themselves in approving and managing proj-
ects, too much of the city’s information is un-
reliable, and too few people are accountable for
making it all work, the auditor said.
“The bottom line now that we have the mon-
ey, do we have an effi cient way to spend it?”
Luna said. “From my perspective, the answer
is no.”
Luna proposes creating a group to be in
charge and accountable, reducing costs over
the long run. Sanders disagrees. He believes
adding another city department would be too
expensive and layer more bureaucracy on a
process it’s trying to simplify.
Luna has another theory for the mayor’s
resistance: The initial cost of a new department
would make it harder for Sanders to keep his
promise to balance the budget by the time he
leaves offi ce.
“Anything that’s going to detract from that
they may not embrace,” Luna said. “Sooner or
later someone’s going to have to address this
issue.”
“PEOPLE DON’T HAVE TIME
TO WAIT”
Within an hour of each other on a sunny Sep-
tember afternoon, two candidates to be San
Diego’s next mayor touted just how much they
cared about fi xing the city’s roads.
City Councilman Carl DeMaio unveiled a
seven-point plan to fully fund street repairs. He
then grabbed a shovel and helped fi ll a pothole
in Rancho Bernardo himself.
“You can hear it sizzling,” DeMaio said, as
the new asphalt stuck to the street.
Twenty miles away, State Assemblyman Na-
than Fletcher set up a podium along a cracked
stretch of Pacific Highway and revealed his
own nine-point plan.
“People don’t have time to wait,” Fletcher
said.
But by the time DeMaio, Fletcher, or any-
one else takes offi ce, an unprecedented repair
campaign already could be underway. Sanders
wants to pour $500 million into roads, build-
ings, and storm drains over the next fi ve years.
The spending spree, city offi cials say, will
make infrastructure neglect a relic of the past.
This half-billion-dollar bounty is an invest-
ment the city hasn’t made in at least three de-
cades. But it will only pay off if Sanders and his
successor can fi gure out how to spend it.Liam Dillon covers politics and city hall news for
voiceofsandiego.org, a nonprofi t news organization
that partners with SDM.›› A CITY IN DISREPAIR
150 SanDiegoMagazine.comNovember2011