Re “San Diego trash fee calculation was riddled with errors” (May 4): I am so glad that I moved out of San Diego a few years ago. I feel for those of you who live there now; you’re being governed by the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Yes, people can make mistakes, but over and over again? That smacks of either chronic incompetence or malfeasance.
There are services which can be better performed by companies specifically in that business (such as street maintenance and trash collection/recycling). Despite union pressures to keep these services in-house, there is no reason for the city to compete with these companies, especially since doing so increases the city’s pension burden in addition to the direct costs. Much better that such services be provided commercially, with adequate and honest city contractual supervision.
It’s time to bite the bullet and realign the city’s responsibilities and organization, with a return to a professional and nonpolitical city manager.
— Alan Van Loy, Escondido
I’m trying to wrap my head around the numerous calculation errors that the city of San Diego made in estimating the proposed trash pickup fees listed on the November 2024 ballot initiative. Besides the fact that all of these “math” errors came from in-house information — employee raises, truck life-span, replacement bin costs — the most egregious error of all was the fact that the city has been giving free service to 13,000 customers forever. What could the savings have been if that error were caught years ago? The city is calling all of these miscalculations an honest mistake.
I have sent my protest letter in, but I am very worried that there will be an honest mistake in counting them.
— Vicki Hoffman, Rolando
