Heather Ferbert, a chief deputy city attorney for the city of San Diego, is one of the two Democrats running for the top job in that office.
To help inform voters, the San Diego Union-Tribune asked both candidates a series of the same questions about their priorities, positions and campaigns. Their emailed answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
Why are you running, and what makes you the best candidate?
San Diego deserves a qualified, independent city attorney, not a politician beholden to special interests.
As a chief deputy city attorney, I work with the mayor and council members on some of their highest priorities: homelessness, housing and public safety. I know how to get the job done, and I know that with new, qualified leadership in the City Attorney’s Office, the power of the law will give us the power to make real change.
My entire career has been dedicated to the law and local government, including 10 years as a deputy city attorney. I’m honored to be supported by San Diego’s legal community, from my colleagues in the Deputy City Attorneys Association to the five legal bar associations that have endorsed. I’ve achieved legal victories like restructuring public housing, opening homeless shelters, writing ordinances for short-term rentals and unsafe encampments and winning settlements from fraudulent city contractors.
What are the top 3 legal issues facing the city of San Diego?
1. Keeping San Diego safe: As city attorney, tackle gun violence and expand San Diego’s Family Justice Center for survivors of domestic violence. I’ll also make sure our prosecutors have the necessary tools and resources to effectively handle their caseloads.
2. Addressing our housing and homelessness crisis: We need to protect our existing supply of housing, crack down on illegal conversions and enforce the short-term rental ordinance. We also need to open more shelters and provide more assistance and support for those experiencing homelessness, ensuring that everyone who needs it has a place to go and allowing the city to enforce its laws against unsafe encampments.
3. Rooting out wasteful city spending: The city attorney should rigorously review real estate deals, contracts and memorandums of understanding in which the city is a party to ensure that taxpayers are protected and the city is being efficient with its money.
What are the first 3 things you would do in office if elected or reelected?
As city attorney, I’ll protect children and seniors from domestic abusers, get illegal guns off our streets by strengthening San Diego’s Red Flag Gun Law and root out wasteful city spending by being your taxpayer watchdog.
Just last week, I released my child safety action plan. As the mom of a teenage daughter, I’m committed to ensuring the safety of San Diego’s children both at school and at home. I’ll also strengthen the Consumer Protection Unit, which is vital for protecting workers and our environment from people trying to exploit the city and its residents.
Lastly, I would create a new Housing Protection Unit, which will provide airtight legal advice to the city to stop frivolous lawsuits and project-killing delays. And it will protect our existing housing supply by cracking down on illegal conversions and enforcing the city’s short-term rental law.
How should public safety and civil liberties be balanced when it comes to homelessness enforcement, behavioral health policy and police surveillance? How do you interpret the city’s legal obligations on these issues?
We can and must protect public safety and civil liberties — I reject the false choice between doing one or the other.
Transparency measures are crucial for rebuilding trust between the community and law enforcement, and when it comes to surveillance, we need to make sure street cameras are not being placed solely in low-income, racially diverse neighborhoods.
On homelessness, our San Diego Police Department officers play a vital role in enforcing the law against unsafe encampments, and the implementation of that ordinance should be closely monitored to ensure the city is complying with the law and respecting individuals’ constitutional rights.
You have opposed a proposal to split the job you’re running for, leaving an appointed lawyer to advise the city. Why is that a bad idea, in your view?
The people should have more say in local government, not less. That’s why I authored an op-ed in the Voice of San Diego to make the case for an independent, elected city attorney. I wrote then, “An elected city attorney isn’t afraid to tell city officials that a proposal is unconstitutional or harms residents in unexpected ways. An appointed city attorney, who can be hired and fired at will, would put their job at risk every time they insist the city follow the law.”
How can the city attorney’s office work most effectively relative to the mayor and council? How would you balance independence and trust? Cite examples you would emulate, or avoid, from the past, if relevant.
As the chief deputy city attorney for the Council Relations and Specialized Services Unit, I’m the lawyer that the mayor and council call on every time they have a problem. The City Attorney’s Office should always be willing and able to give the mayor and council high quality legal advice on how to best accomplish their policy goals, but it shouldn’t be a rubber stamp.
The city attorney serves the people, and it’s an important part of our system of checks and balances that the charter intended. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith had to engage in complex legal maneuvering to remove Mayor Bob Filner for sexually harassing dozens of women. That’s why an independent, elected city attorney who will be a watchdog for taxpayers and hold our city officials accountable is so important.
Who do you see the city attorney as representing, and how would you carry out that mandate?
This question gets to the very heart of why it’s so important to have an elected, independent city attorney who serves the city, its citizens and its elected and appointed leaders.
I’m running to uphold the law without regard to power or politics. That’s what the City Attorney’s Office is supposed to be. That’s why San Diego’s legal community is supporting me, from the outgoing city attorney to the Deputy City Attorneys Association to the five legal bar associations that have made an endorsement in this race.
As city attorney, I’ll be the taxpayer watchdog and dedicated public servant that the city attorney is supposed to be, keeping San Diego safe and looking out for the legal interests of the city.
