Donna Frye

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Categories: California Democrats | San Diego

Donna Frye
San Diego City Council
Party	Democratic
2001
Preceded by	Valerie Stallings
Succeeded by	-
Birthdate	January 20, 1952

Democratic Councilmember Donna Frye was first elected to the San Diego City Council to complete an unexpired term of Valerie Stallings in San Diego's 6th Council District in June 2001. In March 2002, with a resounding 65 percent of the vote, Frye was re-elected to a full, four-year term .

Councilmember Frye ran an exciting campaign as a write-in candidate in the 2004 San Diego mayoral election. She injected front-page buzz into a boring race between republican incumbent Dick Murphy and second time around challenger republican County Supervisor Ron Roberts. After suviving a legal challenge to the legality of her write-in campaign, Frye eventually lost to Mayor Murphy on a technicality. While more voters wrote Frye's name in than voted for Murphy, several thousand of those voters failed to select the "write-in" option on the ballot for their votes to be counted as legally valid.

In 2005, five months into his second term, Murphy resigned over outrage over his mismanagement of the city's pension fund, and his successor Michael Zucchet was convicted of corruption charges. A special election was held in which Frye lost a runoff to former police chief Jerry Sanders. In the first round of balloting, although Frye placed first with 43%, Republican candidates combined attracted greater than 50% of the vote. Frye was unable to attract a sufficient number of crossover votes in the runoff.

During her tenure as Councilmember, has been especially vocal on the need for openess and transparency in government. She and Councilmember Toni Atkins have argued against many of the closed door City Council meetings, eventully forming the "Right to Know" council committee along with Councilmember Jim Madaffer.

Donna Frye is a longtime environmental activist and a founder of Surfers Tired of Pollution (STOP). Since the 1980's she has worked to strengthen San Diego City pollution policies. Policies including those related to polluted runoff, the posting of warning signs in front of storm drains, the monitoring of discharges at storm drain outfalls, and the diversion of dry weather low-flow runoff into the sewer system. Frye played a central role in obtaining millions of dollars for the clean up of Mission Bay. Frye continues to be environmentally active both in and outside of Council chambers.

Councilmember Frye grew up and presently lives in the Clairemont district of San Diego with her husband, the legendary surfer Skip Frye; her mother, Laura and dog, Diogenes. Frye has attended area public schools. She received her Associate of Arts from Cosumnes River College and her Bachelor of Business from National University.

External Links

• Councilmember Donna Frye San Diego City Council District 6
• Surfers Tired Of Pollution (information via Surfline)