Super Bowl Ticket Fever a Hot Issue for Supervisors

Super Bowl ticket fever hit the San Diego County Board of Supervisors Wednesday, and temperatures hit record highs.

The always volatile political issue of how to fill an opening on the Stadium Authority became downright explosive when talk turned to whether a pending appointment should be made before or after Jan. 31, the date of Super Bowl XXII at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Stadium Authority members, who advise the city on how to run the stadium, serve four-year terms and receive two free tickets in a special, guarded city-county stadium skybox for every single event.

Even in normal years, that makes appointment to the nine-member authority a nice bit of patronage for supervisors--as well as the San Diego mayor and council--to pass out to political supporters. Since this is anything but a normal year, the stakes were even higher.

Supervisor’s Chairman George Bailey first suggested this week naming retired Superior Court Judge Gilbert Harelson to the board effective immediately to replace two-term authority member George Mitrovich. The informal way that supervisors have gone about filling these posts has left unclear when Mitrovich’s term actually expires.

North County Supervisor John MacDonald countered Bailey by suggesting that Harelson’s appointment be delayed until after the Super Bowl. This way Mitrovich could enjoy one last--and ultimate--freebie.

‘Plum Appointment’

The bickering over who should make this and future nominations to the vacancy, and exactly when they should take effect, flared for 30 minutes Wednesday as more than 100 residents of Rancho Santa Fe waited in the audience to hear discussion of a controversial plan to build a resort in their woodsy isle.

“The Stadium Authority is such a plum appointment that there is more attention focused on this appointment than others,” Supervisor Susan Golding said during the discussion.

With so much discussion of football in the air, Supervisor Brian Bilbray used a bit of basketball terminology for emphasis.

“It’s a battle we always have one way or another,” he said. “The issue is open. It’s not slam-dunk.”

MacDonald said he would like to nominate Dick Chick, an old political rival who gave him a much-needed endorsement in his 1986 supervisorial campaign.

Golding said she had a candidate who could easily garner three votes for appointment--later identified by her as banker-political activist Murray Galinson.

Bilbray, who represents South Bay, said he’d like more people from outside San Diego named to the county’s two slots on the Stadium Authority. Bailey, who represents East County, liked that idea a lot.

Who’s in Charge?

Golding and Bailey then started arguing over who was running the meeting when Golding addressed a question to another one of her colleagues about the stadium appointment process.

“Excuse me, I’m chairing the meeting, Susan,” Bailey cut in, “so I’ll do the calling.”

“I do think I have the right to ask a colleague a question,” Golding shot back. “If I cannot ask a colleague a question, I don’t think this board can function.”

Finally, a truce:

Harelson was appointed to the Stadium Authority, but only starting Feb. 1 so Mitrovich--the City Club founder, publicist, and one-time political intimate of Roger Hedgecock--can retain his Super Bowl ducats.

Supervisors decided that Harelson is to be given “all the rights and privileges” of an authority member even before Feb. 1, which may give him a boost in finding alternative tickets.

Golding and Supervisor Leon Williams will form a committee to set down rules for future nominations to Stadium Authority slots to avoid future fights. Also, supervisors decided Wednesday that all future stadium authority terms will expire on Dec. 31.

“This is a sensitive kind of situation,” MacDonald explained to the audience.