President's Letter

DEAR MAYOR MURPHY,

Barring any new legal hocus-pocus, you are the mayor of San Diego for a second term. It’s a job you said you didn’t want. You almost got your wish. You won by a scant 2,205 votes over an 11thhour candidate. Some believe you weren’t unhappy about Councilwoman Donna Frye’s write-in campaign, likely suspecting she’d siphon off votes from your challenger, County Supervisor Ron Roberts. Your victory over Frye was by the thinnest of margins (34.52 percent to 34.04), with 66 percent of all ballots cast against you. One might conclude your support is not terribly broad.

In the January 2000 issue of San Diego Magazine, you scored second-highest in “leadership quotient” in our assessment of the top seven candidates then vying for mayor. You’ve often credited that survey with helping you get the nomination and win ultimate victory in 2000.

After four years in office, that leadership value seems squandered. In your first term, you did little to inspire confidence.

You did nothing about the city’s scandalous Data Processing Corporation until the media exposed the situation (with the help of whistle-blower Diann Shipione), forcing the resignation of president and CEO Roger Talamantez (“Bugs in the System,” San Diego Magazine, November 2003).

In 2002, you—along with the City Council—approved the underfunding of the city’s employee pension fund. Rather than seek any outside opinion on the fiscal soundness of such action, you merely accepted the city attorney’s legal opinion, paving the way to disaster. San Diego, a laughingstock in the national media—remember “Enron by the Sea”?—now faces the biggest fiscal crisis in its history. Still, during the 2004 campaign, you consistently downplayed its significance.

During the horrendous Cedar fires, when asked about the lack of adequate funding for firefighting equipment, you pointed the finger at your city manager. Fortunately, our new fire chief was wise enough to know he couldn’t wait for city politicians to provide the equipment he needs. He’s establishing a nonprofit foundation so the private sector can step up.

You had a prime opportunity to raise millions to help support police and fire expansion through an increase in city visitor taxes, yet you refused to support the measure on two ballots during your term. You voted to cut funding for the organization that does the most to generate revenue for San Diego’s third-largest industry, tourism. And then you spent more than $200,000 of taxpayers’ money (at the behest of Councilwoman Frye) to fund an audit of the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau—an audit that uncovered absolutely nothing illegal.

During your 2004 reelection campaign, you took credit for renegotiating the Chargers’ lease and ridding the city of the dreaded ticket guarantee. The fact is, you wanted to take the Chargers to court to try to force them to stay in town, despite being shown how that legal battle would cost San Diego taxpayers an estimated $300 million even if you won the suit, and far more if you lost—which would have also lost us the Chargers. If not for the intervention of private citizens, headed by Dan Shea, who voluntarily led negotiations between the Chargers and the city, we would still have the ticket guarantee and be in court at huge financial risk.

On your watch, the city has failed to complete its audit for fiscal 2002-2003, resulting in our diminished ability to borrow necessary funds. Eighteen months is a long time to wait for an audit. Would anyone suspect something is being hidden? Is the city’s lack of leadership only “perceived”? A second term affords you an opportunity to step up and lead this city out of these myriad serious problems. It’s time for our “strong mayor” to flex some muscle. Solving the pension-fund disaster and budget crisis are paramount. City services must be properly funded.

We went through seemingly endless turmoil to get the downtown ballpark built, and since then, we’ve seen some $3 billion in new adjacent development and can expect millions in new tax revenue. The ballpark is an example of what can be accomplished again for San Diego if a win-win situation is forged to build a new Chargers stadium. I support your desire for a new downtown library. It will be great for our city, and it will be great to see you get it done.

We voted in favor of a “strong mayor” resolution, but we did not vote strongly for our mayor. There’s no lack of opportunity to demonstrate your leadership abilities in your second and last term as mayor of a great city. I implore you to do it.

JIM FITZPATRICK
President and CEO
San Diego Magazine

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »