Residents and commenters press council on years of municipal-code non-prosecution and request audits and reporting

Several residents used the public-comment period to press the council on municipal-code enforcement and alleged lapses in prosecuting violations related to homeless encampments.

One speaker said San Diego Sheriff records showed 182 citations from deputies over five years and alleged the city failed to pursue prosecution for many violations until recently. The speaker urged the council to consider an audit and monthly reporting from the city attorney and city manager to reconcile law-enforcement records with city case dispositions.

Another commenter encouraged the council to adopt measurable performance metrics for enforcement and to publish regular data so the public can track outcomes. A third speaker urged reconciliation between the sheriff’s enforcement statistics and those reported by the city attorney so the public can understand whether non-enforcement was due to policy or administrative choices.

Council members acknowledged the concerns and said the city attorney and staff can be asked to provide explanatory reports; no formal action was taken at the meeting beyond public comment. The city attorney later reported, in the closed-session summary, that the council had authorized the initiation of litigation in a closed-session matter (one initiation of litigation was authorized unanimously), but the public-comment requests about municipal-code prosecution and audits were not resolved at the meeting.

Public commenters asked for clarity on whether prior non-enforcement reflected a policy decision, counsel error, or other factors; they called for transparency and accountability in how municipal code violations are processed going forward.