The Gay & Lesbian Times has received a tremendous amount of praise and criticism of our endorsements in the past. Each election cycle, we endorse candidates who reflect our hope for the city of San Diego; candidates who will build the necessary momentum to solve the city’s problems.

With the city’s credit rating restored and a positive financial outlook declared, the mayor, the San Diego City Council and the city attorney can begin to restore integrity at all levels of city government.

We are looking to three of our endorsed candidates, Mayor Jerry Sanders, City Attorney Michael Aguirre, and District 3 City Council candidate Todd Gloria, to lead the charge in America’s Finest City.

The relationship between Sanders and Aguirre has been tenuous at best and volatile at worst, but we have endorsed both candidates with the hope they will reconcile differences and work toward resolving the city’s challenges. Despite the progress made – in fiscal reform, crime prevention and public safety, and creating proper checks and balances at City Hall – there’s more to be done. Sanders and Aguirre, though an odd couple, in addition to Gloria, a fresh and knowledgeable candidate, are certainly the leaders we need in office to develop a stronger foundation for change.

Sanders is facing re-election against opponent Steve Francis, a wealthy businessman who has outspent the mayor’s campaign by a wide margin.

Gloria, too, has his work cut out for him. He’s among the top three candidates for whom support and key endorsements are split. John Hartley, no stranger to City Council, and Stephen Whitburn, former president of the San Diego Democratic Club, are giving Gloria a run for his money.

It’s certainly, though, the City Attorney’s race that is most interesting to monitor.

Aguirre is facing a field of four candidates vying for his job. Among them: City Council President Scott Peters and City Councilmember Brian Maienschein, whose terms end in November, and who may be better known for their roles in the pension crisis and the city’s fiscal fiasco; Jan Goldsmith, former mayor of Poway and a San Diego Superior Court Judge; and Amy Lepine, a former attorney in the incumbent’s Civil Division branch.

At issue, among the candidates and others running for public office, is the role of the City Attorney.

“When the office of City Attorney was created in 1931 by the voters it was made into an elected position because the voters wanted the City Attorney to fearlessly protect their interests,” Aguirre said during a televised forum on KUSI last night. “Like all political positions, the City Attorney should be a force for good, and should not permit the idea that disobeying the law is an acceptable policy choice. Had I been City Attorney we would not have had the pension crisis. Had I been City Attorney, we would not have had the securities fraud crisis. I would have stepped forward said, ‘No, this is illegal, it can’t be done.’”

“We all want someone who is a watchdog, who is looking out for malfeasance, and doing everything in their power to be sure what’s going on in the city is on the up and up,” Gloria said. “That being said, the primary responsibility of the city attorney is to provide legal advice to the city, its staff and employees, including the council. To the extent that role has been confused a bit in recent years is a problem, and it has come at a great expense to the city.”

Each candidate said, in the event Aguirre is re-elected, they will work to build a relationship with him and his office.

“Should he be re-elected, we’ll have to sit down and figure out how to work together because the city of San Diego and the communities are more important than any other agenda,” Sanders said. “It is something that will have to happen right after the election and we’ll move forward from there … It’s going to be something that’s going to have to be put back together.”

Aguirre, whose opponents have attacked his leadership style and his relationships with the mayor and city council members, said he works well with Councilmembers Donna Frye, Tony Young and Kevin Faulconer, and urged voters to give him the opportunity to work with a new council.

“Give me the opportunity to work with a City Council that is not encumbered with all the problems we have had in the past,” Aguirre said. “I’m asking you not to vote with indifference or with anything other than a firm commitment that together, we can make San Diego the city we all know it can be. What is right with San Diego can solve what is wrong with San Diego.”

Sanders, who is committed to working with Aguirre should the two be re-elected, has a more immediate battle in front of him.

His opponent, Francis, who is spending nearly $5 million on his campaign and has pledged to take a $1 salary in office, has launched an offensive against the incumbent that includes a slew of television ads attacking the mayor’s leadership.

Sanders suffered a blow last week during a televised KUSI debate when his campaign manager attempted to have candidate Eric Bidwell read a prepared statement slamming Francis. Sanders’ campaign manager resigned afterward, saying the mayor had no knowledge of the prepared statement.

“I apologized. I moved forward. We got rid of the campaign manager. We just don’t do that type of thing in our campaign,” Sanders said.

Despite the campaign’s negative turn, Sanders has prevailed in one arena. The city’s credit rating was restored and Standard and Poor’s, one of three major credit rating agencies, noted a “positive” financial outlook for the city. The rating also allows the city to re-enter the bond market.

The restored credit rating will allow Sanders to plug more money into infrastructure, including water and sewer system upgrades.

Sanders is hoping Proposition C will help the city create proper checks and balances to further reform the city’s finances.

“It’s the best practice to make the city auditor truly independent of the council and the mayor’s office,” Sanders said. “The city auditor gets a 10-year term and can’t be fired. He’ll work for a committee of three outside audit professionals and two council members, and that’s really the best way for this to function.”

The Gay & Lesbian Times has recommended a “no” vote on Proposition C.

Among Sanders’ other accomplishments: a lower crime rate, increased pay and protections for public safety officers, and a $102 million investment in improvements and deferred maintenance projects.

The mayor also secured a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and began implementing recommendations in the Kroll report resulting in a completely new set of financial controls. As of January 2008, 76 percent of the Kroll recommendations have been completed.

The mayor also created a schedule for paying off the pension debt, and has limited future pension benefit increases.

The parity among the candidates in the District 3 City Council race has made it particularly difficult for voters to decide which candidate will best represent the district’s neighborhoods at City Hall. In District 3’s aging communities, infrastructure and repair is one of the key issues; increases in reported crimes and public safety are also talking points; and development is a constant source of conflict among residents.

Gloria, Whitburn and Hartley, the leading candidates in the race, all displayed a commitment to funding repairs, increasing patrols in neighborhoods, and all opposed the 301 University Project.

“There are few,” Gloria said of the differences among the candidates. “That’s why you have split decisions – we’re three liberal Democrats running in a District that respects that philosophy. The stated priorities for us are similar. My priorities are public safety and infrastructure and I think if you asked [Hartley and Whitburn], they’d say something similar, so on a policy level, there may not be many. I think the question, particularly in a district with so many needs, is who is going to be most effective? Who’s actually going to move the ball down the field? And I think I’m the candidate who has the ability to do that, more so than my opponents.”

Gloria, who has helped create 2,000 units of affordable housing, helped revise the condo conversion ordinance and served on the audit committee of a $275 million organization, says he’s qualified to lead on day one.

For voters deciphering the differences, there are certainly few – Gloria, unlike Hartley and Whitburn, supported the Kensington Terrace project, and supports Proposition C, the mayor-appointed auditor prop that voters will decide on Tuesday (see sidebar).

Gloria has taken heat for his support of Kensington Terrace, a three-story 56,000 square foot project approved by the Kensington-Talmadge Planning Committee. Some Kensington residents say the project is out of character with the neighborhood.

“The challenge I see is working with the community to update the community plan, because what we discovered through process is that five stories is allowable in Kensington, and even people who support Kensington Terrace agree that five stories is too tall for Kensington,” Gloria said. “I certainly understand the desire to preserve the community’s character.”

Gloria defends his support of Proposition C, which would allow the mayor to appoint the city auditor (pending City Council approval) and allow the mayor to select the majority of members on the audit committee. Councilmember Frye is leading the opposition, saying the mayor-appointed auditor will not lead to more transparent government or fiscal reform. The proposition, however, would create a permanent office of the independent budget analyst, one of the key recommendations of the Kroll investigation.

“I want the auditor focused on fiscal years, not election years,” said Gloria, who fears electing the city auditor would politicize the role. “What we know is the status quo is not acceptable.”