City Council Votes for Special Mayoral Primary in February

Moving quickly to fill the vacancy created by Roger Hedgecock’s resignation as mayor last week, the San Diego City Council voted unanimously Monday to call a special mayoral primary election for Feb. 25. A runoff, if necessary, will be held June 3.

The decision for an election comes after speculation that conservative Republican members of the council would forgo the public vote and instead

appoint Councilman Bill Cleator to the vacant seat as a “caretaker” mayor who would not run for reelection. The drive for appointment, explored by several prominent San Diego Republicans, fizzled soon after Hedgecock’s resignation because Cleator told backers he wanted to run in a special election.

While it called for that election, the council defeated, 5-3, a proposal by Democratic Councilmen William Jones and Mike Gotch to conduct the primary through the mails. Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer joined in the losing side.

The council’s vote now means that candidates for mayor may obtain their nominating petitions beginning Friday. The last day for filing the papers will be Jan. 3.

City Clerk Charles Abdelnour estimated the special primary election Feb. 25 would cost the city $550,000, and a mail vote would cost $350,000.

A June runoff would cost the city an additional $200,000 and would require a City Charter change waiving a municipal provision requiring that the mayor’s post be filled within 180 days of it being vacated. City Manager Sylvester Murray is expected to report back to the council today about what effect a $750,000 special election could have on the city budget.

Last Tuesday, Hedgecock was sentenced to one year in local custody; he was convicted on 13 felony conspiracy and perjury counts on Oct. 9. The sentencing forced his resignation and created the opening in the mayor’s office.

Even before the resignation, however, Cleator had been the subject of intense politicking aimed at winning him an immediate council appointment to the mayor’s office. But there was no mention of appointment by the council members Monday.

“I appreciate some of the comments made about me concerning an appointment,” said Cleator, who is expected to announce his mayoral candidacy at a press conference Thursday aboard a ferryboat adjacent to the B Street Pier.

“There were a number of people who approached me about the possibility of being appointed mayor, so we could put all of the recent problems the city has had behind us right away, but the decision to have an election as soon as possible is the right one,” said Cleator.

Councilman Ed Struiksma, who is acting mayor and has said he will take the holidays to mull over a possible campaign to succeed Hedgecock, used Monday’s council meeting, the first since Hedgecock’s sentencing and resignation, to deliver a personal statement on the city’s future that he said was “important in light of recent events.”

Saying he would not “head a caretaker administration (because) the business of this city is far too important to put on hold,” Struiksma added, “While I am responsible for this office I will aggressively pursue the best interests of the City of San Diego.”

Struiksma called on the council members to “put aside (their) differences. Many of us shed tears last week over the difficulties this city has suffered.

“While we continue to sympathize with the impacts of the events of last week, we as a council must begin to look ahead. Remembering that time is a great healer, we must move on to the next chapter in our city’s life.”

But the council was divided Monday on how to conduct the election. Democrats Jones and Gotch were shut out by their Republican colleagues when they suggested using mail ballots.

“The experts tell us we have no problems with the mail-in ballot, and we can save $200,000,” said Jones, the most enthusiastic proponent of the mail-in proposal. “We have used it before, and it should be used again.”

Gotch, who is seriously considering running for mayor, said the mail-in had “real merit. I think we ought to level with one another.” Gotch was alluding to the time-honored theory among City Hall politicos that a lower voter turnout favors more-conservative, Republican candidates.

“We may have personal political preferences for holding down the turnout,” Gotch said, “but if we are being cost-conscious, there is no reason to turn down a mail ballot.”

Registrar of Voters Ray Ortiz, who appeared at the council meeting, said mail-in elections “have been used successfully in the county, and saved money and increased turnout significantly.”

In most cases, the mail-in votes have been called to decide issues affecting small water, fire and sewer districts in the unincorporated areas of the county. The most important mail-in election was the 1981 advisory measure on the downtown convention center, to which 60% of the city’s voters responded.

Ortiz said that because of the many people changing residences in the San Diego area, an estimated 28% of the addresses listed in his records for the approximately 490,000 voters registered in the city are not current. But he said an annual “purge” of the records would correct the discrepancies in time for the February primary.

“This occurs every year in December and January, and once we do the purge, our files will be clean,” Ortiz said.

Council members opposing the mail-in method said it may lead to widespread vote fraud.

“I just don’t have faith that we can cut loose almost 500,000 pieces of mail and have them all end up in the right places,” said Struiksma.

“Until we can guarantee that this is absolutely foolproof, I have real reservations about the credibility of this system.”

“One of the reasons why we are having this election in the first place is because of the claims of fraud in the other election, and I don’t think this is the time to experiment,” said Cleator, referring to Hedgecock’s conviction stemming from illegal campaign contributions he accepted in the 1983 mayoral election.

Cleator, who was eliminated in the 1983 mayoral primary, said a mail-in vote would lead to “registered voters from Fort Rosecrans and Mt. Hope (cemeteries). I don’t think this is the time to experiment. That kind of fraud happens in Chicago, and we don’t want it to happen in San Diego.”