As this issue of the San Diego Daily Transcript goes to press, San Diego voters are preparing to choose our city’s next mayor in what arguably is the most important mayoral election in San Diego’s recent history.

Whoever the winner is will be receiving enough congratulatory notes and written advice tomorrow morning to paper the entire ballpark site that now lies dormant in the shadows of East Village. Suffice it to say, there will be plenty of unsolicited advice on a number of issues facing our city.

I can’t think of an issue that’s more important for our new mayor to embrace than maintaining and even strengthening our region’s robust economy. A viable downtown environment and sound “let’s-make-it-happen” real estate policies that encourage economic growth are two of the biggest contributors to our region’s prosperity. To get what’s truly important to the top of the stack, this column will be among the first — if not the very first — memo to San Diego’s new chief executive.

Thousands of Transcript readers are reading this piece of the new mayor’s mail over his shoulder, so to speak. Hopefully, this mass memo will inject a dose of accountability to get some very, very important things done right away.

MEMO To: Mayor-elect Roberts/Murphy (cross out whatever name is appropriate) Re: Be a strong leader

Campaign promises and rhetoric are now relegated to the history of this relatively polite and rigorous political battle. You have emerged as our city’s new spokesman and leader. You virtually now have a brand new City Council and a mandate from people on all sides of nearly every political issue to be a strong leader.

While there have been shortages in sound judgment and effective political energy on the part of some of our existing elected officials, there has not been any let up in the many critical issues that face you and your new colleagues. We have a lot more than street potholes to fix if we are going to be the city you described in your campaign materials and speeches. Let me hasten to add, however, that our streets do need plenty of attention.

You are inheriting the leadership mantle of a city with high costs for electricity and very soon, natural gas; high costs for gasoline; and very high costs for housing. Likewise, you will soon preside over a city with a low inventory — in fact, a shrinking supply — of developable land in the more desirable suburban locations.

You are taking the reins of a city in which its elected leaders are perceived by many to be critically short of the ability to “get it right” in terms of those issues that have positive or negative impacts on our future.

Downtown San Diego holds the keys to help solve the above shortages.

Let’s start with the most critical and obvious issue — the ballpark project. Left in its present state, tourists will soon think the site, with its eerie array of concrete megalith-like pillars, resembles a contemporary Stonehenge with its concrete statues more than the beginnings of a facility that is designed to anchor the redevelopment of a good portion of our city. Say what you will about the Padres’ miserable season and the club’s hardball antics, this project is the engine that will drive the redevelopment of the eastern dilapidated sections of our downtown, much the same way Horton Plaza, a decade-and-a-half ago, paved the way for what is presently redeveloped in that area of the city.

Somebody with a new dose of political clout and untainted credibility needs to take that project and get it under way again — and quickly. It may require you to appoint a task force of civic-minded citizens and others to lend the necessary political support and creative energies to get the project back on track. You need to think outside the box and organize whatever approach will put this project back on line.

A second issue needing more and more attention with each passing year is the city’s administrative complex and adjacent performing arts and convention center. Those facilities have been operational for nearly 40 years and have been woefully inadequate for at least the last two decades. The administrative and meeting buildings need to be replaced — at their present site — in order to effectively house the leadership and administrative workings of our new and rapidly changing city.

I’ve said in earlier columns that a new downtown library is not my chief priority but it is easy to foresee the positive impacts a state-of-the-art library will have on our central city’s infrastructure, the needs of people who live and work in downtown, and on the branch library system in general. Anything that will better equip our downtown area to serve as the cultural and economic nucleus of our region can’t be a bad thing.

Speaking of downtown, you, as our new leader, need to keep in mind that downtown San Diego actually has the most potential for hosting the bulk of the quality development our region needs. As I mentioned earlier, developable land is becoming a thing of the past in the suburbs. Meanwhile, redevelopment opportunities downtown are plentiful.

Hopefully, you have or will surround yourself with the experience and background necessary to ensure that high-quality development continues to be the top priority in our region’s central core.

I only wish we could provide you with the resources of a strong mayoral form of government. Unfortunately, your charter powers are little more than what the part-time mayor of Imperial Beach has. We need you and your City Council colleagues to be full-time leaders with powers that befit the job description. You’re going to have to rely heavily on the de facto powers of communications and persuasion.

Let me be the first to congratulate you and wish you the best. Go forth and lead.