Standing With Others Who Believe Justice Will Be Served
As many of you know, the City of San Diego trash-fee lawsuit went to court this past month, and before closing remarks, city officials offered a settlement. Those of us who are plaintiffs know this has been a challenging effort and remain hopeful that justice will be served.
Although we have been asked not to discuss the particulars of the settlement, even as other media have made announcements, the final vote before the City Council will take place on Monday, June 8. We understand that seven council members, excluding Marni von Wilpert and Sean Elo-Rivera, voted during a closed-door session this past month to support the settlement.
I have been asked numerous times by members of the media why I decided to sue the city over the trash-fee charges and program. My view is that the process was flawed from the beginning and presented in a way that made it difficult for homeowners to understand how to respond to the six-page mailer sent to our homes regarding opposition to the trash-fee program. Many people I spoke with discarded the mailer because it seemed confusing or unimportant, which I can understand. However, I found the opposition statement near the back of the mailer, cut it out, signed it, and returned it in a postage-paid envelope. Those were important steps that many people may not have realized they needed to take.
What many people may also not have realized is that by not returning the opposition statement included in the mailer, a homeowner could be treated as not opposing the fees and program. In my opinion, the mailer was structured in a way that made meaningful public response less likely.
After realizing what had happened, some of us decided to take action and seek legal counsel. One of the first people I spoke with was Jan Goldsmith, who had held elected office as Poway mayor, served in the California Legislature, and later served as San Diego city attorney. He also served for 10 years as a Superior Court judge.
Goldsmith believed there was strong evidence that the trash fee was legally flawed. He also noted that San Diego City Charter Section 117(c) allows the city to use private contractors for city services, except those provided by police, firefighters, and lifeguards. He later wrote about this issue in an op-ed for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
In the view of many residents, however, San Diego’s elected officials were unlikely to favor private contractors or a competitive bidding process over continued use of city employees.
For me, the two attorneys best qualified to handle a lawsuit against the City of San Diego were Maria Severson and Mike Aguirre. Aguirre also served as San Diego city attorney. I had worked with both attorneys on another case and hoped they would be willing to represent a growing group of homeowners who strongly opposed the trash-fee program as proposed.
Aguirre and Severson promptly agreed to meet with me and Lisa Mortensen to review our concerns and determine whether the matter warranted their time and attention. During that meeting, Aguirre concluded that the fee appeared to be unlawful under state law because the amount charged exceeded the city’s actual cost of providing the service.
However, Aguirre and Severson also wanted to be confident that opposition to the trash fee extended beyond a small number of residents. They needed evidence that more homeowners were prepared to speak out against the program as proposed.
Lisa Mortensen and I scheduled a community meeting at the Mission Hills Library and invited homeowners from throughout the city. The standing-room-only attendance provided Aguirre and Severson with evidence that homeowner opposition to the trash fee was strong.
Although hundreds of people could have joined as plaintiffs, we concluded that a smaller group would be more practical. Fifteen people agreed to join the lawsuit, and the real work began for Severson, Aguirre, and their staff.
Over the past year, we have seen numerous detailed documents that show serious problems in how City Hall handled this flawed trash-fee program. Last month, in my publisher’s column, I shared ten reasons the trash fee was misleading and needed to be corrected.
I have often said that if we sit back and allow decisions like this to go unchallenged, we should not be surprised by the outcome. We live in a democracy, and our voices matter. Never forget that and never shy away from getting involved.
Category: feature, Government, Housing, Lawsuits, Local News, Women
