S.D. Mayor Stresses Need for Stemming Loss of Jobs : Politics: O’Connor says she and husband will donate $1 million for construction of new downtown library.

Describing San Diego as an “enchanted garden” facing “temporary confusion and darkness” spawned by severe economic constraints, growing violence and other urban ills, Mayor Maureen O’Connor on Monday proposed a variety of job-creating initiatives and exhorted city leaders to use the current challenges as an opportunity to “fulfill our great destiny.”

In her final State of the City address, O’Connor declared 1992 the “Year of Jobs” and reiterated her commitment to devoting the final year of her mayoralty to achieving approval of a high-tech bayfront library and cultural center.

Underscoring how prominently the proposed Lane Field library figures into O’Connor’s own vision of her political legacy, the mayor announced that she and her husband, businessman Robert O. Peterson, will personally contribute at least $1 million toward building the library and predicted that ground will be broken on the project within one year.

That objective, however, will have to compete with San Diego’s economy for the mayor’s attention during the 11 months before she leaves office in December, as signified by the ambitious economic program that she unveiled in her 30-minute speech.

Warning that San Diegans “must prepare ourselves for leaner times,” O’Connor proposed accelerating more than $200 million in city projects, using surplus Port District funds to finance other construction programs, a six-month “recession-induced” suspension of all city business taxes on large companies, and lease incentives and other “short-term enhancements” to encourage companies not to move away or lay off workers.

Overall, O’Connor said that her proposals--which also include adoption of a recent economic development task force report and a free six-month bus and trolley pass to newly unemployed persons to assist them in their job searches--could create more than 10,000 new local jobs.

“We cannot stand idly by and wait for Washington or Sacramento to turn the economy around,” O’Connor said. “This is not just a post-industrial age, but a post-extravagance age. . . . (But) this is no time to retreat. Rather, it is a perfect time to rush to fulfill our great destiny.”

As she has in her past annual addresses, O’Connor chose the site of Monday night’s speech--the America Plaza downtown complex--to emphasize the central theme of her remarks. On this occasion, the building’s 30th floor not only offered sweeping panoramic views of a downtown transformed by more than 3 dozen projects during her tenure at City Hall, but also--because the floor, like much of the high-rise, is vacant--underlined the financial challenges that confront the city.

Once again evoking the abiding optimism that has been the hallmark of her two-decade public career, O’Connor told the audience of nearly 400 that she viewed the building not as half empty, but rather as “half full of the promises to come” and a “reminder of how high we must aspire in the future.”

Toward the end of her speech, O’Connor was briefly overcome with emotion as she spoke of the pride associated with being the first woman mayor in her native city--a job that she likened to being “a magician in a robust, mysterious and bountiful garden.”

“An enchanted garden, really,” O’Connor added, noting how her mayoralty has been punctuated by some spectacularly improbable events--among them, her against-the-odds defeat of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.’s proposed merger with Southern California Edison, and the manner in which last spring’s heavy rainfall after years of drought made her vehement opposition to mandatory water rationing appear to be both politically and meteorologically prescient.

“I have always loved being mayor in this ‘garden of my birth,’ ” O’Connor said, her voice breaking and her eyes brimming with tears. “I have always drawn my strength from the people of this city and cherished all the gifts you have given me. Gifts of thanks, gifts of courage, gifts of ideas and of faith when I needed it most. The real power of any magician--in any garden--comes from the people they served, and I have served the best.”

After her speech, O’Connor, who announced in her 1990 State of the City address that she would not seek reelection this year, conceded that she had found it “difficult to say goodby.” However, with many supporters “who won’t take ‘no’ for an answer” still encouraging her to re-evaluate her decision to retire, O’Connor said that Monday’s speech was also designed to be a Shermanesque denial of any intention of doing so.

But O’Connor also used the speech as much as a valediction--admittedly, a rosy one--of her 5 1/2-year mayoralty as she did to identify the major objectives that will occupy her final months on the 11th floor of City Hall.

Joyfully pointing out that San Diego has been ranked as the best financially managed city in the country, O’Connor also beamed while claiming that the city “moved into her proper role as a major player on the national and international stage” during her mayoralty. To bolster that claim, O’Connor referred to accomplishments highlighted by 1989’s Soviet arts festival in Balboa Park and the America’s Cup competition that will be held here later this year.

Gesturing toward downtown, O’Connor noted that the America Plaza itself and numerous other downtown high-rises and other major structures such as the bayfront Convention Center did not exist when she took office in the wake of former Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s scandal-forced resignation. Since then, there have been nearly $1.1 billion in downtown capital improvement projects, nearly the same amount as has been spent in the booming Golden Triangle in the city’s northern sector.

To accommodate the strains posed by a 135,000-person growth in population, the council has established nearly 2,000 acres of new open space and parks, as well as installed or repaired hundreds of miles of roads, trolley tracks, sewer and water lines, O’Connor reminded her audience.

Although she decried the growing violence in San Diego, which last year saw a record 179 homicides, she emphasized that local residents can take some solace from the fact that, while San Diego is the nation’s sixth-largest city, it ranks 32nd among the nation’s top 40 cities in overall crime.

During her tenure, the Police Department budget grew from $91 million in 1986 to $163 million in 1991 and now constitutes a third of the city’s entire general fund budget. Saying that the city must do even more to stem the violence, O’Connor called for expansion of the city’s reserve police force from 141 to 250 officers to free more senior officers for street patrol and creation of a “volunteer corps” in which neighborhood residents trained by police would help patrol their own communities.

Characterizing her mayoralty as an era of “firsts” for San Diego, O’Connor also pointed to its other significant chapters, including the first renovation of Balboa Park since the 1950s, the first major effort to curtail commercialization in Mission Bay, the city’s first curbside recycling program and the first interfaith network to shelter the homeless. And, in keeping with a campaign pledge to enhance average citizens’ access to City Hall, O’Connor also instituted the city’s first “Meet the Mayor” sessions in which San Diegans could meet briefly with her to discuss problems or proposals.

“None of these magic moments is mine alone,” O’Connor said. “They belong to all of us. To a council willing to take risks and to a people willing to trust us. To a city staff willing to work very hard. Because of all of you, this garden that we call home is still flowering and full of promise. It is still a magical place in all our hearts.”