Time for City Council to Move On : Redistricting fight has left little time to devote to crucial issues facing San Diego

So the 1990 city of San Diego reapportionment is just about complete--and not a moment too soon for everyone but the politically motivated actors in this B-movie drama.

At the risk of repetition, it’s clear that the major losers over the past few weeks have been the people of San Diego.

This is no way to run a city. Perhaps this mess can be attributed to the painful fight for political control engendered by district elections.

But, while the old and new guards were ripping into each other, this city’s business all but ground to a halt.

Does anyone remember that in little more than a month San Diego residents will vote on a growth-control measure placed on the ballot by the building industry? Does the council have the energy to mount a campaign against the builders, who undoubtedly are busy working for the measure’s passage?

As for the redistricting itself, it is intriguing to wonder what council staffers might have said about Brown Act violations and subversions of the federal court consent decree had they been deposed as scheduled.

The possibility of learning still exists, because U.S. District Judge John S. Rhoades may consider questions about whether the map was devised legally.

Will that spectacle be as embarrassing to the council majority bloc--council members Filner, Abbe Wolfsheimer, John Hartley, Wes Pratt and Linda Bernhardt--as their opponents clearly hoped?

We do know this: Rather than play this out in court, Filner and his allies agreed to an 8th District that is 53.8% Latino. That is 1.6% more than the Redistricting Advisory Board map figure that started this imbroglio.

But the council majority has preserved most of the political advantage that was the other major component of this battle.

Bernhardt may have bought herself a recall election. But. if she survives, her apparent goal--shedding Scripps Ranch and its political problems--will be achieved. That’s too bad. Councilman Bruce Henderson appears more vulnerable. Filner has regained part of downtown.

We can’t help wondering whether this whole situation could have been avoided by a concerted campaign to win voter approval of a council expansion in June.

That ballot measure, which would have expanded the council to 10 members, might have given Latinos and Filner the secure seats on the council that they both so desperately want. Instead, the fractious council ignored the measure and voters defeated it.

But let’s move on. Besides the growth issue, the council faces a costly decision on whether to continue developing a secondary sewage treatment system. The chance of achieving a binational airport may be lost if action isn’t taken in the next few months.

We hope that Rhoades puts this matter behind the city and that the council members, who are heading into the 1991 campaign season, do so too.

San Diego’s political saga is in dire need of a new script.