S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on this episode of KPBS Midday Edition. From data centers to housing , San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria joins us to talk about the city's priorities. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. So today , the San Diego City Council is expected to vote on a proposal to temporarily stop data center development in San Diego. The council move came at the urging of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria , who issued an executive order last week calling for a pause in the construction of data centers , arguing the city needs to set clear rules around them. Here to talk more about this and other news from City Hall is San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. Mayor Gloria , welcome back to Midday Edition.
S2: It's great to be here. Thanks , Jade.
S1: Good to have you here. So the council should be voting soon on your proposed pause in data center construction. What are your main concerns with this?
S2: Well , I think like all of your listeners and viewers , we are seeing the rapid expansion of AI and data centers , and that has some concerns. And my concerns are land use based , right? Currently , under the city's rules , these would basically be permitted like warehouses. But we recognize and know that data centers don't operate like warehouses. They have significant impacts on energy and water and other neighborhood concerns. And we should take a moment to make sure that we account for that zone forward appropriately and then enable to permit them where they belong right now because of our exposure. I think this emergency action is the way to protect our neighborhoods. While we put sensible rules in place. We welcome innovation , but we want to make sure it's done right.
S1: And your statement about this , you said that getting feedback from San Diegans was important. How can people give their feedback?
S2: Well , with the council's action. Today , I'm requesting that we launch a working group. That would be made up of stakeholders , interested parties , the public , to help us develop these rules. Right. We've seen these be very controversial in other cities , and my goal is to try and get ahead of this. What if someone would show up in our permitting department today? I want to make sure that I can tell them with certainty where the community would like them to be , and how we can minimize their impacts. You've heard the stories about how this can inflate people's energy and water bills. We need to assess for that and try and prevent that. Recognizing that there's an affordability crisis going on across our country currently , and anything that adds to that , we really want to be very , very judicious about.
S1: Do you think that there's much appetite from San Diegans to have data centers anywhere?
S2: From what I see across our country? The answer is no. But we know that they're going to show up in certain communities. And without these protections , there may not be the ability to say no , right. We have to provide developers with this is what we want. If you adhere to this , we'll permit you. But right now , again , I think the bar has been set low in our city , largely because this is a new land use and we need to get ahead of it. So but to your question , I certainly hear the skepticism from the public. I understand that my goal would be to craft legislation and regulations that would address those concerns and say , if you hit these bars for compliance , that will allow you to be in this location , but not over here , where it may not make as much sense. I think what I've heard from mayors and other cities across this country that do have them , they may have previously had no rules like we currently have , and they find out that they have real impacts , not just the cost of living impacts , but like noise. And you may have these things pop up next to a residential community where the residents now have to deal with this. The sight and sound impacts of this. We want to consider that and address it in advance.
S1: So much to consider. Utility bills , water use , all of those things.
S2: Exactly right. And this is cutting edge stuff. So I think we're right on time. But as we see people starting to come forward with ideas or notions of it , let's have rules in place before they show up in our permit office.
S1: Now , your executive order follows news this week or last week , rather , that a developer is considering bringing a data center to the Navarre site near downtown San Diego , which sits on federal land. So would this moratorium prevent a data center being built on that site?
S2: No , as you correctly state , that's federal land for which our land use rules don't apply. But this moratorium is important because even on the lands that we do have control over , we don't have , I think , suitable regulations. But on the Navarre facility. You know , I want to be clear. The city of San Diego is a proud military town. We want to keep the Navarre headquarters here in San Diego , and we have been willing to work with our Navy partners to build a new , state of the art headquarters that would replace those old hangars that are along the five freeway in Mission Hills , Old Town. The way we've discussed that is that when building that new HQ , that you'd also have a dense urban community of housing , of retail to help pay for that new headquarters. This idea of a data center is a relatively new development and one that which the city would have some concerns and would hope to have some sort of level of input and influence over the Navy as they consider this , even if we don't have the ability to deny a permit. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Now , the backlash to this data center , um , really fits into a broader trend of public concern around artificial intelligence. Last week , the San Diego City Council took its first step to move forward to end the use of automated license plate readers , or Alpers and the city's contract with the tech company that runs the flock safety cameras. You have remained in support of the technology. Why?
S2: Because it keeps San Diegans safe. And I can't say this enough. Listen , I share the public's general concerns about how my data and your data are being used or not used by any number of technologies. But what is often missed in this conversation is the fact that early in my administration , you may remember my predecessor had these cameras , told nobody about them , and was forced through public pressure to turn them off. I spent the first two years as mayor working with the community , all relevant stakeholders to put together what we call the trust ordinance. This is what protects people's privacy and provides clear rules for the road for law enforcement who want to use this in our city. And that , I believe , is the gold standard now. What other communities are talking about adopting we have had in place since 2022. That said , folks now are having maybe a change of heart. And what I can just tell you , Jade , is that we have seen a dramatic reduction in auto vehicle thefts. We've seen the ability to locate missing children and senior citizens and reunite them with families. We've been able to solve roughly one third of the homicides in our city last year utilizing this technology. So the bottom line for me is I know that this is helping keep our community safe , and my job as mayor is not to make life easier for criminals. It's to hold them accountable in our city. And that's what this technology helps us to do.
S1: You've solved a third of the homicides last year. Were those cases that would have otherwise gone unsolved?
S2: It's hard to tell because we have incredible police officers and detectives that are going to work very hard , regardless of what tools are provided for them. But what I know is , in a city where we are roughly 200 police officers short of what we are authorized and budgeted for. We need to find ways to fill in those gaps. Now , obviously I'd like to hire more police officers , but the bottom line is , is that if your car is stolen , if your child goes missing , or if you're somehow , God forbid , involved in a homicide where you want to see justice , I believe that this technology makes it more likely that we can provide that justice. These are not cameras that are being monitored 24 over seven by a human being that's trying to get into your business. What it is , is an investigative tool that when we say , okay , we had a hit and run , as we've had on a number of occasions , there's a white sedan with this particular attribute. We can put that in the system and help locate that vehicle and find that suspect and bring them into our criminal justice system for them to be judged and have their day in court. Absent this technology , it may not be that we can find that individual. And I don't want to look a parent or a victim of crime in the face and say that I could not do everything I possibly could to get you the justice you deserve , or to hold a criminal accountable. Losing this technology would mean that that's much more likely to happen.
S1: Before I move on , how helpful has it been in solving cases of kidnappings? And.
S2: Well , it's been very helpful. And we're a little more cases. I can't tell you off the top of my head , I can tell you an instance that it was very eye catching for me. We had an individual who was praying at local malls in the Mission Valley area looking after children. He attempted to contact two different children. There was the license plate reader that allowed us to get him into custody , and I don't know what would have happened if we did not have that data. That technology and that ability to find him before he continued on his path. Both of those children were fine. They ultimately were not taken by him. But it's just that risk alone that I do not believe is worth taking. I believe that the protections that we have in place for people's individual privacy , the transparency that we have , the fact that we have these council meetings , is an opportunity for the public to weigh in on an annual basis. I believe we've covered these concerns in a way that it balances the need for safety and and privacy , and we should continue on the path that we're on.
S1: Would you veto a council effort to remove all our cameras from city streets?
S2: I will use every power I have to try and make sure that we can keep San Diegans safe , and that would include using that to preserve this technology. Yes. Yes. Okay.
S1: Okay. So I want to move on now to talk about the city's chief operating officer position. The city recently hired a new COO. And you received criticism last Friday when you fired the city's last CEO and decided to fill the role yourself. Do you stand by that decision? 1,000%.
S2: 1,000%. In the 22 months that I served in the role of chief operating officer for our city , in addition to the role as mayor , I want to make two things clear. One was that I received no additional paper , that I kept my same salary. We saved those monies , but more importantly , what we were at was at sort of a rock bottom of sorts with our city's finances , and we needed to make some very difficult and hard choices over the last two budget periods to put the city on a stronger financial footing. I'll be happy to come back here next month when we release our new five year financial outlook , which will show a dramatic improvement in the city's finances. So those last two years were years where I spent with my nose to the grindstone , because ultimately the buck stops with me. I'm the mayor of the city , and I'm the one that's ultimately held responsible. And I was willing to do that work myself because I knew that I would be held accountable. We've gotten through some very difficult decisions. I recognize not all of them are popular , but what their end result is , is that we're on a stronger financial footing , and now is the time to invite some additional help in the form of Bethany Bozak , who is going to be an incredible leader of this city and help me to advance our priorities. But this is really a new phase that we're going into. And what we have to do is responsibly rebuild this organization. If this is the new foundation , let's build this back responsibly , sustainably , in a way that prioritizes things that I think need to be prioritized public safety , homelessness , housing , production , and fixing our city's roads.
S1: And of course , you know , calls for the new CEO gained momentum after the city's major trash fee era earlier this month , when tens of thousands of households received incorrect bills on their property taxes. Um , talk to me a bit about what happened there. Was there a process that was not in place , or did someone fail to do their duty?
S2: A couple of things. I mean , basically this is what this comes down to is human error. And what that means is that we're , you know , creating something for the first time in over a hundred years , right? The city is historically not charged for residential trash collection. We've got that system up in place. We've survived legal and political challenges , dispersed hundreds of thousands of new cans to folks , create a new billing system. This was a mistake. And what basically it came down to was human hands transferring information from the city of San Diego to the county tax collector. That process ought to have been automated. It was not. It now is. And the most important thing I think your listeners need to know is that the folks who were overbuilt , who paid too much , who've already been refunded , the folks who are now getting new bills in their mail. And so that's for the folks who are overbuilt for the under bills. We'll be following up directly with those people in the weeks ahead. But the bottom line is , is that we have investigated this. We will have folks held accountable. We've corrected the mistakes that I believe led to this , and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that it never happens again. It is regrettable. It should not have happened. And I certainly apologize for the fact that that happened. But the bottom line is the fix has been put in place and we are going forward.
S1: All right. I want to move to El Nino because you declared a local emergency earlier this month as a way to prepare for the likelihood of extreme weather driven by , you know , a historically strong El Nino. How can you assure San Diegans , particularly , particularly from those areas that saw such devastation from flooding back in January of 2024 , that the city is prepared and storm drains are cleared and prepared for the extreme weather that could be headed our way.
S2: Well , we can't take we can't be prepared for every challenge , but we are better prepared than we've ever been , largely because we started many months ago preparing. And so you all have covered this. You've seen us create the berms along our beaches and our bays to protect those properties which today are under threat because of the king tides and the rising tides , as long as along with other weather factors for those folks along the creek , that area still continues to be challenged. That particular storm channel is engineered to small. It was built 100 years ago , and it is not sized for what it needs to be today. But to your question , that emergency back in 2024 allowed us through the emergency powers of that declaration to clear all that out. And despite the city's very difficult budgets over the last two years , we've continued to commit the resources necessary to keep those channels clear. I was out with channel clearing crews just a few days ago , watching them again. Take preparations now to be prepared. Ultimately , the systems are what they are. They're relatively clear. But in the case of what happened in 2024 , we basically have 1000 year storm arrive in a channel that is sized much smaller than that. No amount of clearance will prevent that from happening , but my sincere hope is that we have. We have better position than we ever have been. We've done everything is communicating directly with property owners , sending everyone in a floodplain a written notice to make sure that they're aware. We're trying to do everything we can to prepare because I do believe our weather service , this is predicted to be quite impactful , and you're seeing just the beginning of it now. We're only in October. This will continue through January and we need people to be prepared. The city is taking preparations. Our ask is for San Diegans to take preparations as well.
S1: And something you said you can't prepare for every disaster. You can prepare to respond. Correct.
S2: Correct. And that's important too , because we have taken lessons learned. I think there's nothing that would make anyone feel great about what has happened in the past. But we do have to make sure that people know that we've looked at what's happened then and tried to improve upon that. So , for example , prepositioning assets in areas just this past week and passing out not just sandbags , but sandbags with sand in it , that was a criticism that we've had in the past. I think that was an accurate one. And so what we've done is go out and raise resources to actually provide that directly to residents. Those sandbags are helping people right now in some of those communities that we're talking about , and they surely will be helpful over the next number of weeks as we deal with what El Nino may throw our way. But we are definitely learned from past mistakes and past storms , and we'll continue to iterate as this climate continues to change. I mean , think about it. Just a few weeks ago , 103 degrees on a Monday and then a tropical storm on Saturday in the city. When have we ever seen this before? This is our new normal and we have to be prepared to do it. My commitment to San Diegans is that we're going to continue to look at each incident and try and learn and be better the next time.
S1: Well , as you point to , I mean , right now , high tides are a big concern along San Diego's coast , particularly in areas where flooding seems to happen year after year. Mission beach being one of those areas. So what needs to happen to fix those flood prone areas?
S2: Well , so some of that's very difficult to address. But I will say in the Mission Beach area , Thanks to President Joe Biden and the bipartisan infrastructure law , we were able to get about $700 million in resources to improve areas. That project in Mission Beach is going underway currently. So some of those roads are tore up. There's some other things that are going on. We're improving the capacity of the system in that neighborhood , which will help with some of this. Now , some of what we're seeing right now exceeds historic standards right by a foot. I mean , this is substantial tides. But those dollars from the federal government that we're employing today , these projects are not quick. They take years to build , but we're building them right now. And I will be eternally grateful for that $700 million investment of federal resources in our city. Lord knows we pay our fair share of federal taxes to be able to get our fair share of resources back into something that's a priority storm drain infrastructure that's there. And I want you to know , that is not the only place we have projects going on. We have projects on Beta Street on the Choice Channel. Alvarado up in the Rozelle area in Sorrento Valley. We're making the most of those dollars to try and make as many improvements as we can. both in anticipation of this storm and in future storms.
S1: And we are , of course , talking one week away from the election. And it comes at a time when , you know , many have questions about the current state of our democracy. The federal government has sued the state , challenging its voter rolls. I news source reports the Department of Justice recently ordered San Diego's registrar to hand over private information of over 1700 voters. And I'm wondering , what message do you have for San Diegans as they cast their ballots?
S2: Thank you for asking this , because I think it's very important in my capacity as the president of the United States Conference of Mayors. I've been working with my colleagues across this country. Cities normally are not involved in the voting process , but because of what's happening at our federal level , we must be involved. And my message to San Diego is very simple. You can cast your vote with confidence. Your ballot will be safe , it will be secure. And if you are eligible to vote , I ask you to vote. This election is extremely important and I have seen with my own two eyes the professionalism of our local election staff. Sean Brom and his team over at the county Registrar of Voters are absolute professionals , and the city of San Diego are going to be full partners in this effort to make sure that every San Diegan can safely , and without harassment or intimidation , cast their ballot between now and next Tuesday.
S1: All right. I've been speaking with San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. Mayor Gloria , thank you so much for your time.
S2: Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
