San Diego auditor goes after $3 swimming fee

Million-dollar miss

An October 20 report from San Diego city auditor Andy Hanau argues some unspecified user fees at municipal parks and other public recreational facilities are too low, and should be hiked. “Parks & Rec’s user fees have not been adjusted since [Fiscal Year] 2016 and are due for updating,” says the document. “Although the department did participate in the FY2016 Comprehensive User Fee Study, it did not participate in the City’s FY2019 study. We estimate that missing the FY2019 user fee adjustments may have led to approximately $1 million in foregone fee revenue for the City over the FY2020 to FY2022 period.” The data suggest new prices for traditional city venues might be painful.

“The Parks & Rec Swimming Facility Admissions Swim Passes have an average user fee rate of $3; however, according to the department’s FY2020 User Fee Study, the true cost for this service is $48. Moreover, total revenue for this fee in the most recent fiscal year was $128,343, and total subsidization costs for this fee totaled $1,925,145.” The report goes on to say, “Likewise, the City may have missed opportunities to reduce fee rates to increase access, consolidate similar user fees into a single fee, or eliminate some fees altogether.” Adds the document, “Given that the City charges more than 540 user fees, it is essential that City leadership and the public are given comprehensive user fee information to improve oversight of all General Fund user fees. However, the current user fee reports do not provide key information to City leadership to assist them in identifying and incorporating these factors into their decision-making.” City bureaucrats told auditors they were already acting, but it may not be enough. “According to Parks & Rec’s fee analysts, the department is now considering an 11 percent fee increase for most of its user fees to align them with increased service provision costs since FY2016.” An October 15 memo to Hanau from city Chief Financial Officer Rolando Charvel agreed with the findings.

Sara’s spousal support

With Democrats in danger of losing their narrow majority in the House of Representatives, a top staffer for San Diego Congresswoman Sara Jacobs took off for Philadelphia with her spouse last month to make nice with GOP aides. “I serve as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Sara Jacobs,” wrote Amy Elizabeth Kuhn on her October 31 trip disclosure report of the so-called retreat, paid for by the non-profit Pew Foundation. The tax-exempt William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Democracy Fund, a non-profit started by eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar, also chipped in. “This trip is intended to foster better relationships between bipartisan Chiefs of Staff, a task which has been made difficult by the first eight months of this term existing in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid telework, and with the security challenges following January 6.” Pew paid for transportation ($156), lodging ($129), and meals ($91) expenses run up on the October 15 overnight junket, during which Kuhn was accompanied by her spouse Erin Hogeboom, according to the disclosure.

Per the itinerary, one highlight of the tour was a visit to Independence Hall. A stage show was set to feature “re-enactors who will discuss struggles for enfranchisement, and resolution via collaboration in the face of partisanship, through key moments in American history, and how that process can inform the work of this bipartisan group of congressional chiefs of staff today.” Dinner was at the National Constitution Center, featuring Jane Campbell, President, United States Capitol Historical Association, and Joanne Freeman, who wrote The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War.

Send out the Marines?

As big-money national developers continue their San Diego invasion, one of their targets has made Save Our Heritage Organisation’s 2021 Most Endangered List of eleven “imperiled historic sites, buildings, and landscapes.” Explains a SOHO release: “The traditionally all-male San Diego Marine Corps Recruitment Depot is federally mandated to integrate women by 2028. The Marines continue to consider their options for MCRD, such as increased training of male and female platoons together.” The rub is that “any solution will likely require changes to the depot, such as adding residential facilities for women or selling and replacing the historic property.”

The putative Marine move said to be tied to another potential historic casualty on SOHO’s list: the Navy’s massive redevelopment of the old Consolidated Aircraft plant across Pacific Highway from the Marines, now occupied by the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command. “The proposed mid-to high-rise buildings would forever block and literally overshadow San Diego’s historic and cultural landmarks, oldest neighborhoods, and quintessential views.”

— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)

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