Third District City Councilmember Toni Akins announced Feb. 16 that she has decided against challenging Ron Roberts for his County Board of Supervisors Fourth District seat.

“After much consideration, I have decided not to run for the Fourth District seat on the County Board of Supervisors,” Atkins said in a statement. “My constituents in San Diego’s Third City Council District elected me to a job I love, and I am not ready to leave it at this critical juncture for the city.”

Although Atkins did not officially announce she would run for the supervisor seat, she filed a form with the county Registrar of Voters in November.

Atkins’ City Council term ends in December 2008. She was first elected to the City Council in 2000 and cannot run for re-election due to term limits.

There are no established term limits for San Diego County supervisors – Supervisor Roberts has held his position for 12 years.

Currently, Roberts’ only official challenger in the Fourth District race is Richard Barrera. James Hart took out nomination paperwork but has not officially announced his candidacy. The deadline to declare candidacy is March 10.

The primary election for the four-year supervisor term will take place in June, and begins next January.

Roberts said Atkins notified him before she made her announcement last week.

“Toni was gracious in calling me before she made this public, and I was very appreciative of that,” Roberts told the Gay & Lesbian Times. “The irony of it is that she and I have always had a really good working relationship. And I’ll be honest, in this business you don’t aim to be running against your friends. I told her that.”

Roberts said that since their districts overlap, there are projects he is working on that he would love to have Atkins directly involved in.

“You’ll be hearing more about those in the future,” Roberts said. “I’m not trying to be a tease here. There are initiatives that are important to me – stuff that affects the gay community.”

An exploratory committee was formed to gauge Atkins’ chances in the Fourth District race. Atkins said a poll devised by an experienced national pollster was conducted among a diverse cross-section of 300-500 likely voters. Three questions were asked in the poll, which tested both her and Roberts’ negatives and positives as elected officials.

Although two of the three questions resulted in numbers in her favor, and she felt it would be a “tough but winnable race,” Atkins said she decided not to run for the seat for two reasons: “The ability to raise a lot of money against an incumbent with a strong fund-raising base in a matter of 90 days … combined with the current issues at the city, where I feel my focus needs to be, made me come down on the side of staying with the city and trying to work on the problems here.”

Originally, Atkins said, she considered running for supervisor because she wanted to work closely on issues related to social service, such as mental health and health care. She also felt changes need to be made at the county level.

“You have a lot more ability to work directly on those issues, because the county covers more of those issues than does the city. We have a narrower scope in which we can work on those issues here at the city,” Atkins said. “… Certainly I do think there needs to be changes at the county. I think they don’t represent as much of the constituency, particularly when you look at the urban [areas] and the city of San Diego.”

Despite her feelings, Atkins said she is committed to addressing the immediate and future challenges facing San Diego as a City Council member.

“My commitment is to the city and my district, as it was the first day I was elected,” Atkins said. “In this time of crisis, I have a duty to the people to help the city work through its financial issues and get back on track. I simply cannot walk away from that obligation.”

Atkins said many capital improvement and infrastructure projects are currently underway or in the planning stages in Council District 3 that need to be completed.

“The financial crisis at the city has put some of the projects in jeopardy, and for the sake of my constituents, I cannot allow them to be delayed or scuttled,” she said. “We’re in the midst of a true renaissance in mid-city, and I’m eager to fulfill my promise to my constituents to make sure this process moves ahead as efficiently and productively as possible.”

As for her plans after her council term ends in December 2008, Atkins did not rule out working in another public service-related position.

“I love public service. I truly do. I am going to look at what opportunities come my way in the next several years,” she said.