SANTA ANA : Dickerson Claims Pulido Violated Law

City Council candidate Coween Dickerson, whom Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr. accused last week of violating a state campaign law, has countered with a charge of her own: that Pulido improperly used $5,300 in campaign funds to pay for a Harvard University class in 1987.

Dickerson, who is running against incumbent Pulido in the Nov. 6 election, said Thursday that she has filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the attorney general’s office, which had supervised the election law concerning personal use of campaign funds prior to 1990.

Attorney general spokeswoman Christina Mullen said the state has no clear-cut definition about the use of campaign funds for tuition. But she said the attorney general’s office did issue an advisory letter in 1987 stating that campaign funds could be used for tuition if “there is a reasonable relationship to political, legislative or governmental purposes.”

Pulido scoffed at Dickerson’s accusation and said his expenses have been carefully screened by his campaign treasurer, Shirley Grindle, author of the county’s so-called TIN-CUP campaign reform law.

Pulido said the three-week class at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government--”Senior Executives in State and Local Government”--did not fall into the category of personal use because the program helped him become a “better councilman.” Pulido said the course material involved “simulated situations on decisions concerning public policy. . . .”

“It’s not as if I was taking a class on cultural anthropology and I needed this for a degree,” Pulido said. “This is just more negative campaigning from Coween.”