On March 3rd MBTC Board Member Marty Zimmerman and I had a meeting with the Director of San Diego Park and Rec, Mr. Andy Fields, and Seamus Kennedy from our District 2 city council office to discuss the beach maintenance in Mission Beach.
Comprehensive enhanced maintenance which levels the sand back from the sea wall to the ocean and redistributes sand throughout the beach as needed as not done been done since around 2005. Our goal in the meeting was to encourage the Park and Rec department to conduct such enhanced maintenance this spring. We were not successful.
The reality is that Park and Rec lacks both the manpower and the equipment to conduct enhanced maintenance. Like many city departments their budget was slashed in 2008 and they remain underfunded and can only conduct basic maintenance on Mission Beach and other city beaches.
One of the major reasons tourists come to San Diego is to enjoy our city’s beaches. The beaches belong to the entire city and are the responsibility of the entire city. To get increased funding for our city beaches we must lobby all nine city council offices in the city and the mayor's office to increase the Park and Rec budget. Over the next several months the budget for the upcoming year will be discussed and a final vote will be made on June 12th.
I encourage you to send emails to the mayor's and all nine city council offices requesting that they increase the funding for the Park and Rec Department so that they can properly maintain one of the most valuable resources in our city.
A sample email follows along with email contact information for all nine city council offices. It would also be helpful to make non-agenda public comment at all city budget hearings. This can be done via Zoom.
One of the major reasons tourists come to San Diego is to enjoy our city’s beaches. The beaches belong to the entire city and are the responsibility of the entire city. Tourism is the third largest segment of San Diego economy. Transit Occupancy Tax is the third largest source of city tax collections behind only property tax and sales tax and tourism contributes to sales tax revenue. Tourism is responsible for one out of every eight jobs in the city and tourism workers live in every city council district throughout the city.
Since 2008 San Diego Park and Rec has been underfunded and condition of the city’s shoreline parks and beaches has deteriorated. Sand management has been reduced to only basic cleaning. Due to a lack of manpower enhanced maintenance such as redistributing the level of sand following winter storms has been discontinued resulting in dangerous and unattractive beaches.
If this trend is allowed to continue our beaches and shoreline parks will become unattractive to tourists and local San Diego residents alike. This will affect the city’s revenue and all city council districts. The deferred maintenance bill will only become higher. I urge all city council members to address the budget needs necessary to provide the Park and Rec Department with the manpower and equipment necessary to properly maintain one of the most valuable resources in our city, its public beaches.
Contact List for San Diego Elected Officials (Updated 3/12/23) INSTRUCTIONS: • Write one letter • DO NOT identify your Council District or include your home address! We want each City Official to think the letter writer is a constituent in their district. • ALL NINE Council Members vote on every agenda item. Writing only to your specific Council Member does not accomplish the outcome we need when there are NINE total votes being cast on every agenda item before City Council. We need all Council Membersonboard!!!!! • “Copy” your letter • Click on the emails (livelinks) listed below • Choose “Compose Email” highlighted in orange on the “live email link” • “Paste” your letter and send separately to each Council Member and their Staff members listed below. Very easy! Every email below is a “live link”that will produce an email template MAYOR’SOFFICE Mayor Todd Gloria MayorToddGloria@sandiego.gov DeputyDirector of Policy- Matt YagyaganMYagyagan@sandiego.govChief of Staff - Paola Avila-PAvila@sandiego.govDeputy Chief of Staff - Nick Serrano.NSSerrano@sandiego.govCommunity Rep D1 -Matthew GriffithGriffithM@sandiego.govCommunity Rep D2 - Kohta Zaiser.ZaiserK@sandiego.govDirectorof Policy - Jessica Lawrence.JLawrence@sandiego.gov CITY COUNCIL DISTRICTS D1 Council Member Joe La Cava JoeLaCava@sandiego.gov 619-236-6611 Chief of Staff - Vicky Joes vcjoes@sandiego.gov Policy Director - Kathleen Ferrier kferrier@sandiego.gov Community Outreach Dir. - Steve Hadley srhadley@sandiego.gov D2 Council Member Dr. Jennifer Campbell jennifercampbell@sandiego.gov 619-236-6622 Chief of Staff - Venus Molina vmmolina@sandiego.gov 619-533-6229 —————————————————-———————————————————— D3 Council Member Stephen Whitburn StephenWhitburn@sandiego.gov 619-236-6633 Chief of Staff - Jesus Cardenas cardenasj@sandiego.gov Director of Policy - Jacob O’Neill JMONeill@sandiego.gov —————————————————————————————————————-
D4 Council PresidentProTem
Monica Montgomery-Steppe mmontgomerysteppe@sandiego.gov
619-236-6644
Chief of Staff - Henry Foster HLFoster@sandiego.gov
PSLN Committee Consultant
Tiffany Harrison THarrison@sandiego.gov
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D5 Councilmember Marni von Wilpert MarnivonWilpert@sandiego.gov
619-236-6655
Chief of Staff - Jamie Fox jfox@sandiego.gov
Chief of Policy- Justin Garver jgarver@sandiego.gov
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D6 Council Member Kent Lee KentLee@sandiego.gov
(619) 236-6616
Chief of Staff - Sara Kamiab SKamiab@sandiego.gov
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D7 Councilmember Raul Campillo RaulCampillo@sandiego.gov
619-236-6677
Chief of Staff - Michael Simonsen MSimonsen@sandiego.gov
` 619-236-6765
Chief of Policy-Justine Murray JRMurray@sandiego.gov
619-236-6751
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D8 Councilmember Vivian Moreno vivianmoreno@sandiego.gov
619-236-6688
Chief of Staff - Travis Knowles knowlest@sandiego.gov
Chief of Policy KevinSmith kssmith@sandiego.gov
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D9 Council President Sean Elo-Rivera SeanEloRivera@sandiego.gov
619-236-6699
Chief of Staff - Lydia Van Note LVanNote@sandiego.gov