Grand Jury Raps Mayor’s 2 Pet Projects : Civic affairs: Bay-front library is short-sighted and grabbing Port District funds to help out a cash-strapped city is a bad idea, report says.

Taking swipes at two of San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s pet projects, the county grand jury on Thursday recommended against her plan for a bay-front library on Lane Field and warned against the city’s attempts to raid the cash-rich Port District.

The 1991-92 jury’s comments are contained in a final year-end report released Thursday. While much of the information is a compilation of already-released studies, the opinions about Lane Field and the Port District had never been made public.

The grand jury report is simply a recommendation. City officials need not act on it.

Regarding a new library at the Lane Field site, which O’Connor hopes to make the final accomplishment of her 6 1/2-year administration, jurors called the location “shortsighted” because it will be too far from where most city residents will live by the year 2000.

“There is every indication that the center of the city is now north and east of Lane Field by a considerable distance, and will continue to move in that direction,” the jury’s report says.

A waterfront library, the jury said, “would be totally inconsistent with the heretofore planned and best use of bay shore property, a drastically endangered commodity.”

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While acknowledging that it had not studied the issue enough to provide alternative suggestions, the jury said “nothing which detracts from visual access to the bay or aesthetic enjoyment thereof should be considered.”

The mayor mentioned the library prominently during her final State of the City address in January, announcing that she and her husband, Robert O. Peterson, would personally donate $1 million toward its construction. The library, at the foot of Broadway, is estimated to cost between $70 million and $80 million.

It is endorsed by mayors of each of the five cities that make up the San Diego Unified Port District.

O’Connor’s spokesman, Paul Downey, criticized the grand jury for “making a recommendation without all the facts.” The location is serviced by bus lines along Broadway, Pacific Highway and Harbor Drive, a trolley line and is near thousands of parking spaces, he said.

“It’s an ideal site and we’re talking about using it for the public good,” Downey said. “It’s ridiculous to make a recommendation without taking a hard and close look at it. This is public property, the last prime piece of public property left on the waterfront. We’re talking about a facility and park that everyone in San Diego can enjoy.”

The Port District is discussing whether to build a six-story parking garage on the site, he said, which is much less beneficial.

The grand jury called for an “objective” study of a central library site that “does not begin with a decision on concept or site selection.”

In an interview Thursday, grand jury foreman Richard B. Macfie said previous studies were a “rationale wrapped around a decision rather than a product of careful study.”

Because of a lack of transportation in the area, which will only get worse as the city’s population shifts east and north, the Lane Field library would end up “an attractive nuisance,” he said.

“If the argument is that people without automobiles and who take public transportation will use the library, then the bay-front is not where a central library needs to be into the next century,” Macfie said. “It would make a nice edifice but there’s a problem with public properties being abused in that area. We didn’t feel the library needs the bay.”

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The grand jury also criticized San Diego’s efforts to grab money collected by the San Diego Unified Port District, which is controlled by port commissioners representing San Diego, Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach and National City.

In May, O’Connor visited Sacramento and tried to persuade Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) to sponsor legislation that would allow San Diego and other cities that are part of the port district to take control of its $20 million reserve.

The proposal is still under consideration, Downey said, and a bill may be introduced next legislative session.

Jurors complimented the port district, which “prudently budgets its funds, recognizing economic uncertainties and allotting monies for . . . future maintenance” and is a “valuable asset to greater San Diego.”

Such a well-run and efficient district “should not be sucked into the maelstrom of the city bureaucracy just to gain access to its surplus funds.”

Going a step further, jurors said they are firmly opposed to any proposal or legislation that would eliminate the port district or dilute the commission’s authority to protect San Diego Bay “from short-sighted exploitation.”

The 19-member jury acknowledged that the port district’s financial condition “has often drawn envious and covetous glances from other governmental bodies.”

In fact, San Diego City Manager Jack McGrory announced last week that the city faces a $16.2-million budget gap and has asked 4,000 city employees to take up to 26 days of leave without pay.

Mayoral spokesman Downey said O’Connor still favors the city’s use of port funds.

“Like all cities, the city of San Diego is hurting financially, and the port, which operates public land, is the richest public entity in the region,” Downey said. “Why shouldn’t those public assets be used for the public good? Why shouldn’t it be used for as many people’s benefits as possible?”

The grand jury favors a system that might distribute a percentage of the surplus to member cities so the “whole bay benefits,” Macfie said. “But to just sink money into the cities’ general operating funds means the money will just get lost. We think it would be a terrible mistake to get into that money to solve short-range programs.”

Acknowledging that the grand jury’s recommendations could be viewed as taking “shots” at a departing O’Connor, Macfie maked no apologies.

“She took shots at two things that are better left alone,” he said. “One is the waterfront and the other is the best long-term interests of the entire San Diego Bay.”

The grand jury is a 19-member investigative body, composed mostly of retired volunteers, who agree to serve a year’s term. It can be impaneled to examine either civil or criminal matters, but mostly issues reports involving the efficiency of government.

This year’s jury ended its term June 30. The 1992-92 grand jury began work on July 1.