Sally Anne Sheridan

Credentials are important to some extent, but moral character is far more important. A person can have a long list of degrees and still be a person with whom you would not want to work with or place your trust in. I did not ask Sally Anne Sheridan what her credentials were when I volunteered to help in her campaign for mayor of Irvine. I came to know her from observing how she related to people and her general integrity and down-to-earth character and concern for our city. She has a way of making you feel important when you're with her and not trying to impress you with her importance.

Come November, Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan will be replaced on the City Council because she is not running for reelection. But her ties to the city will linger through one of the major projects that helped build her political reputation. Last week, the City Council unanimously appointed Sheridan to serve on the Irvine Barclay Theatre Operating Company Board of Directors, beginning Dec. 15.

Although Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan harshly criticized the former City Council last spring when it established a sister-city relationship with Tsukuba, Japan, she plans to lead a delegation of two council members and two staff members to Tsukuba in November. Two former council members are criticizing her for taking the five-day trip, but she insists that it is important for Irvine to live up to its sister-city commitment. "These are commitments made by my city," Sheridan said Tuesday.

Outgoing Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan says she was in the best position to make this politically loaded suggestion: Eliminate cronyism from city commissions. City law allows the mayor and council members to appoint one member each to city commissions, which review everything from proposed cultural affairs programs to huge residential developments.

Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan has tentatively agreed to pay a $2,000 civil penalty to settle a conflict-of-interest complaint stemming from the sale of property for Paul O. Brady Jr., whom she later voted to promote to city manager.

Why does Sally Anne Sheridan continue to distribute door to door her campaign flyer, which states that she has a master's degree from Harvard? The Times revealed that Sheridan lied about her educational background. She claims to be sorry, but clearly she does not regret her deception because she continues to distribute the false information. Our homes in Turtle Rock and the homes of neighbors and friends in this area all received her literature last week, long after Sheridan's lie was made public.

I am a retired Orange County Superior Court judge. I am also a graduate of Harvard Law School and am very proud of my degree. So you can see I was appalled when I read in her campaign literature that Sally Anne Sheridan, a candidate for mayor of Irvine, had claimed that she had earned a master's degree in nursing from Harvard Medical School. She has never earned a degree in nursing from Harvard Medical School. If Sally Anne Sheridan will lie to the voters of Irvine to get elected, what will she do if she becomes mayor?

A recent article in The Times concerning the erroneous statements of Sally Anne Sheridan, who is running for mayor of Irvine, points up two serious flaws. Sheridan admits she lied about her educational credentials and then blamed it on her campaign committee. If she cannot manage her own campaign committee, how can she manage a whole city and especially one as large and important as Irvine? Another questionable statement by Sheridan was her obvious contempt for nurses. Her excuse for what she did was that she did not want to be considered just a plain nurse who washed bedpans.

The bad news is Measure B passed. The good news is that it passed by such a narrow margin. Imagine the outcome if the Irvine Co. had not spent over $600,000 on its campaign. Sally Anne Sheridan, Bill Vardoulis and Barry J. Hammond are now put on notice by the close to 50% of voters against Measure B that they, and the dense policies they represent, are a hangover from the conspicuous consumption of the '80s. With voters obviously becoming more educated with respect to what is at stake for the future of Irvine, any effort of the Irvine Co. to buy this continued representation will clearly be costly.

Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan on Monday agreed to pay the maximum $2,000 penalty to settle a state conflict-of-interest complaint. Sheridan had been accused of illegally voting on March 28, 1989, to promote Paul O. Brady Jr. to city manager. Under state law, Sheridan, a real estate agent, had a conflict of interest in matters concerning Brady since she had split $16,038 in commissions from the sale of his home.

Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan has tentatively agreed to pay a $2,000 civil penalty to settle a conflict-of-interest complaint stemming from the sale of property for Paul O. Brady Jr., whom she later voted to promote to city manager.

You know what? Sally Anne Sheridan has it all wrong. As Irvine's new mayor, she is often the subject of criticism, which she interprets as so many "personal attacks." She seems convinced that the only conceivable reason for this criticism of her is that she is not Larry Agran. She regularly remarks in interviews that those members of the community who often voice concerns at City Council meetings during public comments are simply experiencing a bad case of sour grapes, whining because their political messiah has been succeeded.

Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan should not vote on a proposed 3,626-home Westpark II project because she has a conflict-of-interest with the developer, an Irvine attorney alleged Tuesday. Christopher B. Mears said that because Sheridan, a real-estate agent, earned commissions by helping with home sales or purchases for top Irvine Co. officials, she has a conflict of interest and should abstain from voting. But Sheridan said she has no conflict of interest with the Irvine Co.

City Councilwoman Sally Anne Sheridan's real estate firm has represented as many as 19 city employees in private land transactions since 1984, her husband and business partner said Tuesday. Sheridan's role in representing City Atty. Roger Grable in the sale of his home earlier this year triggered an ongoing city inquiry into the practice, which was criticized by Councilman Edward A. Dornan as a potential conflict of interest.

I was surprised to learn that Cameron Cosgrove is a Republican ("Is Pioneering Spirit History in Irvine?" June 18). And he's right that it shouldn't matter in a nonpartisan race, but it was Mayor Larry Agran and City Councilman Cosgrove more than any others who turned Irvine politics into partisan, nationally oriented politics. And now he has the gall to complain. It's not surprising that Cosgrove was ignored in the campaign. Except for Sally Anne Sheridan, the council was a rubber stamp for Agran.

To avoid the appearance of a taking a political junket, City Councilwoman Paula Werner said Thursday that she will pay her own round-trip air fare to Japan in November. After word spread this week that the mayor and two council members were accompanying two city staff members on a weeklong trip to Tsukuba, Irvine's Japanese sister city, two former council members and a few residents publicly accused the council of taking a sightseeing trip at taxpayer expense.

Although Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan harshly criticized the former City Council last spring when it established a sister-city relationship with Tsukuba, Japan, she plans to lead a delegation of two council members and two staff members to Tsukuba in November. Two former council members are criticizing her for taking the five-day trip, but she insists that it is important for Irvine to live up to its sister-city commitment. "These are commitments made by my city," Sheridan said Tuesday.