Del Mar Councilwoman Takes Hike, Ends Meeting

Gay Hugo-Martinez was frustrated. She was downright angry. Neither of the other two council members at Monday night’s Del Mar City Council meeting saw the light of her position during a heated debate over voting procedures.

So Hugo-Martinez decided to do something about it: she went home.

With that, in a move that stunned officials and presumably a cable audience at home as well, the city’s deputy mayor pulled the plug on the televised council meeting by zooming off in her Porsche before anyone could stop her.

“We were all just kind of stunned,” said City Clerk Patti Barnes, who was at the meeting. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Del Mar before. I thought she’d come back. But she didn’t.”

As a result, the meeting had to be halted because of a lack of a quorum. Only three of the five City Council members attended the meeting, and Hugo-Martinez’s departure left only two, officials said.

Hugo-Martinez said Tuesday that she left the meeting to make her point that, when only three members of the City Council are attending, a majority vote of two does not sufficiently represent city interests.

The stand was contrary to the stance of the two other council members attending--Mayor Jacqueline Winterer and Jan McMillan--who argued that two votes represented a legal majority of the members present.

“It’s just not good government,” said Hugo-Martinez, a prosecuting attorney in the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego. “It allows for council members who don’t want to get involved in sticky issues to just boycott meetings. I’ve seen it happen too often in Del Mar.”

The two remaining council members were out of town on business.

Hugo-Martinez said the walkout was not planned. “I was just frustrated,” she said. “Jacqueline Winterer said something about my stand giving too much power to one member. So I got up and said ‘I’ll show you what real power is.’ And I walked out.”

The councilwoman said she drove straight home. But other officials said they tried to reach her there Monday night to persuade her to return.

Officials also consulted Robert’s Rules of Order--their guide for conducting public meetings--and did not find anything they could use to force Hugo-Martinez to return, Barnes said.

Hugo-Martinez isn’t sure whether she’ll report when the council meets again Monday. In light of the resignation of Councilman Chris Helton for business reasons, which takes effect Saturday, council attendance could remain slim.

Said Barnes, “It’s going to be kind of tight if that happens.”