avoiding debate and "bullying people, one issue at a time." Others charged that she avoided difficult issues and concentrated on her "'populist' appeal that [is] . . . 'a mile wide and an inch deep.'" In 2000 she joined consumer activists in decrying the notoriously destructive effects of utility deregulation on California. "This is turning into a nightmare for San Diego," O'Connor said. "It [deregulation] didn't work, unfortunately. . . Let's admit it, fix it and save San Diego." O'Connor lives in San Diego. In 1987 she was the first Mayor of San Diego to march in the Gay Pride Parade alongside the mother of an AIDS patient. She was fulfilling a campaign promise to the LGBT community. She was cheered and booed. She said she was not condoning or condemning anyone, just showing support. 2013 money laundering charges In February 2013 O'Connor was charged in federal court with money laundering. Under an agreement with prosecutors, prosecution was deferred, contingent on her repaying $2 million which she allegedly took from a nonprofit foundation she managed, the R. P. Foundation, created by her late husband Robert O. Peterson. The fund is reported to be virtually defunct, its sole assets being $2 million owed to it by unspecified foundation insiders. Prosecutors said her gambling activity exceeded $1 billion over the period 2000–2008, with net losses of around $13 million, leaving her "destitute". O'Connor attributed a brain tumor, which she had surgery for in 2011, as the reason for her addiction to gambling. Quotes I came in as a maverick, and I will go out as a maverick. The mayor and the council in the past decade have decided to support the dessert menu: pay for ballparks, the Republican convention, anything that supports the chamber of commerce and the big downtown corporate leaders. They have neglected the basics: potholes in the streets, clean bay, clean ocean, affordable housing. When I left office there was an AAA bond rating, money in the bank. . . . [later] city government underfunded the pension fund to pay for this dessert menu. External links San Diego Union-Tribune article written by O'Connor, August 2005 References https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-06-14-me-7262-story.html Living people Mayors of San Diego San Diego City Council members Women city councillors in California 1946 births Women mayors of places in California San Diego State University alumni California Democrats 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians American twins