Cop’s family moonlighting has watchdog's okay

More questions involving relatives and conflict of interest have arisen at the San Diego Unified Port District, but attorneys for the state's political watchdog, asked for their opinion by port lawyer William McMinn, say the latest family tie-up would be okay.

The latest case involves Sgt. Donald Brick of the San Diego Harbor Police and some work proposed to be done for his spouse, who runs an outfit called Customer Service Advantage.

"His wife is the President and CEO of CSA, which provides customer training, customer service consultation and project development for public agencies and private businesses," according to an October 8 letter to McMinn from California Fair Political Practices Commission general counsel Zackery P. Morazzini.

According to a statement on the firm's website, Brick's wife, Wendi Pomerance Brick, began the company as a "hobby."

"My 20-year public sector career started with the County of San Diego and continued with the City of San Diego," the statement says.

"For the past 16 years (Customer Service Manager for the County of San Diego and Director of Customer Services Department for the City), I’ve been developing and implementing customer service improvement programs for government agencies.

"Around 2000, other agencies started calling and asking for help with improving service in their organizations.

"I would take vacation days to help them out, and in 2003, I decided to turn my passion into a business and started CSA, Inc. as a hobby. In 2009, it become [sic] my full-time pursuit."

Customer Service Advantage, says Morazzini's letter, "has provided services to the [Port] District in the past and anticipates doing so in the future. You have indicated that contracts over a certain amount of dollars require approval by the District’s board of directors and contracts below that amount are approved by staff.

"Sergeant Brick would like to work for CSA as an employee to perform general administrative duties.

"Sergeant Brick will not participate in any decisions regarding agreements between CSA and the District,” the letter continues. “Currently, there are no pending decisions and your question is limited to whether Sergeant Brick may accept an employment offer from CSA.”

Based on those facts, according to Morazzini's opinion, the family moonlighting wouldn’t present a problem.

“The Act does not prohibit Sergeant Brick from holding a public position and also being employed by another entity such as a private business, firm, or nonprofit. However, he may not make a governmental decision that would affect his economic interests, including his employer.”

As reported here, earlier this month Morazzini's office cleared the port’s executive vice president for operations Randa Coniglio regarding possible conflicts of interest caused by her daughter's employment by Dudek, Inc., an environmental consulting outfit that has done work for the district.

“Ms. Coniglio made no contact with Dudek regarding her daughter’s job application (or regarding anything else during the time her daughter was seeking employment from Dudek),” said an October 3 letter to port counsel McMinn from Morazzini. “Since Ms. Coniglio has no financial interest in Dudek, Inc., she is not prohibited...from participating in District decisions that have a financial effect on or involve a contract with Dudek, Inc.”

The flurry of relative-related conflict-of-interest advice requests by the port to the FPPC's counsel has come in the wake of the July resignation of port district head honcho Wayne Darbeau following a series of stories in U-T San Diego, owned by bayfront developer Douglas Manchester, regarding Darbeau's solicitation of jobs for his son from district tenants.