Five local homeowners are suing the city of San Diego and six City Council members over the city’s trash collection fee, with one attorney calling it a “bait and switch.”
They allege, in a lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court this week, that it is unlawful because the proposed fee exceeds the costs of providing trash services.
The suit states that the city has proposed a nearly $48 monthly fee that should be determined by actual costs, but is instead “based on projections and speculation.”
The residents are asking a judge to block the fee, arguing that it violates Proposition 218, a state ballot measure that keeps utility fees from exceeding the costs of providing those services.
The City Council voted last month to advance the fee proposal to a public hearing, which is scheduled for June 9 and could result in its final approval.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment and the City Attorney’s Office declined comment on pending litigation, as is customary.
The named plaintiffs are Mary Brown, Scott Case, Patty Ducey-Brooks, Lisa Mortensen and Valorie Seyfert. In addition to the city, they are targeting Council President Joe LaCava, Jennifer Campbell, Stephen Whitburn, Henry L. Foster III, Kent Lee and Sean Elo-Rivera.
Voters passed Measure B, ending free trash pickup services for single-family homeowners, in 2022. The city then hosted a series of community meetings to gather feedback on how it would be implemented. Last month, officials slightly lowered the initial projected fee. For instance, those who use 95-gallon waste containers faced a $53-per-month charge. Now, it’s set to be around $5 less, or $47.59 per month.
Michael Aguirre, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said the residents are willing to pay fees if they are closer to what was expected when the measure passed.
“With this lawsuit, we are attempting to draw a line in the sand,” said Aguirre, who once served as San Diego’s city attorney. “Homeowners are happy to pay their fair share for picking up and collecting solid waste and recycling. But what they’re not going to allow is for the city to impose a tax.”
The complaint states that, per a consultant hired by the city, the projected cost of services is nearly $149 million, while solid waste collection costs the year prior were around $89 million.
The lawsuit alleges that the consultant acknowledged in a cost-of-service study that projections could widely differ from the actual results.
According to the lawsuit, the city was unable to identify all 222,500 city property taxpayers, but Aguirre said those residents should be surveyed in order to determine what level of trash service they want so an appropriate fee can be calculated.
“Instead of enrolling the trash collection customers and then allowing the customers to select their level of solid waste collection service, the mayor and most of the city council have arbitrarily decided to impose a tax instead of an actual cost-of-service,” the complaint states.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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