Commissioner says leave her out of this

Some anti-Villaraigosa blogs have been gleefully spreading anonymous hearsay that city planning commissioner Sabrina Kay is another girlfriend of the mayor. At today's photo op du jour, he flatly denied that there have been any other women in his recent past — "a definitive, absolute no." Kay issued a statement of her own:

Regarding the allegations being bantered about concerning myself and the Mayor, let me say most emphatically that they are completely false. I have never had a romantic relationship with anyone in City government, or any other government for that matter.

I thought we had long passed the time when society thought a woman could succeed in only one way. I have spent my entire professional career trying to do the right thing. That is the only reason I accepted the challenges of assisting the City in its efforts to expand its commercial base. I cannot express how hurt I am that after so much effort, my success is trivialized in this way.

This will be my last comment on this completely false non-story.

Local TV news shows carried the denials prominently tonight. Villaraigosa wouldn't say if he was still dating Telemundo 52 anchor Mirthala Salinas, but did say he expects her to be vindicated of ethics charges. The mayor vowed he won't be responding to any more personal questions. But, well, you know how that goes. ABC 7, CBS 2, NBC 4, KTLA, Fox 11

Also: Daily News reporter Beth Barrett will guest on Tuesday night's Life & Times to talk about how the paper confirmed the mayor's affair with Salinas and broke the story last week. That airs at 7 pm on KCET, with more of the interview to follow on the Life and Times blog.