Faulconer says city, not political party, comes first

 

First of two parts

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO—Mayoral candidate and City Councilman Kevin Faulconer says, yes, he is a Republican, but his higher priority is working across party lines for the well-being of the City of San Diego.

“I am less concerned about party affiliations,” he said. “I have won two elections in my council district (which includes Point Loma and downtown San Diego), which is a majority Democratic (registration) seat. I am not known as a very partisan guy.  I don’t think that is what local government is all about; it is about who is effective and who gets things done.”

His comments were reflective of the fact that the City of San Diego, in the past a Republican bastion, showed political registration at the end of 2013 being nearly 40 percent Democratic compared to slightly less than 27 percent Republican with somewhat more than 28 percent calling themselves non-partisan voters. The remaining 5 percent of the 659,429 total voters are affiliated with small parties.  Registrar of Voters Michael Vu has said he anticipates that turnout for the Feb. 11 special mayoral election will be between 45 and 50 percent.

During a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 16, with local Jewish business leaders and friends at WAXIE Janitorial Supply, Faulconer’s self-assessment was that “I am not known as one of the grandstanding, loudest-guys-in-the-room type of person, but I think I am known as probably the most effective that has been on the council for a number of years,” Faulconer said.

Faulconer also said that when he deals with other people, “I am going to tell you what I am feeling, and I am going to follow up and do it.  I think that is what I am known for among my supporters as well as by those on the other side, that ‘Kevin means what he says and his word is his bond’ and that is the most important thing for me.”

He said he wants to make certain that the city government paves the streets and fixes the potholes, keeps the libraries and parks open, and hires “the 130 police officers that we are down right now in San Diego.”

In addition to making sure that San Diego police salaries are competitive, Faulconer said, the city needs to streamline its hiring process, so it doesn’t take a year before the pre-employment paperwork is done.  Further, he said, the city should not feel that if it raises the salaries of police and firefighters, it should therefore have to give similar raises of the same percentage to other employees.  He suggested that none of the business executives in the room would consider giving employees such across-the-board pay increases.

To be able to provide what the city needs, the new mayor must “not allow us to do what got our city in trouble before (in the late 1990s and early 2000s) – unsustainable benefits, unsustainable pensions that drove us literally to the edge of bankruptcy,” Faulconer told the business assemblage.

“We have great employees in the City of San Diego and we need to give them a fair retirement that they can count on,” he continued.  “But we can’t do what they were doing before, where people were retiring at 130 percent of their salary for life.  There was a librarian that retired for $200,000 a year for life.  That was the type of thing that got us into trouble.  When people ask for the stars and the moon, they can ask for it, but you have to have a mayor who says, ‘here is what we can do.”

Stimulating the economy helps the city raise the revenues to pay and retain its workers and provide the necessary services.  So, he said, “we have to take advantage of our innovation economy.”

Faulconer contrasted his approach to governing with what he said is that of his opponent in the Feb. 11 special election, City Council colleague David Alvarez, a Democrat with strong support from labor unions.

Faulconer said he favored and Alvarez opposed pension reform, expanding the convention center, refunding the tourism marketing district, lowering the linkage fee (which he calls a ‘jobs tax’) and allowing private companies to compete to provide city services. “There couldn’t be starker differences between myself and my opponent in this race, two very different visions of where the city wants to go,” the mayoral candidate declared.

Alluding to the sexual harassment scandal that forced former Mayor Bob Filner to resign his position, Faulconer noted that he had been endorsed by Jerry Sanders, the mayor who had served just before Filner.  “If you thought Sanders was popular when he was in office, after Filner, it is astronomical,” he quipped. “It’s like Santa Claus endorsing me.”

In a question and answer session, Faulconer was asked about relations with Tijuana, the San Diego Chargers’ desire for a new stadium, encouraging high tech industries and the perceived demographic split between the city south of Interstate 8 and north of that freeway.

Concerning Tijuana, Faulconer said he favors speeding up the crossing time at the border, describing delays that sometimes can reach two and three hours as the biggest inhibitor to cross-border economic growth.  He praised Sanders, who is now head of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, for his efforts to get the federal government to speed up both Phase 2 and Phase 3 of a project to increase border crossings.

Meanwhile, conversations between San Diego and Tijuana officials, now are focusing on “how we can make it easier… for smart people who want businesses on both sides of the border.  I think we can do that if we have a mayor who says ‘I want that relationship and will do everything I can to enhance that relationship.’”

Concerning a new football stadium, he said: “I am less concerned where a stadium may be located—downtown or Mission Valley, which is a great site.  My priority as mayor is to make sure that any financing plan protects us as taxpayers.  That will be my Number 1, 2, and 3 objective. … If we can get a financing plan that works on its own merits, then it will succeed, and if not, then it won’t, and rightfully so.”

High-tech industries in San Diego are disadvantaged by a “jobs tax” in San Diego that adds costs to every employer, Faulconer said.  For example, “Qualcomm is thinking of expanding with another building, but the tax could increase by $1 million what they are trying to do.”   He said to build the economy, a mayor should be “cheerleader in chief.”  “There is stuff we can do from a land use perspective,” he said.  “We  should be making sure we are waving the flag for San Diego.”

“Rick Perry (the governor of Texas and one-time GOP presidential hopeful) may come out to California, but when I get elected I am going to Texas and say, ‘who wants to live here?  Come back with me to San Diego, I want you here!” the candidate said at another point.  “I want people to know that San Diego is a friendly place to do business and be successful.”

To address the demographic split in San Diego, Faulconer said, a mayor must be “interactive and very inclusive.”  He said “we got the endorsement of the Latino American Political Association,” which he described as a “bipartisan group of small business owners.”  He also noted that  “last week we had the endorsement of 30 prominent African-American pastors.”   Further, said Faulconer, “you have to communicate.  The first ad I released was not the Jerry Sanders television ad, “it was the one of me speaking Spanish about the need for jobs.”

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com