King Compromise Was in Doubt Until Last Moment

The author of a compromise proposal that would keep the name of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. off the San Diego Convention Center and instead set aside part of the structure’s bay-side terrace in King’s honor said Thursday that, only at the last moment did he know he had enough votes for approval.

Robert Penner, a member of the Board of Port Commissioners who represents Chula Vista, said it wasn’t until Dan Larsen, a commissioner representing San Diego, “began to speak” in favor of the proposal at the end of a contentious meeting Tuesday on the renaming, that he realized his idea would survive by a vote of 4 to 3.

“I had no idea how the vote would go,” said Penner, a Chula Vista ophthalmologist. “It was an amazing moment for me personally.”

Until then, he said: “I thought this was a good idea whose time hadn’t come.”

Larsen’s decision took everyone by surprise. He and the two other commissioners who represent San Diego on the seven-member board, Bill Rick and Louis Wolfsheimer, had told the San Diego City Council, which appointed them, that they would vote for the renaming, seemingly assuring approval because National City’s commissioner was also committed to the name change.

But a vote on the renaming never occurred, and Penner’s “Avenue of Honors” proposal will now go to the City Council because of the votes of Penner, Larsen and the representatives of Imperial Beach and Coronado.

Penner said Thursday he had thought about some kind of compromise proposal for a few weeks. “I bounced concepts off people. I asked my sons about it, and they had mixed feelings. I asked my fiancee. . . . I was just getting more feedback.”

He settled on his Avenue of Honors idea, a method he said was aimed at avoiding community division and racial strife, only in the last week. He asked the Port District’s attorney, Joe Patello, to “put it into proper words” as a legal resolution. He also talked individually with other commissioners.

“I asked them not for a vote . . . but that I had this alternative and this might be one to think about,” he said. “I had absolutely no idea if they’d go for it or not.”

Penner said he didn’t lobby members of either the San Diego or Chula Vista city councils, but that he “ran into” some San Diego City Council members informally at various places, and that they asked him about the King issue. He couldn’t remember which council members he talked to, but said he gave them a general outline of his concept.

The night before the commission meeting, Penner said, he barely slept, as he alternated from believing deeply in his proposal, to having second thoughts, to more vacillation, and, finally, with hope it would win approval.

He praised Larsen for “having the courage” to vote for the plan.

Penner said he doesn’t know how he will vote if the San Diego City Council turns down his idea and reaffirms its decision to ask the Board of Port Commissioners to rename the center after King. “I’m not prepared to say what I’ll do,” Penner said.