This week Richard and Joe welcomed former San Diego Councilmember Donna Frye. Ms. Frye served as a member of the San Diego City Council from 2001 through 2010. During her tenure, she distinguished herself as an independent thinker who fought continuously for an open and honest government that is accountable to the public. Frye ran for mayor of San Diego in the November 2004 run-off election between Dick Murphy and Ron Roberts as a write-in candidate. 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.

Councilmember Frye used her leadership skills to open the doors of government, and in 2004, she boycotted closed session meetings until the mayor and council agreed to change the permanent rules of the council. She met with Terry Francke, and this collaboration resulted in a reform of the rules that included requiring that a transcriptionist take minutes in all closed session meetings and ensuring that the public could testify on any closed session item. Continuing her quest for an honest and accountable government, Frye created the Government Efficiency and Openness Committee. As its first chair, she accomplished a number of open government reforms in less than a year, and continuing her work with Francke, rallied public consensus around a tough open-government City Charter ballot measure that passed with over 80 percent of the vote. She retired from the city council in 2010 due to term limits

Ms. Frye’s advocacy on behalf of the public and its right to know what its government is doing began more than 20 years ago. Prior to her election, she was best known for her environmental activism and her commitment to clean water. She founded Surfers Tired of Pollution, which helped initiate efforts to establish uniform statewide water monitoring standards and require the posting of warning signs in front of discharging storm drains to warn the public about the pollution. Ms. Frye received the 2011 Sunshine Award from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She was elected to serve as CalAware’s president in 2013 and held that post until March of 2016.

Donna was born in Abington, Pennsylvania and moved to San Diego at a very young age when her father accepted a job with the U.S. Navy. She also spent three years abroad. Upon returning, she spent the rest of her childhood in the community of Claremont, where she attended elementary and secondary public schools. In her youth, Donna worked in several jobs including retail, equipment rental facilities, a gas station, and a dentist office. She received an Associates of Arts degree from Cosumnes River College in Sacramento and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from National University. She married surfing legend and surfboard shaper Skip Frye in 1990. When not creating some of the most sought-after surfboards in the world, Skip is out riding the waves every day, and always has a broom and is ready to pick up trash on the beach.

Listen to a podcast of Donna Frye’s interview!