(Mission Times Courier, San Diego, CA) -  When we elected Jerry Sanders as Mayor 28 months ago, he promised to get San Diego back on track, and that's exactly what he's been doing. After four long years of struggling with no credit rating, earlier this month a major Wall Street rating agency upgraded San Diego's financial outlook from negative to positive based on the reforms led by the Mayor.

Sanders for Mayor

Mayor Sanders has also proposed a new pension system that eliminated the "Cadillac pensions" and limits taxpayer liability, and he secured voter approval for a ballot measure that requires a public vote for any future employee benefit increases. The Mayor has streamlined city operations, eliminated over 670 staff positions, and saved San Diego taxpayers over $50 million annually. And more recently, the Mayor announced a plan that allocates over $100 million for long-deferred maintenance and infrastructure projects-an increase of over 4,000 percent.

While Sanders has been Mayor, funding for the San Diego Fire Rescue Department has been increased by 60%, and police officers received a pay raise so that the city can recruit and retain qualified officers.

And perhaps most importantly for individual San Diegans, Jerry Sanders accomplished all this without raising taxes. He has made good progress in getting our city back on track, but completing the job will require continued fiscal discipline.

Conversely, Jerry's opponent in the race for Mayor is former Nevada politician and millionaire Steve Francis who ran for Mayor in 2005 and lost. Francis has spent $5 million or more of his own money to trash Sanders and discredit our City. He has offered little in the way of solutions other than telling people what they want to hear just to get elected. What we don't need are more politicians trying to use the office of the Mayor as merely a stepping stone for higher office rather than offering true solutions for San Diego.

The Mission Times Courier endorses Mayor Jerry Sanders for reelection. He deserves your vote on June 3rd so he can complete the job he started in rebuilding our City.

Scott Peters for City Attorney

Besides Mayor, there is no other race in San Diego that is more important than the race for City Attorney. Without a doubt, the person best qualified to replace incumbent Mike Aguirre is City Council President Scott Peters.

          Scott Peters

Scott will be a City Attorney who will fight for what matters to us. As the first City Council President under our new reform government, Scott Peters helped bring fiscal stability back to San Diego. Now he will keep up the fight for reform by bringing professionalism and integrity to the City Attorney's office.

The current office has been nearly destroyed by mismanagement, politics and personal feuds. As City Attorney, Scott will make sure the office stops fighting petty political battles and starts fighting for the policies that will make a difference in our lives: restoring fiscal discipline, creating high-wage jobs, protecting our neighborhoods and safeguarding our quality of life.

Scott Peters knows a professionally managed office will do a better job safeguarding our families by forcing polluters to clean up our environment and vigorously protecting neighborhoods, seniors, women and all consumers from fraud and abuse.
Scott has 15 years of experience in environmental law and a proven record as a manager - both in major law firms and as a supervising attorney at the Office of the County Counsel, which is a model of efficiency and talent for a public law office.

The Mission Times Courier asks you to join the San Diego Firefighters Association, the League of Conservation Voters, State Senators Christine Kehoe and Dede Alpert, and a growing coalition of teachers, environmentalists, business and community leaders and voters throughout San Diego in support of Scott Peters.