Person to Person : Pointed Questioning Marks Politics, Del Mar-style

The questions were pointed and personal--which is politics Del Mar-style.

Jacqueline Winterer, you seem very emotional. Is this how you’re going to act if elected to the City Council?

“I’m not emotional. I’m lively.”

Mark Livingston, do you think being a surfer and certified public accountant qualifies you for public office?

“First, I don’t think my participation in the Western Surfing Association is relevant. My background and experience (in business and following beach issues) is very significant.”

H.K. (Swede) Throneson, will you refrain from voting on downtown issues near developments where you have a financial interest?

“Sure. I don’t want to go to jail.”

Mayor Ronnie Delaney, have you ever voted against a development project in your four years on the council?

“A small minority has become very adept at calling those of differing opinions developers and big money. I don’t think 1,405 people in the last election (who voted for a downtown hotel) are all developers and big money.”

So it went Monday night as the public, via written questions, grilled six candidates chasing three spots on the Del Mar City Council in the April 12 election.

The two-hour session, sponsored by two local newspapers, was broadcast live over Del Mar cable channel 37, with five rebroadcasts planned before election day, which is also Del Mar-style. Council meetings are broadcast live, which helps keep civic involvement and passions revved up.

With control of the five-person council in the balance, two slates of three candidates each are trying to entice voters with sharply opposing views on beach preservation and downtown development, the recent litmus tests of Del Mar politics.

The opposing slates--one of which is formally aligned, the other merely de facto--also offer contrasting views on the shape of city finances, relations with the Fair Board, and whether homeowners should be allowed to remodel and expand.

The formal slate of Delaney, Livingston and Throneson supported the hotel plan approved narrowly by voters in February and oppose the beach preservation measure on the April 12 ballot. (The measure would require that many seawalls be torn down.)

The trio says the city is in good financial shape, should generally seek accommodation with the Fair Board, and be sympathetic to homeowners seeking variances.

In contrast, Winterer, Gay Hugo and Jan McMillan opposed the hotel plan and support the beach measure. They question whether the city has enough money and whether it drove a tough enough bargain with a developer over a seaside parking lot, a deal that Delaney-Livingston-Throneson said was good for the city.

Tougher on Fair Board

Winterer and McMillan take a tougher stand toward the Fair Board and homeowner variances, with Hugo somewhere between Winterer and McMillan and the opposing slate on those issues.

Of the six candidates, only Mayor Delaney is an incumbent. Councilmen Scott Barnett and Lew Hopkins, both of them pro-hotel, anti-beach measure, chose not to seek reelection. (The mayor’s post is rotated among council members.)

As befits this upscale community, all of the candidates have impressive resumes.

* Delaney, 43, a self-employed property manager, points to her involvement with development of Powerhouse Park, buildup of the budgetary reserve, a beach cleanup campaign, and a plan for replacement of aging water and sewer lines and for resurfacing streets.

“I think I’ve demonstrated an ability to shovel through all the emotion that is flying at us at all times.”

* Livingston, at 38 the youngest candidate and most recent arrival in Del Mar (he and his wife bought a home last year), is a partner in a booming accounting firm. He grew up in Santa Barbara and has lived in North County since 1971. He wants to restore civility to council meetings.

“Recent affairs in the city have been enough to make a coyote’s stomach turn--let alone a reasonable person.”

* Throneson, 71, is a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and former San Diego elementary school teacher with experience in the Historical Society, Chamber of Commerce and San Dieguito Little Theatre. He remembers when lots sold for $3,200 and Del Mar was not divided against itself.

“I’d like to minimize the divisiveness that has crept into our political and social fabric.”

* Hugo, 45, is an assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego, now the lead prosecutor of former Del Mar Mayor Nancy Hoover in the J. David & Co. investment fraud case. She prosecuted organized crime figures in Chicago, and worked for three years for National Cash Register.

She offers legal expertise and experience working with federal agencies. She has hands-on construction skills, acquired through helping her ex-husband convert an apartment building in Chicago to condominiums. The latter should help in deciphering building issues, she said.

“I know how to read a blueprint. I can even lay brick if I have to.”

* McMillan, 46, a former columnist for the Del Mar Citizen and Del Mar Surfcomber newspapers, has a list of leadership positions with environmental and slow-growth committees dating to her arrival in Del Mar in 1971. Among them: Friends of the Del Mar Library, the San Dieguito River Valley Land Conservancy, and the Seagrove Park committee.

She describes herself as a “passionate advocate” for slow growth.

“Del Mar is now seen less as a hometown than as a place to buy, sell and move out.”

* Winterer, 51, is a research geologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and has served on the Civic Center Committee, Friends of the Del Mar Library, Friends of the San Dieguito River Valley, and Torrey Pines High School advisory committee.

Construction of a library is one of her major issues. She believes the council has undercut the General Plan by allowing variances and that the Fair Board has abused the city by bringing in Grand Prix auto racing, among other things.

“The fairgrounds is a magnificent facility. There are many uses that could be developed to exploit its beauty and not spite the residents of the town.”

The candidates session is scheduled for rebroadcast at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m. Tuesday, 2:30 p.m. next Wednesday, and at 3 p.m. April 8 and 11.

A technical foulup Monday night accomplished what many thought was impossible--lowering the volume of Del Mar political discussion, to the point where some viewers could not hear it at all. Channel 37 technicians promise that the foulup did not harm the taping, hence the rebroadcasts will be loud enough for all.