O’Connor, Cleator Deny Developer Bias

The top contenders in the San Diego mayoral race--Maureen O’Connor and Councilman Bill Cleator--rumbled down the homestretch of an otherwise dull campaign Thursday by accusing each other of being developers at heart.

Continuing to emphasize Cleator’s image as the reigning pro-development conservative at City Hall, O’Connor started the day by contending that her opponent was part of the “equivalent of bait-and-switch advertising” when he voted to excuse developers from building three elementary schools and public parks in North City West, the controversial project that calls for 16,000 new condominiums and homes in the city’s northern reaches by the year 2005.

But Cleator countered later in the day by saying O’Connor was, in essence, a political hypocrite. He said the former City Council member walked out of the council chambers in 1979 when it came time for her to cast a crucial vote against North City West. He also noted stories that O’Connor and her millionaire husband, Robert O. Peterson, had angered environmentalists by building a small hotel in the town of Mendocino in Northern California.

“I guess the only point that I would make is that it seems that Bob Peterson and Maureen O’Connor are developers,” Cleator said. “Now, all of a sudden, they get in a car and drive south and they’re environmentalists. I guess the closer you get to the Equator, the more environmentalist you might be.”

Thursday’s bitter exchange came as O’Connor and Cleator struggled to break out of a lackluster campaign and underscore their political differences before Tuesday’s election. Their efforts acknowledged that the dirtiest word in local politics today is developer.

Cleator, struggling to shed an image as open to developers but closed to environmental and neighborhood concerns, is stressing his new accessibility and personal honesty. And O’Connor, tagged by some as aloof, is using Cleator as a pro-development foil to portray herself as an environmentalist.

O’Connor’s recent television ads have stressed that Cleator had received “more than a third” of his $160,000 in campaign funds as of Feb. 8 from “development interests,” or those who approach the city for development approval. O’Connor has repeatedly pledged to eschew donations from developers, although she has received about 6% of her $58,934 as of Feb. 8 from such people as escrow officials, architects and land surveyors.

On Thursday, O’Connor called a press conference to assail North City West as an example of how developers practice “bait and switch” by promising certain amenities at the beginning of a project but wriggling out of them later.

She blamed Cleator and other council members for allowing developers of North City West to destroy hilltops and canyons, increase the number of housing units from 14,000 to 16,000, triple the size of an “employment center” and be excused from building at least three elementary schools and parks.

Those changes were contained in nine amendments to the North City West plan since June, 1981, and Cleator voted for eight of those amendments, she said. O’Connor stressed that during her tenure on the council she voted against the North City West development.

Despite the allegations against Cleator, O’Connor spent most of her time at the press conference trying to convince reporters that she is not a developer herself.

At issue is the part she played in her husband’s controversial 25-room hotel in Mendocino County, which was completed in April, 1984. Government officials in the community said O’Connor appeared on Peterson’s behalf several times to pitch his project, which encountered substantial opposition from environmentalists and preservationists.

Peterson was out of the country, but his attorney and architect on the project were present Thursday morning to explain how the former hamburger magnate reconstructed a historic home, called the Heeser House, and built three more structures around it for the 25-unit hotel. They showed a diagram and pictures of the project.

O’Connor stressed that the buildings and parking lot covered only 35% of the 1.2-acre lot. She acknowledged that she appeared at public hearings for the project, but added: “I wasn’t that involved. . . .

“We are not running in the County of Mendocino,” she said. “I really think we are stretching the campaign farther north than it needs to be. We should be focusing on North City West and I might show you all the amendments to this plan.”

Cleator, who succeeded O’Connor in 1980 in the District 2 seat, responded to O’Connor’s allegations by saying that North City West was approved in concept “before my watch. The die had already been cast. . . .”

“Never have we voted to eliminate anything that was necessary,” Cleator said of the amendments. “We have moved some things around from time to time. The planners have come back and told us this would be better over here. Never have we eliminated parks or schools, to my knowledge, without complete staff scrutiny.”

He also faulted O’Connor as council member for leaving the council meeting in August, 1979, when it came time to vote on planned district regulations for North City West. City records show that O’Connor voted twice against related issues before leaving the chamber for what Cleator called the more important vote.