SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Roberts for City Council District 2

The issue of leadership is never as clear-cut as those hoping to unseat incumbents portray it. Some on-the-job training is needed.

Even the most stringent term limitations generally reflect this by allowing legislators to serve two terms. So, the decision on whether to re-elect a one-term incumbent can be a particularly difficult one.

In the Sept. 17 San Diego City Council primary election, all four incumbents are first-termers. The challengers’ experience varies widely, but none has held elective office. Over the next 10 days, The Times will make recommendations in each race.

In District 2, which covers coastal areas from Pacific Beach to Point Loma, downtown and the Nestor area of South Bay, Councilman Ron Roberts faces Ocean Beach activist Rich Grosch and magician Loch David Crane, a less-than-serious candidate.

We recommend a vote for Roberts.

Roberts offers a more citywide perspective than most members of the council. That’s appropriate because, particularly since redistricting, District 2 includes major citywide concerns: downtown, beaches, the airport. A citywide view also suits Roberts’ apparent ambitions. He is widely expected to run for mayor next year.

Roberts deserves considerable credit for keeping attention focused on the need for a new regional airport. Whether or not his “TwinPorts” idea for a border airport shared with Tijuana ever happens, at least it’s a viable option with an active patron. That’s more leadership than the other potential sites have.

Grosch offers little more than wishful thinking on this issue of major economic importance to the city and the region. He does, however, seem to have a good grasp of Roberts’ principal shortcoming: backing off on important issues. As examples, Grosch points to growth management, the closure of Lindbergh Field and the promise to increase the police force to two officers per 1,000 population. Roberts also vacillated on banning alcohol at the beach.

How much of that is a wanna-be mayor swimming with the political tide and how much is the proper give-and-take of compromise is unclear.

Grosch’s scope and experience are more limited. He is a former City Council aide and chairs the Ocean Beach Planning Board. He has ideas for increasing the number of police officers, and his advocacy of Sierra Club and Prevent Los Angelization Now! ideas put him in the environmentalists’ camp.

But is this the time for a “pothole type of guy,” as Grosch describes himself? Our judgment is that the district and the city need Roberts’ broader perspective.