There is still work to be done before San Diego can bury its self-earned moniker as Enron-by-the-Sea. But there is reason for optimism that out of the financial black hole will emerge a new reputation as a model of responsible reform.
The Union-Tribune’s front-page report Tuesday that rival political leaders at City Hall had rescued their up-and-down negotiations and agreed to unite behind a single ballot initiative asking voters to approve sweeping pension system changes was good news on two fronts.
First and foremost, if the initiative is approved and its projected numbers prove true, it will be very good news for San Diego taxpayers. Combined with other financial reforms already enacted or under way, the package would end the city’s chronic budget deficits and put City Hall on sound financial footing for the first time in nearly a decade.
Second, the agreement between camps led by Mayor Jerry Sanders and Councilman Kevin Faulconer on one side and Councilman Carl DeMaio on the other to compromise, drop their dueling initiatives and join forces showed that political figures long at odds with each other can indeed come together for the common good, even if it took intermediaries – the San Diego County Taxpayers Association and the business-oriented Lincoln Club – to help get it done. That bodes well for future governance at City Hall.
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