Council Asks Guidance on Conflicts of Interest

The City Council’s Rules Committee on Wednesday asked City Atty. John Witt and City Clerk Charles Abdelnour to devise a system that lets council members know of potential conflicts of interest before they vote.

San Diego City Council members have complained for months that they and their staffs lack the legal knowledge to determine when they can vote on contracts, development projects and bids.

“We are not that sophisticated about the law,” said Mayor Maureen O’Connor. “The city manager deals with contracts. . . . We have no way of knowing whether a tire company is a subsidiary of Pac Bell. You guys have got to come up with the system.”

Wednesday’s request came four months after Witt ruled that O’Connor and council members Abbe Wolfsheimer and Bruce Henderson unintentionally violated state conflict-of-interest laws when they voted to reopen competition for a multimillion-dollar city telephone contract involving companies in which all three held financial interests.

Witt’s ruling came after The Times noted that all three had investments in the parent firms or subsidiaries of the companies. A state Fair Political Practices Commission spokeswoman suggested that they may have run afoul of a law requiring them to abstain from decisions that might affect them financially.

The June 5 ruling caused the three to demand frequent guidance from Witt’s office. When dissatisfied with those opinions, they often refused to vote.

The abstentions have twice held up a council decision on a downtown high-rise because Wolfsheimer and Henderson have been unable to determine whether a vote would add to the value of property they own nearby.

When Witt’s office issued a legal opinion in August that said, in effect, “We don’t know, you decide for yourself,” Henderson angrily accused city attorneys of trying to “pass the monkey to my back.”

The teeth-gnashing continued Wednesday, with Henderson again contending that Witt’s ruling was wrong.

He said the idea that his May 30 vote on the phone contract might profit General Telephone of California or himself was “bizarre, ludicrous, stupid and irrational.”

“All I want is a definitive response,” Henderson said later. “Can I vote or can’t I vote?”

Witt’s office offered additional guidance Wednesday, but still appeared to want council members’ staffs to monitor their bosses’ investments and warn them about potential conflicts of interest.

But O’Connor, Henderson and Councilwoman Judy McCarty said the task would be too time-consuming and difficult for staff members untrained in complex state conflict-of-interest laws.

The committee voted to ask Witt and Abdelnour to create a system to check council members’ investments against pending votes. The committee accepted a warning from Chief Deputy City Atty. Jack Katz that his department might need to hire extra staff members.