John Witzel, San Diego’s Veteran Lobbyist in Sacramento, to Leave Post

John Witzel, who has represented the City of San Diego in the halls of state government here for 15 years, announced Thursday that his work as the city’s lobbyist will end when his current contract expires June 30.

Witzel, 59, said he and his partner, Richard E. Ratcliff, will be reshaping their lobbying firm, Applied Strategies, and catering exclusively to private-sector clients.

Witzel said his decision not to reapply for the $100,000-a-year contract with the city will give Mayor Maureen O’Connor the opportunity to build “her own team” for handling legislative affairs. Scott Harvey, a former assistant to Witzel and for many years the city’s director of Intergovernmental Relations, left the city in October for a job in the private sector.

“The mayor is trying to put her own team together and she has the right to do that,” Witzel said. “She should have the freedom to do that without a lot of constraints.”

But Witzel said he was not pressured by O’Connor to leave. O’Connor’s spokesman, Paul Downey, said the mayor was grateful for Witzel’s “long years of faithful service and wishes him well in whatever he decides to pursue.”

‘Image of the City’

Witzel worked so long for the city--longer for one city than any other active lobbyist--that his name, his silver hair and his lanky frame became synonymous with San Diego.

“I think to most people around here, John Witzel is the city of San Diego,” said Sen. William Craven (R-Oceanside). Craven said Witzel was the first lobbyist he had lunch with after he came to Sacramento as an assemblyman in 1973, and the two have worked closely together ever since.

Assemblyman Larry Stirling, who has known Witzel since Stirling was working as an analyst for the San Diego city manager’s office, said Witzel had “created the image of the city of San Diego in Sacramento--that of a poised, knowledgeable, and consistent position.”

“He has the perfect balance of aggressiveness and sensitivity,” added Stirling, who as a former city councilman has been one of Witzel’s employers and, now, the object of his lobbying. “He knows the system and he knows San Diego and he knows Sacramento. He’s been a real asset.”

Mixed Feelings

Witzel began working for the city in 1972 at the invitation of then-Mayor Pete Wilson, who knew Witzel from their days as Republican Party campaign workers. Before taking the job as the city’s lobbyist, he had represented the California Optometric Assn. and worked as a liaison for the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs in the Nixon Administration.

Witzel said Thursday he had mixed feelings about leaving the city.

“When you work for a governmental entity, there is an incredible variety of bills and issues and an awful lot of paper work,” he said. “Some of that bureaucratic overhead I’m not going to miss one damn bit. But I’m going to miss the city. It’s been a joy to represent them in that their positions are rational, reasonable and well received up here. Those things I’ll miss.”