SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A judge has set a May 8 trial date in the legal fight over San Diego’s new trash fee.
At a Thursday hearing in the case of Brown vs. LaCava, a judge found sufficient evidence to move the lawsuit forward to trial.
Plaintiffs representing hundreds of thousands of households said the case will ultimately come down to what the city originally promised residents they would pay when voters approved Proposition B. Instead, they are currently paying double, at the tune of $43 per month.
"We are hoping that we can meet with our city officials and get them to agree to what Prop B said was going to happen, which is it would be between $23 to $29 dollars," Mike Aguirre said.
Residents also accused the city of inflating the number of homes that needed trash service. Attorneys said the biggest question in this case is whether San Diego is charging residents more than it actually costs to collect their trash. They want answers because the projected costs jumped from about initial $70 million evaluation to more than $140 million a year.
Attorney Gabriel McWhirter, who is representing the City of San Diego, said, "We don't know exactly what's going to happen in these first four years because we don't have the experience. So we're going to build in this really substantial buffer to just protect it and make sure that we're not exceeding the cost of providing service, that we're not charging ratepayers more than the cost of providing service."
Maria Severson, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff residents, said the city’s numbers do not add up. She also raised concerns about how the money from trash fees is being spent, claiming it is going into a larger city pool to help pay for unrelated expenses, and not just trash expenses like garbage trucks, labor, and disposal fees.
Under the city's CFO, Rolando Charvel, deposition testimony, he describes how all the revenues to be collected from the trash fees will go into a pool. He says that's to do things like to get libraries paid, parking, city salaries. Think about that, they're about to charge it on the backs of taxpayers," Severson said.
Patty Ducey-Brooks, a plaintiff in the case, said she's excited to see their lawsuit go to trial because she's felt like the city has been treating homeowners and renters like a bank.
"I feel very confident that we're gonna get down to that $23 to $29 [range] that the public taxpayers agreed to. We do have one other issue, and that's to get it off of our county taxes, because that's very concerning for us, because that's like them having a credit card and using it at their discretion."
Ducey-Brooks said that more San Diego residents have been asking to join the lawsuit, and she sees it hurting renters as well.
"It's hurting a lot of people right now. We've already been paying these taxes for services not rendered. "I don't even put my trash containers out every week, but I'm paying for those services as if I'm putting the trash out every week. I'm not," Ducey-Brooks said.
The trial will be a bench trial starting at 8:50 a.m. at the Hall of Justice.
A readiness hearing has been set for Friday, April 17th.
