The day before the Nov. 4 mid-term elections, Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox’s office looks the same as it has for the past eight years.
Binders are stacked on a desk, files are scattered near her computer and she is planted on a chair, focused on a computer screen.
By the looks of it, it’s just another day at the office for Cox, not the office of a mayor who is closing out her final term.
Cox’s final day as mayor is Dec. 10 and she is soaking up every last minute of her administration.
“If you enjoy what you’re doing and making a contribution then (serving) eight-years isn’t nearly enough,” Cox said about her tenure coming to an end.
Cox, a former Chula Vista Elementary School District trustee, said although she is unclear as to what the future holds, serving the Sweetwater Union High School District in any capacity is out of the picture.
“I did not run for the Sweetwater High School board, as many said I would. I am not running for their superintendent, it’s not the way it works,” she said.
“I think what Sweetwater (district) needs is somebody experienced in a high school form of governance.”
Rumors quickly swirled of Cox being the district’s next superintendent when she announced in her final State of the City address that it was time for her to step in and help find solutions to many of the problems that havehampered the largest secondary school district in California.
The former educator and her council members time and again heard community concerns for intervention on the Sweetwater district, a district embattled by corruption, controversy and scandal.
Cox and others refused to intervene because the problems in the district where outside their jurisdiction. But in her final State of the City address the mayor broke her silence and discussed the issues that have tainted the district.
She even held two community meetings discussing an effort to help resolve some of the issues that
“I’ve had it up to here,” she said pointing up to her neck. “It became painfully obvious to me by January that the school district was not going to fix the things that I saw were leading them down a path of fiscal instability,” she said in response to why she finally spoke out.
While there’s little appeal to working at Sweetwater, a return to public service isn’t completely ruled out.
“It is not in my plans at this time to look at running for public office again,” she said.
When Cox was first elected Chula Vista’s 39th mayor she came into City Hall having to do damage control.
“The first four years of my term were among the most difficult that any mayor would endure,” she said.
Her predecessor, Steve Padilla, who lost his bid for City Council this week, took pay advances and used city resources to fund a private bodyguard.
She said Padilla also left the city’s emergency reserves fund at $10 million, which she said was closer to $30 million when he came into the mayor’s office.
In addition to restoring the city’s reputation, Cox said she has many highlights from her eight years in office.
One of them, she said, is building the reserve funds nearly to 13 percent while navigating the county’s second largest city out of an economic recession. She also said the city had increased its bond rating to an AA-minus.
Cox said other than advocating layoffs she also got the city back on financial ground by financing and refunding its bond debt.
The City Council had set a goal of building the reserves to 15 percent and, while Cox didn’t reach that threshold, she is proud of building up the reserves to nearly 13 percent.
She said she has put the city in great financial shape to reach 15 percent reserves with the next mayor and council.
“What I want to leave for the next mayor is progress toward that 15 percent,” she said.
But restoring the reserves and restoring the city’s budget came at a steep price.
“One of the saddest days I’ve had as mayor is presiding over a council meeting where we said we have to eliminate these jobs because you can’t expect people to work for free,” she said. “It was difficult to watch those layoffs.”
As city employees were getting their pink slips in the time of economic downturn, Cox maintained her six-figure salary.
It is estimated that 300 city employees were laid off while others took early retirement incentives.
She said the city is also able to save money by having its employees contribute to their pension fund.
“What’s fortunate about the wisdom of previous councils was they created an understanding of how compensation would work,” she said. “City Council members cannot raise their own salaries. The mayor cannot raise his or her own salary. It’s set as a percentage of superior court judges.”
In her two terms Cox also had to deal with a revolving door of city managers.
“I’ve gone through five city managers in eight years,” she said.
Cox said she doesn’t feel burned by the nationwide search that brought former City Manager David Garcia to Chula Vista.
Garcia was fired for viewing what was called inappropriate images on his computer.
Cox said she finally found the right manager with Jim Sandoval. She said Sandoval possessed the skills she wanted for a city manager. She said Sandoval was a successful planner and had a good sense of finance.
She said she was able to further progress on bayfront development when the power plant was finally demolished.
“Those were the steps needed to be taken for the bayfront to move into its first solid phase of the development,” she said.
Cox also notes how a bus rapid transit system is on its way, which was approved last year and ready for construction.
Cox said what she wishes she could have done better was promote the many businesses in Chula Vista.
Because the city is in litigation with Eyecandy Showgirls, she refused to answer any questions pertaining to the strip club.
Cox said in her time as mayor she learned she couldn’t please everybody.
“You’re not going to satisfy 100 percent of the people 100 percent of the time,” she said. “So you try to do your absolute best for the greatest number of people with the best decisions that you can make.”
