District Measure Takes Slight Lead : Police Review Bids Ahead; End to Gann Limit Is Likely

A San Diego measure to institute district council elections, Proposition E, was narrowly ahead late Tuesday night, while two civilian police review board measures--Propositions F and G--were both slightly ahead.

On another front, the county will be able to spend more state and local money for the next four years because budget restrictions imposed by the so-called Gann Limit were eased by the apparent easy passage of Proposition A.

The vote tally late Tuesday night for the district council elections measure was reminiscent of the extremely close election of 1980, in which an identical measure was defeated by less than one-half of 1%.

On Tuesday, though, the districting measure was leading by a slim margin.

Though votes for both police review measures were running ahead of those against them, the gap in both cases was small. The more conservative of the measures was Proposition G, which would essentially leave unchanged the city manager-appointed review panel that is now in place. The more far-reaching proposal was Proposition F, which would form a board with independent authority.

According to a city attorney’s opinion, if both F and G are approved, meaning each receives more than 50% of the vote, then the one receiving the most votes overall will win.

In an ordinary year, debate over measures dealing with district council elections and police review boards would have dominated the local political landscape. But this year, those issues, plus others such as the Gann Limit, were overshadowed by the bitter contest involving four growth-control measures on the city of San Diego and San Diego County ballots.

Proposition E marked the fifth time in 19 years that the matter of whether council members should be elected strictly within individual districts--rather than having to be elected citywide--has been put before San Diego voters.

In the past, the districting measures have received high-profile attention. In 1969, 1973 and 1981, San Diegans handily rejected similar proposals by ratios of at least 3-2.

Under Proposition E, a candidate could be elected outright by receiving a majority of the votes in the district’s primary. If no one passes 50% in the primary, the top two finishers would compete in a runoff in their district.

Opposing Proposition E was a predominantly business-oriented group called Citizens for Voter Rights.

Supporters included the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) and an array of Latino and black leaders, who decried the existing citywide election system as a formidable obstacle to getting more minority representation on the City Council.

The call for police review boards escalated last year after criticism about the deteriorating relationship between police and the minority community. The city manager created the Civilian Advisory Panel on Police Practices in part because of bitterness caused by the sensational murder case involving Sagon Penn. Penn is a young black man who was acquitted of all major charges stemming from an episode in which he shot and killed one police officer and severely wounded another and a civilian ride-along.

His legal defense was based on the assertion that he was defending himself from an attack by police that was provoked by racism.

The advisory panel, however, has been criticized by some as being too weak, too dependent on the Police Department and, as a result, too often as nothing more than a rubber stamp.

In the spring, after many hearings, the city Charter Review Commission, appointed by the council, called for the creation of a Citizens’ Review Board on Police Practices. The panel, as embodied in Proposition F, would include nine members appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. It would have its own director and staff, and would be empowered to subpoena witnesses and hold private hearings at which witnesses testify under threat of perjury.

Facts about individual cases would be sent to the police chief and the city manager, along with a recommendation on whether the complaint was justified.

In response, the San Diego Police Officers Assn. and Councilman Ed Struiksma, a former policeman, pushed the City Council to approve an alternative, Proposition G.

In many ways it is similar to the advisory panel already in place.

Proposition G calls for the review board members to be picked by the city manager, who would then set the new group’s rules and regulations. Another important difference is that, under Proposition G, the panel would not have the power to issue subpoenas.

Also Tuesday, voters were asked to exempt the county from the so-called Gann Limit, a change made in the California Constitution in 1979 that restricts the amount of money the county can spend each year.

County officials and others, such as the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, claimed that, unless Proposition A were approved, the county wouldn’t be able to spend both state and county revenues to keep pace with the county’s growth and demand for services. Proposition A would be in effect for four years.

Opponents of the measure called Proposition A too vague and a sign that county supervisors can’t manage money. An attempt to pass a similar measure narrowly failed in June.