Race for San Diego's next city attorney: Heather Ferbert vs. Brian Maienschein

With the election just weeks away, NBC 7 is previewing the candidates running for San Diego's city attorney. It’s the only race that does not have an incumbent running as current City Attorney Mara Elliott terms out.

San Diego’s city attorney plays a key role in advising the mayor and council on land-use decisions, lawsuits and the legality of proposed policies. The job also includes overseeing misdemeanor prosecutions.

Two Democrats, Heather Ferbert — the current chief deputy in the city attorney’s office — and California State Assembly member Brian Maienschein, are running against each other. They have openly debated each other’s qualifications for the job and whether public confrontation is part of the role.

Ferbert has been in her role for the past four years but with the city attorney’s office for a decade. She represents and legally advises elected officials and nearly every city department. Her department handles hotel leases, consumer protections, civil litigation, police use of force cases and more.

For those reasons, Ferbert argues she is the best candidate for the job.

“Do you want somebody who does the job every single day, or do you want somebody who has been a career politician?” asked Ferbert.

Ferbert is referring to her opponent, Maienschein, who is terming out as a California State Assembly member for San Diego, District 76. He was a member of city council for eight years prior to that.

Ferbert says he hasn’t practiced law in decades. Maienschein, however, disputes that.

“I have practiced the law. I teach the law. I’m a professor at USD School of Law, and then, of course, I have written the law," Maienschein said. "I have served on the judiciary committee, so the most complicated legal issues in the state of California have come across my committee.”

Maienschein points to Ferbert’s narrow experience in municipal law, having not held public office or ever run for elections. He also highlighted the controversial failed 101 Ash Street deal that haunts the current city administration and will cost the taxpayers for decades.

The high-rise building, meant to house city employees, is vacant after construction inadvertently disturbed asbestos in the building. The city is now tied up in lawsuits over what officials knew about the state of the building and when they knew it.

“My opponent is at the heart of it every day. She’s down there working on these horrendous land deals. Those need to stop, but they need somebody from the outside who can do that,” Maienschein said.

But Ferbert says Maienschein is anything but an outsider. After all, he is endorsed by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and most of the city council, hinting to chummy relationships with the current administration. Ferbert is endorsed by Elliott, the Deputy City Attorneys Association and San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention, to name a few.

“It’s lawyer and client. It’s not best friends, and the city attorney should not be a rubber stamp,” Ferbert said.

That dynamic is evident in her superior Elliott’s well-documented public spats with city council members during meetings.

“If we had it my opponent’s way, he would have everything done behind closed doors, even though he claims to be a proponent of transparency,” Ferbert said.

But Maienschein emphasizes the city’s many failed lawsuits over public record requests.

“Where members of the public or the media have requested documents from the city and they have hidden them,” Maienschein said.

In the end, the only thing the two agree on is maintaining the city attorney position as a single job — not split into two different roles as previously proposed.

Ferbert tells NBC 7 in response to her opponent, the city has policies and processes in place to provide public documents when requested. And that, if they are asked, the city attorney will assist with those. She also told NBC 7 and has been vocal about her belief in a more efficient way to handle public records requests by consolidating the process under one department.

In regard to the 101 Ash Street Project, Ferbert told NBC 7 she never worked on it and that the statement from her opponent is a lie.