Gloria's Management Gap, an Eight-Year Fence, and the County's November Ballot
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The political fallout from a miscalculated and miscommunicated trash fee has widened into a pointed debate about how San Diego City Hall is actually run day to day. Mayor Todd Gloria acknowledged Monday that the error was, in his words, 'unacceptable,' and apologized — but candidates in competitive council races are pressing further. In District 2, both Richard Bailey and Nicole Crosby have called for reinstating operational safeguards widely read as demands to fill the Chief Operating Officer position left vacant since former COO Eric Dargan was fired in early 2025. District 4 Councilmember Henry Foster has been direct in criticizing the administration's management structure. Since Dargan's departure, Gloria has reportedly been absorbing those responsibilities himself.
A separate civic milestone is also imminent downtown: construction is expected to begin this week on a security fence around San Diego Police Department headquarters, eight years after the project was first conceived. The fence will stand roughly eight to ten feet high and carry an estimated cost of approximately three million dollars, bringing the main building in line with security standards already in place at other department facilities.
At the county level, Measure A on the November 3rd ballot is drawing heightened scrutiny as mail ballots are set to begin arriving next week. The measure would extend supervisor term limits from two terms to three, create an ethics commission, a program auditor, and a budget analyst, and — most controversially among public health advocates — allow the Board of Supervisors to remove senior officials including the county public health officer and the Office of Emergency Services director without cause, by a four-fifths vote.
Two supervisor races will simultaneously reshape the Board's ideological balance. In District 5, San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones faces Kyle Krahel for the open seat being vacated by Jim Desmond, who is running for Congress. In District 4, incumbent Monica Montgomery Steppe faces former La Mesa Councilmember Kristine Alessio. Vote centers open October 24th. On the regional energy front, Coronado formally became the eighth member city of San Diego Community Power after the agency's board approved its membership on September 24th, joining San Diego, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, National City, and unincorporated county communities in the collective electricity procurement program.