Evasion by Port

It was dishonest and unacceptable for the Port District commissioners to make several hundred people sit through a four-hour public hearing Feb. 21 on naming the new convention center, and then not have the courage to vote on the issue before them! Those attending the hearing, and all San Diegans, should be outraged over the cowardly political trick perpetrated on us by Commissioners Penner, Larsen, Burke and Portwood.

Commissioner Penner’s “alternative” proposal was put forward at the very end of the long meeting, no public discussion was allowed on it, it had nothing to do with the City Council’s recommendation, and it was a subversion of the entire public-hearing process. Chairman Wolfsheimer should have declared Penner out of order and called for a vote on the issue that citizens had come to address.

If the council wishes to discuss substitute tributes to Martin Luther King Jr., it should be at its own pleasure, not the port’s. In fairness, any consideration of alternatives should be discussed after the council’s original recommendation to the port is dealt with openly and decisively.

I hope many other citizens will join me in demanding that Mayor Maureen O’Connor and the council immediately send the matter back to the port for a clear and specific vote on naming the center for Dr. King.

JIM JACOBSON

San Diego