Second SDG&E; Director Quits Since Merger Vote

O. Morris Sievert on Tuesday became the second member of San Diego Gas & Electric’s board of directors to resign since the board’s Nov. 30 vote to accept a $2.4-billion merger with SCEcorp’s Southern California Edison subsidiary.

Sievert, a longtime San Diego businessman who is president of a business consulting firm, had been a member of SDG&E;’s board since 1976.

Sievert, who was unavailable for comment Wednesday, resigned because of a “strong disagreement” with the board’s vote, according to a spokesman for him. “He did not feel that he could continue to be associated with the board,” the spokesman said.

Sievert’s resignation was “understandable . . . he voted against the merger with SCEcorp,” an SDG&E; spokesman said. The utility is sorry that Sievert elected to resign, he added.

On Dec. 1, just one day after SDG&E;’s directors accepted SCEcorp’s stock-swap merger offer, Charles (Red) Scott, chairman of La Jolla-based Intermark, resigned from SDG&E;’s board.

Scott questioned the validity of legal advice that SDG&E;’s board received before accepting the SCEcorp offer. Directors were told that they “had no choice but to approve the Edison offer and that any other decision would result in personal liability to the directors,” Scott said.

Scott said he based his opposition to the merger on “35 years of business experience, my due diligence, my common-sense judgment and my evaluation of the bias of certain advisers who told us that we had no choice” but to accept the offer.

In a related matter, SDG&E; Chairman Thomas Page is expected to respond today to San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s demand that the SDG&E; board reconsider the vote to merge with Edison.

The merger has been opposed by some San Diego leaders because it would eliminate hundreds of local jobs and leave the city with one less large corporate headquarters.