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Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007 | The Café comments by Chris Crotty and the “This Just In” piece by Andrew Donohue on Mayor Jerry Sanders’ re-election prospects omit several key points:
First, he ran as a package deal with Ronne Froman, who enhanced the ticket with her reputation as an efficient administrator.
Second, he ran as an honest non-politician with all that the label implied.
Third, he promised to clean up the mess at City Hall. Fourth, he promised, for better or worse, not to raise taxes.
The fact is Froman is gone; he is embroiled in the Sunroad fiasco and even his strongest supporters must acknowledge that he has either lied to the San Diego public about his involvement in Sunroad or is so incompetent that he cannot adequately perform the duties of mayor. None of the initiatives he promised to clean up City Hall have gone anywhere and his senior staff spend more time shielding him from public criticism than making the necessary changes to improve efficiency of the organization. Improving efficiency is a clear alternative to firing hard-working city employees. Outsourcing means a reduction in services or an increase in costs unless, of course, you favor more workers without adequate health insurance or retirement benefits.
Finally, he made the silly decision to take tax increases off the table as a candidate when he had no clue about the city’s financial condition forcing him to disguise tax increases as fee increases. The historical record that incumbent mayors are always re-elected in San Diego has no predictive value given the unique fiscal and governmental challenges facing the city today.