DeMaio Imagines a Different San Diego in State of the District Speech

One day, volunteers will comb the streets of Rancho Bernardo and document every pothole on the rocky roads. San Diego will have the money for repairs because city union employees will have retirement benefits worth as much, but not more, than those of their private and non-profit sector equivalents. And the police and firefighters—their pensions will be different, too.

Such is the future of San Diego imagined by Councilman Carl DeMaio during his State of the District speech Tuesday, which also included appeals for greater volunteer involvement in city services, fee-less solar energy projects and energy efficiency retrofit permits, and a June 2012 public vote on pension reform.

"Police and fire unions will insist that they should somehow be exempt from these reforms," DeMaio said in the speech at Marshall Middle School before about 250 people. "But a pension system that is not sustainable for a desk clerk does not somehow magically become sustainable for another classification of employee—regardless of how much we may value the work that they're doing."

After the speech, DeMaio said he is keeping an eye on the political situation in Wisconsin, where 14 Democratic state senators have fled the state to block a vote on a Republican-backed bill that would virtually eliminate union collective bargaining as the state faces a fiscal crisis. The political situation there, and the financial struggles here, are a sign that reform is needed, DeMaio said.

But San Diego needs a mayor and city council that are willing to make tough decisions, DeMaio said in his speech. The councilman restated several reform ideas he has talked about as part of his Roadmap to Recovery fiscal plan, such as the need to cap pensionable pay to an employees' "base salary and nothing more."

DeMaio said he's working with business and community leaders to have pension reform on the June 2012 ballot.

He also introduced a number of new projects, such as the Road Repair Rally, in which volunteers walk every street in DeMaio's District 5 on a single day and document all of the potholes. A non-profit would then  make basic repairs and the city would—with accountability—fix the rest, he said.

The first rally will be held in Scripps Ranch this spring, he said, and could then spread throughout the rest of the district and city.

DeMaio also spoke of creating a task force to examine the water and wastewater departments to reduce rates by 15 percent and freeze them for five years. City leaders are poised to curb increased labor costs in the water department that have pushed rates up, such as those from unsubstantiated and nearly across-the-board bonuses, he said.

Mira Mesa resident Joe Gram said he was impressed by DeMaio's speech, especially his calls for greater transparency in government. "It sounds great," Gram said.

Rancho Bernardo's Valerie Brown, head of Neighborhood Watch, emceed the event.

Other ideas mentioned in the speech:

• Collaborate Governance Model: Adds roles for non-profits, businesses and individuals in performing city services.
• Sustainable Living Summit: To be held this summer, the summit would help residents learn about technologies, rebates, and water and energy efficiency.
• iPhone app to access city services and report street repairs: DeMaio said his office is spending about $9,000 from his budget to develop the app through a deal with a software company.
• Path to Prosperity strategy: A plan focusing on economic development in five core sectors of defense, tourism, communications, bio tech and clean tech.