Forum Kicks Off Mayoral Campaign

With few important differences distinguishing them, the four major candidates in the San Diego mayor’s race wooed 250 downtown business people at a joint forum Thursday, pledging to continue the revitalization of the city’s core, put more police on its streets and build its job base.

Financier Tom Carter, County Supervisor Susan Golding, growth-management advocate Peter Navarro and City Councilman Ron Roberts promised priority status to a section of the city that Golding called “the heart and soul of this community” and Navarro labeled the “spiritual and functional heart of the region.”

The forum, sponsored by the downtown advocacy groups San Diegans Inc. and the Central City Assn., coincided with the official beginning of the campaign to succeed retiring Mayor Maureen O’Connor. Eight candidates met the 5 p.m. deadline for filing nominating petitions to run for the city’s top post.

Incumbent City Atty. John Witt and former Councilman Bruce Henderson filed to face each other in the race for Witt’s job.

In addition to the four major candidates for the mayor’s office, four men submitted the petitions and $500 needed to launch bids for the mayor’s office. They are perennial candidate Loch David Crane, a college professor and magician; businessman David W. Smallwood Jr.; Bill Thomas, an accountant and attorney; and Jim Turner, who listed his occupation as “18 holes of golf on Mondays; tennis five times a week.”

City officials will check the petitions over the next few days to certify that each candidate has submitted at least 300 valid signatures of registered voters, the minimum required to run.

On a statement that will accompany sample ballots sent to voters, Navarro is claiming a coveted endorsement by the local chapter of the Sierra Club, even though the group has not made its decision final.

Michael Shames, chairman of the Sierra Club’s Political Committee, said the local chapter has decided to back Navarro but acknowledged that the endorsement would not be official until it is ratified by the organization’s Southern California leadership.

Because the deadline for submission of ballot statements was Thursday, and no decision had been made by the regional Sierra Club organization, Shames said he informed Navarro that the local chapter was backing him and recommended that he list the endorsement on his ballot statement.

The endorsement provides an important environmental credential, access to what Shames called the largest cadre of volunteers of any San Diego organization, and fund-raising assistance for Navarro’s outsider campaign.

Navarro used the forum, held at the U.S. Grant Hotel, to announce a multi-point plan for downtown in which he called for a doubling of the residential population during the next four years, expanding the Convention Center, imposing impact fees to pay for needed facilities and increasing emphasis on “fine-grained, parcel-by-parcel” redevelopment.

Roberts released a 10-point plan for aiding San Diego’s small businesses, which he said make up 91% of all business entities in the city. The proposal includes reduction or elimination of license fees for businesses with 15 or fewer employees, streamlining the city’s regulatory and permit processes, and helping city businesses increase commerce with Mexico.

Roberts also said he has worked for a new downtown sports arena, a park at the foot of Broadway and a trolley line with antique cars for the Gaslamp Quarter.

In a statement she called “a vision for downtown,” Golding said it is time to “recommit ourselves to building a world-class downtown. . . . a downtown that attracts businesses and acts as a catalyst for the recovery and expansion of our local economy.”

Carter, claiming that “the opportunity is here to develop a downtown that would rival San Francisco and some of the other great cities of our country,” criticized the construction of office space in Mission Valley and the Golden Triangle areas.

The candidates differed only occasionally on major development issues facing downtown. All four supported the construction of a new central library but differed on location. Golding supported a “downtown” site, Carter backed placement near City College. Navarro favored a Lane Field location and Roberts supported construction “wherever the person with $100 million” to pay for the facility wants it.

Golding, Roberts and Carter favored delaying development of a new city government complex, saying the money should not be spent on such a project in the near future. Navarro supported San Diegans Inc.’s proposal for redevelopment of the existing Civic Center complex on C Street.

Only Carter opposed conversion of downtown’s yellow street lights to white light, an anti-crime measure that astronomers say makes their work more difficult by interfering with their view of the stars. Only Navarro opposed a downtown sports arena; he would put it in Mission Valley, near San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

All four endorsed expanding the existing redevelopment area to cover all of downtown.

In a debate that was more civil than their first joint appearance nearly a month ago, the four candidates differed largely over who was best suited to continue the leadership of downtown redevelopment.

Navarro and Carter contended that their outsider status would provide new direction for the city. Golding promised to end petty bickering on the City Council, and Roberts defended the council’s record on downtown progress.