He’s had his work cut out for him
By Patty Brooks
Looking back at the past 28 months, Mayor Jerry Sanders has had a lot on his plate as mayor of the city of San Diego. It hasn’t been an easy task. And, it’s not getting any easier.
He admits, “It has been difficult.” Yet, he feels that the citizens of San Diego will re-elect him for doing his job well. However, he has a very determined and forceful mayoral candidate that has been pushing his buttons. That’s independent Steve Francis, a self-made millionaire who isn’t hesitant to say he’s the man for the job of mayor of San Diego.
Sanders took time to look back at the past 28 months, which included dealing with a series of destructive fires in the fall of 2007. He’s had to react to the unexpected La Jolla landslides that have caused more friction between him and City Attorney Mike Aguirre. And, of course, there are the day-to-day operation issues that include a city government in financial meltdown. He’s had to address underfunding of the pension, which is now a $1.4 billion shortfall; being barred from the bond market by past misconduct; being under investigation by the SEC; and a city infrastructure that is falling apart due to previous neglect. He’s definitely inherited a can of worms.
To add to the long list of challenges, Sanders has had to deal with the reality of city politics. When asked what has been most frustrating as mayor, he refers to the unions. “I underestimated the power of the unions, the impact of the council and all of this happening at a time when city employees have been so demoralized.”
He’s learned firsthand that some of the city employees are resistant to change, including the move from a strong city manager to a strong mayor form of government that was voted in by the citizens of San Diego.
Looking at it from the outside it’s not obvious that a major cultural change is occurring within all the city departments. Sanders realizes that there are some elected officials and employees who don’t like the change, because now they report to the mayor, not a city manager who, for the most part, reported to the city council members.
He’s still working to reduce redundancy and waste at a time when, according to Sanders, “There is no extra money lying around.” He’s done some of this by reducing staff and better coordination among the city agencies, including waste and water. With that being said, according to Sanders, waste/water has been able to cut 165 positions, due to better organizational efforts.
Contracting for city services is also a means to reduce costs, short and long term, according to Mayor Sanders. This can reduce and eliminate staffing costs, future pensions, insurance and equipment costs that are associated with running a city of this size. At the time of this interview, Sanders said that requests for proposals to contract for services is to be out by June 30, 2008. He believes competition for services can bring about a healthy change for the city along with financial benefits.
However, the city has taken some things back in house, including administration of the city’s health and benefits’ contracts, which was financially benefiting the unions. The unions made money on the twenty different plans that have now been pared back to two to three plans administered by the city.
Besides the work in progress, currently on his list of things to tackle is the airport. He’s working on avoiding gridlocks around the airport due to proposed infrastructure recommendations from the Airport Authority Board. He feels that government organizations that work for the public at large need to collaborate in order to be more effective.
He refers to the recent fires that showed the coordination and cooperation among the various city and county departments and officials. There wasn’t any grandstanding and there was a lot better communication among the various agencies and department heads.
When asked what he wants the public at large to know about Sanders, he said, “I want them to know that I work for them.”
He’s hopeful with the upcoming elections that the citizens of San Diego will show their support of his work over the past 28 months and his commitment to its future health and well being.
Sanders says he’s just starting to see the results of his efforts. He wants to be around for four more years to get the job done.