Financial Management and Pension Reform

The national economic recession has affected every city in the nation, and the City of San Diego is no exception. To minimize its impact on San Diegans, Mayor Sanders has taken aggressive measures to preserve precious tax dollars and ensure they are used wisely and efficiently.

Among other accomplishments, Mayor Sanders has:

• Implemented a new pension system that increases the amount that employees pay into their pensions and reduces the amount that taxpayers contribute. This translates into more money that can be used for City services. This is just one of the many reforms (PDF) to the City’s pension system that Sanders has instituted.
• Negotiated 6% compensation reductions (PDF) for city employees that will result in long-term savings for taxpayers.
• Reduced overall city payroll (PDF) since he took office in 2005.
• Implemented a program known as Business Process Re-engineering, which requires City departments to operate more efficiently. It has already saved the City tens of millions of dollars.
• Initiated a process that will allow private sector technology companies to bid (PDF) against the city-owned Data Processing Corporation for the right to provide the City with information technology services. The contract is worth $45 million a year.
• Fought to limit the amount of funds that Sacramento has taken to balance the state budget.
• Improved the City’s financial standing on Wall Street, which has allowed the City to return to the bond market (PDF).

Building on the success that San Diego has made during his first term in office, Mayor Sanders will continue to work to make city government more efficient and fiscally responsible.