Petition Filed for Ballot on Council Election by District

More than 60,000 petition signatures in favor of district-only City Council elections were filed Wednesday with the San Diego city clerk’s office by a group that hopes to place the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Ruth Duemler, a spokeswoman for Neighborhoods for District Elections, said the signatures were gathered mainly by volunteers canvassing San Diego neighborhoods since early December.

Mike Haas, city elections supervisor, said that slightly more than 40,000 valid signatures are required to qualify the measure for the November ballot. He said the group’s petitions will be turned over to the county registrar of voters for verification.

The proposal for district-only elections, in which candidates in the eight council districts would not have to run in a citywide election, “received wide support from all parts of the city,” Duemler said. “Wherever we went, people signed.”

Slow-growth advocates, community planning groups, Common Cause, Sierra Club and the League of Women Voters got behind the effort, she said, contributing small amounts of money and volunteering to gather signatures.

Failed 5 Times

Council candidates now run in district-only elections in the June primaries, then the two top vote-getters in each district run citywide in the November general election. Although district-election measures have failed to win voter approval five times in 18 years, Duemler believes the tide of opinion has changed.

“Slow-growth groups are waking up and jumping on the bandwagon,” Duemler said, as they become aware that district elections will require council members to be more accountable to district constituents’ concerns. Lower costs of campaigning in a single council district “will take away some of the power that big business and developers hold,” she said. “District elections will give the power back to the people.”

In 1981, the last time the issue was on the San Diego city ballot, the time was not ripe for passage, Duemler said. District elections failed by a narrow margin, against stiff opposition. This year, with a presidential election expected to bring out voters in larger numbers, “I think we can win,” she said.

Panel Ponders Issue

The city’s Charter Review Commission headed by Edward Butler, former state appeal court judge, is also considering a City Charter change to initiate district council elections.

However, the controversial issue has been set aside while the commissioners wrestle with the even more sensitive proposal to create an independent Police Review Board as watchdog over police.

Duemler said that Neighborhoods for District Elections decided to go ahead with its petition drive, rather than wait for Charter Review Commission action, “because they seem to have gotten sidetracked on other things.”

In testimony before the Charter Review Commission in April, Mayor Maureen O’Connor voiced concern that voters will see district-wide councilmanic elections as a “panacea,” for solving all the city’s problems, “and I don’t think it’s going to work out.” Council members Judy McCarty and Bruce Henderson also supported the existing system. Councilman Wes Pratt favored district elections.