Toward the end of the Oct. 14 monthly La Jolla Town Council meeting, community members trickled in one-by-one, filling the La Jolla Recreation Center’s Main Room. More than 60 people showed up for the closing event of the meeting, a debate between City Councilmen Todd Gloria and Carl DeMaio about the controversial Proposition D on the Nov. 2 ballot. The proposition would boost the sales tax in San Diego by one-half cent per dollar for five years once 10 budget reform conditions are met. Besides DeMaio and Gloria, the meeting also included presentations by City Attorney Jan Goldsmith and City Auditor Eduardo Luna. Both stressed their non-partisanship on the issue. It will be Goldsmith’s job to write the ballot measure once the City Council indicates what it should contain, and it will be Luna’s job to decide when the reforms called for in Prop D have been met, giving an “OK” to start the tax, should the proposition be approved by voters. Gloria, a Democrat, advocated for the tax increase and DeMaio, a Republican, stood strong in his opposition to Prop D. While DeMaio drew many rounds of applause from the crowd, support for Gloria’s position was less apparent, suggesting that Prop D may be a tough sell — in La Jolla, at least. Gloria pointed to the $72 million budget deficit he said the city would face if the tax isn’t enacted. He said without Prop D fire stations will have more brownouts, police stations will shrink permanently and road repairs will cease. Ann Kerr Bache, a Town Council board member, expressed concern that the recent cuts to firefighting, libraries and other significant entities are intended to scare people into voting for a tax increase. “You chose those highly-used things because nobody wants to lose firemen,” she said to the councilmen. “You need to address personnel costs.” Gloria stressed that Prop D is a “temporary tax in exchange for permanent reforms,” whereas DeMaio said Prop D is not a solution to San Diego’s financial problems. DeMaio said citizens need to “demand details” of the proposition and “demand guarantees.” “I’m a businessman, and many of you are business people,” said DeMaio. “I’m sure you all read contracts carefully. But when you read this contract, you’ll find that nobody in their right mind would sign it if their money were at stake.”