LA MESA LA MESA — The red, white and blue personalized m&m’s sitting in a bowl on Art Madrid’s desk reading “Mayor Madrid” are on their way out of La Mesa’s City Hall, along with the man who freely shares them with visitors to his office.
One of the longest serving mayors in San Diego County history, Madrid will be stepping down this month, after an unsuccessful attempt for a seventh term as La Mesa’s mayor.
Mark Arapostathis, a city councilman in La Mesa for eight years, unseated Madrid in the November election.
Madrid, 80, has been the city’s mayor for 24 years. He was first elected to the City Council in 1981 and served in that role for 10 years before becoming mayor. For 10 years before he ed the council, Madrid served on various boards and commissions in the city.
His last invocation will be given at the Dec. 9 city council meeting, set for 4 p.m. Arapostathis will be sworn in as the new mayor at that meeting meeting, ing two new councilman, Bill Baber, a former La Mesa-Spring Valley School District trustee, and business owner Guy McWhirter.
“I’m extremely grateful to have served my community for 44 years,” Madrid said in a recent interview. “During that period, I feel very proud of the fact that I was able to initiate and provide leadership in programs and on issues that were for the betterment of La Mesa residents.”
Once the chair of San Diego Association of Governments, Madrid created six new boards and commissions during his tenure for the city of 57,000. He said he was proud that he “was able to give all the residents of La Mesa a greater voice.” One of the commissions, the Environmental Sustainability Commission, spoke to his desire to raise awareness of environmental issues in the city, state and nationally.
He served on the State Board of the League of California Cities and was president of the San Diego Division of the League. Madrid was also president of the California Council of Governments, which represents all 478 cities and 58 counties in California.
During his tenure, Madrid and the city of La Mesa earned national and international attention when Madrid championed a program of publishing in The Daily Californian newspaper the names and photographs of individuals arrested for prostitution in the community.
Getting behind the Junior Seau Sports Complex at Parkway Middle School and helping see it through was another proud accomplishment. He said he enjoyed getting to know Seau, who died at age 43 in 2012, and who for many years lived on the border of La Mesa, where it meets the unincorporated area of La Mesa on Mount Helix. A skate park he championed also went up at La Mesita Park off Dallas Street near the Seau complex.
While the recent edifices that went up next to City Hall — a public safety building for the La Mesa Police Department, a new library and a new post office — are proud moments, Madrid said one of his biggest disappointments is not seeing the building of a new City Hall.
Madrid said the current building was constructed in 1955. Outlying bungalows used for city business on the premises are at least 20 years old.
He said he also was disappointed that he was unable to bring in a female to lead the city’s Fire Department, something he championed for more than 34 years. He said he was also unhappy that a community garden still does not exist in La Mesa.
“I’m grateful I was able to interact on a daily basis with all of the residents of La Mesa and our guests and be able to respond to their needs in a timely manner,” Madrid said. “I was able to listen to their concerns and explain why things were the way they were, or why we couldn’t do things as rapidly as they might have wanted.
“I think the most important thing an elected official has to do is listen to those you serve and be frank and candid in addressing their needs. By and large, I’m extremely grateful I had the opportunity to serve in number of capacities. And sooner or later the baton has to be ed to somebody else.”
Madrid said he didn’t want any fanfare at his last council meeting as an elected official. He also said there were a number of things he hopes to see the city achieves and said that “as a resident I can still be involved.”
He says he has concerns about several issues in La Mesa, including a “significant impact and foothold that special interests are getting in the city.”
Madrid, who was born and raised in New Mexico, moving to La Mesa when he was 17, is a Marine Corps veteran who worked for Pacific Bell for 35 years.
He had several personal trials during his mayoral tenure, losing both a teenage son and his wife of 40 years to cancer. His home was also robbed in 2010, in which he lost more than $12,000 in cash and property, including jewelry and a handgun. In 2008, Madrid was involved in an incident in which police found him and a city employee apparently intoxicated a block from his home.
He said that he learned from his parents, parochial school and in the Marines a very simple philosophy: “You work and address the issues you can control, and those that you can’t, you try to cope as best as you possibly can.”
