Leading Oceanside: Councilmember Peter Weiss

OCEANSIDE, CA — Oceanside Councilmember Peter Weiss has been involved with the City of Oceanside since 1986. Weiss was the City Engineer and Public Works Director before becoming City Manager. He was appointed Mayor in January 2018 after the resignation of Mayor Jim Wood and was elected District 4 representative in November of 2020.

The Patch reached out to Councilmember Peter Weiss for his vision for Oceanside in 2022 and beyond.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Oceanside and how is that going to affect your priorities for this year?

Fiscal Stability
My answer is going to be a little different. I think the number one challenge for Oceanside is fiscal stability. We entered this current fiscal year with a $1 million dollar surplus. But, our total budget is almost $400 million and the General Fund budget is about $170 million. That's like your household having less than half of one percent reserve in your budget.

We just got our financial forecasts for next year with a projected surplus of $3.5 million. Great, but if we spend that on whatever we want, then we are in deficit mode over the next several years. So my concern is fiscal stability over the next five years. Our pension costs for our employees are going to go about $10 million for public safety.

We absolutely love our police, we love our fire. We need to pay them fairly, but my concern being we are putting so much money into some of these other things that we're losing sight of what we're here for and we're here to provide services and programs to the community. So I think when I say fiscal stability,

I want to make sure that we have enough money and we're putting money into the right places to advance broader community interests.

If you think about the last several years, the single biggest new program the city has opened was the new aquatic center. Again, that's great but there's not a new library. There is not a new permanent fire station. We don't have a new police station. We really haven't advanced anything new that provides a broad benefit to the community. I'm concerned because at some point in the future we are going to have a recession or inflation will keep climbing. These things are cyclical. If we start losing money from property tax or sales tax, a $1 million dollar surplus isn't going to cover us. So fiscal stability probably is my number one. I think it's a challenge for the city.

Economic Prosperity
The second priority for me is maintaining the attitude of economic prosperity that we've developed over the last several years. And what I mean by that is not necessarily being developer-friendly. That's not what I mean at all. But when you look at what it takes to attract and retain businesses, there are a whole host of things that go into that. It's being able to have some assurance about getting through the public process. If I'm going to build something and hire employees and do these things to benefit Oceanside, I want the city to be supportive.

But there are groups of people out there that I call the committee on 'No on Everything'. It doesn't matter what it is, they're going to be opposed to it. I think we've done a good job over the last few years overcoming that if you look at the new businesses that are coming to town, look at the Tremont Collective. That developer took a chance on Oceanside because of the systems we've put in place and the friendlier attitudes towards projects that deserve to advance.

We have all these wonderful restaurants and shops that 20 years ago we couldn't have contemplated having so economic prosperity.

We need to continue moving forward and advancing development projects that include attracting larger businesses with higher-paying jobs.

How do we get additional pharmaceutical and hi-tech companies to come to Oceanside?

Homelessness
But thirdly, I think one of the biggest challenges is homelessness. If you look at all of the money that we are putting into homeless-related programs. We have two homeless outreach teams. We have social workers that go with them. We have a homeless diversion and prevention program. We have a unification program. We have contract sobering services, we have numerous programs and we get a weekly report about how many people are in the hotel voucher program and how many have graduated. We're planning a homeless shelter at the Ocean Shore's school.

We are investing a lot to provide homeless services and yet it appears to the average person that nothing is happening.

It's one of the biggest challenges and not just for Oceanside. Much of the blame for the increasing problem is on the county and the state. We no longer have what I consider adequate mental health services.

When we were dealing with the encampment on Oceanside boulevard I wanted to have some collective place, to put their tents up, because I had gone down there and I had talked with Rodney and other people down there. One, they don't trust people. They didn't trust me when I got there,
they don't trust the police when they show up. They just wanna be left alone in their tents. So okay, let's put them someplace where we can bring in, you know porta potties and portable showers because if we can get them all in one spot we can bring people in to work with those that will accept help and have them in a place where it's sanitary.

Clearly, many need some type of mental health services. We're not going to save everybody, but how do we get to those that want help? We have tons of programs where you can get help. It's just a matter of getting them to accept it.

On the opposite side of that, I don't think the homeless population should impact and devalue other people's quality of life.

I don't have an answer to it, but I think it is one of our biggest challenges.

Short term versus Long term Priorities
The city council has departmental goals and objectives and council priorities which are our strategic priorities. But I have a list of very specific things that I would like to see accomplished or dealt with over this next year. Some of them have come up before and haven't been fully resolved. And when I say priorities, I don't mean big far-reaching goals like reducing crime.

Marginal Hotels
One priority that most people don't even recognize, but we've tried addressing before with little success is what I consider marginal hotels. I'm using the word marginal versus problem hotels. Until the two new downtown hotels opened up, we had 25 lodging establishments in the city.

In 2020 we had 3000 calls for service for those 25 hotels. About 50% of those calls, came from five hotels.

So if you start doing the math for those five hotels, that is the police or medics responding once a day to each. That is a significant drain on our resources. So my question is, how do we get these marginal hotels to improve or renovate or incentivize them to stop this drain on our resources?

For some, I'm sure if they're making money why would you invest to renovate something that may or may not get the money back. So I think we need to have some economic development impetus incentive to help them see the light. My guess is you won't hear that from any of the others on the council.

I know it doesn't sound groundbreaking, but just reducing 3000 calls to 1500 would significantly reduce the resources on the Police and Fire Department. For me, many of the strategic plans lookout years and years. So how do we build successes into those longer-term goals?

When you're going on a cross-country journey you have to take that first step and then you have to take the second step. You're not looking at, oh no, I gotta walk 3000 miles. Instead, you break it down into small doable things. Let's have some small successes and let's build on them. What can I get done today or this month, this year. Let's find what works and do it again. If it doesn't work, let's change it.

Some of these things, like the homeless issue, there is not just one answer out there. There are multiple. Like the five marginal hotels, I'm guessing that there's no one answer for everyone there, may be five. They may all have different circumstances. But I think we have to start somewhere. If you just start with the small things and do them right and do enough of them you make progress. I don't want to have some big lofty goal that we can never achieve. I want to be able to say let's focus on what it is we can do and let's get it done.

Beach Sand Plan
That prior answer is going to be contrary to my next one. And that is we need to come up with some form of beach sand solution. We're still in this planning phase and the fact that the city of Carlsbad is taking a position opposed to what we're doing already. Well, that's funny because we haven't even decided what we're doing yet.

You know, Carlsbad has six groins. They have six man-made sand retention structures that were put in years ago by the power plant to protect the inlet and they have nice beaches in between them. All I want is what Carlsbad has.

We need to do something else because just dumping more sand on the beach or saying we are going to adopt managed retreat doesn't solve the problem.

So I would at least like to see a plan advance. I don't expect that we're actually going to build anything in the near future, but I think we need to have a plan in place that will address our beaches. And it's not just Oceanside, this is a coastal problem. How do we preserve and retain sand on the beach?

Pretty much every issue that comes before the council, the board of supervisors, the state assembly, federal government, we are at a point where we can't disagree without being disagreeable. So how do you deal with that and find a compromise?

What I expect from elected officials, whether it's the President or City Council member is you act respectfully. You respect the office. I may not agree with your political position but you respect the office. Can you act in a manner befitting of the position and representative of the community?

Beachfront Improvement Projects
My next priority is a project that is underway, the 2nd Phase of the Beachfront Improvement Projects. I would like for us to have an early spring design study coming to the council. I am aware there are people who think we want to convert the gymnasium into a parking lot, but no one has ever said we want to do that.

Honestly, I have no significant interest in changing its purpose from a gymnasium. My focus is the amphitheater.

There is no reason why Oceanside shouldn't do something like the San Diego Symphony Rady Shell. It's really brilliant and beautiful.

I know we can't do something that large. But can you imagine that wave shape down at the Oceanside amphitheater where we could actually have performing arts and concerts and have live entertainment? We deserve something world-class and it's concerning to me that we have people in Oceanside that don't want to see us advance. They want that amphitheater left as is even though it's not adequate for what Oceanside needs anymore. I get it, there's always going to be people that don't want to change anything. Many of those same people that were complaining about the downtown resorts are now eating at the rooftop bar and hanging out there.

So it's a priority for me that we have a plan in place to put something there. Let's do something for Oceanside that can bring in the performing arts community.

Oceanside Police Headquarters Building
The council authorized staff to look at finding a new headquarters building for Oceanside police. They're outgrowing where they are, which is a former retail site. The parking lot is not large enough. I want to make sure that a plan comes forward with a location. Not some $200 million dollar project like the San Diego police headquarters building, but put together a reasonable plan to find a new place or expand where they are now. The city has hired a consultant to look into that. But I want to make sure that at least within the next year we have a plan in place.

How do we find a way to provide our Police department a reasonable and rational place to work? That is a priority that I think the city needs to embrace.

How do you go about achieving those priorities?

People wonder why we don't get more done when we know what the issues are. To start it has to do with how the city works. The council sets the priority and goals. It's up to the city manager to actually implement them. Our job as a council, although some of my colleagues probably disagree, is to set the broader priorities. So I want to deal with the marginal hotels. How much money do you need to deal with this? Okay, put it in the budget, we will approve the budget. Now it's up to the city manager to make it happen. Hey, beach sand is a priority. Okay, how much money do you need? We'll put it in the budget. We approve the budget. It's now up to the city manager to make sure that staff is working to complete beach sand plans, whatever it may be.

When I've talked to community groups about homelessness, I said, you know, the council has done their job, we've made homelessness one of our top challenges and one of our top priorities, we have provided all of the money that has been asked for by the city staff to address it. Now it's up to city staff to actually make something happen. It's not up to the council to go out and collect shopping carts off the street. In fact, the council is expressly prohibited from interfering in the administrative affairs of the city.

Most people don't get that. They think, Peter Weiss. Councilmember snaps his fingers, go write that guy a parking ticket. We can't do that.

We are a council-manager form of government. Meaning, the council sets the overall priorities and fiscal direction. It is up to the city manager to take care of all of the other actions. In fact, the only two people the city council can hire or fire is the city manager and the city attorney. We have no ability to get rid of any other employee anywhere in the city.

Oceanside is not a Mayor run city like San Diego, which is a strong mayor form of government.

Like the City of Los Angeles, City of San Francisco, where the mayor is essentially the city manager if you will. And to me, that is one of the problems for some of those cities. Actually, it fits with the governor as well. If he hired a competent manager, someone who knows how to run the government, they'd be more successful at certain things because you have to have people who know the job.

Do you think Oceanside is currently well run?

Yes, I will say hesitantly. Of course, there are things that can be approved. After every council meeting we evaluate, what did we do wrong? What do we do different, how could we have improved? I think overall, if you were to do a survey of the general population of the city, I think
you would find the vast majority people say I like the direction we're going in. I like the way things are happening and that's the key. It's not necessarily do I think the city manager, the planning director, the city engineer, do I think they're doing a good job. When you look at the broader impact we're having on the community, I think most people would say we're heading in the
right direction and in that respect we're doing a good job.

Oceanside Redistricting
My only comment on the redistricting is I would rather see five districts with a rotating mayor because our mayor position is ceremonial anyway, I think having five districts would be more representative.

Are you planning to run for re-election in 2024?

No, I'm not. Instead, I am focused on finding a qualified replacement. When I was city manager I had the opportunity to ask questions of newly elected council members. Starting with, why did you run? What do you hope to accomplish and how can staff help you? Invariably they all had legitimate reasons that came down to, I want to make a difference. But what does that even mean?

Most of them had not been part of the city government. I mean they've been part of the community. But they had no idea that the City of Oceanside spends over $1 million dollars a day. And they had no idea that the fiduciary responsibility of the city is paramount. Many have no prior experience that prepares them.

That's why I'm reaching out to people to try to get them involved now so that they have some inkling of what the job entails.

Lastly, what is something you want people to know that they might not know about you?

I like to go out to bars and play music!

Peter and his wife Janet have raised four children who all attended El Camino High School. Over the years, Peter had been active in Boy Scouts and a variety of youth sports programs. Peter is still active in community sports as a coach and referee for the Tri-City Inline Hockey League. He still plays ice hockey for “The Cheese,” and has been known to frequent various drinking establishments as a performer in a rock-and-roll band.

Get more information about Councilmember Peter Weiss and the Oceanside City Council.

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