Chick-Delgadillo rivalry

Yesterday's City Hall settlement with Fleishman-Hillard over inflated billings gave a glimpse of the competition between two ambitious politicians, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and Controller Laura Chick. In announcing that Fleishman agreed to pay the city $4.5 million and give up another $1.2 million it may have been owed, Delgadillo told the media that his investigation only found $850,000 in fraudulent billings — the rest of the settlement was a penalty, he said. Chick's office was quick to point out, however, that her audit had actually found up to $4.2 million in questionable billings by Fleishman. The two officials also disagreed over who took the lead in going after the PR firm. Delgadillo is running in the Democratic primary for state attorney general (against Oakland mayor and ex-governor Jerry Brown), while Chick just began her final term as controller. Today's Daily News story sees their rivalry at work in yesterday's machinations; the Times and Daily Breeze less so.