Roberts Will Switch Vote on Tax Rise : Taxes: The issue may go before voters June 5 if no other council member changes position later this month. Some members of the public have voiced outrage over last week’s surprise decision to raise property taxes $20 million.

Citing public outrage over a surprise $20-million tax increase approved by the San Diego City Council last week, Mayor Maureen O’Connor on Monday called for a reconsideration of the vote and again urged her colleagues to place the decision before voters.

Councilman Ron Roberts, who sided with the majority in Thursday’s 5-4 vote, appeared to grant O’Connor’s wish when he said he would change his position and propose placing the measure on the June 5 ballot.

If no other council member switches sides when the council holds its next budget hearing Feb. 22, Roberts’ defection from the majority would assure voters the right to decide whether to raise their property taxes by $44 for every $100,000 of assessed valuation.

“It’s their right to decide that they’re upset about,” O’Connor said, referring to people who approached her during the weekend to criticize the tax increase. “They’re not saying they’re going to vote against it, but, by God, you’d better put it on the ballot.”

Last Thursday’s vote, which came toward the end of a chaotic hearing on the fiscal 1991 budget, was the lone definitive decision during a day when the council tentatively authorized $155.4 million of new spending next year and gave preliminary approval to plans to place $81.7 million in new revenue-producing measures before voters.

The new fiscal year begins July 1. The tax would be collected beginning with next winter’s property tax bills.

The $20 million would fund the city employees’ pension fund, freeing $20 million from the city’s general fund for other uses. The measure did not need voter approval because it actually was a resurrection of a property tax that had been collected for decades but was halted as a precaution when Proposition 13 was enacted in 1978.

Since then, legal action has persuaded city attorneys that the city has the authority to reimpose the tax without voter approval.

Council members Roberts, Abbe Wolfsheimer, John Hartley, Wes Pratt and Linda Bernhardt voted for the tax increase. O’Connor, Bruce Henderson, Judy McCarty and Bob Filner opposed it.

City residents registered their displeasure over the tax increase--which received scant advance notice--in calls to council offices and radio phone-in shows the following day.

Roberts said Monday that, when he voted for the measure last week, he mistakenly believed it would be brought back to the council for placement on the ballot. “To be honest, when I voted for it, I thought it was going to come back,” he said.

In a memo to the council issued Monday afternoon, O’Connor wrote that “the electorate has repeatedly advised its representatives that it wishes to be consulted on any tax increases. This applies irrespective of the legal requirements for such consultation. Failure to seek voter consent is viewed as a breach of faith and jeopardizes the credibility of city government.”

The council has until Feb. 27 to decide which measures it wants to place on the June 5 ballot. In addition to the four measures tentatively adopted Thursday, it will be seeking voter approval for waiver of the Gann spending limit to allow as much as $700 million in new spending by fiscal 1994.

Higher SALARIES for City Council members adopted. B8