Art Madrid, ousted as La Mesa mayor last year after 33 years as an officeholder, says he is “pulling no punches” in a book he’s writing about his life and East County politics.
“Everything is documented,” Madrid said Wednesday. “Documents galore.”
Madrid, 80, said he told friends: “I’m not even changing the names to protect the guilty.” In November, he lost a bid for a seventh term as mayor to educator and Councilman Mark Arapostathis.
He said he’s taking Sydney Brown’s “Creative Nonfiction Writing” class at Grossmont College, but hasn’t decided on whether to self-publish or find an agent and publisher. (Instructor Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
“I’m learning a lot and getting some real sound advice on what can be done,” he said.
Madrid expressed admiration for two books on San Diego political and cultural history — “Under the Perfect Sun” and “Paradise Plundered.”
In a phone interview, Madrid indicated he would write about his longtime critics, including downtown bookstore owner Craig Maxwell — who ran against Madrid for mayor in 2006.
Among other targets are Councilwoman Kristine Alessio, who Madrid said was mentored by Maxwell and began an affair with the local gadfly.
“He divorced his wife, and she divorced her husband,” Madrid said. “This is Peyton Place, OK?”
He also alleged that Alessio, a vocal proponent of e-cigarettes, is quietly working on behalf of state efforts to legalize recreational marijuana.
Alessio responded via email, saying: “False on all three allegations.”
(Superior Court records show that Steven Alessio filed for divorce from Kristine in March 2014 and Lynn Maxwell sued for divorce from Craig two months later.)
“A writing class to settle old scores, eh?” Maxwell said via email. “I didn’t know they offered remedial courses! Sure it’s not an introduction to writing fiction? That’d suit him better. Or maybe, ‘How to write Fantasy, 101’? … But seriously, Art is and always has been the biggest liar in East County politics. It’s a mistake to take him seriously.”
He also called Madrid’s claims false.
Said Maxwell: “To paraphrase what Mary McCarthy told Dick Cavett about Lillian Hellman, “Every word [he] writes is a lie, including and and the.”
Madrid contends that plans for his “demise in office” were laid 2 1/2 years ago by members led by former Councilman Ernie Ewin.
“They were opposing every one of my recommendations” Madrid said. “They had identified Arapostathis as the next mayor. So I said: This is it. I’m not going to back off on anything.”
In 2012, Madrid said, his opponents supported Alessio, “who in my judgment is going to be a one-term council member because she has pissed off the whole city.” He called her a liberal even though she depicts herself as “very conservative.”
Madrid says he’s talked a number of “well-known authors” and likens his project to a tsunami or an earthquake — “a lot of people rattled. I am pulling no punches.” He won’t commit to a timeline for publication, but hopes to finish in 2016.
Besides his career at Pacific Bell, he’ll cover events in Lemon Grove, Santee, El Cajon, Alpine and on the county Board of Supervisors, he says.
He’ll also write about Helix Charter High School, including what led to the mysterious resignation of Executive Director Rani Goyal only weeks before the school’s 2012 commencement.
Madrid says he liked Goyal, now principal of Fullerton Union High School in north Orange County.
“My sources tell me quite a bit that [Goyal] came in there to change the culture [at Helix],” Madrid said. “It was always the good ol’ boys. … During the school day, Rani was trying to break the stranglehold and she was disciplining some of the educators.”
But at night the educators, or their allies, were on the board that ran Helix. So they were her bosses, “and this was payback time.”
Councilwoman Ruth Sterling told Times of San Diego: “As far as Art writing a book, that’s great on whatever subject. Many people improve their writing skills and write a book in retirement.”
James Newland, president of the La Mesa Historical Society, called the prospect of a book “sort of intriguing” and said: “It could be really valuable — he was involved in (local) politics longer than anyone in human history.”
Newland, author of a La Mesa history, said Madrid’s book would join such historically important works as the scrapbooks kept by La Mesa Mayor Ray Fellows in the 1960s.
He also noted how former San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy wrote an autobiography to answer his pension-crisis critics.
But Newland — who works in San Diego and Sacramento for the state Department of Parks and Recreation and expects his history of Mount Helix to come out by the end of the year — is looking for Madrid to produce “a great chronicle for the city of La Mesa.”
Will Madrid’s book shake up La Mesa politics?
“I doubt it,” Newland said. “Things are pretty stable. The city manager runs the city.”
Madrid says he’s been collecting documents — “the pluses and the minuses” — for almost 16 years.
“Files galore,” he said. “I can cite example after example of payback.”
