PROP. G: Police Review Measure Wins : Final Count Gives Prop. G 815-Vote Edge

A new civilian board appointed by the city manager to review San Diego police misconduct emerged victorious over a broader opposing measure Thursday after thousands of absentee ballots were included in the final vote count of the two competing proposals.

Officials with the county registrar of voters offices said final ballot totals show that Proposition G surpassed its counterpart, Proposition F, by a mere 815 votes.

Despite a small number of write-in votes and “problem” ballots that still need to be sorted out, Registrar Conny McCormack said there is no way that Proposition G will not now be declared the clear victor.

‘Final Enough to Call It’

“This is going to hold,” she said. “This definitely is final enough to call it.”

Under Proposition G, which was placed on the ballot by Councilman Ed Struiksma and a majority of his City Council colleagues, the civilian review process of the Police Department will stay pretty much the same as it has been the last year.

The one major change, however, is that the new board, expected to be impaneled in January as the “Citizens’ Review Board on Police Practices,” will have members chosen solely by the city manager.

The existing board, created last year in the wake of many allegations of police abuse, has been sharply criticized because then-Police Chief Bill Kolender participated in the selection of the panel’s members. It was also criticized because, since its formation, it has never publicly disagreed with Police Department rulings on citizen complaints about officer misconduct.

Prop. G Got 179,917 Votes

The vote totals released Thursday show that Proposition G received 179,917 affirmative votes, while 160,166 voted against the measure. Proposition F garnered 179,102 favorable votes and 155,341 votes against it.

Although both measures were approved, the city attorney’s office has said that the proposition with the larger number of yes votes would prevail.

The board under Proposition F was budgeted at $988,000 a year, while the Proposition G panel approved by a majority of the voters is expected to cost about $48,000 a year.

“Under the circumstances, we believe the voters became educated to both issues and chose the more realistic and responsible alternative,” said Chris Ashcraft, an attorney for the Police Officers Assn., which worked hard for passage of Proposition G.

“The Police Officers Assn. and the officers we represent are very grateful to the voters for their choice.”

Proposition F, which was formulated in hearings earlier this year by the San Diego Charter Review Commission, would have created a panel appointed by the mayor and City Council. The board also would have had subpoena powers, and the group could have held private hearings to gather testimony and evidence concerning individual citizen complaints of police misconduct.

POA Sought Help

During the Charter Review Commission hearings, the POA strongly urged the commission not to endorse Proposition F. When Proposition F was approved by the Charter Review Commission and placed on the ballot, the POA sought help from Struiksma, a former police officer. Thus was born Proposition G.

John Wertz, a lawyer and member of the Charter Review Commission, said Thursday that he believes the POA played “end-around politics” in getting Struiksma and the City Council to approve Proposition G.

He also criticized the POA for running a negative campaign by unfairly comparing Proposition F to a liberal police review board in Berkeley.

“We on the commission sat down for 10 weeks and studied this issue and without any political pressures came up with our recommendation,” Wertz said. “The City Council did not study this issue as thoroughly. They simply reacted to some political pressure put on them from the POA and came up with Proposition G.”

Denied Allegations

Ashcraft and other POA officials denied those allegations, saying instead that they were simply trying to point out weaknesses in the review board drawn up under Proposition F.

But Ashcraft and Wertz agreed that the fact that both measures passed shows a deep concern among voters that the existing panel is not trusted. They said they hope that the public perception has been improved.

“I expect the new board to operate the same way the current panel operates in that it is going to take a critical look at specific Internal Affairs investigations,” Ashcraft said. “And, by passage of Proposition G, it shows that this is the way the citizens want the review board to operate.”

Reform Need Seen

Wertz agreed that the high number of yes votes for both measures shows that the public saw a need for reform of the police review process.

“It’s very clear that the citizens of San Diego want and need a review of allegations of police misconduct,” he said. “I think the number of votes for both propositions demonstrates that.”

But, he added, “it’s too bad that, if we were going to lose, that we lost by such a narrow margin.”