Joe LaCava unanimously named to another year as San Diego City Council president

San Diego Councilmember Joe LaCava, a La Jolla resident known for delving deeply into policy debates, will serve a second consecutive year in the pivotal role of council president.

LaCava was unanimously awarded a second term Monday by his colleagues, who praised him for steady leadership during a budget crisis and fierce council debates about a new trash fee and backyard apartments.

“Council President LaCava has approached this role with thoughtfulness, integrity and transparency,” Councilmember Kent Lee said.

“I have really appreciated the evenhandedness and grace,” said Councilmember Stephen Whitburn. “This may be the easiest vote we take all year.”

The council president sets the nine-member council’s agenda, determines key assignments to powerful committees and leads the council in its efforts to govern the city in concert with Mayor Todd Gloria.

LaCava’s re-election makes it less likely there will be major shake-ups in who leads the council’s committees next year.

Such shake-ups in those assignments, which will be announced later this month, typically come when the council president shifts to someone new.

Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said LaCava also deserves praise for keeping members of the council safe while still allowing sometimes boisterous members of the public to attend meetings.

“You’ve had to govern in a time when we’ve seen increased threats of violence against elected officials across the nation,” she told LaCava.

Councilmember Raul Campillo said LaCava has also helped other members of the all-Democrat council smoothly get proposed legislation through City Hall’s bureaucratic pipeline.

Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who held the position for three consecutive years before LaCava, jokingly asked his colleague if the sometimes thankless job had lived up to his expectations.

“Is it as glamorous and amazing as you envisioned?” Elo-Rivera asked.

LaCava, 71, said he was proud that council members showed mutual respect for each other under his leadership.

He also apologized for sometimes delving so deeply into issues that council debates run longer than expected.

LaCava said the city’s ongoing budget crisis means the coming year may not be any easier.

“I’m very honored, and I look forward to probably another challenging year ahead of us,” he said. “But we’ll get the work done.”

The city’s new trash fee, which applies to single-family homes, was approved 6-3 last spring after months of contentious debate and complaints that the fee was too high.

The council also voted 5-4 to roll back a city incentive for backyard apartments — formally called accessory dwelling units, or ADUs — because a majority of the council said the incentive was ruining the character of some neighborhoods.

Councilmembers also haggled over budget cuts most of May and June, finally voting to cancel some of Mayor Gloria’s proposed cuts by creating new revenue streams from things like parking fees in Balboa Park.

But figuring out how to implement those fees became another fierce debate this fall.

LaCava, who lives in Bird Rock, is the third La Jolla resident to serve as council president, following Sherri Lightner in 2015 and 2016 and Scott Peters in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The job was created in 2006 when San Diego switched to a strong-mayor form of government. Only Peters and Elo-Rivera have held the job for three years.

LaCava was first elected to the council in 2020 after three decades as a community leader. He is termed out in 2028.

Councilmember Vivian Moreno was recognized Monday for 15 years working for the city. Before serving on the council for the last seven years, Moreno was a staffer for Councilmember David Alvarez.

“You’ve been an incredible advocate for transparency, equity and leaving a better San Diego for our children,” LaCava told Moreno after giving her a commemorative pin.

Moreno said she plans to spend her last 12 months on the council focusing on long overdue infrastructure projects in her South Bay council district, which includes Barrio Logan, Otay Mesa and San Ysidro.