Talk About Becoming Obsessed With Getting Blood From a Turnip

Just when you think bureaucrats are no longer vigilant in guarding taxpayers’ money along comes the case of the City of San Diego vs. Ann Strodtman.

Strodtman, in her mid-30s, is a welfare mother. She and her 12-year-old daughter live on $675 a month from Aid to Families With Dependent Children, plus food stamps.

In 1983, Strodtman drove her car into a utility pole at a Point Loma gas station.

The city got a $150 court judgment against Strodtman. But she moved before the city could collect; welfare mothers are always searching for affordable housing.

Strodtman never left San Diego, but the city government lost track of her. Maybe somebody spilled coffee on the computer.

Then a few months ago her name resurfaced. The city sent in the bill collectors. She refused to answer the door at her Hillcrest apartment.

The city got tough: threatening more court action. After all, the bill had swollen to a whopping $350: that’s $150 for the pole and $200 in late fees.

Strodtman says the collectors made 15 calls to her, her landlord and others.

She agreed to a $30 a month repayment schedule. She reneged after Gov. Wilson announced plans to cut welfare payments.

She went to the City Council pleading for help: talking first with the entire august body and then with individual members.

What she got was nodding heads and glazed eyes. It’s not as if she’s somebody important like a developer attorney or a political contributor.

Last week, the city played its trump card: freezing Strodtman’s checking account until the city gets its $350.

City Treasurer Conny Jamison says Strodtman has not always been truthful. For example, she initially denied having a checking account:

“We’re pursuing her as we would anybody who owes a debt. We’re doing everything we can.”

Strodtman sees it differently:

“Ever since they found me, they’ve made my life a living hell. Don’t they realize my daughter and I are barely surviving?”

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Don Pack, now managing an apartment building in North Park, was a news photographer in Santa Monica in the 1950s when he met actor Peter Lawford and the rest of the Hollywood Rat Pack.

Pack’s pack picture is used in the new biography of Lawford, “The Man Who Kept the Secrets,” by James Spada. Also, a Pack picture of Lawford and his brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy.

And an anecdote about Pack meeting Lawford again in 1984 shortly before his death. Lawford was sick and strung out, so Pack paid his $50 grocery tab.

Spada’s book is having some surprising results.

Pack just received a $50 check, written by a New York accounting firm on a Chase-Manhattan Bank account (thus shielding the true sender’s identity). Plus a note: “Thank you for helping Peter Lawford.”

Spada notes that other anonymous checks have been sent to people who helped Lawford, also on a Chase-Manhattan account.

Those checks were later discovered to be from Jacqueline Kennedy.

Let Cymbals Clang for Joy

You read it here.

* Off my back.

The Hare Krishnas are promising to quit selling T-shirts on the streets near the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Balboa Park and various beaches and parks.

Too many bad vibes from annoyed tourists and locals, says local Krishna leader Badrinarayan dasa.

* Don’t ask me why.

A man from Longmont, Colo., signing himself “Special Agent from the God-of-Water,” has sent letters to San Diego City Hall predicting an 8.0 earthquake near the Sino-Soviet border for this month.

* A coalition of animal-rights groups is filing a protest with the National Marine Fisheries Service demanding that Sea World keep the newborn killer whale with its mother.

Not to worry: Sea World says it has no plans to separate mom and calf.

* North County bumper sticker: “Think Tamales.”