City Council Ratifies El Niño Emergency Declaration, Delays Water Rate Vote to Oct. 27 as Three Members Absent

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday ratified Mayor Todd Gloria's local emergency proclamation for the coming El Niño season in a 6-0 vote, while simultaneously punting a long-awaited decision on restructuring city water rates to Oct. 27 after three councilmembers were absent.

El Niño Emergency Declaration

The emergency declaration, placed on the consent agenda as Item S501, gives the city authority to use emergency powers under state and local law and supports the city's ability to seek state and federal reimbursement for storm-related costs. It follows emergency proclamations by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 21 and the County of San Diego last week.

“Being ready for severe weather means doing the work now, before storms arrive,” Mayor Gloria said in a statement. “Declaring a local emergency now gives us additional tools and flexibility to build on that work and respond quickly when severe weather arrives.”

City preparations underway include clearing more than 11 miles of storm channels, preparing public sandbag distribution sites, reviewing evacuation routes, installing protective berms along beaches and the Mission Bay shoreline, and conducting Emergency Operations Center responder training.

Forecasters give a greater than 90 percent chance of a very strong El Niño this fall and winter, with some models projecting it could become the largest in the roughly 150-year observational record.

The proclamation remains in effect until the Council votes to terminate it.

Water Rate Vote Delayed

The Council was scheduled to hold a public hearing and vote on Item 330 — a proposal to replace the city's tiered water rate structure for single-family residential customers with a unitary volumetric rate applied equally to all customer classes. The change is required to comply with the final judgment in *Daniel Patz et al. v. City of San Diego*, a class-action lawsuit in which the courts ruled in 2021 that the tiered system violated Proposition 218, the 1996 statewide initiative requiring fees to be proportional to the cost of service.

Faced with three absent councilmembers and an uncertain vote margin, Council President Joe LaCava moved to continue the item to the Oct. 27 Council meeting, according to news reports from the session.

The proposed rate structure, developed by Stantec Consulting Services, does not increase the city's overall water revenue requirement but redistributes charges. Single-family homeowners who use above-average amounts of water currently pay the highest tiered rates, while apartment dwellers pay more per gallon than most single-family homes. A unitary rate would charge every customer the same amount per gallon.

City officials have said the Public Utilities Department must implement the court-ordered changes by Jan. 1, 2027.