3 Accused of Campaign Violations in Escondido

Three Escondido council members were accused by political opponents Wednesday of breaking city election laws by accepting campaign loans last year that were larger than allowed.

The accusations were leveled by the Escondido Common Sense Committee, a group that has battled with the three council members, part of a slow-growth contingent. A top leader of the committee lost a race for the City Council last year.

The committee said Wednesday that it took its allegations to the district attorney seven weeks ago. A committee official said the group decided to make its accusations public partly in the hope that publicity will encourage the district attorney’s staff to give the matter a higher priority.

Linda Miller, spokeswoman for the district attorney, said the allegations are being reviewed, but a decision on whether to conduct a full-scale investigation had not been made. “We are (at) the midpoint,” she said. “We have not rejected the charges out of hand, nor have we decided to launch a full-scale investigation.”

Harmon Denied Accusations

The object of the complaints are council members Jerry Harmon, Kris Murphy and Carla DeDominicis. Harmon, a veteran councilman, denied the accusations. Murphy and DeDominicis, both elected to the council last year, were not reachable for comment.

The committee has accused Harmon of breaking Escondido’s election laws during last year’s City Council election by loaning both Murphy and DeDominicis more than the $250 allowed by the city.

Harmon loaned Murphy $1,739 and DeDominicis $1,424, according to committee consultant Lance Stalker, who spoke Wednesday at a press conference. He said the loans were reported by Murphy and DeDominicis on their campaign disclosure statements filed shortly after their June, 1988, election, and by Harmon on his disclosure statement last December.

The committee also alleges that Murphy, a businessman, and DeDominicis, a lawyer, both accepted the loans and failed to pay them back within the 60-day period specified in city election statutes.

Harmon, a telephone company executive, said in an interview that he never loaned any funds to Murphy or DeDominicis.

‘No Money Changed Hands’

“No money changed hands,” Harmon said. The amounts involved, he said, were spent by his campaign committee on “two or three newspaper ads and a mailer right before the election, which also mentioned Carla (DeDominicis) and Kris (Murphy) and set out our common objectives.”

After the election, Harmon said, the state Fair Political Practices Commission ruled that the cost of the political advertising had to be shared by DeDominicis and Murphy, even though Harmon had ordered the advertising.

Harmon said his two running mates have since paid for their shares of the political tracts, which he emphasized were not loans, and had reported the expenditures on their political disclosure statements.

Harmon said he and his two colleagues had been advised by Terry Knoepp, an attorney hired as an independent counsel by the city, that the money did not have to be repaid within a specified time “as long as good faith efforts were being made to settle the matter.”

Committee officials said they had asked Knoepp twice, once in October and once in December, to investigate their charges against the so-called slow-growth troika and had received no response from him. Knoepp has since been appointed a municipal judge and is no longer employed by the city, they said.

Not Involved in Matter

Escondido Deputy City Atty. Jeff Epp said he heard of the accusations for the first time Wednesday and has not been involved in the matter. He said Knoepp was hired as a consulting attorney to keep the city attorney’s office “out of the city’s internal politics.”

Pat (P.K.) Walker, secretary of the committee and a losing candidate in last year’s council elections, said the committee “has opened up a can of worms.”

The accusations, if proved, could lead to the ouster of the three council members from office, and could also throw into question all council votes in which they participated since last year’s election.

Such a development would leave the city without a council quorum.

Walker said the committee still has the right to submit the matter to the county grand jury or to the state attorney general’s office if the county attorney fails to act.

The group sent a letter to Escondido Mayor Doris Thurston and other city officials, asking that the council order city staff members to investigate what steps should be taken to “protect the city should a worst-case situation develop” and a majority of the council members should be ousted.