San Diego Mayoral Hopefuls: ‘Read Our Lips’

SAN DIEGO —  If a visitor from out of town had wandered into a recent debate among leading candidates for mayor, he or she might have come away thinking San Diego is one of the most overtaxed, over-regulated cities in the nation.

As they scramble to replace Mayor Dick Murphy, the candidates are pledging to oppose new taxes, restrain city government and get tough with employee labor unions.

Not even the city’s $2-billion pension deficit, it seems, is enough to shake San Diego candidates from the city’s historical political orthodoxy of a tight-fisted and lean government.

But a recent think-tank study found what others have found before: Taxes and fees in San Diego are among the lowest of any big city in the state, and the city government is starved for money to pay for the kinds of municipal services that residents have come to expect.

But among the mayoral candidates, such notions are political poison they are unwilling to swallow.

“I think I’m a pretty brave guy. I’ve been down some dark alleys with people who were not very fond of me,” said former Police Chief Jerry Sanders. “But I’m not brave enough to go to taxpayers right now and ask them to bail out a pension problem that is not their fault.”

With two City Council members on trial for allegedly taking illegal campaign contributions, six members of the pension board facing conflict-of-interest charges and a federal investigation continuing into the pension deficit, candidates agree that if there ever was a time to appeal to the generosity of San Diego voters, this is not it.

The Lincoln Club, a pro-business organization, organized the 90-minute debate, held in a hotel ballroom. About 350 people in attendance peppered five candidates with questions to determine the depth of their antipathy toward taxes.

Councilwoman Donna Frye, considered the leading candidate to replace Murphy, said she would consider taxes only if voters approved. And San Diego voters, Frye said, are loath even to tax tourists.

Harley-Davidson dealer “New York” Myke Shelby, notable for his ponytail and assertive rhetoric, offered his mantra: “I think new taxes are a disaster.... What we need to do is promote business. I’d rather spend profits than taxes.”

Patrick Shea, a bankruptcy attorney, insisted that only filing for bankruptcy would cure the city’s problems.

Steve Francis, owner of a temporary employment business, has blanketed television with advertisements offering his platform of no tax increases and no bankruptcy.

He has adopted City Atty. Michael Aguirre’s view -- which other attorneys dispute -- that recent pension boosts are illegal and should be rolled back.

If other candidates are unwilling to ask voters to sacrifice monetarily for the good of the city, Francis wants to go further.

The former Nevada state legislator said his first act as mayor would be to ask the City Council members to apologize to residents “for the mess they’ve got us into.”

Dick Rider, a Libertarian Party activist, was not invited to the forum but spoke in the lobby, stressing the need to turn over as many governmental services as possible to private industry, possibly including firefighting.

When Aguirre recently floated the idea of asking voters to authorize a garbage pickup fee -- San Diego has no such fee for single-family homes -- Rider blasted the idea as giving officials “carte blanche to raise taxes and charge fees for an endless number of reasons.”

The mayoral election is set for July 26. If none of the 11 candidates on the ballot gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will have a runoff, probably in November.

Murphy announced his resignation in April, effective July 15. He had been dogged by criticism over his handling of the pension problem and lingering controversy over November’s election in which Frye’s write-in candidacy got more votes than Murphy’s reelection bid; a judge ruled thousands of the Frye votes invalid.

Last month, the Center on Policy Initiatives published a study suggesting that $279 million could be raised annually if San Diego would impose taxes equal to the average of the state’s top 10 cities.

The study received scant news coverage and has had no discernible effect on the mayoral hopefuls. Neither has a program on the local PBS television station suggesting that San Diego’s new civic motto should be “America’s Cheapest City” -- a jibe at its long-standing self-description, “America’s Finest City.”

At the Lincoln Club, Shea said giving more money to government would only make things worse.

“You only have to ask someone with teenage kids or a dog to know how stupid it is to reward bad behavior,” he said as audience members cheered.