Inquiry May Encumber Attempt by Martinez to Gain Control of KIFM

Rivals for the right to take control of KIFM radio say they will challenge the application of a group including San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez, citing the criminal investigation into Martinez’s use of a city credit card.

On the advice of an attorney, Martinez refused to answer questions about his spending habits during a deposition last Saturday, The Times has learned. But competitors for the station say the controversy will continue to dog Martinez through the Federal Communications Commission’s lengthy deliberations over the license.

“People are people,” said Hector Molina, a KPBS radio producer and a partner in another of the 29 groups seeking to take over KIFM. “They will take any weakness you may have to question you and to challenge you.”

Martinez and his aide, Rudy Murillo, are partners with Liquid Investments, the holding company that owns the Miller Beer distributorship in San Diego, and two other individuals in San Diego Broadcasting, one of the contestants for permanent rights to operate KIFM.

The FCC has stripped the station’s current owners of their license for failure to provide adequate news and public affairs programming. Three women broadcasters tentatively have won the right to operate KIFM on an interim basis, but a heated contest is continuing for the permanent operating rights.

Rules grant the FCC considerable leeway in determining how much weight to give Martinez’s legal problems.

“The question is whether the alleged criminal conduct is of such a nature that it may influence or may be indicative as to how you would perform as a licensee,” said Brian Kilbane, an attorney in the FCC’s mass media bureau.

Accusations, indictments and convictions all can be considered by the FCC, he said, though none automatically bars an applicant from consideration for a license.

In the 14 months ending July 31, Martinez charged more than $7,500 in meals to his city Visa card. Some of the people he claimed to have dined with on city business have denied being present at the meals, and others have said no city business was discussed.

Disclosures of the inconsistencies prompted Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller last month to launch a criminal investigation of Martinez’s spending. Steve Casey, spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Friday that the case “continues under active investigation.”

Martinez could not be reached for comment. His spokesman during the probe, Don Harrison, said Martinez would have no comment because of the pending investigation.

Murillo acknowledged that there were “broad-based” efforts by San Diego Broadcasting’s competitors to use the spending controversy to damage the partnership’s application.

“You can’t blame them,” Murillo said Friday. “They’re all business people. I would expect them to go after the strongest applications.”

But Ronald Fowler, owner of Liquid Investments, said the inquiry would have little impact on San Diego Broadcasting’s chances unless Martinez is indicted and convicted.

“That could create some very serious problems for the application,” said Fowler, who also owns a radio station in Breckenridge, Colo. “Until that happens, we’re going forward on the belief that we’re a very strong applicant and we’re in a very good position.”

However, Dan Van Horn, the Washington, D.C., attorney who sought last week to question Martinez about the criminal investigation, said the inquiry alone could be grounds for him to score points against San Diego Broadcasting’s application.

“San Diego Broadcasting will come forward and say, ‘We should get some special credit because this man is a councilman and he has all sorts of civic involvements,’ ” said Van Horn, who represents an applicant group headed by KIFM’s current general manager, Bruce Walton.

“If he’s going to use his office as a means of enhancing their application, I should be able to raise issues about his use of that office in a way that would detract from their application.”

Martinez’s position as a city councilman figured in Fowler’s decision to ask him to assemble a group of Hispanics to apply for the KIFM operating rights, Fowler said Friday. FCC rules give preference to minority applicants and to those with civic attachments, Fowler noted, so “Uvaldo looked like a very strong applicant.”

According to Fowler, Martinez and Murillo each own 10% of San Diego Broadcasting, as does Rosemarie Saenz, an administrative analyst for the San Diego Housing Commission. Tom Jimenez, sales manager of XTRA-AM and FM, owns 20%, and Liquid Investments owns the remaining 50%.

Martinez, Murillo, Saenz and Jimenez each are 25% general partners in San Diego Broadcasting, giving each an equal vote in directing the partnership.

Some of the contestants for KIFM’s operating rights say it is premature to raise questions about Martinez’s fitness to operate the station.

“It’s not for me to judge whether the FCC is going to look at this with a jaundiced eye against Mr. Martinez,” said San Diego businessman Oscar Padilla, a partner in Soledad Broadcasting Co.

Molina, a partner in American Media Group, said he agreed that it was too early to judge Martinez but added that some of the competing applicants would raise questions about the investigation of the councilman nonetheless.

“You hear through the grapevine that people are really wondering how this is going to affect his group’s application,” Molina said.

Van Horn said he would again try to raise the issue of Martinez’s credit-card spending in December, when an FCC administrative law judge conducts a hearing on the KIFM operating rights. Later, the judge will tentatively select an applicant to take over the station, a choice that can be appealed to a review board and ultimately the FCC commissioners.

According to Murillo, the investors in San Diego Broadcasting would not have paid for costly depositions and invested $100,000 in their application if they weren’t confident that Martinez would be cleared and their bid would get serious consideration.

“Mere accusations, mere puffery, just are not going to sway the people who are in the role of having to decide which applicant is going to operate KIFM,” he said.