Donna Frye (born January 20, 1952) is an American politician from

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. She was born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and is one of three children. Frye was a member of the

San Diego City Council The San Diego City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of San Diego, California. The city council was first established in San Diego in 1850. The council uses a strong mayor system with a separately elected mayor who acts ...

, representing District 6 and a two-time candidate for

mayor of San Diego The mayor of the City of San Diego is the official head and chief executive officer of the U.S. city of San Diego, California. The mayor has the duty to enforce and execute the laws enacted by the San Diego City Council, the legislative branch. ...

. In July 2013 Frye was among the first to call on then-San Diego Democratic Mayor

Bob Filner Robert Earl "Bob" Filner (born September 4, 1942) is an American former politician who was the 35th mayor of San Diego from December 2012 through August 2013, when he resigned amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment. He later pleaded gui ...

to resign over accusations of sexual harassment and assault.

Early life

Frye was born in 1952 in

, the second of three children. Her family moved to San Diego when her father took a civilian job with the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

. After a failed first marriage in late 1979, Frye had problems with alcohol abuse. That changed within months of meeting her current husband

Skip Frye Skip Frye (born Harry Richard Frye; September 7, 1941 in San Diego, California) is an American surfer, surfboard designer and shaper, and environmental activist. Background Frye attended Mission Bay High School and began his professional surfi ...

at a Mexican restaurant in December 1980, and Frye stopped drinking in early 1981. In 1988, they opened a custom-made

surfboard A surfboard is a narrow plank used in surfing. Surfboards are relatively light, but are strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding an ocean wave. They were invented in ancient Hawaii, where they were known as ''papa he'e ...

shop in Pacific Beach and they married in 1990.

Political career

Frye first became concerned with coastal water pollution problems when her husband repeatedly became sick after surfing. She soon became an environmental and community leader. In 2001 she was elected to the San Diego City Council in a special election. She was later elected to full term on the council in the regular 2002 city council elections. Frye ran for

in the November 2004 run-off election between

Dick Murphy Richard M. Murphy (born December 16, 1942) is a former American politician who served as the 33rd mayor of San Diego, California from 2000 to 2005. Early life Murphy was born 1942 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was captain of the varsity basketbal ...

and Ron Roberts as a write-in candidate, without having run in the primary. A plurality of voters wrote in her name, but a controversy arose when she lost the election because a number of voters did not fill in the bubble next to her written name or misspelled her name (usually spelling her last name "Fry"). If those votes had counted, Frye would have had more votes than either of the moderate Republican candidates officially in the runoff, but still far below a majority vote. Whether Frye would have been allowed to serve as mayor in any case is uncertain, as her write-in candidacy was at odds with the San Diego City Charter.

was re-elected as mayor after a series of legal challenges to the election results, but resigned on July 15, 2005, as the city's fiscal crisis and legal woes with regulatory and law enforcement agencies like the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

and

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

worsened and became a matter of increasing public awareness. Frye ran for mayor in the

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-larges ...

that took place on July 26, 2005, with a platform advocating open and honest government and restoring order to the city's financial situation, points found in nearly all of the candidates' platforms. Frye was endorsed by

Mike Aguirre Jules Michael Aguirre (born 1949), more commonly known as Michael Jules Aguirre, was the City Attorney for the City of San Diego, California, from 2004 to 2008. In 2013, he was a candidate for mayor in a special election following Mayor Bob Filn ...

, the city attorney who has confronted the city council over releasing documents. Frye placed ahead of ten opponents, including former police chief and runner-up Jerry Sanders (27%), by receiving 43% of the vote. However, a

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster2006 city council elections, retiring in 2010 due to term limits.

Post-political career

In December 2012, Frye joined the administration of San Diego Mayor

in a new position he created called Director of Open Government. She resigned in April 2013 to become president of Californians Aware, a nonprofit that advocates for open government statewide. In July 2013 she and two other former supporters of Filner publicly called on Filner to resign as mayor, alleging that he had sexually harassed numerous unnamed women by forcibly kissing them, fondling them and making sexually suggestive remarks. Though refusing at first to step down, Filner eventually resigned in August 2013. In October of that year, he pleaded guilty to state charges of false imprisonment and misdemeanor battery.

Recognition

Frye was nominated and inducted into the San Diego County's Women's Hall of Fame in 2011 for the 'Spirit 2011' title. The Hall of Fame's aim is to "acknowledge and honor women who have significantly contributed to the quality of life and who have made outstanding volunteer contributions in San Diego County." The annual Women's Hall of Fame induction is co-hosted by Women's Museum of California (Located in San Diego), Commission on the Status of Women, UC San Diego Women's Center, and San Diego State Women's Studies.

References

External links

Biographical Sketch in San Diego ''Union-Tribune''
(7/7/2005) {{DEFAULTSORT:Frye, Donna 1952 births Living people San Diego City Council members California Democrats Women city councillors in California 21st-century American women