Todd Gloria put the needs of the city and its people first

I was disappointed that Interim Mayor Todd Gloria didn’t run to keep the job. I thought he (along with Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins) had the best chance of defeating more conservative candidates to keep working on the progressive promises of former Mayor Filner. As one of his District 3 constituents, I also thought he would do a great job.

After some of the recent mayoral debates, I found myself thankful that Gloria wasn’t on the stage.

That’s not because Gloria isn’t a gifted debater and speaker. As he has shown in debates and various presentations, Gloria can win a room like few other San Diego politicians and he always does his homework.

It’s also not because my opinion of him has decreased. If anything, his actions in the interim role have only made it clear that he would be a decisive and effective mayor.

The problem is that the debates have been a predictable blend of talking points, platitudes and political attacks that largely obscure any morsels of useful information. When Councilmembers Alvarez and Faulconer list the policies they have worked on together, I begin to wonder why they don’t run as a triumvirate with former Assemblymember Fletcher, who touts his ability to work both sides of the aisle. Minutes later, everyone is an untrustworthy flip-flopper on policy or party.

That’s not really the fault of the organizers or the candidates. It’s simply what debates have become: obfuscate when you can, admit the things you can’t escape and get in as much of your stump speech as possible. The last thing any candidate wants to do is make an unnecessary or, God forbid, surprising, decision on a controversial topic.

Which is why I’m glad Gloria isn’t on the stage. Imagine making the tough decisions required to run San Diego, then going to such a forum. Consider the food truck issue, where Interim Mayor Gloria is enforcing the policy that keeps food trucks off private property while clearly being open to changes in the law. It is a fair, if somewhat nuanced, position that probably ends with an official relaxation of the rules.

That’s not what it would look like in a debate, where Gloria would no doubt be accused of both an unnecessary crackdown and caving to the food truck lobby. The political answer would be to avoid the decisions, leaving us in a holding pattern less nauseating but no more effective than the latter days of the Filner administration.

Gloria has said that he didn’t run so that he could fix the mess left over from the Filner administration, while others suggest more political motivation. Even if the latter is in part true, it detracts from neither the importance of his choice, nor the debt that the incoming mayor will owe him for leaving things better then he found them.

History may remember his brief administration with an asterisk or an “interim” tag. We can remember Gloria as the first LGBT mayor of San Diego (or second, if we count Deputy Mayor Atkins), and be proud of him as one who put the needs of the city and its people first. Should he ever run for a full term, he’ll have already met the most important criterion.