Sunday, August 26, 2007

Wanted: A San Diego Mayor with Integrity

Mayor Jerry Sanders ran for office as a former San Diego police chief saying he would clean up the city government. He said he would be different then the last two San Diego mayors. His tenure would be marked with an open and transparent government, it would be run by the people and not by the special interest, it would be non-partisan and he would not raise taxes. He would set us back on sail to where we all wanted the city to go.

However, along the way Sanders lost his way and his government has been the complete opposite. Instead it has been marked with secrecy, special interests deals, partisanship fighting, tax increases and distrust. It seems like Mayor Sanders' choose to emulate President Bush running as a uniter, but becoming a divider.

Since his swearing in ceremony over 2-1/2 years ago, Sanders has held closed door special interest secret handshake meetings on behalf of developers. Remember the downtown development impact "fees" and the Sunroad deal.



He moved to raised our taxes. Remember he said at his opening ceremony he would raise our water taxes. However when he was called out he backed down. However, he has come back with selling it as a fee increase. I don't buy the arguement it is a fee and not a tax. When the government charges a taxpayer money it is a tax and when a company charges a customer money it is a fee. End of story. He has fought with almost all the city's elected.

In addition, Sanders has been caught raising large sums of money and coordinating a non-candidate campaign fund with no cause yet, just collecting campaign donations. Lets say pay to play, because the people contributing are the same people making money hand over fist from Sanders so called reforming government. Let Donna Frye raise money this way and people from Sanders camp would be on the war path. Shouldn't there be more questions by citizens and the media?

When Sanders or his staff is caught red handed they pull the old deny, deny, deny, make counter accusations and then continue to deny. When it does not work, then someone eventually disappears from his staff. By now he has lost almost all his top non-political staff.

Lets make the argument that Jerry Sanders might had entered the race as a kind man wanting to change San Diego for the better. So, today regardless of what he was when he ran today he is either guilty of the same mishandling of our city as the last two mayors or he is over his head and can't understand his own position or lastly he is dimbwitted and lets his political hacks pull his strings. Regardless it seems his tenure is the Wizard of Oz story. He you want to believe in fairy tales, then don't look behind the curtain, because you might be afraid of what you see.

San Diego deserves better, they deserve someone with integrity, they deserve someone how will re-set our sail and make us again America's Finest City. If you know that type of person, there is a seat to be filled next year as Mayor of San Diego.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having to choose between a liberal wackjob and a RINO was awful during that election. I just hope Steve Francis decides to run and really clean up the corruption and kowtowing to unions to keep their Cadillac pensions and one acre ranches...

Anonymous said...

Yes, Sanders is in the pocket of the unions. Oh wait, he is really bought and paid for by the developers. The ones that want to build over our parks, build over our bayfront, cut and fill our open space and turn San Diego into Los Angeles.

Why else does the San Diego Reg Chamber of Commerce endorse his un-balanced budget, why else does the Chamber endorse his attack on the BID Council over Walmart, why else does he do the bidding of Sunroad developers, why else does he give sweetheart deals to the downtown developers with low impact fees (as Mr. Smith said taxes), why else did he sign off on the Broadway Project for Pappa Manchester, why else does he have a the BIA arrange for his early endorsement over Frances at the Republican County Party and the SD Lincoln Club meetings and why else has most of his top staff left or been forced out.

Anonymous said...

"Oh no!! All republicans want to do is build, build, build!!!" So what's the problem with building and creating development? Even loony Frye is for developing "responsibly" which everyone knows is code for union pay offs, uh, I mean PLA's and heavily burndomson regulations that scare away any right minded builders. My issue with RINO sanders is that he talks a good game but at the end of the day he'll roll over at the expense of Republican values to placate some special interests like the gays and the "equal" rights whiners...