S.D. Mayor Takes Office

Former Police Chief Jerry Sanders was sworn in as mayor Monday and immediately offered an affable but gloomy assessment of the city’s financial problems.

“The news won’t be good for some time,” said the 55-year-old Republican.

Sanders beat Councilwoman Donna Frye last month to assume the final three years of the term of Dick Murphy, who resigned in July amid criticism stemming from the city’s $2-billion pension deficit and other problems.

On Jan. 1, the city will switch to a strong-mayor system, which was endorsed by voters last year. The switch will give Sanders the power to fire department heads, veto council actions and develop annual budgets.

Sanders has proposed reducing the pension deficit by persuading city employees to reduce their benefits voluntarily and increase their payments to the system. Sanders has said that unless employees agree to such moves, hundreds of them will be fired.

“Business as usual” is no longer acceptable, Sanders said.

Sanders, who was backed by the Chamber of Commerce and the editorial page of the San Diego Union-Tribune, wants City Hall to revert to the way it was run before public employee unions gained political power in recent years. With that power has come higher wages and pension benefits through contract negotiations.

Officials have been unwilling to part with the city’s reputation as one of the most tax-averse communities in the nation. The result is that as the pension deficit has spiraled, city services have been reduced.

During the mayoral campaign, Frye, a Democrat, suggested that a sales tax increase might be needed to help reduce the deficit and other problems. Sanders immediately pounced on the suggestion and made his anti-tax views the centerpiece of his campaign.

During the campaign Sanders said repeatedly that city government suffered from too much top-down management and that more authority should be given to lower levels.

But one of his first acts as mayor, which he announced during his speech, was to take authority over spending decisions away from department directors and give it to Ronne Froman, a retired Navy admiral and Sanders ally who was recently named interim city manager.