Haro Calls for Review Commission : Former Councilman Urges Changes in City Charter

Jess Haro, ousted from the San Diego City Council nine years ago after being jailed for a misdemeanor customs violation, returned Wednesday to ask for sweeping changes in how the city government operates.

He received a warm response from three council members who promised to study his suggestions.

Haro, speaking as chairman of the board of the Chicano Federation, called for creation of a City Charter review commission to study his and other proposals for modernizing the 1931 City Charter.

Haro proposed several “widely recommended” changes for study, including increasing the number of council districts from the present 8 to 10 or more; redrawing the boundary lines for those districts, and electing council members strictly by district instead of citywide.

Citizen Review of Police

Council candidates are now selected from within their districts and then face citywide runoffs, unless one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.

Haro also proposed that the Charter be changed to “permit direct citizen participation in police conduct and disciplinary matters,” a longtime goal of Hispanic organizations. He suggested changes that would lead to a citizen police review board appointed by the city manager, mayor or City Council, or a combination of those.

The former council member also proposed a study of whether the city would function better under a “strong mayor” form of government, instead of the present city manager form, which reserves all managerial functions for the appointed manager. Such a change, he said, would enhance the mayor’s powers, giving the office managerial as well as executive and policy-making powers.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor concurred with Haro that a Charter review was “long overdue.” The last such formal commission review of the City Charter occurred in 1973.

O’Connor, who was on the council at the time of the last Charter review, said she wished that Ed Butler, a former city attorney and now a 4th District Court of Appeal justice, could again chair the review group as he did in l973.

Haro, 50, was voted out of office by fellow council members in 1978 for failing to attend eight consecutive council meetings as required by the City Charter. Haro was serving a 90-day sentence in the Metropolitan Correctional Center at the time of his absence and dismissal from the council.