Coronado Eagle, Volume 3, Number 8, 19 August 1992 — Coronado Eagle Continuing Election Information ~7 Lois Ewen Looks To Regain Council Spot After Two Year Wait [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Coronado Eagle Continuing Election Information ~7 Lois Ewen Looks To Regain Council Spot After Two Year Wait

by June Muller

Lois Ewen is a fighter. Even though she was defeated in 1990 for re-election to the City Council after nine years of service, she’s back. “I think I can make the tough decisions that have to be made,” she said.

Ms. Ewen, 68, has filed for one of the two council seats up for grabs in the November election. But during her two year hiatus, Ms. Ewen has not been idle. She has been active in the Main Street Ltd. organization and has been a member of the State Oil Spill Prevention and Response Committee. Last year, she was appointed to the Equal Opportunity Advisory Committee for the Port District. “This,” she said, “will involve the awarding of new contracts to major vendors in 1993 with major changes for minorities, the disabled and women.”

But Ms. Ewen is quite serious about the upcoming race. “The major problem is the budget,” she said. “We have a tentative budget adopted. But the real concern is what’s happening at the state level. “It was a similar situation when Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann initiative which lowered property taxes, was passed in 1978.1 was not a part of the council at that time, but the city was cutting personnel, cutting services. But I don’t know how they could chop a half a million, a million or a million and a half. The cuts did not change next year.”

Ms. Ewen believes there should be a flat, across-the-board cut in city expenditures. . “The City Manager (Homer Bludau), and it’s his job, should tell each department that a flat percentage should be taken off the budget,” she said. “He should say, ‘You decide where you can cut without culling services to the public.’ “I don’t believe we should go through the budget, item by item, determining how many newsletters a department subscribes to or how many pencils it buys. We should set a broad policy and abide by that policy. Ms. Ewen said that after the city worked through the “maintenance" period of the Prop. 13 budget, there were gradual increases in city income from property sales and new construction. And, she added, a resulting increase in recreational and library service. But there is another source of revenue.

“I was unaware that the San Diego Unified Port District has not, as it is supposed to do, reimbursed Coronado for police patrol and law enforcement on the Bay, at Tidelands Park, and at, I believe, the Old Ferry Landing,” she said. “Three years ago, the district did." "The district is supposed to pay for those services. We need all the funding we can gel.” Another problem is, of course, traffic. “Traffic will be with us forever,” Ms, Ewen said. “Sixth St has become a thoroughfare. And so have A and C Aves. We have buses and trucks down those streets at all hours. “I’m supportive of the new Traffic Management Association. If we could just reduce commute traffic... Mid we certainly should work with major employers.” Ms. Ewen became interested in government when she was a member of the League of Women Voters. She worked with then Mayor Pete Wilson on the Comprehensive Planning Organization before it became the San Diego Association of Governments (SanDAG). She was appointed to the council in 1981 when Councilman Dick Bottomley resigned. And she has represented Coronado on numerous county and state committees and organizations. Her husband, retired Navy Comdr. Douglas Ewen, an aeronautical engineer, is their neighborhood watch captain and a driver for the Red Cross.

They have two children, Bonnie, a teacher in Imperial Beach, whose husband is Dr. Lowell Billings, a South

Bay School District educator, and Douglas Jr. (Sandy), of Reno, a US Air employee. There are two grandchildren.

Lois Ewen seeks return to City Council. Photo by June Muller