Mayor Gloria, City Staff Restores Year-Round Funding and Support for Youth Swim Team & Water Polo Programs in FY 2025 Budget Revision

Today the FY2025 Budget Revision was released, and we are excited to share with you that the full funding for the City of San Diego’s year-round youth swim and water polo program has been restored!

Through our collective efforts, we were able to successfully advocate for for the restoration of 5.55 full-time employees and total expenditures of $420,000 and the revenue of $70,000 to support swim teams and water polo programs in the non-summer months at swimming pools citywide!

Thank you for all of your calls, emails, public comments, and official online comments submitted to our City officials. We appreciate your efforts to articulate how removing these programs will have devastating consequences. Maintaining year-round access is important for the safety, economic prosperity, and recreational opportunities in our region. 

We hope you can help us with one more important piece of this advocacy campaign. It’s time to say thank you. We appreciate the time and energy of our Mayor Todd Gloria, City Councilmembers, their community representatives, and City of San Diego Park & Recreation staff for having tough conversations and digging deep to find the funding solutions to keep this program going and available at ALL CITY OF SAN DIEGO POOLS.

The FY2025 Budget will go to a final adoption in June 2024. So anything can still happen. Let’s make sure that this recommendation of FULL RESTORATION remains!

Action is needed NOW! Budget Committee meets 5/16/2024 at 2 p.m. AGENDA LINK

1. Create your own email to tell the Council to say THANK YOU for reversing their previous recommendation and how appreciative we are to KEEP year-round swim programs. (Template messages available. Please personalize it to meet your needs.)
2. Send the email to to your representatives. (LINK).
3. Submit a 200 word or less public comment on the agenda item through the webform – indicate Agenda ITEM-2 for the May 16, 2024 meeting. Kids are welcome to submit their messages too!
4. Watch the meeting online and prepare to offer phone-in comment (1 minute MAX!)
5. Go down to City Hall on Thursday, May 16 and offer in-person testimony in front of the Budget Review Committee. Council Chambers, 12th Floor, 202 C Street, San Diego, CA 92101. Testimony happens after budget revision presentation and committee discussion.