Biography of Council President Pro Tem Jim Madaffer

San Diego City Council President Pro Tem Jim Madaffer represents the diverse and thriving District 7 including the communities of Allied Gardens, Chollas Creek, Colina Del Sol, Del Cerro, El Cerrito Heights, Fox Canyon, Grantville, Islenair, Murphy Canyon Heights, Redwood Village, Rolando, San Carlos, SDSU College Area, Tierrasanta and portions of Oak Park and City Heights. District 7 also includes Lake Murray, Mission Trails Regional Park, and Miramar MCAS.

Council President Pro Tem Madaffer is a native San Diegan. He was inspired by his parent’s sense of volunteerism - which became his personal philosophy of giving back to the community and that influenced his civic involvement and decision to run for office. His focus is on representing the will of the people, improving our quality of life, being fiscally responsible and protecting taxpayers' interests.

The residents of District 7 elected him to office twice: on December 7, 2000 and again on March 2, 2004. On September 7, 2007 he became President of the Sacramento-based League of California Cities. He is known for his passion to improve our quality of life and for being a hard-working elected official who has brought about positive change for District 7, the City of San Diego, the region and the state. Working in partnership with community leaders, the business arena, the school district, non-profit organizations and other entities, he has achieved most of the goals established for District 7. A few of these accomplishments are listed below:

• To enhance public safety, he guided the creation of the City’s popular Neighborhood eWatch Web site and the City’s Megan’s Law Web site, the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), and the City’s highly successful lifesaving automated external defibrillator (AED) program.
• As Chair of the City Council’s Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee, he oversaw the plan to acquire four new police helicopters, new police cars and motorcycles, and received Council approval for his plan to acquire 50 new fire trucks over seven years.
• He built new branch libraries, a new fire station, and the Mission Trails Regional Park Equestrian Staging Area; he added acreage to expand Mission Trails Regional Park and has implemented numerous other initiatives to improve our quality of life in San Diego.
• He developed five new tot lot playground areas and six joint-use sports fields at neighborhood schools, built two comfort stations, and installed numerous community entrance signs throughout his district.
• He co-sponsored the Citywide park and beach smoking ban and guided the City’s landmark illegal racing spectator ordinance to protect the public.
• He headed the effort to protect children from sexual predators by pushing through a new law setting a 300 foot limit around schools, parks, libraries and other places that children frequent.
• He funded increased enforcement of neighborhood code compliance, installed numerous traffic safety improvements, and worked to reduce speeding on our neighborhood streets.
• He installed many miles of beautiful landscaped medians while improving traffic safety and hosted numerous tree plantings and community cleanup days.
• He created two new redevelopment areas in District 7 to improve neighborhood quality of life for his constituents and to help stimulate economic growth and prosperity for business and property owners in the district.

Council President Pro Tem Madaffer is known as the “transportation guy” in guiding the region’s efforts to build better freeways and roads as well as to improve traffic conditions. He is techno-savvy and personally involved in public safety issues. He completed Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, designed for the senior officials in federal, state, and local government responsible for preparedness, response or recovery from terrorist events and natural disasters. He is currently developing a Web-based emergency notification system that will help citizens throughout the San Diego region.

He kept his promise to improve neighborhoods throughout the district, and he stands up for his constituents. His priority is to provide excellent constituent services such as removing overhead utility lines; filling potholes; trash pickup; installing new medians; and traffic improvements including new intersections, synchronized traffic lights, lane improvements, and stop signs. He created the popular yellow signs for the “Slow Down” traffic safety campaign.

He has leadership roles on a state, regional and local level. Council President Pro Tem Madaffer chairs the San Diego City Council’s Rules, Open Government and Intergovernmental Relations Committee as well as the Mission Trails Regional Park Task Force and he is Vice Chair of the new Ad Hoc Committee on Fire Prevention and Recovery.

He is a member of the Council’s Land Use & Housing Committee and the Budget and Finance Committee. During his nearly eight years on the City Council, he has chaired three other City Council committees: Land Use & Housing Committee, the Natural Resources and Culture Committee and the Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee.

On a regional level, Council President Pro Tem Madaffer serves as a City of San Diego representative to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Board of Directors. He is Chair of the SANDAG Transportation Committee and serves as Alternate to the SANDAG Executive Committee.

On a state level he is President of the League of California Cities and is the first San Diego City Councilmember to serve in this capacity. He has served on the League’s Board of Directors since 2001 representing the City of San Diego to this statewide organization and previously served as Second Vice President and First Vice President.

He attended Grossmont College and San Diego State University. Prior to being elected, he served as Chief of Staff to retired 7th District Councilmember Judy McCarty from 1993 to when he took office as Councilmember in December 2000; prior to that, he volunteered on numerous organizations including the Tierrasanta Community Council from 1985 to 1992. He chaired the Tierrasanta Community Council from 1987 to 1992. In the past, he has owned several businesses in the direct marketing, telecommunications, and computer industries. He and his wife Sally Ortega Madaffer are lifelong residents of San Diego and have twin sons Christopher and Kyle.