San Diego public officials continued to rely on their elected positions throughout 2025 to solicit donations to favored causes from companies and others with interests before the city.<\/p>\n
The so-called behested payments \u2014 donations to charities made at the request, or behest, of elected officials \u2014 totaled more than $150,000 this year, according to records on file with the San Diego City Clerk\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
The largest donation was a $100,000 gift disclosed by Councilmember Henry Foster, who reported the donation from Airbnb to the San Diego Parks Foundation on Nov. 28. The money is earmarked for a new skate plaza in Encanto.<\/p>\n
The $100,000 gift came as the San Diego City Council considers adding a measure to next year\u2019s primary ballot that would impose a new tax<\/a> on vacation rentals of $5,000 for each bedroom.<\/p>\n Councilmember Vivian Moreno reported three separate behested payments worth a total of $20,000.<\/p>\n The Laborers International Union Local 89 donated $10,000, and Marathon Petroleum and Carpenters Union Local 619 each gave $5,000, records show. The money went to the San Ysidro Women\u2019s Club to help fund scholarships.<\/p>\n The laborers union has spent heavily<\/a> on local politics in recent years.<\/p>\n Councilmember Marni von Wilpert reported a single gift of $5,000 that was donated by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 135 to Equality California<\/a>, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.<\/p>\n Mayor Todd Gloria disclosed the greatest number of behested payments in 2025 \u2014 although they totaled much less than he reported in his first four years as the city\u2019s top official.<\/p>\n Gloria disclosed five payments during the calendar year, totaling just over $28,000. Almost half of that helped pay for a new sign at the Clairemont Community Park to honor fallen San Diego Police Officer Austin Machitar<\/a>, who was killed in a 2024 pursuit.<\/p>\n The mayor also disclosed soliciting a $10,000 gift from Jamul Indian Village of California to the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund to support a champagne brunch fundraiser<\/a>, records show.<\/p>\n Gloria also reported two payments from For All of Us, the nonprofit entity he set up when he was first elected mayor. The reports show $1,500 from that entity was sent to San Diego Pride, and $4,500 went to the San Diego Economic Development Corp.<\/p>\n Solicitations on behalf of the mayor\u2019s charity have dropped significantly since The San Diego Union-Tribune disclosed the formation<\/a> of the organization in 2023.<\/p>\n Gloria reported more than $300,000 in behested payments last year. He also was fined<\/a> $10,500 by the San Diego Ethics Commission for failing to properly comply with reporting requirements.<\/p>\n Behested payments<\/a> are an often overlooked benefit enjoyed by elected officials across California. They are completely legal donations to specific causes favored by public officials \u2014 so long as they are disclosed.<\/p>\n Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer reported millions of dollars<\/a> in solicitations, much of it to benefit a charity he set up to direct support his office. The One San Diego entity was shut down<\/a> soon after he vacated the Mayor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego public officials continued to rely on their elected positions throughout 2025 to solicit donations to favored…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":467071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,728,8629,50,80,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,9235],"class_list":{"0":"post-467070","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-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-local-politics","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-top-stories-sdut","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-watchdog"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115770128657848601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467070","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=467070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}