and posted to the X social media platform.
Gloria on Tuesday said he supports restoring hours at recreation centers, libraries and two reservoirs, but issued line-item vetoes of several spending items.
In a statement, Gloria’s office said the mayor’s action “delivers core neighborhood services for residents while supporting the city of San Diego’s long-term fiscal stability and meeting his commitment to confront the city’s long-standing structural budget deficit.”
Gloria said the budget actions protect public safety and preserve jobs and neighborhood services, while making it less likely the city will face a deficit in the coming years.
The San Diego City Council on June 10 voted 7-2 to approve a $6 billion budget that cut library hours on Sundays while not filling certain executive positions, but it restored some recreation center hours, Monday library hours at select branches and lake access.
The City Charter gives the council five business days, or until June 26, from Wednesday — when Gloria issued a memo — to sustain or override the veto. An override will require the approval of six of the nine council members.
Harris said he wants the council to restore $900,000 for council district community budgets, funding for the chief operating officer position and at least $500,000 in brush management enforcement.
Cutting the $900,000 could “impact residents directly and nonprofits who assist them, especially during a time when it is unclear how much support these same organizations will get from Washington, D.C. or Sacramento,” Harris said.
Harris said the COO job was important, because he believes Gloria “doesn’t know how to run a large-scale organizational operation like the city of San Diego, particularly during a budget crisis.”
The additional money for brush management is needed, “especially considering what happened with the (Los Angeles) fires and the expected heatwave to hit San Diego this summer,” Harris said.
Harris said he supports the council’s removing middle-management positions, such as the Compliance Department deputy director and two deputy chief operating officers.
He noted the $1.4 million cost “could have been reinvested in our annual budget.”
“Let me be clear: I am thankful that your council led us to restore library hours and keep our lakes and recreation facilities open,” Harris stated in the memo. “I am thankful that Mayor Gloria supports those efforts in his final released budget.
“However, after reviewing the line-item vetoes released by the mayor’s office on Tuesday, I am also feeling that council offices are being punished for advancing restorations in library hours, rec centers and lakes,” Harris added.
In the memo, Harris said he understood that council members may have concerns with a veto override but is nevertheless calling on them to do it.
“I believe that most of you fought for these things and firmly believed that these were the right actions to take,” Harris stated. “What would you do if a Republican did this? Would you override? Your residents are watching.”
City News Service contributed to this article.
