The Other McCann

The fight rages on for Myssie McCann, the wife of Chula Vista councilmember John McCann. For the past three weeks, ever since her husband left for a yearlong deployment to Iraq, McCann has been critical of the city council's treatment of her husband. The matter compounded at an August 4 meeting when they decided to appoint an interim councilmember.

McCann fears the mayor and city councilmembers will select someone for political reasons, instead of choosing a likeminded person to fill her husband's seat. For example, someone who opposed the sales-tax increase, as her husband had.

In response, McCann announced that she plans to apply for the interim city council position.

"Yes, I'll be putting my name in," McCann says during an August 11 phone conversation in a determined tone.

"The city council should have somebody who has the same values and the same ethics as my husband. The voters didn't just elect my husband, they elected a viewpoint."

And while McCann doesn't believe she will be the council's choice, especially after she blasted councilmember Rudy Ramirez for his "blind...political ambition" at the August 4 meeting, she expects a full explanation of the council's choice, for her husband and the people of Chula Vista.

"If the shoe was on the other foot, which it never would be because none of them have the integrity to serve our country, they would want someone [to fill the council seat] with their same viewpoint. And that's what I want for my husband and for the people of Chula Vista....

"The rest of the council doesn't care about the voters. I think it's important for them to say no to my face, and it's important for the voters to see that they don't care."

McCann says it's not the council's decision to fill her husband's seat that troubles her; it's using the appointment to advance a certain political agenda.

"I think the appointment has already been made. It's a backroom deal," says McCann, who believes the council will choose Mitch Thompson, chair of the Chula Vista Planning Commission, an outspoken proponent of the sales-tax increase.

Asked whether her husband was supportive of her decision, McCann responds: "Absolutely, 100 percent."

Mitch Thompson didn't respond to this correspondent's request for comment.