County sheriff has no retirement plans
At 72, Kolender admits he's slowing down, but he'll finish his 4th
term
By Tony Manolatos
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 13, 2007
Sheriff William Kolender, 72, became the oldest sheriff in the
state when Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer retired in
January at age 76.
* Calendar shows sheriff out of the office 3 months this year
As the oldest sheriff in California, William Kolender has heard
the rumors, the ones suggesting he's no longer fit for the job.
The sheriff wants to put the rumors to rest, but he and his
handlers acknowledged that, at 72, he is slowing down.
Kolender recently agreed to cut back his schedule and use a
driver on long trips. His wife's health and a troubled
stepdaughter also have been distractions.
His inner-circle is determined to protect Kolender's legacy and
reputation as a charming, well-connected law enforcement
legend. But they're just as anxious as he is.
Kolender was pacing outside his office last month moments
before an interview, which he viewed as an opportunity to
demonstrate his acumen.
“I've never been defensive before,” he said afterward.
The interview had been rescheduled twice and, at one point,
canceled before being pared down to an hour.
The sheriff had rescheduled to be with his wife, Lois, who is
undergoing treatment for a serious heart condition. Kolender
canceled after The San Diego Union-Tribune asked
Undersheriff William Gore and county Supervisor Ron Roberts if
Kolender has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia.
The recent health rumors had prompted the question. But no
matter how delicately it's phrased, that type of query creates
blowback. Kolender was mad.
Eventually, though, he agreed to 60 minutes on a Thursday
morning in September.
In his corner office at the John F. Duffy Administrative Center in
Kearny Mesa, Kolender took one armchair while his
spokeswoman, Jan Caldwell, took the other. Behind them was a
trophy case, a matching wooden desk and a framed photo of
Lois taken when she was in her 40s. She's 71.
Kolender looked fit and tan in a navy pinstripe suit and a
powder blue shirt and tie. His hair is still thick and wavy, only
partially gray.
Caldwell clarified some points during the interview and tried to
change the subject only once – when Kolender said his father
died from complications from Alzheimer's.
At 72, Kolender admits he's slowing down, but he'll finish his 4th
term
By Tony Manolatos
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 13, 2007
Sheriff William Kolender, 72, became the oldest sheriff in the
state when Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer retired in
January at age 76.
* Calendar shows sheriff out of the office 3 months this year
As the oldest sheriff in California, William Kolender has heard
the rumors, the ones suggesting he's no longer fit for the job.
The sheriff wants to put the rumors to rest, but he and his
handlers acknowledged that, at 72, he is slowing down.
Kolender recently agreed to cut back his schedule and use a
driver on long trips. His wife's health and a troubled
stepdaughter also have been distractions.
His inner-circle is determined to protect Kolender's legacy and
reputation as a charming, well-connected law enforcement
legend. But they're just as anxious as he is.
Kolender was pacing outside his office last month moments
before an interview, which he viewed as an opportunity to
demonstrate his acumen.
“I've never been defensive before,” he said afterward.
The interview had been rescheduled twice and, at one point,
canceled before being pared down to an hour.
The sheriff had rescheduled to be with his wife, Lois, who is
undergoing treatment for a serious heart condition. Kolender
canceled after The San Diego Union-Tribune asked
Undersheriff William Gore and county Supervisor Ron Roberts if
Kolender has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia.
The recent health rumors had prompted the question. But no
matter how delicately it's phrased, that type of query creates
blowback. Kolender was mad.
Eventually, though, he agreed to 60 minutes on a Thursday
morning in September.
In his corner office at the John F. Duffy Administrative Center in
Kearny Mesa, Kolender took one armchair while his
spokeswoman, Jan Caldwell, took the other. Behind them was a
trophy case, a matching wooden desk and a framed photo of
Lois taken when she was in her 40s. She's 71.
Kolender looked fit and tan in a navy pinstripe suit and a
powder blue shirt and tie. His hair is still thick and wavy, only
partially gray.
Caldwell clarified some points during the interview and tried to
change the subject only once – when Kolender said his father
died from complications from Alzheimer's.
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| 1991 William B. Kolender, former Police Chief of San Diego was appointed director of the California Youth Authority. |
| HARDER TIME: California Youth Authority Shifts from Rehab to Brutality By Mark Gladstone and James Rainey Los Angeles Times, January 9, 2000 Paso Robles - At least eight times in the last three years, unruly wards at the state's El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility were marched into the prison gymnasium, placed in handcuffs and make to kneel, sometimes until their legs went numb. The young men, some of whom were on and off their knees through the day, settled onto thin mattresses at night. But sleep did not come easily. Guards performed "cuff check" on the hour, and some wards who dozed off complained that they were kicked awake. Throughout the ordeal, some wards threw up or fainted. Others who couldn't hold out for the infrequent bathroom breaks were left to sit in urine-soaked clothing, wards and former staff members said. On more than one occasion, this "temporary detention," known as "gym TD," lasted three days or more, with wards cuffed around the clock = practice virtually unheard of in prisons elsewhere. "They don't treat you like wards, they treat you like animals," said Ulises De Latorre, 18, of Buena Park, a veteran of such a session last May. He is serving time for auto theft. John Scott, a San Francisco attorney who has handled many correctional law cases, reviewed the handcuffing policy and said: "The worst of the worst is adult prisons are in better conditions than this." Officials at the prison deny they use the gym sessions to punish or abuse prisoners. They said prolonged detention is intended only to separate and control wards for their own safety when violence erupts inside the open barracks that house up to 55 prisoners. But the practice of "gym TD" is emblematic of a transformation in the California Youth Authority, the agency responsible for some of the state's toughest young criminals. The Youth Authority spends $427 million a year to house 7,563 wards in 11 institutions and four fire-fighting camps. Question of Control In recent years, agency's mission to rehabilitate and train wards of the state has been supplnted by a culture of punishment, control, and sometimes brutality, according to dozens of interviews and internal Youth Authority documents. The state's once-heralded attempts to rehabilitate young offenders, ages 12 to 25, was de-emphasized as then - Governor Pete Wilson and the Legislature focused on punishment... |
| San Diego County sheriff to step down Los Angeles Times April 1, 2009 San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender announced Wednesday that he was stepping down in the middle of his fourth term. Kolender, who will be 74 next month, has been a major figure in San Diego and California law enforcement circles for three decades. He said he would leave office July 2 because of the ill health of his wife, Lois. As San Diego police chief from 1975 to 1988, he is credited with instituting community-oriented policing, improving relationships between the police and minority groups, and stressing the concept that police are accountable to the city's elected leadership. He served as director of the California Youth Authority under Gov. Pete Wilson, the former San Diego mayor. In 1994, he defeated a one-term incumbent to become sheriff and now presides over a department with 4,000 employees and a $500-million annual budget. He is the immediate past president of the California State Sheriffs Assn. The county supervisors have an option of either appointing a successor or calling a special election. Kolender had said months ago that he did not plan to run for a fifth term in 2010. Several would-be successors, including Undersheriff William Gore and former San Diego Police Chief Dave Bejarano, have said they would be candidates. -- Tony Perry |
The Fix -- How the Sheriff got his Man on the Airport Board
The San Diego Reader
By Matt Potter
Nov. 23, 2003
For years, Helen Copley, her son David, and the other powers that
be at the San Diego Union-Tribune have wanted to replace
Lindbergh Field, no matter how much money it might cost, no matter
how much it might impact the environment, no matter how
inconvenient it might be for travelers, and no matter whether county
taxpayers wanted to pay for it or not. The paper has already made
up its mind, such that its lust for airport relocation was almost
palpable. "The single greatest threat to San Diego's economic
fortunes is the lack of a full-service passenger and cargo airport to
sustain the country's sixth-largest city in the 21st Century,"
thundered a January 2000 U-T editorial marking the dawn of the new
millennium. "The sooner we choose a site for a bigger airport, the
brighter San Diego's economic prospects will become."
Though other voices called for caution and recommended continued
use of the venerable airport, citing its convenience and the historic
difficulty and acknowledged expense of finding another location, the
Union-Tribune has kept up its inexorable editorial drumbeat. By July
2001, the paper was aggressively pushing a proposal to take
Lindbergh away from its traditional overseer, the Port of San Diego,
and put it into the hands of a new regional "super agency," all the
better to build a giant "mega-port" in parts as yet unknown.
"With a single, relatively short runway, Lindbergh Field is plainly
inadequate to serve the region's air transportation needs in the 21st
Century. Within a decade or so, access roads serving San Diego's
bantam airport will reach gridlock," the editors warned.
The new airport authority was needed, the Union-Tribune said, to
circumvent local troublemakers who had long stood in the way of
progress. "Because of predictable parochial opposition to any
potential replacement site, this region has failed for nearly half a
century to come to grips with its airport dilemma."
The new superpowered airport authority would "overcome chronic
NIMBYism," the editorial went on to say. The paper wanted a
hand-picked board of directors that had already made up its mind
that the airport should be moved and would brook no opposition from
those who said, "Not in my back yard."
"For starters, the new airport authority would be composed of nine
private citizens representing every corner of the county -- three
named by the City of San Diego, one named by the Board of
Supervisors, one named by the San Diego Unified Port District, and
one each from inland North County, coastal North County, the South
Bay, and East County. Significantly, the authority members would be
appointed, rather than elected, and serve long five-year terms.
"The aim is to insulate the board from political pressures that for
years have paralyzed local elected officials on the airport issue.
Appointed, rather than elected, members are essential for the airport
board to make decisions that serve the broad interests of San Diego
County as a whole."
For months leading up to legislative consideration of the proposal,
sponsored by Democratic state senator Steve Peace, the
Union-Tribune flogged the issue in editorial after editorial. "The need
for stronger regional decision-making is too glaring for this issue to
go away. San Diego's legislative delegation should not try to hide it
under the table," the paper argued in August 2001.
Then in September: "For San Diego County, one of the most
important bills to be heard in Sacramento this year would create a
regional airport authority to find a replacement for overburdened
Lindbergh Field."
Less than two weeks later, the paper wrote, "Although this legislation
certainly is not flawless, it is a significant first step. It deserves
passage by the Assembly and the signature of Governor Gray Davis."
And again on September 29, after the bill cleared the Assembly, "For
San Diego, the most critical measure on Governor Gray Davis's desk
awaiting signature or veto is Assembly Bill 93. This legislation would
create the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, whose
mission would be to find a replacement site for cramped Lindbergh
Field."
In the end, most local political observers agreed, it was no surprise
that Gray Davis signed the U-T's favorite airport bill, given the local
muscle that the newspaper and its allies in the local chamber of
commerce had put behind it.
And Steve Peace, the termed-out, badly discredited Democrat who
had also authored the state's disastrous utility-deregulation bill, had
been all too happy to fall in behind the U-T-led juggernaut, especially
when he was rewarded with a series of flattering columns cranked
out by the paper's Neil Morgan.
In October 2002, Morgan, just back from a European vacation,
described one of his frequent lunchtime "roundtables" with San
Diego's would-be power brokers. "Chasing San Diego politicians
after chasing Rail Europe's high-speed trains, I find Mayor Dick
Murphy and Steve Peace, the retiring state senator, seated amiably
around a luncheon table. Antennae shoot up when a powerful
lawmaker is at liberty.
"Our Republican mayor is hoping Governor Gray Davis will appoint
the Democratic senator to one of the three salaried jobs on the San
Diego County Regional Airport Authority, which takes over Lindbergh
Field on January 1," Morgan went on to report, and then ended by
quoting Dick Murphy:
" 'Steve is a strong figure,' Mayor Murphy says, 'and that's why I
hope we get him on the airport authority. If those appointees aren't
strong, they won't get any more done about an airport than we have
for the past 50 years.' "
In the end, neither Peace nor then-city councilman Byron Wear --
who also coveted one of the three top spots on the new airport
board, each of which pays $139,000 a year under terms of Peace's
bill -- made the final cut. Peace chose to return to Sacramento,
where he became state finance director in the disastrous, debt-laden
final days of Governor Gray Davis. Wear, termed out of his
city-council seat and battered by ethics charges, was forced to pull
out of the running and to leave public life.
Instead of Wear, Murphy appointed Joe Craver, a retired Air Force
colonel, aerospace-contracting consultant, and faithful Murphy
campaign contributor. Governor Davis chose Xema Jacobson,
business manager for the AFL-CIO's San Diego County Building &
Construction Trades Council, clearly likely to favor any kind of new
construction. Jacobson had also served as public-works enforcement
representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Local 569.
The third seat, to be appointed by San Diego County Sheriff Bill
Kolender, was filled shortly before Davis made his selection. But why
was the sheriff, of all people, given the right to appoint the county's
representative on the airport board? As Morgan put it in his October
2002 column, "Kolender's curious role came with an amendment that
Peace pushed through the Legislature in its closing days and is a
Peace rebuff to Supervisor Ron Roberts. Peace says he found
Murphy more amenable to his ideas of consolidation."
Not everyone agreed with Neil Morgan's version of reality; many
discounted the "Steve Peace seeking vengeance against Ron
Roberts" story. More cynical observers noted that Kolender, a former
Union-Tribune executive, was loyal to Helen and David Copley, the
paper's owners, and could be counted on to install a boardmember
who would more than support their long-held desire to move the
airport, no matter what the environmental or financial costs. Peace,
this theory went, had simply accommodated his powerful friends in
the press.
When Kolender's pick was revealed on November 9, 2002, in a
glowing story on page B-1 of the Union-Tribune, the cynics were not
surprised. "Philanthropist nominated for regional airport panel," the
headline blared. An enthusiastic story followed. "William D. Lynch, a
Rancho Santa Fe businessman and philanthropist, whose foundation
backs children's literacy programs, has been named one of three
executive directors of the San Diego County Regional Airport
Authority."
"I hope to bring some common sense in the analysis" of options for a
new regional airport, said Lynch, who applied for the county
government's appointment to the airport executive committee after
being personally wooed by government officials and others. "And I
believe, hopefully, that I can bring something to building a
consensus, which is what this is going to take," he said.
In an echo of its many editorials citing the economic benefits of a new
airport, the story quoted Kolender as saying that "Lynch
'understands that the airport is one of the foundations of economic
development of this county.' " The piece went on to say that "the
appointment must be confirmed by the county Board of Supervisors,
but Lynch is expected to receive strong backing."
Then, after extolling Lynch's business acumen and charitable
activities, way at the very bottom of the U-T story was, by way of
partial disclosure, this final sentence: "His foundation also supports
the San Diego Union-Tribune's annual Dr. Seuss Race for Literacy,
which benefits the San Diego Council on Literacy (on whose board
Lynch serves)."
As the newspaper predicted, Lynch was easily confirmed by the
county board of supervisors two weeks later. Then the three paid
members of the new airport board, known as the panel's "executive
committee," along with the nonsalaried members who receive a
$100-per-meeting stipend, were sworn in and began work in January
of this year.
And there the story might have ended but for Lou Conde, a
sometimes irascible, always engaging 76-year-old former county
supervisor and veteran of the county's 1970s growth wars, who also
claims credit for being the original father of the San Diego Trolley.
The Cuban-American Conde, who is famous for staring down his
opponents with fierce blue eyes, says that something is rotten in the
way Sheriff Bill Kolender selected William Lynch for the airport board.
Conde had wanted that job on the board, and when he was denied
even an interview with Kolender, he decided to find out why. What he
discovered, he insists, was a crime worthy of Tammany Hall's Boss
Tweed.
"I arrived here in 1956," Conde says by way of introduction during a
recent interview. "I am the father of five children attending public
schools, graduating here with six university degrees between them. I
am a political science graduate from Brigham Young University,
1951. I have been active in politics since 1952. When I came to San
Diego I was active in school affairs. In 1969 I started a citizens
taxpayers group called Taxpayers Concerned. We were involved with
the political aspects of the local elected officials. We mounted a
referendum against elected officials.
"We mounted a referendum against a board of supervisors at that
time -- in 1972, I believe it was, maybe '71 -- protesting a very heavy
salary increase that they voted themselves. I was in favor of a partial
increase, told them so when I addressed the board. They went
ahead with a full increase. Our group took to the streets. We
mounted a referendum that was successful. The board had to back
down and rescind their action to increase their salary. I then sued the
Unified School District here in San Diego for using an education
office, an office at the education center, to run a campaign to pass
bond issues. That is in violation of state law. I took them into court.
"I next sued the Registrar of Voters and successfully stopped them
from always listing the incumbent at the head of the ticket. And now
they're forced to rotate the names around because we enforced [that
order] on the list is preferential. A lot of people didn't know any
better; they'd vote for the first name they see. That was about that
same time. Then after I was elected to the board in November of '72
and I took office January the eighth of '73. We had a very
contentious board. There were many 3-2 decisions on many issues."
When he ran for the board of supervisors in 1972, Conde faced off
against incumbent Republican Jack Walsh. "He was just pushing all
sorts of liberal issues. He wanted to put halfway houses in residential
neighborhoods. He just had many liberal-type philosophies. I can't
remember them all exactly at this moment in time. A nice guy, but his
politics were terrible as far as we were concerned," Conde recalls.
After he got elected, Conde says he presided over the genesis of the
San Diego Trolley. The county's Comprehensive Planning
Organization, then responsible for coming up with taxpayer-funded
mass-transit proposals, was pushing a subway-like system like the
one called BART then being built in San Francisco, rather than the
so-called light-rail system ultimately adopted for the San Diego
Trolley.
"The CPO came in front of the board and they wanted some
so-called experts from San Francisco who'd been consultants in the
BART system and they wanted to build a BART-type mass-transit
system in San Diego. That's a heavy-rail system; it runs on its own
glide-way. It's a very, very expensive proposition. You have to buy
the right of way. There was no need for something that moved
rapidly. We were not taking people from one distance to another; we
were trying to pick up people maybe from San Diego to National City
to Chula Vista to the border, so there was no way we needed
something that ran at 60, 70 miles an hour.
"So I proposed a light-rail system. On a 3-2 vote we formed the
County Department of Transportation on my motion. Again on my
motion we gave [the project to] the county engineer, under whom we
put the County Department of Transportation to study the
mass-transit problem and come back with a report. I then took that
report to [Democratic state senator] Jim Mills.
"Jim Mills studied it, and he was the transportation guy in the state
senate. He was a senator from the South Bay area. He agreed with
the study, and he put a law through the state senate that said that no
gas-tax money could be used for a heavy-rail system in San Diego
County. So that pretty well shot CPO out of the transportation
business, and we proceeded to build the trolley.
"Nobody can argue the fact -- although many people have tried to
take credit for the San Diego Trolley -- that I was the guy who formed
the trolley system, caused it to happen."
But in politics, you're only as good as your last election, as Conde
was soon to discover. In 1975, Conde had opposed then-mayor Pete
Wilson's effort to move the airport to Brown Field on the border.
Worse yet, he had endorsed city councilman Lee Hubbard for mayor
against Wilson. Soon, an opponent materialized against him. Conde
remembers a meeting he had at the time with Gordon Luce, then
head of San Diego Federal Savings and Loan and a major
Republican functionary.
"I said, 'I understand, Gordon, that Pete Wilson is going to endorse
Roger Hedgecock against me.' He said, 'I've been hearing that rumor
too. Why don't you go down and talk to him, go down and see him?'
So I made an appointment and went to see him, and I sat there with
him in his office on a Friday afternoon and said, 'Well, Pete, I'm
hearing rumors that you might endorse Roger Hedgecock.'
"And he said to me, 'Well, I haven't made up my mind yet, and you'll
be the first to know. You endorsed Lee Hubbard against me.' I said,
'Yes, I endorsed Lee Hubbard because I remember when you came
to town, Pete, and you ran against Frank Curran, and your main
complaint against Frank Curran was eight years is enough. I believe
it now. I ran on that basis, that eight years is enough. So I don't
believe in people camping in public office forever. So yes, I endorsed
Lee because he said he was only serving one term as a city
councilman; he would serve one term as mayor.' 'Well,' he says, 'I
haven't made up my mind.'
"Well, that was a bold-faced lie. A lie. Because Monday-morning
invitations to a fundraiser for Roger Hedgecock hosted by the mayor
started hitting mailboxes in San Diego. Whatever Petey-boy wanted,
Helen Copley gave him. So Helen Copley gave the endorsement of
the newspaper to Roger Hedgecock, which was a factor in my losing
the election."
Having been unceremoniously turned out of office by county voters,
Conde shucked it all and lit out for parts more pleasurable, namely
his home state of Florida, looking for apartments as investments. "So
I bought these units in Miami, and then after a short time, in '82, I
bought a 51-foot sailboat, and I lived aboard it for 6 years, bumming
around all over the place, owned it for 12.
"You can't grow up in Miami Beach without being on the water or in
the water or under the water. So I did all of that. I was a certified
scuba diver, and the place to sail was in the Caribbean. The water's
warm, the water's clear. There's all sorts of sea life. It's beautiful --
the colors and the little islands with palm trees or pine trees and so
on. So I wanted to kick back and do some of that, and my income
was coming in from my apartment house. I had a resident manager. It
was 34 units at that time, so I didn't need to be around all the time."
He married a woman he met during his travels and lived for a time
with her on Majorca, but when Conde's days of idyll eventually came
to an end, he found himself heading back to San Diego. "My wife and
I separated in '96, the divorce was final in '98. I sold my boat. My kids
and grandkids -- I have three daughters and nine grandkids here in
San Diego County. Three out of my five kids live here. Grandpa,
come home! That was in December of '01. I traded the equity in my
last apartment house in Miami for the equity in a retail center in La
Mesa on El Cajon Boulevard. That provides the income for me now."
But the former supervisor wasn't interested in an idle old age and
soon began casting around for ways to get back into public life. The
news that Sheriff Bill Kolender would make an appointment to the
airport board caught his attention. "It was in probably September of
2002 or so when I saw this article, 'Seven Applicants Hope to Steer
Airport Policy' and so on, and it had mentioned what the procedure
would be, they could get applications down at the clerk of the board's
office, and I thought, hey, I could do that.
"Kolender had been picked to choose the guy that would then have
to be confirmed by at least three members of the board of
supervisors. Well, I had to log in with the clerk in order to get an
application. So he took my name -- I had to sign the log -- he dated
the hour, the minute, the date that I got the application. I had to bring
it back by a certain time on a certain day, and I did that, and I had to
log back in, had to sign my name again. He date-stamped my
application.
"I had read in the paper, and here's this Kolender, who plans to
interview a handful of finalists, who said he expects his
recommendation to reach the supervisors at a November meeting. I
wrote the sheriff a letter. He knew who I was; he knew me on a
first-name basis for, like, 30 years now. I'm telling him I'm Hispanic,
I'm 100 percent Latin, I would love to serve on this board. I gave him
all my qualifications."
When Conde never heard back from the sheriff, he says he became
suspicious, and as he learned more about the selection process, his
doubts only grew stronger. A story in the Union-Tribune about the
upcoming selection got his attention: "Familiar names of 23
applicants to represent the county government include Colonel Greg
Goodman, Chief of Staff at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station;
philanthropist William D. Lynch of Rancho Santa Fe; and Louis
Conde, who served on the Board of Supervisors from 1972 to 1976."
"When I got ahold of the list I called up two friends of mine who were
politically savvy in this county, and I said, let me read some names to
you, and let me know if you know who they are. When I got to Lynch,
both of these people said -- and they weren't together at the time,
separate -- he's gonna be your main opposition 'cause he's a close
friend of the sheriff. And that certainly turned out to be true.
"So I read every application turned in to the clerk. Probably the only
guy who has done that. And Lynch's application was not there. It had
not been acquired nor submitted to the clerk of the board, even
though that was the instruction on the front page of the application.
"So I wrote a letter to the clerk of the board, and I hand-carried it
there, and I requested, like, three copies of three applications, and
I'd given the names. His was one of them. And the clerk came back,
and she did not have his application. This was long after the end of
the application period.
"So the clerk of the board still did not have a copy of Lynch's
application. Then I called the sheriff's department, and it took me,
like, three days to procure from them a copy of Lynch's application.
"This is the strange thing. Lynch's application is different than
everybody else's application; does not read the same at all. It has
different phone numbers and has an inclusive paragraph that is not
included in the other applications. I don't know where the devil that
came from. Somebody should find out."
But is it really likely, as Conde alleges, that Sheriff Kolender rigged
the selection process in favor of an old crony and campaign
contributor? And was the Union-Tribune involved, as Conde also
maintains? Conde says the newspaper went out of its way to
downplay his objections -- outlined in a press conference a week
before Lynch was confirmed in a hurry-up vote by the county board
of supervisors -- to the way Lynch was picked by Kolender and
confirmed by the board.
"I held a press conference on the steps of the County Administration
Center, and I had a lot of the applicants there -- there were, like, 10
or 11 of them," Conde recounts. "Jeff Ristine, who was covering the
Airport Authority for the Union-Tribune came down there, interviewed
these people. They told him how upset they were that they had not
even been interviewed, that someone had been picked who wasn't
as qualified and didn't even get a chance to get interviewed. Nothing
happened. That article never appeared, so the public in San Diego
never knew that there were a bunch of disgruntled applicants who
were upset that they hadn't even been talked to by the sheriff."
Kolender has long enjoyed close ties to the Union-Tribune. A local
boy whose father ran a jewelry store on lower Broadway, Kolender
joined the San Diego Police Department in 1956. During the 1960s
antiwar and civil-rights turmoil, Kolender's role as a
community-relations officer allowed him to rise quickly through the
ranks. He began to rub shoulders with the new Republican political
establishment led by the city's ambitious mayor, Pete Wilson, who
made him chief of police; and fortified by Helen Copley, who had
inherited the Union-Tribune from her old-school Republican
husband, Jim Copley.
After 13 years as Mayor Pete Wilson's handpicked chief, Kolender
suddenly stepped down in August 1988. His new job: assistant
general manager of the Union-Tribune. The move followed by two
years a 1986 ticket-fixing scandal, first reported by the Los Angeles
Times, involving members of the Chargers, for which Kolender was
reprimanded by the city manager. A series of racially tinged police
shootings in 1987, combined with a lingering mystery about the 1985
slaying of prostitute and police informant Donna Gentile, added to
the controversy surrounding the departing police chief.
The undistinguished nature of Kolender's tenure at the
Union-Tribune led many to conclude that the ex-law enforcement
honcho was there to keep tabs on publisher Helen Copley's son
David, who had been arrested for drunk driving in 1986 and again in
South Mission Beach in December 1989 and had a general
reputation for being dissolute. But Kolender also allegedly played a
high-profile role in Copley's long-running combat with the Newspaper
Guild, the reporters' labor union that was waging an ultimately
unsuccessful battle for its survival against Copley's efforts to oust it
from the plant.
The Los Angeles Times reported that in December 1989, as a
midnight strike deadline approached, Kolender positioned himself at
the employee-exit turnstile of the newspaper and checked to see if
anyone was making off with company property. He reportedly
confiscated a Rolodex belonging to reporter Joe Gandelman, who
said the address-card index belonged to him; Kolender told a
television station he thought it had been purchased with U-T funds
and therefore couldn't be taken from the plant. The incident led
Newspaper Guild president Ed Jahn to tell a rally of supporters that
the ex-chief was "behaving like a Kmart security guard." (In an
interview last week, Kolender denied that the incident had occurred.)
During his time at the U-T, Kolender often found himself written up on
the pages of the competing San Diego edition of the L.A. Times.
Kolender had become known for his "rat pack" of macho male friends
in high places, including football players, former white-collar
criminals, real estate developers, journalists, public relations people,
and local politicos, many of whom he hung out with during happy
hours at Bully's East tavern in Mission Valley. The Union-Tribune
maintained discretion in its coverage of Kolender; the Times did not.
In 1988, the Times reported that Kolender had written a letter in
support of a pardon for Dominic "Bud" Alessio, who served time on a
federal felony rap. Alessio had lavished gifts on a prison official who
gave preferential treatment to Dominic's father John and uncle
Angelo, in prison at the time for income-tax evasion. John Alessio
was a protégé of fallen financier C. Arnholt Smith; he also once
operated the Caliente racetrack and sports book in Tijuana.
"Bud was a victim of circumstances and did what any son would do
for his father," Kolender wrote in a letter uncovered by the Times
using the federal Freedom of Information Act. The Times story
pointed out that federal organized-crime prosecutors "considered the
case far more serious. They contended that prison officials were
bribed with food, lodging, and entertainment gifts in return for
allowing John and Angelo Alessio to conduct secret rendezvous with
women friends. In all, six people were convicted or pleaded guilty in
the case."
In an interview with the Times, Kolender further explained his
position. "I think that, under the circumstances, he deserves a
pardon. He's contributed to his community. He's served his time. He
did something for his father, he made a mistake, and he paid for it."
Kolender lasted barely three years in his job with the Copley Press
before being called to Sacramento in 1991 by his erstwhile boss in
San Diego, Pete Wilson. The new governor put his ex-chief of police
in charge of the California Youth Authority, where Kolender remained
until making his triumphant return to San Diego and being elected
sheriff in 1994 against Jim Roache, the hapless incumbent who had
been repeatedly vilified for alleged mismanagement of the
department and county jails.
Re-elected twice since, Kolender's humming campaign organization
has been well oiled over the years with contributions from his
intricate network of friends. During his 2002 race against a virtual
unknown, records showed Kolender collected and spent more than
$75,000. Union-Tribune publisher David Copley gave $500.
Members of the Alessio family, who each gave $500, include Frank,
Virginia, Linda, Katherine, and Dominic. And Robert DePhilippis,
owner of the Butcher Shop restaurant in Kearny Mesa as well as the
Filippi's Pizza Grotto chain, gave $600. Craig Ghio, owner of
Anthony's restaurants, gave $100.
John Davies, the ex-college roommate and longtime political advisor
to former governor and San Diego mayor Pete Wilson, chipped in
$250; Rayma Craver, the wife of retired Air Force colonel Joe
Craver, the military-contracting consultant and chamber of commerce
supporter, as well as Lynch's colleague-to-be on the airport board's
executive committee, gave $150. San Diego Unified School District
superintendent Alan Bersin, a former U.S. attorney, gave $500, as
did Bersin's wealthy father-in-law, real estate developer and
garment-maker Stanley Foster.
Kolender also drew support from the local media, including KFMB
sportscaster Ted Leitner ($500); San Diego magazine publisher
James Fitzpatrick ($500); McGraw-Hill television executive Ed Quinn
($100); and writer Joseph Wambaugh ($500). Bazaar del Mundo
owner Diane Powers gave $300; lawyer Vince Bartolotta, Jr.,
contributed $500; as did Coronado financier Thomas Stickel.
Perhaps the most intriguing name on the sheriff's list of donors is
that of Michael Blevins. Blevins is an ex-drug dealer who in October
1988 was sentenced to three years in federal prison for his role in a
methamphetamine manufacture and distribution conspiracy that took
place in Rancho Santa Fe. After he got out of the pen, Blevins
founded the diet-drug maker Metabolife with Michael Ellis, his
codefendant in the methamphetamine case. Ellis (who pleaded guilty
and was given five years' probation) and his wife Monica each gave
Kolender $500.
Another faithful Kolender campaign donor -- and by all accounts a
member of the sheriff's inner circle, as Conde is eager to point out --
is none other than the sheriff's appointee to the airport board. "Bill
Lynch has been a longtime contributor to the sheriff," says Conde.
By Conde's estimate, based on his examination of county campaign
filings, Lynch, his family, and at least one business associate have
given the Kolender campaign a total of at least $3000.
And Kolender has not been the only beneficiary of Lynch's campaign
largesse, notes Conde, citing campaign disclosure records.
Lynch and family, says Conde, have contributed at least $2000 to
various members of the board of supervisors.
"They did not have to rubber stamp the sheriff's choice. However,
they did," Conde says. "The process used in receiving the
applications for this job was totally dishonest because it gave the
impression to the citizens of this county that they would seek
applications from interested and qualified people, evaluate them,
interview the most qualified, and pick one. That never happened. We
were not interviewed. The most qualified people were never
interviewed by the sheriff. This was a preapproved appointment, and
it was a total charade that took place in the solicitation of applications.
"I think this is malfeasance by elected officials in order to reward a
proven past -- and assured future -- campaign contributor, and that's
what I think happened here. That's why he got the job and nobody
else even got interviewed."
Reached by phone last week, Lynch discounted Conde's assertions
that political contributions from members of Lynch's staff and his
family had anything to do with his ultimate selection by Kolender and
confirmation by the board of supervisors. "I can't believe that those
people made a decision based on a couple of thousand of dollars of
campaign contributions. But I guess it's a free country and anybody
can say anything they want."
Regarding his relationship with Kolender, he said, "He encouraged
me, and he encouraged a couple of other -- or three people -- to
apply." He added, "I can't remember who they were; that was more
than a year ago." Lynch also said that he now has only a vague
recollection of whether the Union-Tribune had backed his
appointment. "I don't have a clue, I don't recall," he said. "Probably
they did. I suppose they were supportive. I really don't remember."
Lynch acknowledged that, unlike some of the other applicants for the
job, he furnished no letters of recommendation. "I did have one letter
of recommendation from my young granddaughter, saying that I
should get the job because I was about as smart as she was," he
said facetiously, adding that his business and investment expertise
made him well suited for tenure on the airport commission. "If you
want to know about my qualifications and how I'm doing, ask some of
my fellow boardmembers." Regarding the events surrounding his
ultimate selection by the sheriff and Conde's allegations that the
outcome was foreordained, Lynch said he had no inside knowledge
of how he was picked. "You'd have to ask Kolender about the
process."
As to whether he has already made up his mind to support
construction of a new airport, Lynch said, "At some point it's almost
imperative. One runway doesn't do it. You have huge capacity
problems that need to be dealt with."
For his part, Kolender said that in the year since Lynch's nomination
was made, he had forgotten many of the details of the selection
process but denied Conde's assertion that the sheriff had briefly
interviewed only one other contender besides Lynch. "I interviewed
three or four people, but I won't tell you who they are because that
would be unfair to those who didn't get it. It wouldn't be fair," the
sheriff said by telephone last week. He added that he also could not
remember whether he had invited Lynch to apply for the job.
Kolender was also hazy as to whether he had discussed the matter
of the airport appointment with anybody representing the
Union-Tribune. "I don't remember," he said. "I'm not trying to be
evasive, but I don't recall talking to anybody about it. It's possible, but
I don't remember." And, until reminded by an aide, he said he didn't
recall that Steve Peace had authored the bill that gave the sheriff the
appointment power. "That was a long time ago."
Kolender also rejected Conde's allegation that the Lynch family's
contributions to the sheriff's reelection campaign had biased his
judgment. "I've gotten literally thousands of contributions," Kolender
said. "I can't be bought for that." On the question of Lynch's
qualifications, the sheriff said, "Ask Joe Craver if I made a good
choice. He's on the commission." Then he opened fire on Conde.
"Here's something I was offended by. Conde wrote me a letter
saying, 'I need the money, Bill Lynch doesn't.' I have a copy of it right
here." Asked if he could provide a copy of the letter via fax, the
sheriff declined. "No. Take me at my word or not. I'm not faxing
anything."
Conde provided a copy of a handwritten letter he said he delivered
to Kolender on December 2, 2002, which he says is the one the
sheriff referred to:
Dear Bill,
We have known each other on a first-name basis for almost 30
years. I am not enjoying questioning your choice for appointment to
the Regional Airport Authority. As you know, Channel 10 is now on
the story. Mr. Lynch has admitted that you solicited him to apply. Bill,
this is not going to play well when the public finds out that your
choice is woefully unqualified.
Please ask Mr. Lynch to gracefully decline the appointment. "I've
come to the realization that with my many business interests I will not
be able to apply the necessary time and energy to this very
important position" would be a suggested statement.
Many applicants will be there tomorrow to protest your choice.
If this procedure is undertaken, then please reexamine my
application again. I have been involved in Lindbergh Field issues, as
you can see, for more than 27 years.
It is not my desire to embarrass you in any way, but I am the most
qualified applicant and I can use the income, while Mr. Lynch doesn't
need it.
Respectfully,
Lou Conde
Conde is convinced the "inside deal" he alleges between Kolender,
Lynch, and the Union-Tribune will result in the airport commission's
"rubber stamp" of a new airport that could end up costing county
taxpayers billions of dollars.
The ex-county supervisor insists he was joking about needing the
money. And he says he wasn't the only applicant more qualified than
Lynch who was passed over by the sheriff. He cites Jack Bewley, a
retired Navy fighter pilot who also flew for PSA and USAir, as a case
in the point. Says Bewley, "It was perfectly legal, but they didn't select
the best applicant. I did not even attempt to get political backing; I
had a list of pretty close to a hundred leaders in the aviation
community who backed me. Unfortunately they were never called.
There were no guidelines in the legislation [for] setting up the
process, so the sheriff said, 'I'll pick my buddy.' I walked away
shaking my head.
"I was very, very highly qualified, and I could have done an
extraordinary job of putting things together. In the military I was a
commanding officer of squadrons and air wings, and I had the
leadership ability and had already demonstrated that. They need to
give that board a course in Airports 101 to get them up to speed."
Adds Conde, "On Lynch's application he said he didn't know
anything about aviation; he had never been involved in
administration of large projects. I mean, he had an application that
would have been thrown in the round file by any business executive
looking for someone to fulfill the duties called for in this position, but
he wound up getting the job. I challenge anyone to put the five
applications I will submit to them, put them side by side and evaluate
them -- one, two, three, four, five -- and show me that William Lynch
would have come out on top. He probably would have come out on
the very bottom."
The San Diego Reader
By Matt Potter
Nov. 23, 2003
For years, Helen Copley, her son David, and the other powers that
be at the San Diego Union-Tribune have wanted to replace
Lindbergh Field, no matter how much money it might cost, no matter
how much it might impact the environment, no matter how
inconvenient it might be for travelers, and no matter whether county
taxpayers wanted to pay for it or not. The paper has already made
up its mind, such that its lust for airport relocation was almost
palpable. "The single greatest threat to San Diego's economic
fortunes is the lack of a full-service passenger and cargo airport to
sustain the country's sixth-largest city in the 21st Century,"
thundered a January 2000 U-T editorial marking the dawn of the new
millennium. "The sooner we choose a site for a bigger airport, the
brighter San Diego's economic prospects will become."
Though other voices called for caution and recommended continued
use of the venerable airport, citing its convenience and the historic
difficulty and acknowledged expense of finding another location, the
Union-Tribune has kept up its inexorable editorial drumbeat. By July
2001, the paper was aggressively pushing a proposal to take
Lindbergh away from its traditional overseer, the Port of San Diego,
and put it into the hands of a new regional "super agency," all the
better to build a giant "mega-port" in parts as yet unknown.
"With a single, relatively short runway, Lindbergh Field is plainly
inadequate to serve the region's air transportation needs in the 21st
Century. Within a decade or so, access roads serving San Diego's
bantam airport will reach gridlock," the editors warned.
The new airport authority was needed, the Union-Tribune said, to
circumvent local troublemakers who had long stood in the way of
progress. "Because of predictable parochial opposition to any
potential replacement site, this region has failed for nearly half a
century to come to grips with its airport dilemma."
The new superpowered airport authority would "overcome chronic
NIMBYism," the editorial went on to say. The paper wanted a
hand-picked board of directors that had already made up its mind
that the airport should be moved and would brook no opposition from
those who said, "Not in my back yard."
"For starters, the new airport authority would be composed of nine
private citizens representing every corner of the county -- three
named by the City of San Diego, one named by the Board of
Supervisors, one named by the San Diego Unified Port District, and
one each from inland North County, coastal North County, the South
Bay, and East County. Significantly, the authority members would be
appointed, rather than elected, and serve long five-year terms.
"The aim is to insulate the board from political pressures that for
years have paralyzed local elected officials on the airport issue.
Appointed, rather than elected, members are essential for the airport
board to make decisions that serve the broad interests of San Diego
County as a whole."
For months leading up to legislative consideration of the proposal,
sponsored by Democratic state senator Steve Peace, the
Union-Tribune flogged the issue in editorial after editorial. "The need
for stronger regional decision-making is too glaring for this issue to
go away. San Diego's legislative delegation should not try to hide it
under the table," the paper argued in August 2001.
Then in September: "For San Diego County, one of the most
important bills to be heard in Sacramento this year would create a
regional airport authority to find a replacement for overburdened
Lindbergh Field."
Less than two weeks later, the paper wrote, "Although this legislation
certainly is not flawless, it is a significant first step. It deserves
passage by the Assembly and the signature of Governor Gray Davis."
And again on September 29, after the bill cleared the Assembly, "For
San Diego, the most critical measure on Governor Gray Davis's desk
awaiting signature or veto is Assembly Bill 93. This legislation would
create the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, whose
mission would be to find a replacement site for cramped Lindbergh
Field."
In the end, most local political observers agreed, it was no surprise
that Gray Davis signed the U-T's favorite airport bill, given the local
muscle that the newspaper and its allies in the local chamber of
commerce had put behind it.
And Steve Peace, the termed-out, badly discredited Democrat who
had also authored the state's disastrous utility-deregulation bill, had
been all too happy to fall in behind the U-T-led juggernaut, especially
when he was rewarded with a series of flattering columns cranked
out by the paper's Neil Morgan.
In October 2002, Morgan, just back from a European vacation,
described one of his frequent lunchtime "roundtables" with San
Diego's would-be power brokers. "Chasing San Diego politicians
after chasing Rail Europe's high-speed trains, I find Mayor Dick
Murphy and Steve Peace, the retiring state senator, seated amiably
around a luncheon table. Antennae shoot up when a powerful
lawmaker is at liberty.
"Our Republican mayor is hoping Governor Gray Davis will appoint
the Democratic senator to one of the three salaried jobs on the San
Diego County Regional Airport Authority, which takes over Lindbergh
Field on January 1," Morgan went on to report, and then ended by
quoting Dick Murphy:
" 'Steve is a strong figure,' Mayor Murphy says, 'and that's why I
hope we get him on the airport authority. If those appointees aren't
strong, they won't get any more done about an airport than we have
for the past 50 years.' "
In the end, neither Peace nor then-city councilman Byron Wear --
who also coveted one of the three top spots on the new airport
board, each of which pays $139,000 a year under terms of Peace's
bill -- made the final cut. Peace chose to return to Sacramento,
where he became state finance director in the disastrous, debt-laden
final days of Governor Gray Davis. Wear, termed out of his
city-council seat and battered by ethics charges, was forced to pull
out of the running and to leave public life.
Instead of Wear, Murphy appointed Joe Craver, a retired Air Force
colonel, aerospace-contracting consultant, and faithful Murphy
campaign contributor. Governor Davis chose Xema Jacobson,
business manager for the AFL-CIO's San Diego County Building &
Construction Trades Council, clearly likely to favor any kind of new
construction. Jacobson had also served as public-works enforcement
representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Local 569.
The third seat, to be appointed by San Diego County Sheriff Bill
Kolender, was filled shortly before Davis made his selection. But why
was the sheriff, of all people, given the right to appoint the county's
representative on the airport board? As Morgan put it in his October
2002 column, "Kolender's curious role came with an amendment that
Peace pushed through the Legislature in its closing days and is a
Peace rebuff to Supervisor Ron Roberts. Peace says he found
Murphy more amenable to his ideas of consolidation."
Not everyone agreed with Neil Morgan's version of reality; many
discounted the "Steve Peace seeking vengeance against Ron
Roberts" story. More cynical observers noted that Kolender, a former
Union-Tribune executive, was loyal to Helen and David Copley, the
paper's owners, and could be counted on to install a boardmember
who would more than support their long-held desire to move the
airport, no matter what the environmental or financial costs. Peace,
this theory went, had simply accommodated his powerful friends in
the press.
When Kolender's pick was revealed on November 9, 2002, in a
glowing story on page B-1 of the Union-Tribune, the cynics were not
surprised. "Philanthropist nominated for regional airport panel," the
headline blared. An enthusiastic story followed. "William D. Lynch, a
Rancho Santa Fe businessman and philanthropist, whose foundation
backs children's literacy programs, has been named one of three
executive directors of the San Diego County Regional Airport
Authority."
"I hope to bring some common sense in the analysis" of options for a
new regional airport, said Lynch, who applied for the county
government's appointment to the airport executive committee after
being personally wooed by government officials and others. "And I
believe, hopefully, that I can bring something to building a
consensus, which is what this is going to take," he said.
In an echo of its many editorials citing the economic benefits of a new
airport, the story quoted Kolender as saying that "Lynch
'understands that the airport is one of the foundations of economic
development of this county.' " The piece went on to say that "the
appointment must be confirmed by the county Board of Supervisors,
but Lynch is expected to receive strong backing."
Then, after extolling Lynch's business acumen and charitable
activities, way at the very bottom of the U-T story was, by way of
partial disclosure, this final sentence: "His foundation also supports
the San Diego Union-Tribune's annual Dr. Seuss Race for Literacy,
which benefits the San Diego Council on Literacy (on whose board
Lynch serves)."
As the newspaper predicted, Lynch was easily confirmed by the
county board of supervisors two weeks later. Then the three paid
members of the new airport board, known as the panel's "executive
committee," along with the nonsalaried members who receive a
$100-per-meeting stipend, were sworn in and began work in January
of this year.
And there the story might have ended but for Lou Conde, a
sometimes irascible, always engaging 76-year-old former county
supervisor and veteran of the county's 1970s growth wars, who also
claims credit for being the original father of the San Diego Trolley.
The Cuban-American Conde, who is famous for staring down his
opponents with fierce blue eyes, says that something is rotten in the
way Sheriff Bill Kolender selected William Lynch for the airport board.
Conde had wanted that job on the board, and when he was denied
even an interview with Kolender, he decided to find out why. What he
discovered, he insists, was a crime worthy of Tammany Hall's Boss
Tweed.
"I arrived here in 1956," Conde says by way of introduction during a
recent interview. "I am the father of five children attending public
schools, graduating here with six university degrees between them. I
am a political science graduate from Brigham Young University,
1951. I have been active in politics since 1952. When I came to San
Diego I was active in school affairs. In 1969 I started a citizens
taxpayers group called Taxpayers Concerned. We were involved with
the political aspects of the local elected officials. We mounted a
referendum against elected officials.
"We mounted a referendum against a board of supervisors at that
time -- in 1972, I believe it was, maybe '71 -- protesting a very heavy
salary increase that they voted themselves. I was in favor of a partial
increase, told them so when I addressed the board. They went
ahead with a full increase. Our group took to the streets. We
mounted a referendum that was successful. The board had to back
down and rescind their action to increase their salary. I then sued the
Unified School District here in San Diego for using an education
office, an office at the education center, to run a campaign to pass
bond issues. That is in violation of state law. I took them into court.
"I next sued the Registrar of Voters and successfully stopped them
from always listing the incumbent at the head of the ticket. And now
they're forced to rotate the names around because we enforced [that
order] on the list is preferential. A lot of people didn't know any
better; they'd vote for the first name they see. That was about that
same time. Then after I was elected to the board in November of '72
and I took office January the eighth of '73. We had a very
contentious board. There were many 3-2 decisions on many issues."
When he ran for the board of supervisors in 1972, Conde faced off
against incumbent Republican Jack Walsh. "He was just pushing all
sorts of liberal issues. He wanted to put halfway houses in residential
neighborhoods. He just had many liberal-type philosophies. I can't
remember them all exactly at this moment in time. A nice guy, but his
politics were terrible as far as we were concerned," Conde recalls.
After he got elected, Conde says he presided over the genesis of the
San Diego Trolley. The county's Comprehensive Planning
Organization, then responsible for coming up with taxpayer-funded
mass-transit proposals, was pushing a subway-like system like the
one called BART then being built in San Francisco, rather than the
so-called light-rail system ultimately adopted for the San Diego
Trolley.
"The CPO came in front of the board and they wanted some
so-called experts from San Francisco who'd been consultants in the
BART system and they wanted to build a BART-type mass-transit
system in San Diego. That's a heavy-rail system; it runs on its own
glide-way. It's a very, very expensive proposition. You have to buy
the right of way. There was no need for something that moved
rapidly. We were not taking people from one distance to another; we
were trying to pick up people maybe from San Diego to National City
to Chula Vista to the border, so there was no way we needed
something that ran at 60, 70 miles an hour.
"So I proposed a light-rail system. On a 3-2 vote we formed the
County Department of Transportation on my motion. Again on my
motion we gave [the project to] the county engineer, under whom we
put the County Department of Transportation to study the
mass-transit problem and come back with a report. I then took that
report to [Democratic state senator] Jim Mills.
"Jim Mills studied it, and he was the transportation guy in the state
senate. He was a senator from the South Bay area. He agreed with
the study, and he put a law through the state senate that said that no
gas-tax money could be used for a heavy-rail system in San Diego
County. So that pretty well shot CPO out of the transportation
business, and we proceeded to build the trolley.
"Nobody can argue the fact -- although many people have tried to
take credit for the San Diego Trolley -- that I was the guy who formed
the trolley system, caused it to happen."
But in politics, you're only as good as your last election, as Conde
was soon to discover. In 1975, Conde had opposed then-mayor Pete
Wilson's effort to move the airport to Brown Field on the border.
Worse yet, he had endorsed city councilman Lee Hubbard for mayor
against Wilson. Soon, an opponent materialized against him. Conde
remembers a meeting he had at the time with Gordon Luce, then
head of San Diego Federal Savings and Loan and a major
Republican functionary.
"I said, 'I understand, Gordon, that Pete Wilson is going to endorse
Roger Hedgecock against me.' He said, 'I've been hearing that rumor
too. Why don't you go down and talk to him, go down and see him?'
So I made an appointment and went to see him, and I sat there with
him in his office on a Friday afternoon and said, 'Well, Pete, I'm
hearing rumors that you might endorse Roger Hedgecock.'
"And he said to me, 'Well, I haven't made up my mind yet, and you'll
be the first to know. You endorsed Lee Hubbard against me.' I said,
'Yes, I endorsed Lee Hubbard because I remember when you came
to town, Pete, and you ran against Frank Curran, and your main
complaint against Frank Curran was eight years is enough. I believe
it now. I ran on that basis, that eight years is enough. So I don't
believe in people camping in public office forever. So yes, I endorsed
Lee because he said he was only serving one term as a city
councilman; he would serve one term as mayor.' 'Well,' he says, 'I
haven't made up my mind.'
"Well, that was a bold-faced lie. A lie. Because Monday-morning
invitations to a fundraiser for Roger Hedgecock hosted by the mayor
started hitting mailboxes in San Diego. Whatever Petey-boy wanted,
Helen Copley gave him. So Helen Copley gave the endorsement of
the newspaper to Roger Hedgecock, which was a factor in my losing
the election."
Having been unceremoniously turned out of office by county voters,
Conde shucked it all and lit out for parts more pleasurable, namely
his home state of Florida, looking for apartments as investments. "So
I bought these units in Miami, and then after a short time, in '82, I
bought a 51-foot sailboat, and I lived aboard it for 6 years, bumming
around all over the place, owned it for 12.
"You can't grow up in Miami Beach without being on the water or in
the water or under the water. So I did all of that. I was a certified
scuba diver, and the place to sail was in the Caribbean. The water's
warm, the water's clear. There's all sorts of sea life. It's beautiful --
the colors and the little islands with palm trees or pine trees and so
on. So I wanted to kick back and do some of that, and my income
was coming in from my apartment house. I had a resident manager. It
was 34 units at that time, so I didn't need to be around all the time."
He married a woman he met during his travels and lived for a time
with her on Majorca, but when Conde's days of idyll eventually came
to an end, he found himself heading back to San Diego. "My wife and
I separated in '96, the divorce was final in '98. I sold my boat. My kids
and grandkids -- I have three daughters and nine grandkids here in
San Diego County. Three out of my five kids live here. Grandpa,
come home! That was in December of '01. I traded the equity in my
last apartment house in Miami for the equity in a retail center in La
Mesa on El Cajon Boulevard. That provides the income for me now."
But the former supervisor wasn't interested in an idle old age and
soon began casting around for ways to get back into public life. The
news that Sheriff Bill Kolender would make an appointment to the
airport board caught his attention. "It was in probably September of
2002 or so when I saw this article, 'Seven Applicants Hope to Steer
Airport Policy' and so on, and it had mentioned what the procedure
would be, they could get applications down at the clerk of the board's
office, and I thought, hey, I could do that.
"Kolender had been picked to choose the guy that would then have
to be confirmed by at least three members of the board of
supervisors. Well, I had to log in with the clerk in order to get an
application. So he took my name -- I had to sign the log -- he dated
the hour, the minute, the date that I got the application. I had to bring
it back by a certain time on a certain day, and I did that, and I had to
log back in, had to sign my name again. He date-stamped my
application.
"I had read in the paper, and here's this Kolender, who plans to
interview a handful of finalists, who said he expects his
recommendation to reach the supervisors at a November meeting. I
wrote the sheriff a letter. He knew who I was; he knew me on a
first-name basis for, like, 30 years now. I'm telling him I'm Hispanic,
I'm 100 percent Latin, I would love to serve on this board. I gave him
all my qualifications."
When Conde never heard back from the sheriff, he says he became
suspicious, and as he learned more about the selection process, his
doubts only grew stronger. A story in the Union-Tribune about the
upcoming selection got his attention: "Familiar names of 23
applicants to represent the county government include Colonel Greg
Goodman, Chief of Staff at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station;
philanthropist William D. Lynch of Rancho Santa Fe; and Louis
Conde, who served on the Board of Supervisors from 1972 to 1976."
"When I got ahold of the list I called up two friends of mine who were
politically savvy in this county, and I said, let me read some names to
you, and let me know if you know who they are. When I got to Lynch,
both of these people said -- and they weren't together at the time,
separate -- he's gonna be your main opposition 'cause he's a close
friend of the sheriff. And that certainly turned out to be true.
"So I read every application turned in to the clerk. Probably the only
guy who has done that. And Lynch's application was not there. It had
not been acquired nor submitted to the clerk of the board, even
though that was the instruction on the front page of the application.
"So I wrote a letter to the clerk of the board, and I hand-carried it
there, and I requested, like, three copies of three applications, and
I'd given the names. His was one of them. And the clerk came back,
and she did not have his application. This was long after the end of
the application period.
"So the clerk of the board still did not have a copy of Lynch's
application. Then I called the sheriff's department, and it took me,
like, three days to procure from them a copy of Lynch's application.
"This is the strange thing. Lynch's application is different than
everybody else's application; does not read the same at all. It has
different phone numbers and has an inclusive paragraph that is not
included in the other applications. I don't know where the devil that
came from. Somebody should find out."
But is it really likely, as Conde alleges, that Sheriff Kolender rigged
the selection process in favor of an old crony and campaign
contributor? And was the Union-Tribune involved, as Conde also
maintains? Conde says the newspaper went out of its way to
downplay his objections -- outlined in a press conference a week
before Lynch was confirmed in a hurry-up vote by the county board
of supervisors -- to the way Lynch was picked by Kolender and
confirmed by the board.
"I held a press conference on the steps of the County Administration
Center, and I had a lot of the applicants there -- there were, like, 10
or 11 of them," Conde recounts. "Jeff Ristine, who was covering the
Airport Authority for the Union-Tribune came down there, interviewed
these people. They told him how upset they were that they had not
even been interviewed, that someone had been picked who wasn't
as qualified and didn't even get a chance to get interviewed. Nothing
happened. That article never appeared, so the public in San Diego
never knew that there were a bunch of disgruntled applicants who
were upset that they hadn't even been talked to by the sheriff."
Kolender has long enjoyed close ties to the Union-Tribune. A local
boy whose father ran a jewelry store on lower Broadway, Kolender
joined the San Diego Police Department in 1956. During the 1960s
antiwar and civil-rights turmoil, Kolender's role as a
community-relations officer allowed him to rise quickly through the
ranks. He began to rub shoulders with the new Republican political
establishment led by the city's ambitious mayor, Pete Wilson, who
made him chief of police; and fortified by Helen Copley, who had
inherited the Union-Tribune from her old-school Republican
husband, Jim Copley.
After 13 years as Mayor Pete Wilson's handpicked chief, Kolender
suddenly stepped down in August 1988. His new job: assistant
general manager of the Union-Tribune. The move followed by two
years a 1986 ticket-fixing scandal, first reported by the Los Angeles
Times, involving members of the Chargers, for which Kolender was
reprimanded by the city manager. A series of racially tinged police
shootings in 1987, combined with a lingering mystery about the 1985
slaying of prostitute and police informant Donna Gentile, added to
the controversy surrounding the departing police chief.
The undistinguished nature of Kolender's tenure at the
Union-Tribune led many to conclude that the ex-law enforcement
honcho was there to keep tabs on publisher Helen Copley's son
David, who had been arrested for drunk driving in 1986 and again in
South Mission Beach in December 1989 and had a general
reputation for being dissolute. But Kolender also allegedly played a
high-profile role in Copley's long-running combat with the Newspaper
Guild, the reporters' labor union that was waging an ultimately
unsuccessful battle for its survival against Copley's efforts to oust it
from the plant.
The Los Angeles Times reported that in December 1989, as a
midnight strike deadline approached, Kolender positioned himself at
the employee-exit turnstile of the newspaper and checked to see if
anyone was making off with company property. He reportedly
confiscated a Rolodex belonging to reporter Joe Gandelman, who
said the address-card index belonged to him; Kolender told a
television station he thought it had been purchased with U-T funds
and therefore couldn't be taken from the plant. The incident led
Newspaper Guild president Ed Jahn to tell a rally of supporters that
the ex-chief was "behaving like a Kmart security guard." (In an
interview last week, Kolender denied that the incident had occurred.)
During his time at the U-T, Kolender often found himself written up on
the pages of the competing San Diego edition of the L.A. Times.
Kolender had become known for his "rat pack" of macho male friends
in high places, including football players, former white-collar
criminals, real estate developers, journalists, public relations people,
and local politicos, many of whom he hung out with during happy
hours at Bully's East tavern in Mission Valley. The Union-Tribune
maintained discretion in its coverage of Kolender; the Times did not.
In 1988, the Times reported that Kolender had written a letter in
support of a pardon for Dominic "Bud" Alessio, who served time on a
federal felony rap. Alessio had lavished gifts on a prison official who
gave preferential treatment to Dominic's father John and uncle
Angelo, in prison at the time for income-tax evasion. John Alessio
was a protégé of fallen financier C. Arnholt Smith; he also once
operated the Caliente racetrack and sports book in Tijuana.
"Bud was a victim of circumstances and did what any son would do
for his father," Kolender wrote in a letter uncovered by the Times
using the federal Freedom of Information Act. The Times story
pointed out that federal organized-crime prosecutors "considered the
case far more serious. They contended that prison officials were
bribed with food, lodging, and entertainment gifts in return for
allowing John and Angelo Alessio to conduct secret rendezvous with
women friends. In all, six people were convicted or pleaded guilty in
the case."
In an interview with the Times, Kolender further explained his
position. "I think that, under the circumstances, he deserves a
pardon. He's contributed to his community. He's served his time. He
did something for his father, he made a mistake, and he paid for it."
Kolender lasted barely three years in his job with the Copley Press
before being called to Sacramento in 1991 by his erstwhile boss in
San Diego, Pete Wilson. The new governor put his ex-chief of police
in charge of the California Youth Authority, where Kolender remained
until making his triumphant return to San Diego and being elected
sheriff in 1994 against Jim Roache, the hapless incumbent who had
been repeatedly vilified for alleged mismanagement of the
department and county jails.
Re-elected twice since, Kolender's humming campaign organization
has been well oiled over the years with contributions from his
intricate network of friends. During his 2002 race against a virtual
unknown, records showed Kolender collected and spent more than
$75,000. Union-Tribune publisher David Copley gave $500.
Members of the Alessio family, who each gave $500, include Frank,
Virginia, Linda, Katherine, and Dominic. And Robert DePhilippis,
owner of the Butcher Shop restaurant in Kearny Mesa as well as the
Filippi's Pizza Grotto chain, gave $600. Craig Ghio, owner of
Anthony's restaurants, gave $100.
John Davies, the ex-college roommate and longtime political advisor
to former governor and San Diego mayor Pete Wilson, chipped in
$250; Rayma Craver, the wife of retired Air Force colonel Joe
Craver, the military-contracting consultant and chamber of commerce
supporter, as well as Lynch's colleague-to-be on the airport board's
executive committee, gave $150. San Diego Unified School District
superintendent Alan Bersin, a former U.S. attorney, gave $500, as
did Bersin's wealthy father-in-law, real estate developer and
garment-maker Stanley Foster.
Kolender also drew support from the local media, including KFMB
sportscaster Ted Leitner ($500); San Diego magazine publisher
James Fitzpatrick ($500); McGraw-Hill television executive Ed Quinn
($100); and writer Joseph Wambaugh ($500). Bazaar del Mundo
owner Diane Powers gave $300; lawyer Vince Bartolotta, Jr.,
contributed $500; as did Coronado financier Thomas Stickel.
Perhaps the most intriguing name on the sheriff's list of donors is
that of Michael Blevins. Blevins is an ex-drug dealer who in October
1988 was sentenced to three years in federal prison for his role in a
methamphetamine manufacture and distribution conspiracy that took
place in Rancho Santa Fe. After he got out of the pen, Blevins
founded the diet-drug maker Metabolife with Michael Ellis, his
codefendant in the methamphetamine case. Ellis (who pleaded guilty
and was given five years' probation) and his wife Monica each gave
Kolender $500.
Another faithful Kolender campaign donor -- and by all accounts a
member of the sheriff's inner circle, as Conde is eager to point out --
is none other than the sheriff's appointee to the airport board. "Bill
Lynch has been a longtime contributor to the sheriff," says Conde.
By Conde's estimate, based on his examination of county campaign
filings, Lynch, his family, and at least one business associate have
given the Kolender campaign a total of at least $3000.
And Kolender has not been the only beneficiary of Lynch's campaign
largesse, notes Conde, citing campaign disclosure records.
Lynch and family, says Conde, have contributed at least $2000 to
various members of the board of supervisors.
"They did not have to rubber stamp the sheriff's choice. However,
they did," Conde says. "The process used in receiving the
applications for this job was totally dishonest because it gave the
impression to the citizens of this county that they would seek
applications from interested and qualified people, evaluate them,
interview the most qualified, and pick one. That never happened. We
were not interviewed. The most qualified people were never
interviewed by the sheriff. This was a preapproved appointment, and
it was a total charade that took place in the solicitation of applications.
"I think this is malfeasance by elected officials in order to reward a
proven past -- and assured future -- campaign contributor, and that's
what I think happened here. That's why he got the job and nobody
else even got interviewed."
Reached by phone last week, Lynch discounted Conde's assertions
that political contributions from members of Lynch's staff and his
family had anything to do with his ultimate selection by Kolender and
confirmation by the board of supervisors. "I can't believe that those
people made a decision based on a couple of thousand of dollars of
campaign contributions. But I guess it's a free country and anybody
can say anything they want."
Regarding his relationship with Kolender, he said, "He encouraged
me, and he encouraged a couple of other -- or three people -- to
apply." He added, "I can't remember who they were; that was more
than a year ago." Lynch also said that he now has only a vague
recollection of whether the Union-Tribune had backed his
appointment. "I don't have a clue, I don't recall," he said. "Probably
they did. I suppose they were supportive. I really don't remember."
Lynch acknowledged that, unlike some of the other applicants for the
job, he furnished no letters of recommendation. "I did have one letter
of recommendation from my young granddaughter, saying that I
should get the job because I was about as smart as she was," he
said facetiously, adding that his business and investment expertise
made him well suited for tenure on the airport commission. "If you
want to know about my qualifications and how I'm doing, ask some of
my fellow boardmembers." Regarding the events surrounding his
ultimate selection by the sheriff and Conde's allegations that the
outcome was foreordained, Lynch said he had no inside knowledge
of how he was picked. "You'd have to ask Kolender about the
process."
As to whether he has already made up his mind to support
construction of a new airport, Lynch said, "At some point it's almost
imperative. One runway doesn't do it. You have huge capacity
problems that need to be dealt with."
For his part, Kolender said that in the year since Lynch's nomination
was made, he had forgotten many of the details of the selection
process but denied Conde's assertion that the sheriff had briefly
interviewed only one other contender besides Lynch. "I interviewed
three or four people, but I won't tell you who they are because that
would be unfair to those who didn't get it. It wouldn't be fair," the
sheriff said by telephone last week. He added that he also could not
remember whether he had invited Lynch to apply for the job.
Kolender was also hazy as to whether he had discussed the matter
of the airport appointment with anybody representing the
Union-Tribune. "I don't remember," he said. "I'm not trying to be
evasive, but I don't recall talking to anybody about it. It's possible, but
I don't remember." And, until reminded by an aide, he said he didn't
recall that Steve Peace had authored the bill that gave the sheriff the
appointment power. "That was a long time ago."
Kolender also rejected Conde's allegation that the Lynch family's
contributions to the sheriff's reelection campaign had biased his
judgment. "I've gotten literally thousands of contributions," Kolender
said. "I can't be bought for that." On the question of Lynch's
qualifications, the sheriff said, "Ask Joe Craver if I made a good
choice. He's on the commission." Then he opened fire on Conde.
"Here's something I was offended by. Conde wrote me a letter
saying, 'I need the money, Bill Lynch doesn't.' I have a copy of it right
here." Asked if he could provide a copy of the letter via fax, the
sheriff declined. "No. Take me at my word or not. I'm not faxing
anything."
Conde provided a copy of a handwritten letter he said he delivered
to Kolender on December 2, 2002, which he says is the one the
sheriff referred to:
Dear Bill,
We have known each other on a first-name basis for almost 30
years. I am not enjoying questioning your choice for appointment to
the Regional Airport Authority. As you know, Channel 10 is now on
the story. Mr. Lynch has admitted that you solicited him to apply. Bill,
this is not going to play well when the public finds out that your
choice is woefully unqualified.
Please ask Mr. Lynch to gracefully decline the appointment. "I've
come to the realization that with my many business interests I will not
be able to apply the necessary time and energy to this very
important position" would be a suggested statement.
Many applicants will be there tomorrow to protest your choice.
If this procedure is undertaken, then please reexamine my
application again. I have been involved in Lindbergh Field issues, as
you can see, for more than 27 years.
It is not my desire to embarrass you in any way, but I am the most
qualified applicant and I can use the income, while Mr. Lynch doesn't
need it.
Respectfully,
Lou Conde
Conde is convinced the "inside deal" he alleges between Kolender,
Lynch, and the Union-Tribune will result in the airport commission's
"rubber stamp" of a new airport that could end up costing county
taxpayers billions of dollars.
The ex-county supervisor insists he was joking about needing the
money. And he says he wasn't the only applicant more qualified than
Lynch who was passed over by the sheriff. He cites Jack Bewley, a
retired Navy fighter pilot who also flew for PSA and USAir, as a case
in the point. Says Bewley, "It was perfectly legal, but they didn't select
the best applicant. I did not even attempt to get political backing; I
had a list of pretty close to a hundred leaders in the aviation
community who backed me. Unfortunately they were never called.
There were no guidelines in the legislation [for] setting up the
process, so the sheriff said, 'I'll pick my buddy.' I walked away
shaking my head.
"I was very, very highly qualified, and I could have done an
extraordinary job of putting things together. In the military I was a
commanding officer of squadrons and air wings, and I had the
leadership ability and had already demonstrated that. They need to
give that board a course in Airports 101 to get them up to speed."
Adds Conde, "On Lynch's application he said he didn't know
anything about aviation; he had never been involved in
administration of large projects. I mean, he had an application that
would have been thrown in the round file by any business executive
looking for someone to fulfill the duties called for in this position, but
he wound up getting the job. I challenge anyone to put the five
applications I will submit to them, put them side by side and evaluate
them -- one, two, three, four, five -- and show me that William Lynch
would have come out on top. He probably would have come out on
the very bottom."
| Kolender's Friends Chip in By Matt Potter Nov. 1, 2001 San Diego — It's been seven and a half years since Bill Kolender, backed by almost every member of San Diego's downtown establishment, demolished Sheriff Jim Roache's reelection hopes. Four years earlier, Roache had defeated John Duffy's hand-picked candidate, Assistant Sheriff Jack Drown, now Kolender's second in command. Duffy, the controversial incumbent, facing a raft of public spending scandals, had decided not to run again. Rooted in East County conservative politics, Roache was always regarded with suspicion by the editorial power brokers at the Union-Tribune. He turned out to be a miserable practitioner of the art of spin, schmooze, and payback so vital to success in the cozy worlds of La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe. When Roache came up for reelection in June 1994, his enemies were waiting for him with Bill Kolender, a representative of San Diego's easygoing insider politics. A local boy whose father ran a jewelry store on lower Broadway, Kolender joined the San Diego Police Department in 1956. During the 1960s' turmoil, Kolender's role as a community-relations officer allowed him to rise quickly through the ranks. He began to rub shoulders with the new Republican political establishment led by the city's ambitious mayor, Pete Wilson, and fortified by Helen Copley, who had inherited the Union-Tribune from her old-school Republican husband, Jim Copley. In 1975, Pete Wilson picked Kolender to succeed police chief Ray Hoobler. After 13 years, Kolender stepped down in August 1988 to become assistant general manager at the Union-Tribune. The move followed by two years a 1986 ticket- fixing scandal, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, involving members of the Chargers, for which Kolender was reprimanded by the city manager. A series of racially tinged police shootings in 1987, combined with a lingering mystery about the 1985 slaying of prostitute and police informant Donna Gentile, added to the controversy surrounding the departing police chief. In 1989 the county grand jury would link Kolender to Mission Valley madam Karen Wilkening, which both he and Wilkening later denied. The undistinguished nature of Kolender's tenure at the Union-Tribune led many to conclude that he was there to keep tabs on publisher Helen Copley's son David, who had been arrested for drunk driving in 1986 and again in South Mission Beach in December 1989. In 1989, Kolender became the target of the Newspaper Guild, then fighting for the survival of its union's local at the Union- Tribune. Union supporters handed out leaflets at the Solana Beach synagogue where Kolender was being feted at a testimonial dinner. The Los Angeles Times reported that in December 1989, as a midnight strike deadline approached, Kolender positioned himself at the employee exit turnstile of the newspaper and checked to see if anyone was making off with company property. He reportedly confiscated a Rolodex belonging to reporter Joe Gandelman, who said the address-card index belonged to him; Kolender told a television station he thought it had been purchased with U-T funds. The incident led Newspaper Guild president Ed Jahn to tell a rally of supporters that the ex-chief was "behaving like a Kmart security guard." The Los Angeles Times also reported in 1989 that Kolender had written a letter in support of a pardon for Dominic "Bud" Alessio, who served time on a federal felony rap. Alessio had lavished gifts on a prison official who gave preferential treatment to his father John and uncle Angelo, in prison at the time for income-tax evasion. John Alessio was a protégé of fallen financier C. Arnholt Smith; he also once operated the Caliente racetrack and sports book in Tijuana. "Bud was a victim of circumstances and did what any son would do for his father," Kolender wrote in a letter uncovered by the Times using the federal Freedom of Information Act. The Times story pointed out that federal organized-crime prosecutors "considered the case far more serious. They contended that prison officials were bribed with food, lodging, and entertainment gifts in return for allowing John and Angelo Alessio to conduct secret rendezvous with women friends. In all, six people were convicted or pleaded guilty in the case." In an interview with the Times, Kolender further explained his position. "I think that, under the circumstances he deserves a pardon. He's contributed to his community. He's served his time. He did something for his father, he made a mistake, and he paid for it." In 1991, Kolender's old friend, then- governor Pete Wilson, took Kolender away from his duties for Helen Copley when he put him in charge of the California Youth Authority. In 1992, the Los Angeles Times folded its San Diego edition, which had done such a thorough job of chronicling the ex- chief's history. Kolender remained at CYA until he ran for sheriff in 1994. In a big-money campaign run by political consultant Tom Shepard, who had earlier pled guilty to charges brought in connection with the Roger Hedgecock political money-laundering scandal, Kolender prevailed against the incumbent Roache. He was reelected with no opposition in 1998. Kolender's second bid for reelection this coming March seems destined to go smoothly. Though Kolender has his foes, who cite a list of unsolved homicides and other maladies they claim beset the sheriff's department, they admit the demise of the Los Angeles Times in San Diego gave Kolender a free ride in the surviving media -- especially at the Union-Tribune, which never seemed anxious to take on a family friend. Recent campaign-contribution reports show that as of October 10, Kolender has raised $81,475. Union-Tribune publisher David Copley gave $500. Members of the Alessio family who each gave $500 include Frank, Virginia, Linda, Katherine, and Dominic. And Robert DePhilippis, owner of the Butcher Shop restaurant in Kearny Mesa as well as the Filippi's Pizza Grotto chain, gave $600. Craig Ghio, owner of Anthony's Restaurant, gave $100. John Dahlen, co-owner of Kolender's old watering hole, Bully's East on Camino del Rio South in Mission Valley, kicked in $500. Dahlen is also connected with the Old Town Mexican Café, another Kolender hot spot. According to local legend, it was at Bully's that Kolender met his present wife, Lois Karas, whose husband, ex- Charger Emil Karas, died of cancer in 1974. Kolender, his old sidekick Ron Reina (who later became his official spokesman at the sheriff's department), a host of other cronies, and various members of the local sporting establishment, including boxers and football players, held their fabled revels at Bully's. After his second marriage to Lois Karas, Kolender wasn't as often seen at Bully's. He began to be frequently mentioned in society columns as attending parties in Fairbanks Ranch hosted by billionaire McDonald's heiress Joan Kroc. "It was [Joan Kroc's] first at-home party in five years," wrote the Los Angeles Times in 1985. "Dom DeLuise and Sid Caesar helped entertain.... Cleveland Amory and Norman Cousins represented the literati. Other guests were former President Gerald Ford, Lois and Bill Kolender.... They gathered around Mrs. Kroc at the organ and sang Christmas carols." So far this year, Kroc has contributed $500 to Kolender's reelection effort; Christy Walton, the Bonita-based wife of Wal-Mart heir John Walton, gave $250. John Davies, the ex-college roommate and longtime political advisor to former governor and San Diego mayor Pete Wilson, chipped in $250; Rayma Craver, the wife of retired Air Force colonel Joe Craver, a military contracting consultant and chamber of commerce supporter, gave $150. San Diego Unified School District superintendent Alan Bersin, a former U.S. Attorney, gave $500, as did Bersin's wealthy father-in-law, real estate developer and garment-maker Stanley Foster. Kolender has drawn support from the local media, including KFMB sportscaster Ted Leitner ($500); San Diego Magazine publisher James Fitzpatrick ($500); McGraw-Hill television executive Ed Quinn ($100); and writer Joseph Wambaugh ($500). Bazaar del Mundo owner Diane Powers gave $300, lawyer Vince Bartolotta, Jr., contributed $500, as did Coronado financier Thomas Stickel. Perhaps the most intriguing name on the sheriff's list of donors is that of Michael Blevins. Blevins is an ex-drug dealer who in October 1988 was sentenced to three years in federal prison for his role in a methamphetamine manufacture and distribution conspiracy that took place in Rancho Santa Fe. After he got out of the pen, Blevins founded diet-drug maker Metabolife with Michael Ellis, his codefendant in the methamphetamine case. Ellis, who pleaded guilty and was given five years' probation, and his wife, Monica, each gave Kolender $500. According to court records in the methamphetamine case, Blevins's criminal history dated back to at least 1972. An affidavit on file claimed that in the early 1980s Blevins was "purchasing between 40 and 50 kilos of cocaine every six to eight weeks" from a connection in Orange County, reputed Chicago mobster Sam Sarcinelli. "Sarcinelli at this time owned two homes in or near Laguna Beach and also maintained two apartments in the same area." According to the informant, "Blevins sold/distributed approximately 15 kilos of cocaine over a two-day period of time." The informant "believed that Sarcinelli obtained his cocaine from Macario [a drug source] at a cost of $49,000/kilo and distributed the same to Blevins at $55,000/kilo." An informant, the affidavit said, "related that he/she had been involved in narcotics transactions with both Michael Blevins and Robert Blevins (Michael's father), namely in the purchase of methamphetamine and the distribution of cocaine during the period 1976 through 1983." The informant added that "he/she acted as an agent for a client in 1983 who wanted someone to rip off a large quantity of cocaine from Michael Blevins and his partner, Jerry Bordeaux." After he was busted in the Rancho Santa Fe case, Blevins began cooperating with the feds, according to court records. "Mr. Blevins has been very cooperative with law enforcement since his first arrest," wrote U.S. marshal James. J. Molinari in a November 1995 pitch for clemency on Blevins's behalf. "I came in contact with Blevins in 1989 while commanding the Narcotics Division of the San Francisco Police Department. Mr. Blevins provided information and assistance that led to the dismantling of a major drug trafficking network operating in the San Francisco Bay Area." According to Kolender's campaign- disclosure filing, Blevins, who gave the sheriff $500, is now the proprietor of Iron Horse Realty in Del Mar. |
| Bill Kolender, San Diego Sheriff |