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J.F. Kelly, Jr. - Contributor

J.F. Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive who writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident of Coronado, California. [go to Kelly index]

A Fine Mess in America’s Finest City
Consistently ineffective San Diego government…
[J. F. Kelly, Jr.] 4/28/05

I’m not a resident of San Diego, but many of my closest friends are. I grieve for them. America’s so-called finest city is in a fine mess, thanks in large part to a succession of ineffective mayors and a perpetually troubled city council. Add to that a dysfunctional school board, just for good measure.

Actually, I share in the grief because all of us in the county are affected to some degree by what happens or doesn’t happen in the big city, not that we have much control or input one way or the other. That lack of input has always amazed me. Many city issues are, in reality, regional issues, such as the location and funding of new stadiums. Major sports franchises, like the Chargers and Padres should be considered regional resources. At least half of the fan base comes from outside the city limits. Yet, the city acts as though these matters and decisions were exclusively theirs.

I’ve come to the conclusion, regretfully, that the only claim that San Diego has on the self-proclaimed title, “America’s Finest City” is that it has America’s finest climate, something that even the local politicians haven’t managed to screw up yet. They have certainly made a mess of things financially. The city’s financial problems, especially its under-funded pension liabilities, have been well publicized and need not be recited here. They have seriously damaged the city’s credit rating and national reputation. I used to be proud to say that I’m from San Diego. Now I make it a point to specify that I’m from a nearby city.

Under its weak mayor system, the mayor has held little more real power than a council member at large. The other council members represent the districts that elected them. Guess where their priorities lie? Considering the lack of leadership in the mayor’s office, we can only speculate on how much worse things might have been with a “strong” mayor in power (I use the latter term loosely). We’ll see how that works starting in 2006 but first the city needs to find someone actually capable of being a strong leader.

Two of the last five mayors have resigned under pressure. Since 1978, three council members have resigned under duress and another was recalled. Two current members, including the deputy mayor, are under federal indictment. Another, who was also under indictment, recently died. The last mayoral election can only be described as a spectacle, remembered primarily for the bubble ballot debate and which ended up in the courts, resulting in the reelection of a mayor who had previously withdrawn from his campaign for reelection only to change his mind and reenter the race. He polled slightly more than a third of the votes and has now quit after a Time magazine article added to the city’s notoriety by naming him one of the three worst big city mayors in the nation. What’s next, a plague of locusts?

When I served as foreman of the county grand jury in 1997-1998, we heard a lot from attorney Mike Aguirre who spoke out frequently about problems in city government. Now he’s city attorney and he’s still speaking out against them. In fact, he called publicly for Mayor Murphy to resign. Problem is, he’s supposed to represent the city officeholders he is publicly criticizing. But Aguirre was elected to office and he apparently considers that his primary responsibility is to the voters who want good government, something that has been conspicuously absent in the city in recent years.

This, of course, presents a classic conflict of interest. As an attorney, he can’t have it both ways. Perhaps the voters of San Diego should have anticipated this problem when they voted to make the office of city attorney elective instead of appointive and then elected a crusading city attorney. Not surprisingly, city officeholders now feel that they should have independent council, at great additional cost to the taxpayers, of course.

Should San Diego now hold a costly special election to allow the voters to pick Mayor Murphy’s successor or should the city council just appoint one? I say let the city council appoint one. They can’t do much worse than the voters have and there would be none of those confusing bubbles to fill in. Perhaps the council could recruit another Hollywood hero like Arnold Schwarzenegger to take charge of the city.

Someone should. CRO

copyright 2005 J. F. Kelly, Jr.

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