Is New Administration Off to a Running Clash?

The new mayor: in words and money.

In her inaugural address, Mayor Susan Golding promised to make San Diego “the most business-friendly city in America” but also “the most environmentally sound city.”

If you’re waiting for a collision between these two rhetorical ideals, you may not have to wait long.

The City Council, in closed session, is now dealing with a Public Records Act request by the Environmental Health Coalition for inspection reports/violation records from the city’s Combustible, Explosive & Dangerous Materials (CEDMAT) ordinance.

The ordinance allows certain CEDMAT documents to be kept confidential to encourage businesses to voluntarily comply and not force them to divulge proprietary information.

Businesses feel strongly that they’re entitled to secrecy and that government is nit-picking and discouraging expansion, etc., etc.

But the environmental coalition believes that San Diego is crawling with businesses handling chemicals and solvents and other dangerous things in a sloppy manner, especially in Southeast and Barrio Logan.

Last week, in its last pre-Golding closed session, the council told the city attorney to ask a judge to lift the confidentiality clause.

Failing that, it remains unclear whether the new mayor and council will risk the wrath of the business community by disclosing the information anyway or amending the ordinance to void the secrecy.

Stay tuned.

The tab for Monday night’s inaugural party is expected to exceed $65,000, paid for by private (business) donations.

Among the donors: SDG&E;, Brodart Co. (library supplies and furniture), Mr. A’s, Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, Davidson Communities, the law firm Gray Cary Ames & Frye, Rally’s Burgers, Rancho Santa Fe investor Blaine Quick, Cal State Lumber, Sea World, Straite Engineering and General Dynamics.

Lest you don’t realize things have changed:

There he was at Golding’s inaugural and party, Roger Hedgecock, who was persona non grata at City Hall during the O’Connor years.

Dove and a Haircut, Two Bits

More mayor (and some media, too).

So what’s a mayoral party without a white dove of peace being released into the night air?

So the new mayor released a dove given to her by a Laotian group. Except that the bird declined to soar and instead landed on the head of Councilman Tom Behr.

Behr, ever the politician, has decided this symbolizes that: 1) He’s the next mayor. 2) He’s the City Council’s peacemaker (attention, George Stevens). Or 3) Golding figured his haircut needed improving.

Note to Behr: No. 3 is your best bet.

The price of admission for the inaugural bash was five cans of food for the city’s Holiday Food Drive.

More than six tons of food were gathered: more than the entire drive in 1981, when it was first started by a new City Council member named Golding.

The night’s best line may have come from Councilman Ron Roberts in introducing new Tijuana Mayor Hector G. Osuna Jaime, an architect:

“I always thought one of these two cities should have an architect for a mayor.”

(If I have to tell you Roberts is an architect who lost in the mayoral primary, maybe the line loses some fizz.)

“The Tonight Show” is interested in Cory Evans, the 5-year-old chess champion from La Costa.

The talent scout had only one question: “Is he talkative?” Answer: “Very.”

San Diego UFO enthusiast Michael Orrell has been turned down by Fox TV’s “Sightings” show, but, undeterred, he’s writing a book.

K-BEST radio’s Ken Copper says traffic reporter Cynthia Heath Kerrigan’s Christmas shopping is being slowed by her recent plastic surgery: “Her husband cut up all her credit cards.”

A Way With Words

Words, words, words.

A sailor at the San Diego Naval Base was arrested for grabbing a woman on the buttocks.

The offense allegedly occurred at an on-base club called the Scuttlebutt.

San Diego bumper sticker: “Say No to Drugs. Don’t Eat Farmed Fish.”