Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s legacy

Let’s talk about the “L” word: legacy. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer deserves praise for advancing the city’s climate action plan and forging ahead on a reliable recycled water program to protect against drought. Faulconer also stabilized city government after former Mayor Bob Filner’s sexual harassment scandal.

He is a mayor like Jerry Sanders: jovial, moderate, backed by business interests and liked by labor because he hasn’t caused them much consternation. Now he faces his biggest test.

Since replacing Filner, Faulconer has done what many hoped: found money for street repair and infrastructure fixes, restored hours at city facilities, avoided labor strife and pursued big goals, such as building a Chargers stadium, reducing homelessness and trying to lure a soccer team and expand the convention center in a special election.

Yet the Chargers are a memory, homelessness is worse than ever and his plan for a November 2017 special election blew up Monday night after eight of nine City Council members redirected $5 million that could have paid for the election.

Eight of nine!

Propelled by labor leaders who opposed the special election, four Democrats said before Monday’s meeting that they would vote against paying for it.

That meant the special election needed support from Faulconer’s four fellow Republicans and Democratic Council President Myrtle Cole, who was elevated to her post with full GOP support. But Faulconer not only couldn’t enlist Cole’s help, he couldn’t even get allies Chris Cate, Mark Kersey or Lorie Zapf to stand up with him, if only symbolically.

Only Scott Sherman backed the mayor. And Sherman was so frustrated that he joked at one point he might resign to force the special election he and Faulconer want.

Tensions at the meeting were so high it was only after he made the quip that people realized he wasn’t serious. An aide had to say so.

So now what? The mayor will veto the council’s budget and restore his special election money, and he’s confident the four Republicans will block an override.

But council Democrats, who all oppose a special election, seem likely on June 12 to sideline the convention center expansion — and on June 19 to sideline the SoccerCity project — until 2018.

Then San Diegans will be in the strange position of having a mayor some want to run for governor and others see as a lame-duck with three and a half years still left in his second term.

Meanwhile, homelessness will continue to explode in a city one columnist just labeled “America’s Calcutta,” the Qualcomm proposal may languish as Major League Soccer contemplates expansion options elsewhere and the chance could grow that Comic-Con and its economic engine will quit San Diego as the Chargers did.

With the City Council hearing set for this coming Monday about the convention center expansion plan and another planned for the following Monday on SoccerCity, a special election is still possible. But the mayor will have to use all of his political clout.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board wishes him luck on Monday specifically because a special election for a convention center expansion is crucial.

The city could spend $5 million to get an estimated $10 million a year for homeless funding and $10 million a year for street repair a year earlier than if the election were in November 2018.

A special election could also save on rising construction costs. Faulconer told an editorial writer a delay means a loss of momentum and “an incredibly big setback for the city.”

He called this “a seminal moment” for San Diego and urged Democrats and Republicans to come together to raise hotel room taxes, San Diego’s fastest-growing pot of money, for a city in need.

It’s simple, really. Council members should consider the expansion project on its merits, separately from the Qualcomm Stadium site proposal. Then discuss SoccerCity a week later the same way. One project at a time. One vote at a time. Politics is a slog, and the mayor has his work cut out for him.

He didn’t want to discuss his legacy in an interview. “Write about my legacy four years from now,” he said. “Write about what’s the right thing for the city now.” It’s time for San Diegans to discuss both.