Martinez Impending Exit Spells Struggle : Southernmost District at the Center of Power

On paper, it isn’t pretty.

The northern half covers trendy Hillcrest, the redevelopment and transient hangouts of downtown, and the tattered neighborhoods of Barrio Logan.

The southern half encompasses the impoverished stretches of San Ysidro, as well as the glowing promise of industrial development on the flats of Otay Mesa.

Holding these two parts together is a political umbilical cord running alongside the bay.

The map of San Diego’s Council District 8 is an awkward configuration indeed. But in the world of City Hall politics, it holds a compelling attraction these days.

“This,” said a City Hall insider, “is the heart of power.”

District 8 is at the center of power in City Hall because its councilman, conservative Republican Uvaldo Martinez, must resign by Nov. 13, when he is to be sentenced for felony misappropriation of public funds.

Last week, the council grappled with the question of how to choose the next person to fill the District 8 seat, and observers said it was the first surfacing of a political struggle that is likely to tip the balance of power on the council.

Since he was appointed to the council in December, 1982, Martinez has provided the fifth and deciding vote for a loose-knit coalition of conservative Republicans on partisan matters such as who will be appointed to boards and commissions, as well as which council member will take charge of council committees, city records show.

Former Mayor Roger Hedgecock recognized that District 8 held the balance of power and he tried to woo Martinez, said the City Hall insider.

“He tried to seduce Martinez away from the Republican power structure because he saw him as a way to get a fifth vote,” said the insider.

Yet Martinez eventually swung back and joined conservative colleagues Bill Cleator, Dick Murphy, Ed Struiksma and Gloria McColl in voting to have himself appointed chairman of the council’s Transportation and Land Use Committee, bumping Hedgecock’s choice of William Jones. Joining the conservative coalition was former Councilman Bill Mitchell, records show.

When the mayor’s seat became vacant after Hedgecock’s resignation, the conservative coalition--this time joined by Jones--passed a series of commission and board appointments that others argued should have been left to a new mayor.

And last Tuesday, Martinez himself cast the deciding vote in showdowns with Mayor Maureen O’Connor, a Democrat, over how his successor should be chosen. He joined conservatives Cleator, Struiksma, McColl and Judy McCarty, who replaced Murphy in District 7.

O’Connor’s plan called for polling District 8 voters by mail to see who they would prefer to have appointed to fill the vacancy. The City Charter requires council members to try to make the appointment within a month after the vacancy, or else they must call a special election.

Since the district is heavily Democratic, the plan for a poll would probably have meant that a Democrat would place first and receive the appointment, said council observers. Advantage Democrats, and the crucial 8th District--and the council--would tip in O’Connor’s favor.

So Martinez and the conservatives had no choice but to defeat the mayor’s plan and counter with one of their own--an interim appointment to fill the vacancy until the regularly scheduled election next year, they said.

Martinez, Cleator, McColl and McCarty all said after last week’s vote that they were swayed, not by partisan politics, but by warnings from the city attorney and city clerk that a mail poll of the district voters would invite fraud, since there would be no way to verify the signatures of those voting.

They also said that an interim appointment would ensure that candidates running in the district would have the time to meet with voters and raise money for the 1987 race.

“Everyone will have an equal chance,” said McCarty. “When it is all over and done with, District 8 will have a full-fledged, four-year representative. That is in the best interest of the democratic process and District 8.”

The names of candidates for the interim appointment are already circulating at City Hall. The list includes Paul Grasso, Martinez’s top aide; L.J. Cella, publicist and executive officer of the short-lived San Diego Art Center; attorney Celia Ballesteros, who challenged Martinez and lost in the 1983 election; Kathryn Willetts, chairwoman of the city’s Historical Sites Board, and John Rivera, a part-time aide to County Supervisor Paul Eckert. Planning Commissioner Ralph Pesquiera said Friday that he had been considering pursuing the interim appointment, but has withdrawn his name.

Councilman Mike Gotch said he believes the move by council conservatives to make an interim appointment is to “buy time” so they can come up with a way to keep their grip on the pivotal seat.

“There is no Republican candidate in the 8th District,” said Councilman Mike Gotch, a Democrat who was on the losing side of the vote this week. “One has not yet been manufactured, one has not yet been created and clearly the caretaker appointment was an attempt to buy a sufficient amount of time to create that candidate that presently doesn’t exist.”

The City Hall insider added: “What is at stake on this vote is control of the City Council, because when it comes down to crass partisan votes, the Democrats are going to line up together and the Republicans are going to line up together.”

Noting that Republican Abbe Wolfsheimer is more closely aligned with O’Connor than with those of her party, that means there will be a 4-4 split on the council when Martinez leaves. The Republicans will launch a vigorous search to find a viable candidate to “preserve” his fifth vote, the insider said.

If not, the conservative Republicans at City Hall may suddenly find themselves to be a minority.

“If there is a hard-core Democrat put on the council,” the insider said, “I think the Democrats are in control.”