SAN DIEGO – Since the beginning of the year, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce has stressed accountability. Currently there is legislation sitting on the Governor’s desk, AB 1368-Kehoe, that exemplifies their beliefs that more accountability is needed.

Today the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce along with San Diego City Councilmember’s Brian Maienschein and Charles Lewis, are asking the City Council to be more accountable as it relates to public safety. The request specifically relates to how funding from Proposition 172, the Local Public Safety Protection and Improvement Act approved by voters in 1993, is allocated annually. The current budget crisis has created mutual concern from the business community and citizens as to how cutbacks will affect public safety services. It has also amplified the call for structural budget reform.

"Funding for Public Safety continues to be the City Council's highest priority," Councilmember Brian Maienschein said. "We must plan now to make sure our firefighters, lifeguards and police have the proposition 172 funding the voters approved for police and fire protection."

The current budget situation and the recent calls for cuts in the public safety department have created a new spirit between the Chamber and Councilmember’s Lewis and Maienschein with regard to how expenditures occur during the budget process.

“One of things we hear from conversations with citizens and members of the businesses community is that they are concerned about how money is allocated and spent at City Hall,” said Doug Sawyer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. “They truly have no idea where their tax money is being spent. This request today is part of an overall move by The Chamber to encourage more government accountability.”

Specifically the request calls for the City Manager to adhere to a policy, adopted by the Council in 2001, that Proposition 172 funds be used to fund public safety expenditures and that the City Manager list the allocations as line-item expenditures in the budget. This change will enable the public to see what new programs and equipment were a result of the Proposition 172 expenditures.

“If this request is acted upon it will be a visible step in the right direction toward government accountability,” said Jessie J. Knight, Jr., President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. “The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, Councilman Lewis, and Councilman Maienschein hope that this call to action is acknowledged by the other Councilmember’s.”

Taxpayers deserve to know how public safety funds are being allocated. This call for action is a first-step toward ensuring that public safety funds are being spent responsibly.