City Politics Could Be a Stage Musical, Just Don’t Let Roberts Cast the Show

The political whirl.

* Oops there goes the show-tune vote.

In his ringing endorsement Monday of Susan Golding, Councilman Ron Roberts slammed Peter Navarro as a San Diego version of Prof. Henry Higgins from “The Music Man” trying to swindle voters with nonexistent goods.

Close but not quite.

Bob Davidson of La Jolla notes (correctly) that Prof. Henry Higgins is in “My Fair Lady.” The scamming rascal in “The Music Man” is Harold Hill.

“It just shows I should stick to baseball and other things I know,” says Roberts.

* Mayor Maureen O’Connor is set to attend the Democratic Convention as a Jerry Brown delegate.

* The electronic campaign continues.

The Bill Clinton campaign has a $25 per-person fund-raiser tonight at the Holiday Inn/Embarcadero, one of 100 across the country, with Clinton appearing at them all via satellite.

Of the 100 cities, San Diego is one of seven that will be able to ask questions.

For your $25, you get nachos, hot dogs and popcorn. No Sister Souljah music allowed. I checked.

“You can count on it,” says a campaign spokesman.

* More reformer than thou.

Encinitas Councilwoman Pam Slater placed a strong second (27%) in the primary for 3rd District supervisor with campaign signs that urged voters to “Send A Message To Downtown.”

Now, San Diego Councilwoman Judy McCarty, who placed first with 29% and will face Slater in a November runoff, is trying to steal the reformer thunder.

Thursday night, McCarty will have fraud investigator David Sossaman and other like-minded county employees at her house to watch ABC’s “PrimeTime Live,” which will have a segment on corruption in the county welfare department (including a Sossaman interview).

McCarty notes that a rival batch of county employees is holding a party the same night for deposed welfare department boss Richard Jacobsen, the object of Sossaman’s wrath.

McCarty’s invitation to the press: “Join the Whistle Blowers, Not The Problem Makers.”

Stars Among Marshals

Names and other things.

* Federal Marshal Tony Bennett of Minnesota is attending the National Sheriffs’ Assn. convention in San Diego.

He’s disappointed though that his fellow marshals Jimmy Stewart of Michigan and Jimmy Carter of Georgia couldn’t make the trip.

(All no relation to their famous namesakes.)

* For any sociologists in the crowd, here’s a breakdown by the San Diego Police Department vice squad of men arrested and jailed in the “john-sweep” last weekend on Midway Drive:

Seven U.S. Navy, 1 Greek Navy, 2 food service employees, 2 laborers, 2 unemployed, 1 painter, 1 self-employed, 1 lab maintenance worker, 1 medical technician, 1 appraiser and 1 manager.

Don’t ask me what the (19-year-old) manager manages; apparently not his sex drive.

* A new policy allows city employees to dress casual on Fridays.

Up Front, a publication of the San Diego P.D., notes that Sgt. Tom Carmody showed up one Friday in his bathrobe and with a coffee cup and newspaper. As a joke, I think.

* Custom Logos, a San Diego silkscreening/embroidery/printing business, is fuming over a supposed $5,000 unpaid bill left by the French entry in the America’s Cup for sweat shirts and polo shirts.

The firm has sent angry letters to everyone from the French syndicate boss in Paris to President Bush, complaining that it waived its normal credit check procedure for America’s Cup participants:

“We thought the rules of sportsmanship and gentlemanship would surely guarantee payment.”

* Marines being pushed out because of military cutbacks are not without options.

An “executive bodyguard” firm in Aspen, Colo., has a big ad in the Camp Pendleton newspaper: “Looking for new ways to use your military skills?”

Avoiding the Traffic

I’m concerned about that robbery suspect said by a police dispatcher to be driving “ east on Interstate 5.”