By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Mayor Bob Filner, in his first State of the City message, lauded San Diegans who have brought glory to the city in the past, while indicating new directions for the city’s future. He forecast for his first term pronounced emphasis on bilateral relations with Tijuana, marketing San Diego as a Pacific Basin depot, focusing city attention and resources on improving neighborhoods, ending confrontations with municipal labor unions, and initiating drives to increase the availability of water and solar power in San Diego.
The speech, delivered Tuesday night at the Balboa Theatre in Horton Plaza, came during a special meeting of the San Diego City Council and was made a glittering event by the conferral of “Living Legacy Awards” upon such celebrities as former all-star baseball batter Tony Gwynn, philanthropists Ernest and Evelyn Rady, Ira Lechner and Eileen Haag, homeless advocate Father Joe Carroll, baseball announcer Jerry Coleman, LGBT advocate Gloria Johnson, former County Supervisor Leon Williams, former City Councilman Jess Haro, and former State Senator Lucy Killea. Spouses such as Maggie Coleman, Alicia Gwynn, Margaret Williams and Jane Haro also were honored “for making a difference.”
“All of us in San Diego are the beneficiaries of your decency, kindness and willingness to share your intellect and material resources with our community,” Filner told the honorees.
Having been often depicted in San Diego’s media as short-tempered, and even mean, Filner turned on the charm in this message, delivered only six weeks since taking office. He made a point of saying nice things about every current member of the San Diego City Council–both Republicans and Democrats–and by their smiles on the stage behind them, they clearly appreciated the public attention.
He extended congratulations to Todd Gloria (3rd District) for being elected Council President, to Sherri Lightner (1st District) for her elevation to Council President pro tem; to Kevin Faulconer (2nd District) for championing the sports fishing industry; to Lorie Zapf (6th District) for her “commitment to regional planning, smart growth and transit issues”; to David Alvarez (8th District) for his “calm and steadying influence on the Council” and to Marti Emerald (9th District), in an allusion to her previous career in television broadcasting , for being a “troubleshooter … pushing to improve neighborhoods you represent and for the City as a whole every day.”
He lauded two new members of the City Council, Mark Kersey (5th District) and Scott Sherman (7th District), respectively for interest in improving the city’s infrastructure and for concern for the wellbeing of small business. And he had praise as well for former San Diego City Councilman Tony Young (District 4), who recently resigned as the Council’s president to become CEO of the local Red Cross. A special election will be held to fill his seat.
Filner’s fellow members of the Jewish community noticed touches of Yiddishkeit throughout the occasion. Rabbi Laurie Coskey of the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice chanted the shehekiyanu prayer in Hebrew, thanking God for bringing us to this moment, following an invocation by Bishop George D. McKinney of St. Stephen’s Cathedral Church of God in Christ. Coskey described as “auspicious” the fact that the State of the City message by Filner, a former Freedom Rider in the Civil Rights Movement, should deliver his address on the birthday of the slain Civil Rights Leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.
Besides Filner, other Jewish community members on the dais were City Councilwoman Marti Emerald, and honorees Evelyn and Ernest Rady, who have long been active in the Jewish community, in addition to being important contributors to UCSD’s Rady School of Business and to the Rady Children’s Hospital. At a reception at the Westin Hotel following the formal proceedings, refreshments even included hummus, a favorite food in Israel and throughout the Middle East.
In introducing prominent members of the audience, the current Council President and emcee Todd Gloria read a long list of names of Mexican officials who had crossed the border to be the mayor’s special guests, and as Filner came on stage, he extended greetings in both Spanish and English.
Upon being inaugurated, Filner said he would open a border affairs office in Tijuana. Last night, he called that city bureau, to be opened Feb. 1 at the Tijuana EDC/ Deitac offices, “just the first step in building a partnership to coordinate border infrastructure improvement and to market our bi-national region to international investment.”
He added: “The destinies of San Diego and the Cities of Baja California are intertwined; and we intend through this to work on urban policies for both sides of the border by sharing knowledge, resources and ideas, and developing more integrated regional vision on environmental sustainability and soci-economic prosperity for our bi-national mega-region.”
He urged the San Diego Economic Development Corporation, the Chamber of Commerce and counterpart agencies in Mexico “to join with me in re-formulating our economic development efforts to take full advantage of the unique opportunities the border region offers for international investment.”
Turning to what he called an “aqua economy”–made up of the “green” of solar and the “blue” of maritime industries, Filner promised his administration will work to expand such solar efforts as are now being undertaken in San Diego by the French company Soitech, and to further develop trade and tourism along San Diego’s bay and ocean coastlines.
“As I said during the campaign, we live in a climate where solar makes sense,” said Filner. “I will soon mandate that all municipal buildings be equipped with solar power and urge all government agencies and businesses to do the same. Let’s work on developing alternative energy and making San Diego America’s sunniest solar city.”
The mayor said that the city must respond to emerging global issues. “Rising sea levels demand that we plan now to protect vital coastal infrastructure and neighborhoods. We’re not going to save our beaches by putting our head in the sand. ”
He recommended that an “urban forestry program” be put in place “not only to beautify our communities but to moderate the effect of rising temperatures on the region.”
So that the “full benefit” of such initiatives can be realized, Filner said he will work to “bring certainty and efficiency to the regulatory process” and called for “reforming and streamlining permit processing, including a fixed and predictable time and fee schedule.”
Filner said although the previous mayor, Jerry Sanders, had hoped there would be a budget surplus, there may be a deficit of as much as $40 million by next April, when Filner will submit his proposed budget to the City Council. He called that a disappointment but said, “if we learned anything from the mistakes of the past, it’s that it is better to be truthful about these problems that it is to cover him up.”
He said one-time refunds to the City of San Diego totaling approximately $34 million from SDG&E and the County of San Diego will cushion the blow, and ought to be spent on upgrading regional responses to wildfires and other emergencies.
The mayor said the City is seeking 5-year agreements with all its labor unions to “stabilize the city’s budget over the long term” and at the same time to “fulfill the promise I made during the campaign to deliver a 5-year freeze on pensionable pay for all City workers– a freeze that will reduce the city’s unfunded pension obligation by nearly $1 billion over 30 years and lower the required annual contribution to the pension fund between $25 and $25 million annually for the next 15 years.”
He said: “This will be a huge step forward in stabilizing city finances, to the benefit of the taxpayers and to our loyal city employees. And we’re going to accomplish this without scape-goating our employees or using strong-arm tactics. We will do it through good faith collective bargaining and mutual respect.”
Overall, he likened the city’s fiscal condition to “a patient who has faced a life-threatening disease, who has survived painful treatments and a lengthy recovery, who is now cautiously optimistic that the disease is behind them, but fully aware that changing circumstances at any time, can lead to a relapse.”
Turning to the redevelopment of neighborhoods, he said “the public-private model of redevelopment pioneered downtown must be expanded to assist every San Diego neighborhood in realizing its potential and improving its residents’ quality of life.”
He said the city should support “transportation systems that enhance our quality of life” such as “pedestrian-friendly designs like Bird Rock’s roundabouts, dedicated bike paths linking neighborhoods and improved options to meet the rapidly changing needs of our residents.”
Among such improved options, said Filner, would be a way to go to the airport without using one’s car. “I will advocate at the Airport Authority for an airport that is designed around multimodal access and served by light rail and direct access from Interstate 5, rather than relying exclusively on automobile access from Harbor Drive.”
Prior to the mayor’s speech, his fiancee Bronwyn Ingram told of her plan to enlist volunteers for numerous city-sponsored projects around the city, especially feeding the hungry. Volunteers who already have signed up to work with “Team First Lady” were seated in the first several rows of the Balboa Stadium, even in front of some of the the honored elected officials.
While in Congress, Filner had served as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, and his respect for the military was showcased by a U.S. Naval color guard from Naval Base San Diego, the leading of the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance by the city’s co-veterans of the year Ron Stark and Tony Stewart, and the singing of the National Anthem by the baritone Michal Morgan, director of San Diego Children’s Intermediate and Concert Choirs.
A light moment was provided by former Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who had been one of Filner’s main opponents in the mayoral election, along with District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis (who was introduced as being present) and former City Councilman Carl DeMaio (who was not announced as present).
Fletcher, whose role in the program was to introduce Bronwyn Ingram and later Mayor Filner, joked that standing on the dais as the crowd awaited the delivery of the State of the City message was something he had dreamed about –and members of the audiencechuckled knowing that in those dreams, Fletcher had imagined that he, himself, would be the one delivering the State of the City address.
Among those not present–or at least not announced as being in attendance — were all of Filner’s predecessors as mayor, including the immediate past mayor Jerry Sanders and the only other Jewish community member to serve in that office, Susan Golding.
Their absence, whether deliberate or coincidental, was unfortunate because their presence would have added to the feel-good atmosphere of what was clearly a positive occasion.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com