Five local homeowners are suing the city of San Diego and six city council members over the city's proposed trash collection fee, which they allege is unlawful because the fee exceeds the costs of providing trash services.
The lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court this week states that with the passage of Measure B — which ended free trash pickup services for single-family homeowners — the city has proposed a nearly $48 monthly fee that should be based on the cost of services, but is instead "based on projections and speculation."
The residents are asking a judge to block the fee by arguing it violates Proposition 218, a state ballot measure that holds utility fees cannot exceed the costs of providing those services. The city council voted last month to advance the fee proposal to a public hearing, which is scheduled for June 9 and could result in its final approval.
The mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment and the City Attorney's Office declined comment on pending litigation, as is customary.
Michael Aguirre, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said the residents are willing to pay fees if they are closer to what was expected upon Measure B's passage.
"With this lawsuit, we are attempting to draw a line in the sand," Aguirre said. "Homeowners are happy to pay their fair share for picking up and collecting solid waste and recycling. But what they're not going to allow is for the city to impose a tax."
The complaint states that per a consultant hired by the city, the projected cost of services is nearly $149 million, while solid waste collection costs the year prior were around $89 million. The lawsuit alleges those costs were based on "guess estimates" and the consultant acknowledged in its cost- of-service study that its projections could widely differ from the actual results.
According to the lawsuit, the city was unable to identify all 222,500 city property taxpayers, but Aguirre said those residents should be surveyed in order to determine what level of trash service they want and then calculate an appropriate fee.
"Instead of enrolling the trash collection customers and then allowing the customers to select their level of solid waste collection service, the mayor and most of the city council have arbitrarily decided to impose a tax instead of an actual cost-of-service," the complaint states.
