The Coronado Times held a candidate forum last Thursday night, a first for the publication that began as eCoronado.com in 2002.
The reason was simple, publisher Steve Johnson said. “For the last 20 years Coronado has only had two mayors. Mayor Tom Smisek for 12 years and Mayor Casey Tanaka for the last eight. This election is a big deal for Coronado as our community will be selecting a new mayor as well as two new city council members.”
Tanaka, whose term ends in January, opened the event joking that he was going to hold “a going out of business sale.” Not exactly, he is running for a seat on the Southwestern College Board of Trustees. He went on to thank the attendees for “taking the time to be an informed voter and for doing your due diligence.”
Besides the race for mayor, two city council seats need to be filled. For the most part, the five candidates running are not widely known. Community activist Bruce Johnson said this was the first time he had an opportunity to hear from the city council candidates.
All five council candidates, Whitney Benzian, Mike Donovan, Ron Hauser, Marvin Heinze, and Derik Mundt, participated, as did the two mayoral candidates Richard Bailey and Carrie Downey.
Both mayoral candidates serve on the current council and their answers reflected their deep knowledge of local issues. Bailey has been on the council for close to four years and Downey for over ten.
There was little disagreement. All candidates stressed that they want to put residents first, slow traffic, ease congestion, press for greater law enforcement, and spend taxpayer money wisely (Coronado has over $38 million in general revenue funds). The participants were cordial to and supportive of each other. When Downey reported on the meetings about traffic on the Strand, for example, her opponent Bailey thanked her for sharing the information. The 150 people who attended were polite as well, not interrupting with cheers or boos and applauding all the candidates at the end.
For the most part the main thing that distinguished the council candidates was experience with city government. Only Heinze, a retired Navy Captain, has served on a Coronado city board or commission, previously the Street Tree Committee and currently Vice Chair of the Planning Commission.
Benzian has a degree in public policy, was a media and policy adviser to the President of the San Diego City Council and was previously president of the Coronado Historical Association. Donovan, retired Navy Captain and corporate executive, has, for over a year now, attended every city council and commission meeting to learn about Coronado’s issues. Hauser, an attorney, is a veteran of the San Diego County Sheriff Department. Mundt is a local business manager and president of the Lions Club.
