Cal-PIRG Says Funding Cut Likely to End Hot Line and Price Surveys

Cal-PIRG will probably cease operating its local hot line and price surveys in late August because the San Diego City Council has denied the watchdog agency’s funding request for the consumer programs, officials said Tuesday.

The California Public Interest Research Group will continue to have an office in San Diego but will probably lay off two full-time workers, said Pamela Allen, the group’s consumer program director.

The contract the agency has with the city to run the hot line and surveys, including a two-month extension to phase out the program, ends Aug. 31.

Support May Be Lacking

Councilman Bob Filner said funding for the programs will be brought back for the council’s consideration before the extension expires but that there does not appear to be enough support from the council members for saving the services.

Cal-PIRG had requested $40,799 to conduct the programs as part of the city’s social services budget proposal. The council’s unanimous approval of that $3.6-million budget did not include funding for the Cal-PIRG operations.

Allen said it’s possible that the consumer group could still obtain money from the city’s unfunded needs list. The agency received such funding in 1986.

The majority of the funding for the group’s consumer programs comes from the city and cannot be made up from other sources, Allen said. Cal-PIRG has been receiving funding from the city for its well-known food price surveys since 1976.

Combined with a proposed cut to the city attorney’s Consumer Fraud Unit, “it is evident the City Council has turned its back on consumers,” Allen said. “San Diego residents will have nowhere to turn if we close.”

City Manager John Lockwood said the city will be forced to cut non-public safety programs, such as those in Cal-PIRG, to make room for the additional 140 police officers the council has requested. Cutting non-public safety programs is “less painful” than cutting into basic services such as street maintenance and trash pickup, Lockwood said.

“We had to go back to see what we weren’t providing 20 years ago” to determine what nonessential services should be cut, Lockwood said.

$930-Million Budget

The $930-million spending plan for fiscal year 1990 that Lockwood has proposed would cut $21.8 million from an array of programs over the next two years, including services that generate revenue for city coffers, such as the Consumer Fraud Unit.

Lockwood said the only non-public safety programs not cut were those able to raise 100% of their budget request. The Consumer Fraud Unit fell about $115,000 short of its request for $535,000. In 1988, the unit assessed $420,000 in fines and penalties, which went back into the city treasury, officials said.

Tricia Johnson, deputy city attorney in the fraud unit, said that if the Cal-PIRG programs were shut down, the fraud unit “would not be able to pick up the slack.” Cal-PIRG’s price comparisons increase competition and therefore lower prices, especially in the grocery industry, she said. Many supermarket chains use the surveys in their advertisements.

“People listen to the Cal-PIRG surveys,” Johnson said.

The consumer hot line receives about 160 calls a month and offers advice on everything from tenant-landlord disputes to credit card problems.