Three new faces will likely sit behind the San Diego City Council dais in December — and soon after a fourth will join them with Marni Von Wilpert set to trade her District 5 seat for one in Congress.
That is if the vote counts continue on their current trajectory. As of Thursday evening, only 40.1% of votes have been counted ahead of the Dec. 3 deadline to certify the vote.
In San Diego’s District 2, Nicole Crosby, a deputy city attorney, is maintaining a nearly 9-point lead against former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey. Martha Abraham, a NICU nurse whose strong performance in the primaries signaled a serious challenge to Henry Foster III, continues to hold a nearly 7-point lead over the incumbent.
In another Dem on Dem race in District 8, Antonio Martinez sits with a comfortable 14-point lead over Gerardo Ramirez.
The other incumbent in the race, Kent Lee of District 6, is in by far the best position. Lee, with the race all but called, has a nearly 21-point lead.
Crosby, Abraham and Martinez have spent the past several months campaigning in their respective communities on at least somewhat progressive platforms. But that doesn’t mean these new councilmembers will maintain a united front when serious issues from the budget to policing to development come to a vote.
“What values people stand for overall has become less of a question because when partisanship tends to swing one way I think there’s a clarity on that front. I think it’s created a greater sense of question about how we actually deliver results in our communities and how we actually move the city forward,” Lee said on election night.
“I think over the years what we’ve probably all watched is that those lines aren’t clear, and they’ve shifted on a variety of issues in the city.”
One area that will continue to be a dividing line at city hall is housing.
Lee said you can’t entirely predict where councilmembers are leaning on projects until they actually cast that vote. For instance, Lee noted, he had felt he was initially elected with a mandate to support housing projects as that stance was a key piece of his campaign. He’s prefers to stick with this policy direction while still evaluating projects as they come along.
Back in June, Martha Abraham told Times of San Diego that she is not against development and creating more housing, but said it has to be balanced with the needs of a community.
Foster drew opposition from both sides of the argument. Throughout the election cycle, San Diego United Communities, which generally serves as a force to oppose development projects, targeted Foster. But local business interest groups, through the California Apartment Association, also generated a late push against Foster and threw their support behind Abraham.
If Abraham holds her lead and wins the seat, there’s a good chance her voting habits will look quite different from Foster’s on housing. How she votes on proposed projects outside of her district’s boundaries also remains to be seen.
“I tell people we would love development, but we want Civita, we want 3Roots. We don’t want you dumping just a bunch of houses, and that’s it,” she said.
The biggest development decision on the horizon will come out of District 2 – Midway Rising will likely have lasting city-wide implications for years to come. The sitting council is set to vote on the massive housing, retail and entertainment plan on Monday, but decisions surrounding the project and redevelopment of the Midway District will continue to arise.
Crosby said her biggest concern upon joining the council will be to address the transportation piece of this puzzle.
“The priority is going to depend on what position we are in in December with progress and flexibility in the project. It’s going to be to make sure that first, we’re watching it like a hawk and that what is being delivered to San Diegans is appropriate. And if there is flexibility, really making sure that there’s actually an appropriate transit plan, appropriate traffic plan, really looking at the infrastructure plan for it,” Crosby said.
“And even being a little bit more offensive for city residents in terms of what financial benefits we get out of it.”
Martinez is inheriting new development in his district as well with the Southwest Village project in Otay Mesa East. He’s of the belief that there should be more construction, but paired with policy strategies to allow for easier pathways to ownership and ways to repurpose existing spaces.
“I also think that we need to think creatively. There are a lot of commercial neighborhoods that they’re just empty buildings right now, particularly on San Ysidro Boulevard, that could use a touchup, and more importantly, if we can convert them to a mixed-use type of housing-slash-commercial, we can think creatively on that,” he said.
Each of the leading candidates, should they complete their paths to the City Council, hammered home the point that their potential constituents have made it clear they want the basics. That means infrastructure that’s well maintained and smoothly paved roads. But each of them will have to go about addressing those issues as the city continues its struggle to find the money to meet basic budget needs, from funding fire and police services to park and beach upkeep.
There’s one hot-button issue, though, that has inspired candidates and councilmembers alike to draw firm lines – what to do about Flock Safety.
On the current council, opponents of the technology celebrated a new majority with Councilmember Stephen Whitburn’s public willingness to flip on the issue and join their side.
Foster first proposed ending the city’s contract with Flock Safety. Unlike him, Abraham has never said she would vote to end the contract; instead she’s called for an audit of the automated license plate reader program.
In the past, the departing councilmembers, District 2’s Jen Campbell and District 8’s Vivian Moreno, held opposite Flock stances. Campbell voted against ending the ALPR contract, but Moreno wanted to terminate it. But as questions have continued to arise about the use of data generated by the cameras, both have said they would vote to end the pact as it stands now.
Without hesitation Martinez said he would vote to cancel the contract, for fear that data from ALPRs could be “passed on to other entities that could use that to harm people and cause problems.” He added, “the bottom line is the city does not have accountability as to how that data is being used right now.”
Crosby has also said she also would vote to end the Flock contract, but would re-evaluate her vote if changes were made to its terms.
“I mean, we definitely have to see what the contracts always say, but, you know, if things are the same as they are today, then that would be my position to end that contract,” Crosby told Times of San Diego on Thursday.
Von Wilpert, incidentally, has historically voted to keep the Flock Safety contract.
And that brings us to the wild card, not just on Flock, but on development, the budget and the whole range of issues facing the City Council – the person who, eventually, will take on Wilpert’s District 5 seat.
