The special mayoral election between Kevin Faulconer and David Alvarez was set Tuesday for Feb. 11, 2014 by the San Diego City Council in a 9-0 vote in the last Council meeting of the year.
City Clerk Liz Maland was required to read the certified Nov. 19 primary election results to the Council which noted that Faulconer received 101,953 votes, or 42.08 percent, and Alvarez, who received 65,740 votes or 27.13 percent.
Maland said the cost for the run-off election is estimated to be between $4-4.5 million to the City. She said Solana Beach is also having a special election set for Tuesday, Feb. 11, and that the County registrar of voters is hoping this could be combined with San Diego and save some money.
Faulconer is a Republican and 2014 will be his last year in office as councilmember for District 2. Alvarez is a Democrat and was elected to District 8 in 2010.
Council President Todd Gloria, who has been serving as interim mayor since Bob Filner resigned Aug. 20 in a sex harassment scandal, recommended the Feb. 11 date be set.
“It’s been a tough year. Mr. Mayor, you’re doing a fabulous job,” said District 7 Councilmember Scott Sherman in his motion to set the Feb. 11 date. It was seconded by District 9 Councilmember Marti Emerald.
Alvarez is hoping to pick up most of the 58,355 votes that were cast for Nathan Fletcher, who won 24.09 percent, and 10,783 votes cast for Michael Aguirre, who received 4.45 percent of the vote. Both Fletcher and Aguirre are Democrats, although Fletcher was a Republican when he first ran for mayor in 2012.
The vote totals for each candidate were part of Maland’s report to the City Council and it listed the totals for eight other candidates including a write-in hopeful who got five votes.
Dec. 9, Gloria was re-elected to the position of Council president for 2014 by the City Council in a 9-0 vote. There was no other candidate, but Gloria continues as interim mayor because he was re-elected as Council president.
Gloria was praised by every single councilmember in that vote. Gloria has joked that he is doing three jobs for the price of one. He continues to represent District 3, as well as Council president and interim mayor.
“You’ve done just a tremendous job,” said District 5 Councilmember Mark Kersey. “You are such a hard worker.”
“You’re the best man for the job,” said Alvarez.
Sherman told Gloria he “brought dignity back to the (mayor’s) office after everything we had to endure.”
Ironically, the vote to re-appoint Gloria as Council president took place several hours after Filner, 71, was sentenced to house arrest for 90 days under terms of three years probation. Filner will have to wear a GPS monitoring device.
Filner pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of a woman and two counts of misdemeanor battery with two other women. He was fined $1,464 by San Diego Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert Trentacosta and barred from holding office for three years.
Filner was ordered to pay $1,127 in probation costs, and he has forfeited his mayoral pension from the time period of March 6 to Aug. 30. Filner will be able to seek medical, dental or therapy appointments and can attend religious services.
