This article was originally published on the Voice of San Diego's website.
Mayor Bob Filner and City Council President Todd Gloria made quite the turnaround in just a week: from dueling Democrats to a united front.
Filner and Gloria were decidedly kinder to each other Monday as the City Council unanimously approved appointments for the San Diego Association of Governments board.
"I want to thank you for the cooperative spirit, which was I think commanded by the council, that we present a unified slate," said Filner, who last week criticized Gloria for side-stepping the process to appoint council members to the county's regional planning agency.
Ahead of last Tuesday's City Council meeting, Filner and Gloria submitted conflicting memos on which council members should serve on some SANDAG committees.
Among those differing selections was the transportation committee seat, a post Filner promised City Heights residents would go to District 9 Councilwoman Marti Emerald. Gloria chose to keep that seat himself.
Gloria said the new mayor had verbally signed off on his recommendations but Filner made it publicly known that wasn't the case.
The drama reached its peak when Filner told the council president he wanted to work out a deal despite an inconvenient fact: Gloria was running the meeting.
Filner's reply? “Give it to someone else to run, or meet another day."
Councilwoman Sherri Lightner led the meeting while the two hashed it out behind closed doors. They decided more discussion was needed.
Nearly a week later, Filner and Gloria submitted a joint memo on the appointments. Filner said they had tried to give each council member what he or she wanted.
Gloria praised the second round of SANDAG talks.
"It was a better process for the full input and the time that was taken to make sure all concerns were heard," he said.
Then the council voted.
And #SANDAGcliff, as one council staffer dubbed it last week, officially ended.
Here's the final list of SANDAG appointments. You can view the full list, including alternates, here:
Board of Directors
• Mayor Bob Filner
• Council President Todd Gloria
Executive Committee
• Filner
Borders Committee
• Councilman David Alvarez
Public Safety Committee
• Councilwoman Marti Emerald
Regional Planning Committee
• Councilwoman Lorie Zapf
Transportation Committee
• Gloria
Energy Working Group
• Councilman Scott Sherman
Lisa Halverstadt is a reporter at Voice of San Diego. Know of something she should check out? You can contact her directly at lisa.halverstadt@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0528.