Martinez to Retain Post While Fighting Charges

In media-mad Washington, San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez was getting the kind of press attention Thursday that not even a publicity hound would want.

As he shuttled around the nation’s capital with other local officials campaigning for funds to fight sewage pouring into San Diego from Tijuana, Martinez was dogged by reporters and cameramen hoping to snag a comment on his indictment by the county grand jury Wednesday on 28 felony counts.

Even his lunch at Washington’s fancy Monocle restaurant was interrupted by a camera crew hungry for a glimpse of the embattled councilman, who is charged with misappropriating and falsely accounting for public funds by misusing a city credit card to buy meals for himself and associates.

The maitre d’ at the Capitol Hill eatery said another of the eight or so guests picked up the tab for the luncheon--a fact confirmed by San Diego County Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who joined Martinez on the lobbying trip.

Bilbray said Martinez seemed to be sticking to business, despite the distractions of his indictment and the attendant media interest.

“Outside of the press just hounding him to death and crawling all over him, Uvaldo has just been working, keeping his nose to the grindstone and fighting for the City of San Diego down here,” Bilbray said in a telephone interview. “He hasn’t broken stride.”

The Associated Press reported Thursday that Martinez would follow the lead of former mayor Roger Hedgecock and remain in office while fighting the charges against him.

Martinez told the AP that he will not resign and will “continue to be the same councilman I have been--and that’s an effective one.”

“After all, we just had another individual indicted and who still served effectively and was reelected,” he said--a reference to Hedgecock, who resigned Dec. 10, after his conviction on conspiracy and perjury charges.

“I’ve apologized before to the public in San Diego, and I’m sorry it’s happened,” Martinez said of the indictment. “But it’s something I’ve got to fight and, as I say, I think I’ll be vindicated.”

Martinez did not return numerous phone messages left along his Washington itinerary.

His City Hall staff got a pep talk early Thursday from Paul Grasso, Martinez’s executive assistant, who broke the news of the indictment to the councilman in a phone call Wednesday evening and got orders to encourage the staff to press ahead with business as usual.

“On the 10th floor (of City Hall) there are two levels that operate simultaneously--the political level that the council people operate on and the government level that the staff operates on,” Grasso said. “We’ll continue to function on that government level, taking constituent calls, reviewing the agenda for docket items” and performing other day-to-day tasks.

Grasso said he had not had an opportunity to discuss the political ramifications of the indictment with Martinez, who was appointed to the 8th District seat in December, 1982, and elected to the post a year later.

The grand jury Wednesday charged that Martinez illegally used his city-issued Visa card to purchase $1,880 worth of meals and drinks at some of the area’s finest restaurants on 21 occasions between November, 1984, and July, 1985.

Several of the people whom Martinez claimed in city expense reports to have dined with at the meals told The Times they had not eaten with the councilman on those occasions. Others said no city business was discussed or that they had picked up the tab for the meal.

Many of the named dinner guests were among the 71 people who appeared before the grand jury in 12 days of hearings that began Feb. 11 and ended Wednesday with Martinez’s indictment.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in jail and a $10,000 fine, though Martinez at most could be jailed for eight years upon conviction on all the counts. Conviction on a single count would force him from office.

Grasso said news of the indictment had not flooded Martinez’s office with phone calls Thursday morning.

“There have been a few people on both sides--some saying ‘hang tough,’ other people saying they think he should resign,” Grasso said.