San Diego, Ca (special) -- Former San Diego City Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer Stutz has written what she calls a "novel of political intrigue" titled The Whores of St. Joan.   On one level, the story is quite simple.  An independently wealthy call girl decides that while it's okay for her to prostitute her body, it's wrong for her well-placed clients to prostitute the city government.  So she decides to undo them.

As Neely Ryde's clients include members of the city council, the city attorney, a major land developer, the chief of police, and the town's leading political consultant, pillow talk for her is not a form of relaxation after taking care of business. It is her real business.   Thanks to the author's eight years on the San Diego City Council and a fertile imagination, the secrets divulged to Neely about how decisions get made by municipal legislatures sometimes are quite insightful.  Add to this some playful similarities between some of the personalities in fictional St. Joan and real-world San Diego, and you know that San Diego's political insiders will be buzzing over whether the novel is really a thinly disguised expose. There's a city council member who gets in trouble

Abbe Wolfsheimer Stutz

using city credit cards.  There's a city attorney whose specialty is never taking a strong legal stand until after he decides how a majority of the city council wants him to opine.  There's a lobbyist who couples his demands for land use variances with promises of lucrative political fundraising dinners.  There's a lady mayor who is a control freak.  There's a council member who is a lesbian.  Another council member is a neo-nazi.   

Could any of these characters be people who have served or are serving on San Diego's City Council?  Stutz, of course, would be wise never to answer.

I can't report that this book ever will be considered great literature.  For one thing, Stutz indulges her passion for bad puns far too often.  For another, the premise strains credulity that someone could be a whore for the city's entire power structure, working both genders as well as both sides of the political aisle, and keep this all secret. 

As one who has taught law and is regarded as a civil libertarian, Stutz probably remembers that smut used to be defined as works that were intended to appeal to prurient interests and that had no redeeming social value.  

Prurient interest will probably keep many people turning the pages of this book.  The book's redeeming value is its insiders' take on how the game of legislative politics is played.   Like San Diego, St. Joan has a nine-member City Council on which the mayor casts one of the votes.  

Here is the politically ambitious mayor of St. Joan talking with her political consultant about how she will get a controversial land development approved, yet, at the same time, distance herself from the project in the public's perception.

"On Monday, October 4th, I will quietly add Sunview to the docket for Wednesday, October 6th. This will preclude the City Manager from finalizing, printing and distributing his report before Tuesday, October 5th. On Monday, October 4th, I will also orchestrate a little protest of my own.  I will see that the City Manager's unfavorable report is leaked to a few key environmentalists and community activists.  

"Consequently, they'll storm the Council chambers on the 6th and I, of course, will have no alternative but to save the citizens--if only temporarily --  from the ravages of Sunview.  I'll either vote nay--if Carl (the developer who is financing her) has six votes without mine--or I'll see to it that the vote is postponed until after the election." 

If this sounds diabolical, consider this: although this mayor is corrupt and power mad, she is less sleazy than some of the other characters.

I remember interviewing the author--then known as Abbe Wolfsheimer-- when she decided in 1993 to retire after eight years on the City Council.  She had represented not only the First Council District from which she was elected, but also, on occasion, had aided the Jewish community of which she is an active member.

Why step down? I had asked her then.  "Eight is enough!" she replied.

If her San Diego City Council experience was anything like the one in fictional St. Joan, eight years would have been more than eight times enough!

* * 
The Whores of St. Joan is published by andEthics Publishing, 7486 La Jolla Blvd, PMB 280-B, La Jolla, CA 92037. The 338-page softback book lists at $19.95