Consultant Alleges Approach by Bernhardt : Politics: Adviser says Hartson was asked for $1,500 to pay for anti-recall mailer days before council voted on city contract with the ambulance service.

San Diego City Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt’s anti-recall forces solicited a $1,500 contribution from Hartson Medical Services in the days before a key City Council vote on the ambulance company’s contract, asking the firm to help underwrite a political mailer prepared by the Sierra Club, Hartson’s consultant said Thursday.

Consultant Larry Remer said he was called by a Bernhardt campaign worker shortly before the Sept. 18 vote, asking if Hartson would fund Sierra Club campaign literature encouraging voters to remove their names from petitions seeking to recall Bernhardt from office.

“There was no question in my mind . . . that I was approached by (the campaign worker) and asked for this contribution,” Remer said. “She called and asked me for $1,500.”

Remer’s statement corroborates charges leveled Dec. 21 by ousted Sierra Club leader Mark Zerbe, who first revealed the proposed funding scheme in a memo he released to the press.

Bernhardt has called the charges “baseless allegations” made by a political opponent.

Zerbe, however, claimed that Bernhardt’s forces were attempting to circumvent city campaign laws that limit campaign contributions to $250 by funneling the $1,500 to the Sierra Club. Remer, a longtime political consultant, made no such accusation, in part because he believes the funding scheme may be legal.

No authority has validated Zerbe’s claim that the funding scheme violated any campaign laws, but an investigator for Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller’s office apparently is reviewing Zerbe’s charges as part of a wide-ranging investigation of the embattled 5th District councilwoman.

Investigator Carlos Rebelez interviewed Remer on Thursday upon Remer’s return from vacation, and has questioned Zerbe. Both refused to discuss the questions they were asked.

No money ever changed hands--for reasons that are in dispute--and the 20,000 mailers printed by the Sierra Club were destroyed, Zerbe said. The Sierra Club instead sent out a more limited mailing to its members in Bernhardt’s 5th District, according to Barbara Bamberger, the Sierra Club’s conservation coordinator.

Glen Roberts, Hartson’s chief executive officer, Thursday repeated his belief that the request for a contribution was not linked to the City Council’s Sept. 18 vote to negotiate an extended contract with Hartson and add 10 city firefighters to the private paramedic force. Bernhardt sided with the majority in the 6-2 vote.

“It just doesn’t happen,” Roberts said of the link between the vote and the solicitation. “I swear to God it doesn’t (happen) to me.”

Remer said a woman identifying herself as “Faith” called to ask for the contribution. At the time, Faith Saculles was working for Together for Linda Bernhardt, the councilwoman’s campaign committee, in an attempt to thwart the recall. The recall qualified for the ballot, however, and the City Council on Wednesday set an election for April 9.

Saculles is now an employee of JR Consulting, a company run by Jean Andrews, who is Bernhardt’s paid fund-raiser, and by Rick Taylor, Bernhardt’s former political consultant. Rebelez, the district attorney’s investigator, also is seeking an extensive collection of documents from Taylor and Andrews.

Saculles would not comment on Remer’s statements. But Andrews said earlier this week that Remer had telephoned her to inquire whether Hartson could contribute to Bernhardt’s anti-recall effort. Remer denied that he contacted Andrews first.

Andrews said she suggested contributions to Bernhardt’s campaign committee, and mentioned that the Sierra Club was helping the anti-recall forces. “It was common knowledge that the Sierra Club was working on behalf of Linda Bernhardt in an independent capacity,” Andrews said. “He may or may not have chosen to call them.”

In fact, the Sierra Club was openly coordinating with Bernhardt’s campaign, according to Bamberger, the Sierra Club official. An invoice for the 20,000 mailers ordered Sept. 12 by the environmental organization lists the first names of Saculles, Bamberger and Aurie Kryzuda--Bernhardt’s former chief of staff, who temporarily worked with the anti-recall campaign in September--under the heading “Ordered By.”

The total cost of the mailers was $1,532.60, according to the Minuteman Press invoice, which Zerbe supplied to reporters.

Remer said he did discuss the mailers with Andrews, but only after he had been called first by “Faith.” He said that Roberts declined to make the requested contribution. Then, before he could report back to the Bernhardt campaign, Remer said, Andrews told him that the Sierra Club would not take part in the transaction.

Zerbe, who was treasurer of the Sierra Club’s political committee before being forced to resign Dec. 20, has claimed, however, that “Faith” telephoned the Sierra Club office to say that a check from Hartson had been sent. Zerbe said that, when he questioned the legality of the funding scheme, the Sierra Club’s executive committee refused to accept the Hartson check or send out the mailer.

Zerbe said Thursday that he suspects that the check was destroyed, an allegation he admits that he cannot prove.