Three openly gay city commissioners detailed the various dimensions of the commissions they serve on at The Center’s Community Coalition Breakfast on July 21.

City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez, who serves on San Diego’s Human Relations Commission, overviewed the history of commissions served on by members of the GLBT community under various San Diego mayors since the 1960s.

Murray-Ramirez said when former Mayor Pete Wilson was elected to office in the 1970s, he was resistant to meet with anyone who identified as a member of the GLBT community.

“We tried to meet with him because he had a closeted gay chief of staff, [who] he actually carried with him to the governorship,” he said. “The mayor said he would not meet with homosexuals because he did not feel that homosexuals were his constituency, although his chief of staff was his constituency.”

During Roger Hedgecock’s tenure as mayor, the doors slowly began to open for GLBT people serving on commissions and other committees related to the city, Murray-Ramirez said.

“His first appointment was a lesbian, Susan Jester, who was president of the Log Cabin Republicans,” Murray-Ramirez said. “[Hedgecock] appointed Jester to the mayor’s neighborhood advisory board. This was important because these were appointees from different parts of the city and different neighborhoods.”

Murray-Ramirez said Hedgecock angered many Republicans when he established the first mayor’s AIDS advisory board and appointed Dr. Brad Truax as chair.

Democrat Maureen O’Connor became mayor after Hedgecock and appointed more gays and lesbians, women and people of color to advisory boards than any other mayor, Murray-Ramirez said.

“She established the first gay and lesbian advisory board during her second term,” he said. “We had been lobbying the mayor for a gay and lesbian advisory board because they already had a Latino, Asian and African-American advisory board.”

The Human Relations Commission was first established under O’Connor, with Barbara Crusberg serving as its chair.

Mayor Susan Golding re-established the gay and lesbian advisory board, but she appointed mostly Republicans, Murray-Ramirez said.

“You have to remember in the advisory world you serve at the pleasure of the mayor,” he said.

Murray-Ramirez said although the majority of the GLBT community did not support Mayor Dick Murphy’s election, he appointed more gays and lesbians than any other Republican mayor in San Diego.

“Mayor Murphy surprised all of us by appointing a gay and lesbian advisory board because, you have to remember, his victory, which he barely won over Ron Roberts, was definitely [due to] the support of the religious right and conservatives,” he said.

Murphy also was the first mayor to meet with the gay and lesbian advisory board at every meeting; other mayors weren’t as consistent with their attendance, Murray-Ramirez said.

“It was also unbelievable that a Republican conservative appointed the first transsexual to a commission,” Murray-Ramirez said of City Commissioner Julia Legaspi, who served on the Human Relations commission and the Equal Opportunity Commission under Murphy’s tenure. “At one time there was a transsexual [Legaspi] on two commissions, which is unheard of. [Murphy] was the third mayor in the country to appoint a transsexual.”

Murray-Ramirez said he considers current Mayor Jerry Sanders more of a public servant than a politician.

“Though he has not named a GLBT advisory board, he has appointed more gays to top staff levels than I have ever seen,” he said. “That’s unheard of. The City Hall is painted pink with these appointments.”

Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) chair Jennifer LeSar spoke about her involvement as chair of the nonprofit corporation, which was created by the city of San Diego to staff and implement downtown redevelopment projects and programs.

The president of LeSar Development, she has served on the CCDC board for four years and has extensive experience in finance, planning and development.

LeSar was appointed to the CCDC board twice by Murphy and was then reappointed by Sanders in May. She noted they are both Republican mayors.

The CCDC is responsible for the development of 1,500 acres in the downtown area, including downtown, Little Italy and East Village, LeSar said.

“It’s really the downtown and play area of the county,” she said. “We got the [Petco] ballpark and [are] trying to put up a brand new, state-of-the-art library.”

Congressmember Susan Davis’ district director, Todd Gloria, was appointed to the San Diego Housing Commission in November and recently became chair of The Center’s board.

Gloria said the San Diego Housing Commission was established in 1979 by the City Council as a way to deal with affordable housing issues in San Diego and that it servers 75,000 clients a year.

He said he became passionate about affordable housing when he was involved in military housing projects while working for Davis.

“Because of that work, I really became interested and excited and engaged in affordable housing issues,” he said.