Jerry Sanders’ Checkered Legacy Stands as a Warning to Mayor Gloria

Former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced earlier in the month that he would be retiring at the end of the year as the head of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and, as he has been lauded, "capping a career of public service of more than 50 years." It's true that Jerry Sanders has had quite a career -- most of it, yes, in the public arena that began in 1973 when he joined the San Diego Police Department. Twenty years later he became Chief. He retired as Chief in 1999 and then headed the United Way of San Diego and then the local Red Cross in 2003. Sanders first ran for elected office in 2005 for San Diego Mayor -- and won. He had two terms as Mayor and then went on to lead the Chamber where he's been for the last 12 years. The Chamber is and always has been quite a partisan (Republican) establishment network of powerful business and corporate interests -- and Jerry became its face for over a decade -- but it's difficult to call that "public service." But still .... So, with his retirement from public service, Jerry has built quite a legacy. Yet, from a progressive point of view, that legacy is a checkered one -- and now stands as a warning to our current mayor, Todd Gloria. This appraisal will not follow the lavish praise Jerry Sanders has achieved from most media and press since his announcement -- you may have guessed that by now. But no, Sanders does have a checkered history with San Diego -- and two events -- stand out to cloud the shiny armor of a retiring public knight.