When the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA was competing for seed money to finance its $40 million renovation 15 years ago, the letter Dan McAllister sent to California State Parks officials certainly didn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n
McAllister, the YMCA board member who was also the elected San Diego County treasurer-tax collector, spelled out why the state should invest millions of its limited tax dollars serving young people in south San Diego over other programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a socio-economic standpoint, the neighborhoods served by the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA stand out not for their affluence or low unemployment rates,\u201d the career taxman wrote. \u201cOn the contrary\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
McAllister went on to describe the challenges confronting southeastern San Diego communities \u2014 and why the local Y deserved $5 million in state parks funds.<\/p>\n
That vote of confidence helped jump-start the capital campaign that led to the opening of the new Jackie Robinson Family YMCA in 2017, replacing a facility that dated back decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a beautiful facility now,\u201d said Anna Arancibia, the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA chief executive. \u201cBut back in 2004, to have his voice out there advocating for new funding was huge and important.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was one of many contributions to the broader San Diego County community made by McAllister, who died Wednesday morning following\u00a0a lingering illness, months after retiring midway through a sixth term.\u00a0He was 74.<\/p>\n
A second-generation San Diego native who grew up in Pacific Beach and graduated from Mission Bay High School, McAllister was a rare combination \u2014 both a numbers guy and a people guy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a man of the people, so he was always talking to someone about something,\u201d said Patrick McAllister, the younger of the former treasurer-tax collector\u2019s two children who grew up in Solana Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to help other people, whether it was linking them up, providing them contact information or writing a letter on their behalf,\u201d McAllister said. \u201cHe always wanted to help people move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick McAllister said he remembers being taken down to the Jackie Robinson Y every summer as a boy to participate in sports clinics and other activities hosted by the community nonprofit where his dad served on the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt opened my eyes to the talent and diversity that not everyone from North County gets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After graduating from high school, Dan McAllister attended Fresno State University, where he earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in communications and journalism. He later earned a master\u2019s in business administration from United States International University, now known as Alliant International University.<\/p>\n
He joined the Peace Corps and was sent to work in the remote islands of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n
McAllister later returned to San Diego and worked briefly in radio at KFMB. He joined what was then the A.G. Edwards stock brokerage in La Jolla and eventually met the woman he would marry.<\/p>\n
By the early 2000s, McAllister turned his gift for engaging people in conversation into a career in public service. He ran for the nonpartisan office of county treasurer-tax collector as a Republican against incumbent Bart Hartman in 2002 \u2014 and won.<\/p>\n
McAllister was re-elected five times before resigning in August.<\/p>\n
Former San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Diane Bell said he was one of those rare politicians who kept campaigning even after he\u2019d won.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day after Election Day, he stood for hours on a downtown street corner with a sign that in huge letters thanked San Diegans for their vote,\u201d Bell said. \u201cHe waved and chatted with people as they drove and walked by.\u201d<\/p>\n
The longtime tax collector, who also oversaw $18 billion in county investments, went out of his way to open his office to people from every corner of the community. He set up drop boxes for property tax payments and brought in talent wherever he found it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis job was to make sure as a society that we all contribute to the common good,\u201d said Arlene Alvarez, who spent three summers as an intern in the county tax office some 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had an investment team, he was responsible for bonds,\u201d said Alvarez, now a special assistant to a Las Vegas City Council member. \u201cIt connected a lot of dots for me. His work was really important, and he served the community for so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The elected tax collector always approached his work with an eye on improving. According to Ernie Dronenburg, the former county assessor-recorder-clerk, McAllister was focused on making changes to help his constituents.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very interested in the job for what he could do \u2014 not as a political office but as a professional office,\u201d Dronenburg said. \u201cHe got elected, and he did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On tax bills, McAllister added red circles around the amount due in order to help reduce errors, Dronenburg said. He also had taxpayers make checks payable to the county \u2014 rather than to himself\u00a0\u2014 to boost their confidence in the system.<\/p>\n
All the while, McAllister joined regional and state treasurer and tax associations. He served on the county pension board, volunteered for charity boards and was quick to accept opportunities to talk about the county or the missions of other organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not even sure when I met Dan McAllister, because he\u2019s always been there,\u201d said Shirley Weber, the California secretary of state, who guesses she first met him when she served on the San Diego Unified School District board.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always showed up for everything,\u201d said Weber, who went on to serve in the state Assembly before being elected secretary of state. \u201cEverywhere there was an event or fundraising, Dan was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weber credited McAllister for emphasizing diversity, and recruiting young people of color to his office. \u201cHe never bragged about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ebony Shelton, now the county\u2019s chief administrative officer, was one of those young people, tapped by him as an inexperienced 20-something for a budget manager job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize it at the time, but that opportunity would spark my lifelong passion for municipal finance,\u201d she recalled. \u201cHe gave generously of his time, energy and attention \u2014 and we are all better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Scott Peters crossed paths with McAllister at more dinners and fundraisers than he could count. Peters said McAllister was a rare breed of elected official who strived to do the right thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just someone that everyone respected for doing good, fair and honest work,\u201d the San Diego Democrat said.<\/p>\n
McAllister volunteered every year to play Santa Claus to the community of children who turned up every holiday season at Jackie Robinson Family YMCA events, longtime CEO Michael Brunker said.<\/p>\n
And he was a fixture at the weekly Catfish Club<\/a> community luncheons that were famously hosted for years by the Rev. George Walker Smith.<\/p>\n \u201cHe knew the importance of trust, especially when you are dealing with the precious assets of San Diego,\u201d Brunker said. \u201cAnybody who had a pot of gold somewhere, Dan was part of the group lending oversight to make sure the money was being spent in the proper way.\u201d<\/p>\n District Attorney Summer Stephan said she was struck by just how many people would cheer McAllister at the community parades she often attended with him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of my fondest memories, getting very loud cheers alongside him,\u201d the county prosecutor said. \u201cHe somehow made people feel like the tax man was on the side of the people.\u00a0I think the public really appreciated it.\u201d<\/p>\n The investment and tax professional did not serve 23 years in public service without controversy.<\/p>\n In 2010, an audit of his department found that he improperly withheld<\/a> almost $8 million that should have been returned to taxpayers. This year, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that he had been the subject of two sexual harassment claims<\/a> that cost taxpayers more than $100,000.<\/p>\n Dan and Catherine McAllister raised two children before separating some 15 years ago. He is survived by his former wife, who remains in San Diego. He also is survived by one son, Patrick McAllister of San Diego; one daughter, Katharine McAllister, also of San Diego; and one grandchild.<\/p>\n No public services are scheduled, although a celebration of life is being organized for sometime in the spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA was competing for seed money to finance its $40 million renovation 15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,23,205,100,8567,13,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-99176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-local-politics","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-news-obituaries","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-headlines","16":"tag-san-diego-news","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}