There’s good news – and bad – in this year’s approved city budget for District 2, which includes Mission and Pacific beaches and the Peninsula.
In some instances, the news is “both” good and bad.
Such is the case with the drive to secure a second trash pickup during busy summer months in Mission Beach to help eradicate the fly problem from spillover waste, much of it from the beach community’s large number of short-term vacation rentals.
The good news is that District 2 Councilmember Lorie Zapf was able to secure funding in this year’s budget for a second summer MB trash pickup. The bad news is that a second Mission Beach summer trash pickup may never be implemented.
On June 9, the City Attorney’s office issued a memo concluding that it is not permissible by law for the city to collect “residential refuse, as defined under the People’s Ordinance, twice weekly in MB during summer months.”
The People’s Ordinance, first adopted in 1919 as a voter initiative and subsequently amended by voters through city-sponsored initiatives in 1981 and 1986, governs the collection, transportation and disposal of refuse in the City of San Diego. It was a response to residents’ continued dissatisfaction with the private refuse haulers licensed by the city to collect city refuse.
According to an excerpt from that City Attorney’s memo, “As the public has again requested the second (trash) collection during FY 2018 … The People’s Ordinance prohibits the City from collecting ‘non-residential refuse’ as defined, which includes refuse from single- and multi-family residences that are occupied through ownership, lease or rental for less than one month (transient occupancy).”
The City Attorney’s memo notes that “the public reports that a large number of short-term, summer residential rentals in MB cause the summer fly population and the need for additional refuse collection.”
The memo concludes: “The People’s Ordinance, state law and case law do not require the City to provide refuse collection services beyond once a week … So, although the People’s Ordinance requires the city to collect ‘residential refuse’ once weekly, the city is not obligated to provide a higher level of service.”
The District 2 Council office has released the following checklist on the status of budget projects/priorities in District 2: Mission Beach good
– 2nd year of second summer trash pickup;
– South Mission undergrounding;
– South Mission Beach Lifeguard Tower construction;
– Water/sewer project 814;
– Bonita Cove tot lot moving into design phase. Mission Beach maybes
– Permanent summer trash pick solution;
– North Mission Beach undergrounding;
– Remainder of seawall reconstructed. Midway good
– Community Plan update moving forward;
– PB pipeline south;
– Defunct BID fund reallocation in process $142,000 security service/outreach. Midway maybes
– Streets overlaid;
– Relocation of IS-1-1 zone for homeless emergency shelters;
– Aggressive transient encampments. Point Loma
– Fire Station No. 22 – $1 million to finish construction;
– Recreation/aquatic center – $1.07 million to being preliminary engineering and design. Ocean Beach
– $671,000 for preliminary engineering on the OB Pier;
– $200,000 to initiate new preliminary engineering for Ocean Beach Lifeguard Station. District Wide
– More than $3 million for SDPD recruitment, retention, and overtime staffing;
– Littering and Graffiti Abatement Pilot Program: The May revision includes the addition of $800,000 in one-time funding to support a litter and graffiti abatement pilot program initiated by the Environmental Services Department (ESD). The proactive pilot program will target areas within the City that have the highest number of requests for litter abatement including Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Mission and Pacific beaches. The allocated funding will allow ESD to assign crews consisting of Urban Corps, Probation Crew, and City staff to remove litter four to five times per week within each specific area, and to report graffiti to the Public Works Dispatch Center or to the Transportation and Storm Water Department’s (TSW) Street Division Graffiti Section via the Get It Done application.