SAN DIEGO \u2014 The fight over San Diego\u2019s new trash fee isn\u2019t over \u2014 but for now, homeowners will have to pay up.<\/p>\n
A San Diego Superior Court judge on Friday denied homeowners’ request to block the city from collecting its new $43 monthly trash fee. The ruling means the Environmental Services Department can move forward with billing residents through the county tax assessor.<\/p>\n
Despite the setback, plaintiffs say they\u2019re encouraged that the judge is considering allowing the case to go to trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry that we couldn\u2019t stop it,\u201d said attorney Mike Aguirre, who is representing dozens of homeowners suing the city. <\/p>\n
Paul Krueger, one of the plaintiffs Aguirre is representing, said, \u201cRegardless of the outcome of the trial, a trial itself would be a victory for the taxpayers of San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homeowners are challenging the fee on several fronts \u2014 including claims that voters were misled when they approved Measure B in 2022. At that time, city officials suggested that monthly fees would cost around $23-$29.<\/p>\n
However, the finalized amount nearly doubled to $43.<\/p>\n
Some residents are also upset over the city\u2019s rollout of new trash bins, saying many were automatically assigned the largest \u2014 and most expensive \u2014 option without realizing they could choose a smaller one. Those bins are set to begin distribution next week.<\/p>\n
In spite of the injunction’s denial on Friday, plaintiff Patty Ducey-Brooks said she sees progress in Friday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling quite excited,\u201d Ducey-Brooks said. \u201cThe fact that the judge feels a trial is desirable gives us a lot of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next hearing will be a case management conference on October 24th, and that is when homeowners will find out if they’re one step closer to proceeding with a trial.<\/p>\n
The City’s attorney, Gabriel McWhirter, said he could not comment on the ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO \u2014 The fight over San Diego\u2019s new trash fee isn\u2019t over \u2014 but for now, homeowners…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":294911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,50653,3549,7264,56759,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-294910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-injunction","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-trash-fees","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115356114844963368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}