After Seating Clash At Speech, Mayor Told Councilmember To ‘Smile'

By Mariana Martínez Barba, the Voice of San Diego

January 18, 2026

Moments after delivering his state of the city address, Mayor Todd Gloria turned to shake hands with the city’s other elected officials who sat behind him on the dais on Thursday.

They stood up in anticipation of the mayor coming to greet them, with the exception of one councilmember, Vivian Moreno. Gloria had a message for the councilmember.

“He told me that I could smile, which I found to be a very sexist comment,” said Moreno. “How many women of power have been told to smile more?”

At least one other councilmember confirmed the comment. The Mayor’s Office declined to comment.

“The more I sit and simmer … it makes me angrier and angrier that he has that in his heart, that his reaction to me sitting up there, was I could smile more? … He’s trying to control me?” said Moreno. “We’re not gonna be controlled.”

Despite Gloria’s insistence that his relationship with the Council is “extremely functional,” the moment was another example of the tension that has been building. Even where the councilmembers sat was an outgrowth of the discord.

Before he delivered his speech, Moreno learned only 15 members of the public would be allowed inside the City Council Chambers. She decided she would not sit in the front row seat reserved for her to try to make more room for the public. Other councilmembers followed.

“That’s where I was going to sit, where District 8 elected me to sit,” Moreno said. However, rather than letting more people from the public in, she said the seats remained empty.

Gloria’s spokesperson, Dave Rolland, said that the initial plan was to have the Council seated in the front row. 

He said at the request of the Council, “There was a last-minute adjustment. That’s why the event was delayed for 20 minutes.”

 “Our goal at that point was to begin the event as quickly as possible, when we were already running behind schedule. The overflow room remained available for attendees.”

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