Participant Defends Tribute to Brodericks

If you thought the passions and loyalties aroused by the Broderick case were subsiding, think again.

Kenneth G. Coveney, a San Diego tax attorney and former partner of Dan Broderick, sent an angry letter to the city’s daily newspapers last week to correct what he said was an inaccurate description of a St. Patrick’s Day graveside tribute to Dan and Linda Broderick.

“To allow the unsubstantiated and untrue babble of Jack Earley, Elisabeth Broderick’s mouthpiece, to go unchallenged,” Coveney wrote, “would indeed compound the injustices which have already been committed by Elisabeth Broderick.”

At Elisabeth Broderick’s preliminary hearing on murder charges, defense attorney Earley had questioned one of Elisabeth and Dan Broderick’s daughters about whether the ceremony had included drinking and pouring liquor on the graves.

In his letter, Coveney took sharp issue with the San Diego Tribune’s use of the unattributed phrase “boozy graveside ceremony.”

The ceremony, Coveney wrote, involved a dozen family members and close friends, all wearing green boutonnieres. They stood silently by the graves, passed around a bottle of Irish whiskey and listened to a recording of “Danny Boy.”

“The whole occasion lasted about 15 minutes and was a quiet, dignified tribute to our slain friends,” Coveney wrote.

Coveney and Broderick were partners in the prominent firm of Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye before Broderick left to start his own firm.

In an interview, Coveney, 45, said he and other friends of the Brodericks do not plan to act as a truth squad dogging the trial. But neither do they plan to sit idly by if there are disparaging things said about Dan and Linda Broderick.

“I would encourage the media generally to listen to whatever is said with a healthy dose of skepticism,” Coveney said. “Dan certainly was no saint, but he was a hell of a guy, and I can’t think of anybody whose integrity is subject to fewer questions than Dan’s.”

A Line on Politics

The political hive is abuzz with news that McMillin Development has hired two consultants with links to San Diego Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt to lobby on behalf of the controversial Miramar Ranch North proposal in Bernhardt’s district.

Bernhardt made her adamant opposition to Miramar Ranch North the key issue in her defeat last year of pro-growth incumbent Ed Struiksma.

Her campaign manager was Rick Taylor, a political consultant from Los Angeles. Later, she hired fund-raiser Jean Andrews, a former Building Industry Assn. consultant, to help retire a $140,000 campaign debt.

Now, McMillin has hired Taylor and Andrews to help win approval for the 1,200-acre, 2,900-home Miramar Ranch North project, the most explosive political-environmental issue in the Scripps Ranch-Miramar Lake area.

Steve McGill, senior vice president at McMillin, said Taylor and Andrews were hired “for their expertise as political consultants and campaign specialists.” (Andrews has also done fund raising for council members Bob Filner, Bruce Henderson and Judy McCarty.)

Chris Crotty, Bernhardt’s chief of staff, said McMillin officials checked before hiring Taylor and Andrews to see if Bernhardt opposed the idea. She didn’t.

Bernhardt’s vote will be determined by the environmental merits of the project, Crotty said, not by which lobbyists are hired.

Still, with Taylor and Andrews paving the way, Bernhardt and McMillin boss Corky McMillin have had four meetings, with more planned. Relations between Bernhardt and McMillin had been chilly and distant.

“Prior to their (Taylor-Andrews) involvement,” Crotty said, “Corky and Linda had not met.”

The Taylor-Andrews arrangement is much discussed among builders. Dennis Meehan, vice president of Foote Development, said it smacks of making a builder buy access to a council member.

“You shouldn’t have to resort to paying consultants to speak to a council member,” he said.

Andrews says it’s no secret that she and Taylor are aided in their effort by knowing Bernhardt and the district: “It doesn’t make any sense for McMillin to hire someone who can’t get his phone calls returned.”

She declined to confirm a rumor that she and Taylor have been promised a six-figure bonus if Miramar Ranch North is approved.