An Apologetic Cleator Woos Black Community Leaders

They were invited Wednesday night to sip Chablis, walk around an expansive Point Loma home and talk to a man who says he has had a change of heart.

The 30 black community leaders were guests of Councilman and mayoral candidate Bill Cleator, and he worked hard during the evening to convince them that he wanted their support and would be responsive to their needs.

He apologized for voting twice in 1985 against divesting city retirement funds from companies that conduct business in South Africa.

He said he would push development in Otay Mesa--and thus provide jobs for unemployed blacks--even “if it kills me.”

He pointed to his shoes. “I’m out of my saddle shoes,” Cleator joked. “I’ve stopped swearing, kind of.”

Were the black leaders convinced that Cleator had changed?

“I think it helped open people’s minds up to Cleator,” said Kathy Rollins, executive director of the Black Federation and one of the councilman’s guests.

Whether it worked or not, the evening served as a sign that Cleator and other vote-hungry politicians are becoming more serious about the political potential of minority communities in Southeast San Diego, an area mostly south of I-94 and east of downtown that includes stretches of weary, junk-scarred neighborhoods.

Some contend that blacks and Latinos may play the spoilers’ role in the 1986 mayoral race. Although these observers concede that minorities are likely to vote overwhelmingly for Democrat Maureen O’Connor, they don’t want her to take them for granted and there is some talk of shopping for the candidate most willing to meet a list of demands that include some voice in appointments to various boards and commissions, additional neighborhood improvements and even possible changes in the political process to make them more powerful.

“I think the next mayor’s race is going to be very important for the Southeast community,” said Charles E. Reid, a member of the San Diego Community College Board and deputy director of the county’s Department of Social Services.

“The former mayor, Roger Hedgecock, had opened up access to City Hall and that’s going to be expected to continue, not just for the black community but the entire Southeast community. As I see it right now, the Southeast community will probably support that person who will maintain that access.”

Councilman Uvaldo Martinez, whose district includes minority areas downtown, in Golden Hill and in San Ysidro added: “The minority communities have gotten a taste of the governmental process, the political process, and, frankly, I don’t think they’re going to give it up.

“The days of paying lip service to the ethnic community are gone,” he said.

Hence the party at Cleator’s home Wednesday, where black leaders listened to why the Point Loma councilman cares about them.

“Before Hedgecock, I don’t know if I would have been invited to this affair,” said Rollins at the beginning of Cleator’s party. “The reason I’m here is to hear what Mr. Cleator has to say and not because I support Mr. Cleator. I’m open-minded and searching . . . .”

Traditionally, black and Latino voters were considered an insignificant force in local elections because of low voter turnouts. The attention of political consultants and politicians has been focused largely in the burgeoning, conservative neighborhoods north of Interstate 8, the artery that serves symbolically as the city’s political dividing line.

Meanwhile, Southeast leaders say, their communities have been largely ignored by City Hall. While council members hash out the social implications of growth in places like North City West and Rancho Bernardo, the problems of Southeast have been shunted aside, community leaders say.

In one recent case, an abandoned car was left so long that a tree began growing through the engine compartment, said an aide to Councilman William Jones, whose 4th Council District is bounded by California 94 on the north and National City on the south. A pet complaint from Jones and his staff is that there is not one major supermarket chain store in his district of 120,000 people.

“The most significant type of neglect is, do we (City Council) have a low expectation of a neighborhood, of a people?” said Jones.

“If we do, then we tend to let people build things that people with high expectations wouldn’t allow in their neighborhoods,” said Jones, knocking council actions that have allowed what he calls “mini-slums” and “tacky development” in Southeast.

About the only time some politicians paid attention to the problems was around election time, said Jones, Reid and others. They came, made their promises, and disappeared after the vote was tallied.

But in the 1983 mayoral election, the minority communities rallied to O’Connor, who tapped into a network of community activists for a campaign organization. In all of District 4, 77% of the voters went for O’Connor, with 22% casting ballots for Hedgecock.

Two heavily Latino areas--one in Barrio Logan, the other in San Ysidro--voted 82% for O’Connor and 18% for Hedgecock. Several predominantly black precincts just north of National City went 85% for O’Connor and 15% for Hedgecock.

Former Hedgecock aide Evonne Schulze said the minority vote “showed that the vote south of (Interstate) 8 can make a difference. There was no doubt that Maureen won south of (state Highway) 94.”

The lesson was not lost on Hedgecock, who won the election. He established Latino and black advisory panels and pushed minority appointments to city boards and commissions. During his administration, 26% of his appointments--or 72 out of 277--were minorities, according to statistics compiled by his office.

Other changes ensued for Southeast. In May, 1984, the City Council approved a program for Jones’ District 4 called “Project First Class.” The ambitious program, which established a special team to enforce city codes, used hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal money to correct what Jones says were years of public and private neglect.

When the program began, eyesores abounded. Abandoned cars crowded private yards and around small businesses. Litter was strewn in thatches of high weeds. Youth gangs left their signatures with graffiti on walls. Dead dogs were ignored. Sidewalks were broken.

Unable to find out from city administrators how many streets needed repair in District 4, Jones’ office called for a $60,000 study using federal funds. The study found about $20 million worth of needed improvements, said Rich Juarez, Jones’ top aide.

In one neighborhood on Hilltop Drive, a massive cleanup effort netted 43.7 tons of litter and 11 abandoned cars, say employees of the Neighborhood Improvement Council.

Despite the progress, problems remain. Jones is still looking for the supermarket chain willing to build a store somewhere in his district.

Solving this and other problems depends on who assumes Hedgecock’s mantle, say minority leaders. They are looking for a candidate who will not disappear after the vote.

“I don’t support anybody . . . that I cannot have access to for the good of my community,” said the Rev. George Walker Smith, pastor of the Christ United Presbyterian Church at 3025 Fir St.

“When I get on the telephone, I don’t want to talk to three or four secretaries and then they put me off until next month,” said Smith. “I like accessibility, being able to talk to the people I support and vote for and who are supposed to be representing me.”

The odds-on favorite to win the minority vote is O’Connor, say Smith and others. Polls show her so strong that Ed Struiksma’s campaign has basically conceded the vote in Southeast to the Democrat.

“Certainly, we don’t write off any constituency, and we have met with representatives of all those communities,” said David Lewis, Struiksma’s political consultant. “But yes, Maureen’s traditional stronghold has been there and in an instant campaign like this, there is not an opportunity to put together enough of an operation to negate what she has.

“Maureen will be down there, and we will be in neighborhoods north of 8 and in District 3,” which is immediately south of 8, said Lewis.

Cleator, however, is trying to make inroads in O’Connor territory.

“We’re not going to concede those votes,” Don Harrison, Cleator’s political consultant, said about black and Latino voters. “We’re going to go out and aggressively court them.”

On Jan. 17, he traveled with Jones to Los Angeles to meet Safeway officials in an attempt to persuade them to build a store in Southeast. He appeared on the pulpit with the Rev. Robert Ard at the Christ Church of San Diego during an annual commemorative service for slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

But black leaders say Cleator has to work hard. He hasn’t been visible in Southeast in off-years--a point Cleator concedes--and he twice voted in 1985 to oppose efforts to divest city retirement funds from firms doing business in South Africa.

Yet Democrat O’Connor may be in for some bumps herself, particularly in the Hispanic community.

Some say there is a residue of resentment toward O’Connor because, as a port commissioner, she supported a compromise plan to split 5.4 acres in Barrio Logan between a ship repair yard and a bayfront park. Elements of the community, including the Harborview Community Council, wanted all of the bayfront property as a park.

O’Connor said the compromise was the best deal she should get for the community, but Dan Munoz, editor and publisher of La Prensa, said she will have to repudiate the compromise if she wants to establish a dialogue with Hispanic groups.

“The litmus test for us is going to be the baypark. You make a public statement that you are going to get us a bay park, then we can talk about the issues,” Munoz said.

Latino concerns reach even further than the park.

Other leaders such as Mateo Camarillo, owner of the MacDonald’s restaurant in Linda Vista, and Jess Haro, former city councilman and executive director of the Chicano Federation, say Latinos also want district elections. They want to expand the number of seats on the council and redraw council district boundaries to lump Latinos together and make them a more potent political force in San Diego.

Cleator says he favors the system of electing council members citywide, but said he is willing to talk about the possibility of district elections. O’Connor and Struiksma are against district-only elections.

Haro said there is a chance that Floyd Morrow, past chairman of the local Democratic Party, could siphon off votes from O’Connor, especially since he favors district-only elections.

“They talk about Roger’s (Hedgecock) vision of the city, the physical environment of the city,” said Haro, summing up what kind of demands Hispanics and black will be making in the current mayoral race. “I think someone should talk about the social and human side of the city. The politics of the city have to change.”

The politics in Southeast are changing, said Reid. He said this mayoral race has inspired more activity--candidate forums, meetings between minority leaders, small fund raisers--than he has seen before.

And the mayoral hopefuls are making themselves known.

“I’ve seen more activity in Southeast by the candidates in the last three to four weeks than I’ve seen in the last four years,” Reid said.