San Diego Dashboard · EXECUTIVE

Mayor of San Diego

The Mayor of San Diego is the city's chief executive under the Strong Mayor form of government adopted in 2004 (Prop F, Charter Article XV). The Mayor proposes the annual budget, executes and enforces city law, appoints the City Manager and independent department heads subject to Council confirmation, and holds sole authority to appoint the city's representatives to regional boards like SANDAG, the Port, the Airport Authority, and MTS. The Mayor may veto Council actions under §280, a veto the Council can override only with six of nine votes (§285). A two-term limit added by voters in November 2016 (§265(d)) caps service at two consecutive four-year terms. The current Mayor is Todd Gloria, elected in 2020 and reelected in 2024.

NEW HERE? Read this body's chapter in The Wiring → Part 2: The Mayor

Composition

Who Appoints These Seats

One elected official in San Diego proposes the $5-billion annual budget, executes city law, hires the department heads, and picks who sits in San Diego's seats on every regional board that moves transportation, airport, port, and transit money. That official is the Mayor. The voters of the City of San Diego elect the Mayor directly. The other 1.4 million people who live in the county do not — but the appointments the Mayor makes on their behalf reach into the boards that decide their freeways, their trolley lines, and their airport expansion.
How the office is constituted. San Diego's Strong Mayor form was created by Proposition F in November 2004, which amended the City Charter by adding Article XV.[1] The Mayor is elected citywide to a four-year term under Charter §255. Before 2004, San Diego used a council-manager system in which the Mayor was one of nine Council members and the City Manager ran day-to-day operations. Article XV removed the Mayor from the Council entirely, transferred the City Manager's operational authority to the Mayor's office, and made the Mayor the sole elected executive of the city.
The veto and the six-vote override. The Mayor does not vote on Council. The Mayor's leverage over Council actions is the veto under Charter §280, which can be applied to any ordinance, resolution, or order within ten days of Council passage. The Council can override only with six affirmative votes under §285.[2] On a nine-seat Council, that is a two-thirds supermajority. In practice, routine matters pass without veto; the threshold matters only on the contested votes — land-use entitlements, labor contracts, police policy — where the Mayor and a five-vote Council majority disagree. The sixth vote is the one that decides.

The Mayor does not vote on Council. The Mayor's leverage is the veto — and the sixth Council vote.

MathPolitics Primer
The appointment power reaches beyond the city. Charter Article XV gives the Mayor authority to appoint the City Manager and the heads of independent city departments, subject to Council confirmation. It also assigns the Mayor primary City of San Diego representation on regional bodies: the Mayor holds one of the City's two SANDAG seats by statute (CA Public Utilities Code §132351.1), names three of the nine voting members of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Board (CA Public Utilities Code §170002), and appoints the City's representatives on the Port District Board of Commissioners, the Metropolitan Transit System Board, and a range of other regional and joint-powers bodies. A vote the City of San Diego takes on any of these boards is cast by a person the Mayor picked.
The two-term limit. Voters added a hard cap in November 2016 by approving Measure L, which inserted Charter §265(d): no person may serve more than two consecutive four-year terms as Mayor.[3] The limit applies prospectively. The current Mayor, Todd Gloria, was elected in November 2020 and reelected in November 2024, and is term-limited from seeking a third consecutive term in 2028. The seat will be open in the 2028 general election. Under §255 the primary precedes the general, and the top-two from the June 2028 primary appear on the November 2028 ballot.
Why the structure matters for the stories we cover. The Gloria Files series follows how money from corporate donors routes through three separate campaign committees into a single officeholder's political operation; the structural precondition is that the office is powerful enough to be worth the spend. Our Defense Dollar reporting traces how one seat — this seat — chose the path of defense-industry money in San Diego politics. The Rapid Response reports keep coming back to budget decisions the Mayor proposed and a veto threshold the Council could not clear. The structure above is what makes all three of those stories land in the same office.
What the Mayor actually decides. The annual budget proposal. Department head appointments. Independent-agency board slates to Council. The regional-board seats listed above. Executive orders within the city limits. Labor-contract negotiation direction. The veto pen. Everything else — zoning changes, ordinances, contract approvals above the Mayor's threshold, the final adopted budget — requires Council action, which in turn can require the sixth Council vote if the Mayor dissents. The balance is not subtle. It is written into two Charter sections, §280 and §285.

Sources

[1] San Diego City Charter Article XV — Strong Mayor Form of Government — City of San Diego Municipal Code https://docs.sandiego.gov/citycharter/Article-XV.pdf
[2] San Diego City Charter §§280, 285 — Mayoral veto and Council override — City of San Diego Municipal Code https://docs.sandiego.gov/citycharter/
[3] San Diego City Charter §265(d) — Two-term limit (Measure L, November 2016) — City of San Diego Municipal Code https://docs.sandiego.gov/citycharter/
[4] California Public Utilities Code §132351.1 — SANDAG Board composition — California Legislative Information https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=132351.1&lawCode=PUC
[5] California Public Utilities Code §170002 — SDCRAA Board composition — California Legislative Information https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=170002&lawCode=PUC

Where the Money Comes From

As Seen In Our Reporting