San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is here
tonight to answer your questions.
After a pretty busy start to
the New Year with this week,
we saw frustrated customers protesting
those high bills and SD Genie headquarters.
And in January we had all of that rain,
so much storm damage,
including a lot of those potholes.
But I'm still trying to avoid all the roads,
so we have a lot of ground to cover
the nightmare where you're welcome.
Always pleasure.
Alright, let's start with those.
Just last night I had to swerve and avoid
two of them in the Kearny Mesa area.
I think at one point in January
we reported you were getting 100
complaints a day through the get
it done at amounting to thousands.
Where is the status right now,
the progress the city crews
have been able to make?
The first question is did you
report those potholes you saw?
I was just trying to avoid them.
No, I get it.
You want to protect your car and
you know this is unacceptable.
But I'll tell you is in the month of January,
our crews filled over 14,000
potholes across the city.
And I want to thank your
viewers and they report.
Those potholes to us using the get it
done app and then our crews who I've
ordered to be working seven days a week,
you may have saw them actually out in the
middle of the night on Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
on La Jolla Parkway filling
those major arterials 14,000.
But we know there's still more to
come that need to be resolved.
Typically we're working on
about 200 at any given time.
So that gives you a magnitude of scale
of just how devastating this storm was.
Also we are filing for reimbursement
with our federal partners because as as a
part of a net local disaster declaration,
you know to hopefully recoup those dollars,
save that money.
Feel even more potholes for San Diegans.
Are you actually addressing
people's concerns when they've
had damage to their vehicles?
Well, if if it's the fault of the city,
you know our risk management department
takes those claims and we process them.
It can often be that case.
Sometimes it's not. But you know,
if folks are feel that need,
they're welcome to file a claim.
OK and then about how much of the
like percentage wise do you know how
far you are on that list of potholes
on the pot? Well, so I getting nearly
daily updates on this because there's
kind of my biggest bugaboo right now,
I'm told that we think we
can be through the backlog.
The storm related complaints
by the end of the week.
Ohh, but I'm also very cognizant of we
only know about what's been reported right.
So again to your viewers, please do
us a favor. Me, I didn't report
those. It's OK. I absolutely
understand. I want you to get
home safely, but do let us know
that's when we can get out there.
We have crews working seven days a week.
We can get to those pretty fast.
OK. So as a driver just kind
of take note of where you are,
which direction you're heading and then
you can report it on the get it done app.
I will, I will say 14,000 plotholes,
possibly 14,000 complaints and
they get it done app. Other.
Problems are being reported
on the Get Done app as well.
How are you navigating that?
There is a huge bad blog there too.
How are you prioritizing which
neighborhoods to go into first
and which problems to address?
Well, different for different
kinds of complaints. St.
Lights versus potholes versus graffiti.
I do get a lot of complaints from
San Diegans about the slow response
for certain repairs and that
has nothing to do with the app.
The app is sound, it works well.
The problem is staffing.
You know this.
You've done plenty of stories about
the great resignation and the
trouble finding qualified workers.
The city is no different.
Or sell it in some of our positions.
We have one in five positions vacant.
I would tell you on street lights where a
lot of your viewers report sure broken St.
lights, they'll get a notice saying it may
take a year to repair that street light.
That's because we have 60,000 St.
lights in the city of San Diego.
We have less than 10 people actually
working to repair them and we've
got 6000 that are currently out.
We have a backlog that's significant.
I'm working on some interim solutions,
but right now what we need are
more people working with the city.
So continue to report through the app,
but Please be patient with us as we
work to try and fill those vacancies
and you have job.
Meetings in the in the Street
Light Department specifically I
mean 10 employees, that's a lot,
that's not a lot that mean for something,
a lot for them to tackle.
I met exactly it's a lot of
ground for 10 people to cover
it's it's for 10 people for 6000 lights
are out right now and every day a light
goes out for some reason or another.
So you understand why the backlog
is what it is and we have similar
challenges with other requests but
the answer is not to give up on
the app again the app works well.
What we're trying to do is provide better
pay so people want to come work for us,
better benefits, other kinds of
incentives and we're working to to
really recruit people and I would say.
For folks who are frustrated if they have
those skill sets and they want a good
paying job that with good job security
come work for the city of San Diego
employment opportunities. Exactly.
Alright, let's turn now to people
being people being really frustrated
about these sky high utility bills.
I know right now we're
focused on natural gas.
We're paying some of the highest in
the country and that reminds people,
Gee, a couple years ago we
started San Diego Community power,
the mayor launched it,
promised lower prices,
more competitive pricing.
But what do you want to
clarify about that right now?
Yeah, well I think an important nuance
as I've heard this from San Diego.
Is that San Diego community power is
about electricity, not natural gas.
And so many of your viewers have
been enrolled into serenity of
Community power and they are enjoying
lower rates than SDG and E in fact,
the San Diego Community Board met
just recently their most recent
median vote to cut rates by 3% again.
So we are seeing savings for those who are
choosing to be in San Diego community power.
But as we mentioned,
natural gas prices are the driver
of high bills for you, for me,
for a lot of your viewers.
And if you are a Senate
committee power customer,
that doesn't provide you.
For
natural gas, focus solely
on electricity, renewable
energy there and and so you continue
to get natural gas from GE and
again the transmission lines,
the poles and wires,
that's still estrogen.
And when you look at your bill,
you see that's the vast majority
of the of the charges, right.
I know my natural gas bill was $450.
I looked back and usually
I'm paying about $80.00.
So I know the governor recently
launched an initiative.
He asked for an investigation.
What are you doing to work with the
governor and you know to get the CPU
C to kind of come down hard on these.
Utility companies,
well, I'm very supportive
of the governor's inquiry.
I think that would be helpful
to shed light on this.
I've met with SD Genie executives
to ask him these questions myself.
I heard a number of explanations,
but I think that's something an
investigation, independent investigation
could validate or invalidate.
The other thing I want your viewers to know
is that we will have an opportunity soon.
The Public Utilities Commission
will be looking at rates again,
and I want to encourage
San Diegans to weigh in.
Some of those hearings will
actually be here in San Diego.
So that's an opportunity to go in person,
but you can also participate virtually.
Line up for my office's newsletter.
We will provide an explainer to San
Diego on how they can weigh in on
energy rates in front of the people
that have the decision making power,
which is the PUC.
And know that the city of San Diego
we will be weighing it as well
because you pay Bill, I pay a bill.
But the city of San Diego has an even
larger natural gas and electricity bill.
That is true. Alright,
45 seconds for this last question,
let's talk about trees.
A lot of them came down during the storm.
We know the city's busy cutting
down ones that they think you know
could be in danger of falling,
but they also provide
during the summer months,
a lot of shade for people is
the city trying to replace.
The trees that are lost.
Ohh, absolutely. Yeah,
I mean it's critical in our climate action
plan to have a robust urban tree canopy.
We planted about 1800 trees last year.
That's to our inventory, about 50,000 trees.
This the city maintains and we recently
appropriated about $4.9 million
for more tree installations across
the city over the next five years.
So. So if I say yes,
we lost some during the the storms.
We do have to take some down
when there's a safety concern,
but we are replenishing that
by an order to magnitude much
larger than what's coming
out. OK. I feel like we're speed
talking a little bit here.
Sorry, lots to go on here.
And the city, thank you so much
for joining us again this month.
We'll see you next month with more questions.
I look forward to it. Thanks, Gloria.