i will now call the city
council meeting of Monday,
OCTOBER 6th, 2025 to order
Clear.
>> Please call the roll.
Thank you Council member
Campbell Thank you Council
member Whitburn Councilmember
Foster here Council member Ron
Wilbur Council Member Campo
Yeah.
Councilmember Moreno
Councilmember Ella Rivera
Council PRESIDENT LaCava and
Council PRESIDENT Pro Tem Lee
here also attend the meeting
Our city Attorney Heather
Ferber, Deputy Director in
the Abas office Jillian Adelina
and myself your city clerk
Diana Fuentes Thank you Council
PRESIDENT Pro tem Thank you.
A quorum is now present and we
will begin this morning with an
invocation by Clark Fuentes
followed by the Land
Acknowledgment and Pledge of
Allegiance led by council
member Campo Grant, Those who
hold office in this city
the spirit of wisdom, charity
and justice that with steadfast
purpose they MAY faithfully
serve in their offices to
promote the well-being of all
people.
We respectfully acknowledge
that the combination of
the original inhabitants of
the Unceded land now known as
San Diego despite enduring
the horrors of genocide and
colonization, the coming ice
spirit remains unbroken.
We honor the resilience of
their ancestors who fought to
protect their culture and land.
Today they carry their legacy
forward ensuring that their
traditions continue to thrive
and gratitude and strength We
stand with the culmination
connected to our past and
committed to a thriving future.
Please to face the flag.
Ready Begin.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
it stands one nation under GOD,
indivisible with liberty and
justice for all.
>> The clerk will now go over
how the public can offer their
public testimony.
Thank you Council PRESIDENT Pro
Tem I'll now highlight
the slide on the screen that
reviews how the public can
offer their public testimony
during today's meeting.
If you're located in person
please continue speakers live
and submit it to the front of
the room.
No further in-person testimony
will be taken once the Council
begins virtual testimony for
better meeting management
purposes Each speaker will have
one minute per item per person.
If you would like to speak on
three or more items you will
have a maximum of three
minutes.
The Council PRESIDENT Pro Tem
Thank you.
The clerk now read the closed
session items into the record.
Conference with Legal Counsel
Existing litigation pursuant to
California Government Code
Section 5495 6.91 if he has one
Lisa Castro versus City of San
Diego csu is Uzma Ahmed versus
Henry is Sara Estados ak
Alvarado at all.
She has three is Harold Toombs
versus City of San Diego or
Gerald Toombs and Sears for his
or Ryan Construction Balboa
Construction jv versus City of
San Diego.
Thank you Council PRESIDENT Pro
Tem Do we have any public
coming out at the five minute
time or.
I do not see any public
comments because here in
council chambers we'll go to
those proceeding online
starting with the million mile
man If you can please unmute
and let me know which item or
items you wish to speak to.
I'm here for the non agenda
public comment.
>> Okay.
That will be at the conclusion
of the 2 P.M. Session towards
the end of the 2 P.M. Session
You can raise your hand again
at that time the original If
you can please unmute and let
me know which item or items you
wish to speak to You know as
many as possible so see as 130
as forward You'll have three
minutes.
Please proceed.
Yes So and also I just you know
for housekeeping you guys can't
even show up on time.
It's interesting that you're
always like starting
the meetings late And you know,
that's one thing Nathan
Fletcher did, right?
He's a tyrant But he always
started his meetings on
the dot.
It was like military time
Anyway when you guys are
dealing with all of these and
falls and on a constant basis,
you know I just even though
the money's coming from
the people you know hopefully
you're doing you know what's
best for whoever's been injured
and to make sure that they can
you know, to you know, be able
to take care of themselves
whatever the injuries worth or
significant or whatever that
you're, you know, making up for
it because of the lack of you
know, you know your ability to
keep up with the infrastructure
or you know, hopefully you can
make up for it on that end.
It's just unfortunate that we
constantly have to pay out
money for trip and falls that
come and arise from, you know,
different things On
infrastructure I mean one of
these is a slip and fall on
grass, you know, So perhaps it
was, you know, extremely wet.
Maybe the conditions weren't
right But you know, it's hard
to I mean you guys can't be
trusted but you know, when
you're going and you're
litigating against people who
lost things in the storm, you
know, it's hard to see where
you guys are going with these
things And that's what's so
funny as you like to keep it
really obscure and hide
information in and make sure
that you know, the people just
have enough to just like it
because you can't really speak
on these things when you're
like someone tripped and fall.
Well anybody could stubbed
their toe in the city and go
file a lawsuit Like I could
just go stub my toe and and
then, you know, say that you
guys owe me a million bucks.
So it's a fine line between,
you know, negligence of
the city and people probably
trying to take advantage of,
you know, part of the time.
But when you also have things
like a breach of contract and
you know it's with construction
and contracts with the city,
you know, if the city's the one
engaging in these breach of
contract, you need to make sure
that you guys are of course
correcting and figuring out,
you know, what led to it, why
it's happening and you know,
make sure it doesn't continue
to happen because it's
ridiculous that the people have
to pay extra money when you
already take the people's money
and throw it away, you
basically throw it into
the sewer and give it back to
us as water.
You know, you just can't be
trusted to, you know, handle
things in a way that is going
to be productive for the people
that you know, we're really
going to see our money being
spent wisely.
You know, we just seeing it
being thrown down the drain all
while you guys sit up there.
You're late.
You know you don't do what
you're supposed to be doing yet
We just shove out shovel out
more and more money every time
And so it's just that hopefully
one day that this doesn't
happen But that's the way
the government works.
Good job.
That does conclude public
comment on closed session.
Thank you.
The Good afternoon and I will
now reconvene the city council
meeting of Monday, OCTOBER 6th,
2025.
Clerk Will you please call
the roll?
Thank you.
Council PRESIDENT Pro Tem
Council PRESIDENT LaCava
Council Member Campbell Council
Member Whitburn here Council
Member Foster Council Member
Von Wilpert Council Member
Campion here Council Member
Moreno Present Council member
Eli Rivera and Council
PRESIDENT Pro Tem Lee here also
attending the meeting are
Assistant City Attorney Leslie
Fitzgerald, senior fiscal and
policy analyst and the aba's
office Aaron Noel and community
representative in the mayor's
office Emily Tennessee and
myself City Clerk Diana Funches
Thank you Council PRESIDENT Pro
Tem a quorum is now present.
Are there any Mayor City
Council City Attorney
Independent Budget Analyst or
city Clerk Comments Seeing
none.
>> The clerk will now go over
how the public can offer their
public testimony.
>> Thank you.
I will highlight this slide on
the screen that will be coming
up momentarily that does review
how the public can offer public
testimony by laying out
the phone numbers and webinar
IDs.
The order can be found on
the agenda summary found online
or at the table in the back of
the room If you are in person
please complete the speaker
slip located at the entrance of
chambers and bring it to
the front of the room.
Place it in the clear box.
Council ambassadors are
available near the entrance of
chambers and can assist with
questions and speaker slips.
No further in-person testimony
will be taken once the council
begins Virtual testimony.
Thank you.
Council PRESIDENT Pro Tem Clerk
Please introduce item 201 Sure.
Item two one is an
informational item It is
the performance audit of
the city's contract management.
If you'd like to speak on this
item please be sure to submit
your speaker slip now to
the front of the room in
the clear box.
Or if you're participating
remotely now's the time to
raise your hand by pressing
Star nine or the raise your
hand icon.
Thank you cfo Feel Please
introduce yourselves for
the record and just let us know
how much time you'll need for
the presentation.
Good afternoon Councilmembers
Andino, City Auditor and Co.
We have about ten minutes
please.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Over each of the last few years
the city of San Diego paid
hundreds of millions of dollars
to outside contractors to
provide goods and services.
The San Diego Municipal Code
requires city council to review
and approve certain changes to
those contracts such as larger
changes in value.
The City Council's review
ensures public oversight and
transparent in the use of
taxpayer dollars and thus
public oversight and
transparency are reduced when
changes to contracts are not
brought to council as required
.
Additionally, when contract
alterations are brought to
council late it puts pressure
on the Council's approval
responsibility and MAY impact
the Council's ability to
provide meaningful oversight.
If there is not time to
consider other vendors without
disrupting critical services as
I turn it over to the audit
team I do want to first think
city management including
purchasing contracts as well as
the city attorney's office for
their help on this audit and
the audit team With me here
today is principal performance
auditor Nathan Otto.
Senior Performance Auditor
Andrew Reeves and Performance
auditor Kayla Edwards And I'll
turn it over to them for
the details.
Thanks, Andy.
Good afternoon everyone.
Our formal audit objective for
this one was to determine
whether the city appropriately
extended or increased the value
of goods and services contracts
in accordance with
the municipal code and best
practices and not the awarding
of contracts to the upfront
staff at the alterations to
determine this.
We reviewed 157 contract
alterations that appeared to
meet the criteria requiring
city council approval.
And we had three findings to go
through briefly here today.
The first finding was that
the city altered spending
limits by at least $15 million
without required council
approval.
So the second finding which
we'll get it to in a moment
gets into the timeliness
aspects of this One is focusing
on whether the approval that
should have happened happened
at all San Diego Municipal Code
describes when contract
alterations require city
council approval including if a
contract extends beyond five
years or if it's altered by
over $200,000.
And in our evaluation we found
that at the time we did
the audit, 11% of the contract
alterations that we reviewed
had not been brought to council
for approval and that totaled
$15 million.
Now notably that was just 3% of
the value of the reviewed
alterations You can see on
the slide for those following
along there is the little red
slice on the right hand side.
And also as part of our
recommendation followup efforts
we can confirm that pmc has
worked on taking care of these
and they did bring these
forward in JULY of this year.
And in terms of why this
happened now we found that
confusion around approval
requirements appeared to be
the leading reason specifically
operational departments that we
spoke with told us they heard
different interpretations from
their departmental city
attorney liaisons on whether
particular contracts needed
council approval.
We also found that
the threshold amounts for city
council council approval hadn't
been updated since 2012.
And as we all know things have
gotten more expensive since
2012 and so that could help
the city identify and
prioritize higher value
contract alterations.
The $200,000 back then was it
would be closer to 300,000
today.
So to address the issues
identified in funding one we
made four recommendations.
First for the applicability
department to present those
those active contract
alterations that we identified
in the audit to council.
We talked about that and that
has happened.
Second to propose updated
municipal code language around
approval thresholds and
updating some language
clarifying city council
approval requirements.
And then after those changes
are proposed the City
Attorney's office and
purchasing and contracting
should work together to issue
updated guidance around
the contract alterations.
>> Our second finding is that
departments submitted 19% of
contract alterations which
totaled nearly $64 million to
council for approval after
the fact.
This is shown in the Orange bar
on the exhibit in the slide.
>> And additionally we found
that 11% of alterations
totaling about $75 million were
submitted less than 90 days
before contract expiration.
And one third of those were
submitted within just 30 days
of the contract expiring.
>> Putting it all together, we
found that 42% of reviewed
alterations and 30% of reviewed
contract dollars were presented
to council in an untimely
manner retroactively or not at
all.
Making contract alterations
without proper approvals
exposes both the city's and its
vendors to risk.
For example, staff MAY allow
work to continue after a
contract exceeds its approved
limit to avoid service
disruptions.
But if a contract does not
comply with city rules and
regulations it becomes void and
unenforceable potentially
leading to nonpayment.
Additionally, there is a risk
that City council members MAY
feel pressured to approve these
contracts to continue services
possibly compromising
the review process.
>> Our review found that delays
and alterations occurred for
several reasons including covid
19 impacts poor planning and
the absence of a formal
contract alteration process.
Guidance on changing contracts
to shared through training but
it is not formally documented
which makes it harder to ensure
consistency.
We also found that contract
administration roles and
responsibilities were unclear
and that some contracted
penetrators MAY be experienced
in these responsibilities.
For instance, administrators
MAY not sufficiently estimate
future price changes or wage
increases while budgeting their
contracts.
Benchmark agencies help with
this by assigning a specific
contract coordinators within
operational departments that
receive extra training.
Finally, these benchmark
agencies require written
justifications to submit for
retroactive approval which
include detailing why
the normal procedure was not
followed.
Why the pricing is fair and
reasonable and corrective
action to prevent reoccurrence
.
To address the risks outlining
finding too we made five
recommendations.
First, the person contracting
department should work with
each city department to
designate contract points of
contact and provide them with
additional training.
Second, a written procedure
should be developed for
submitting ratification
requests.
Third guidelines should be
created to help departments
provide counsel with ongoing
updates on contract activities.
And finally a formal contract
alteration process should be
established and implemented.
As of JUNE 2025.
Four of these recommendations
including recommendation 2.1
have already been put in place.
I'll turn it over to Kayla for
finding three.
>> Thank you Andrew for finding
three.
We found that accurate
information is not readily
available in the city's
contract management system.
Ariba.
One specific issue is that
the contracts Benfield and
Ariba shows how much money has
been set aside for a contract
not the amount that has been
spent.
Since City staff use a rebate
to manage contracts, this
system limitation means that
staff do not have up to date
information on contract
spending.
Consequently this can lead to
potential overspending,
inefficient contract planning
and delays in bringing contract
alterations to council as
required.
We determined that many of
these issues could have been
mitigated through implementing
previous audit recommendations.
Issues around Target value
control, accurate contract
information and establishing
procedures were identified in
previous audits dating back to
2015.
The continued in process status
of these recommendations
contributed to contracts with
missing documentation contracts
missing from Ariba and contract
alterations following
inconsistent procedures.
>> One example of the impact of
lack of written policies is
the city's contract with Herc
for critical rental equipment.
This exhibit shows that council
approved the first contract
increase but staff later raised
them out in a reboot twice so
payments to the vendor could
continue.
By MARCH 2024 contract spending
Ariba had exceeded the council
approved value by over $6
million.
Although there MAY be a need
for some flexibility to
continue vital services without
formal documentation, we cannot
determine whether these system
changes follow the proper
procedure.
Additionally, this contract was
brought to Council for approval
retroactively.
Recommendations that Andrew
mentioned in writing to such as
implementing a formalized
contract alteration process and
providing written
justifications about why
changes occurred before
receiving council approval and
corrective action to prevent
recurrence could help ensure
contracts receive proper
approvals.
We made four additional
recommendations three of which
were implemented.
These include that
the purchasing and contracting
department should develop a
policy outlining where
contracts are electronically
stored and managed.
Implement and monitoring
control to integrate sap and
Ariba contract Spend
information.
Establish a written policy
requiring a written maximum
value to be specified on all
goods and services contracts.
And develop guidance for its
staff on altering Ariba in
the absence of formal contract
alterations.
Into it all we issued 13
recommendations.
12 recommendations to
management and one
recommendation to the city
Attorney's office.
The respective departments
agreed to implement all of
them.
And with that we are available
for any questions you MAY have
.
>> Thank you for
the presentation.
Next we have a representative
from purchasing and contracting
makes some remarks.
>> Good afternoon.
Council Pro Tem Lee and members
of the Council.
My name is Claudio Bach, a
director of Purchasing and
contracting.
Thank you for the opportunity
to provide a brief update on
the performance audit that
the city's contract management
process.
Effective contract management
is essential to ensuring that
public funds are used
efficiently transparently in
responsibly.
Strong oversight promotes
accountability safeguards
public trust and helps prevent
cost overruns, project delays
and disputes ultimately leading
to better outcomes and fiscal
stewardship.
Over the past several years
purchasing and contracting has
focused on strengthening
internal operations including
achieving pay parity for
procurement officers, filling
critical vacancies within
the Goods and Services Division
and launching the procurement
Academy to expand citywide
procurement knowledge and
training.
While these improvements have
advanced our internal capacity
responsiveness to external
issues identified in last
year's audit and prior audit
reports have been slower than
desired.
The audit report made 13
recommendations of which eight
have been fully implemented.
I'd like to briefly highlight
progress on the remaining items
Recommendations 11.2 and 1.3
which relate to updating
council approval thresholds and
clarifying alteration for goods
and services Contracts required
Municipal Municipal Code
amendments.
P and c had been coordinating
with ncp on a combined update
but at after several
discussions it was decided that
these efforts should be
separated with the addition of
other requested code changes.
Progress has been slightly
delayed however pnc expects to
bring these items forward to
Council for consideration
within the next six months if
not sooner.
Recommendation 1.4 which
involves the City Attorney's
office updating its written
guidance will follow
the completion of
recommendations 1.2 and 1.3 for
recommendation 2.4.
It calls for developing a
process to keep council
informed about key contracting
activities such as upcoming
expirations, capacity limits,
ratifications and sole source
contracts to address this and
pnc will begin issuing
quarterly memoranda summarizing
this information.
The first memorandum covering
the first quarter f f y 26 will
be issued this week.
Lastly recommendation 3.4 which
directs pnc to establish
guidance for staff on how to
document changes in a Ariba
when formal contract
alterations are not required is
nearly complete.
A draft policy is currently
under management review and
will be finalized and submitted
to the auditor's office within
the next few weeks.
The purchasing and contracting
department remains firmly
committed to building and
refining policies that
strengthen contract oversight,
promote compliance and ensure
timely and effective service
delivery across city
departments.
I would like to close by
thanking the Office of the City
Auditor for their collaboration
and diligence throughout this
process.
We are available to answer any
questions the Council MAY have.
Thank you.
Clark do we have any public
comment?
Yes we do, Paul.
Paul Gerber if you can please
come time stated by Tim Douglas
Maybe I'm saying your last name
incorrectly you 202 hundred My
apologies.
My apologies.
It was first So you We have no
speakers for item 2a1 I'm going
to those participating remotely
and we have five speakers in
the queue starting with
Kathleen Lippert.
If you can please unmute.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Previously noted the ongoing
recommendations by the city's
fiscal performance audit
department.
There should be a limit as to
when those recommendations are
implement and if not city
council should come back within
a 30 day window to provide
justification for why the delay
is What is causing the delay?
This is a lot of money and in
that previous system was not
updated since 2012.
That's really problematic.
So I don't know who else is
responsible for it but please
do make sure that you listen
that the city council listens
to its auditor independent
audit.
This is one of the best
departments you have and they
give wonderful advice and
thankfully it is not
politically this it is not
political.
So it's really important to
listen to it.
So thank you for letting me
speak.
>> Thank you.
Next is the original If you can
please unmute.
>> This it's just highlights
the fraud waste and abuse that
you guys engage in on a regular
basis and why you know funding
should be cut when you guys
can't even make sure that
the money that you get from
the people and that you're
spending is done in a manner
that is the way that it's
supposed to go.
You guys wait until the last
minute to push contracts and
much of the time it seems like
that would be done because it
MAY not be passed if you didn't
do it in that manner.
You know, using the excuse that
it's to continue services that
are needed.
Well, if they weren't, you
know, so important you would
make sure that you're doing
your due diligence to make sure
that contracts are being kept
and that you're not waiting
until the last minute.
And then you also have people
self-report.
So there's times when you know
there's going to be negligence
in that and when things are
committed like you guys
shouldn't be giving contracts
to people who are having people
die on a regular basis Like at
Tent City you continue to
increase contracts for that.
And Shannon Amelia Ball, 49
years old, just died a couple
of weeks ago.
It will be three weeks on
Thursday.
He died of a fentanyl overdose
because she was laced in by her
neighbor Bambam who was next to
her in her tent.
So and the staff was told not
to touch her because of covid
And it's like what is
happening?
Nobody could do anything.
So this woman died because
the staff that these people are
hiring are negligent and told
by Dreams for Change And
Theresa Smith to do nothing and
let these people die.
It is absurd.
They're also hiding sexual
assault in Tent City and yet
you guys increase contracts,
you continue to do it without
going and auditing and making
sure that people aren't dying
Instead Steven Whitburn sits up
there and laughs in my face and
when I'm telling him of
the last woman who died and
Tammy and it's like so instead
of doing something you're
laughing about it because
Theresa Smith is your friend.
So you guys can't be trusted
with money because people are
dying on your watch all while
you say that it's safer for
them to be there.
You guys got a course correct
because people are dumb.
Your time has concluded.
Our next speaker is 5868.
After that Blair Beekman and
then phone number ending in
7499.
If you can please unmute.
Okay.
Can you hear me okay?
Yes.
Please proceed.
>> Thank you so much.
Well, first of all I want to
commend the city auditor for
this great work that they did
last year and that we're
finally seeing some fruits of
their labor.
I, I commend this department.
Again, like the previous caller
for these savings, I do have
concerns about why some of
these recommendations are
taking so long to be
implemented.
I saw the letter from is it
from MS..
>> Claudia abarca She wrote in
JULY of 2024 about these
recommendations.
So that's like, you know, 14
months ago that her department
has had the chance to work with
other departments to implement
these.
And now she's asking for
another six months.
So that is rather alarming to
me And I hope that the city
council will get monthly
updates from her.
>> For example, something as
simple as having each
department have a contract for
contracts.
That to me would be so simple
to do.
You find out who your
department you know every
department they have to choose
a contact Whoever the lead
department person is they can
do it or they can find someone.
So I rather shocked that that
wasn't completed.
But anyway kudos for the office
of the auditor and I really
hope that the City Council
keeps on this because this is
where a lot of money can be
wasted.
>> Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Blaire
Beekman.
The five minute timer has also
concluded there are three
speakers in the queue.
No additional speakers will be
taken after that.
>> Lana, please proceed.
All right.
Thank you, baby.
Happy Monday to everyone.
Thanks a lot for this item.
This is years of work and
Councilor Persephone Wilpert
has really tried to lead an
important effort.
But a better sense of
accountability can take place
for our future contract issue.
Thank you.
The first public speaker today
mentioned how this kind of item
can be nonpartisan which is
interesting.
The work I do with tech
accountability which we often
try for the same goals and
the good feeling and just good
reasoning that's a part of this
item I try to work the same
principles with the future of
tech accountability and what we
can be doing that it's not a
nonpartisan issue it's just
cleaning up, you know, previous
bad patterns and learning how
to do that well And we're doing
learning how to do that with
his item.
Thank you.
i hope you can be doing
the same for tech
accountability.
There's a lot of loose ends in
tech that we can clean up and
it's not too difficult clean up
if we just apply ourselves to
it And it's just a matter if we
want to apply ourselves And
you've done that here and I'm
really looking forward how this
is going to be developing
having better accountability in
the city is just going to be
awesome and the ways we can do
that.
So thank you.
To quickly offer you you have
contract issues with the aop
are things that how is that
process going at this time.
Can you learn to make that a
public conversation open
process where the negotiations
stand where where you'll be
moving forward to I've spoken
often for months on this issue
and best practices and that you
guys want to do so I don't
think you have to fear talking
in public about it which I
think you are.
So good luck with the contract
process overall and talking
about our future Rail pr and
thanks a lot for your efforts
all together on this item.
>> Great work.
Thank you.
Phone I'm writing in 7499 after
that will be Million Mile Man
Bob Kozinski here I just want
to add that the management of
contract in this city has been
terrible.
I've seen this firsthand
through the horrible
mismanagement of the contract
at Torrey Pines Glider port.
This is yet another reason to
take advantage of outside
resources such as advisory
boards which are extremely cost
effective tools for providing
independent oversight of city
contracts and performance under
those contracts.
These advisory boards are
additional watchdogs provided
for free by citizens who
volunteer to help.
It is shameful that this city
has allowed these invaluable
advisory boards including
the Torrey Pines City Park
Advisory Board to be disbanded.
Shame on you Joe LaCava for
your own mismanagement of
advisory boards in your
district and shame on Mary
Mayor Gloria and shame on all
council members for your
similar failures.
Furthermore, I endorse
the comments spoken by earlier
speakers Kathleen Leppert,
the original and others.
>> Thank you.
Thank you.
>> And our final speaker is
Million Mile Man If you can
please send me Thank you for
having me play Bob Bob if
you're still there I
communicated with you You
remember from Tampa from Tampa,
Florida in Clearwater about a
month ago we were filming And I
got to tell you, Bob, you've
got to get real, man.
Feel the pain And to all of
the people directing duration
and emotional and psychological
abuse for this council,
remember when you run as a
candidate you are going to be
hurt deeply Very, very hard.
You're going to be hit hard in
my recommendation Stop
complaining all of you.
Every one of you stop
complaining and do something.
Do something that will help.
Complaining will not help put
your name on a ballot.
Do it and you know to get
nominated to get nominated just
to put your name on the ballot
you've got to get over 100
signatures sometime over 200.
And do you know how many people
will spit in your face and call
you horrible names and not even
sign your nominating paper?
I got over 400 signatures on my
own One man Yeah.
And I was hurt.
Trust me.
And I'm tired of hearing all
this over and over and over.
I'm too old for this.
I'm too old.
It's like the worst thought
ghetto you know You'll find out
of the ghetto with a pitchfork
And Bob, you know what I'm
talking about.
You're Polish like I am.
Get out there and frickin fight
Bob Dole it If you want to help
me, help me.
Otherwise don't even call in
any more.
All of you.
Thank you.
But that doesn't involve a call
on an item to a one thank you
to the public for their
comments Will now take
councilmember questions and
comments As a reminder this is
an informational item and so no
motion is required and we'll
start with the chair of our
audit committee.
Councilmember Renaud, thank you
for the presentation and thank
you to the auditor for
conducting this audit Although
i am disappointed by
the findings contained in this
audit I wasn't surprised by
them.
I was particularly disturbed
that staff altered contract
spending limits on goods and
service contracts by at least
$15 million in the last seven
years without the required
council approval On average
that's approximately 2 million
per year in taxpayer dollars
that the public cannot account
for.
This is not good government
When that happens it's not just
about the city council getting
bypassed.
What this really means is that
the public is being denied its
right to know how its money is
being spent because there's no
public hearing to discuss
the changes in the contract.
Additionally the auditor found
that staff brought 19% of
contract alterations totaling
nearly $64 million to council
for approval retroactively over
the last seven years.
That works out to an average of
$9 million per year of spending
with no public discussion prior
to the money being spent.
Unfortunately it's not an
uncommon occurrence for
the council to be put in a
position of having to approve
retroactive contract increases
or be asked to approve a
contract at the last minute
with little recourse if
the Council disagrees with
the action Because if we don't
approve it then work will stop
mid project or if the work is
already completed the vendor
could sue the city for
nonpayment.
Overall 42% of contract
alterations totaling $155
million were presented to
council in an untimely manner
retroactively or not at all.
Exhibit 715 in the report shows
an example where the department
staff increased the spending in
a contract to the tune of $6.7
million in the fall of 2023
months before obtaining council
approval to allow for
the additional spending staff
finally brought forward a
request to increase
the contract in APRIL of 2024.
I find it very difficult to
believe that nobody was aware
that over $6 million being
added to a contract would not
need council approval.
I also want to mention that
the timing of contracts coming
to council whether it is an
amendment to a contract or a
new contract has been
inefficient Bringing a contract
to council to replace an
existing contract after
the current contract has
expired is inappropriate,
unnecessary and extremely
frustrating because the council
is put in a position of either
approving a contract that might
be flawed versus not approving
it and the city not having
access to that service anymore
.
I really prefer that
the council see proposed
contracts to be replaced or
extend existing vendors at
least several months before
they expire.
That would allow sufficient
time to address any issues that
the Council or members of
the public raised.
I do appreciate that staff has
agreed to all of
the recommendations and want to
recognize that eight out of
the 13 have been implemented
since the audit committee
discussed this item in 2024.
That represents good work by
the purchasing and contracting
department to move forward on
some very important changes.
>> Lastly, implementing all
recommendations under findings
seven that would create formal
procedures for contract
alterations is critical as this
will help prevent what we saw
happen in the Reba system with
the work contract which was
increased by millions of
dollars six months before it
was brought to council.
Four out of the five
recommendations related to
internal processes being
improved have been implemented
and this is great and I want to
thank the Department for that.
>> Thank you overall and I look
forward to continuing to see
progress from this department
in implementing the remaining
recommendations.
And that concludes my comments.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
We'll turn next to council
member Yvonne Wolpert for thank
you to the City Auditor for
your work here.
This is one of the most
important audits I think I've
seen out of your department
because it has to do with our
fiscal responsibility of
the city.
You noted that last year in fy
2020 forward the city has
budgeted over $700 million of
taxpayer money for outside
contracts for goods and
services to provide things our
public needs everywhere from
public safety equipment and
disposing of hazardous waste
our water authority to making
sure that we have chemicals
that people can drink operating
homeless shelters And it is
the city Council's job to
oversee the over $700 million
in taxpayer money that is being
sent to know that is being
spent appropriately, to know
the contractors are doing their
jobs, to know that this is
going to a valid purpose, to
know that we are complying with
the law and the city council
cannot do any of those things
If contracts are approved
unilaterally and unlawfully I
MAY add by city staff and by
city management.
This is why I have been voting
no on every expired contract
that has come to me for
the past year and a half and
these are not small dollars $64
million was found in this audit
that was spent without
authorization.
That's against the law The San
Diego political code requires
by law that this council
approve contract alterations
over $200,000 And the reason is
we need to know where our money
is going.
>> Can you please bring up
slide 14 again or bring it up?
>> Thank you for your patience.
Of course
it's the hawk rental
car tax slide I have 14
whatever That that one.
Thank you.
Could you zoom in on that one?
So if we're reading this
correctly, this is a graph
showing that someone in city
management spent $6.7 million
on rental equipment without
asking this council's
permission to make that budget
adjustment.
Is that correct?
The spending was this is a
citywide contract You said
spending so the spending would
be a lot of different
departments But yes, someone in
city management adjusted
the allowed contract value
without the council's approval
by $6.7 million Correct.
Do you realize that we had a
budget fight this last year
over $4.5 million in which
the mayor vetoed it and we
overrode the veto?
Do you know we were going to
use that general fund money for
funding for the arts and
culture communities a chief
operating officer position
stormwater contingency funding
project management enforcement
,recreational programing at
the Lakes and instead someone
from the city staff and
management decided we're not
going to spend money on
the things that the council
voted for.
We're going to spend that $6.7
million on something else.
How do we know that Steven
authorized How do we know who
that went to?
Who decided this?
I would like to know who made
that illegal adjustment to a
contract.
>> And the reason I'm so upset
is because it keeps happening.
$64 million was unauthorized
spending.
Thank you for the question
Councilmember Wolpert.
What occurred during that time
was that departments were
engaging with her car rentals
directly to ask for services
that MAY or MAY not have been
on appeal And we were and we
ended up finding that we were
behind on payments because of
these repeated requests And so
we were in a deficit of what we
owed the vendor itself.
So that's how we got to that
point of going beyond our
anticipated spend.
But this graph is showing our
Ariba system which is our
software system to allow people
to continue making purchase
orders on a contract was
adjusted without city council
approval so somebody had to use
a computer, a city computer and
make that adjustment unlawfully
.
It's against the miscible code
to do that.
So who did that?
My staff did that by staff did
that.
We own that And again it was
because we owed the vendor
several millions of dollars
without having the appropriate
purchase orders in place.
Well clearly that's
unacceptable.
I completely understand And
we've had that discussion with
staff and we've created
policies to ensure that doesn't
happen.
It's one of the audit
recommendations as well.
And I think part of the issue
is is we get put up against
the wall sometimes by
departments who aren't telling
us the entire story.
Sometimes purchasing is
the last department to know.
So did you tell the mayor or
the ceo or whoever's chief
operating officer at the time
whoever is supposed to be
running the city that this was
happening?
We did And that's why we worked
very, very quickly.
It didn't seem that way to get
the item to council and
requested from the departments
that they provide us what their
anticipated spend for
the contract was going to be
moving forward because we
didn't want to be in
the situation where we were in
arrears.
So then what was the mayor's
response?
I don't I don't know that it
went to the mayor himself.
I know that I did bring this up
to the dca and we've been
working on this contract for
quite some time.
We've done several several
refinements on how we are
monitoring and actually
managing the spend for each
department to ensure that we
don't get to this place again.
>> Councilmember, if I MAY
Deputy Chief Operating Officer
Christina Peralta So Claudio's
absolutely right.
Her and her department flagged
it immediately for her deputy
chief operating officer and
then sprang into action on how
we could mitigate the issue.
Contract management is a team
sport and it's not Claudio's
team's responsibility to manage
nor does Claudio have
the ability to manage her peers
and hold them accountable for
making sure that their staff
are doing the right things.
She's leapt into action.
She's done all of
the mitigating factors that we
need to put our arms around
this.
I know it's not a satisfying
response for you but she did
everything right to address
the situation and flag it for
management and we've done
everything that we can to
quickly put our arms around it
and to work with our department
directors to hold them
accountable.
>> Well, I'm sorry I'm not mad
at you.
You're doing a great job.
You're trying as hard you can
You have so well with with this
So I apologize.
I don't mean to come up and
that of you I know that you
have a million things on your
plate I just In the future
though I do wish that you could
call us directly say that
they're asking me to make an
unauthorized adjustment to a
river that I'm not supposed to
be doing because I don't want
this to fall on your shoulders.
I know that you are trying very
hard and you're not the one
making the purchase order.
So just for the public to know
Claudia is trying very hard on
this but is still somebody
who's spending unauthorized
money to the tens of millions
of dollars and then six months
later asking this council to
approve it And this is just one
contract If we're not over if
there's no watchdog at the hen
house, who knows how many other
hands are gone?
The point of oversight is to
make sure that we know what
we're spending.
And so quite frankly after all
this hadn't been fixed.
This has not been fixed.
We're still waiting for
municipal code updates.
You said you need we will we
will do them We will vote on
them here at City hall.
Ariba is still a problem.
I'm reading things in this
audit that says Additionally
the city auditor found
discrepancies between contract
documents and information In
Ariba, for example, 12% of
the contracts had contract
expiration date in Ariba that
didn't match the signed
contracts.
Another 9% had mismatched
contract values.
That's almost 20% of
the contracts in our software
system are flat out wrong.
And so this has not been fixed
And this is my asked you to to
my colleagues because we are up
here and we are the oversight
board here and we just
rubberstamp this and we allow
this to continue And I urge my
colleagues to have some some
consequences here If we were
the board of directors over a
corporation and the ceo had
allowed misspending to $64
million, we would fire the ceo
of the corporation if we did
not our shareholders would sue
us in the shareholder
derivative lawsuit and there
are lawyers out there making a
lot of money on these things.
If we were the board of a
nonprofit and the ceo of
the nonprofit allowed $65
million to go spent
unauthorized, we would fire
the ceo Otherwise the public
would stop donating to our
nonprofit because the board up
here is not making good
decisions.
Can I please have a few extra
minutes If this was a
household, if we were a family
and we had spending limits and
allowed some of our teenage
children to way maxed out
the credit card, then every
time they came to their parents
we forgave them and paid their
credit card bill.
What happens when the roof
leaks And we can't fix the roof
on our house because we've been
allowing people to spend
unauthorized amounts?
We at this council need to
start voting no on these
contracts and saying no to city
staff doing this to us because
some of our libraries might
close because now we're
spending $6.7 million on rental
equipment instead And this is
just one contractor.
>> Remember there are many
others out there 150 million
didn't come to us on time
appropriately 11 million never
came at all.
And so as much as we want to
sit up here and draft a budget,
it's not being followed And I
just hope that my colleagues
will start voting no because
people need consequences and we
will help you.
You just need to bring us
things to help fix this
problem.
It's not being fixed And
clearly again this is not your
fault.
I know you try hard.
You always work with our office
but I don't see a chief
operating officer here.
The buck stops with somebody
and the solution is we wrapped
our arms around the best we
can.
>> That's ridiculous.
I'm just so sick of seeing us
fight about money up here and
then the city spends it.
How are they Want So I urge my
colleagues to start voting no
put some consequences We
the buck stops with us and then
also when you do your quarterly
memo on contract status can you
please also update us on how
many of these recommendations
that the auditor has been
making since 2015?
This is now ten years old.
This is two mayoral
administrations But guess who's
been here The dc Oath They've
been here the whole time.
Why haven't they fixed it
between mayors Update us on how
many their recommendations are
still outstanding and also what
we can do to help you know if
you need us to put it in
elsewhere for example like
where are the new regulations
where city attorney let us know
we could do to help but I can't
sit here and be held
accountable for money I didn't
spend So that's all I got.
>> We understand catch up But I
do want to mention a couple of
things that we have put in
place as well.
We have created a report that
will allow departments to
understand their spend and
track it better.
You'll see a copy of that with
the memorandum that goes out.
It'll highlight a couple of
different milestones for
departments so that they can
take timely action.
I think that's probably
the best report that we have so
far.
We've also developed a contract
administration guide to help
departments understand what
their responsibilities are
after a contract has been
awarded and turned over to them
for contract management that's
in place.
We have actually been training
since I want to say since MAY
we were doing monthly trainings
to ensure that contract
administrators know how to
manage their contracts.
I do want to also state with
the amount of money that has
been approved without Council
approval.
I agree it's not a good
headline but I do want to state
that some of that was tied to
us amending contracts under a
process that we thought was
correct and later being told
that it was incorrect.
So I just want to make sure
that that's clarified.
That process stopped back in
2023.
We have not altered any
contracts about $200,000
without it coming forward to
council.
My staff knows that very well.
We are doing everything we can
as a department to ensure that
we stop most of these things.
I can't control everything and
what's done around me.
But but you certainly should
know that we are doing our
best.
Thank you, Claudia.
I appreciate it.
Let us know again what you need
to monitor this.
I mean the libraries have gone
over their budgets police
departments gone over
the budget for Contra.
Everybody has And it's just
it's very hard to fight so hard
over a budget up here when it
doesn't seem to be followed.
And so I just appreciate you
very much and please keep us up
to date about what you need And
I just urge my colleagues to
start voting no on these
contracts Actually put some
consequences in place so
departments get their act
together and we spend within
our limits.
So thank you very much.
I appreciate the audit and we
need to hire a chief operating
officer in the city.
Thank you, Councilmember Fun.
Wilpert We'll turn next to
Councilmember Ella Rivera I
think you calabarzon pro-tem
Thank you.
>> And to you and your team for
the work on this.
Councilmember Moreno, as always
for your leadership the audit
committee Councilmember Von
Wilpert for digging in here and
your continued your persistence
that the city do better on this
front.
Uh, I want to acknowledge, you
know, some of the points that
you raised when you drew a line
in the sand awhile back on this
and thought it to be important
that we not approve these
contracts when they come to us
after they should have I think
one of the things just for a
full transparency I struggle
with sometimes is that
the effects the consequences of
who will will bear
the consequences if those
contracts aren't approved.
And I think this is what puts
us in a particularly difficult
situation as council members It
is typically city employees
rank and file every day
employees who are doing
the work and residents who will
feel the effects And so
the rock and a hard place that
I feel myself in in these
situations is is that peace and
that is an excuse for allowing
a practice to go on when it
when it shouldn't.
Just an attempt to explain what
I've struggled with in these
situations.
Um and I the frustration is
real.
I mean we've had some high
profile and very tense moments
on the status of some with me
at the tip of the tip of
the spear and others with
others in that position And
when it doesn't feel like to
your point.
The budget that this council
has passed is actually being
implemented or or adhered to.
So I just want to let you know
that I hear you.
I definitely appreciate
the frustration although I
think you've got an
exceptionally challenging job
to do and it it you cannot on
your own correct for what seems
to be more of a cultural issue
and than than anything else.
So just again wanted to make
sure I let you know that we're
going over I hear you on this
and I'm not going to disagree
with your frustrations.
I do have a question.
Um, so there have been there's
recommendations that are not
yet implemented and I apologize
if this was alluded to in one
way or another before but if
you could very kind of
methodically walk us through
the plan next steps and
timeframes for
the recommendations that are
not yet implemented but agreed
upon.
Thank you for the question.
Councilmember Ella, were you
referring to this specific
report?
Yes.
So they were mentioned Two of
them relate to proposing
changes to municipal code.
We're hoping to be here within
six months.
It really should would be
sooner to bring those forward.
>> The third recommendation and
can you help us understand how
that will change from your
perspective?
We've got the auditors
perspective on recommendations
you've agreed to them.
So theoretically you believe it
would be value to it.
Help us understand.
Yes, you'd see and how some of
the situation that some of what
you're hearing frustration over
would be different if that
change were implemented.
Sure.
So we can go over the first
recommendation that remains
which is increase the increase
in thresholds.
Obviously people believe
the $200,000 alteration
threshold is low.
They also believe
the thresholds for a moral
authority on contracts is low.
We haven't updated those for a
little over more than ten years
so we are going to be proposing
some changes there to help
expedite the award of contracts
and ensure that those are ready
for operational use.
Another of the recommendations
is going to be to clarify
the section on amendments.
I think that was where we
awarded multiple millions of
dollars on some advice that
said we could do so as long as
we stayed under payroll
threshold.
So there are some confusing
language that we want to change
in that particular section to
help avoid any issues.
Again, we stopped that process
since 2023.
But just to be clear and to
move forward, we do want to
clarify that language.
Third recommendation is that we
work with the city attorney's
office to provide updated
guidance once we have the new
language.
If accepted by council for
the thresholds and also for
amendment process.
So that cannot happen until we
get the first two completed And
then the other two we talked
about the fourth one would be
alerting council to what is
what contracts are due to
expire, what contracts are
almost at capacity, how many
sole source contracts we've had
and how many ratifications
we've had.
We actually have compiled that
information for the first
quarter of f y 26 and we expect
to issue that memorandum this
week And following that we will
be providing the Council with a
quarterly memo so that you will
be aware of what is due to
expire or at capacity.
I do want to make a comment on
there in the report you will
see that we have color coded to
kind of give directors and
departments the ability to
track a little bit better.
However, just because you MAY
see a red or orange color which
is basically saying we're
getting at time a department
MAY or MAY not choose to take
action, maybe that council is
going to stay there and it's
just going to, you know, expire
and we no longer need services
or sometimes they will need to
be extended or a new
procurement be done But that
will depend on which what
department wants to do.
And then finally the last
recommendation is developing
developing a policy on how to
update our request system with
the amendments that that we
have We do that We do have a
final draft policy routing
currently with my staff.
We plan to complete that within
the next two weeks and forward
to the auditor's office for
final review.
Thank you Claudia.
So one of the things that I
want to know which is I think
adds to the challenges and and
the importance of improvements
being made quickly is
increasing limits is requires
trust from the council to do
so.
I completely understand that
One of the reasons for that is
to minimize or not minimize or
mitigate the sheer volume of
items that need to be brought
to us for approval because that
requires work and slows things
down.
We all I think understand that
And when we increase a limit we
are giving away some of our
authority and what we are being
shown is that our authority
isn't being adhered to as it is
And so the comments made by
Katherine von Wilpert I think
are very much in line with
comments we heard last week on
an entirely unrelated item but
with a shared theme of a trust
issue that this is here And
Claudia, this is actually much
less for you at this point than
it is for the mayor's office
And are these heroes I'm not
going to assume that this isn't
registering in this way, but
we're like we're at a tipping
point in terms of trust and
the ability to get important
things done And I just I'm very
much hoping that we see
the changes that need to happen
because we just heard from
county government Councilmember
one over made a very just and
fair request of the rest of us
to stop approving and then they
come to us for a contract is
expired.
There would be consequences of
that.
We had an item last week in
terms of water rate approvals
If we're not able to figure
that situation out in one way
or another there will be
significant consequences for
the city.
And so the clock is ticking.
I very much hope that the words
of my colleagues are being
taken heard and taken at face
value and that the council sees
the changes that need to happen
in order for us to get the work
that needs to be done.
Thank you.
Council PRESIDENT Pro Tem Thank
you.
Next up is council member camp
you think Council PRESIDENT Pro
tem.
Thank you very much Claudia for
being here.
I have a just a practical
question about the four and
the two or the two in the $4
million increase, the $6
million that were or approved
without Council authorization
Was there was there was there
some sort of downside of
waiting to pay that $6 million
by coming to us first?
Was there some sort of late
fee?
Was was I'm trying to give
the benefit of the doubt to
someone trying to do the right
thing and I'm I'm hoping you're
going to say there was some
downside but based on
the amount that was owed at
the time, yes, it would have
disrupted services.
We would have had to return
vehicles and equipment for
nonpayment and that would have
cost more in the long run.
>> Operationally, yes, we would
have stopped projects.
People MAY not have gone able
to do their work.
So yes, operationally it would
have affected under someone
that I can be sympathetic to
that But understand that's not
good enough.
It's not a good enough reason.
And here's another practical
question The whomever adjusted
internally the ledger so that
$6 million could go out without
the city council's
authorization.
The who then sends the check to
the Treasurer's city
treasurer's office to actually
pay the bill?
Correct.
It would get processed in
the system and it would come
out of each department's budget
to pay those bills.
Okay.
And so the City Treasurer has
the change order form that says
pay this much more.
Does the Treasurer's office not
then check that against
the contract internally to make
sure that there's authorization
for that because the typically
they won't just the city
Treasurer won't just take a
piece of paper from a director
of a department and say Oh you
want $2 million, just shoot $2
million out the door, right?
Yeah.
I don't believe it works that
way.
I think within our sap system
and I might turn to Christine
that help me here the way it
works is it will get processed
and again it'll come through
each department's budget.
If the department has available
budget it will just come out of
whatever accounting that they
they enter into their purchase
order.
I'm Claudius Correct.
As long as there's available
funding in that department's
budget they can issue payments
as long as it's available in
their in their fund.
>> Okay.
So the city treasurer looks at
a total number left within
the contracting budget for a
department does not actually
look at the contract to see if
it's allowable to be paid.
>> Payments are automated
through the Department of
Finance right.
So the city Treasurer's doesn't
have much to do with this
process.
Okay so let's go to
the Department of Finance then.
The Department of Finance is
the one that's sending
the check out in this case.
Okay So the city the Department
of Finance doesn't actually
check against the cop.
We put this into perspective We
can't have as council members a
resolution to say hello on
behalf of the city of San Diego
without the city attorney's
office looking at it, the mayor
staff looking at it, nine other
council members looking at it.
The aba probably looks at it If
it's even if it's a little bit
more than just saying hello And
and yet the Department of
Finance is able to just send
off millions of dollars without
cross-referencing it against
the actual contract that was
approved.
So I'm wondering is there
someone from the Department of
Finance here who's going to
tell us why they allow that
policy without them Just
checking one more pdf to see
that it's allowable.
Is there anybody from
the Department of Finance here
?
Okay so that's problematic and
I'm in the city attorney's
office obviously doesn't look
over the shoulder of every
single check that goes out but
they look over every single
resolution that we put forward
and I understand why they do
that and I'm glad that they do
that for us There this is is it
that much more work to put in
one step to make sure that you
don't just check that there's
money in the bank account but
that it was actually that
the contract actually said that
amount But this seems to be an
easy redundancy for you to put
in to make sure that we're not
doing something illegal.
So Councilmember, I hear your
concern.
I think that what would
probably be useful is if we
provided information on how
the contract speaks to
available funding for spend for
departments versus the invoice
processing part of it which is
based off of I get an invoice,
I process a requisition so I
can pay that invoice and then
as long as I have funding and
my department fund that I'm
using that check will go out As
long as Dios has approved that
I do have the available funding
to me and I've done all of my
internal processes.
It doesn't speak to the system
on a global scale, okay.
Which is I think
the expectation that I think
you have.
That's right.
The I guess the last point I'll
make on this is when a city
employee improperly authorizes
an expenditure over what
the city council provides just
from a discipline point of
view, do they get anything in
their employee personnel record
that says they went beyond
their statutory authority and
was had a conversation had
progressive discipline about
this and that that happens?
I hope Absolutely it's okay and
I have a feeling you can't
respond as to personnel records
at this moment So I'm not going
to go there but I'm really
hopeful that that's what
happened here because this
wasn't a few dollars over This
was several million dollars
over.
Correct.
Okay.
All right.
>> Thank you very much.
Council PRESIDENT Pro tem And
thank you, my colleagues for
the questions.
22 Councilmember Whitman Thank
you.
Council PRESIDENT Potentially I
want to dig in a little bit to
what MISS Peralta was saying
because I think it sounded like
you were making a distinction
between contracting and
budgeting.
The city council has a
oversight responsibility for
contracting and the city
council also has an oversight
responsibility for budgeting.
And what I think I heard you
say was that while there MAY
have been an overspend in
the contracting which should
not have occurred that it went
through because it was still
within the budget, is that what
I heard you say?
Correct.
So let's take Parks and Rec for
example.
Huge department, huge
departmental spend.
They are not budgeting down or
they are not They always have
some available spend because
they're not all of their
expenses always hit at the same
time.
So as long as there is funding
available they can process
invoices for anything as long
as it's available.
Okay.
So in other words if the city
council budgets $1 million for
x and to effectuate that budget
the City council authorizes
several contracts up to a half
million dollars that if
somebody without council
approval approves an overage of
up to $750,000 in the contract.
We're not going over
the budgeted amount that
the city authorized but we're
going over the contract amount
that the city authorized.
Those are different things But
I wanted to draw that
distinction because I do think
it's important to note that
what you're saying is that
we're staying within budget on
these but that we are going
outside the council
authorization for
the contracted abouts and
that's what needs to be reined
in.
Did I get that right?
Correct.
And what I will say about Ariba
as a tool is it's it was not
meant for government use
the way that we are applying
it.
So Claudia, GOD bless her and
her team have tried to work
within its constraints to make
it as useful as it can be for
our organization.
It's not perfect and it's not
real time which is part of
the struggle when it comes to
think about 40 or 30
departments all using a
citywide agreement at the same
time And it's not it's not
speaking to our budgeting
system quickly enough to make
it even make sense for
Claudia's team to monitor at
times which is why the real
time reporting that her team is
now making available is a
godsend to our departments.
Now as far as contract
monitoring goes, okay.
Thank you.
Well while I am glad about
the point you're making that
these are not causing a city
themselves to go over budget,
obviously there are all kinds
of reasons why it's important
that the City Council have
oversight over contracts and
contracting about so I
appreciate all of the efforts
that are going in to improve
this process and I really hope
and expect that we will see
this fixed.
>> Thank you.
Thank you.
Got some Republicans seeing no
other speakers will will turn
back to council member Von
Wilpert.
Thank you very much.
I have a follow up question
about whether we're going
overbudget or not.
The 6.7 million that was added
to the contract came from
the general fund, correct?
Most of it, yes.
So then what is suffering
because we took 6.7 million
away what it had to we budgeted
to the t this year Something
else was gutted so that money
could be sent to the rental
company So it wasn't The 6.7
was a year and a half ago.
I'm sorry I'm looking at my
auditors team as if they know
this was two years ago when we
brought that request forward.
I wouldn't know to tell you,
Councilmember Von Wilpert, what
was affected.
We'd have to ask departments to
see what they MAY have had to
cut in order to get that
additional money.
Okay, so who from
the Department of Finance knows
what was moved?
Councilmember, we can get back
to you with that.
Why You don't have the answer
right now.
I called the mayor's office
last week and told the deputy
chief operating or whoever I
don't know what their titles
are.
Maggie again everyone coda that
I'm going to have serious
questions about this and
expected answers last week I
didn't want to bother the mayor
himself because he's doing his
job and traveling.
Why don't I have answers now
when the public is watching
They don't want me to wait till
next week.
Where is the six $7 million go
Because we budgeted we have
libraries that don't have
roofs.
We have staff that are
suffering.
So I understand the rock and a
hard place but the rock and a
hard place is just being moved
to another time You can tell me
the department of and it
doesn't know where this money
went when this order came out a
year ago who is running
the Department of Finance?
>> What is happening here,
Councilmember I don't think
that I would have an answer
that would satisfy you today.
So we will get back to you with
the information that you
requested And I apologize for
the delay in getting you your
answers.
Okay.
Tell me how to better
communicate with the mayor's
office because when I have
serious questions about how
we're spending money, I expect
them to be answered.
So Claudio, thank you This is
not your fault.
I want to emphasize that you
are trying so hard and you are
trying to work on our eosio
problem.
Are you a contractor to
problems like you and your
department are doing
wonderfully but it is very
disturbing that it is.
Software hadn't been working
since 2015.
Why?
And we change the software in
ten years and this is not a new
problem Claudia This is an
upper management problem and
needs to get fixed So thank you
again Claudia for your hard
work and to your department I
want to emphasize how much I
value you as someone in
the city but I cannot believe
that the U.S. Department of
Finance isn't here today to
even answer our questions about
spending.
Thank you for the extra time.
Chair Thank you.
See no other speakers I'll
chime in here because I don't
mean to laugh.
I just did this is sort of hard
to fathom the conversation that
we're having up here on
the dais and certainly thank
you Council member Rivera for
pointing out that it follows a
week of conversation that we've
had I think around around trust
I do want to first of all think
that our daughter's team for
your work on this audit was
completed last year.
Correct and was presented to
the audit committee in 2024.
I guess if you don't mind me
asking if you know the timeline
in which it took us I don't
know how long since it was on
the audit committee to here at
a council I don't know.
Sometimes it does take a while.
I think your docket was fairly
busy the first few months of
the Earth budget issues But you
know we prefer to take them a
little sooner But I think
sometimes it's it's nice when
they come a little bit later
because the departments have a
lot of progress to report
rather than just, you know,
saying the same thing that they
would have said at the audit
committee two weeks earlier in.
>> And I guess just to follow
up on that, you of course
shared at the presentation
the recommendations that were
accepted and the progress
that's been made on those
That's the progress that's up
to date as of now not
necessarily what was presented
back when that it was complete.
>> Correct?
Right.
It's the it's the status as of
JUNE 30th of this year because
that's when we do our
recommendation five which we
just issued and will be
discussed at the audit
committee on Wednesday and said
meaning even to this day
there's still quite a bit of
work that's either in process
or needs to be completed.
I agree with some of what my
colleagues have shared on
the dais.
Claudia Certainly you and your
team you're not the ones
submitting all the contracts
for approval and I don't think
that means that we necessarily
turn around and get to blame
every department either for
that work.
I think what this audit points
out is that there is a much
broader challenge that we're
dealing with from a city
operation standpoint and it's
easy to maybe point fingers at
one particular team or
the other.
What I'm going to just point
out that while you're a deputy
chief operating officer I don't
think this is the operational
branch that you oversee either,
is it?
>> No, sir.
But I am covering for Alia
Corey because she's not feeling
well today.
>> Understood.
Yeah.
So I you're taking the spears
at the moment but not
necessarily your direct
department.
I think this is just going back
to to point out that this is
frustrating for all of us and
you're seeing that boil up and
that I think that frustration
stems from the fact that we are
the eighth largest city in
the United States and I don't
know if it goes through anyone
else's head but I'm going to
admit I sat here up here
thinking an Excel spreadsheet
would tell me when contracts
are going to expire and give me
a rough sense of when that's
simplifying too much
the challenges that we that
exist.
But I think what I'm hoping to
hear as a result of the city's
response to an audit that is
pointing out some severe
challenges that we have as
Councilmember Yvonne Wolpert
pointed out, that really skirt
the line of whether we're
operating lawfully that
the city has a strong answer
for that And at the moment I
feel almost frustrated that
you're here trying to answer on
behalf of the entire city as to
why we're having these
challenges.
So I would just leave it at
that.
Councilmember Ehler very
pointed out that improving
the mayoral threshold certainly
I see why that would help
resolve some of these but it
would only resolve them in a
sense that we would just not
see them And and that actually
doesn't solve the underlying
problem that I think is being
called out today.
So if that is still being
planned for, I would certainly
urge an earnest conversation
about what that looks like and
how it's presented because in
increasing of the mayoral
threshold simply to answer this
audit isn't it it doesn't
actually solve the problem.
I'm going to guess based on
the commentary you've heard
today that you're going to be
met with some concern on that
front.
Last thing I will note is that
in our team's meeting with
the office of the City Auditor
there was a discussion idea I
think you had presented just
one idea in terms of best
practice examples we've seen
elsewhere that for example in
the county of San Diego that
they have a segment in their
staff report that allows for
staff to answer to any
questions that might arise in
terms of contract timelines or
deadlines and anything where
they've exceeded an amount etc.
Can you share a little bit
about that?
Sure.
I'll ask my my my team to jump
in But I think in general it's
they have kind of a remediation
process where if there is
department that has not brought
a contract on time they have to
own up to it.
It has to be in the staff
reports and present a kind of
remediation plan for how
they'll prevent that from
happening again.
But I'll let my team add any
additional details.
>> Yeah.
Just to follow up on Andy, it's
recommendation 2.3 in
the report which has been newly
implemented as of JUNE is to
develop a procedure and
template for these requests to
be submitted in writing and
explain why it's necessary and
what types of actions will be
done to prevent it from
happening in the future.
>> Understood.
And I don't believe that's part
of the recommendations as we
have presented at the moment.
But I guess I would turn to
staff and the mayor's office to
see if that could be explored
as a potential addition to
council potentially it is a
recommendation and we have
completed develop that form and
it should be any time you see a
contract that is being brought
forward that form should if
it's if it's late, if it needs
ratification that documentation
should be provided in OnBase as
well.
Thank you.
Claudio, one last thing to ask
you because of what you've
heard from us up here, are
there any upcoming contracts
that the council might be
considering that are either
exceeding the contracted amount
previously authorized or that
will be expired?
>> I know there are several
that are expiring soon.
I know my my team has been
working with each of
the departments to try to get
them here timely.
Whether that happens I think
we're still going through some
some speed bumps to make sure
that all of them get here
timely.
But we are absolutely keeping
track of that.
I think you heard Councilmember
Yvonne Wolpert loud and clear
as we all did.
So certainly we encourage that
be done as expeditiously as
possible.
I see no other speakers on this
item that does include item
2a1a clerk Would you please
introduce item 200?
Thank you.
Council PRESIDENT Pro Tem Item
200 is an informational item as
well.
It is the performance audit of
the city's fleet maintenance.
If you'd like to speak to this
item please submit your
speakers up to the front of
the room in the clear box and
if you are participating online
now's the time to raise your
hand by pressing pressing Star
nine or the raise your hand
icon in your hand and back over
to you to introduce this item
in resume as well and let us
know how much time you need for
this time.
>> Good afternoon again Council
members Andino City Auditor And
we are to present our
performance audit of the city's
fleet maintenance And can we
also have ten minutes for this
one please?
Thank you.
Thanks.
So first off we want to thank
the Fleet Operations division
and we really appreciate all
the time and feedback they
provided to help this audit
identify I think a lot of
different key issues and make
actionable recommendations to
address them.
I also want to quickly thank
major vehicle operating
departments who we worked with
on the side as well including
City pd Fire Rescue Parks and
Recreation and public utilities
.
The city's fleet is comprised
of about 4900 vehicles and
motorized equipment with an
estimated total replacement
value of $437 million When
preventive maintenance and
safety inspections aren't
completed on time it can create
it can increase long term
vehicle costs, cause costly
operational disruptions when
vehicles break down and create
safety risks for city employees
and the public.
Therefore we conducted this
performance audit with the two
objectives that you can see
here on this slide.
The audit team with me here is
again principal performance
auditor Nathan Otto and senior
performance auditor Nicky
Kalmus and performance auditor
Alberto Marino And so I'll turn
it over to them for the details
on what we found and
recommended.
Great.
Thanks Andy.
So we looked at Preventive
Maintenance services and this
one we MAY lapse into calling
them pbm services and these are
ones that were completed in fy
2023 across the city for these
pm services are fundamental
things like oil changes, fluid
checks, clean air or replacing
basic parts as well as smog
checks and something called bit
inspections which are a multi
point safety inspection for
heavier vehicles.
It's required by the state of
California every 90 days.
We made ten recommendations on
this one to address issues we
found and improve
the timeliness and compliance
rates of required maintenance
and safety inspections help
streamline services and to
increase vehicle availability
for department operations.
And of note given the city's
budget position, we believe
the recommendations are
generally low to no cost things
the city can do and management
did agree to all of these
recommendations.
So the city has a big fleet as
Andy mentioned across a lot of
different departments.
You can see some of
the examples on the slide here
.
The six departments have
the most vehicles citywide just
in terms of the process
generally it's the case that
these departments they have
their vehicles and they're
supposed to bring them in to
fleet who provides
the maintenance.
So it's a it's a bit of a two
way street so to speak.
There are some things that we
can do for customer service to
city departments But a big part
of the issue too is improving
accountability for departments
to be bringing their vehicles
into fleet services timely.
And with that, Nicky, we'll
walk you through Funny one.
Thank you Nathan In finding one
we looked at the timeliness of
preventive maintenance and
inspections across the citywide
fleet In fiscal year 2023 we
found that only 20% of
preventive maintenance services
were completed on time
according to government Fleet
an industry resource.
A 10% grace period is
acceptable before most fleets
consider maintenance late as
shown in Exhibit four on this
slide even when allowing for a
grace period only 39% of
services were completed on time
Both the 20 and 39% are less
than the industry standard goal
for timely maintenance
Compliance which is 90%.
We also looked into
the compliance of inspections
which are required by law to
ensure driver and public safety
and environmental protections
while 96% of smog checks and
diesel capacity inspections
were completed on time, only
35% of bit inspections which
are safety inspections on
heavier vehicles were on time.
One factor could be that bit
inspections are required every
90 days while smog and diesel
inspections are required
annually or once every two
years.
The exhibits on this slide show
that hundreds of safety
inspections were overdue by
months and could have been
unsafe to operate.
Overdue maintenance can have
negative consequences on
vehicle performance such as
unsafe vehicle conditions,
lengthier and more costly
repairs and reduced
productivity.
For example, a previous audit
audit found an 11% reduction in
productivity for pothole
repairs when one truck was out
of service for maintenance Thus
even having a single important
vehicle offline can have a
product productivity impact
worth hundreds of thousands of
dollars.
Finally, when safety
inspections are late, issues
MAY persist that can lead to
increased costs and breakdowns.
Missing safety inspections on
larger trucks and equipment
means letting potential safety
issues go unaddressed while
vehicles are still driving
around.
We found that bit inspections
identified safety issues that
needed to be repaired More than
half of the time and
additionally overdue safety
inspections were even more
likely at 68% to identify
needed repairs such as broken
backup alarms and mirrors and
brake axle fluid leaks Even if
most vehicles had a current
safety inspection there could
be 200 or more big vehicles on
roads with an increased
likelihood of an unaddressed
safety issue.
>> When we looked into
the reasons why behind low
compliance rates we found that
Fleet sends out monthly
notification to departments
with upcoming due preventive
maintenance and inspections.
However, at the time the audit
was conducted, contact lists
were out of date Then even when
notified city departments were
still not bringing in their
vehicles on time.
Further, not all major
departments were having regular
check ins with fleet or
specific fleet coordinators to
handle maintenance issues.
And finally as shown on
the slide fleet removed with
preventive maintenance kpi for
the fiscal year 2025 budget and
reported on it only once
historically to improve
the city's preventive
maintenance and inspection
compliance we made five
recommendations in this finding
We recommend fleet work with
departments to update contact
list for maintenance
notifications with regular
quarterly meetings to discuss
fleet maintenance needs and
report compliance to the Deputy
chief operating officers.
We recommend the Chief
Operating Officer ensure each
relevant department designates
a fleet coordinator and that
the Chief Operating Officer
work with fleet and city
departments to develop and
communicate a set of workable
and appropriate incentives
disincentives and our
monitoring capabilities to
improve compliance.
Since we issued the report,
Fleet appears to have worked
with departments to update and
designate fleet coordinators
for the major departments and
has started having regular
check ins according to Fleet.
This has helped increase
maintenance and fit compliance.
I will now hand it over to
Alberto to present our second
finding.
Thanks, Nicky.
Alberto Moreno.
A performance order and this
project inviting to be
investigated How timely
vehicles are being returned to
city departments after
preventive maintenance.
We found that more than half of
maintenance workers that we
looked at were completed in
less than 24 hours.
However, there are some steps
that the city can take to
further streamline services.
According to the National
Association of Fleet
Administrators, turnaround time
is a key metric for Fleet made
its operations.
Many fleet agencies have
turnaround time goals for
maintenance services and
inspections.
However Fleet does not.
This can make it hard for
departments to plan their day
to day operations.
Lack of visibility MAY also
lead to reluctance to bring
vehicles in for maintenance.
Shown on the slide we found
that longer turnaround times
appear to correspond with lower
rates of preventive maintenance
compliance.
In other words, departments
accustomed to delays are less
likely to bring the vehicles in
on time.
The city uses Fleet Focus a
central database for fleets
information about maintenance
and inspection, due date
equipment, labor and parts
inventory to help with
uncertainty.
There's a self-service
mechanism in fleet focus for
city departments to review
upcoming due preventive
maintenance.
However not all departments are
aware of it or how to use it.
The average turnaround time
within the city of San Diego
was three calendar days.
The fleet completes most
maintenance within 24 hours.
Some lengthy turnaround times
bring the citywide average up
to three days.
However, on average fleet staff
completed the actual servicing
of vehicles in just two hours.
When we look into the cause we
found that 77% of maintenance
services had a delay of some
kind.
The last the vast majority of
these delays were caused by
waiting for labor.
For example a factory truck
from the stormwater department
was brought in for preventive
maintenance services on a
Tuesday and waited for three
days for available staff.
On Friday the maintenance
services took just over three
hours in total.
Although fleet focused can
schedule appointments according
to Fleet, it has not set this
up due to resource constraints.
As a result, according to fleet
departments also commonly drop
off their vehicles unannounced
often for weekends or holidays
which can lead to backlogs
because departments bring their
vehicles in when Labor is not
available.
Instead of scheduling an
appointment when we look
further into labor delays we
found that the city's fleet has
grown by almost 1000 vehicles
since fiscal year 2021.
But the number of fleet
technicians to service
the fleet has not kept pace
with that growth.
Furthermore, Fleet has an
assistant fleet technician
position but heavily utilizes
the fleet technician role
instead.
The assistant fleet technician
position could help fleet
technicians focus on complex
diagnostics and advanced
repairs.
Identifying the optimal share
of assistant fleet technicians
to supplement current staffing
MAY help Fleet achieve its
maintenance goals in a cost
effective manner while
attracting talent that can grow
and develop from within.
To help streamline services
increase vehicle availability
and improve maintenance,
timeliness and compliance, we
made five recommendations to
Fleet in this finding.
The key recommendations include
establishing monitoring and
reporting turnaround time goals
and performance, ensuring city
departments are aware of
the self-service mechanism for
reviewing work order status.
Setting up a scheduling
appointment.
Setting up a scheduling process
and prioritizing vehicles have
scheduled their maintenance
appointments in advance.
And analyzing optimal staffing
levels of a system fleet
technician positions.
Fleet and city management agree
to all ten recommendations and
are more than happy to answer
any questions we have.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
I believe we'll turn next to
our original services
department for comments.
>> Good afternoon.
Council PRESIDENT Pro Tem Lee
and members of the Council I am
sure a little director of
the Department of General
Services.
Thank you for the opportunity
to briefly provide an update on
our progress.
As noted by the auditor's team
there were ten recommendations.
Of those ten we have completed
to 1.1 designation of fleet
coordinators and 1.3 leading
routine meetings with relevant
city departments.
We also anticipate anticipate
closing to recommendations
within the next few weeks.
And I like to take a brief time
to update you on our progress
on a few of the remaining
recommendations as well as
other items noted in
the auditor's report.
As noted by the audit team,
the growth of fleet staff has
not kept pace with the growth
of the vehicles in the fleet.
We currently have over 5000
active vehicles and equipment
in the fleet with over 1700
vehicles assigned to our
largest repair facility located
at Choices Operations yard.
Those staff growth rate has
lagged fleet growth.
We remain committed to finding
innovative solutions within our
existing resources to address
these challenges.
Third completion of the audit
we have made remarkable
progress in our basic
inspection of terminal
compliance rate for those
departments with more than 100
vehicles subject to bid
inspection.
Our current compliance rate is
91%.
This progress is attributed to
improvements in work or
assignment internal process
improvements and our
technicians who have been
willing to work periodically on
weekends.
I want to take this time to
thank their entire team for
their commitment to keeping our
vehicles operating safely and
in compliance.
>> In addition to improvement
and inspection completion Fleet
has continued to lead routine
meetings with most of
the departments including
public utilities department,
Stormwater transportation parks
and Rec to discuss current
fleet issues and concerns
holistically.
The fleet operations dashboard
created by Panda is used to
facilitate most of the meeting
during our departmental
meetings.
All aspects of the fleet
operations from upcoming
inspections repair and
maintenance and vehicle
acquisition and delivery
timelines are discussed with
our customer departments.
High priority concerns are
addressed on the spot and often
resolved during the meeting.
All departments also have
access to the dashboard and can
view the status of all of their
vehicles at any time.
We have received positive
feedback from the department on
this initiative.
We are continuing to work with
Panda to further develop
the dashboard to include
program preventive maintenance
as well as vehicle
acquisitions.
In addition to the auditor's
recommendation 2.5 to conduct
an analysis of fleet staff
required to complete Timely
for Choice Operations Yard.
We are currently in discussion
with our rta to shift our
operating days and hours
allowing us to serve as
vehicles when they are not in
use.
This model increases access to
customer vehicles and reduces
downtime.
Lastly we are currently
conducting a base based
analysis to determine
additional spaces required to
keep up with our growing fleet.
After both the staff analysis
and base based analysis are
completed, we MAY request an
allocation of resources to
properly manage our fleet and
perform perhaps more timely
thereby decrease in repairs and
ensuring the department is
meeting the needs of our city
departments.
I like to in my comments by
thanking Andy and his team for
their professionalism
throughout the process.
We appreciate the auditor's
insight and look forward to
working through the remainder
of the recommendations
presented here today.
My staff and are available to
answer any questions you MAY
have.
>> Thank you.
Thank you.
Clark can we please proceed
with any public comment?
Yes.
This time it is Paul and you
have time See to Chew by Tim
Douglas.
So you will have four minutes.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Paul Garraway, vice
PRESIDENT Of Ask Me a local 127
and a technician with the fleet
operations Division within
the Fleet Operations Division
of the Department of General
Services.
We have approximately 150
bargaining unit members.
The job classification
technical lead technicians mast
nations and fleet leaders Those
classifications perform
essential work including making
repairs parts replacement
adjustments, performing
diagnostic preventative and
corrective maintenance on city
vehicles, generating and
maintaining vehicle equipment
maintenance records.
In short, our members know
the city vehicles inside and
out.
The number of fleet technicians
is not kept pace with
the growth of the city's fleet
and require implementing all
agreed recommendations before a
meeting and conferring over
the schedule change at Choice
Operations Yard.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
I started the five minute time
We're going to those
participating remotely starting
with the original If you can
please unmute you will have two
minutes.
>> Yeah this is because this is
showing more of your negligence
as far as contracting goes.
I mean you know it's it's kind
of a you know, two way street
as far as things happening But
when you guys increase
the amount of you know,
vehicles that you have in your
fleet and the company that is
supposed to be maintaining it,
you know can't keep up with it
because that wasn't even in
the contract in the first
place.
So you know, you can't put
the blame on them as though,
you know, it's their fault that
you know, all of this is taking
place and they can't keep up.
I'm sure there's things that
they could do to mitigate.
But if you also have city
employees who are not you know,
bringing in their vehicles on
time to be maintained
especially for things that are
going to keep them from needing
maintenance in the future.
It defeats the purpose of them,
you know, even being contracted
to do it because you guys are
always going to make it so that
they're not able to complete
their job.
But again, just with this
amount of people that you guys
have or amount of vehicles that
you have increased, it's just I
mean you should have made sure
when you were going to increase
that amount that this fleet
management was going to be able
to take care of it, that they
were going to be able to
maintain the vehicles you that
otherwise you're you're wasting
money by buying these vehicles
And then when they can't be
maintained for whatever reason,
you know, it's like there's
just they cost more and more
money.
So I mean it's just ridiculous
the things that take place and
you know how much I don't know
if it's just that there's so
many silos and nobody's
communicating and so all of
this stuff can take place and
intentionally so, you know, or
you know what's going on And I
it's good that you guys are
looking at it but this has got
to stop because this happens on
a regular basis and it's
the people that pay the price
because you always come after
us to make up for your
negligence because you need
more money.
Your time has concluded at
Blair Beekman and after Blair
Brinkman 7499 Please proceed.
Hi Blair Beekman Thanks for
this item Thanks for
the previous words by Andre.
Yeah I'm curious what this sort
of item is it related to that
was spoken on on on
the previous item all together
from this one the projects
about $6 million in additional
funding for rental things is
that is that related to this
item at all And because it's
curious this item comes up
recently a lot and I'm I'm
wondering why it has been
coming up what is the relation
to the budget is and such so a
little cautious with this item
I hope we can do some good
important things with it.
It could be a good sign of how
we should be building our good
future and a more energy
efficient future But we have to
do it in good terms and I hope
we're learning how to do more
accountable good terms together
openly and clearly For as much
as the City Council needed to
comment on what past recent
practices have been and over
the past ten years, you know
city staff wants to make
changes and I want to I don't
want to I want to compliment
them on wanting to try to make
changes and I hope they can be
open to those changes.
What I was just saying what
council Wolpert was saying you
know, you guys city staff has
to report to city council when
they make changes to budgeting,
to project planning.
>> So we're learning those
better levels of communication
at this time that I felt were a
serious problem when I first
moved here in 2022.
I feel we're working on it.
We are trying to improve those
things.
We're trying to get out of an
era of war basically where you
know money and secrecy and
budgeting which just all
private and and internal we're
trying to open that up and be
more accountable with each
other.
Good luck on our effort to do
that.
I think we are trying.
Good luck with deciding.
Thank you And thank you.
Thank you.
Your time has concluded as well
7499 If you can please unmute
Bob because this key here now I
can say that both of these last
two items further highlight
the mismanagement that is
endemic throughout the city
years ago I said that
the Torrey Pines glider port
was just a tiny sample tiny
sample of the gross
mismanagement throughout
the city.
Today's issues have proven me
correct.
I'll again assert that advisory
boards are a cost effective way
for citizens to help out with
with the very difficult job of
managing a huge city as you do
And I see no reason why
advisory boards shouldn't be
used in all areas of the city
so that citizens who are
experts in those areas can come
and participate and contribute
their knowledge and their
background and their
independence to overseeing what
goes on in this city.
Shame on you Joe LaCava for not
doing that with the Torrey
Pines City Park Advisory Board.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
That concludes the public
comment for this item.
Thanks to the public for their
comments I will turn next to
council members for questions
Comments This is again an
informational item only so no
motion is required.
We'll start with the chair of
our audit committee.
Councilmember Moreno thank you
for the presentation and also
thank you to the auditor's
office for your excellent work
on this audit.
We did have a lengthy
discussion on this audit
committee back in FEBRUARY
leading up to what was going to
be I think a very difficult
budget.
I was very concerned about
the inefficiencies found by
the auditor that ended up
needlessly costing taxpayers
more than it should to maintain
the city's fleet.
When the city invest in buying
or leasing a vehicle of some
type, it's critical that it's
receiving regular preventative
maintenance.
Now if we don't do that, we're
decreasing the value of
the life of the vehicle.
This increases the repair costs
and waste time for the employee
who's driving the vehicle as
well as the employees who
repair the vehicles because
instead of simply having
preventative repairs they have
to spend much more time doing
major repairs.
In addition, this results in a
greater need for rental cars
which is an additional cost and
ultimately lowers the level of
service provided to the public
in fiscal year 23 it cost
the city $2.2 million to
provide to perform preventative
maintenance on 3918 vehicles
and 19.3 million to do repairs
on 3897 vehicles.
What were the costs in fiscal
year 24 and fiscal year 25?
Relate to preventative
maintenance versus repair costs
that were not proactive repairs
.
>> Thank you for the question
Councilmember.
And fiscal year 2024.
We had 2.5 million spent on
and 23.2 million spent on
repairs.
25 was 3.3 million on and 26.2
million on repairs.
And with that I just also like
to highlight by nature are
less cost expensive right than
repairs.
Also from that as our fleet
increases and past increases
you will see that cost increase
as well as we're doing more
and finding more repairs and
adding to the fleet that cost
us increase over the years.
Can you explain to the public
what ppm?
Oh that's a preventative
maintenance.
Thank you.
Thank you for the for that
answer.
Now although costs fluctuate
year to year it does appear we
could save a significant amount
per year in repair costs if we
simply broader vehicles in for
regular maintenance instead of
waiting for a problem to
happen.
Does the department have an
estimate on how much of the $19
million in repairs in fiscal
year 23 could have been reduced
if preventative maintenance had
been performed?
>> Thank you again for
the question.
Councilmember No, that is not a
data point that we provide that
we track for premiums.
Okay.
Thank you Will.
Conservatively, even if repairs
cost were only reduced by $1
million that is another million
that could be used for other
purposes in the budget.
It was mentioned libraries and
Alfaro in Parks and Rec
programing.
I saw in the management's
response that proactive repairs
increased in fiscal year 25.
Did the department see a
decrease in the need for
vehicle repairs directly
related to the lack of
preventative maintenance?
Or do you see this trend
continuing for fiscal year 26?
>> So Councilmember, what
happened?
We have been conducting more as
you heard earlier in my
comments inspections bit or
safety inspections as well as
preventive maintenance.
So that has led to being able
to complete more of those
predictive proactive repairs
that management was alluding to
in our response.
So it's just a just to
reiterate it's the ongoing work
that you guys are doing
proactively that there was why
there was an uptick?
Yes.
>> Completing more inspections
as well as more preventative
maintenance.
And do you see the increase Do
you see this trend continuing
or are you guys continuing to
provide more inspections than
have been done in the past?
>> Yes.
The work we've done with
coordinating with our customer
department and in our monthly
and quarterly meetings
departments are now bringing in
their their vehicles timely and
we are working to complete
those sometimes over
the weekends as we can within
our overtime budget.
But those are meetings as well
as the dashboard with more
visibility on the status of
the vehicles is also
attributing to that increase
that you're seeing.
So you do see the trend
continuing.
Okay.
Thank you.
Does the department management
get notified when a monitor
goes off in a vehicle
indicating the need for a
repair like we have in our car
oil change or check engine?
If so, is there a procedure in
place?
>> I would also notify fleet
management does not get
notified of that but
the operator of that vehicle is
required for Pre-trip
inspections And if there is a
light or a gauge or something
is out of compliance and
they're required to bring that
vehicle in for us immediately
so we can diagnose and repair
the vehicle.
So this is something
the individual department needs
to follow up on their own?
That's correct.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
Recommendation 2.4 says that
Fleet should prioritize
schedule scheduled appointments
over unscheduled appointments.
However, the audit found that
while the fleet focus system
has the capacity to set up an
appointment system, it has not
been set up for departments to
schedule maintenance in
advance.
Can fleet management clarify
what process you have?
What what you've done since at
least FEBRUARY to allow
departments to be able to
schedule an appointment in
advance?
>> What we are doing is through
our routine meetings as well as
visibility of the dashboard we
are coordinating with the city
departments on which vehicles
are due for and bid
inspections and coordinating
with them which vehicles are
required to be brought in such
that we can complete those
within compliance.
We are not using that for
showing that scale doing
function within that fleet
focus yet because there are
some requirements that we have
to complete to be able to fully
turn on that feature.
>> But we are through our
routine meetings having a
discussion and scheduling
either by phone or by email for
the departments to bring in
the vehicles.
We are on track for.
I think at the end of
the calendar year to implement
that recommendation with
the scheduling feature and Ford
Focus.
Okay.
This is a question I had Is
there a list of all
the vehicles we have?
There is a list and departments
on that fleet dashboard can
drill down to where they can
see only their vehicles as well
as the status of those
vehicles, whether there's a
more open work order, whether
it was due for bid inspections,
whether it's overdue for bid
inspections for each of those
vehicles they can see and you
have a master copy of
everybody's vehicle?
Yes.
Myself and my fleet team can
see all of the vehicles in
the fleet.
So right now you're relying on
the department director to
bring in the vehicle Based on
my.
>> My fleet manager is
coordinating with
the department's fleet
coordinators on which vehicles
are due for as well as bid
inspections And then we're
making appointments outside of
that they're bringing in and
based upon the conversations
with the fleet managers using a
dashboard on what to do and
what's coming due within
the fleet.
Now I will recognize I have not
on the operations side of
the city of San Diego but that
sounds like a whole lot of work
and it sounds like work that we
have technology right now.
We have a system.
It just it seems like a lot of
work but thank you for
answering that.
Recommendation 2.5 says Fleet
should conduct an analysis to
determine the optimal share of
the system.
Fleet Technician Position out
of service Professional
position and or their ability
to more strategically target
their time to help achieve
preventative maintenance goals
timely and efficiently.
The audit also found that a
fleet completes most
preventative maintenance
services in less than a day.
I believe this I know that
the personnel we have in place
are very good at their job but
when the process is not
streamlined as
the recommendation in the audit
audit would accomplish it leads
to delays where a vehicle sits
on the lot for days If it can't
be replaced.
Think of having to order apart.
We've all been you know, to
the mechanic.
This is obviously not the fault
of our technician who performs
the repairs.
This is the failure of
management to have an efficient
system in place.
What is the current timeline To
get to conduct the cost
analysis To conduct the cost
benefit analysis recommended in
recommendation 2.5.
Is this still expected by
the end of the year?
Yes, we are still on track with
that recommendation.
Thank you.
If I MAY have my three more
minutes.
It's clear to me that one of
the things we likely need to do
is hire more technicians
because the number of staff has
not kept up with the growth of
the city's fleet.
If we do that, more vehicles
would get repaired faster.
The cost of hiring more
technicians would probably be
offset by the avoided cost of
having to do less Major repairs
on vehicles and hiring
additional technicians should
be the main way the management
addresses this staffing
the staffing issues.
What I don't want is to see
current employees forced to
work hours before beyond I'm
sorry what should be expected
of them because that will
absolutely burn people out.
And I know we do run the risk
as well.
These these guys and these guys
and girls are a hot commodity
within the market.
We're struggling to keep up
with keeping them.
So I definitely do not want to
be pushing too heavily And I do
want to recognize that their
work is very much appreciated.
Finally, does the Department or
auditor's office have an
estimate related to how much
the city has spent on rental
vehicles specifically related
to the need for major repairs
on city owned vehicles?
>> Thank you again Council for
the question.
I think earlier I mean Claudia
excuse me alluded to this in
her previous comments regarding
her rental contracts.
There are improvements there
through the new process for her
rental improvement process that
the city is undertaking right
now for the two year period of
the contract.
We project that there would be
3% of vehicles that will be
rented due to vehicles being
down in the shop.
But currently we do not have
that calls for f y 25.
>> Okay.
Thank you for that and I don't
know if you have an answer to
that.
Sure.
We do not have an answer to at
this time but as you know we
have an audit on our workplan
this year of vehicle rental
contracts to hurricane any
others that we have And so
that's certainly something
we'll consider looking into.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
This is another cost that could
be decreased by implementing
the recommendations in this
audit And I would request that
staff follow up with my office
on that number You gave us
the 3%.
Just to be clear, I do look
forward to all
the recommendations being
implemented.
Truly believe there could be
some significant cost savings
if we can get buy in from
the department to take
preventative maintenance
maintenance seriously over
the long term.
We also need to make sure that
management is working
cooperatively with our
representative employees to
ensure that the department is
properly staffed.
I think it's been my second
year as the audit chair three
years in total and I just I
want to bring up the fact that
I truly appreciate audits that
let us at least at least
the council know what's going
on on the operations side.
I think the audit presents
recommendations which you guys
did You guys are not in
operation right?
You're not management.
And so if we were if management
was doing things in a
productive manner then
the audit would show that
there's nothing wrong and we
can move right along When we
see something wrong we have to
do something about it And I
think it's I think it is very
it's an opportunity to do
better.
Feels really weird to say this
but it's an opportunity to do
better.
We should not shy away from
being told that the way that
we're doing it doesn't work or
that it's costing taxpayer
dollars more money.
This is a way I think that we
can move forward and I
appreciated this audit.
It was very enlightening.
It's a lot of money and it's
not my money.
It's not our money.
It's taxpayers money.
So with that, thank you for
allowing me to go a little over
But thank you guys for this
audit.
>> Thank you.
We'll turn next to
Councilmember Ella Rivera.
All right.
Thank you.
Council PRESIDENT Pro tem and
always thank you to you and
the team for your work.
Always appreciate it.
So Councilmember Moreno Dove in
deep as she always does as
the audit committee chair.
One I'll start with this
question and then I'll circle
back to another from
the recommendations that have.
And this is for staff whoever
would like to answer it.
The recommendation ones that
are agreed upon but not yet
implemented.
Can we walk through timeline
and any barriers the Council
needs to be aware of in
the implementation of those
changes?
>> Thank you Council Member for
the question.
We have completed two of those
recommendations.
There are two that have since
the time that the auditor
reported our status that we are
in the process of completing
that is audit recommendations
1.3 and 2.2.
And I'll just read those really
quickly.
>> One point three is again
regular regularly schedule
meetings.
And 1.1 which we have completed
is related to fleet
coordinators.
1.2 we estimate that we will
complete within the next few
weeks.
And this is just updating our
fleet coordinators and contact
lists within our city
departments so they can receive
notifications.
And then recommendation 2.2
We're also scheduled to
complete within the next few
weeks.
That is also related to
actually updating
the departments in the fleet
dashboard ensuring they have
visibility of all of their
vehicles within the fleet.
The rest of the remaining
recommendations we are on track
to complete either by the end
of the calendar year or by JUNE
2026 which is the latest that
we have up on a recommendation
that will be implemented in due
course.
>> Got it.
Thank you for that.
So my understanding is that
absent is being asked to meet
and confer in response to this
audit.
It's not one of
the recommendations
necessarily.
Can you explain to us why
that's happening prior to
the implementation of all
the recommendations being
complete?
>> Well, Councilmember, one of
the issues I think that was
noted in the auditor's report
was the department's hesitation
to bring vehicles in as they
are needed for use.
So we wanted to be we wanted to
take a look at what it would
require to have those vehicles
brought in when there's not an
operational impact to
the departments.
We know that all three
departments do not have a bench
of vehicles such that if you're
taking a patch truck out of of
the fleet for or inspection
then there's operational
impacts.
We were looking at ways that we
could service vehicles when
they're not in use by the city
departments and that it was not
a audit recommendation but it
was something that internally
through the department we
thought that based upon what
we're seeing and hearing from
the departments that we would
work with our unions to pursue.
>> Got it.
Okay.
Katherine Morello made
the point about ensuring that
we are able to maintain
the workforce that we have.
It's taken a lot to get those
folks as you know, get those
folks hired to retain them And
we don't want to lose them
unnecessarily.
So I think bringing them into
the fold for problem solving
prior to formally requested a
meeting confer session.
Strongly recommended for me You
all were on the operation side
so you can do it with that what
you will to that point And I
know we talked about this
during the briefing but I, I
think this audit maybe more
than any other that I've seen I
think really could have
benefited from conversation
with aps me and and and perhaps
some of you as well to have a
360 degree thorough analysis
not just of problems with
potential solutions.
I think getting the voice of
the workers who are doing that
work would be incredibly
valuable.
And so I do I do hope that in
in the future when there are
items like this that are so
operational in nature that we
have conversations with
the folks who are doing doing
that work to the greatest
extent possible.
And I certainly hope that
management would make those
those workers and available to
the extent possible.
And then certainly we've got
representatives by way of
the Oreos and that's what
they're there to do.
We just heard from an expert
who is who's doing some of this
work about there's just a very
important vantage point there
and I want to make sure that
included in the conversation to
the greatest extent possible.
But as always, thank you again
for all of your work to
the audit team.
We appreciate you.
Thank you.
Council PRESIDENT Pro tem Thank
you.
We'll turn next to council
members on Wolpert and thank
you to you for your work and
your presentation on this.
My colleagues asked a lot of
the questions you know and I'm
particularly concerned of
course about making sure that
our workers are included in
these discussions and so
they're the ones actually doing
the maintenance work.
And I'm wondering how much
involvement did ask me when 27
or MAY have in the audit.
So this audit was was you know,
we used a lot of the data to
identify the causes of
the delays right like 88 And
that's why we point out 88% of
the time there's a delay Once
the vehicle has been brought in
it's due to lack of labor And
that's why we make
recommendations on, you know,
taking a look at their staffing
levels especially for assistant
fleet technician.
We didn't engage them directly.
We have before when we do
audits that look at you know,
kind of on the ground work
where conditions like you MAY
recall the strategic human
capital audit from a few years
ago where we recommended
compensation philosophy for
the city workforce reports,
things like that.
But actually happy to you know,
consider it as a checkpoint on
audits going forward you know
when it seems like it's
relevant to those groups.
>> Yeah I, I think you should
honestly I mean it's
the workers are the ones who
also might be seeing it day in
day out and have ideas or
thoughts or problems that it
doesn't know about or they
report to management they MAY
not report to you.
And so I wouldn't engage
the workers because you guys
are the ones who see every day
what you're struggling with And
before this audit comes out and
suddenly ideas are handed to
them it'd be better if they
could be participating in it
before a meeting confirmed is
triggered Because I think you
know, morale is hard right now.
The city doesn't pay as much as
we should to these workers and
they're working very hard And
so I think it'd be a huge
morale boost if people would
engage them before these things
are published about them.
>> I also remember that you
asked me a question but I just
wanted to clarify that So we we
did have conversations with our
staff in our routine meetings
but because of the meet and
confer process we could not I
guess divulge the details of
what we're considering What we
did have conversations with all
of our fleet technicians just
at choice repair facility
because that's the only place
we're looking to implement this
change.
But because of that process we
could not provide all of
the details with them But we
did let them know solicit
feedback from them as well as
but we could not follow once we
got closer to that process and
actually issued a notice we can
could not devote all of
the details of that until we
actually go in to meet and
confer.
Okay.
I mean understood.
You know I would a labor lawyer
before this and I was on
the dca negotiating team when I
was a deputy city attorney and
there could have been a waste.
We didn't even get to be
confer.
You know, if you had more open
conversation with the workers
then you wouldn't need to go to
the forum union for process.
So I just I just communicate
with the folks actually doing
this work And I'd like to see
that the audits going forward
because you know, we have a lot
of different ideas.
I used to work for a
congressmember who used to
bring in, you know, uaw
informed for example to
the office and they talked
together.
They have a joint management
employee task force and they
talk about issues as they came
up.
Eventually things would happen
where they'd have to go to
the National Relations Board or
others.
But I just I see this on so
many levels and I don't see
the city doing it.
I never really have And so I
think asking the workers more
what they think before problems
go to being cared for would be
a really beneficial idea.
I also have a question about
our public safety fleet.
So is Othello now
the operational area where
we're going to fix the fire
trucks and other things?
We had so many problems with
that real estate transaction
but as far as I know it's up
and running it It's up and
running There is okay because
we can't have fire apparatus
not respond and walk off.
I mean very different than and
same thing with police cars So
are we prioritizing our public
safety fleet when things need
to get fixed?
Yes we are.
I invite our deputy director to
talk a little bit more about
that If you'd like to hear more
about current inmates in how
we're repairing our fleet
there.
>> Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Council members Mike Simon is a
deputy director for Fleet
Operations.
So yes, the Fleet Operations
Department is divided between
police fire esd and then
the remaining fleet which would
be transportation duty.
Each repair facility has its
own staff, their own people
that work on it and their own
priorities.
So yes and pleasure.
So as you can imagine it is a
lot of it is seasonal When it's
warm resources are diverted to
fire any help that they need.
You also have transportation,
things like that.
They're the number one priority
all the time.
So every day is basically a
dance between what's
the priority for the day?
But yes, all of those repair
facilities have their own staff
and they are focused on just
that one fleet.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
I appreciate that very much.
And I think two more questions
Why did fleet management take
meeting preventative
maintenance goals out of your
key performance indicators in
the city budget this year?
Thank you for the question.
So in previous years the KPIs
were included in the budget but
not reported on because of
the maintenance gauges were not
accurate.
So we thought that we would
take the time we would take it
out of this year's budget and
allow time for us to complete
those goals just so that we can
report it and not simply have
it in the budget and not report
on it because I think that was
one of the things noted that it
was in the budget but it was
not actually being reported on.
It reported being reported
because of the maintenance
scale.
Those were not properly aligned
And so we didn't want an
inaccurate reporting or where
we were were preventative
maintenance.
Okay.
So what's the plan for the next
budget cycle?
So we are currently working on
aligning all of our and
vehicles and schedules within
our fleet management
information system and then we
will be adding that to
the dashboard that I spoke to
earlier so all the departments
can see where we are and we
will be able to report on
the status instead of annually.
You can there will be near real
time reporting on that.
So any departments our decals
which we are preparing a
quarterly report up two days
ago was on everything from
prompts to inspection and our
compliance.
So once we have that complete
it'll be more in a real time
time frame.
Okay.
So do you anticipate that being
back in the budget in 2026 or
so We are in by 2627 and 22 is
seven a Can I get back with you
on that?
I don't know the due date for
the kpi so I want to make sure
we are our work is done for
that before we I commit to
putting it back in the budget
because it is a lot for us to
do to go through all that 5000
vehicles and then one by one
making sure we have
the accurate council in there
and four but it is something
that we're currently working on
and adding it to our dashboard
Excuse me.
>> Okay.
Have you tried talking to
the rental car companies
because they have to maintain
thousands of cars as well and
give them oil changes and tire
rotations and we have not
reached out to rental car
companies before.
>> Thank you for the input.
We could certainly do that.
Yeah we have 5000 of them at
the airport as in the airport
authority so I'm happy to make
a connection for you there
because they have to maintain
their fleets too.
>> So we did have a routine
conversations with the county
and as far as how they are
managing their fleet but we
have not reached out to my car
companies.
Okay.
So I appreciate the connection.
Okay.
Thank you.
My last question is about one
of the recommendations.
It was recommendation 1.2 to
the order for me to update
the fleet coordinator contact
list for meeting certification
and apparently it's been 248
days and we still don't have a
notification list like just
contacts and names So that
happening.
>> So our first step to that
was recommendation 1.1
identifying fleet coordinators
But for those departments that
are large like public utilities
department we recognize that is
probably not going to be one
person.
So we were getting the contact
list of all of those folks
essentially contact additional
contacts who will be added to
the system and then would
receive those notifications.
Again we are it's just a matter
of us closing out to
the recommendation with
the audit team but that is
something that we anticipate
closer within the next few
weeks.
Okay.
Well hopefully I don't know who
the deputy chief operating
officer is over this but they
should be able to tell
the departments to give you
the list of people in charge of
maintenance of their fleets.
>> Yes, we do have the list is
just to audit us putting it in
the system and then closing
the recommendation out with
the auditors.
>> Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Well thank you and thank you
for the audit.
>> Next up is Councilmember
Foster.
Just a quick question and i
guess first thank you for
the conversations that we're
having today.
But you know, as I look at this
and we were doing an audit and
isolating fleet per se, right.
How are we are we able to work
?
Well, let me tell you what my
concern is.
My concern is everything that I
see a lot of what I see
identified has cost
implications, right As we talk
about vehicle maintenance said
impacts, I like to think that
as we are talking about
inefficiencies, cost impacts
that these are directly or
things that are being
identified are directly
impacting cost of service
studies.
When we talk about enterprise
departments trash and vehicles
as we talk about public
utilities and vehicles and
equipment, is that accurate or
am I missing the connection?
I'm not I'm not really
following your question,
Councilmember.
>> I'm sorry.
So we are looking at the city's
fleet maintenance.
Is this only for general fund
vehicles or does this impact
vehicles in our enterprise
departments are correct
Citywide citywide not city wide
right?
Yes.
So as we go through and we are
having conversations about cost
of service studies rates
increasing so on and so forth
are the inefficiencies that we
are seeing here.
Is it safe to assume that those
are directly impacting as we
say costs are escalating which
is why we are increasing rates
and doing certain things.
Is it safe to say that this
does impact those conversations
and discussions?
I don't know what percent of
those enterprise funds are
related to vehicle costs alone
and we weren't able to put an
exact number on here because
we're not doing preventive
maintenance on time.
That's likely increasing our
long term maintenance costs
25%.
But it's safe to say yes by not
doing preventive maintenance on
time it is increasing total
vehicle costs including for
more significant maintenance
That would need to be done
because the preventive
maintenance wasn't done could
be also driving increased use
of the rental contract that
we've already talked about
today.
So I don't have an exact number
for you And what percent of
those departments budgets that
would not add up to but it's
safe to say that it would have
some kind of an impact.
Yes.
>> Okay.
So my next question will be as
we are looking ahead and we are
looking at what our rental is,
we're going through an audit
You mentioned it earlier as we
are looking at how are we
taking those things into
account where we can start
looking and isolating
the enterprise departments and
impacts as we are continuing to
have these very challenging and
difficult conversations You're
talking about in an upcoming
work audit, right?
Yes.
Yeah.
Those are all things that we
will will take into
consideration Sometimes there
MAY not be data on certain
things for us to look into but
I think looking at it
enterprise versus general fund
makes sense.
>> Okay.
Okay.
Thank you for that.
And I just I guess I just
cannot stress the importance
enough is as I've said on this
Dyess on numerous occasions is
departments understanding their
book of business and importance
thereof to where as we have
these isolated conversations to
keep in mind that they do go
back and impact our rates, cost
of service studies and what we
are going back to our rate
payers And so forth and having
these challenging
conversations.
So I just want to stress
the importance of as we do
these identifying the issues,
implementing the per say
resolutions to those issues or
however we are going to proceed
and just make sure that
the mayor and his team is
prioritizing and making sure
that we are doing what's in
the best interest of our
ratepayers.
Right.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you, Governor Foster.
I see no other speakers on
the lights maybe to bring this
home a little bit I think See
the report actually helped me
identify something that we see
each year when we talk about
the fleet Typically in our
budget is the 4900 vehicles and
a total replacement value of
$437 million I think is what
was identified.
That is a significant amount.
I mean that's almost close to
half $1 billion of vehicles
that we were responsible for.
And so when we talk about
maintenance and the cost,
that's a that's that's a degree
in which I think Councilmember
Moreno mentioned early on even
saving $1 million or two here
or there when it comes to
repairs is a huge amount that
in a year when we were
struggling to fight over small
things what we think are might
be small things and our budget
has a tremendous impact.
We get asked by residents a lot
in the city about different
things that we're facing.
I was at the Mare Mesa Street
Fair this last weekend and I
just want to be open.
I mean one of the questions
that I was asked about was
the city's decision to
implement the collection of
trash and collecting a fee for
that.
And I think this actually ties
a little bit into what
Councilmember Foster just
pointed out, which is for
example, as the city is setting
up a new fee and system when it
comes to collecting trash, I'd
like to think that what we were
setting up is also a system
that will not encounter
the same degree of maintenance
backlogs to its fleet as we see
across our general sort of
funded fleet services today I
know the audit doesn't point
that out but when we are
setting case rates for water
for trash, for other services
that are in these enterprise
departments, we are telling
voters and we were telling
residents that the fees that
they are being charged for to
help uphold the service at
the level at which we believe
is necessary for us to deliver
to the public.
And so I point this out because
one of the examples of my
discussions with residents is
about trash trucks.
We've we've discussed the trash
trucks in the city of San Diego
are running in some cases 12
years when they really have an
eight year lifecycle that many
of our vehicles are
underfunded, our current
maintenance of our vehicles is
underfunded and understaffed
and that has a significant
impact on our ability to
deliver service.
These are things that I frankly
think that every single day our
residents are actually not
they're not hearing they don't
know is an actual challenge in
the city because that connects
directly to the services that
they are concerned about.
Um anyway, so to Councilmember
Foster's point, I do think that
separation between general fund
and enterprise is really
important because for those
enterprise departments I would
like to think that we are
sufficiently staffed when it
comes to technicians And again
I don't know that the audit
necessarily points that out but
I'm going to guess that if that
is still a problem even in
those enterprise funded
departments then we have a we
have a pretty severe issue And
if an enterprise one it
departments we are not seeing
the same backlogs but that
means that we are currently
masking the degree at which our
general fleet is underfunded.
I appreciate customer Yvonne
Wolpert calling out the KPIs
and sure I just want to thank
you for just being honest about
that because I think when we
saw the in the audit report
the fact that we've included
these KPIs for a number of
years but never reported on
them yes I will agree that
having the KPIs in the budget
and then never hearing
the results of it is not that
helpful.
But at the same point I do
think we do want to see those
returned back in the budget
because they serve a purpose in
actually tracking our progress
moving forward.
Um when I look at this audit
the main problem that I see
behind all of this is on
the slide that talks about
the shortage of fleet
technicians.
I don't think there's anything
other than that one single line
that defines the entire
challenge the city faces.
When you look at the change
from 2021 to 2025 when our
fleet technicians went from
overseeing 34 vehicles on
average to 39, I think that
tells the entire story that we
know.
So you look at every other
backlog that we've got other
improvement opportunities
That's all wonderful.
I think you saw some questions
or had some questions about
where we are in terms of fleet
coordinators to this point
since the recommendations were
adopted.
I think it's important for us
to get an update as to where
they actually are.
I'll admit it sounds like it's
taking much longer than it
should be just to collect
contact information to update
folks on where things are.
But behind all of this I think
is the true challenge which is
that the city is severely short
on fleet technician fleet
technicians and that is leading
directly into our shortfall in
terms of maintaining
the schedule that we need for
vehicles.
The only way I see us truly
turning the corner on that is
to actually add additional
technicians and to consider
the trade off in our budgets
When we talk about short term
needs versus long term cost of
the city And again I think when
we look at enterprise funded
departments that gives us an
example There should not be a
single enterprise funded
department that is not fully
funded for its fleet needs
because the shortfall that we
see there translates directly
into the next cost for repairs,
for water, for trash or
anything else.
So if we're making those long
term decisions they should be
fully funded to the necessity
that they have to provide
the services.
There's the mention It was sort
of alluded to but I think I'll
get straight to the core of it
which was the consideration of
changing the Fleet minute
schedule and it sounded like
what that was was to include
weekends And I'm not going to
opine on on whether that might
add any ability from a schedule
standpoint.
I think the auditor pointed out
that there are actually a lot
of other challenges as they
exist already in terms of when
vehicles are brought in that
contribute to the timeline.
But I will say that I am not a
believer that adding weekends
into the schedule would
actually change anything if
there are no actual people that
are being added with it.
If we're just shifting the time
frames in which people are
working to the weekends frankly
I'm not sure how other
employees are going to drop off
vehicles on weekends unless
they're a department that is
consistent working.
Then I'm not sure that's
actually I don't see where
the resolution to that is If it
doesn't actually add hours for
the work to actually take
place.
So I appreciate the audit.
I just think beyond the simple
recommendations that we see
here that certainly makes sense
to all of us is this deeper
rooted issue of building up
number of technicians that we
need to do the job
appropriately.
And I say this because I think
as a reminder as we go out
talking to the public and we
talk about the shortfalls that
the city has when it comes to
potholes, repairing streets
where the trash isn't getting
picked up it actually all comes
back to having people it's not
just the people doing those
jobs but it's the people
ensuring that the vehicles that
the city's purchasing and
spending tons of money on can
actually stay out on the street
to do the job.
So that's a message we've got
to get across because again if
we want to change that we're
going to need an investment
from those very people and
the trust from them that will
complete that job.
So thank you.
And again, just just to clarify
,Councilmember, I think I
think you already know this but
we didn't recommend changing
the schedule.
We recommended scheduling
appointments to kind of smooth
out their workload and also
looking at adding certain
classifications of employees to
help with with the workload as
well.
Yeah, I certainly understood
that.
I think because we heard from
the department that there was a
consideration that that might
be something that is being
discussed.
I mean I'll say very upfront
that I don't see that being
resolved without actually
having more people.
I, I would just like to provide
a comment on the weekends.
So what we have going on right
now is I have volunteers that
will work overtime on a
Saturday actually is averaging
44 on a Saturday just at
Choice division If I have a
Sunday as well that's almost
100 that I can get at a
weekend because if
transportation is out paving a
street and they have eight
vehicles they need to do it.
They're not going to turn into
one if they need all eight.
So what we try to do with come
up with a way that is one
weekend day they get a 410 plan
that will get three days off.
I have other departments or
other repair facilities where
they work five days a week.
The other technicians would
love to have a 410 schedule and
it was just trying to figure a
way to get more labor hours
that wouldn't have departments
that work five days a week.
>> That's all we were trying to
do with that.
Well I certainly look forward
to I'm sure you'll be talking
to folks about what a potential
for implementation is.
I think for me it does Again
just come down to beyond just
having those hours having
the actual capacity to do
the work and I imagine there
are a lot of complications to
looking at both adding
Saturdays and Sundays if we're
already looking at overtime for
one of them or I mean imagine
it's even more challenging to
shift that from overtime to
requiring that those are
the actual days that people
work.
So I see no other comments from
colleagues that does bring us
to the end of this item as
well.
Thank you to the Office of
the City Order for both
presentations and with that we
will now take up non agenda
public comment that Council
members respect and appreciate
the public's input and are
fully committed to protecting
every free every participants
free speech rights at council
and committee meetings.
Quickly please proceed with
knowledge and public comment.
Thank you Council PRESIDENT Pro
Tempore Role 2.7 not agenda
Public comment is an
opportunity for members of
the public to comment on items
that are not on the agenda but
within the subject matter
jurisdiction of the City
Council.
Each speaker will have two
minutes.
Please note if there are more
than eight speakers on a single
topic the time will be 16
minutes.
If you are in chambers please
submit your speaker slip If you
are joining us virtually please
raise your hand by tapping
the raise your hand icon or if
you're calling Participant Star
nine here in chambers we have
Suzanne tell if you'd please
come up to the podium You will
have two minutes when you're
ready.
>> Good afternoon.
My name is Suzanne Gelb.
I am director for Division two
Padre Town Municipal Water
District.
Today though, I am speaking as
a private citizen of San Diego
County.
Last week the city of San Diego
displayed a bar graph itemizing
average monthly water bills for
the San Diego County Water
Agency.
The city of San Diego did not
contact Padre Dan mwd for data
for this graph.
I request the City of San Diego
to release the data and
the methods used to create this
bar graph.
>> Last week's proposed 63%
water and 31% rate increases
are unnecessary.
Why?
In my opinion the rate hikes
are due primarily to failed
business transactions produced
by the San Diego County Water
Authority.
For example, the San Diego
County Water Authority take or
pay contract for desalinated
water guarantees each year more
profit for private investors in
Europe.
Consequently, the city of San
Diego's proposed double digit
water rate hikes.
We'll provide more profit for
foreign investors at
the expense of San Diego
residents and voters.
There are affordable
alternatives to these rate
hikes.
Padre Dam Municipal Water
District a five year business
plan guarantees a0I repeat 0%
water and sewer rate increase
for 2023 to 2027.
I encourage the San Diego City
Council to meet with Padre Dam
Mwb Padre Dam mwd and City of
San Diego can in the spirit of
bipartisanship examine and
discuss the range of
alternatives to ever increasing
water and sewer rate hikes.
>> Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I started the five minute timer
going to those participating
remotely.
We currently have seven people
in the queue.
Francine Maxwell If you can
please unmute.
>> Good afternoon Francine
Maxwell Southeastern San Diego
resident.
I'm concerned with the lack of
attention.
Given by the city of San Diego
for the adjournments especially
the public Safety Committee
when the people were excited to
see our new commissioner that
are being onboarded But
the fact that the annual report
is still in draft form the fact
that the interim executive
Director Council decides not to
follow the city council and
when there's an informational
item allow the public comment
to speak on it.
He has decided to use Robert's
Rules of Order incorrectly and
this is being allowed.
I think there was a
councilmember today on
the diocese that mentioned why
don't you talk to the officers
and meet and confer or be
different?
Why doesn't the chair of public
safety bring in the community
and hold a hearing?
Is trust going to be on
everybody's reelection
materials?
Because I'm sure hearing trust
come from the diocese more than
ever.
You want us to trust you.
You want the community to trust
this and that.
When you know that we literally
can do a pray see who you're
meeting with, where you're
going And pretty much within 2
to 3 phone calls find out what
was done.
And so trust is far, far away
from those of you that are
sitting on this diocese for
the city of San Diego And what
you are costing us.
You've done some things that
you need to atone to.
Once you begin to apologize and
ask for forgiveness then people
can then begin to build trust
in our elected officials within
the city of San Diego.
Cbp is absolutely independent
and the more the city council
continues to say that you can
call the mayor's office or you
can't it's the city council
responsibility to make sure
that our cip is everything that
it needs to be.
Thank you.
Next is Blaire Beekman.
After that Megan Stewart and a
million male men.
Claire please proceed.
>> All right.
Thank you.
Thank you for that previous
public comment.
Good luck on the continuing
work that the Commission.
I wanted to comment that this
council has a lot of
complaining to do about
previous practices, contract
use issues and real kudos to
all the efforts that
Councilperson Persephone will
produce been trying to do for
the past few years to bring
this to light.
It's now brought to light.
Thank you.
You have a lot of work to
continue to do.
Good luck in those efforts As
from that I'm trying to say we
need to acknowledge what we're
doing well and that we are
doing some of this new
accounting practice as well and
it's sorely needed.
How we can be addressing
the future of our.
These are issues of strong
mare.
It can drift into that.
I hope we can keep steady with
that.
I just keep we feel that city
Council has a more of a
prerogative and good intentions
to build what's fair and equal
an equal process and an
accountable process.
And so I hope that we're taking
seriously how we build
the future of these practices
and with that we acknowledge
ourselves along the way that we
are doing a good job together.
We have to be doing that with
tec accountability.
Again, we are trying
desperately to come out of an
era of continual war and 911 in
this country So these practices
what we're doing is incredibly
important to myself.
Accountability is totally a
part of that.
The work we do here at
the local level asks what
they're doing at the national
and international level who
keep voice during war.
We have some promises of peace
talks but countries are gearing
up to build their economies
towards war.
What does that mean for us on
the local level?
We're building accountability
and peace.
That's what we share with
the world and the world better
listen to what we're doing well
right now.
Keep up the good work.
>> Thank you.
Thank you.
Next is Megan Stewart.
If you can please unmute.
>> Thank you.
Good afternoon council members.
Thank you for the opportunity
to speak today.
My name's Megan Stewart and I
work with youth in the world of
public health prevention.
>> OCTOBER 10th is World Mental
Health Day which serves to
remind us that mental health
must be a priority in every
policy decision.
I want to draw your attention
today to the effects of
substance use, particularly
marijuana on youth mental
health and to urge stronger
protections in how we regulate
and promote it.
>> DR. Daniel Arman,
psychiatrist and brain imaging
specialists reports that and
studies comparing about 1000
marijuana users to over 25,000
non-users using spect brain
imaging.
Marijuana users show lower
cerebral blood flow across
nearly every brain region.
The hippocampus critical for
memory and learning was
especially affected.
These findings challenge
the portrayal of marijuana as a
harmless substance.
What's especially dangerous is
that young adult brains are
still under development.
DR. Ahmed warns that when
someone begins using marijuana
before age 25 it can arrest
normal brain maturation.
If you heard it early, he says
it might not ever catch up.
There's also evidence that
consistent marijuana use MAY
accelerate brain aging by an
estimated three years on
average in people with
marijuana use disorder.
These harms are not
theoretical.
Local surveys show that only
32% of youth believe marijuana
is extremely bad or very bad
for them compared to 75% who
feel that way about tobacco.
These perceptions matter
because when youth see
normalizing messages and ads,
billboards or permissive public
policy it weakens prevention
efforts not only during this
month but every month.
I would like to urge
the Council to act with courage
in protecting the mental health
of San Diego youth.
Please strive to adopt strong
limits on marijuana
advertising.
Enforce clear restrictions
around access for youth.
Stringent protections against
normalization in public spaces
including promoting smoke free
spaces.
>> Your time has concluded.
Next as Million Dollar Man If
you can please unmute.
Okay I promise I'll keep my
composure.
I agree with the previous
speaker on marijuana If she's
still in the room she can call
me.
We'll talk about it.
But I also agree what MR.
Foster made a very very
intelligent question and I
completely agree on what he was
talking about but I'd like to
talk about something that you
will you'll never believe this
and I have to get it off my
chest.
A lady in my neighborhood came
over to my house about a year
and a half ago and I told her I
said, you know, I ride my
peloton bike on my driveway in
my thong bikini and I get a lot
of abuse from people.
And she said don't worry about
it, Danny, I I'm with the Pride
parade and I agree with you and
you get pride and you ran in
pride and we're all for you and
don't worry about it You can.
Well anyway, a couple of days
ago our next door accom
the same lady commented on my
thong bikini and she said No
one will vote for you because
you you wear that thong bikini
on your driveway.
Well the lady is the partner of
Gen Campbell and my opponent is
work for Gen Campbell and he's
gay and he's on the Pride
committee And if you don't
think that oh my GOD, you know
I've I've seen it all and I've
heard it all until until now.
But but nothing could be more
blatantly disgustingly
hypocritical than what I just
told you and my friends
everything is fair in love and
war in all ad politics.
>> Your time has concluded
Madison if you can please
unmute I'm beginning council
members.
>> My name is Madison and I'm
here tonight to speak in
support of Youth Drug
Prevention Month and to draw
your attention to an important
emerging public health concern
which is second hand exposure
to e-cigarette and tobacco
smoke among youth, according to
a newly released study from
the 2023 National Youth Tobacco
Survey.
Over 64% of us students in
grades six through 12 which
amounts to an estimated 18
million children reported
exposure to second hand
e-cigarette or tobacco smoke
within the past 30 days.
That means most of our youth
are routinely breathing in
harmful substances even if they
don't personally use these
products.
The study found that second
hand exposure especially to
e-cigarettes is strongly
associated with the early
stages of youth e-cigarette use
including increases of debility
and experimentation.
For example, students exposed
to e-cigarette vapor were more
than twice as likely to try
e-cigarettes compared to those
with no exposure though
the study didn't find a direct
link between secondhand
exposure and daily use or quit
attempts.
The findings are clear.
Exposure drives initiation.
As we recognize OCTOBER as
Youth Prevention Month and
prepare for Red Ribbon Week, I
urge this Council to consider
strategies to reduce youth
exposure in public spaces
especially parks, schools and
multifamily housing.
We must ensure our local
environments protect and not
endanger our young people by
limiting second hand exposure.
We don't just protect lungs, we
protect futures.
Thank you for your time and
continued commitment to public
health.
>> Thank you.
Next is Barbara Gordon After
that will be Kathleen Lippert.
Good afternoon.
I wanted to recognize that
OCTOBER is substance use
prevention month.
I think increasing public
awareness of the dangers of
substance use and its effect on
the community is vital.
This month provides an
opportunity to remember
the value of prevention
prevention, preventing
substance use like vaping or
marijuana at before it starts.
It's a crucial part of a
comprehensive approach to
addressing our addiction
crisis.
Substance use trends in
the U.S. Have changed in recent
years, especially with
the landscape of marijuana
which is the most common
substance among our 12 to 25
year olds.
And that is being treated for
substance abuse disorder,
outpatient or inpatient.
It says in 2020 for e-r visits
linked to marijuana surpassed
those driven by opiates and
those related only to marijuana
use.
Rose 37% in 2021 to 58% in
2024.
Marijuana use has played a
significant bit role in
the overall substance abuse in
America.
The National Survey on Drug Use
and Health data in 2024 saw
20.1 million cases of marijuana
use disorder vastly more than
opiate cocaine or meth.
The city must not prioritize
marijuana businesses while
ignoring the risk factors.
We must do more to enact
protective factors that buffer
and educate young people about
the harms of substance use and
abuse.
Thank you for letting me speak
.
Thank you.
Next is Kathleen Lippert.
If you can please unmute after
that is the original 77499.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Cheryle and committee members.
>> Those of us who follow
public health research
celebrated the governor's
signing of ab 455 a law
requiring sellers of single
family residential properties
to disclose in writing previous
smoking or vaping on
the property.
The Department of Toxic
Substances Control will update
the homeowner's guide to
environmental Hazards to
include information on
the dangers of the chemical
residue left by smoking and
before 55 would not have been
necessary if a cost benefit
analysis of the unintended
harmful impacts on the public
and the environment had been
undertaken.
Public electeds and the public
would have recognize that
the harms from agreeing to a
policy and bargain of treating
public health safety and
the environment for promised
drug revenues were predictable.
The adverse health impacts on
the public and the environment
will take generations and
hundreds of millions of dollars
to uncover and even longer to
mitigate.
But much of the damage to
the lives of users, their
family of communities and
environmental damage to public
parks state, county and federal
lands MAY never be remediated
in accordance with the state's
decision to protect the public
from the harms of third hand
smoke could be furthered if
the city would take similar
steps to adopt an ordinance
requiring all low income,
public and private properties
be smoke free.
Thank you for letting me speak.
Thank you.
Next is the original If you can
please unmute then 749 and 1384
is our final speaker.
>> The original academy before
you?
Yeah.
I wanted to know when going to
audit Tent City.
I want to know how many more
people are going to need to die
before something because like I
said a minute ago Shannon from
the earlier fall has passed
away a couple of weeks ago on
Thursday.
She died of an overdose and she
was 49 years old And just
before that Tammy Jackson was
37 as well died in her chair.
And again, people are being
sexually assaulted.
You know, and when Shannon died
the employees are sitting there
saying don't give her anything
like don't give her nor can she
give her life could have been
saved if they weren't getting
instructions that were deadly
to me.
And you guys sit there and you
say that you know, you're
helping homeless people and
they're literally dying on your
watch and you're not doing
anything about it but laughing
And I just don't understand
that It's like you know, I mean
even the food that they're
contracted to give none of
these guys would eat that.
You sit up on that diet and you
gloat like you're helping
people and people I mean
seriously, who else has to die
?
Like how many times do I have
to say it and then come back
and report that someone else
has died And it shouldn't be
that you know, Steven is
sitting there laughing about
it.
These are people's lives who go
into those centers thinking
that they're going to get help
and they don't.
They get stuck there And then
when something happens like
they're being told to go into a
bathroom and you know, give
oral sex to an employee because
he gave someone drugs and
alcohol and then they're told
not to report it And then just
because they fire someone, that
person is roaming the streets
And this is all because of you
guys.
>> Your time has concluded Next
7499 if you can please unmute.
>> Bob Kozinski here I want to
start by saying good job to
council member Von Wilpert for
holding staff accountable here
in council chambers and for not
accepting a quote.
We'll get back to you, answer
Council member Von Wilpert If
you use that level of passion
to dig into the terrifying
slide or issue you will find
some surprises.
We've never had a meeting and
I'm hereby requesting a meeting
with you Council member Von
Wilpert.
The City Clerk has my contact
information if you should
decide to honor that request.
As I mentioned in my earlier
comments, today's meeting
highlights the gross
mismanagement that is endemic
throughout this city.
We are seeing it everywhere.
It's in the finance department.
It's in the operations
department.
It's in the contracting
department.
It's everywhere throughout
the city government.
This city needs independent
oversight from the top to
the bottom.
Former city leaders have
recognized this need and that's
why both citizen's committees
and advisory boards are
provided in the city charter.
The auditor's office has
uncovered some shocking things
that they've looked into but
the auditor's office cannot
constantly review and inspect
all of the contracts and
departments and operations
throughout this city.
Furthermore, even the city
auditors don't have
the expertise to recognize all
of the problems that might
exist in this city.
Councilmember Moreno got it
right.
The city does not have that
broad expertise.
It is therefore irresponsible
of this council to deactivate
any advisory boards such as
the Torrey Pines City Park
Advisory Board.
I am again requesting that any
one of you council members any
one of you request an agenda
item to reactivate the Torrey
Pines City Park Advisory Board
and bring that item to this
Council.
Any council member can do that
so you're all accountable.
Take the initiative.
It's time to step up.
Also good job to all public
speakers especially Francine
Maxwell.
Very well said.
>> Thank you.
Thank you.
Our final speaker is 1384.
>> If you can please unmute.
>> Ernie Casco La Hoya resident
Senior pilot sdp.
You referred me to the district
attorney to stop the illegal
commercialization of Torrey
Pines by the board by an out of
control sex shop flight
director turning her freedom
into a privilege for license
and plea And this is completely
illegal needs to stop $400
annually to use the airport by
threat of violence or else is
completely unacceptable under
any terms and retaliation.
I've been assaulted given
the deadly wing that collapsed
in mid-flight.
My hope is abated that with net
sales poisoned with a deadly
virus and a biohazard.
Is the city committing genocide
Because I'm dying with stage
four cancer.
It's time to compensate those
who have been damaged falsely
accused and arrested.
The San Diego recreational
waiver stops the crime, secures
city liabilities, restores our
constitutional recreational
rights and freedoms back to
the original agreement.
I have a petition on Change.Org
with nearly with over 600 700
signatures demanding
authorities take acid black
Beach recreational scandal to
stop the commercialization and
privatization of the San Diego
Park.
It's time to end the dispute
and implement the San Diego
recreational waiver as
the solution for JULY report.
Thank you, Ernie Casco Thank
you.
>> And that does conclude non
agenda public comment for
today's meeting.
>> Thanks to the public for
their comments and I believe
that brings us to the end of
today's agenda.
So we will now conclude today's
meeting and oh yes sorry
looking forward at first to
the city attorney, do you have
anything to report up from
closed session?
Yes, Thank you.
Council PRESIDENT Pro Tem Today
in a closed session meeting
the city council took
the following action.
The city council voted on
closed session item number one
Lisa Castro versus city of San
Diego.
San Diego Superior Court case
number 37 2023 55625cupo ctl To
accept a signed settlement
offer in the amount of
$115,000.
The motion passed 720 with
council members LaCava and
Marino absent.
That concludes my report.
>> Thanking the City Attorney's
office will now adjourn council
the next regularly scheduled
council meeting on Tuesday
OCTOBER 7th, 2025 at 10:00 am