ELECTION ’90 : The following are Summaries of the Times’ Recommendations on Key Local Races and Ballot Propositions in Tuesday’s Election

County Sheriff: The Times Endorses Jim Roache

An outsider in the Sheriff’s Department under retiring Sheriff John Duffy, Jim Roache can be expected to clean house if elected. But he also offers county voters the benefit of 19 years’ experience coming up through the department’s ranks. The public and the department will benefit from the departure of the imperious Duffy, regardless of who replaces him. But voters should ask themselves this question: Even when Duffy cleans out his desk, how much influence would he and his allies have over department affairs if Roache’s opponent, Duffy protege Jack Drown, is elected?

San Diego Unified School District: The Times Endorses Sue Braun and Scott Harvey

District B: More progressive and more experienced than her opponent, Sue Braun also has broader and more sophisticated knowledge about the district’s needs. To curb the dropout rate, she proposes to focus school resources on building students’ self-esteem as early as kindergarten. Braun also wants to put more aides in classrooms to help reduce the formidable ratio of students to teachers. With no incumbents running, voters have a chance to reshape 40% of the school board in an election that offers clear choices for the future of the city’s education system.

District C: Scott Harvey favors much-needed school-based health clinics (but supports each community’s right to choose whether the facilities would dispense contraceptives). His opponent does not. Unlike his opponent, Harvey supports the school system’s integration programs. Harvey has helped site child-care facilities on a school campus and wants to continue working for more of them. A lobbyist by profession, he wants the school board to be more active in Sacramento. And he proposes to broaden the district’s curriculum to make it more relevant to minorities.

San Diego Community College District: The Times Endorses Maria Senour, Yvonne Larsen and Denise Moreno Ducheny

District A: Maria Senour shows an instinctive understanding of the community colleges’ role as a bridge to a better life for economically disadvantaged people. A professor of counselor education at San Diego State University, Senour proposes more academic and personal counseling to keep students from quitting community colleges. Senour or Ducheny could become the first Latinas on the college board, which is undergoing its most complete revamping since it split from the city school system in 1973.

District C: Yvonne Larsen’s educational accomplishments more than qualify her for this post. She has been president of the city of San Diego school board, a California State University trustee and vice chairwoman of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, which wrote the watershed study “A Nation at Risk.” Larsen proposes to expand literacy programs and efforts to recapture school dropouts. She says she also wants to improve public awareness of the district’s offerings.

District E: Denise Moreno Ducheny is articulate and passionate about the community colleges’ role in educating minorities. She enthusiastically endorses shared governance between administration and faculty, wants the community colleges to produce bilingual teachers and proposes to upgrade the libraries at City and Mesa colleges. An activist attorney, Ducheny would bring energy and intelligence to a board of trustees that is in transition. Her legal skills would be an asset to the college board.

75th Assembly: The Times Endorses Deirdre Alpert

Democrat Deirdre Alpert is one of the few credible challengers to the county’s entrenched incumbents. Though her elective experience is limited, she is bright and shows an unusual grasp of the issues. Her opponent, Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas), deserves to be retired. In 1987, Mojonnier accepted $10,000 from a prison guard’s group for leaving her sickbed to vote for legislation the group supported. This year, Mojonnier was fined for double-billing the state and her campaign committee for business trips, as well as for using political donations to pay for beauty treatments for her staff.

Prop. A: The Times Recommends a YES Vote

Law Enforcement Review Board: Passage would rein in the power of county law enforcement agencies, particularly the Sheriff’s Department. The panel, which would have subpoena power, could investigate allegations of misconduct against sheriff’s and probation officers ranging from excessive use of force to sexual harassment. Creation of the panel would help restore public confidence in sheriff’s deputies that has been shaken by beatings in county jails.

Prop. B: The Times Recommends a YES Vote

Department of Corrections: Voters should empower supervisors to remove the jails from the sheriff’s control and create a separate Department of Corrections. That authority could be held in reserve while supervisors determine whether retiring Sheriff John Duffy’s successor cleans up the jails. The move would cut the cost of operating county jails, because corrections officers would be paid less than sheriff’s deputies, who now staff the jails.

Prop. C: The Times Recommends a YES Vote

Provision of Pound Animals for Medical Research: Voters should endorse the current system of selling a limited number of animals from county shelters for research by UC San Diego School of Medicine. Measure is advisory only. The existing practice of holding animals before making them available is the best resolution of a difficult situation pitting animal rights against UCSD’s legitimate need for animals not specifically bred for research.

Props. D and M: The Times Recommends a NO Vote

Growth management in county unincorporated lands and city of San Diego, respectively: It is hypocrisy to label these initiatives, placed on the ballot by the building industry, “growth management.” The initiatives would exempt much future development in the city of San Diego from its provisions and would cap fees for road construction at inadequate levels. Child-care and recycling provisions are less strict than state and local programs already in effect. Elected representatives should be responsible for effective growth management.

Prop. E: The Times Recommends a YES Vote

Open Space Bond: This $100-million bond issue is crucial if the city of San Diego is to purchase parkland and open space, part of its effort to preserve the terrain that defines the city. Thirty million dollars would be set aside for land acquisition in the San Dieguito, Tijuana and Otay River valleys. The rest of the money would be divided among a list of worthy community projects. The bonds would cost property owners $16 per $100,000 of assessed valuation, a reasonable price to pay in a city that badly needs more parks and open space.

Prop. N: The Times Recommends a YES Vote

Library system upgrade: Voter support of this advisory measure would constitute a recommendation that the city of San Diego create a comprehensive plan to upgrade its library system. The plan would include site selection, land acquisition and construction of a replacement for the city’s inadequate central library; modernization or replacement of all local branch libraries and a method of financing the improvements and operating costs. There is no question that the city eventually must replace its disgraceful central library.