By David Garrick
The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO — San Diego City Councilmember Henry Foster, who is locked in a tough re-election battle, traded barbs this week with the city’s firefighters union about a long-delayed permanent fire station for Skyline Hills.
Union officials say Foster hasn’t advocated hard enough for the project to get prioritized and fully funded, especially considering the clout he has on such matters as chair of the City Council’s budget committee.
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Foster says union officials are either misinformed or intentionally lying to voters when they try to blame him and other city officials for the more than decade-long delay.
The pointed back-and-forth was prompted by a recent campaign mailer about the fire station that was paid for and sent by the union, which is backing Foster’s opponent, Martha Abraham, in the Council District 4 race.
Noting that the site earmarked for the station has been occupied for the last 11 years by a temporary station featuring tent-like structures, the mailer says, “Brought to you by the politicians who gave you tent cities … a tent fire station in District 4 .”
The mailer also endorses Abraham and says, “You deserve better. It’s time for a change in City Hall .”
On Monday, Foster criticized the union during the confirmation hearing for Bethany Bezak, the city’s new chief operating officer.
“Either they are misinformed or they are purposely misinforming the public regarding Station 51 in District 4,” Foster said of the union, Local 145 of the International Association of Firefighters.
When the temporary station opened in early 2015, city officials said ground would be broken on the permanent station within two to three years.
Foster said Monday that the architectural design contract for the new station wasn’t advertised until August 2020 and that the design contract wasn’t awarded until 2023. He did not say why either process took so long.
“So it was a three-year process and a three-year timeline to go from an advertisement to an actual award to working on the actual design,” Foster said.
Before getting elected to his council seat two years ago, Foster served as chief of staff for District 4’s previous council member, Monica Montgomery Steppe, from 2018 to 2024.
Foster said design on the project was completed this spring, but he did not provide any update on funding. City documents show that at least $26 million more is needed for the project to be fully funded.
Foster then asked Bezak to keep the firefighters union informed about the project.
“Let’s make sure we are meeting with Local 145 to make sure they are not as misinformed as they seem to be,” he said.
On Wednesday, union president George Duardo said Local 145 is not misinformed in any way about the new station.
He contends that Foster has not advocated aggressively enough to have the new station prioritized, noting that new stations have been built since 2015 in Little Italy, University City and Mission Valley.
“That speaks to Foster’s lack of engagement and not doing what it takes to get a project done,” Duardo said. “Any project needs advocacy — advocacy from the community and the City Council .”
Some of the city’s newest fire stations have been funded with fees levied on developers, but there are no such funds for the Skyline station.
Duardo said Foster, as chair of the budget committee the last two years, was in a particularly strong position to get some funding moved into the project’s capital improvement account. But no money was moved there.
The union leader also criticized Foster for calling out the union during a hearing about supporting the city’s new COO.
“It was bizarre and off-topic,” Duardo said of Foster’s comments. “It was inappropriate and counterproductive.”
City officials have said that the temporary station has the same staffing as a permanent station would have, contending that means the area is getting the same level of service.
Duardo said the temporary station lacks adequate restrooms and food preparation areas. “It’s just not appropriate for the modern age,” he said. “It does not facilitate quick response times.”
The firefighters union posted a video on Instagram about the dispute.
Foster declined multiple requests for comment on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Abraham also declined to comment.
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