Hedgecock Vows a Comeback but Troubles Persist

Last Wednesday morning, before the news was official, San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock telephoned each of the eight City Council members to tell them that he would not resign as part of a plea bargain and would continue in office and fight felony charges.

It had been weeks--even months--since some on the council had received a personal call from the mayor. And even those who dislike him, including some who had been hungrily awaiting the chance to seek his office, said they appreciated the call.

But beyond the gesture of the call, another message was clear: San Diego’s mayor was back on the job.

Hedgecock has spent nearly a year fighting criminal charges that he violated campaign laws. But from now until his second trial begins Aug. 22, he will no longer have to divide his time between court appearances and City Council meetings.

Hedgecock’s return as full-time mayor meant he would be back running council meetings instead of leaving them in the hands of the deputy mayor and that he could return to walking city neighborhoods and taking out-of-town trips to promote the city. It also meant he could push his agenda--aggressively marketing a renovated downtown, seeking solutions for the homeless and controlling urban sprawl.

It is this image of a young, energetic mayor back on the job that is being promoted by Hedgecock and his staff.

But it isn’t that simple, City Hall observers say. They compare these few months between the mayor’s first and second trials as the lull between storms.

“I think it’s really back to where we were after the first trial (which ended Feb. 14) and before all this discussion of plea bargain,” said Councilman Dick Murphy. “It means that the regular and routine things are going forward and that people have put their mayoral campaign (plans) on the back burner.”

Murphy, who was one of four council members seriously considering running for mayor, now is concentrating on getting reelected to the City Council.

Hedgecock’s return to a more active city leadership role is likely to mean the mayor and council will cooperate in getting pet projects and the budget resolved.

Three council members are up for reelection, Murphy, Ed Struiksma and Bill Mitchell, and it is considered unlikely that they would get involved before the Sept. 17 balloting in the kind of bickering that marred some council meetings during Hedgecock’s first trial.

Added to this is the high visibility the mayor and other city officials are expected to have this summer with the May 22 ground breaking for the convention center and the opening of the Horton Plaza shopping complex, a major redevelopment project, on Aug. 8.

“Because of the trial, it’s an interim period. Everything’s going to be a little tentative, a little uncertain,” Murphy said.

Pat Barnes, an aide to Councilman Bill Cleator, agreed. “I would expect a flurry of activity now because of budget hearings through June and other projects,” he said, “but when August comes, everything will go back on hold.”

Nevertheless, council members, their staffs and city officials welcome even the brief respite, glad for a chance to return to work under near-normal conditions.

“At some time during the trial, the council floor (on the 10th floor of City Hall) got so obsessed with . . . every nuance of the trial, that if Roger wore a red tie instead of a blue tie, five people . . . in the coffee room were wondering if that meant he was going to resign,” said Diane Annala, assistant to City Councilman Mike Gotch.

“Now, if Roger wears a red tie, Roger’s just wearing a red tie and we’re . . . going through the everyday priorities--seeing if we can take care of the potholes and the sewer spills,” she said.

The troubles and tension of the past few months have taken a toll and some of the changes at City Hall are likely to affect how the mayor gets along with the council this summer.

In the last two months, three of Hedgecock’s top staff members have announced resignations. They are Elizabeth Brafford, his press secretary, housing expert Michel Anderson, and, just last Friday, his chief of staff, Michael McDade. All denied they were abandoning a sinking ship.

At a Friday press conference, Hedgecock and the departing McDade emphasized the positive, saying that the mayor’s staff was being restructured.

Under the restructuring, aide Dave Nielsen is to replace McDade as chief of staff June 1. A new press secretary and program assistant have been hired. And Anderson’s job becomes a new position of growth management expert and will be filled within a week, said McDade, who plans to stay on “only long enough to help get things organized”--but he will continue to consult with “my friend” the mayor, he said.

Hedgecock, displaying an upbeat attitude, said staff changes were the beginning of new initiative.

“I felt there was a need to recharge the batteries, so I went on vacation and did some soul-searching. And I discovered I am absolutely committed to carrying out the promises I’ve made and getting back to work,” Hedgecock said. “I’m going to be the best mayor I can be.’

As Hedgecock and McDade spell it out, these are the mayor’s priorities:

- Seeking national and international visibility for San Diego. For most of the last six months, Hedgecock has remained in San Diego. But now he plans a speaking tour--to the Urban Land Institute Conference in Toronto May 1-5, to a conference on “megatrend cities” in Austin, Tex., May 11, and to a conference of Western States mayors in San Jose on May 31-June 3. (Hedgecock also will be presiding at the new San Diego Convention Center ground breaking and the opening of Horton Plaza.)

- Implementing last year’s growth management task force recommendations, including possibly proposing some sort of new tax to pay for “infrastructure problems” like potholes and clogged sewers in older city neighborhoods

- Community outreach, including weekly walks around the city. He began the walks again Wednesday after a hiatus of several months.

- Promoting San Diego nationwide through a newly established downtown marketing consortium.

- Continuing efforts to resolve the problems of the homeless.

During the trial, there were constant complaints that some council members were taking advantage of Hedgecock’s problems to vote against his programs and to promote themselves as mayoral candidates, but now the “would-be mayors can put that aspiration in mothballs,” McDade said.

However, most of the potential mayoral candidates said late last week that they are still interested in Hedgecock’s job--if and when it becomes vacant.

Two of them, Murphy and Struiksma, are busy now with reelection campaigns. Noted Struiksma, “You’ve got to understand that virtually anything you do for a City Council election, because it’s a citywide election, pays dividends for any mayoral race to come.”

Another councilman who considered the race was Hedgecock supporter Mike Gotch, who had hoped to pick up Hedgecock’s liberal constituency if the mayor resigned. For now, Gotch aide Annala said, he is wondering whether to deposit the money contributed to him when it looked as though there might be a vacancy or give it back.

Two others often mentioned as possible candidates for mayor, Police Chief Bill Kolender and Assemblyman Larry Stirling, said firmly that they were not considering the idea--at least not until there was a vacancy.

Also among the “non-candidates” was Councilman Uvaldo Martinez, who in February was waging an open and aggressive campaign for mayor that included polls, a cadre of volunteers and fund-raising. Martinez may no longer be focusing on the mayor’s office but he’ll keep himself in the public spotlight this summer by heading opposition to a city growth-control initiative.

Such a role--with its polls, citywide volunteer organization and many fund-raising contacts with developers and key county Republicans, will do Martinez no harm in any future mayor’s race, observers point out.

For all Hedgecock’s renewed energy, it is not clear if the mayor will be able to push his agenda through the council in the next few months.

Most council members are tired of the turmoil Hedgecock’s legal problems have caused them, and there is evidence that the city is tired of speculating whether or not Hedgecock will be forced from office.

But one thing is clear: Hedgecock’s lengthy court battles and the time he has had to spend away from city business have bred an unusual degree of independence in this council.

The situation is in sharp contrast to the years when then-Mayor Pete Wilson ruled the council with an iron hand.

After his indictment Sept. 19, Hedgecock lost some major battles:

Over his vehement protest, a council majority decided to approve the La Jolla Valley project, a subdivision and university complex to be built on farmland that was not supposed to be developed until 1990. Hedgecock also lost a long battle to name San Diego’s first Latino representatives to the powerful San Diego Port Commission.

For the moment, at least, and in large part because of the upcoming city election, council members aren’t expected to try to “pull the rug out from under the mayor,” as one Hedgecock supporter put it.

“As long as Roger is reasonable, works well with council members and gives us breathing room . . . (he) will receive cooperation,” Councilman Jones said.

Added Struiksma: “He will be judged on the merits of the program.”

Struiksma noted, however, that should Hedgecock’s legal problems make him miss future council meetings, “the council is quite capable of getting along without him.”