Cleator, O’Connor Try for Points in Next to Last Debate

Carrying their messages to a citywide audience for the next to last time in the San Diego mayoral campaign, City Councilman Bill Cleator and former Councilwoman Maureen F. O’Connor made an eleventh-hour pitch to voters Sunday.

The one-hour forum on KCST-TV (Channel 39) encapsulated the five-month mayoral race, as both O’Connor and Cleator, adhering to the style that they have displayed throughout the race, largely confined themselves to generalities in presenting similar visions for San Diego’s future.

The two candidates offered few specifics on how they might enact their broad policy goals and spent much of the program seeking to deflect critical questions directed at them by a panel of reporters.

Although no new ground was broken, Sunday night’s program enabled the candidates to reach an audience larger than the cumulative turnout at the dozens of community debates held throughout the campaign. In their final major joint appearance, O’Connor and Cleator are scheduled to meet in a one-hour forum at 8 tonight on KGTV (Channel 10).

O’Connor, who consistently has told voters that the major difference between herself and Cleator is that she offers “a change from business as usual at City Hall,” emphasized that point whenever possible Sunday night.

Arguing that voters are concerned about “a seeming lack of access to their government,” O’Connor reiterated her oft-stated pledge to “open up City Hall to all individuals” and to seek to reduce the “undue influence” of special interests, particularly the development industry.

“You must decide which one of us . . . can change the atmosphere at City Hall from perceived drift to solid direction,” said O’Connor, who finished ahead of Cleator, 46%-30%, in the Feb. 25 primary and is a heavy favorite to become the city’s first woman mayor in Tuesday’s runoff.

Cleator, meanwhile, stressed his business background and implied that his ability “to bring people together . . . to get things done” would help him execute a long-range vision for the city’s future that was as sweeping in its range as it was lacking in details.

“I pray that we have homes and jobs for everyone, a city that cares about its seniors, a city (where) people will feel safe to walk in their neighborhoods,” Cleator said. “I pray that we have more open space, parks for our children to play in. I want a clean, exciting city.”

Many of the nearly three dozen questions posed to the candidates by a panel of four reporters focused on financial disclosure issues and other topics that have nagged both Cleator and O’Connor throughout the race.

O’Connor, for example, was asked about her role in assisting her husband’s restoration of a Mendocino hotel--a project that the Cleator campaign has cited in attempting to undermine her record as an environmental moderate. In response, O’Connor noted that her husband, multimillionaire businessman Robert O. Peterson, had “sensitively restored” the Mendocino hotel, but added, “Everyone who knows Maureen O’Connor in San Diego knows I’m not a developer.”

The former councilwoman also was asked whether her acceptance of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from what she terms “development interests”--such as architects and mortgage bankers--violated her pledge not to accept donations from developers so that land-use decisions are, in her words, “based on merit, not on who gave the most to whom.”

“No, I’ve not reneged on my promise not to take developer money,” O’Connor said, noting that her campaign has returned more than $10,000 in contributions from developers.

O’Connor acknowledged that, if elected, she might have to abstain from voting on some key redevelopment issues because members of her immediate family own property throughout downtown.

“That does not mean that I will not move forward to enhance downtown,” O’Connor said.

As he has from the inception of his campaign, Cleator tried during the forum to recast his pro-development record on the council in an environmentally sensitive manner--an effort that drew several skeptical questions Sunday night.

Asked why voters should not regard his recent moderate tone on growth-management issues as simply campaign rhetoric, Cleator answered by claiming that his pro-development image--which once prompted a council colleague to label him “a cement mixer”--is “a perception that I just don’t think is fair.”