VOSD Monthly Magazine | October 2012

The Two Faces of Papa Doug: He Says He Wants to Toast. But He’s Giving One Hell of a Roast.

www.voiceofsandiego.org

OCTOBER 2012

Vol. 1 No. 6

Take Your

PICK ★ VOSD’s Mega Election Guide ★

Voice of San Diego is a member-based news organization. Join our community and get a subscription to this magazine. Learn more at vosd.org/join-members ▸▸

October 2012

Volume 1 Number 6

★ ★ ★ ★ A Special Compilation of VOSD’s Best Election Coverage ★ ★ ★ ★

16 POLITICS

How DeMaio Made His Money His D.C. playbook looks awfully similar to the one he’s following in San Diego.

BY LIAM DILLON

10 POLITICS

The Tragic and Fascinating Life of Carl DeMaio He reveals little about himself on the campaign trail. He’s all business — resolute, rehearsed and relentless. But his approach also has come at a cost.

BY LIAM DILLON

Inside 2 EDITOR’S NOTE | Scott Lewis New Talent at VOSD

22 POLITICS

The Politics of Bob Filner’s Personality He says you’ll see a different Bob Filner if you elect him mayor. BY LIAM DILLON

3 RAISE YOUR VOICE | Mary Walter-Brown A Community Takes Shape

4 ELECTION COUNTDOWN | VOSD Staff Five Turning Points in the Mayor’s Race Four Reasons to Care About the City Council Race Three Questions to Follow for City Schools Two Facts to Remember One Cool Graphic

35 COMMENTARY | Scott Lewis The Two Faces of Papa Doug

28 POLITICS

What Filner Did in Washington He’s spent two decades in DC. What’d he do? BY LIAM DILLON October 2012 VOSD MONTHLY

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Editor’s Note New Talent at VOSD

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Andrew Donohue STAFF WRITERS

WE’VE ADDED SOME NEW TALENT to Voice of San Diego. Sara Libby will run the newsroom as managing editor and Lisa Halverstadt will be a staff writer.

Libby comes to us from Talking Points Memo in Washington, D.C. She is leaving her job as associate editor managing the coverage of the 2012 presidential campaign.

Before TPM, she was deputy politics editor at POLITICO. She’s a graduate of the University of Southern California where she was editorin-chief of the Daily Trojan.

She has a knack for condensing ideas into good stories. I asked her to give me some thoughts to share with you: “I’m so thrilled to be part of such an ambitious and community-centric place that approaches journalism in such an honest way. I’ve spent the last few years covering politics, which can sometimes amount to a lot of fighting and noise that loses sight of real people and how they live their lives,” she said.

One of the writers Libby will manage is Halverstadt, who comes to us from the Arizona Republic. She’s been covering the city of Glendale and the ownership saga of the Arizona Coyotes, the hockey team whose burden on the city has become a national story.

Halverstadt is an inventive and productive reporter and she’ll be running an effort we’re calling the Daily Facts. She’s going to keep the leaders of our local agencies honest, explain and examine their policies and be your guide to understanding the complex deals they draw up.

The new additions don’t mean we’ve expanded. We’re also bidding bon voyage to senior writer Rob Davis.

In early 2006, Davis was the first hire Andrew Donohue and I made together. He turned into one of the best writers in town and I’ve always admired his crisp sentences and prose.

Davis’ work tracking the environment, water supply and the evolution of the U-T San Diego has been a major feature of this service. He exposed conflicts of interest at CCDC that led to the downfall of its chief and put a City Council member on the spot for using an astonishing amount of water.

He’s traveling. As he put it on Twitter: “Two months in the South Pacific, then South America in January, with no return ticket. My wife and I are off for a good explore.”

You should follow him on Twitter. He’s also a great photographer. I bet he captures some interesting scenes.

Kelly Bennett, Will Carless, Rob Davis, Liam Dillon, Keegan Kyle CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Ashley Lewis

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Scott Lewis

VICE PRESIDENT, ADVANCEMENT & ENGAGEMENT

Mary Walter-Brown WEB EDITOR

Dagny Salas MEMBER MANAGER

Summer Polacek FOUNDERS

Buzz Woolley & Neil Morgan BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Blair Blum, Reid Carr, Bob Page, Bill Stensrud, Gail Stoorza-Gill

October 2012 | Volume 1 Number 6 Subscriptions and Reprints

VOSD members at the Speaking Up and Loud & Clear levels receive a complimentary subscription to Voice of San Diego Monthly magazine as a thank you for their support.

Individual issues and reprints may be purchased on demand for $7.99 at vosd.org/vosd-mag.

Digital editions are also available for $2.99.

Advertising

Want to advertise in VOSD Monthly? Call today to become a Community Partner: (619) 325-0525.

SCOTT LEWIS

Chief Executive Officer

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2 VOSD MONTHLY October 2012

Thank you to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for supporting innovative journalism.

News and Updates from Our Member Community

A Community Takes Shape WHEN WE LAUNCHED OUR NEW RAISE YOUR VOICE membership program in April, we set out to create a community of engaged residents who care about the issues impacting our city. But we also wanted to go a step beyond that. We wanted to change the way people consume news and information by making them an active participant in the conversation.

Considering it’s much easier to the read the newspaper on the couch than it is to actually get involved, we knew it could be a slow process. Turns out, people were hungry for the opportunity to raise their voice. We see growing evidence of this at every one of our events.

Whether it’s our Meeting of the Minds arts presentations, the One Voice at a Time conversation series, the Brews & News cocktail parties or our intimate Member Coffees, we see people who not only want to read the news, they want to question it. They want to debate it. They want to change it.

We also see it in the lively exchanges that take place on social media, in our reader comments and in our Fix San Diego letters to the editor.

Perhaps the best examples are the 39 submissions we received for the Idea Tournament at Politifest. People have great ideas for how to improve San Diego. They just need a platform to present them.

We’ve also seen our community take shape as our volunteer corps expands with a passionate and diverse cross-section of local residents ranging from students to retirees who want to be a part of what VOSD is developing.

Our community is growing every day. Of course we wish it would grow faster and so do many of our supporters, especially in light of worries about the future of San Diego’s media as the U-T’s new owners pursue acquisitions. Since I’m in charge of marketing and fund development, I’ve had a lot of people ask me why we don’t just tell people to cancel their “other” subscriptions and give that money to VOSD. I’m not sure it’s our place to tell people how to spend their money. It’s our job to create options. That’s why we were founded.

Sure, I wish we had a huge advertising budget so we could produce slick TV commercials and plaster VOSD on every billboard in town.

After all, once people discover VOSD they usually get hooked. But, right now, we have to utilize the tools in our toolbox. That means we keep cultivating our community every day and providing people an opportunity to get involved. We have to believe that if we all keep raising our voice, we’ll eventually be heard.

MARY WALTER-BROWN

Vice President, Advancement & Engagement

QUESTIONS? CONCERNS? Write to mary.brown@voiceofsandiego.org

RECENT EVENTS

Scott Lewis and San Diego City Councilman David Alvarez discuss the highlight’s of Alvarez’s first year on the council at September’s One Voice at a Time event at Ryan Bros. Coffee in Barrio Logan.

VOSD member Jan Bourgeois chats with City Councilman David Alvarez prior to the discussion.

UPCOMING EVENTS OCT 25

Member Coffee

8:00 A.M. @ VOSD OFFICE

VOSD members are invited to join us for coffee, a light breakfast and lively discussion about the issues shaping our city with CEO Scott Lewis and the VOSD reporting staff. Space is limited. Please RSVP to summer@voiceofsandiego.org.

NOV 15

One Voice at a Time

BONGHWAN (BH) KIM | 6:00 P.M.

Our live conversation series continues with BH Kim, the new Vice President/Executive Director for The San Diego Foundation’s Malin Burnham Center for Civic Engagement. Location to be announced. Members at the Inside Voice ($101) level and above enjoy free admission. Others are asked to make a $5 donation.

October 2012 VOSD MONTHLY

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The Vote

The Vote

BY THE NUMBERS

Countdown to the Election VOSD’s guide to the races that will shape our city

5 4 3 2 1 |

Nathan Fletcher didn’t advance.

Both of these candidates may have had trouble with someone who fit the mold San Diegans have long liked for their mayors.

Bob Filner got kinder, gentler.

He quickly changed his harsh tone on pension reform, the Convention Center expansion and the Balboa Park remodel after they were approved and he’d moved on to the general election.

Four Reasons to Care About the San Diego City Council Race

4 3

It’s the only one on the ballot.

2 1

People in District 1 get fired up.

Carl DeMaio went to charm school.

That allowed him to seek the support of the same downtown insiders he used to blame for the city’s mess.

Every time the candidates get fact checked.

Neither seems to be too adept at passing the fact test.

Filner forgot about being kinder, gentler.

And he accused, without any real evidence, DeMaio’s partner of being a crook and organizing the destruction of Balboa Park.

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So it’s not like it’s too much work.

Neither candidate fits an easy stereotype.

Sure, Ellis is the businessman with business solutions. But he sought support from unions and supported both Carl DeMaio and Nathan Fletcher, even after Fletcher ditched the GOP. Lightner, the Democrat, got an F from the big labor organization. She’s supported Republican solutions to the city’s financial crisis.

Ever read the comments in a story about the proposed Rose Canyon Bridge? Sheesh.

It will decide the balance of party power on the City Council.

What else do you need?

SAM HODGSON FOR VOSD

Five Turning Points in the Mayor’s Race

The Vote Lightner’s Top 3 Ellis’ Top 3 North City Priorities Priorities FISCAL STABILITY: Lightner PENSION REFORM: Ellis and describes pension reform Lightner both supported and managed competition the June ballot initiative as the continued solution to to replace pensions with Mar San Diego’sDel financial woes.

401(k)-style plans for most On managed competition, new city employees and Heights Lightner said she wants to pressure the city to approve a figure out how services could five-year pay freeze. be improved through the Ellis argues he would bidding process. Right now, be a better advocate for Carmel the process primarily aims to provide the same levelValley implementing its proposals. He notes that Lightner Torrey of service for a lower cost. didn’t publicly support the initiative until a U-T San Diego reporter asked her to weigh in.

Preserve INFRASTRUCTURE: Lightner said 34 miles of District “Instead of nobody asked me to, they’ll say Ray 1 streets have been repaired and more than 1,200 would you shut up,” Ellis said. If elected, Ellis pledged potholes filled under her watch, but much more needs to refuse a city pension and donate his salary. He’s to be done. She supports the mayor’s plan to continue already made his money building and selling a borrowing money to try to catch up on repairs. marketing and direct mail company.

ENERGIZING RESIDENTS: Lightner recently got her constituents together to identify and fix potholes at Torrey two events. She viewed them as a way to engage the Pines community.

Best Way to Describe Her Pitch

She helped the city’s financial health get better.

She has the experience to make sure it continues to improve and bring back some of the services we’ve lost.

D1 La Jolla

MANAGED COMPETITION: Like the ballot initiative, Ellis argues he would be a better proponent than Lightner.

He says the City Council hasn’t done enough in the past four years to put public services out to bid and find cost savings.

Ellis said he wants to revisit rules that allow city employees to win the bid if they come within 10 percent of a private company. Ellis said the rules favor the city too much and should be evened out.

University RESTORING PUBLIC SERVICES: Ellis said his budget City priorities would be public safety first, infrastructure

second and then neighborhood services like libraries and parks. But he was short on specifics.

“I think I’d have to find more information where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” Ellis said. “I’d have a dialogue with the community.”

Best Way to Describe His Pitch

I’m a successful businessman and an expert on the city’s pension system. I know how to cut costs better than Lightner, and then we’ll talk about which neighborhood services get those savings.

October 2012 VOSD MONTHLY

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The Vote Three Questions to Follow for City Schools

2

Who replaces Shelia Jackson?

1

Challenger Mark Powell gave current school board president John Lee Evans all he could handle in the primary. The district’s a mess. Does Evans pay?

Marne Foster cruised in the primary. But now that the vote goes citywide, how will Bill Powell stack up?

Can city schools pull off a tax increase?

They want to borrow $2.8 billion and pay it off by raising taxes by $60 for every $100,000 worth of property.

If you’re getting deja vu, yes, voters did sign off on a $2.1 billion loan four years ago.

Prop. Z Cheat Sheet ▸ ▸

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IF YOU HAVE a $500,000 home, your bill would increase by $300 a year.

THE MONEY won’t go to new construction, but primarily to a maintenance and repairs backlog.

THE DISTRICT says it will help keep teachers from being laid off. How? Because the district will relieve its daily budget from maintenance and energy costs.

8 VOSD MONTHLY October 2012

What is Proposition Z?

I

F YOU LIVE IN MOST PARTS OF THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO, you’re going to get a question on the November ballot: “Shall San Diego Unified School District issue $2.8 billion in bonds at legal interest rates with independent citizen oversight, annual audits, and no money for administrators’ salaries?”

If this tax is passed, your property tax bill will go up by $60 for every $100,000 worth of property you own. The rate is based on your assessed value. So if you have a $500,000 house, you’ll pay $300 more per year.

So what’s the money going to pay for? And how will it supposedly protect teacher jobs? The district says a big chunk of the money would go to just major repairs and maintenance, some structural fixes and other improvements — not new building projects.

The district is way behind on its maintenance. And starting in a couple of years, the district says it’s going to stop getting money from a state pot If you have a that’s funded repairs for years. $500,000 house, So the district will have to start taking that money out of the day-to-day you’ll pay $300 budget, money that’s normally spent on more per year. teachers and classrooms. The district’s plan is to use the bond money instead.

That’s one of several ways the district says this construction bond will save teacher jobs.

Another way the district says teachers will benefit from bond money?

The district says $200 million will go to recycling water and putting up solar panels, saving money that can then be applied to teachers’ salaries.

And over the last few years, the district bought a laptop for every student. Those laptops are going to start breaking down and needing maintenance. Unless the district can come up with $11 million a year to pay for replacing that technology, it will have to dip into its day-today budget.

But that’s just a small slice of the money. The vast majority will go to minor construction projects at almost all the schools in the district. And most of the effort will be just to repair or maintain already existing buildings.

So voters are being asked to raise property taxes, not to build new things or hire new people. They’re being asked to keep buildings standing and maybe, to keep people from being fired.

$$$

KEEGAN KYLE FOR VOSD

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How does the prez do?

EXPLAINER

The Vote Two Facts to Remember

2 1

Neither mayoral candidate supports public money for a Chargers Stadium.

So if that’s a prerequisite for your mayor, you’re out of luck.

But cheer up: At this point, a proposal might not go before voters for another eight years, so it might not matter.

You can’t write-in a candidate in the general election.

After Donna Frye’s wild 2004 write-in campaign, the city cleared up its murky election law. So what you see is what you get on the ballot.

How Many Registered Voters Cast Ballots?

Percent Turnout NO DATA

< 10

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90 +

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY: JUNE 5, 2012

OCEANSIDE CARLSBAD

ESCONDIDO

ENCINITAS POWAY

LA JOLLA

EL CAJON

POINT LOMA DOWNTOWN

CHULA VISTA

One Cool Graphic

1

ONE THING WILL BE CERTAIN on Election Day: more people will show up to vote than did in June. It fact, few recent elections have had worse turnout than the primary.

About 37 percent of registered voters countywide ended up casting ballots. It’s a stark contrast from the 2008 general election that put Barack Obama in the White House.

Voter turnout was the strongest of any major election in the past three decades. About 84 percent of registered voter cast ballots.

The maps at right illustrate voter turnout by precinct in each of the elections. The areas with highest turnout this year largely centered on neighborhoods with City Council races on the ballot (i.e. La Jolla, Tierrasanta and Rancho Bernardo). It was lowest in southeastern San Diego neighborhoods and the South Bay.

PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL: NOV. 4, 2008

Source: Sandag, San Diego County Registrar of Voters

October 2012 VOSD MONTHLY

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SAM HODGSON FOR VOSD

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10 VOSD MONTHLY October 2012

PERSONAL HISTORY

The Tragic and Fascinating Life of Carl DeMaio He reveals little about himself on the campaign trail.

He’s all business — resolute, rehearsed and relentless.

But his approach also has come at a cost.

BY LIAM DILLON

C

ARL DEMAIO’S FAVORITE COLOR IS BLUE. He usually eats dessert before his dinner. He’s afraid of heights, loves zombie movies and one time, when he was a high school freshman, he caught his tie in a newspaper vending machine. DeMaio freed himself from the machine by surrendering his neckwear. He still remembers how the tie looked hanging from the box when he walked away.

“Like a tongue,” DeMaio says.

You won’t hear DeMaio, a 37-year-old city councilman and mayoral candidate, tell these stories during his ubiquitous local media appearances. When he’s on stage, DeMaio is all about his plans to save city finances. Not personal anecdotes.

For this kind of talk, you have to go to an unusual source.

DeMaio has created a virtual reality version of himself on his campaign website. He appears inside a whole virtual office.

There’s a fireplace, an American flag and a window with a view of the San Diego skyline. Type a question and DeMaio animates.

Like the real DeMaio does on television, his virtual self can talk about his detailed proposals to balance the city budget, repair streets and create jobs. But the real attraction comes when the virtual DeMaio lively regales personal anecdotes.

DeMaio has pre-recorded answers to 40 personal questions, everything from his exercise schedule (“I used to work out a lot more than I am today”) to his television habits (history documentaries). Other candidates relate these humanizing

details freely in conversation. DeMaio leaves it to the robot version of himself.

DeMaio, both real and virtual, will tell you he’s an intensely private person. For someone omnipresent in the public eye, DeMaio has told the public little about how he came to be who he is. That’s by design. Talking about his background makes him uncomfortable. The facts of DeMaio’s life, though, are both tragic and fascinating. He was essentially orphaned as a teenager. He’s a drown-government-in-the-bathtub Republican leading a push against the party’s more moderate side. He’s in a committed relationship with the publisher of a prominent gay newspaper.

His reluctance to reveal his personal side hasn’t affected his remarkable ability to capture voters’ emotional mistrust of City Hall. In less than a decade, DeMaio’s resolute, rehearsed and relentless focus on the city’s financial problems has turned him from an obscure government consultant with no San Diego ties into a leading candidate to run the nation’s eighth-largest city. DeMaio contends voters want to know about his plans to deal with pensions, potholes and prosperity. There’s no room in that list for puppies.

DeMaio has admitted the public would want to know more about his life before they decide if they want him to be mayor. He also has realized that his opponents would redouble their efforts to dig into his background and try to unearth embarrassing details. These thoughts made him so uncomfortable that he hesitated before committing to run October 2012 VOSD MONTHLY

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