SAN DIEGO (April 14, 2014) – Councilmember Alvarez has issued the following statement in response to the Mayor’s Budget.

I was pleased to see some items funded that I have been particularly vocal about during my term as Councilmember including:

• Increased funding for library hours- our libraries and the services and programs offered through them are critical to so many of my constituents.
• I have been fiercely opposed to the ill-conceived proposal to start deleting City emails, so I was pleased to see funding for the IT Department to retain the City emails that are critical public records.
• More funding for identified fire protection priorities- some items have been funded but there is still a lot more to accomplish and those projects in underserved communities are of the utmost importance to get built.

However, I was disappointed in a number of items that were not included in the budget.  I’ve made clear my displeasure with the deficit in community and neighborhood parks throughout the City- especially in underserved communities.  With revenues anticipated to increase this year, at least one of these parks (Pacific Breezes Community Park, Riviera Del Sol Neighborhood Park, Hidden Trails Neighborhood Park) could have been fully funded and built which is something I’ll be looking to change in the FY15 Budget.

Additionally, I believe that there is still inefficiency and waste to be found in our City budget and will be reading this over the next few weeks to identify areas that we can streamline and use those tax dollars to support increased community and neighborhood priorities.

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