Council Is Expected to Keep Its Independence

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor will inherit a “rambunctious” City Council that has been without a popularly elected leader for seven months and may be too independent by now to control, City Hall observers say.

But O’Connor on Monday expressed confidence that her political style--as well as the controlled-growth mandate she claims her election represents--will allow her to build at least a general coalition on what she concedes is an “individually independent” council.

“I’m hopeful with the mayor being elected finally . . . we will be able to find common ground on issues and move forward on those issues,” O’Connor said, hours before she was sworn in as mayor.

“I’m not going to win all the time nor do I expect to win all the time,” she said.

Because the vote of a San Diego mayor is just one of nine on the City Council and because the mayor has no power to veto a decision made by the council, the mayor must persuade at least four other council members to vote her way on most issues and questions of municipal business, which require a five-vote majority.

Former Mayors Pete Wilson and Roger Hedgecock were able to do that because both had “intimidating” styles and worked with more passive council members, said political consultant David Lewis.

O’Connor, however, is “going to inherit a very rambunctious council that is in no mood to give up anything at this point,” Lewis said.

“They’ve all enjoyed this period of asserting themselves and gaining independence that no council has certainly experienced in the last 15 or 20 years, and I don’t expect any of them to give it up easily,” said Lewis, adding that council members are acting like “kings of their empires” by pushing for programs for their districts.

Bud Porter, a lobbyist, said the council began flexing its independence as early as 1984, when Hedgecock became embroiled in the financial scandal that resulted in his ouster from office after a conviction on 13 felony conspiracy and perjury counts.

“There has been no central leader down there that has had the city marching in the same direction,” Porter said.

According to Lewis, O’Connor’s election will not be enough to reverse that trend immediately.

“No one is intimidated by Maureen, in the way that I thought they were at first by Pete and then by Roger,” he said. “Although certainly Maureen won an impressive victory . . . she doesn’t bring in the power players that Pete and Roger had.

“I don’t think she had the significant support of the business community, that certainly Pete did and Roger, by the time he took office, did.”

Without the backing of the business community, O’Connor may find herself butting heads with Councilmen Bill Cleator and Ed Struiksma, both of whom have taken over when there were vacancies in the mayor’s office, said Lewis, political consultant for Struiksma, who is said to be eyeing a bid for mayor in 1988.

Cleator served as acting mayor for about five months after Wilson left for the U.S. Senate and before Hedgecock took office; Struiksma has been acting mayor since mid-December, when Hedgecock resigned.

Both Cleator and Struiksma had the chance to learn how to better “manipulate” the political process and “develop personal access” to business and community leaders, Lewis said.

“I don’t think either one of them is going to roll over for Maureen,” Lewis said.

Councilwoman Judy McCarty agreed that the council has been boisterous because “democracy is a rather boisterous form of government. If you want quiet, get a dictator.”

“As I recall, Maureen has never shied away from controversy herself,” McCarty added. “She has been boisterous at times, too. You’re just not going to find a quiet, smooth-running government where people are involved. People have opinions and I think they’re going to express them, and that’s good.”

But McCarty said she hoped O’Connor’s election and leadership will restore credibility to the council, which has seen its reputation blackened by a series of scandals and controversies. Currently the council is being sued for an alleged violation of the Brown Act open meeting law, and Councilman Uvaldo Martinez is under felony indictment concerning his use of a city credit card.

“I think the public has lost confidence in the City Council’s ability to lead,” McCarty said. “I think that having Maureen here will be very helpful to us all. Having a mayor, an elected mayor on the job, will be very beneficial to this city.”

McCarty said she agrees with O’Connor’s stated positions on growth management and providing recreation programs for San Diego children after school hours. But she said she is not sure what else the incoming mayor wants to do.

Struiksma said he expects to work with O’Connor. He said she will be inheriting a council that is “deeply concerned with the City of San Diego, a council that will work with all of its members. And one that is independent.”

O’Connor’s most natural allies would be Councilmen William Jones and Mike Gotch, Lewis predicted. The mayor shares Gotch’s controlled-growth philosophy, and she has a strong following in Jones’ district, which is predominantly minority.

Abbe Wolfsheimer, perhaps the most independent council member, said Monday she will vote on many issues with O’Connor, who is a close friend.

O’Connor said she believes that the mandate of her election--that San Diegans want to slow construction of homes and offices--will give her the ability to round up votes for a controlled-growth coalition.

“What you’re seeing is, especially since Maureen O’Connor was elected, the people have a different agenda and . . . it’s not ‘Go ahead and totally grow without constraint,’ ” O’Connor said. “They’re saying no to that.

“If anybody wants to survive politically, they will have to address those issues seriously.”

O’Connor listed the council members she expects to be part of a managed-growth coalition and included everyone except Cleator, her mayoral opponent. When that was pointed out, she said she even expected him to vote with her on growth issues “if you take what he said on the campaign trail.”

Regarding other issues that confront the City Council, O’Connor said Monday that she will use a private, one-on-one style to try to assemble a team on the council.

Asked how she would build the necessary coalition to name council committee chairmen, for instance, O’Connor stressed her experience as a council member during the 1970s.

“Knowledge,” she said. “It’s personality, it’s dedication, and it’s experience.”

Lewis said he believes one of the biggest tests of O’Connor’s leadership will be how she and the council handle the issue of the waterfront convention center, which is being rebid because of its higher-than-expected price tag. A former San Diego Unified Port District commissioner, O’Connor has been an outspoken critic of the project.

Lewis said O’Connor will have to be resigned to the fact that it will take time to knit members of the independent City Council into the coalition needed to run City Hall.

“I think Maureen’s going to have to accept that it’s going to be a long, slow building process,” Lewis said. “It’s really her only option.”