AND IN THIS CORNER . . . : Foes’ Feud Turns Carlsbad Council Into Angry Arena

The annals of time are rife with Great Confrontations. A pint-sized David dropping a towering Goliath with a well-aimed stone. The gun-slinging feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. Wile E. Coyote versus the Road Runner.

It’s doubtful the duel of wits between Carlsbad Councilmen John Mamaux and Mark Pettine will land in the history books, but their rift is attracting plenty of local attention these days.

Ever since Mamaux was elected to the council in November, the two city leaders have been squawking at one another both in public and private. Firmly entrenched on opposite sides of the political landscape, the Carlsbad lawmakers have had innumerable opportunities to do battle.

During council meetings, even the most minor issue can touch off a tiff, with Mamaux typically on the attack, Pettine pleading with Mayor Claude (Bud) Lewis to establish order. Off the council dais, relations between the two men are decidedly frosty, with each one taking pains to avoid the other.

No More Yawning

While such spats are far from uncommon in many cities, the feud between the two councilmen is something new for Carlsbad, where government leaders have long prided themselves on the decorous nature of their meetings, historically ho-hum affairs that have lulled more than one spectator into near somnolence.

Long-time city officials say they have never seen anything like the high-voltage quarrel between the two councilmen.

“I’ve been on the council since 1970 and this is the first time I’ve experienced something like this,” Mayor Lewis said. “While there have been personality conflicts between council members in the past, we’ve always been able to put them aside and get on with business. But this fight between Mr. Mamaux and Mr. Pettine just keeps going on.”

Each man blames the other for fueling the conflict. Mamaux says he’s been mad ever since Pettine launched a political attack on him a few weeks before the November election. Pettine counters that Mamaux has undertaken a personal vendetta that goes beyond the ridiculous, claiming that his council foe has directed associates to probe his background and activities as a councilman.

“I think it’s completely backfired on him and angered a lot of people,” Pettine said. “Everyone in the city can see this for what it is--just an attempt to harass another person he perceives as an enemy.”

Campaign Shot Cited

Mamaux chafes at such criticism. “I resent any implication from him that I’m the heavy, that I’m the bad guy,” Mamaux said. “He went out during the campaign and tried to destroy my reputation.”

Of late, the war of words has escalated beyond the council chambers. When Mamaux organized a recent lunch meeting between city leaders and the Carlsbad business community, Pettine was not invited. Angered by the snub and worried that the gathering violated the

spirit if not the letter of the state’s open-meeting law, Pettine blasted Mamaux in the press. Mamaux responded by saying Pettine had not been invited because he is “negative.”

With such potshots ricocheting about, the pair’s council colleagues have been busy ducking their heads to avoid the cross-fire. Moreover, some officials worry that the feud has distracted the council from municipal business at hand.

“We have enough problems as it is without these two guys going at it,” Lewis complained. “Almost every other meeting something pops up and you can see the personality conflicts they have. I’ve used the gavel quite extensively. I’ve tried to get both of them together to talk out their differences, but they’ve refused.”

Differences Apparent

At a glance, the two councilmen are as different as fire and ice.

Pettine, 38, is soft-spoken, a deputy district attorney skilled at the sort of quiet, diplomatic oratory that plays well in Carlsbad. With carefully coifed hair and neatly tailored suits, Pettine looks and acts the part of the reserved, up-and-coming politician.

Elected to a two-year council term by a narrow, 57-vote margin in 1984, Pettine went on to carve a solid niche in the community’s slow-growth camp. It paid off last November, as Pettine scored a solid reelection victory, outpolling his closest rival by nearly 2-to-1.

Mamaux is anything but reserved. At 55, he is white-haired and feisty, a survivor of past political disputes in the city. Two decades ago, Mamaux was Carlsbad’s city manager. After nearly four years in the post, however, he was fired by the council when he got into a drunken brawl at a local pub in 1967.

Since then, he has rebounded like a champ. Mamaux quit drinking and was elected to the local school board, earning high marks for his hard work and innovative approaches to problems during nearly a decade as a trustee. In his first six months on the City Council, Mamaux has been credited by colleagues and staff members for his diligence and long hours on the job. If anything, the feud with Pettine seems incongruous with the solid record of achievement Mamaux has forged, they say.

Mamaux and Pettine have not always been enemies. Back before the 1984 election, Mamaux was a solid booster of Pettine’s candidacy, backing the young attorney in the weekly column he wrote for a local newspaper.

“Without my column, he never would have been elected,” Mamaux says today. “It was the biggest mistake I ever made.”

Pettine said he noticed that Mamaux seemed to be growing distant as 1986 rolled by. In particular, Pettine says, Mamaux wrote several columns critical of his legislative style.

Mamaux, however, maintains the break really didn’t come until a few weeks before the November election. At the time, Mamaux was operating a low-key campaign, sticking to bread-and-butter issues such as providing a new senior citizens center and controlling drugs on the streets and at schools.

But Pettine quickly shifted the focus. During a press conference at City Hall, Pettine blasted Mamaux as a pro-growth candidate, maintaining that his opponent had “significant developer connections” stemming from a consulting business he operated after being dismissed as Carlsbad city manager.

Ignored Attack at First

Mamaux was, suffice it to say, ticked off. “All of a sudden, here he was standing on the City Hall steps calling me names,” Mamaux recalled. “He went around saying I was a danger and peril to Carlsbad, that was his rallying cry. But I didn’t let it get to me during the campaign. I ignored it.”

The pair were sworn in Dec. 4. Mamaux says he approached Pettine after the ceremony at City Hall and stuck out his hand as a gesture of reconciliation.

“I had to drag his hand away from his body to shake hands,” Mamaux said. “I thought, ‘What did I do to deserve this? Am I a bad enough person that he practically won’t shake hands?’ I figured, ah, to hell with him. I’m involved with too many important issues to worry about what he thinks of me.”

Pettine says he doesn’t remember that incident ever taking place. “I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Pettine said. “We’ve shaken hands on prior occasions. This is really petty.”

They’ve been at it ever since. In general, Mamaux has been the aggressor, but Pettine has managed to throw timely counter-punches.

On several occasions, Mamaux has criticized Pettine for not working hard enough as a city leader. In particular, Mamaux points to the fact that Pettine is the only council member who does not serve as chairman of a single city committee or commission.

“He just refuses to do anything but those activities that are political,” Mamaux complains. “I don’t think he cares. I don’t think he cares what it takes to run the city.”

The complaint irks Pettine. Because his duties as a deputy district attorney in San Diego consume his days, Pettine says, he has been unable to chair committee meetings, which are typically held during working hours. Moreover, Pettine said, he has made a point on the campaign trail of telling voters that his job commitments would restrict him to tackling council duties only on nights and weekends.

“It’s funny that John supported me in 1984 and knew I was a full-time deputy DA,” Pettine said. “Only when I got on his enemies list did it become an issue.”

Shortly after Mamaux was elected, another dispute erupted that rattled Pettine. Mamaux told city administrators that he did not want Bonnie Sadiasa, the council’s administrative aide, to work for him. Noting that Sadiasa’s boyfriend is a staunch Pettine supporter, Mamaux said he would prefer to have someone else serve as his aide.

“I felt uncomfortable with her handling my correspondence,” Mamaux explained. “She’s a very close personal friend of his. After the way he treated me during the campaign, I wasn’t going to have him privy to everything I do and write.”

Tried to Cut Pay

But Mamaux did not stop there. After an arrangement was fashioned so another secretary served as Mamaux’s aide, the councilman began questioning whether Sadiasa’s $32,000-a-year salary was too high since she was not working for the entire council. The council, however, refused to cut Sadiasa’s pay.

“This is the kind of nonsense that has been going on at City Hall,” Pettine complained. “I know it’s diverting the staff and has been a source of concern for the council. We’re still getting the job done but it doesn’t make it any easier for the council or staff.”

Pettine’s biggest gripe, however, has been what he calls “a witch hunt” being carried out by Mamaux’s friends. On several occasions, associates of Mamaux have made requests at City Hall for records on Pettine, everything from his water-consumption bills to what trips he has taken at city expense.

Richard Nieves, a friend of Mamaux, has gone so far as to write a letter to Mayor Lewis expressing concern that Pettine’s written correspondence represents a misuse of public funds.

In an interview, Nieves said he grew concerned after he reviewed several hundred letters Pettine wrote on city stationary and found that a large number were thank-you notes, memos to new residents welcoming them to the city and letters of congratulations to citizens as well as other state and local officials.

Letters Like Others

Lewis said he has considered Nieves’ complaint but feels Pettine has not abused city policy, noting that the letters are similar to those sent out by other council members.

Pettine, meanwhile, sees an ominous thread in the repeated requests for information, bluntly contending that it is Mamaux behind the effort. He noted that Mamaux was seen holding two of the letters the very same day Nieves received them.

“The motivation I think goes right back to Mr. Mamaux and one of his petty, personal vendettas,” Pettine said. “There’s no question that he’s trying to hurt me politically. But the bottom line is they investigated me inside and out, and couldn’t find anything but some thank-you notes.”

Although Mamaux maintains that Pettine’s correspondence presents a poor use of city stationary, he flatly rejects the notion that he had anything to do with requests for information by Nieves or other citizens. Mamaux said his council foe is trying to “shift the heat” to him.

Then there is the issue of The Snub. When Mamaux organized a June 10 meeting between city officials and the Carlsbad business community, he didn’t have to think twice about keeping Pettine’s name off the guest list.

About 50 business leaders attended the gathering at the Olympic Resort Hotel along with Mamaux, Lewis, Councilwoman Ann Kulchin and Councilman Eric Larson. When Pettine heard about the meeting the next day, he was angry. Aside from not being invited, Pettine questioned whether the gathering might have violated the Brown Act, which requires the public to be notified of meetings involving three or more council members.

“The only person who knew that the public was not being fully noticed, that the press was being excluded and that I wasn’t invited was Mr. Mamaux,” Pettine said. “Whether it’s a Brown Act violation is not a determination for me to make. But even if it was merely a social event, it still put the council and staff in an embarrassing and potentially compromising position.”

City Atty. Vincent Biondo said that the gathering did not violate the Brown Act because it was “essentially a social function” at which the council members sat at different tables and did not discuss city business or reach any decisions. Mayor Lewis, however, insisted that any similar meetings in the future would be open to the public and that no council member would be excluded.

Mamaux, meanwhile, can’t believe all the fuss.

“I just don’t understand why a guy who never comes to a day meeting anyway gets his nose out of joint because he doesn’t come to this one,” Mamaux said. “He wants to be the martyr, I guess . . . Poor baby. Poor baby. I don’t have time to worry about a two-bit lawyer while I’m busy doing things.”

Besides, he said, it’s just as well that Pettine didn’t come. “Since I’ve been on the council, I haven’t seen one positive proposal from him,” Mamaux said. “He has an attitude of trying to find fault with everything.”

For his part, Pettine said he simply wants to see the bickering stop.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re both on the council and we both should work together,” Pettine said. “You don’t particularly have to like someone to work with them.”

Mayor Lewis, meanwhile, hopes a white flag will be raised soon.

“Mr. Mamaux, Mr. Pettine and I are on the council together until 1990,” Lewis said. “That’s a long time for this to go on. I sure hope they can resolve it. This constant bickering makes Carlsbad look bad.”