California: Jerry Sanders

A few members of the San Diego City Council have been ducking questions about whether they or their staff would share in the 6 percent cut in pay and benefits that more than 10,000 city employees are taking.

It looks like they may be able to keep on avoiding that tough decision until June 30, the last day of the fiscal year.

The City Attorney's Office says the council members have until then to make whatever salary changes they see fit for themselves and their staff. Cuts for union employees begin July 1.

Many at City Hall believed the deadline was this coming Tuesday when the council is scheduled to approve the annual salary ordinance.

Two articles that I'm confident drew reasonably little statewide attention caught my interest last week. One has a lesson in how difficult it is for all of us to change habits, especially when it comes to the incomprehensible (to me) desire to have green lawns in areas that are virtually deserts. The second raises real questions about how little oversight there is on the potential impact of proposals surrounding the state budget. Both are superficially about water, but really are about the need for changing how we do things.

Story 1: All Wet

The heated San Diego mayoral primary rumbled to an end today, with voters in the city heading to the polls to choose between incumbent Jerry Sanders and his Republican challenger Steve Francis.

Polls conducted in the days leading up to the primary show Sanders, a former city police chief, in the low 40 percent range, with Francis, a wealthy businessman, receiving in the mid 30 percent range. Either candidate will need to win 50 percent of the votes to avoid a November runoff between the two.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is out with the first television advertisement in his reelection campaign, a hard hitting spot that aims to paint primary opponent and fellow Republican Steve Francis as a disingenuous political figure.