WHITBURN LOOKS TO ELEVATE S.D. CITY COUNCIL
Longtime nonprofit leader says he’ll listen to experts, colleagues, residents
Stephen Whitburn, one of five new members joining the San Diego City Council next week, says he will use his strong track record of collaboration and his broad range of experience to help the city rise to another level.
“I can sit down with anybody in the city and forge a path forward that will help make San Diego the city we know it can be,” said Whitburn, who has led high-profile nonprofits, served on many community panels and worked in journalism.
“We can do a lot more in this city if we listen to each other and work well together,” he said. “We can build more housing while paying workers well and protecting the environment.”
Solving San Diego’s many challenges will be easier, Whitburn said, with the combination of a new council featuring an 8-1 Democratic majority and a new mayor in Todd Gloria, a Democrat replacing Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer.
“There has been an us-versus-them mentality in San Diego, and I
think we are at an historic moment where we can get past that,” Whitburn said. “We have a terrif ic City Council and mayor who are generally aligned on the issues, but who also recognize the importance of working with everyone to build consensus and get things done.”
Whitburn, 56, said his highest priority on the council will be listening — to his colleag ues, to exper ts and to residents.
He said the city faces many daunting challenges, including a budget crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, a large homelessness problem and a lack of affordable housing.
He was easily elected last month to represent District 3, which includes downtown, Hillcrest, North Park, South Park, Mission Hills and many neighboring communities.
Whitburn got more than 63 percent of the vote in a runoff against fellow Democrat Toni Duran, who got just under 37 percent.
He continues a long line of District 3 council members from the city’s gay community, including Christine Kehoe, Toni Atkins, Gloria and Chris Ward, who is giving up the seat after one four-year term to join the state Assembly.
While this will be Whitburn’s first job in politics, he said he’s had an altruistic streak since he was a child listening to his parents comment on the Vietnam War, Watergate and other controversies in the 1970s.
“I learned early on that I was on the side of ending f ighting and ending discrimination and operating with integrity and helping others,” he said.
He also learned early on how to meet people and make friends easily, because his family was almost constantly on the move. He was born in West Germany and then lived in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Texas and New York.
“I saw all kinds of different parts of the country — different cultures,” he said.
After attending the University of Wisconsin and then working nearby in radio news for more than a decade, Whitburn took a trip to San Diego and decided it was time for another move.
“I was just struck by the beauty, the culture and the variety,” he said. “And I’d always wanted to live in a bigger city.”
He quickly landed a radio news gig in San Diego in 2000. He left that job after one year to work for the local chapter of the American Red Cross, which wanted to bolster its San Diego operation after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
After 10 years in that job, he took over San Diego Pride, a prestig ious local nonprofit that puts on the annual Pride festival each July
Whitburn said he had a great run at Pride, but he was replaced in a somewhat controversial move by a new board of directors in 2017.
“I think they wanted to bring in their own person,” he said. “The community really rallied behind me, which meant a lot. It told me that I had done a good job, and it told me that the community had my back.”
Whitburn then took over the local chapter of the American Cancer Society, which he led until early this year
When not focused on work, Whitburn became steadily more active with local community groups and slowly emerged on San Diego’s political scene.
He was a member of the San Diego Democratic Club, which became San Diego Democrats for Equality, and served on the North Park Community Planning Group, a city medical marijuana task force, the board of the American Civil Liberties Union and the county Democratic Par ty’s central committee.
He also twice ran for off ice unsuccessfully, but he was a significant underdog both times. He lost a council race to Gloria in 2008 and a county super visor race against incumbent Ron Roberts in 2010.
“Of course I was disappointed, but I felt very strongly about what I had to offer,” Whitburn said of both races.
When Ward announced he would to leave his council seat after one term, Whitburn said he decided to give politics another shot.
“It was a completely different dynamic being the favorite for the f irst time,” he said.
Whitburn, who lives downtown, has hobbies that include jogging and taking day trips, par ticularly to places like Mount Palomar and the Anza Borrego Desert where he can go off road in his Jeep.
He also likes to read, but doesn’t own a TV.
Whitburn will be sworn in to City Council Dec. 10 along with other new members Joe LaCava, Marni von Wilpert, Raul Campillo and Sean Elo-Rivera.
The annual salary for council members increases next year from $75,000 to $124,000.