SAN DIEGO, Calif—Not only for the candidates, but also for Rachel Shira, appointments secretary for Mayor Dick Murphy, the court battle over who will occupy the mayor’s office after Monday has been extraordinarily difficult

For Shira, it is bad enough that she doesn’t know whether Murphy or any of his staff—including her—will have a job during this coming term.  But how do you schedule appointments for the mayor’s office, if you have no idea who will be there?.

Staff members for City Councilwoman Donna Frye and County Supervisor Ron Roberts—who opposed Murphy in the still undecided mayor’s race—are in a similar predicament.

Besides Shira, there are other members of the Jewish community whose career plans are in limbo pending the final outcome of the mayor’s race.

Among them is former state Assemblyman Howard Wayne who has been urged by Democrats to run for Frye’s officially non-partisan 6^th District City Council seat if her write-in candidacy for mayor ultimately is triumphant.

Wayne has indicated deep interest in representing the council district, which overlaps portions of the 78^th Assembly District that he represented for three terms in the Legislature.

However, Wayne also has the possibility of going to South Africa for six months, if his wife, Mary Lundberg, accepts an anticipated offer to serve as a consultant to that nation’s government on asset seizure programs. Lundberg is a deputy U.S. attorney here in San Diego and is considered an expert on confiscation of property belonging to drug dealers.

After his Assembly tenure ended, Wayne returned to his old job as an appeals lawyer for the state attorney general’s office.  He says he is likely to take a leave of absence from that job next year— to run for city council, if he so decides, or to accompany his wife on her South African sojourn.

On Thursday, Dec. 2, Wayne attended a noontime speech by Rabbi David Rosen at the La Jolla home of former South Africans Avril and Barry Kassar. Rosen, who today serves as international director of inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, had served as a rabbi in Cape Town for six years during the 1970s.  He later served as the Chief Rabbi of Ireland before moving on to interfaith work in Jerusalem.

Wayne gathered names of some of the attendees'  friends and family who live near Pretoria, the South African capital.  These contacts may prove useful for his wife—or, if Frye ultimately loses the mayoral battle, for both of them.  —Donald H. Harrison