SD City Council Caves to Sanders

It started five months ago when Mayor Jerry Sanders attempted to eliminate a youth swimming program and slash funding for the homeless.  Today apparently, a deal was brokered between Sanders and the two ranking members of the San Diego City Council to, effectively, give Sanders everything he could possibly want.

Council President Scott Peters and Council President Pro Tem Tony Young hammered out the deal with Sanders which, in effect, ensures that Sanders can't cut the ENTIRE government without approval.

The temporary agreement, which runs through the end of the fiscal year in June, requires Sanders to notify (not get approval from) the City Council if he decides to eliminate "any program or service affecting the community."  Further, it caps budget cuts at 10% or $4 million per department before the mayor needs to get Council approval.  And even then...would this City Council have the interest in standing up to his budget cuts in a real way?

So essentially, the City Council has decided to grant the mayor power to, if he wants to, cut 10% of the city budget between now and June with absolutely no oversight.  This doesn't sound like an agreement that protects anything from an "Only Mayor" form of government.  And it sure as hell wouldn't do much to protect youth swimming programs or funding for outreach to the homeless.  But at least councilmembers will get a memo about it as they watch their authority float away.  It's like they haven't been paying any attention to the ENTIRE Bush Administration.

Sanders said of the deal "If we had been locked up in an endless battle then the citizens would have been the ones who suffered from that." I'm not sure from where he gets the impression that caution when cutting governmental services or responsible legislative oversight is detrimental to the people, but he's apparently well stocked with enablers in the City Council.