Homeowners sue city of San Diego, councilmembers, alleging new trash fee is illegal

A city trash truck File photo courtesy of city of San Diego 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 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 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 residents hearing which is scheduled for June and could outcome 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 Episode 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 The city then hosted a series of society meetings to gather feedback on how it would be implemented Last month agents slightly lowered the initial projected fee For instance those who use -gallon waste containers faced a -per-month charge Now it s set to be around less or per month Michael Aguirre one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs explained 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 disclosed 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 million while solid waste collection costs the year prior were around million The lawsuit alleges that the consultant acknowledged in a cost-of-service survey that projections could widely differ from the actual results According to the lawsuit the city was unable to identify all city property taxpayers but Aguirre mentioned those residents should be surveyed in order to determine what level of trash operation 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 facility the mayor and the greater part of the city council have arbitrarily decided to impose a tax instead of an actual cost-of-service the complaint states City News Amenity contributed to this summary