Mayor Kevin Faulconer Thursday morning signed off on a new city budget that increases funding for litter removal citywide. The new city budget will add $6.5 million over the last budget to create a second shift of street cleaning crews so the city could respond to complaints twenty-four hours a day.
Faulconer was joined by City Councilwoman Vivian Moreno, who has championed the “Clean SD” initiative.
“I’m proud to support a budget that invests in our parks and libraries, expands our efforts to clean up illegal dumping and graffiti, and adds more police officers and firefighters to keep us safe,” Moreno said.
After he signed the budget, KPBS asked the mayor about his meeting with President Trump, which took place a day after Trump threatened to arrest a million “illegal” immigrants.
RELATED: San Diego Mayor Meets With President Trump At White House
Faulconer said the subject didn’t come up, and instead the two discussed the importance of Congress passing a proposed trade deal with Mexico known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“We really had the opportunity to focus a brief time on USMCA and how important trade is here in San Diego and a hundred-thousand jobs that are at stake,” Faulconer said.
The mayor also said he told the president that any tariffs on trade would be damaging for San Diego’s economy.
“Tariffs are the wrong way to go. Free trade works for San Diego. We know how to do it. We know how to compete,” Faulconer said.
Earlier this month, Trump used the threat of increased tariffs to make Mexico pledge that it would take more steps to stem the flow of Central-American immigrants across its southern border.
