SAN DIEGO — While San Diego’s recently completed budget negotiations were far from smooth, Mayor Todd Gloria said they were more collegial than those one year ago and that the final budget is much more financially sound this time.

The City Council unanimously approved the $2.2 billion budget a week ago, and Gloria chose not to use his line-item veto, which could have forced the council to consider volatile veto override votes like it had to last year.

“I don’t think anyone at the outset of this process would have envisioned a unanimous adoption of the budget and no line-item veto,” Gloria said during a long interview in his City Hall office. “I’d like to think that’s a validation of the process we followed this year, which was starting far earlier and involving council members much more directly.”

Gloria said the new budget is more sound because it doesn’t include any unvetted revenue ideas like paid parking at Balboa Park — an idea the council approved last year at the last minute, with limited to no analysis.

Councilmember Kent Lee agreed Monday that negotiations went more smoothly this year, contending that’s the result of everyone at City Hall wanting to avoid a repeat of last year. But he added that having a more smooth process was a low bar to clear after last year’s acrimony.

Lee said council members decided not to focus on generating new revenue, which limited the process primarily to weighing possible budget cuts against each other.

“I think as a city we all learned from last year’s budget process,” said Lee, who played a key role in this year’s negotiations.

Lee credited the mayor for sending the council a series of memos this winter seeking feedback on the city’s financial challenges in several different areas, including homelessness, police and transportation.

But Lee said despite the mayor’s move to include the council to a greater degree in early budget evaluations, the initial spending plan the mayor released was still frustrating.

“In my opinion, the initial budget included a lot of cuts and changes that were surprises to both the council and the public,” Lee said.

One such proposed cut was dramatically shrinking the December Nights holiday festival held each year in Balboa Park. While the mayor quickly reversed that cut, the proposal caused significant controversy.

Gloria said that despite the relatively collegial negotiations and the absence of unreliable revenue streams, he’s still somewhat disappointed in the new budget.

His main objection is to roughly $20 million in new spending the council approved during the late stages of negotiations that he contends will worsen the city’s structural deficit — a gap between projected long-term revenues and projected long-term expenses.

“The adding back of additional spending puts us in a position where we’re going to have to do some version of this again next year,” Gloria said.

Lee said the final budget additions approved by the council were careful to tie any ongoing spending to ongoing revenues, contending such moves don’t worsen the structural deficit.

He also noted that by recently agreeing to slash trash fees in fiscal year 2028 and 2029, the city made it inevitable that the next two budget cycles will be contentious and require notable spending cuts.

Gloria was particularly critical of a deal brokered by Lee and Councilmember Henry Foster to reverse proposed cuts to arts funding with the help of $6 million that had been earmarked for convention center expansion.

While Gloria stressed that arts funding is important, he said it’s time for the city to make tough choices.

“When the city is struggling with its own finances, granting out funds to third parties is tough,” he said.

Lee argued that using the convention center money for arts grants is a one-time move that won’t worsen the city’s structural deficit.

The mayor also criticized the council for reversing most of his proposed cuts to operating hours at library branches and recreation centers, a move the council has made three years in a row.

He said that in light of the structural deficit, it makes sense to limit hours or close some libraries and rec centers that are old and decaying.

“I get frustrated by restoring hours of service at a rec center or a library or a pool when we know the condition of those assets is poor,” Gloria said.

The mayor acknowledged that some of those facilities play a crucial role for neighborhoods, particularly some low-income neighborhoods. But he said older facilities often are forced to close because of structural problems.

“So we have the staffing there, but if the plumbing doesn’t work and the roof is leaking, are we better off?” he said.

Lee said the council is mostly open to the mayor’s idea but stressed that Gloria’s initial budget proposal did not include strategic cuts to libraries and rec centers based on facilities that face challenges.

That proposal called for a flat cut to the library system and allowed the council to choose how to get there. Then in his May budget revision, the mayor proposed slashing hours in wealthy areas and preserving them in low-income areas.

“The mayor needed to present a fleshed-out plan that aligns with shrinking the structural deficit,” Lee said.

Gloria also criticized the council for reversing his proposed cut to an engineering team focused on bike lanes, street design and traffic safety, stressing that they cut money for paving to make the change.

The mayor says that move was the council catering to vocal groups complaining about the cut to that team but ignoring what the vast majority of residents want — better-paved roads.

“Reducing the miles of road repair in order to facilitate more bike lanes — we did not hear that from our residents,” the mayor said, referring to budget surveys the city conducted.

Another key issue in budget negotiations was a contract for automated license plate readers, which Lee and some colleagues unsuccessfully tried to defund.

Gloria said that even if the four council members supporting that cut had gotten the necessary fifth vote on the nine-member council, he would have vetoed it.

“That technology is absolutely critical,” said Gloria, contending license plate readers keep the city safer. “For the vast majority of San Diegans, this is not a controversial question. They expect their city government to keep them safe.”

Lee said he supports license plate readers but voted to defund them because the $2 million it would have made available could have restored some other cuts he didn’t want to make — including some in public safety.

Despite their differences on many details, Lee and Gloria both said they appreciated the more positive tenor of this year’s negotiations.

“It felt different,” Lee said. “It was a smoother process throughout.”

Gloria said that kind of collegiality is essential when city leaders are making crucial decisions that affect public safety and other key issues.

“The issues we’re dealing with here are very difficult, and they’re not made better when there’s tension and conflict and extreme disagreement,” Gloria said.

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