By Christy Scannell

Todd Gloria completed his first year as District 3 City Councilmember earlier this month. In this conclusion of a two-part interview with Christy Scannell, he explains what influences his decisions, how some of his 2009 decisions came about – and if the man voted San Diego’s sexiest politician is taken or available.

Q: Most people probably would be surprised that you have no Mexican heritage.

A: And that’s always been a challenge for me with my last name, living here and looking like this, that people default to Latino. But the reality is my last name is from the Philippines, from the Spanish ruling there for so long – they left lots of things behind including last names, and that’s where mine comes from.

Q: Your heritage reflects the melting pot of City Heights, where you live.

A: It’s a classic San Diego story in the sense that all four of my grandparents came from different parts of the world because of the Navy and the military – so from Juneau, Alaska; Tulsa, Okla.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Manila. My grandfathers were in the service. My paternal grandmother came here because her father was in the service. My maternal grandmother came here to work in the factories. And they just all stayed.

Q: What ethnic mix did you inherit as a result?

A: Basically half Native American (Tlight-Haida, an Alaskan tribe), a quarter Filipino and then a little bit of Dutch and Puerto Rican.

Q: How are you informed by your ethnicity and how does it shape your daily decision-making?

A: I think certainly being part Native American and being very sensitive to issues of sovereignty and things of that nature is probably something that someone else wouldn’t necessarily bring to the table. And a real understanding, because I think unfortunately for Native Americans the understanding of them is fairly superficial and unfortunately cartoonish. The depth of that is far more complex. We had Native American History Month in the City of San Diego in November and so I took that as an opportunity to bring some folks down (to City Hall for recognition). And yeah, sure, some (Native Americans) are gaming but the amount of poverty is pretty overwhelming. My tribe does not game and so that presents some fiscal realities for us that are not common with a lot of San Diegans’ experiences.

Q: Describe the Tlight-Haida tribe.

A: They’re from Juneau. And they’re largely known for totem poles. But our livelihood comes largely from timber and a few other things. They’ve been branching out in recent years. But when people hear (about his tribal ties) some seem to think, “Oh, you’re Native American – you must have a casino or you must be really wealthy or whatever.” That isn’t as complex as what the reality is for the majority of our community. And the same is true for the Filipino side of me. In San Diego there’s been a long-held desire for the API (Asian and Pacific Islander) community to have representation in elected office, particularly on the City Council. And while I’m not full Filipino, there’s been an embracing from the Filipino community, that they see someone with this last name serving in office. What’s been really helpful to me is that the mix of folks has allowed me to have a broader reach and hopefully something more beneficial for the city so that when you’re making those decisions you’re able to bring something to the table.

Q: At 31 you’re the first member of the so-called Generation Y to serve on the City Council (along with Carl DeMaio, 34). How does your age influence your efforts?

A: That does color a lot of what I do in the sense that I have a long-term investment in this city. I do as a native San Diegan and someone who cares, but the decisions that I make, I try and take hopefully a longer view toward them because I’ll definitely be here for 50 years. And actually it’s funny because a lot of what I’ve done particularly with land use – when you look at SANDAG’s 2050 plan, there’s a high likelihood I’ll be here for that. And so I’m going to engage on that perhaps in a way that maybe others might not. When we talk about transit, I’ve been deeply concerned about transit because when you look forward, if we don’t have a robust transit system, the quality of life here is just going to be terrible. So championing that in a way that I think most elected officials would probably only look at more highways, more roads, is, I think, a reflection very much of my age. Also, my concern about affordable housing and first-time home ownership. So many of my friends are leaving San Diego. They don’t see a future for themselves here. They can’t afford it. They don’t like the schools and they want to raise their kids somewhere else. We as a city will not be successful if we have the sort of hourglass population – not economy but population – where you have older folks who have been here for a very long time and bought when it was relatively cheaper and then the service industry who supports them. That does not make for a vibrant city, a world-class city. And so making sure that we’re looking after those young families, new workers, people who really create the vibrancy of our neighborhoods, making sure they have representation at the table. Particularly with regard to city financial decisions. A lot of the mistakes that (previous city administrations) made I thought were based on a very short-sighted view of “we’ll extend pension benefits because those will be paid in the out years.” Well, I’ll be here for the out years and I’m going to make sure that we make better decisions than perhaps we have in the past.

Q: You’re openly gay. How much does your sexuality affect your decisions?

A: Less than I think some people believe. We’ve obviously had a history of electing people from the LGBT community in this council district. But when you’re talking about potholes and stop signs and things of that nature, it doesn’t have an orientation to it. And largely what I find is there’s not a great deal of difference between what straight District 3 residents and LGBT District 3 residents are looking for. This is particularly true as same-sex couples are raising families. That said, it has been an opportunity to talk about issues that are of extreme importance. One of the things I’m most proud of is I serve as the vice chair of the San Diego Workforce Partnership. (San Diego has) high unemployment, unfortunately, across the board, at 10 percent, but within the transgendered community it’s particularly high for perhaps obvious reasons. That community has had a very difficult time accessing workplace readiness programs for cultural competency reasons and other things. I’ve spent the last year working with the workforce partnership. We’ve developed a staffing ability now to work specifically with the transgendered community. We had our first workshop last week and have gotten very positive reviews from the people that attended. As we look at unemployment, perhaps coming from this community gave me a little bit more insight to an area of population that is over-represented in the field of unemployment and we’re doing something about it. So I think on the whole (being gay) doesn’t really matter for my day-to-day job but there may be opportunities that I may be a bit more sensitive or open to – things that we need to talk about.

Q: What’s the easiest thing you’ve accomplished this year?

A: I serve on the transit (MTS) board. They have a financial picture just as bleak as the city’s. Unfortunately, you can only raise fares so much. You can only cut services so much. So they actually proposed eliminating a bus route in City Heights. And I just was incensed about it. I was able to keep it but all it was was me registering, “I don’t think that’s appropriate, you shouldn’t do that,” and they didn’t. I don’t know if that’s the power of a council member or whatnot. (laughs) I think actually what it was is that it is a route that’s valuable. I highlighted it as a something that really isn’t discretionary, to have a shuttle that loops around City Heights. We have some topography in that neighborhood that really requires it. But more importantly, they were suggesting a sort of fallback position to eliminating that night service. Well, I’m sorry, but we do need to provide people an ability to get to and from A and B safely. And having them walk some of these neighborhoods at night really isn’t fair, particularly for seniors or for disabled people. And so registering that concern, they were responsive, they maintained the service, which was terrific. And that didn’t require a huge battle at all to get it done.

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Q: What was your most challenging accomplishment this year?

A: The pergola is an example (the city had planned to spend $550,000 to repair an 85-year-old redwood pergola at Myrtle Way in Balboa Park). I walked door to door in that neighborhood because that seemed odd to me, but if that’s what the neighborhood wanted I’d be a little bit more sensitive to it. But what I found was two things. One is it wasn’t necessarily a high priority for the people that lived immediately adjacent. In fact, some really didn’t want it back. But actually a number of people were willing to fundraise to replace it and not use our limited park improvement funds to do this. Meanwhile, we had the dome at the Museum of Man that is leaking. It’s in a bad state and it needs to be repaired. It’s actually affecting the collection inside the museum because of mold and what’s getting through. So for that limited set of funds, what’s the most important thing? It took a number of weeks or months to get there but we got there. And you look at what’s been done now at the pergola site, which actually is quite lovely. I think it’s in fitting with the high standards that that neighborhood has – certainly an improvement over the chain link that was there. But what we have now is a half-million dollars to contribute to the already $1.8 million that was already set aside for the dome project, which means we have enough money to do the dome. And we’ll be able to say to San Diegans we renewed this important piece of San Diego infrastructure in time for the (2015 Balboa Park) centennial.

Q: The Academy Our Lady of Peace’s (OLP) expansion plan, which was approved by the city Planning Commission but appealed to the City Council, was the first major District 3 issue you faced this year. What did you learn from that experience?

A: That you can never go wrong checking in with the community. Both sides had paid lobbyists and came in to see me multiple times. Both sides had fairly compelling arguments: the need for historic preservation and minding community character and respecting the neighborhood wishes against 21st century education, the importance of educating young women, the success of a small private school and quality education. Both sides had really good opinions. But ultimately what I chose to do is to go door to door, a method I used obviously to success in the campaign. And so in doing that with the OLP issue, what was shocking to me was that I did not find one person who was strongly in support of what the school was trying to do. And one would have thought, particularly with good arguments on both sides, that there may have been more of a split or a divide. But for the folks that live there, the best that you could hope for was people who perhaps were only mildly indifferent to it when most people were very strongly opposed – not because they didn’t see the value of the school, not because they did not want the school to modernize, but because they felt as though there had not been a good relationship there. And so I thought it was in the better interest to preserve the historic resources that were there. But more importantly I think when you make such a radical change to a neighborhood there has to be at least some level of support, in which there was none. And that said to me that the school needed to do better work in connecting with the community. Because after they expand the problem will still be there and the wound will still be there. I’m still convinced something (good) could happen there.

Q: But OLP has filed suit against the city over the council’s decision.

A: I think (the city has) a very, very strong case. There were plenty of findings that were possible to be made to deny the project, which are the ones that we made. (OLP has done) a lot to improve their relationship … (but) they’re not there yet. They need to build some more trust. But more importantly you don’t come to the table with a project that’s complete. Again, door-to-door I didn’t hear anyone that said, “I don’t like the school” (or) “I want the school gone.” Actually, people said the opposite. They were very happy to have the school there. Which is a great basis to start from and it is a far cheaper route and a far quicker route than litigation.

Q: Many people have noticed an increase in prostitution on El Cajon Boulevard. You’ve been active as a resident in deterring prostitution in City Heights. What do you advise concerned citizens to do?

A: They absolutely should call it in (to the police). About half the population sees (prostitution) as this victimless crime and so they don’t think of it as the serious crime that it is. Whatever your feelings about prostitution, the fact is it’s never just prostitution. These women are not out there because they want to be. They’re out there because they have a drug habit, they’re trying to support children, they may be forcibly out there. And so understand that when you’re supporting this you’re actually supporting something that’s far, far worse. Whatever your feelings are about the crime itself, you still need to report it because other stuff will come. And so for the average constituent, absolutely call it in.

Q: How does it help to call the police?

A: I think people might believe that the police won’t take it seriously. Actually, they do. Vice is actively working on the boulevard and other places in District 3. So we need to know where it is. Despite our low staffing at the police department, we continue to do the sweeps. And I think we’ve been able to be effective at sweeping some of this stuff, but at the end of the day, of course, it is the world’s oldest profession and so success is not necessarily to eliminate it, because that may not necessarily be a realistic goal, but being aggressive to make sure that it isn’t growing.

Q: Perhaps the most consistent accusation of you this year has been that you are soft on unions. What do you say to that?

A: I would disagree strongly. You look at my vote earlier this year to impose contracts on two of our labor unions. These are folks that actually endorsed my campaign. Faced with a very significant budget shortfall, I didn’t take any great joy in doing it. But I knew that it was the right thing to do for the city and for our neighborhoods because of the savings that we achieved by imposing those salary reductions and benefits reductions. If those criticisms were true you wouldn’t have seen that vote. As … someone who was endorsed by labor unions, it’s not surprising that people might suggest that but it’s in complete contradiction to some of my voting record.

Q: What do you hope to see for District 3 by the time you leave office?

A: One, I want to really hold the line if not make aggressive reductions to the crime in the neighborhood. Public safety is always going to be the top priority for my office, for me, for District 3. When folks hear the helicopters, I know they don’t like the helicopters, but the fact is that we are aggressively addressing crime in their neighborhood. But for the want of those helicopters you wouldn’t have necessarily the enforcement. You see the vice sweeps and addressing the prostitutes on El Cajon Boulevard. Gang suppression. Curfew sweeps that we’re doing in Mid-City.

Two, the infrastructure stuff. What I hope is that we would not only vastly improve the infrastructure in District 3. I hope this year is really the down payment and at the end of four to eight years that you’d see some pretty transformational stuff. But more importantly, some funding sources that are really dedicated and moving forward. So updating our facility financing plans, so we’re charging real money for developer impacts rather than what I think are really token amounts currently.

Three, from my service on these regional committees like SANDAG and MTS, to really leave a robust transit system. We’re in this reactive situation where the options really are only to raise fares or reduce service. In my view that’s absolute madness and it’s very shortsighted. SANDAG has a 2050 strategy that envisions a lot of density in these older urban neighborhoods and that’s concerning to me because their 2044 funding strategy actually does not make transit a priority. And so we have to either change that in terms of their distribution of the housing or we have to change the way that they’re going to choose to fund transit. You’re going to see me being very aggressive and outspoken about the way we fund transit because if we don’t do this, the quality of life in these neighborhoods and really throughout the city will be less.

Q: How can citizens help you to help them make District 3 a better place?

A: All of it is a bit of a struggle in this budget environment. Nothing is particularly easy. But one of the best things is that Toni Atkins left things teed up well for me. My experience allowed me to pick up the ball where she left it. I think District 3 is more cohesive perhaps than most districts. We have very well organized neighborhoods that are very clear in what their priorities are. So it all works together – even if it’s difficult, we’re still able to deliver, which is an important thing for people to know. Yeah, times are tough for the city, but if you can be clear with me about what you need, whether “not the pergola” or “yes, the bus route” or “get that historic designation” – we can get it done. When people are clear (about their needs), they help me best do my job.

Q: You show up solo at most events yet one media outlet named you San Diego’s sexiest politician. Are you single?

A: (Laughs heartily) Yes. (Added Katie Keach, Gloria’s deputy chief of staff, with a sisterly tone: “And it had better be someone good.”)