Although electing a new governor will steal much of the attention in the upcoming June 8 primary election, San Diego’s Proposition D will have a profound impact on local government. The ballot measure gives voters the task of choosing between two distinct forms of government. If Proposition D is passed, the strong mayor (mayor-council) form of government that has been in place temporarily since voters approved it in 2006 will become permanent, and a ninth council district will be added within the city. If it does not pass, the city will return to the council-city manager form of government that it ran under from 1931 to 2006 and the number of members on City Council will stay the same. In the strong mayor form of government, the mayor is removed from City Council and runs the daily operations of the city while the council sets the legislative agenda for the city. In the council-manager form, the mayor is a member of City Council and an appointed city manager runs the daily operations of the city. Rather than a City Council vote, the strong mayor government gives the mayor a veto. District 2 City Councilman Kevin Faulconer, a supporter of Proposition D, said the mayoral veto — which the City Council can override with a two-thirds vote — creates a system of checks and balances. “The measure provides for increased authority for the council and the mayor, and it allows for healthy back and forth between the two branches of government,” Faulconer said. If Proposition D is passed, the new ninth council district would be created once the Census redistricting process is completed this summer and the new seat will be filled in the 2012 election. District 5 City Councilman Carl DeMaio, a Proposition D supporter, said the ninth district prevents a tie vote and allows for a clear two-thirds veto override. The new council district would cost nearly $1 million annually for staff salaries and supplies starting in 2012, according to the city attorney’s analysis. Faulconer and DeMaio said they will propose that that figure be taken out of existing council district budgets, but the cost of the effort itself is one reason District 6 Councilwoman Donna Frye is against Proposition D. “It costs too much money at a time when the city cannot afford it,” Frye said. “We’re going to be paying more for a bigger government while we’re not able to fund our police and our fire trucks and our library.” In terms of governance, Faulconer and DeMaio point to accountability as the reason to vote “yes” on Proposition D. They both agree that having an elected official be responsible for running the city is better than an appointed employee. “Back in the city manager era, whenever there was good news, politicians fell all over themselves to try and take credit for it, and whenever there was bad news you couldn’t find the politicians anywhere,” DeMaio said. “It is about establishing clear roles and responsibilities at City Hall so that we can ultimately have accountability.” Frye, who has served on the City Council under both forms, is against the proposition and prefers the council-manager form of government because she believes the former system offers the public greater access to elected officials, specifically the mayor, who would act as part of the council instead of being distanced from it. Frye said the public is better off with a qualified professional — a city manager — running the city’s operations than an elected official. “The mayor is now essentially the city manager. They’re the executive branch and they do what the city manager used to do,” Frye said. “Because of that, you do not have the ability to talk to that elected official, to watch that official vote and make decisions, to look them right in the eye and see them, week in and week out, having to make the tough decisions in public.”