Duffy Unwittingly Helps Pay for Party Celebrating His Leaving

It just keeps happening.

* Dear John.

Everett and Maudie Bobbitt will host a party at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse to celebrate the departure/removal/exile of Sheriff John Duffy.

Everett is the attorney who battled Duffy on behalf of deputies. Maudie, his wife, is a sheriff’s captain who was suspended by Duffy for a month in 1989.

Duffy has not been invited to the bash. But his presence will be felt anyway.

The Bobbitts are paying for the party with the back pay that Maudie got after the Civil Service Commission revoked her suspension as unjustified.

* The hounds of the press may have missed the real scandal in Duffy’s secret bank account with money seized in drug raids.

According to documents released by Duffy, he wrote two dozen checks or so on an account topping $1 million at Security Pacific Bank. He was assessed $11.36 in check charges.

You plunk down $1 million and don’t get free checking? Call the grand jury.

* Political whirl.

Two members of the Public Utilities Commission, thought to favor the SDG&E-Southern; California Edison merger, are seeking reappointment. Otherwise, they will be gone by the time of the vote.

The decision will be up to San Diego’s Pete Wilson, who has stayed mum on the merger.

* Classified ad in San Diego State’s Daily Aztec:

“Do you know anywhere to find a cheap truck? Preferably a way rad, surf rig with (Grateful) Dead stickers & smelling of Humboldt County.”

What color would you prefer?

* How hot was the anti-incumbent fever?

Three incumbents on the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District board were on the ballot last week. Two of the three lost.

The one who survived was the only one not to list “incumbent” after her name.

* David Spisak was reelected to a third term on the Lemon Grove school board. By 15 votes.

He’s being called “Landslide Dave.”

War and Peace

Two more military reserve units from San Diego County are being called up. Poway management consultant Richard Lyles is coaching the Saudi Arabian government on crisis management.

In San Diego, peace groups are promising a silent vigil every Sunday in Balboa Park until the crisis is past.

The peace committee of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) met this week to map out a more assertive approach. Last week the group bombarded President Bush with letters pleading for negotiations.

Among those leading the way: Martha Fort, retired professor of social work at San Diego State and an anti-Vietnam war activist. She worked for two years in a health clinic in South Vietnam until “friendly fire” from the Tet offensive forced evacuation.

Last night, Brewster Grace, Quaker representative in Amman, Jordan, talked to a meeting of the La Jolla and San Diego Quaker groups.

He’s just returned to this country and is shocked at the war fever.

“I think the international community is not going to sustain the American intervention in the gulf,” he says. “Bush will either have to go to war or negotiate. Right now, I’d say it’s 50-50.”

Canine Justice, Human Justices

Dogs, judges and lawyers.

* Sign on new home in Oceanside: “Warning. Dog Bites First. Asks Questions Later.”

* Deputy Dist. Atty. David Cox, who would have been the lead prosecutor if Roger Hedgecock had been tried a third time, can be excused if he’s let down that the case was settled.

Friends are reminding him that Trial I prosecutor Richard Huffman and Trial II prosecutor Charles Wickersham went directly to coveted spots on the Superior Court bench.

* Gov. George Deukmejian has already asked the State Bar to evaluate Municipal Judge Larry Stirling for promotion to the Superior Court.

Duke named then-Sen. Stirling to the muni bench in September, 1989.