Mayor O’Connor Appoints Staff; Sister to Hold Key Policy Position

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor announced a 13-member staff Tuesday. The group includes her twin sister, who will serve as an unpaid policy researcher, and a top staff assistant who is homosexual and the defendant in a palimony suit.

In her first full day in office since being sworn in as San Diego’s 31st mayor, O’Connor unveiled a staff structure that differs from those of her two immediate predecessors--Roger Hedgecock and Pete Wilson--through the absence of a chief of staff.

During O’Connor’s 2 1/2-year term, several aides will share the duties that had been consolidated in one person--J. Michael McDade and Bob White, respectively--during Hedgecock’s and Wilson’s mayoralties.

“We do not have a chief of staff because I feel very strongly that we are a team and the buck stops with the mayor,” O’Connor said. “I am the final decision-maker.”

The payroll is more than $400,000 for O’Connor’s staff, which includes six secretaries and receptionists who worked in the mayor’s office before her election.

During a City Hall news conference, O’Connor also revealed that her staff assistant, Ben Dillingham, is being sued by a former homosexual lover after the breakup of their relationship. The Superior Court lawsuit, filed last month by attorneys for Donnis Whorton, alleges that Dillingham has violated a 10-year-old verbal agreement in which he promised to provide Whorton with lifetime financial support. No court date on the suit has been set.

“A gay relationship is no different than a heterosexual relationship,” Dillingham said at the news conference. He added that he hopes that his openness on the subject, combined with his public visibility in his new job, could help to change public attitudes toward homosexuals.

Dillingham, 41, has served for seven years as the director of administration and controller for the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, where he helped develop the San Diego Trolley’s financial plan. O’Connor’s key role in the trolley’s development is arguably the accomplishment for which she is best known.

Dillingham, whose salary has not yet been determined, will oversee the day-to-day operation of the mayor’s office, as well as being the “central funnel for information” and controlling access to O’Connor herself, according to Paul Downey, O’Connor’s press secretary. However, unlike McDade and White, Dillingham will not have a central policy-making role on the mayoral staff, Downey added.

Rather, policy decisions in the mayor’s office will be handled primarily by O’Connor, her twin sister, Mavoureen O’Connor, and Chris Crotty, O’Connor’s acting senior consultant to the City Council’s Rules Committee.

Mavourneen O’Connor, who was chairwoman of O’Connor’s mayoral campaign and has been involved in all of her sister’s political races, will work as a volunteer policy consultant. The founder of San Diego Kind Corp., which promotes low-income housing and other services for senior citizens, Mavourneen O’Connor will turn 40 next week.

Crotty, 26, served as an issues researcher in O’Connor’s campaign.

La Donna Hatch, who served as campaign manager in O’Connor’s mayoral race, was named council liaison. The former vice president for personnel at California First Bank, Hatch, 58, will be the principal link between O’Connor’s office and the council.

Other O’Connor staff members include:

- Lynn Sharpe-Underwood, a 36-year-old public relations executive, who will serve as principal assistant to the mayor for community outreach programs, including police, public services and social or health programs, and issues relating to ethnic minorities, seniors, women and homosexuals.

- Doug Byrns, 43, who was named assistant to the mayor for major projects, including issues such as the convention center and border sewage. For the past nine years, Byrns has served as vice president of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

- Press secretary Downey, 27, who formerly worked as editorial manager of the Times-Mirror Corp.’s Videotex system in Orange County, managing editor of Copley Videotex and an editor at radio station KSDO.

- Three council representatives--Willie Blair, Salvatore Giametta and Rudy Cervantes--who will meet with individuals throughout the city in an attempt to discover problems and help develop solutions related to city services. Blair, 34, formerly was operations manager for Latitudes Marines and has been active in youth counseling and job assistance programs. Giametta, 26, was a press aide in O’Connor’s campaign, while the 39-year-old Cervantes formerly was executive director of the Chicano Community Health Center and associate director of the Barrio Station.

- Leesie Assam, 25, who has a background in public relations and acting, will serve as assistant for community outreach programs. During the mayoral race, Assam was O’Connor’s scheduling secretary.

- Donna Legrand, 41, who will become O’Connor’s confidential secretary. Legrand has worked for the city of San Diego for more than 20 years, including the past nine as confidential secretary to the city manager.

- Former MTDB official Grace King, 44, who will serve as office manager.