The San Diego Democratic Club’s mayoral forum, held Thursday, Aug. 26, at the Joyce Beers Community Center in Hillcrest, featured county supervisor and mayoral candidate Ron Roberts. In a question-and-answer session with the club, the forum gave members a chance to ask questions relating to his campaign, his history regarding GLBT issues and his work with the County of San Diego. Incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy, Roberts’ opponent in the race, was also scheduled to appear for the question-and-answer session and to debate Roberts, but dropped out of the forum last week due to a scheduling conflict after having twice confirmed the engagement.

“I’m not surprised that Dick Murphy’s not here tonight,” Roberts said. “I wasn’t surprised when Dick Murphy wasn’t in the Pride parade; I’m not surprised when I don’t see Dick Murphy but very seldom in this community. … I know this community and I’ve been part of it; I’ve represented it on the city council for two terms and now three terms on the board of supervisors. That’s not a reason that Dick Murphy shouldn’t come here; and you know that there’s a more basic reason.”

Murphy has served on the San Diego City Council and has been both a Municipal Court and Superior Court judge. Roberts has also been a city council member and currently serves on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. If reelected in November, Murphy will serve his second and final term as San Diego’s mayor.

As Republicans, both Roberts and Murphy are ineligible to receive the club’s endorsement, but all candidates who fill out the club’s candidate questionnaire can be considered for a rating of “acceptable”. Since Murphy did not attend the forum and did not complete the questionnaire, he was only eligible for a rating of “no position” or “unacceptable”.

Roberts did complete the questionnaire, and received a 73-percent approval rating from the club. “Seventy-three percent; sure, you could do better,” he said. “But at least I will fill out your survey and I will answer your questions and I will represent you and I’ll work with many of you that we’ve been able to accomplish things at both the City of San Diego and the County of San Diego. … Whenever an elected official stands up and tells you what they’re going to do for you, you ought to ask them what they’ve done.”

Roberts declined to address questionnaire topics relating to education and the military, saying he felt they are not the purview of the mayor. He differed from the club on the question of whether underage females should have to obtain parental consent before having an abortion. “I wouldn’t want my daughter to get a tooth filled without me knowing about it,” he said. “It’s an extremely difficult question for me; and I would love to give you the answer that you want to hear, and I can’t.”

The Boy Scouts lease was one of the only GLBT-specific issues club members asked Roberts about during the 25-minute question and answer session.

“My hope is that we can bring this to some successful conclusion,” he said. “The kids that are there, I’m hopeful are not victims of the battle that’s going on; I’m hoping that we can somehow get the Boy Scouts to have a policy more in keeping with what the Girl Scouts do… I would not vote to throw the Scouts out of Balboa Park.”

When asked whether he would cast the same vote if the issue of discrimination was based on race or ethnicity, Roberts said, “You know, I would just tell you that I’d like to work to get the policy that I don’t like resolved, but I would still not like to see them get pushed out – the kids – but I would work to get the policy resolved.”

The majority of questions asked focused on broader community issues, including the ballot initiative for a strong mayoral form of government, contracting out city workers’ jobs, the Mt. Soledad cross controversy, how the finances of the county are doing in comparison to the city’s financial crisis – of which Roberts said the County of San Diego was rated by Governing Magazine the third best-managed county in the nation and number one in California – and the building of a new main library, to which Roberts is opposed until the city’s financial crisis is under control. Roberts supports needle-exchange programs.

The club voted 34-36 against rating candidates in the mayoral race, with some members arguing that the club should let the chips fall where they may – in a race where neither candidate is considered to be ideal – and not cross party lines, and others arguing that the race is important enough to take a stand on. If the club had voted to rate the candidates, those ratings would have been included in the club’s candidate advertising and the SDDC Voter Guide, which will be mailed to 15,000 GLBT-friendly households before the Nov. 2 election. As it stands, the voter guide entry for the mayoral race will read “no position.” The decision required a majority vote.

The club voted 24-28 against making Mike Aguirre’s campaign for city attorney a priority, with Councilmember Michael Zucchet and former Councilmember Valerie Stallings speaking out against the motion, arguing that Aguirre could bring personal vendettas with him into the Office of City Attorney that could affect policy decisions. Councilmember Donna Frye spoke in favor of making Aguirre a priority candidate, citing bad legal decisions made “over and over again” by the current city attorney’s office. That decision required a 60-percent vote.

Along with Aguirre, Councilmembers Frye, Zucchet, Scott Peters and Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins are SDDC members.

For priority candidates, the SDDC typically sponsors or co-sponsors a fundraiser, recruits members to walk precincts and participate in phone banks and mailings for the campaign, and lists the candidate as a “priority” in the voter guide and other communications.

The SDDC has made three campaigns a priority this year: Lori Saldaña for the 76th Assembly District, Patty Davis for the 78th Assembly District and Christine Kehoe for state Senate.

“It was interesting at this meeting… to hear Donna and Michael take opposite positions on making Mike Aguirre… a priority candidate for city attorney,” said SDDC’s president, Stephen Whitburn. “But one of the SDDC’s strengths is that members can take opposing sides in a healthy debate while remaining friends and allies.”

After the votes were taken, Atkins and Frye urged the crowd to reject a strong mayoral form of government, which would effectively take power away from the San Diego City Council and give the mayor control of the city’s budget.

“We don’t agree with the argument that concentrating political power in one elected office and suspending our city charter for a five-year trial run will make our government more accountable or more efficient,” Frye said. “It only makes our government more political.”

Roberts has not taken a public position on the strong mayoral form of government, saying that changes to city government should involve the entire community, not the limited set of business people that created the ballot initiative.

SDDC’s treasurer, Dwayne Crenshaw, formally announced his resignation at the meeting and is contemplating running for Councilmember Charles Lewis’ vacant 4th District seat.

Roberts and Murphy are scheduled to debate at The Center’s candidate forum on Wednesday, Sept. 8.