I am Maureen Cavanaugh. It is Monday, June 5th. San Diego city Council members meet this afternoon for a final revision and an expected approval of the net -- next physical -- fiscal budget. If the Council does not approve the budget proposal for $5 million to be spent on a special election, it may spell the end to the proposed SoccerCity proposal. Joining me is Claire. Welcome. Thank you. There is money added to the budget that was not in the original budget proposal. The city Council and the analyst seem to suggest that the extra money is spent on overtime or police officers. There is a lack of officers and staffing problems in the department. They are suggesting the money is $3 million that could be spent on overtime to make up for the staffing shortages. The idea -- they suggest spending $350,000 on a study for police recruiting and retention which would deal with the staffing shortage and a marketing plan to attract recruits. Some of that money is going to restore some of the arts cuts that were made. How much money is restored? Back the suggestion is adding $1 million. The original budget proposal from Mayor Faulconer cut spending back to $10.4 million. He ran into opposition from the arts group and people that support the art. In his revised version, he added $2.4 million. They consider adding back a little bit more. The mayor has proposed $5 million in the budget to cover a special election in November. The Council has not decided whether to put the convention center expansion or the SoccerCity development on a ballot but could a no vote squash the idea of a special election? Back yes. It is interesting because the votes were not supposed to come until later this month. People started saying maybe we will not spend the money on the special election. Effectively, they could decide to kill the special election today if they want to. What are the arguments made for and against holding the special election? The people for essay we cannot wait until 2018 to get the money. One idea is to bring a major league soccer team to San Diego. The people behind the stadium say if we wait, they will not give us a team. They need things figured out sooner than at. They say we need to get started on the convention center expansion and we will lose money if we delay it. Some money would go towards homeless programs. Why delay funding on dealing with the homeless crisis? There are people who are opposed to it. Right. The people opposed to it say we can take $5 million and spend it on homelessness now. There are other things we could use the money on. They say measure L which was passed last year, it has the intention of the most people voting on a process position as possible. All propositions need to be decided in fall elections when the most people vote. Immediately, if you have a special election, that goes against the spirit of what was just past. Where do the members come down on the issue? Do we know? We know four Democrats, except Myrtle call all oppose the special election. They say we can wait until 2018 to have the election. Scott Sherman, I Republican says we need the special selection. The other Republicans say they are still deciding. Myrtle call will not say. I reached out to her office and she had a statement that says I have not disclosed my position. I said yes, I know. We are waiting to find out. We do not know what will happen. What are the possible outcomes of the vote today? Back the city Council could today decide to keep the funding in the budget for the special election. Later on, either decide to have a special election or to not have the special election. They could put the decision down to later this month by keeping up biting and. They could decide to strip the money for the special elections and that would -- I do not think we could has special elections this year if they take the money out of the budget pick The Siddle -- the Council meeting is scheduled for 2:00 today. I have been speaking with Claire Trageser . Thank you. Thank you.
The City Council could effectively kill a special election on funding for a convention center expansion and a soccer stadium in Mission Valley during their meeting Monday.
The council is not scheduled to vote on whether to hold a November special election until later this month. But council members could decide to eliminate the funding for that election during their vote on the fiscal 2018 budget Monday afternoon.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer's current budget proposal includes $5 million for a special election this November. If five of the nine council members vote to remove that funding, the election would likely be postponed until November 2018.
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Four Democrats on the council — David Alvarez, Barbara Bry, Georgette Gomez and Chris Ward — have already stated publicly that they oppose a special election.
A spokeswoman for Council President Myrtle Cole, also a Democrat, said on Friday Cole "has not disclosed her position on this matter."
Two Republicans on the council — Mark Kersey and Chris Cate — said they have not yet decided.
Kersey posted on Twitter that he is "carefully weighing the various options."
Carefully weighing the various options. Plenty of constituent feedback coming in every day
— Mark Kersey (@markkersey) June 1, 2017
Cate's spokeswoman said "as of right now, Councilmember Cate has not taken a position on funding a special election."
On Friday, a spokesman for Councilman Scott Sherman said Sherman "believes it is very important to fund the special election."
"Defunding would kill a citizens’ initiative that collected over 100,000 signatures within a record time of 12 days," said Jeff Powell. "The people should have a right to vote on this measure when it counts, in November."
A representative for the fourth Republican, Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, did not return a request for comment.
Nick Stone, the developer behind SoccerCity, said last month that delaying the vote until 2018 would kill the project because it removes the chance for the city to attract a soccer franchise. His company, La Jolla-based FS Investors, will not pursue its development plan if there is no Major League Soccer team.
In addition to the stadium, FS Investors wants to build homes, commercial space and a river park on the 166-acre Qualcomm Stadium site.
Potential Convention Center Expansion
Along with the soccer stadium proposal, council members are weighing a special election on the mayor's plan to raise San Diego's hotel room tax by up to 3 percent. The money would go towards funding an expansion of the convention center, as well as road repair projects and homeless programs.
The plan would need two-thirds of voters to approve it.
On Friday, Faulconer said delaying the vote to November 2018 would cost the city $76 million.
He pointed to an analysis from the city's chief financial officer that estimates delaying construction of the expansion will cost $43 million. On top of that, the mayor said the delay would cost the city $13 million in lost hotel tax revenue, plus $10 million each for homeless funding and road repair.
"San Diegans need the City Council to step up and take action," he said in a statement. "The numbers clearly show that we can’t afford to kick the can down the road. With each month that goes by we’re losing jobs and revenue we need to fix our roads and address the homeless crisis on our streets. The City Council’s choice is clear: they can take action to solve these problems or they can put their heads in the sand and let these problems get worse."
Faulconer had originally proposed putting a hotel tax increase on last year's ballot, but then backed off the idea.
"We want this measure to pass at the polls, and we believe a future ballot gives us a better path to success than June," the mayor's spokesman Matt Awbrey said at the time.
San Diego Police Department Spending
The council will also weigh other funding decisions on Monday, including whether to boost spending on police officer staffing and support for area arts programs.
Last week the city's Independent Budget Analyst's office suggested increasing the San Diego Police Department's overtime budget by $3 million to ensure that enough officers are on duty each day.
The police department has suffered a chronic shortage of officers in recent years, and police officials have warned that with recruit numbers falling short and projected retirements of current officers, they could have trouble meeting minimum patrol staffing levels in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The hike would bring the total overtime expenditures to $26.2 million, which would "fully fund" the police department's needs in that area, the budget report said.
Also recommended by the Independent Budget Analyst was an extra $350,000 for a study on police recruiting and retention, and a marketing plan to attract recruits, for a total of $500,000.
Arts Funding
Arts funding could be boosted by using $1 million from money expected to be left over from the current fiscal year, the budget analyst said.
In his original budget proposal, the mayor slashed financial support for arts programs by 31 percent, to $10.4 million. After running into opposition from the council and arts supporters, he added back $2.4 million.
The money goes to the city's Commission on Arts and Culture, which spreads the funds among numerous organizations — including the Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse and Balboa Park museums.
