Miguel A Pulido

Miguel A. Pulido Jr. starts this day in the well-worn offices of his family's muffler shop, slipping easily from English to Spanish to French as he studies the absentee vote count, ducks under a car to diagnose a faulty converter and takes a call from a Vietnamese supporter.

When he was elected to the Santa Ana City Council in 1986, Miguel Pulido was cast as the young Latino outsider taking on the city's political establishment, fighting to save his family's muffler shop from being swallowed up by redevelopment. The budding politician who was born in Mexico City was quickly embraced by other Latinos in Santa Ana, who, in 1994, helped elect him the city's first Latino mayor.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday appointed Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido to the board of the California State Teachers Retirement System, the largest pension program of its kind in the country. Pulido, a Democrat, was initially appointed to the unsalaried post last year by former Gov. Gray Davis shortly before Davis was recalled. But when Schwarzenegger became governor, he withdrew Pulido's nomination along with scores of other pending Davis state office nominees.

A woman has sued Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido, alleging that he swindled her out of $43,000 after promising a high rate of return by investing the money building homes. Ana B. Rangel of Santa Ana says in the suit that she was first contacted by Pulido's father and then met Pulido, who told her she should invest funds with him from a settlement she received after her husband died in a car crash.

Miguel A. Pulido Jr. became mayor Tuesday night during a swearing-in ceremony marked by standing ovations and mariachi music. Before a crowd of more than 250 people jammed into the City Council chambers, Pulido and council members Patricia McGuigan, Robert L. Richardson and Tony Espinoza took their oaths of office. Political leaders including Supervisor Gaddi H.

MIGUEL A. PULIDO JR. Pulido was first elected to the City Council in 1986 after helping his father fight city plans to tear down the family's Ace Muffler Shop for a redevelopment project. * Age: 42 * Residence: Santa Ana * Education: B.S., mechanical engineering, Cal State Fullerton, 1980. * Career highlights: Elected to council, 1986; elected mayor, 1994 and 1996. Serves on Santa Ana Redevelopment Agency. Member, Pacific Symphony Orchestra board of directors.

Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. took pains to point out that he was in Santa Ana, not Irvine, as he gave his state of the city address Wednesday. A flap had erupted last week over news that the early morning speech would be held in Irvine at the Orange County Airport Hilton. Amid the criticism, the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the speech, switched locations to the Turnip Rose banquet room in Santa Ana.

City Council candidate Coween Dickerson, whom Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr. accused last week of violating a state campaign law, has countered with a charge of her own: that Pulido improperly used $5,300 in campaign funds to pay for a Harvard University class in 1987. Dickerson, who is running against incumbent Pulido in the Nov.

The Orange County Grand Jury is reportedly investigating allegations that Santa Ana attorney and Latino rights activist Rodolfo Montejano tried to improperly pressure City Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr. to approve the construction of billboards proposed by one of his clients.

A judge has ruled that Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido does not have to pay a $1,000 civil fine for failing to disclose his financial interests just outside the city's borders. The penalty was dropped because Pulido's mistake was considered an oversight and was subsequently corrected after it was brought to his attention, said Pulido's attorney, Charles McClung. Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert D.

In their own ways, the two politicians champion Santa Ana and its mostly Latino population. But their conflicting visions divide the community. Mayor Miguel A. Pulido sees a Santa Ana of growth and prosperity, an emerging center of mainstream commerce and industry. But former school board member Nativo V. Lopez sees a Santa Ana of simple aspirations, of disenfranchised immigrants struggling to make ends meet in a new homeland.

A woman has sued Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido, alleging that he swindled her out of $43,000 after promising a high rate of return by investing the money building homes. Ana B. Rangel of Santa Ana says in the suit that she was first contacted by Pulido's father and then met Pulido, who told her she should invest funds with him from a settlement she received after her husband died in a car crash.

Within a week after the Santa Ana City Council approved an $8.3-million bond issue to buy eight dilapidated apartment buildings on South Minnie Street, Hermandad Mexicana Nacional of Santa Ana filed suit to try to stop the redevelopment project, alleging a conflict of interest because the mayor had ties to a part owner of the buildings. Hermandad leader Nativo Lopez said he filed the lawsuit a week after the council's March 5 vote because Mayor Miguel A.

The FBI informant at the center of the public corruption case against Santa Ana Councilman Ted Moreno testified on Tuesday that he also worked with federal agents on similar investigations involving Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and a former Anaheim councilman. The witness, Vaskin Kashkerian, said he was part of a team of informants who funneled phony campaign contributions to Pulido.

Investments, the Internet and infrastructure were the dominant themes at the first California-Mexico Summit of Mayors, a three-day conference in Irvine and Santa Ana that aims to increase cross-border trade. The summit, which evolved from a trip last year to Guadalajara by Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr., Irvine Mayor Christina L.

More than 80 people crowded onto Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr.'s front lawn Wednesday night to protest what they call his "empty promises" concerning a major redevelopment project. Pulido was not home during the demonstration. "He makes a lot of commitments in public, but in private, he shows a different face," said Nativo Lopez, who organized the demonstration and is director of the Latino group Hermandad Mexicana Nacional.

City Council candidate Coween Dickerson Tuesday defended the actions of her former campaign treasurer in hiring a private detective to trail Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr. to find out whether he lives in the city. But Dickerson said at a press conference that she had accepted the resignation of the treasurer, Salvador Juarez, saying he should have informed her of his actions.

The mayors of Orange County's two largest cities handily fought off challenges by scrappy members of their city councils, including one councilman who continued campaigning while under federal indictment on political corruption charges. Miguel A. Pulido Jr. of Santa Ana and Tom Daly of Anaheim were winning decisive victories Tuesday over their respective opponents, Ted R. Moreno and Bob Zemel. Both contests capped years of bitter rivalry on the councils.

MIGUEL A. PULIDO JR. Pulido was first elected to the City Council in 1986 after helping his father fight city plans to tear down the family's Ace Muffler Shop for a redevelopment project. * Age: 42 * Residence: Santa Ana * Education: B.S., mechanical engineering, Cal State Fullerton, 1980. * Career highlights: Elected to council, 1986; elected mayor, 1994 and 1996. Serves on Santa Ana Redevelopment Agency. Member, Pacific Symphony Orchestra board of directors.