Journalism won’t die if you donate. Support Voice of San Diego today!
As a 45-year resident of this region who cares a great deal about the future of our city, I am pleased and proud that my friend and my councilman from the First District, Council President Scott Peters, is running for city attorney.
San Diego needs a new city attorney. That person should be Scott Peters.
I have known Scott for more than a decade. I know him well, and I have incredible respect and confidence in him. He is by far the most qualified candidate to restore ethics, integrity and competence to the City Attorney’s Office.
He was an attorney in private practice for 16 years, specializing in environmental law. He led the Environment and Land Use Division of the County Counsel’s Office, which is considered a model for a public law office. He served as San Diego’s first council president under the city’s new system of government. His colleagues elected him to this post three times because they know he is capable, he has integrity, and he’s a leader.
This combination of experience cannot be matched by any of the other candidates in this race. When people ask me why I support Scott Peters for city attorney, I don’t typically rattle off his resume. Although, it is a good one!
I usually tell them that I support Scott because I know the kind of person he is. Scott is a man of ethics and integrity. He cares about his work and about doing the right thing.
He has great kids and a terrific wife to whom he’s been married for 23 years. He has the kind of character and courage we should all want in our elected officials.
I describe Scott as having a quiet kind of competence and determination that may not get a lot of headlines, but it does get results. He’s not the kind of politician who fights for attention. He fights to get thing done.
He’s someone who fights for workers, for public safety and for good jobs. He fights for our environment, to keep our beaches and ocean clean. Sewer spills and beach closure days are now down by 80 percent. Just this week, Heal the Bay gave San Diego beaches almost all “A” or “A+” grades in their annual water quality report.
Scott is someone who fights to protect open space and build parks so future generations can enjoy them. During his time in office, Scott helped build 12 entirely new parks in the First Council District and helped preserve over 1,800 acres of open space in Rancho Peñasquitos.
He fought to protect public employee retirements and to restore the city’s once-ailing pension system. According to the city’s independent auditor, it is now funded nearly to the national average for public pension systems. And he did this without costly, ineffective litigation, and without threatening the livelihoods of seniors who are depending on the pensions they earned through many years of hard work.
Scott Peters fought to restore San Diego’s financial stability. The results of this work came to fruition earlier this month when the international rating agency Standard & Poor’s restored San Diego’s access to the public bond markets.
Regardless of what you hear from other candidates, the bottom line is that the agency that all of Wall Street looks to towards for guidance has determined that the city of San Diego has put the proper safeguards in place and now is on the right track. I’m proud that my friend Scott Peters was a part of the solution.
This quiet competence and productive problem-solving is what makes Scott so effective as a public servant. I like to joke with him that all of the qualities that make him a great leader, don’t necessarily make him the best politician. He takes on the tough, controversial issues, even though he knows he might make some people or constituency mad. He want to do what is right instead of what’s politically popular. He doesn’t care about “getting the credit.” He’s willing to admit when he’s made a mistake, to learn from it, and to work with people who may disagree with him to craft the best solution to a problem.
For all of these reasons, and many more, I support Scott Peters for city attorney. I look forward to joining you in a conversation today about how Scott can restore professionalism, ethics and integrity to this office.
— DEDE ALPERT