Por JEFF CLEMETSON<\/p>\n
Jim Stieringer has both a long business career spanning several fields of work as well as a long career in public service spanning several areas of community governance. He is hoping that his unique level of experience and expertise will propel voters to elect him to La Mesa City Council in November \u2014 even if it is not a dire hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I weren\u2019t elected, it wouldn\u2019t be the end of the city. It looks like we have some pretty good candidates,\u201d he said. \u201cI just feel that I would add more to the city and bring more to the table than they would. But no matter what happens in this election, I think the city will survive and thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Business, personal background<\/strong><\/p>\n Stieringer was born in San Diego and lived briefly in Pacific Beach and then University Heights before moving to El Cajon where he attended El Cajon Valley Junior High and Grossmont High School. He attended California Western University where he earned a BS in business before joining the Air Force and attending officer training school. Stieringer spent most of his four years in the Air Force constructing test sites for NASA at Cape Canaveral, where he met his wife, an Air Force nurse.<\/p>\n Stieringer started his civilian business career when he moved back to California, working for a plethora of companies including Ford Motors, a small construction company, the San Diego Regional Employment and Training Consortium and Teledyne Ryan Electronics before landing a contracts manager job at Brown & Root, which was later acquired by Halliburton.<\/p>\n When he retired from Halliburton, Stieringer served on the board of directors of the Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD).<\/p>\n \u201cIt was probably the highlight of my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI managed to, after a while, gain enough seniority to affect their decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n One of those decisions he affected was to sue SHARP Healthcare over a bad lease deal it had for Grossmont Hospital. Eventually the courts ruled in favor of the GHD, agreeing that there was a conflict of interest in the $1-a-year lease because the healthcare district had the same attorney as SHARP.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that point we settled with SHARP Healthcare, they paid us $5 million and we allowed the 30-year lease to continue,\u201d he said, and added that GHD used the money to build the Bill Herrick Healthcare Library.<\/p>\n \u201cRealistically \u2014 and I\u2019m patting myself on the back here \u2014 there wouldn\u2019t be a Grossmont Healthcare District if it weren\u2019t for me,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I can make a difference. But you don\u2019t make a difference right away.\u201d<\/p>\n Public service<\/strong><\/p>\n Stieringer retired from the GHD board after 18 years, and set his sights on public service. He was elected as La Mesa City Treasurer and also elected to the Grossmont Union High School District board.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of an eye opener itself,\u201d he said. \u201cI was an incumbent member of that board, registered Republican, I think I had been endorsed by the Republican Party but they decided to run somebody against me. Interestingly, we both lost.\u201d<\/p>\n He ran again in 2020 to regain the seat but lost and admitted it \u201cdid not do very well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve since discovered, there is no such thing as a non-partisan race. For example, in the current race [for City Council] I\u2019m a registered Republican, I donate some sums of money to the Republican Party and I did not get their endorsement,\u201d he said, adding that Carl DeMaio called and \u201cplead\u201d him to drop out of the race. \u201cI declined to do it because I think I have a pretty reasonable chance to win. Consequently, I\u2019m probably the only person in there that hasn\u2019t drank the Kool-Aid of either party.\u201d<\/p>\n Public health<\/strong><\/p>\n One issue Stieringer said he wants to emphasize is public health.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see how any reasonable person could forgo the therapeutic benefit of the COVID vaccine,\u201d he said, adding that he doesn\u2019t like the politicization of public health on both the national and local level.<\/p>\n In his 2020 race for the GUSH board, that politicization of health was front and center in his platform as an opponent to school closures.<\/p>\n \u201cI stand by that statement. I think we would have been better off had the children gone back into school, even though the people who said follow the science \u2014 which is not a bad idea \u2014 all agreed that children didn\u2019t seem especially vulnerable to the illness,\u201d he explained. \u201cProbably, had the schools reopened, we\u2019d be in little a better position today, we might have achieved some herd immunity. Who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n Stieringer said schools closed because teachers did not want to go back to work, either for health concerns or \u201cthey enjoyed staying home and being paid to work on their computer screens.\u201d He said his ultimately position was a moot point because even if he had been reelected, he wouldn\u2019t have had a majority on the board to reopen the schools.<\/p>\n Police<\/strong><\/p>\n Stieringer describes himself as an \u201centhusiastic\u201d supporter of police and fire departments. \u201cI don\u2019t see how anybody could be opposed to them. But I do see some folks who want to defund police departments,\u201d he said. He also doesn\u2019t see any problems with La Mesa Police Department or its response to the May 30, 2020 \u201carson and violence\u201d in the city. \u201cThere\u2019s no way they could have known that was going to happen. Overall, I think they did the best they could.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that he currently does not oppose the Community Police Oversight Board and only \u201ctime will tell\u201d if the board is supportive or antagonistic of police.<\/p>\n Housing<\/strong><\/p>\n Stieringer said La Mesa is under pressure by the state to increase the number of affordable units and that following through with SB 9 would be a \u201cpretty bad error\u201d to tear down single-family homes and replace with fourplexes. He pointed to the history of the Huffman fourplexes that replaced single-family bungalows in University Heights between El Cajon Boulevard and Polk Avenue where there are \u201ctremendous parking problems\u201d now.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually sort of a ghetto, although it\u2019s an expensive ghetto with the price of housing going up. Even those units are selling well,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want the people in the 2080s or whatever to come along in future years and look back and say \u2018Jim Stieringer and city council really screwed up.\u2019 Right now they\u2019re on a path to screwing up.\u201d<\/p>\n An example of screwing up, Stieringer said, is the plan to transform trolley station parking lots into housing because it will create bad housing and also discourage people form using the trolley, which he described as \u201cstill the long-range solution to a lot of transportation problems in San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n Stieringer does support building ADUs in the neighborhoods, as long as they conform to standards.<\/p>\n \u201cI really encourage ADUs but I don\u2019t think exactly what the city has in mind,\u201d he said. \u201cThey should be small \u2026 I think 800 square feet is about right.\u201d<\/p>\n Energy program<\/strong><\/p>\n Another issue Stieringer sees as a wrong path for Las Mesa is the city\u2019s adoption of the San Diego Community Power plan. He said it will only save residents about 1% on their energy bills.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate what they\u2019ve done to the California deserts. I hate the thousands of acres of photovoltaic devices laying on the desert floor. I dislike the windmills. It\u2019s kind of an unusual situation where you have so-called environmentalists ruining the environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Programs to implement<\/strong><\/p>\n If elected, Stieringer said he would like to see La Mesa spend more on capital improvement projects, such as a new library.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that would be a great addition to the city,\u201d he said, adding that another long-awaited wishlist item \u2014 a performing arts center \u2014 could be added to the library project. He also said he would push to create a tree promenade along Allison Avenue.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city is in a pretty good position to do it right now,\u201d he said of the capital investments. \u201cAs I look at their numbers, it wouldn\u2019t be wrong to say the city is awash in money. They\u2019ve got pretty good reserves and also the federal legislation \u2026 will be giving them five or six million dollars this year.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, the city can do this. Now, will it be done? I don\u2019t know,\u201d he added. \u201cA lot depends on the mayor and the other three council members, but I\u2019m all for capital improvement. You do it one time and they last a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n