The State - News from May 24, 1989

In an attempt to capture a piece of the state budget windfall, San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor and the City Council declared a “state of emergency” over the city’s recent spate of drug- and gang-related shootings and asked Gov. George Deukmejian to give the city $34 million to help quell the violence. Deukmejian press secretary Kevin Brett, questioning whether O’Connor’s unusual gambit was a publicity stunt, said that such declarations are traditionally reserved for natural disasters and predicted that the governor would reject the request out of hand. O’Connor, flanked by City Manager John Lockwood and an impassioned Police Chief Bob Burgreen, insisted that their call for 1.3% of the state’s new-found $2.5-billion surplus is a genuine plea for help. “This is not a frivolous publicity stunt,” the mayor said. “We are very serious in San Diego that we have a problem and we would like our state government to help us.”