A dispute over how the San Diego City Council decides who leads council committees focused on housing, public safety and other priorities has delayed indefinitely appointments to those committees for the 2024 legislative year.
The appointments always take place in early December after a council president for the coming year is chosen, but Council President Sean Elo-Rivera has declined to make the appointments since he was criticized for scheduling a Dec. 4 council hearing to debate them.
Elo-Rivera, who was re-elected council president in a narrow 5-4 vote, said the hearing he scheduled was an attempt to open up the process in response to complaints about how he handled the appointments a year ago.
“I thought it would be good to begin a new practice of increasing transparency, collaboration and inclusiveness in the council committee assignments,” he told his colleagues as the hearing began. “I heard loud and clear a dissatisfaction with the process last year, and this was an alternative to that.”
But Councilmember Jen Campbell, who cast one of the votes against Elo-Rivera’s re-election as council president, harshly criticized him for trying to break with tradition.
“I refuse to participate in this totally unprecedented way of committee organization,” Campbell said during the hearing, which Elo-Rivera eventually abandoned. “It is totally not within the protocol or history of this council to do things this way — by discussion by council members as a total group.”
Campbell said Elo-Rivera should abide by tradition and meet one-on-one with council members to discuss what assignments they would like.
“I hate to see entire precedents of how things are done get thrown aside by you,” Campbell said.
Elo-Rivera said he would do his best to make assignments that reflect the skills and abilities of his colleagues.
A few other assignments of council members were announced this month, however. Mayor Todd Gloria and Elo-Rivera announced last week they will remain the city’s representatives on the board of the San Diego Association of Governments — the county’s regional planning agency.
On the board of the Metropolitan Transit System, Gloria and Elo-Rivera will be joined by returning member Stephen Whitburn and new member Vivian Moreno, who is replacing Monica Montgomery Steppe.
