Debate Expected on Child-Care Priority

The San Diego City Council Rules Committee on Monday will begin considering a wide range of proposals to improve day care for children in San Diego. The proposals include hiring a city child-care coordinator and joining forces with school districts to use classrooms for programs to serve children with working parents.

Acting City Manager John Lockwood, in a report released Friday, suggested that the committee delay recommending that the city adopt a long-term policy on child care until December, when a City-County Task Force on Human Needs issues a report. Lockwood said that for the city to adopt a policy in advance of that report would be “premature.”

Committee consultant Kevin Sweeney, however, said Councilwoman Gloria McColl, who has made child care one of her top priorities, planned to push for adoption of a citywide policy immediately when she appears before the Rules Committee. McColl could not be reached for comment Friday, but Sweeney said, “She doesn’t think the city should wait to act on this.”

Sweeney said McColl hoped to convince the committee to adopt a citywide day-care policy that could be brought before the full council in late September or early October.

Lockwood’s report focused on a number of issues, and reviewed the futile, decade-long effort to provide at least city employees with day-care service in the downtown area. “The provision of child day-care services for city employees is a problem that has defied (the) staff’s efforts over a period of 10 years, due primarily to the unavailability of a suitable city-owned site or a private facility that could be leased or purchased at a reasonable price,” it said.

On Monday, the committee will decide whether the city should again explore the feasibility of establishing a day-care center for municipal employees in Balboa Park. Lockwood, pointing to the success of a day-care center for county employees at Kearny Mesa, said a center for city employees could be financially self-sufficient if land is available.

The problem, Lockwood said, is finding the land at a reasonable price, particularly considering the high cost of land downtown.

“The only suitable city-owned site in close proximity to the downtown area is Balboa Park,” Lockwood said. Land to be vacated with the closing of the old Navy hospital in 1988 in the park could be used for a day-care center, the report said.

Hiring of a full-time city child-care coordinator also will be considered. “This alternative would provide city employees with access to an in-house contact person who would assist as necessary in obtaining . . . services . . . appropriate to each individual’s needs,” Lockwood said.

Lockwood also endorsed the proposal that the city join forces with the San Diego and San Ysidro school districts to provide day-care facilities. “There are more than 106 elementary schools within the city, and it is presumed that most are suited to this purpose,” Lockwood said.