Ballesteros Gets Martinez’s District 8 Seat : Women Now Hold Majority on Council

Ending a lengthy political deadlock in order to avoid a costly special election, the San Diego City Council on Monday appointed lawyer Celia Ballesteros to serve the final year of Uvaldo Martinez’s term.

Ballesteros’ unanimous appointment came on the council’s 22nd ballot Monday--and 42nd ballot overall--as four council Republicans, who earlier had supported five other candidates, finally switched their votes to Ballesteros, a Democrat, after it became clear that none of the other finalists could muster the five votes needed. Last month, the council had been unable to reach a consensus through 20 rounds of balloting.

The 55-year-old Ballesteros, who lost to Martinez in the 1983 District 8 election, was immediately sworn in and took her place beside her colleagues as the council debated other items on its agenda late Monday.

Her appointment means that there now are five women--including Mayor Maureen O’Connor--on the nine-member council, marking the first time in the city’s history that women have constituted a majority of the council, according to the city clerk’s office.

In brief remarks after her appointment, Ballesteros thanked council members for their support and said that she looks forward to working with them over the next year.

“One of the important things is that we really have to set our priorities and timetables,” Ballesteros said.

At the outset of the council’s meeting Monday, O’Connor described Ballesteros as the one finalist who had “actually gone before the voters of the district and been tried and tested.” In 1983, Ballesteros defeated Martinez in the district-only primary but then lost to her Republican opponent in the citywide general election.

The council’s three Democrats--O’Connor, William Jones and Mike Gotch--and Republican Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer supported Ballesteros through all 22 ballots Monday. During last month’s inconclusive session, Wolfsheimer did not vote. She was protesting the use of an appointment rather than a special election to fill the vacancy created by Martinez’s Nov. 12 resignation in the wake of his guilty plea to two felony counts of misusing a city credit card.

Meanwhile, Republicans Bill Cleator, Gloria McColl, Ed Struiksma and Judy McCarty, following a game plan that had been scripted in advance, cast their votes for each of the five other finalists on various ballots.

Public relations consultant L.J. Cella, lawyer Henry Empeno, county supervisorial aide John Rivera and Paul Grasso, Martinez’s former top aide, each received four votes, thereby deadlocking with Ballesteros, on several ballots. The other finalist, architect Kathryn Willetts, received as many as three votes during several other rounds.

After a brief recess during which some of the Republicans conferred, Struiksma indicated that he and his GOP colleagues planned to throw their support to Ballesteros in order to head off a special election that might have cost as much as $800,000.

“I think as my voting pattern has indicated . . . all of these people are acceptable to me,” Struiksma said. “It is my desire to get on with the business of the city, to save this city some $800,000 in special election costs and, for that reason, I am changing and I am going to vote for Miss Ballesteros.”

Under the City Charter, if the council is unable to fill a vacancy by appointment within 30 days--in this case, Dec. 12--it must call a special election. The municipal code requires that the victor then must take office within 150 days of the scheduling of that election--meaning that, had a special race been held, the winner probably would have served only a few months before facing reelection in next September’s primary.

In recent weeks, there had been widespread speculation in political circles that partisan motivations ultimately might cause some council Republicans to support Ballesteros in order to eliminate her as a possible contender in next year’s District 8 election. All of the finalists for the appointment pledged to simply serve as a caretaker and not seek election to the post next fall.

While the Republicans cited the cost of a special election as the major reason for their opposition to that method of filling the vacancy, other political observers suggested that the GOP also was not eager for a special race in the next few months because Democrat Michael Aguirre appeared to be the likely front-runner in such a contest.

Both Cleator and Struiksma denied, however, that political considerations influenced their decisions.

“I think that’s garbage,” Cleator said. Noting that one local newspaper quoted him as saying that he would not vote for any non-Republican candidates, Cleator added: “I voted, I think, for more Democrats tonight than I’ve ever voted for in my life.”

Cleator also explained that he believed that Ballesteros had less “experience in the district” than some of the other contenders.

Ballesteros’ appointment gives the nominally nonpartisan council a 5-4 Republican edge. However, because Wolfsheimer is regarded as an ally of O’Connor and the two other elected Democrats on the council, the vote of Ballesteros--who describes herself as a political moderate--could determine the ideological balance on the council for the next year.

Those questions, however, appeared premature Monday. Indeed, even as Ballesteros took her seat, she indicated that her immediate concerns had little to do with how she might alter the council’s philosophical composition.

“First and foremost is to . . . come running tomorrow and get our tennis shoes on,” Ballesteros said. “We have a lot of work to do.”