Council Rejects Mayor’s Bid to Delay Port Pick

In an unusual decision Monday, the San Diego City Council rejected Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s request to postpone today’s scheduled appointment of two new San Diego port commissioners because she will be absent.

The mayor leaves today for a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington and then travels to Moscow for the opening of an exhibit of Faberge eggs and the opening of the Soviet Union’s first McDonald’s restaurant.

The council did agree, however, to schedule a Feb. 7 discussion of whether it has the authority to recall Dan Larsen, one of its three appointees to the powerful San Diego Unified Port District.

The latter decision, scheduled to discuss City Atty. John Witt’s legal opinion that the council lacks the authority to recall Larsen without demonstrating malfeasance on his part, appears to have been made because the coalition that wants to dump Larsen is one vote short of the five votes needed to recall him, according to council sources.

Council members John Hartley, Bob Filner, Wes Pratt and Abbe Wolfsheimer appear ready to oust Larsen for failing to vote the council’s position on several issues, including renaming the San Diego Convention Center for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. However, the group lacks the fifth vote needed for a majority, sources said.

The council will proceed, however, with naming replacements for outgoing Commissioners William Rick and Louis Wolfsheimer, appointments that could have a substantial impact on how much control the council has over the wealthy and influential agency. The city has three seats on the seven-member Board of Port Commissioners.

Generally, the council agrees to postpone debates when a member asks for the courtesy. But the commission appointments have become a heated political issue between O’Connor and Filner, who has claimed that the mayor is attempting to delay the appointments to round up support for her choices.

Filner was joined by Wolfsheimer, Hartley, Pratt and Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt, who, in the past two months, formed a new council majority on some issues.