Martinez Apologizes for Credit-Card Usage

San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez, under a criminal investigation for alleged abuse of a city-owned credit card, broke a weeks-long silence on the matter to publicly apologize for the scandal at a council meeting Monday.

Martinez’s apology came after his fellow conservatives voted to retain him for another year as chairman of the council’s Transportation and Land Use Committee, ignoring a recommendation from Mayor Roger Hedgecock to relieve the District 8 representative from the post. Hedgecock had nominated Councilman William Jones, but Martinez was selected for another year by a 6-3 vote.

After the vote, Martinez made making his first public statements from the council platform about the credit-card situation since the district attorney began working on the probe in late September.

Saying he wished to make some “personal remarks,” Martinez thanked the council “for voting to keep me as chairman regardless of the difficulties I find myself in. These are the most difficult, trying times of my life. . . . I will do everything in my power to make you worthy of your confidence.”

Martinez also apologized for the “embarrassment (the credit card probe) has caused my family, the City Council and all of the city.” He admitted he and his top aide Rudy P. Murillo had made “errors in judgment” by charging more than $10,000 in meals to a city credit card since June, 1984.

None of the other council members commented on Martinez’s remarks.

Many of the meals billed to the city cost more than $100. There is no legal limit on how much a council member can spend on business meals, although Martinez’s charges totaled more than the rest of the council’s charges combined.

The district attorney’s office began its investigation after numerous civic leaders, developers and political associates whom Martinez claimed on city records as his guests at meals said they did not dine with him on the dates indicated or discussed no city business when they dined with the councilman.

Linda Miller, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said Monday, “Our investigation is continuing.” She did not elaborate.

“We’ve had the case since the end of September,” Miller said, “but you can’t really predict as to when this type of thing will come to an end.”

If Martinez were convicted on a charge of intentionally falsifying public records, he could face four years in prison and be disqualified for life from holding public office.