By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Former State Senate President pro tempore James R. Mills, who died March 27 at the age of 93, was a pragmatic politician who knew that he could get what he wanted if he enabled his colleagues to do the same.
As Senate president pro tempore, he exercised a lot of power, as another San Diegan who currently holds that position — Toni Atkins — could tell you.
Mills didn’t try to grab headlines by sponsoring bills on major issues like ending capital punishment, or guaranteeing women’s abortion rights — although, generally liberal in his outlook, he would vote for such legislation. Instead, he tilled two relatively non-controversial fields. A former curator of the San Diego Historical Society–back when it was headquartered in the Serra Museum–he was a champion of historic preservation. Additionally, he did whatever he could to get people out of cars and onto bikes or into trains.
As Senate president pro tempore, Mills could schedule floor debates and votes on other legislators’ bills, or could bottle them up. He also had the power to excuse or not excuse legislators’ absences. Legislators received their per diem salaries if their absences were excused, but lost them if they were not excused. Mills also could assign legislators to the committees of their choice, or put them on committees that they might like much less.
One of the reasons that Mills stayed in the pro tempore position for a long time, from 1971 to 1980, was that he extended many courtesies and tried to accommodate the other 39 state senators, be they fellow Democrats or Republicans.
In return, they gratefully voted for the pieces of legislation that were important to him. These included designating a portion of Old Town San Diego as a historic state park; helping to fund the San Diego Trolley; designating bike trails throughout the state; and offering tax incentives for owners of historic properties to keep those properties in their original pristine condition
During the 1970s, San Diego County had an organization that was the forerunner of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). It was called the Comprehensive Planning Association (CPO). Its executive director, Richard Huff, was opposed to the light rail system that Mills proposed, favoring instead a Disneyland-style high speed monorail which he believed would attract more ridership. It also would have been far more expensive.
Huff figured he could persuade the state legislature to fund a high-speed rail, notwithstanding Mills’ opposition. He didn’t appreciate how powerful Mills was in the state Legislature. Huff’s high-speed rail proposal never got to first base.
Today, as I watch an extension of the San Diego Trolley system being built through La Jolla, I can’t help but remember Mills’ logic. The San Diego Trolley started with a single line from downtown to San Ysidro, which was a busy corridor. Once people got used to the idea of using transit, he predicted, they’d want other trolley lines to be built.
In honor of his deep transportation knowledge, Mills was elected as the longtime chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Development Board following his service in the Legislature.
Mills had a wicked sense of humor. In the days that I covered the legislature for the morning San Diego Union, I would find myself on the same Monday morning PSA flight to Sacramento as Mills. I remember one time, he and I and Colleen O’Connor were sitting near each other. O’Connor and I were chatting about how people at cocktail parties will often ask you what your profession is in an attempt to pigeon hole you.
Mills said that as Senate President pro tempore, he doesn’t get asked that question very often because most people in Sacramento know very well what he does for a living. But, if he did, he said, affecting a Cockney accent, “I’d tell them that I’m an hangman — that I understand California is considering reinstituting the death penalty, and I’m here to tell them how to tie the knot.”
It was pure fantasy of course. Mills would not vote for capital punishment, much less participate in an execution. But imagine, he said, the look that might come over people’s faces if that were his conversational gambit!
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
File under, Had No Idea He Was Still Alive. 🙁 I recall Jim Mills as a very conservative Democrat, who, when Tom Hayden was first elected to the State Senate, tried to expel Hayden for being essentially correct about America’s war against Vietnam (not fully, of course, but more than McNamara and Kissinger ever were). The irony, and this speaks well of Mills, is he eventually became a sort of mentor to Hayden and became one of Hayden’s most vociferous defenders as a senator in the state legislature. He appreciated Hayden’s dedication to being a senator, and how Hayden was willing to work with other senators who normally disagreed with him.