Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007 | San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is a very likeable guy, and he knows that people vote for people they like. In my opinion that is his value-proposition, politically speaking.
However, there is no magic formula for a senior statesman — period. Too bad you can’t ask Harry Truman about that given his famous adage: “The buck stops here.”
Hard and long work — and being able to articulate and justify those efforts — is the only standard I’ve witnessed in successfully managing government.
Drive by City Hall late at night; are the lights still on in the Mayor’s Office? I guarantee you they’re on at the City Attorney’s Office.
San Diego is a hands-on city with many systemic problems; maybe Jerry should focus on being more of a senior manager and not a glad-hander as much.
His trip to Scripps Ranch to celebrate a new school there and the student’s first day is typical.
Rather, I would have liked to seen him at the reopening of Lincoln High in southeast San Diego and commenting on the critical need a community has for education and how that institution reflects the community’s and its youth’s potential and our government’s promise to them.
Now that’s statesmanship!
Editor’s Note: The author’s name was inadvertently left off this letter when it was originally published.