A Bittersweet Farewell for Beleaguered San Diego Mayor

The farewell was in the style of the man: understated, courteous and politely stubborn.

With occasional moistness in his eyes, Mayor Dick Murphy said a bittersweet goodbye Friday to his staff on his final day in office. His resignation left the city in the hands of a deputy mayor on trial for allegedly taking illegal contributions from a strip club owner.

“It’s been an incredible journey we’ve been on for the last 4 1/2 years,” Murphy told two dozen staffers.

He noted some of their triumphs -- new libraries, open-space acquisitions and solar energy projects, among them -- but skipped the fiscal and legal problems that have created the political firestorm that he is fleeing.

“This is a day of sadness, but you know, this really ought to be a day of pride,” he said, mentioning the achievements. It was a tough sell. Many staffers wept.

Barely seven months into his second term, Murphy leaves office after being unable or unwilling to withstand a daily drubbing for his handling of the city’s $2-billion pension deficit. Before he announced his resignation April 25, a recall movement was gaining steam.

On July 26, an election will be held to choose a successor. If no candidate gets more than 50%, a runoff will be held in November.

In 1983, when a special election was held for a successor to Mayor Pete Wilson, candidates clamored for his endorsement. In this election, candidates are distancing themselves from Murphy as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

After refusing interviews for months, Murphy, 62, a former Superior Court judge, spent his final days in back-to-back conversations with the media, answering the same questions but never displaying impatience. He said he planned a six-month “sabbatical” and might teach, write or do private judging when he decides to return to work.

The interviews had two ground rules: No questions about the criminal investigation into the pension board by the U.S. attorney or about his relationship with City Atty. Michael Aguirre, who has repeatedly criticized him and questioned his honesty and competency.

Rarely, if ever, in San Diego political history had there been such a clash of temperamental opposites as the low-key, cautious mayor and the aggressive city attorney, who has issued a series of reports alleging possible wrongdoing by a growing list of public officials, including Murphy.

The day after the mayor announced his resignation, former Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst was asked why he thought Murphy was bailing out.

“Three reasons,” he said. “Mike Aguirre, Mike Aguirre, Mike Aguirre.”

Murphy would talk only in philosophic terms about his jousts with the city attorney.

“I’m certainly one who believes the vast majority of human beings are decent and honest, and I operate on that assumption,” he said quietly. “It is very difficult to deal with somebody who is not that way.”

He said he had no regrets about resigning, which he said would give the city a chance for a fresh start. “It was the honorable thing,” he said. “You can’t feel bad about doing the right thing.”

His critics said he was too slow to realize the magnitude of the pension deficit and too slow to confront the city’s labor unions. He argued that the deficit was manageable over the long term and not a cause for panic.

His assurances, however, became less acceptable to the public when San Diego’s credit rating dropped and the city, which had long boasted of its fiscal soundness, found itself unable to float bonds on Wall Street.

Murphy’s political style had always leaned toward incremental change, with cooperation from as many people as possible.

But the approach that worked with most city issues proved unsuited to the pension mess and did nothing to satisfy the impatience of the public or dampen the controversy about the sizable pension boosts given to city employees while private industry pensions were lagging.

In November, write-in candidate Councilwoman Donna Frye got more votes than Murphy. But a judge declared that several thousand of her votes were invalid because voters had not filled in an oval on the line where they had written her name.

Murphy was declared the winner, but his legitimacy as mayor was damaged. Frye, an ally of Aguirre, is the leading candidate to succeed Murphy.

On Thursday, Murphy presided over the ribbon-cutting for a new garage for police vehicles, the kind of small-caliber achievements that he feels will be his legacy.

On Friday, with staff members sitting around a conference room table, Murphy mentioned each of their names and made small jokes about projects worked on and long nights spent preparing reports.

There was no sign of bitterness at his political foes, the media or even Aguirre. Each staffer got a hug, and then it was over.

“Thank you,” said Murphy. “God bless you, and goodbye.”