Two Democrats battling to represent southeastern San Diego neighborhoods on the City Council clashed over surveillance cameras, housing policies, leadership styles and the city’s budget deficit during a Thursday night debate.
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District 4 incumbent Councilmember Henry Foster and challenger Martha Abraham are facing off in what could be an extremely tight Nov. 3 runoff. In the June primary, Foster edged Abraham by just 12 votes: 9,138 to 9,126.
The two agreed on many issues during the debate, including the urgent need for infrastructure upgrades and economic development in District 4 and particularly the neighborhood that hosted the debate, Paradise Hills.
But they also criticized each other frequently and disagreed on many issues, prompting frequent cheers and boos from more than 100 residents who attended the debate at St. Timothy Lutheran Church.
On surveillance cameras the city uses to help fight crime, Foster said they should be eliminated for privacy reasons, while Abraham called such a move premature.
“It’s mass surveillance,” Foster said. “I think we need to take those cameras down immediately.”
Abraham agreed that there are growing concerns about how cameras are used, but she said more analysis is needed to prove they are a bad idea.
“Numbers don’t lie,” she said. “We can present a case that it’s something that might not be needed in our community.”
Abraham criticized Foster, who chairs the council’s budget committee, for allowing millions in climate equity fund money to be taken away from low-income areas like District 4 to plug the overall citywide budget hole.
“Every year for the last three years, under our current leadership, that funding has been stripped away and transferred into the general fund,” she said. “Money is taken away from our communities that’s supposed to upgrade our parks.”
Foster stressed that the climate equity fund was designed to supplement projects that were short of funding, not to fund entire projects.
Foster touted his role as budget committee chair, contending he has worked well with his council colleagues during the last two budget cycles to fight the mayor on key cuts.
“I think I do a fantastic job of collaborating,” he said. “I’ve had to take on the mayor.”
Abraham said the battling among council members and the mayor hasn’t solved the city’s fundamental budget problems, it’s just been an embarrassing show.
“We’ve had the most dysfunctional last two budget cycles that we have ever had,” she said.
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Abraham said Foster’s handling of the budget illustrates a key difference in their leadership styles, contending he makes loud and colorful speeches in the City Council chambers but doesn’t truly accomplish much.
“It’s one thing to have someone screaming and shouting from the dais but not actually producing any solutions,” she said of Foster.
She said District 4 needs access to fresh and healthy food, safe places for children to play and more businesses so residents don’t have to leave the district for basic services.
“We can’t keep living like this,” she said. “We want the basics. That is it.”
Foster countered that attack by focusing on his experience at City Hall compared with Abraham, a neonatal nurse who is new to politics and government.
Foster served as chief of staff for former Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe before running for her former seat in 2024 after she was elected county supervisor.
Since joining the council, he has written city ordinances that have become law and helped write a voter-approved ballot measure that created a new watchdog panel for city police.
Abraham said her experience during medical emergencies would serve her well at City Hall.
“I work in a profession where we are having to solve problems quickly … and save people’s lives as we collaborate with each other,” she said.
Both candidates also announced ambitious new policy proposals.
Foster said his council aides are crafting a neighborhood-by-neighborhood plan for infrastructure upgrades across District 4 that will be released next month. Abraham said she would create a coalition of neighborhood councils if elected.
Foster addressed a question from the audience about his behavior in a video posted online last year where he could be seen arguing with a constituent, calling him a punk and telling him “go to your mama’s house” repeatedly.
Foster said the video isn’t representative of how he talks to constituents.
“I was literally accosted in the street,” Foster said. “I turned around and dealt with what was in front of me. What’s not shown in the video is the way and the manner in which I was approached.”
The two candidates also disagreed about the benefits and risks of the city’s rolling updates to neighborhood growth blueprints called community plans.
Foster said some long overdue updates in District 4 could spur new housing and economic development. Abraham stressed that such plans typically include aggressive upzoning that most residents oppose.
District 4 includes Encanto, Skyline, Paradise Hills, Emerald Hills, Oak Park, Chollas View, Webster, Valencia Park and many nearby neighborhoods.
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