Hedgecock Asks for Help in Solving City’s Woes

In an upbeat “State of the City” address Monday, Mayor Roger Hedgecock accentuated the accomplishments of San Diego over the last 12 months and predicted an even better year ahead.

He announced that he will ask residents to advise him on overcoming the problems of the city’s older neighborhoods and pledged to remove the Proposition J spending limit, which he considers overly restrictive.

“It makes no sense whatsoever to retain Proposition J, which is an artificial standard at odds with the rest of California,” Hedgecock said. He estimated that in the coming fiscal year the local limit would require the city to cut services $3.6 million more than the state spending limit would require.

City Atty. John Witt said that the Gann Initiative superseded San Diego’s spending limit, but the City Council has continued to honor the tougher local limit. “Actually, I don’t think any action is needed to abandon the (local) Prop. J spending limitation,” Witt said.

Hedgecock avoided mention of the perjury and conspiracy charges he faces except to say: “During the past year, our attention often was focused on the fates and fortunes of individuals, while the larger picture of San Diego’s economy remained largely unexamined.”

That economy, he said, is healthy. Despite some plant closures, “we are far ahead of the so-called ‘Rust Belt’ cities . . . We are, in fact, uniquely poised among American cities: looking westward and southward, becoming an integral force in the Pacific Rim economy.”

He predicted that San Diego will continue to grow rapidly. Still, “We must increase our attention to the problems of the inner city, the older neighborhoods, the ‘urbanized’ portions of San Diego,” he said. He announced that he would convene a Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Neighborhoods composed of representatives of each community to advise him on “how the city can improve their quality of life.” Hedgecock also promised to find a site for a new main library and to hold ground-breaking ceremonies for the structure this year.