Judge denies city of San Diego’s request to dismiss lawsuit over trash fee

A judge Thursday denied a request by the city of San Diego to dismiss a lawsuit challenging its trash collection fees.

The decision means the legal challenge from a collection of local homeowners is likely bound for trial, which is tentatively scheduled to start next month.

The homeowners sued the city following the passage of Measure B, which ended free trash pickup services for single-family homes. The plaintiffs allege the fees violate Proposition 218, a state ballot measure that holds utility fees cannot exceed the costs of providing those services.

Superior Court Judge Euketa Oliver confirmed her tentative ruling issued on Wednesday, which said the plaintiffs had presented enough evidence “to call into question the validity” of cost projections presented by the city’s attorneys.

City of San Diego attorneys argued that over the next four years, the expected revenues from the fees wouldn’t exceed the costs of service, but Oliver wrote that there were potential questions raised over “the city’s underlying assumptions, particularly with respect to the relationship between service demand and projected costs.”

Among the alleged issues the judge noted were the city’s projections indicating annual increases in costs despite fewer households receiving trash services than originally estimated.

“The apparent inconsistency between declining service demand and increasing costs, coupled with unsupported assumptions and, at this point, unexplained deficiencies in the city’s analysis, creates triable issues of material fact as to whether the fee exceeds the `actual cost’ of providing the service,” Oliver wrote.

The judge also denied the city’s motion for summary judgment on several other causes of action, including the plaintiffs’ claims that the fees would be used for purposes other than trash collection.