Corruption San Diego Style

Southern California’s scenic coastal city has been so badly plagued by scandal and corruption that officials have dropped the self-proclaimed logo of “America’s Finest City” (see city web site).

Here is a rundown of what has been going on in San Diego lately; one of its congressmen, Randy “Duke? Cunningham, R-Calif., resigned last week after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes, including a Rolls-Royce and a $7,200 antique Louis-Philippe commode; the FBI investigated City Hall, the mayor (Dick Murphy) resigned, a $1.37 million pension shortfall damaged the city’s credit rating and two councilmen were convicted of taking bribes from a strip club owner.

As if all this wasn’t enough for one city, the San Diego Tribune reported today that Congressman Bob Filner has paid at least $505,000 in campaign funds to his wife for “political consulting services” since 1995. She supposedly runs the firm out of her condo in the District of Columbia and it is not registered as a business, which the couple has said is an “oversight.”

No wonder when the local newspaper asked readers to coin a new slogan for their city, among the popular ones were “Scandalicious,” “An Eruption of Corruption” and “Bunglers by the Bay” (AP story Palm Springs Desert Sun).