Updated at 7:45 a.m. May 22, 2015
Paul and Maria McEneany are friends and associates of county Supervisor Dave Roberts. On Thursday, toting Nikon cameras, they joined news crews focused on Roberts spokesman Gary Gartner.
Seeking to defuse bombs thrown at the 3rd District supervisor, Gartner spent 45 minutes denying allegations by Diane Porter in her $250,000 wrongful-termination claim against the county.
She alleges misuse of public money, a Roberts affair with a male staffer and a hostile work environment. Hours later, another former Roberts aide filed her own claim against the county. (See link below.)
Gartner was adamant about the Porter claims: “They are false, defamatory and they will be refuted by witness statements and documents.”
- Harold Meza: Let Me Be Perfectly Clear . . . I Am a Heterosexual Male
- NBC San Diego: 2nd Claim Brings New Allegations Against County Supervisor
Standing at a lectern outside the County Administration Center, Gartner displayed baseball-style cards by Pete Wilson, the former San Diego mayor, printed when he was governor. They were juxtaposed next to the ones Roberts printed and then opted not to hand out — criticized as an unethical misuse of public funds.
He began his remarks by declaring: “People can say a lot of things, but documents can actually show what has occurred in this instance. … I told him I want to come and help him clear his name.”
Gartner read from a letter Thursday by Harold Meza — whom he called a policy adviser and community representative and not merely a driver or chauffeur.
“There was no inappropriate conduct — sexual or otherwise — by Dave’s policy adviser … and Supervisor Roberts,” said Gartner, who said Meza “speaks Spanish so eloquently he served as a translator” for media and constituents.
Meza labeled himself a heterosexual male and denied suggestions of an affair with the lone Democrat on the Board of Supervisors.
Paul said he was glad to see Gartner distribute documents that depict Porter as misleading the county.
“It was some good information,” said Paul, who said he’s known Roberts for six or seven years through their mutual involvement in the Lions Club. A vice president with internet-service company SicommNet, he hailed Gartner’s performance.
The last few weeks have been “horrific for them,” Paul said, referring to Porter’s claim as “false accusations.”
Wife Maria McEneany, a member of the advisory Commission on the Status of Women appointed by Roberts, said she and Paul know him and his spouse Wally Oliver well.
“They’re so committed to their relationship,” she said, noting they were busy raising six kids.
The McEneanys live close to Solana Beach (on the Rancho Sante Fe side) and mourned the ordeal facing Dave Roberts and Oliver.
“If something like this were to happen to anyone of us with a strong relationship — how harmful it would be to go through those challenges,” Maria said after the news conference.
But Maria expressed hope their friends would pull through.
“If you can bring six adopted children into your family, you can hurdle this,” she said.
Gartner said Roberts had acquired the reputation as “the hardest-working” county supervisor for what he called six to 10 community or government meetings a day.
“Throughout his entire term, Dave Roberts has held himself to the highest ethical standards and has done nothing to improper, unethical or inappropiate,” he said.