13-05-2025
San Diego budget calls for ending of program to digitize archives
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — As part of the proposed cuts to San Diego's budget to close a more than $258 million deficit, the City Clerk's Office is proposing discontinuing a program focusing on digitizing the city's archives for free public access online.
Called the Archives Access and Preservation Program, the city began the initiative more than a decade ago as a way to make its historical artifacts and records easier to view. Previously, historical documents could only be obtained through the public records request process.
More than 1,000,000 documents — from photographs and videos to legal records — have been uploaded to the city's website since then, serving as a resource for students' research and for history buffs to explore San Diego of yesteryear.
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Under Mayor Todd Gloria's proposed budget, however, the City Clerk's office will wind down this program and return to public records requests as the main way to obtain archival documents that are not already available online.
Alongside the program's end, a number of full-time positions associated with it will be eliminated, axing the office's ability to host archival tours and exhibits on San Diego history in the lobby of the City Administration Building.
These changes will also impact the City Clerk's passport services, reducing the number of appointments available, according to the draft budget.
Efforts to digitize additional historical artifacts will continue, San Diego City Clerk Diana Fuentes said, but it would be more limited in scope and contingent on outside grant funding opportunities through programs like California Revealed initiative.
'Above all, we remain committed to protecting the City's historical records,' Fuentes said. 'We will continue to focus on making it easier for everyone to find what they're looking for by organizing and labeling … our historical records in clearer, more searchable ways.'
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Maintenance of the city's archives is one of the primary responsibilities of the City Clerk, acting as an information gateway for the public to learn more about local government. The clerk is also responsible for overseeing city elections and managing legislative records, among other things.
Even as the department is looking at scaling back its archival operations and laying off a number of its staff, the 2026 draft budget would increase its funding by about 8%, going from about $8.1 million allocated in the 2025 fiscal year to $8.2 million.
According to the draft budget, the city is expected to save about $807,106 in the cuts, but this will be offset by hikes to salary and benefits for remaining employees and an increase to funding for the department's information technology.
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