3 on Council Must Sit Out Vote on Fees

Three San Diego City Council members are disqualified from an upcoming vote on whether they are entitled to city reimbursement for more than $104,000 in attorney’s fees because they have a direct financial interest in the vote’s outcome, according to an opinion prepared by City Atty. John Witt’s office.

The legal ruling makes it mathematically unlikely that Council Members Bob Filner, Linda Bernhardt and John Hartley will prevail in a closed-session vote on the fees scheduled for Tuesday. It also sets up the probability that the three will challenge Witt’s legal opinion in court, their lawyer said Thursday.

“If that’s our client’s wish, that’s what I’ll do,” said David Lundin, who is at the center of the legal battle.

The wrangling stems from the council’s bitter internal conflict last summer over reapportionment of council members’ districts, a dispute that landed in federal court. The court case was triggered by the council’s 5-4 vote in favor of a redistricting plan that the city’s Chicano Federation said did not adequately increase the percentage of Latinos in Filner’s 8th District.

Witt’s office was pledged to represent the council majority of Filner, Bernhardt, Hartley, Wes Pratt and Abbe Wolfsheimer. But Filner, Bernhardt and Hartley--contending they could not receive fair and adequate representation from Witt’s office because of the deep division on the council--hired Lundin as their attorney in the case. The three could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

In November, Lundin asked the city to reimburse him for $104,596.54 in fees and costs incurred by the three council members.

“Our services were substituting for services the city was obligated to provide but couldn’t, because of the existence of the conflict,” he said Thursday.

The members of the council minority on the reapportionment issue--Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Council Members Bruce Henderson, Ron Roberts and Judy McCarty--also hired attorneys. But, because Witt’s office determined that it was required to represent the majority, it approved city reimbursement for those four.

With the council scheduled to discuss Lundin’s payments Tuesday, Deputy City Atty. Cristie McGuire ruled that Filner, Bernhardt and Hartley must disqualify themselves from the vote. McGuire’s opinion is dated Jan. 29, but is not scheduled for release until today.

With Pratt and Wolfsheimer the only remaining members of the reapportionment coalition eligible to vote, it appears unlikely that the council will support the reimbursement request, Lundin said.