Taxpayer Protector

The City Attorney's office makes protecting taxpayers a priority across divisions, whether litigating claims on the city's behalf, vetting contracts, or aggressively pursuing bad actors who have harmed our community. The Nuisance Abatement Unit (NAU), for example, part of the office's Community Justice Division, works in partnership with city departments and law enforcement to enhance San Diego's quality of life by enforcing public nuisance, land use, and environmental laws.

Environment and Wildlife Protector

The California Fish and Game Commission named Deputy City Attorney Jordan DuBois their Wildlife Prosecutor of the Year in June, in a unanimous vote that recognized his successful prosecution of highprofile ivory trafficking cases. DuBois and his team in the Nuisance Abatement Unit continued their outstanding work in 2023, pursuing cases against illegal commercial fishing operations.

Labor Defender

The City Attorney's Civil Enforcement Unit enforces a variety of worker protections, including unsafe workplace practices, wage violations, and deceptive trade practices. May marked a milestone for the City Attorney's efforts to hold gig economy companies responsible for their obligations to workers, as millions of dollars in funds became available for distribution from the city's settlement with Instacart. City Attorney Elliott filed suit against Instacart over its misclassification of independent contractors in 2019, seeking restitution for exploited workers and demanding that the company provide them basic job protections guaranteed under state law. In 2022, Instacart agreed to a $46.5 million settlement covering some 308,000 individuals who worked for the company.