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Bernhardt, Council Allies Consider an Appeal

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The ruling bloc on the San Diego City Council on Thursday scheduled an emergency closed-door meeting to discuss appealing a judge’s ruling on the locale of Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt’s April 9 recall election. The meeting will be at 3 p.m. today.

Judge Harrison Hollywood on Wednesday overruled the council’s Jan. 9 decision to move the recall into Bernhardt’s newly reapportioned 5th District. Instead, Hollywood said, Bernhardt must face voters in the neighborhoods of her old 5th district, where the petitions to recall her from office were circulated.

That district includes the Scripps Ranch and Mira Mesa neighborhoods, where sentiment against Bernhardt is believed to be strongest.

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Council members Abbe Wolfsheimer, John Hartley, Wes Pratt, Bob Filner and Bernhardt signed a memo calling the special meeting. They have composed the council’s ruling majority since Hartley and Bernhardt took office in December, 1989, and were the same five who voted to switch the recall into Bernhardt’s reconfigured district.

The boundaries of that district do not include Scripps Ranch and Mira Mesa, but encompass most of Clairemont.

Bernhardt aide Heide Bunkowski said that Clairemont voters angered by Hollywood’s decision called Bernhardt’s office Thursday demanding the right to vote in the tandem election that would name Bernhardt’s successor if she is recalled.

Also Thursday, seven candidates seeking to replace Bernhardt returned nominating papers before the 5 p.m. deadline in an attempt to enter the race. The city clerk’s office must validate the signatures before each candidate is officially entered in the race.

The seven are: Former City Councilman Floyd Morrow of Linda Vista; Dena Holman, aide to former Congressman Jim Bates, of Mission Valley; Tom Behr, a corporate attorney from Scripps Ranch; Mike Eckmann, a county planning analyst from Scripps Ranch who ran against Bernhardt in 1989; John Brand, a Mira Mesa land use planner; Kenneth Moser, a credit union manager from Mira Mesa, and Les Braund, a Mira Mesa general contractor.

Robert Schuman, who had filed a lawsuit in an attempt to be allowed into the race, has decided to bow out, his attorney, Steve Kane, said Thursday. Schuman had switched residences twice to conform with actual or anticipated council decisions on the election boundaries, and did not want to move again after Hollywood’s ruling, Kane said.

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