LAI May Meeting and Luncheon

Tuesday, May 8, 2018
 

Speaker: Roger Showley
Introduction by Mayor Kevin Faulconer





TOPIC: 'Roger Unleashed'

 

Roger Showley retired from The San Diego Union-Tribune in March after 44 years  (53 if you count work during and after high school and college). For most of his career he wrote about growth and development in San Diego County and covered most of the region's the major projects, public and private, and the controversies that accompanied all of them.  He graduated from Point Loma High School in 1966 and UC San Diego in 1970, where he majored in history, and got jobs in politics and newspapers before returning to San Diego in 1974. Besides his newspaper work, he wrote three books on local history and appeared from time to time on KPBS news shows. Carol and Roger live in Scripps Ranch. In retirement, Roger is joining various volunteer groups but also plans to freelance for the UT from time to time. Several book projects are in the works.

Kevin L. Faulconer became the 36th mayor of San Diego on March 3, 2014, on a campaign message of bringing San Diego together and restoring integrity to City Hall. Shortly after taking office, Mayor Faulconer began implementing his vision for “One San Diego,” a unified city with an inclusive city government that creates opportunities for San Diegans and delivers results for every neighborhood. In his first two budgets, Faulconer has focused on repairing neighborhoods and bringing more equality to community services. Faulconer has directed 50 percent of all new major revenue toward neighborhood improvements and doubled the miles of roads repaired annually to meet his goal of fixing 1,000 miles of streets over five years. He also increased the hours at libraries and recreation centers to their highest level in a decade and created an afterschool program for students in areas working to improve student achievement. He funded a new firefighter “Fast Response Squad” program and increased ambulance service, both of which have significantly improved emergency response times. Faulconer has also made significant changes to make City government more inclusive, efficient and effective. He appointed Shelley Zimmerman as the first female police chief in San Diego history. Working with labor unions, he created an incentive program called San Diego Works that rewards employees for money-saving ideas that have generated $1.3 million in average annual budgetary savings so far. He created an online budget tool that shows San Diegans how their tax dollars are being spent. He also kicked off a major overhaul of the City's website that will make it more user-friendly and seeks to employ local San Diego tech companies to do the work.