Affair, NBC project cross paths - A $3-billion Universal City development is getting new scrutiny as Telemundo officials undertake a review of the mayor's girlfriend.
The extramarital affair between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a newscaster for Telemundo has created a new set of complications for the broadcaster's corporate parent, NBC Universal -- and possibly the mayor himself.
Even as its Spanish-language subsidiary is poised to decide the future of Mirthala Salinas, the now-suspended reporter who embarked on a romantic relationship with Villaraigosa while she reported on him, NBC Universal is proceeding with a massive $3-billion development plan that city officials must ultimately approve.
Although Telemundo executives hold the key to the career of Salinas, now the subject of an internal investigation into whether she compromised the company's journalistic mission, Villaraigosa holds his own considerable power over NBC Universal. The entertainment conglomerate will very likely need Villaraigosa's help to navigate the city's approval process as it spends the next year pushing its Universal City Vision Plan, a concept the mayor embraced seven months ago.
The first public discussion of the Universal City Vision Plan, a series of projects that would bring 2,900 new homes and 1.6 million square feet of new commercial space, will be held Wednesday, when residents will be asked to describe the environmental issues they want reviewed. But neighbors who live near Universal City have begun arguing that the mayor's relationship with Salinas raises new questions about his ties to the media company -- and whether he has his own conflict of interest.
"The only one who knows whether there is a conflict is the mayor, and if there is, the mayor needs to acknowledge it and recuse himself," said Richard Bogy, a Toluca Lake resident who is on a panel reviewing part of Universal City's development plans.
Terry Davis, president of the Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council, suggested that Villaraigosa ask the city's Ethics Commission to determine whether the mayor has any conflict of interest regarding the development plan. "We're talking a huge project, a 20-year project that will irreparably affect a community, and we need to know that it is all above board," she said.
Telemundo could end its review of Salinas by allowing her to keep her job as an anchor, by reassigning her to another program or affiliate, or even by letting her leave with a substantial severance package. Any of those decisions could be greeted positively or negatively by Villaraigosa, who has been publicly promoting NBC Universal's project for seven months.
