San Diego Mayor-elect Jerry Sanders, the city’s former police chief, says that voters “chose to clean house at City Hall” by electing a mayor who vows to slash the bureaucracy and make government more accountable, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sanders vows to solve the city’s financial crisis – including a pension deficit of at least $1.4 billion – without raising taxes. Sanders plans to meet with prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission, “to determine the status of their investigations and the actions needed to expeditiously complete them.” Federal officials are investigating possible financial crimes and political corruption related to the city’s fiscal crisis.
Sanders, 55, defeated City Council member Donna Frye, 53, to fill the vacancy created by former Mayor Dick Murphy’s resignation in July. Sanders criticized Frye for seeking a $1.1 billion tax increase over 10 years to pay for City Hall’s mistakes. Sanders is married to Rana Sampson, a former New York City police officer and Harvard Law School graduate who now is associated with the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, a nationally known criminal justice think-tank and law-enforcement consultation service.
Link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/cities/20051110-9999-1n10mayor.html