Questions Over Gift of $500 Cuff Links Leave City Agency With the Gold Bill

As an item of male furnishing, the $500 gold cuff links given Thursday to John Davies for his service on the downtown redevelopment agency board are nifty indeed.

Engraved with the logo of the Centre City Development Corp., it’s 14-carat gold, done up by David of California, one of San Diego’s better jewelers.

As an item of political timing, however, the cuff links could fairly be said to stink on ice.

Figure it: A public agency bestowing $500 gold cuff links on a big-time attorney whose bank account is flush enough that he could buy several fully stocked jewelry stores if he had a mind to.

This in the same week that Davies’ good friend, Gov. Pete Wilson, signed the tightest/meanest budget in history and officials are crying that schools, hospitals, the aged and the helpless are going to suffer horribly.

A member of the San Diego City Council named Abbe Wolfsheimer was intrigued by the $500 gold cuff links. Hounds of the press began asking questions about the $500 gold cuff links.

Pam Hamilton, CCDC executive director, defended the $500 gold cuff links. She had figures to show that $500 is about what CCDC usually spends on a luncheon and plaque for a departing board member.

Since everybody was paying for his/her own lunch at Thursday’s farewell party for Davies, Hamilton had decided to plow the entire $500 into a gift: cuff links like those given to her predecessor Jerry Trimble.

“That’s not a lot of money,” she said. “Have you priced gold recently? You have to put these things in perspective. It’s a way of thanking them for public service.”

She noted that Davies spent seven years on the board at the paltry sum of $50 per meeting and deserved a nice token of appreciation.

“It’s good business,” she said.

That was midday Wednesday. A few hours later, she called back.

Pat Kruer, the developer who is succeeding Davies as CCDC board president, had made a presidential decision:

The $500 gold cuff links will not be paid for with CCDC (read public) funds but rather with private “donations” from senior staff and board members.

Harassment Memorabilia

Look here.

* The position of the embattled Tailhook Assn. is that officials were shocked/appalled/mortified at the rowdiness and harassment of women at the 1991 convention in Las Vegas.

And that the whole nasty scene was unauthorized/unacceptable/unprecedented.

Maybe so, but a half-page ad in the association magazine after the convention offered three commemorative T-shirts for sale to those who “were at Hook ’91 or weren’t and wished (they) were.”

Each shirt had its own slogan: “I Survived the Third Floor,” “Hooked in Las Vegas” (with a drawing of a busty female), and “Hooker’s Delight.”

For the record: the third floor of the Hilton Hotel was where the heavy boozing took place and Navy fliers allegedly forced women to run a gantlet of abuse.

Oh yes, the shirts were printed before the convention, like maybe somebody knew what was going to happen.

* I like that line from the waitress in “Lost Highway: The Music and Legend of Hank Williams,” the smash hit at the Old Globe:

“Don’t you look at a waitress and think: ‘Ain’t nothing there but an all-night hairdo.’ Some of the great minds in this nation bring you burned coffee and stale doughnuts.”

* The city of San Diego is considering naming streets after police officers killed in the line of duty.

* Hostility watch.

Bumper sticker on a pickup truck in Vista: “My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student.”

Bumper sticker on a Peugeot in San Diego: “My Dog Attacked an Honor Student.”

A Criminal By Any Other Name . . .

Inquiring minds want to know (too much).

A fugitive felon snatched by Operation Clean Sweep (which targeted bad guys with long rap sheets and multiple aliases) is being sentenced in Vista Superior Court to multiple years in state prison.

The judge explains that the sentence is so long because it includes many crimes under different names.

The guy asks: “Does it include the names I used in federal court, too?”

Answer: No, but that can be arranged.