Already it’s reassuring to imagine that come December, Jerry Sanders will be sworn in as the mayor of San Diego. We hope you’ll vote for him in November and help bring some quicker, clearer thinking and leadership to City Hall. To help San Diego turn the corner as soon as possible, and for the next four years that will be required to fix this mess, Jerry Sanders has become San Diego’s best hope.

Not that he would have been our first choice a year ago. But a year ago not even Jerry Sanders thought he was heading for the mayor’s chair. It was incumbent Dick Murphy vs. Ron Roberts, with the latter almost certain to prevail until Donna Frye mounted her patently wrong write-in campaign, courtesy of the city clerk’s convenient blindness to the city charter. Even she, later, voted to fix the municipal code in deference to the charter, which was both the hypocritical and the right thing to do.

What ensued — combined with the city’s deepening financial challenges, the corruption trial and removal of two councilmen, the upheavals wrought by the new city attorney, the investigations by accountants and lawyers, the SEC, the FBI and the unrelenting pot-stirring and sometimes enlightening disclosures of the press — has been nothing short of dumbfounding. It’s been disgusting at every turn. Sometimes only stupidity and embarrassment reigned. Murphy’s appointment of Michael Zucchet as deputy mayor comes to mind.

So seeing Jerry Sanders, Ronne Froman and friends take charge, especially under the new strong-mayor charter changes, offers some hope. He’s the former police chief. She’s the former admiral and “Navy mayor” of San Diego. After “retirement,” he chaired the local United Way and then the American Red Cross chapter and hired her. They slashed expenses and improved fund-raising and emergency services. But most of his career has been devoted to police work. He rose through the ranks and commanded San Diego’s SWAT Team before ascending to chief in the 1990s. He successfully ran City Hall’s largest department, reducing crime and providing security and logistical support for huge conventions and special events. The man is remarkably courageous, friendly, sensible and he cleans up real good in a suit. He’s even dabbled in venture capitalism. Imagine him behind the podium, standing beside professional advisers, addressing a Wall Street room full of underwriters, analysts, attorneys, accountants and maybe even regulators, 18 to 24 months from now, explaining how San Diego has cleaned up its act. Now imagine Donna Frye trying to do the same thing. Even Toni Atkins would be better suited than San Diego’s most famous, if not infamous, surfer chick, a notion that has helped earn her and San Diego some aw-shucks press attention across the nation. A former police chief to the rescue makes much better sense than Ms. Frye. We’re grateful for her distrust enough to champion better transparency at City Hall, but beyond her populist complaining, she has not been the most effective City Council member. And even she meets behind closed doors, too.

The torture San Diegans have been put through watching City Hall is nothing compared to the real hell being lived by displaced residents of the Gulf Coast. There’s another scene San Diegans would be wise to imagine, and sadly, these days tragedy is too easy to imagine. In times of disaster or emergency threatening public safety, Sanders can be expected to act decisively and smartly.

Imagine that — smart, decisive action at San Diego City Hall.

We wish Jerry Sanders and San Diego well. “Sanders and San Diego” are even starting to sound good together. Get used to it. Please vote on Nov. 8.