Council Delays Vote on Mayor’s Reform Package : Politics: One of the mayor’s major proposals, to limit officeholders to two terms, won’t be on the ballot because it lacks City Council backing.

San Diego voters will not see Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s package of government and ethics reforms until at least September or October under a revised timetable adopted Monday by the San Diego City Council.

And, when the package does arrive for voter review--most likely in a mail ballot--it will not contain O’Connor’s proposal for a two-term limit on the tenures of the mayor and council members, one of the major changes that O’Connor had sought.

The two-term limit died without a formal vote Monday, when Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer said she did not favor it. Wolfsheimer had been absent for the Jan. 12 discussion that resulted in a 4-4 council deadlock.

O’Connor, in her Jan. 8 State of the City address, asked for a May mail ballot on nearly 3 dozen changes to reform the city’s governmental structure and electoral procedures, an ambitious schedule that was slowed when council members began to analyze the proposals over the past two weeks.

Monday, O’Connor was not fazed by the delay in her proposed timetable and appeared buoyed by the possibility that the council might simply enact some of the ideas itself.

“You push for the earliest date, and you get the compromise,” the mayor told reporters after Monday’s council session. “By the end of the year, we will have a vote.”

Taxpayers, however, may have more short-term interest in a scheduled Feb. 8 hearing at which council members are to decide which revenue-producing measures they want to place before voters, perhaps in June. The list under consideration includes a utility users’ tax, repeal of the 1919 People’s Ordinance that requires free trash pickup in San Diego and imposition of a trash-collection fee, a special tax increase to hire more police officers, general-obligation bonds, park space acquisition bonds and others.

O’Connor, who at the same State of the City speech announced that she would not run for reelection in 1992, has recommended expanding the City Council to 10 seats from eight seats, giving the mayor a veto, barring council members from voting on projects involving contributors from whom they have received more than $1,000 in the past past year, confining political fund raising to nine months before a campaign, increased disclosure of major campaign contributions, voter approval for sale of major parcels of city-owned land and other proposals.

The package, drawn largely from suggestions of the city’s Charter Review Commission and other groups, has generally received a favorable reception both inside and outside City Hall. On Jan. 12, the council conceptually approved the mayoral veto and eight other suggestions, defeated or changed three and let stand the proposal to add two council seats.

Under the terms of a legal settlement with the city’s Chicano Federation, the city is required to place the expansion measure before voters this June.

The rest of O’Connor’s package, however, will be sent to the council’s Rules Committee for further discussion and placement on a future ballot, a decision that must be ratified by the full council. Some council members have indicated that they may wish to add reform measures to the list.