Wolfsheimer to Quit Port District Post : Politics: The action, along with that of a fellow port comissioner, ends the threat of a fight with City Hall over filling the powerful posts.

Louis Wolfsheimer said Wednesday he will resign Feb. 7 from the San Diego Unified Port District, defusing a possible confrontation with the San Diego City Council over when he and fellow Commissioner William Rick will step down from the wealthy and powerful agency that controls state tidelands around San Diego Bay.

In a letter to council members dated today, Wolfsheimer wrote that he will quit next month unless the council asks him to serve longer. He also left open the possibility of staying on until his council-picked successor is sworn in.

“It is not my desire to preclude the City Council from making appropriate appointments to the Port Board,” Wolfsheimer wrote, “and therefore, though the Convention Center will not be completed and significant problems remain, I intend to resign my appointment to the Port on Feb. 7, 1990, unless the Council requests me to remain until these pressing problems are at least analyzed.”

The resignations, and an upcoming attempt by some council members to remove San Diego’s third port appointee, W. Daniel Larsen, will bring to a head behind-the-scenes jockeying over nominees to the Port District, which built the city’s new $165-million bayfront convention center.

Early last month, Rick and Wolfsheimer ignited a controversy with Councilman Bob Filner when they wrote letters to Mayor Maureen O’Connor suggesting that they were willing to hold onto their posts for as long as nine months in anticipation of the filing of a $60-million lawsuit against the district by the convention center’s general contractor, Tutor-Saliba Corp.

On Nov. 6, 1986, the council waived a policy restricting port commissioners to two four-year terms and reappointed Wolfsheimer to a third term, on the understanding that he would resign when “the new San Diego Convention Center is completed and opened for business,” according to the resolution adopted by the council. A similar arrangement was reached with Rick on Jan. 17, 1989.

Filner, charging that O’Connor orchestrated the letters to give her time to assemble support on the council for her port nominees, won council approval Dec. 11 for a debate next Monday over Rick’s and Wolfsheimer’s resignations.

But Rick agreed in a Dec. 18 letter to step down when his replacement is named, and Wolfsheimer’s letter effectively precludes the need for council debate, at least on the timing of the resignations.

“I’m pleased that Mr. Rick and Mr. Wolfsheimer recognize the commitment they made to the council,” Filner said. “I hope the council will act very quickly to appoint a commissioner representative of the diversity of San Diego.”

Still to be discussed, Filner said, is a date for choosing the pair’s replacements--a scheduling matter usually left to O’Connor, but one which Filner said he intends to nail down at Monday’s council meeting.

“I hope we will schedule an appointment somewhere in the middle of January,” Filner said, and that the new commissioners will be appointed by the February port meeting.

Filner and Councilmen Wes Pratt and John Hartley have also said they will call for Larsen’s resignation Monday for failing to vote the council’s position on a number of issues, including renaming the convention center for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Larsen said Dec. 20 that he will not step down, even if a majority of the council calls on him to resign. City Atty. John Witt has consistently advised the council members that they lack the authority to recall him without demonstrating malfeasance on Larsen’s part.

Hartley held a news conference Wednesday to announce that he has nominated labor leader Joseph Francis for one of the vacancies. Francis, executive secretary-treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, was active in organized labor’s efforts on behalf of Hartley, who defeated Councilwoman Gloria McColl in September.

Other council members have formally or informally nominated candidates to the commission, with several promising to work hard to put a member of a minority group on the now all-white, all-male panel.

Councilman Wes Pratt, the council’s lone black, is nominating a black, Clifford Graves, former chief administrative officer of the county government, and Filner has nominated attorney Daniel L. Guevara, a Latino.

Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer is backing the only publicly announced female nominee, attorney Lynn Schenk. Councilwoman Judy McCarty is supporting prominent land-use attorney Paul Peterson and John Carlson, a retired businessman who lives in her 7th District.

Councilman Bruce Henderson supports Peterson and former City Councilman Bill Cleator.

O’Connor and council members Ron Roberts and Linda Bernhardt have made no formal nominations.