New SD budget may have more pool hours, streetlights

Longer hours at swimming pools, new streetlights and expedited clearing of clogged drainage channels are among priorities San Diego City Council members want to see funded with a projected $50 million budget surplus.

Council members are also lobbying Mayor Kevin Faulconer to include more money for sidewalks, new parks and planting 2,000 new trees in his proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

In addition, council member budget requests include money for Friars Road stoplight synchronization, additional pay increases for police officers and expansion of a program that fights homelessness by targeting people repeatedly arrested for public intoxication.

The council approved a budget resolution on Monday that includes those requests and many others. Faulconer is scheduled to unveil his proposed budget in April, with a final budget approved in early June in typical years.

After many years of budget slashing during and after the Great Recession, the city has been restoring and expanding services as finances have rebounded.

A five-year city financial outlook released in November projects general fund surpluses in the city’s roughly $1.2 billion annual budget of $49.1 million in the coming fiscal year, $77.9 million in fiscal 2018, $113.8 million in fiscal 2019, $149.5 million in fiscal 2020 and $184.9 million in fiscal 2021.

The projected surpluses are primarily based on expectations that property tax, sales tax and hotel tax revenue will continue their steady rates of increase in recent years.

Expanded hours at municipal pools, which would cost an estimated $640,000, are among the priorities.

Multiple council members say years of cuts should be reversed and the pools should be open 11 months a year instead of seasonally.

They also want expansion of the summer “temporary” pool program, where portable pools get built in neighborhoods that lack permanent swimming facilities.

A majority of council member also recommended increased spending on streetlights, which they deemed a key public safety concern. Estimated cost would be $1 million.

Other infrastructure requests include money for sidewalks, street repairs, bicycle lanes and lighted crosswalks.

In addition, the resolution forwarded to the mayor calls for the city to sharply increase the number of drainage channels cleared of vegetation each year from the typical two or three, up to five or six.

The goal is reducing the likelihood of floods, which have been a particular concern this winter with forecasters predicting heavy El Niño rains.

Council members also want 2,000 new trees planted citywide, which would cost an estimated $1 million, and the city’s tree warden position revived at a cost of $100,000.

Those proposals would help the city meet some of the goals in its climate action plan, council members said.

San Diego increased police office compensation last fiscal year in an effort to boost recruiting and retention of officers, but council members say more money is needed because officers continue to leave the Police Department.

Other public safety requests include better health coverage for lifeguards, more police dispatchers and expanding a University City “fast response” squad into a temporary full-scale fire station.

The resolution also suggests spending $400,000 on stoplight synchronization for the notoriously clogged Friars Road corridor, where a new fire station opened recently and housing construction continues.

Regarding homelessness, council members expressed support for Faulconer’s plan to house 1,000 homeless veterans. They also want money to expand the Police Department’s serial inebriate program.