New Vote Ordered on Phone Bid Process

Mayor Maureen O’Connor on Thursday ordered a new vote on the process used to consider bids for a lucrative government telephone contract, a session at which she will abstain from voting because of her financial interest in one of the companies seeking the contract.

The mayor’s directive came after The Times reported the possibility that O’Connor and two San Diego City Council members violated state conflict-of-interest laws when they voted on a decision concerning communications companies in which all three have financial interests.

Although there appears to be no way that the council members themselves could profit from the vote, state law requires public officials to disqualify themselves from decisions that may have a foreseeable financial effect on companies in which they have investments.

A spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission, stressing that she could offer no conclusion in this case without all the facts or a formal complaint, said Wednesday that the matter appeared to meet all the criteria of a decision from which O’Connor and council members Bruce Henderson and Abbe Wolfsheimer should have distanced themselves.

‘No Conflict Existed’

O’Connor’s press secretary, Paul Downey, said the mayor “firmly believes no conflict existed” but will abstain when the matter is heard again Monday.

“She doesn’t want even the hint that any conflict was out there . . . ,” Downey said. “She will abstain just to make it absolutely clear in the public mind that she is very sensitive to the issue of conflict of interest.”

Henderson, who along with Wolfsheimer reported financial interests in one of bidding companies, said Thursday that he will not decide whether to abstain until he receives advice from City Atty. John Witt. Witt’s staff is expected to release an opinion today.

Henderson again maintained that he was not guilty of any conflict, but said that he was glad the question had been raised since it will spur discussions with Witt’s office about conflicts for council members in other matters.

Wolfsheimer could not be reached for comment.

The FPPC has received no complaint on the matter and is not investigating, spokeswoman Sandra Michioku said Thursday. Many considerations are involved in whether an “enforcement action” is taken, she said, including council members’ intent, mitigating circumstances, whether any harm was done and whether a pattern of violations can be determined.

The council Tuesday voted to reconsider all seven bidders for a $12-million to $18-million citywide telephone contract. The action was recommended by the city’s data-processing corporation, a nonprofit group established by the council that has sole authority to select the company that will provide the telephone system.

Council Pressure

The recommendation came after pressure from a majority of council members who, at a May 16 meeting, questioned the selection process and threatened to disband the data-processing corporation if all seven bidders were not reconsidered.

The data-processing corporation had selected Tel Plus Communications for the contract and was ready to begin negotiations with the company until the council intervened.

In her statement of economic interests, O’Connor reported owning more than $100,000 in bonds of General Electric Capital, a subsidiary of General Electric Corp., which is parent company of one of the bidders, RCA.

Henderson reported holdings of $10,000 to $100,000 in GTE Corp., parent company of one of the bidders, General Telephone Co. of California. Wolfsheimer owns 600 shares of GTE.

O’Connor and Henderson noted that they were not present at the May 16 meeting when the council first intervened to force a change in the selection process and both have vocally opposed the move to interfere led by Councilman Ron Roberts and Wolfsheimer.

“I wasn’t even in the country” for the vote, said O’Connor, who was vacationing in Europe on May 16 but had her chief of staff, Ben Dillingham, read a statement against intervention. “I don’t know how I got on the short end of this one, but somehow I managed to do it.”