Despite the little red flags and early warning signs, we’re ready to give our new city attorney and City Council members a fresh start.

Sure, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith spent the better part of his inauguration speech slamming his predecessor, Michael Aguirre, rather than emphasizing his own experience or qualifications.

And sure, reports Wednesday suggest early infighting surfaced over Sherri Lightner’s support of Donna Frye for council president. Though Lightner had the class not to name names, she took a fair share of heat for nominating Frye and not voting with the majority, who elected Ben Hueso to lead the new council. She did, however, mention her support for Frye, not Hueso, drew “veiled threats” regarding her committee appointments.

All this aside, we’re as optimistic as anyone that our new city attorney and new City Council members will serve America’s Finest City well.

As Mayor Jerry Sanders said Monday, each of the new council members and the new city attorney brings a fresh perspective and energy to his or her office. And Sanders is confident – political differences aside – he, in conjunction with the city attorney and the City Council, will be able to accomplish the difficult tasks that lay ahead.

In terms of the council, we’re pleased with the team voters assembled.

Marti Emerald’s days as a no-nonsense journalist will serve us well, and Lightner, new to San Diego City politics, displayed strength Monday when she voted against the majority and supported Frye for council president, despite any “veiled threats” that may have been made.

Todd Gloria’s experience, knowledge and enthusiasm are going to be a tremendous asset to the new council, and we’re proud to have him representing District 3.

Carl DeMaio is … well … an interesting character. The District 5 councilman opted to not make a standard inaugural speech, and instead showed a YouTube video of constituents’ remarks set to Tom Petty and U2 music.

And Tuesday, while the council weighed Hueso and Frye’s qualifications for council president, DeMaio suggested the council members settle it a different way: a coin toss, with the winner assuming duties year one, and the loser assuming duties year two.

His suggestion didn’t pan out; the other council members didn’t buy into DeMaio’s unique approach to problem solving. If nothing else, though, it illustrates DeMaio’s ability to think outside the box.

He’s certainly made a name for himself early on, forming an alliance with Frye to push through council reforms, and, in an effort to lead by example, rejecting perks of his council job. We can certainly respect that.

Despite a downright poor record on issues important to our community (anti-discrimination, same-sex marriage, etc.), we’re prepared to give our new city attorney, Goldsmith, a fair shake, too – and we pray his conservative politics don’t interfere with our progress. Aguirre wasn’t afraid of a fight. He certainly wasn’t afraid of risking his political livelihood to support something he believes in (which, ironically, might have led to his downfall). Similar to the transformation we’ve seen in Mayor Sanders, who, at one time, favored civil unions over same-sex marriage, we hope to see Goldsmith evolve into a true leader – one unafraid of upsetting the status quo by supporting equality and fairness for all. If Goldsmith can become a champion of every person’s constitutional rights, and rebuild a solid working relationship with the mayor and council while upholding the law, he’ll have succeeded. Only time will tell.

Our greatest hope is each of the newly elected officials will keep their campaign promises – to operate in a transparent, vigilant manner; to repair our city’s finances; to fund crumbling infrastructure and public safety; and to return city government to the hands of the voters, not the special interests.

For too long, our city government has operated only in the interest of the establishment; our former City Council was negligent and careless, and allowed our city to nearly bankrupt itself.

When it did, we took each of the responsible parties to task – we didn’t overlook Democrats and target Republicans. In fact, we held Toni Atkins, a councilwoman we held in high esteem, to a high standard of accountability and responsibility, and we were not afraid to ask her the tough questions.

In similar fashion, we won’t hold Goldsmith or DeMaio to a standard to which we don’t hold Gloria, Emerald or Lightner. They have a clean slate, and the opportunity to accomplish great things. In the event they fail to deliver, however, we’ll be watching.