Gerald Robert "Jerry" Sanders (born July 14, 1950) is a former

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and law enforcement officer 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 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He served as the 34th

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. ...

and was

Chief of Police Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

. As of December 2012, he is the president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Personal life

Sanders was born 1950 in San Pedro in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. His alma maters are

San Diego Miramar College San Diego Miramar College (Miramar) is a public community college in San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Community College District and the California Community Colleges System. Notable alumni * Brian Awadis (FaZe Rug): YouTube ...

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

, and

National University A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...

. He was also a member of the

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...

fraternity while at San Diego State. Sanders lives in the

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

neighborhood of San Diego with his wife Rana Sampson. He has two daughters, Lisa and Jamie. His brother, Tom Sanders, was an Oscar nominated production designer.

San Diego Police

During his senior year at San Diego State University, Jerry Sanders became a police officer with the

San Diego Police Department The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) is the primary law enforcement agency for the city of San Diego, California. The department was officially established on May 16, 1889. History Prior to the establishment of the San Diego Police Departme ...

. He served in the police department from 1973 until 1999, and served as Chief of Police from 1993 until 1999. As chief of police, Sanders and the department's employees gained national recognition for work with community policing and achieving a 40% decrease in crime, including a 67% drop in murders during his six-year term as chief. Sanders also re-organized the department, making it more responsive to the community, reaching out to neighborhoods, and utilizing more than 1,000 volunteers to address

's public safety needs. Prior to his assignments as division commander, police captain, Sanders, then police lieutenant, was the police academy commander at the San Diego Criminal Justice Training Center - Police Academy at Miramar College. He was commander of the San Diego

SWAT team In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

during the 1984

San Ysidro McDonald's massacre The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was an act of mass murder which occurred at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California, on July 18, 1984. The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, fatally shot 21 peop ...

, and his management of the tragedy, which resulted in twenty-one deaths, earned him criticism from the city's

Mexican-American Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...

community. As a result, the newspaper La Prensa San Diego called Sanders "unfit to be mayor."

Community service

Sanders left the Police Department in 1999 to become president and CEO of the

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016. United Way organizations raise funds ...

of San Diego County. He also served as United Way Community Campaign Chair in 2002. In July 2002, Sanders was appointed to the board of the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter after the previous CEO was fired in the aftermath of controversy concerning a wildfire in Alpine, CA. Sanders helped recruit retired Navy Rear Admiral

Ronne Froman Veronica Froman-Blue, better known by her maiden name Veronica "Ronne" Froman (RADM, USN, Ret.), is an American retired naval officer. She was the first woman to serve as commander of the United States Navy Region Southwest, a position known as t ...

to be CEO, and supported the turnaround of the local chapter, which resulted in support for victims of the Cedar wildfire, praise from former critics for the transparency of fund raising efforts, and a staff re-organization that substantially reduced overhead costs. Mayor Jerry Sanders

Sanders had also been active in the private sector, serving as founding partner and consultant for local high-tech start-ups involved with homeland security and infrastructure assessment. He is currently board chair of the San Diego Police Foundation, established to raise private funds for SDPD equipment and programs. He serves on the board of STAR/PAL, the San Diego Chapter of the

National Multiple Sclerosis Society The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) is a nonprofit organization that was founded in New York City as the Association for Advancement of Research on Multiple Sclerosis on March 11, 1946 by Sylvia Lawry. Ms. Lawry was a lawyer looking fo ...

, San Diego State University's Dean's advisory board, and Coronado First Bank (in organization). Sanders has served on the Wells Fargo Community Bank Board, the Mediation Center's Board, the National Conference for Community and Justice Board, the Vera Institute of Justice's advisory board on Foster Children, and the Children's Initiative. Sanders has been nominated to the National Red Cross Board of Governors.

Mayor

Jerry Sanders was elected mayor in a special run-off election held November 8, 2005, following the resignation of Mayor

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 ...

in the wake of the

San Diego pension scandal The San Diego City Employee's Retirement Pension Fund was the source of a multi-year scandal and has been an ongoing financial concern for the city of San Diego, California. Situation background The San Diego City Employees' Retirement System had ...

. He received 54% of the vote against city council member

Donna Frye Donna Frye (born January 20, 1952) is an American politician from San Diego. She was born in Pennsylvania and is one of three children. Frye was a member of the San Diego City Council, representing District 6 and a two-time candidate for mayor of ...

. Sanders was the first mayor under San Diego's "

strong mayor Strong may refer to: Education * The Strong, an educational institution in Rochester, New York, United States * Strong Hall (Lawrence, Kansas), an administrative hall of the University of Kansas * Strong School, New Haven, Connecticut, United St ...

system" of city government. Sanders is a member of the

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition Everytown for Gun Safety is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was created in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined force ...

, an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...

. Coincidentally, when Bloomberg left the Republican Party in 2007, San Diego became the largest U.S. city with a Republican mayor. On September 19, 2007, Sanders abruptly reversed his public opposition to

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

before signing a City Council resolution aimed at overturning the state's ban on same-sex weddings. He gave a tearful speech in which he explained that he could not tell his daughter Lisa, who is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, that her relationship with a partner is not as important as that of a straight couple and that he had "decided to lead with my heart...to take a stand on behalf of equality and social justice."Tony Perry
S.D. mayor supports suit for gay marriage
''Los Angeles Times'', September 20, 2007. Sanders won reelection over businessman

Steve Francis Steven D'Shawn Francis (born February 21, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player. He was selected with the second overall pick of the 1999 NBA draft and was named co-NBA Rookie of the Year (along with Elton Brand) in his fi ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. He left office on December 3, 2012, due to term limits. The next day he became the president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

In popular culture

*In the 2012 episode "

Butterballs Russian tea cake is a kind of pastry, often eaten around Christmas in the United States. Ingredients Russian tea cakes have a relatively simple recipe, generally consisting entirely of flour, water, butter, and ground nuts, the nut variet ...

" of the sixteenth season of ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

'', Sanders appears in a music video about

masturbating Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combinati ...

(a reference to

Jason Russell Jason Russell (born October 12, 1978) is an American film and theater director, choreographer, and activist who co-founded Invisible Children, Inc. He is the director of ''Kony 2012'', a short documentary film that went viral in the beginning of ...

) where he's promoting the city and suggests people should "try spanking it in one of our charming city streets" and its new motto "cum, take a load off".

References

External links

Video of Mayor's September 19, 2007 Press Conference on Same Sex Marriage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Jerry 1950 births Living people American police chiefs Mayors of San Diego People from San Pedro, Los Angeles California Republicans San Diego State University alumni National University (California) alumni