Council Rejects O’Connor Plea to Delay Naming of Committee Chairmen

The San Diego City Council’s Rules Committee on Wednesday turned down Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s request to delay appointments of committee chairmen, but agreed to consider her proposal to abolish the committees at a workshop Jan. 19.

Acknowledging that she has insufficient support on the five-member committee to delay the appointments or schedule a special Dec. 8 meeting on the abolition of committees, O’Connor chose District 7 Councilwoman Judy McCarty as deputy mayor and named the members of the council’s four standing committees and the Housing Commission.

District 2 Councilman Ron Roberts was named chairman of the Transportation and Land Use Committee, replacing District 1 Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer. District 6 Councilman Bruce Henderson will replace McCarty as head of the Public Facilities and Recreation Committee. Outgoing Deputy Mayor Gloria McColl will continue as chairman of the Public Services and Safety committee.

District 4 Councilman Wes Pratt was named chairman of the Housing Commission, replacing Roberts. And, in an unusual move, O’Connor expanded the five-member Rules committee, which she heads, to include six council members: McCarty, Roberts, McColl, Pratt, Henderson and herself.

The full council will vote on the appointments at its next meeting. The appointments last for one year.

Although committee chairmanships are little-known posts outside City Hall, many council members eagerly seek the posts. Since the approval of district-only elections Nov. 8, competition for the limited number of chairmanships intensified, O’Connor said, causing her to propose abolishing the committees to prevent divisiveness on the council.

“Mr. Henderson was not interested in it before he left (on a honeymoon vacation),” O’Connor said. “When Mr. Henderson came back, he felt very strongly that he had to represent his district, and have a presence at City Hall.”

When Henderson lined up five votes of support, O’Connor was forced to name him chairman of the Public Facilities and Recreation committee over her initial choice, Filner.

Filner and Wolfsheimer were the big losers in what one council member called “the annual bloodletting” at City Hall. Wolfsheimer was stripped of a committee chairmanship she valued and Filner came away without a chairmanship.

Both lacked backing because their “abrasive, confrontational personalities” made it difficult to work with them, said one source close to the council. But the two said that their defeats represented a new alignment of Roberts, McColl, Struiksma, Henderson and McCarty against themselves and O’Connor, the council’s strongest slow-growth advocates.

“I think this is really in the wake of what the developers won, or think they won, in the defeat of H and J,” Filner said of the two slow-growth propositions. “Now the five most pro-development council members take over the council,” he said, referring to Roberts, McColl, Struiksma, Henderson and McCarty.