Some Say Bedfellows Make Strange Politics

Tired of being outvoted 4 to 1 on the Lemon Grove City Council, Councilwoman Karen O’Rourke is asking voters to elect a political soul mate: her husband, Mark.

The O’Rourkes are seeking to be the only married couple in San Diego County, maybe the entire state, to hold seats on the same elected body.

Mark O’Rourke, 39, general manager of Morris-Coronado Corp., which runs five McDonald’s restaurants, is one of six candidates vying for two seats on next week’s ballot.

“I think we’ve got an unusual set of circumstances in Lemon Grove. The rest of the county is passing us by while we do nothing,” he said.

“Having a husband and wife on the council would be unusual, but I sense the mood of the town is that it is time to try something unusual.”

Not everybody is as cheery about having two O’Rourkes on the council.

The local papers have run letters questioning the wisdom of investing so much power in one family. “What assurances will we have that this husband and wife will not act in collusion for their own benefit?” wrote one letter writer.

Unsigned flyers have peppered the city warning that the council could be paralyzed if it needed four votes for an emergency ordinance and the O’Rourkes weren’t around or had a conflict of interest. The flyers urge Lemon Grove to “keep five independent voices” on the council.

Allegations have surfaced that Mark O’Rourke is using his wife’s campaign signs and that he received a contribution from a businessman who got a favorable vote from his wife for a zone change. He denies the former and says the latter is a red herring because he received the contribution long after the vote, in which his wife again lost, 4-1.

“Rather than talk about redevelopment, parking and parks, some people would rather talk about who I’m married to,” complained Mark O’Rourke. But, even without the fuss about his family ties, O’Rourke concedes he is fighting an uphill battle.

Also on the ballot are incumbents James Dorman and Robert Burns, who have been on the council since incorporation in 1977, and three challengers: auto wrecker Bob Holaday, businessman Mark Murray and Ranger Dick Whitmore, supervisor of Chollas Lake Park in San Diego.

Karen O’Rourke, 38, a former journalist, says the fact that her husband is trying to dethrone one of her council colleagues has helped to keep relations chilly between her and the rest of the council.

“I’ve gotten that for two years--what’s the difference?” she said.

Elected in 1986, Karen O’Rourke has found herself the odd person out on several council issues. She was the only council member to oppose high-density condominium projects in the old Ace Drive-In and Miller Dairy properties.

She has loudly protested that the city isn’t moving fast enough on solving downtown parking and redevelopment woes.

“I would definitely call Karen a loner, not a team player,” said Councilwoman Lois Heiserman. “She plays to the audience a lot, instead of seeking answers to questions ahead of time.”

Heiserman hasn’t endorsed anyone but concedes she is troubled by the prospect of a dynasty in the making.

“It just seems to me that, out of 22,000 people in Lemon Grove, we ought to have at least five different families represented on the council,” she said.

Not that Heiserman doesn’t believe in families getting involved in politics. Her father was a councilman in the Midwest, and her son, Chris, a former aide to Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier, is a long-shot candidate against East County Supervisor George Bailey.

And how would life change at the O’Rourkes’ if Mark were elected?

“I don’t think it will change all that much,” said Karen O’Rourke. “Lemon Grove politics has been a major topic around the household for a long time. As it is, Mark sits in the gallery at council meetings. Now he’ll be able to sit up with me.”

Support for Elephants

If the Dunda beating dispute has dimmed public support for Wild Animal Park elephant trainer Alan Roocroft, it was not apparent at a pro-pachyderm fund-raiser Sunday night in Fairbanks Ranch.

About 400 people paid $15 to $20 each to attend the first Elephant Stomp to raise money for the San Diego Fund for Elephants, which hopes to open a breeding farm in San Diego County for endangered Asian and African elephants.

Despite being snared in controversy over the treatment afforded Dunda, Roocroft was given a hero’s welcome, as people crowded to shake his hand, pat his back and apply bear hugs. Roocroft, a member of the fund’s board of directors, said negotiations are under way for an undisclosed site.

He preferred to talk about the fund’s dreams for saving elephants, politely declining to answer questions from reporters about the investigations into what happened to 18-year-old Dunda after she was transferred to the Wild Animal Park from the San Diego Zoo.

“This has nothing to do with that,” he said.