Posted on 07/11/2005 12:53:19 PM PDT by SmithL
SAN DIEGO - City Councilman Michael Zucchet has been logging long days in court, where his federal trial on charges of accepting illegal campaign money from a strip-club owner is finally set to go to a jury as early as Tuesday.
On Friday, he is scheduled to take over as interim mayor of a city that has long prided itself on clean government.
Or maybe he won't.
San Diego, stung by a string of embarrassing scandals, is facing a fundamental question at a time of deep legal and financial trouble: Who's in charge?
Voters are mulling who should replace Mayor Dick Murphy, whose abrupt resignation only seven months into his second term takes effect Friday. If, as expected, nobody wins a majority in a July 26 election, the top two finishers would face a November runoff.
That means an interim mayor is likely to run City Hall until the year is almost over.
Just who that leader will be is an open question.
If he's convicted of extortion and wire fraud, Zucchet, 35, would have to relinquish public office and the City Council would appoint a different caretaker. If there's a guilty verdict after Friday, Zucchet could be mayor for just a few days. If there's a hung jury, who knows?
Even if Zucchet is acquitted -- he has steadfastly maintained his innocence -- he will take office after a two-month trial in which federal prosecutors portrayed him as a pawn in a Las Vegas strip-club owner's corrupt scheme to overturn San Diego's ban on touching dancers at nude bars.
Zucchet and two other councilmen allegedly took thousands of dollars from club owner Michael Galardi in a failed effort to scrap the rule.
"There is nobody at the helm, nobody," said Steve Erie, a political scientist at UC San Diego, who plans a book about how local government turned into what he considers a national laughingstock. The book's tentative title: "Tarnished Paradise."
On its Web site, seaside San Diego is "America's Finest City." Its roster of mayors includes former Gov. Pete Wilson, and city officials have promoted an aura of efficient government.
Contrary to that image, San Diego has seen its share of scandal. Mayor Roger Hedgecock, now a popular talk radio host, was forced to resign after his 1985 conviction for concealing illegal campaign contributions, though much of the ruling was overturned on appeal. In 1970, Mayor Frank Curran was indicted, but not convicted, on charges of taking bribes to increase cab fares.
"San Diego was never as good as its hype suggested," Erie said. "They were marvelous at public relations."
These days, San Diego is paying the price for a long practice of siphoning money from its pension fund to run everyday operations. In 1996 and again in 2002, the city wiggled out of pension payments of at least several hundred million dollars, while digging itself into a deeper hole by promising greater benefits to retirees.
Those maneuvers have triggered 17-month-old investigations by federal prosecutors and prompted mayoral candidates to debate whether declaring bankruptcy, and relieving some obligations to retirees, is the best way out.
Murphy, a former Republican judge who dedicated much of his time to building a baseball park in booming downtown, announced in April that he was stepping down to give the city a "fresh start." He won November's election only after a judge invalidated thousands of ballots for Donna Frye, a Democratic city councilwoman and surf-shop owner who waged a last-minute write-in campaign.
A few months before saying he would quit, Murphy named ally Zucchet as his deputy mayor. The ceremonial position took on new significance when it put Zucchet in line to fill in for Murphy.
Zucchet, a Democratic former lobbyist for the city firefighters union who was elected to the council in 2002, declined to be interviewed for this story and has said little about how he might tackle the new job.
He will have a full plate. The city manager is leaving after less than two years on the job, and city government needs to be overhauled to comply with a voter-approved measure to transfer power from the city manager to the mayor. The city is in a high-stakes showdown with its own pension board over the board's refusal to share documents with federal prosecutors.
"We won't have a mayor until the first part of December," said City Attorney Michael Aguirre, who has persisted in blistering attacks on Murphy, the City Council and the pension board. "That creates a rudderless city government going into the most dangerous part of the river. We don't have anyone steering the boat."
Writer and poster non residents of San Diego, I am.
The article is a stretch.
I would rather be here in San Diego than your small town
Frisco with your pro gay marriage mayor and homeless
problems or LA, Mexico north.
I like posting political stories, and I found the last mayoral election in San Diego to be absolutely fascinating. I've posted far more stories about Gavin Newsom than either Murphy, Zucchet, or even that hippie surfer chick, and frankly, I wouldn't want any of them as my mayor. I'm not interested in living in San Francisco or San Diego, but I sure remember San Diego as being a pretty decent liberty town.
"... He won November's election only after a judge invalidated thousands of ballots for Donna Frye, a Democratic city councilwoman and surf-shop owner who waged a last-minute write-in campaign."
No one who can win an election or avoid jail can be mayor of the second biggest city of California.
I'm not sure that having nobody in charge is a bad idea. Previous people in charge have dug a pretty deep hole.
What part?
What part?
We know who is in change. There is an election this month.
As a 58 yr native I think I know more than those who
don't have a clue.
>>As a 58 yr native I think I know more than those who don't have a clue.
So, can you answer my question? You said it was a stretch. I asked: "what part?"
-Are Zucchet and Galardi innocent?
-Is there no pension problem?
-Is San Diego not near bankruptcy?
-etc.
There were many things mentioned in this article. Why not share some local knowledge with those of us who "don't have a clue"? Perhaps you'll find many of us actually DO know what is going on.
no, yes, and no to your three questions.
Since you have another agenda, end of discussion.
The only agenda I have is to see corruption exposed and purged from government. Do you disagree with that agenda?
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If you think there's no pension problem and no looming bankruptcy, coming events are going to be quite a surprise to you. I'll leave it at that so as not to be accused of having an agenda.
To bad you can't read. I said yes to pension problem.
ALL of Frye's ballots should have been invalidated. By definition a run-off is between the top vote-getters in the first election. She wasn't, so her write-in votes were irrelevant.
Actually, the question was:
"-Is there no pension problem?"
and you answered yes. So you indicated that there was NO pension problem.
Too bad you can't write. Other than taking gratuitous potshots at fellow FReepers, what is your agenda?
The question can be taken either way.
Why don't you take your energy and try
to dump frye
So you should have been less ambiguous in your "yes."
Why don't you take your energy and try to dump frye
Tu quoque.
Archived audio *will* be available.
politics in san diego are weird, for sure.
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