Richard Bailey
Candidate for City Council Member, San Diego, District 2
Richard Bailey is a San Diego native with a Bachelor's degree in Business Finance from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Master of Science in Applied Economics from the University of North Dakota. He has worked as a financial analyst for a Fortune 500 company and as an adjunct professor of economics at the University of San Diego, and currently owns two businesses in San Diego. He was elected to the Coronado City Council in 2012 and became Mayor of Coronado in 2016, the youngest mayor in that city's history. As mayor, he championed public safety initiatives, maintained city infrastructure, reduced taxes and opposed wasteful spending — contributing to the city's AAA bond rating — waived his own city pension, twice voted against his own pay raises, secured funding to address cross-border sewage spills, and launched a tree-planting initiative.
Positions in brief
Richard Bailey's platform centers on cutting city spending and staffing to close the budget deficit, reforming the city's homelessness response, hiring more police officers, repealing recently added fees, and prioritizing street repair over bike lanes.
Bailey's central proposal is to restructure City Hall staffing back to 2015 levels, arguing that while the city's population has grown just 1%, overall staffing has risen 27% and middle management 431%; he wants zero-based budgeting and managed competition for services, projecting roughly $610 million in savings to close the structural deficit without new taxes. He would repeal recently added fees, including Balboa Park parking fees, downtown parking surge pricing, and recreation league fees. On public safety, he wants to hire 300 additional police officers, noting current staffing is below 1999 levels, and calls for reforming the city's homelessness approach, criticizing its 'four contact policy' and noting more than $200 million was spent between 2021 and 2025 while homelessness rose. On housing, he supports family-sized, ownership-oriented development and mixed-use projects on underused commercial land, while requiring realistic parking and traffic mitigation and restoring local zoning control. On infrastructure, he notes more than 30% of city streets rate poor or failing and proposes performance-based street-maintenance contracts, prioritizing repair over new bike lanes.
On the issues
Proposes restructuring City Hall to 2015 staffing levels, adopting zero-based budgeting, and using managed competition for city services to close the budget deficit without new taxes.
“population has increased just 1% yet staffing is up 27%...middle management by 431%”
Source →Wants to repeal recently added city fees, including Balboa Park parking fees, downtown parking surge pricing, and recreation league fees.
Source →Wants to hire 300 additional police officers, saying current staffing is below 1999 levels.
Source →Criticizes the city's homelessness spending as ineffective and calls for reforming its approach, including the 'four contact policy.'
Source →Supports family-sized, ownership-oriented housing and mixed-use development of underused commercial land, with realistic parking and traffic mitigation and restored local zoning control.
Source →Says over 30% of city streets rate poor or failing and proposes performance-based street-maintenance contracts, prioritizing repair over new bike lanes.
Source →
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