Candidates Reiterate Issues on Election Eve

Making their final pitch for votes in the San Diego mayoral campaign, City Councilman Bill Cleator and former Councilwoman Maureen O’Connor differed during a televised debate Monday night over the need for campaign-law reforms, the cost of the proposed waterfront convention center and how citizen complaints about police should be handled.

While O’Connor and Cleator have addressed those differences in previous forums, the one-hour forum on KGTV (Channel 10)--their fourth televised appearance during the last week and a half--gave both candidates a final opportunity to emphasize basic distinctions and reiterate their major campaign themes on the eve of today’s special mayoral runoff.

A major difference between the two candidates stems from O’Connor’s refusal to accept campaign contributions from developers and her proposal that council members be barred from voting on any measure affecting companies--in the development industry or any other--whose employees cumulatively donated more than $1,000 to them during the preceding year.

“If Maureen O’Connor is elected mayor, it’s going to send a message to City Council that we have to have some campaign reforms . . . to balance the scales,” O’Connor said. “Let’s face it, the people that give donations to campaigns are listened to in a different light than those (who do not).”

Cleator, however, argued that the city’s $250-per-person contribution limit is sufficient to prevent special interests from gaining undue influence, adding that some council members are “bristling” because of O’Connor’s implication that campaign donations affect council decisions.

“I don’t think that Maureen O’Connor or Bill Cleator can be bought for $250,” Cleator said.

On the convention center issue, Cleator disagreed with O’Connor’s oft-stated claim that a “world-class center” can be built for $125 million--nearly $25 million less than the current estimates of many experts. In support of her position, O’Connor argued that contractor confusion over the project and “extras” such as a $7-million rooftop tent and gold-colored cement inflated the center’s cost.

Cleator contended that elimination of some of the features that O’Connor termed “extras” or “frills” would aesthetically damage the center.

O’Connor also repeated her suggestion that complaints about police behavior could be reviewed informally by a panel consisting of the mayor, the police chief, the chairman of the council’s Public Services and Safety Committee and the city manager. Such a panel operated during her service on the City Council during the 1970s while Pete Wilson was mayor, O’Connor said.

Cleator, however, said that he disapproves of such a panel, which he argued would improperly interfere with the city manager’s responsibilities and violate the City Charter.