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Man Handler: Neighbors of former penis augmentationist Dr. Melvyn Rosenstein are out to derail his campaign for the homeowners board at a tony Marina del Rey condo complex. Public Eye Dick Doc Seeks Seat REMEMBER DR. DICK? Eyewatchers may be happy--or horrified--to learn he's back. Penis augmentationist Dr. Melvyn Rosenstein, who got his license yanked five years ago after one of his victims--Santa Cruz County carpenter Ron Nance--and dozens of others (including porn star John Wayne Bobbit) went public with charges of botched procedures that left their members mangled, is running for office. Not exactly public office, but he's on the ballot for the homeowners association at his tony condo complex in Marina del Rey, where some neighbors are waging a whisper campaign to make sure he doesn't win. One such campaigner, who didn't want her name used, called Eye last week looking for the original newspaper clipping of Metro's cover story from Feb. 8, 1996--because she says seniors in the complex don't believe anything they see on the Internet. ... After Metro broke the story the former urologist, slapped with 30 malpractice suits, surrendered his license when state medical board investigators found him guilty of an extended list of charges, including incompetence, gross negligence and repeated negligent acts. Today, the controversial carver is living comfortably as a retiree in the ultra-exclusive Marina City Club condo towers, where monthly association dues average more than $1,000. The man who was once the nation's busiest schlong stretcher shouldn't have any trouble paying the bills, though, if he kept even a fraction of the scratch he was making while he had his practice, where he put in long, hard hours performing up to 10 of the $5,900 enlargements every day. A copy of Mel's campaign lit obtained by Eye boasts several medical qualifications, plus his desire to take care of deferred maintenance at the complex and his keen interest in "structural repairs." Reached at home, Rosenstein refused Eye's interview request. But even with all the opposition, Rosenstein's odds in the June 6 election aren't so long: he's one of seven candidates for five seats on the board, which presides over an $8 million budget. Our source says that about 100 complex residents have mobilized to derail the ex-doc's bid because he won't talk about his past. Says another: "He's claiming this is all rumors and people got mad [because the procedure] wasn't approved by the FDA, but I think he's fraudulent and he's lying to the people here." By Any Other Name ... David Ginsborg went a lot further than most guys would, but he didn't go all the way. When Larry Stone's top aide got married two years ago, his wife hitched his name to hers with a hyphen, making her Elisa C. Koff-Ginsborg. But in the interest of creating a true family name, Ginsborg agreed to take his wife's name, too, and add it to his, sans hyphen. Ginsborg instead dropped his middle name (Samuel) in favor of his wife's last name, and recently became David Koff Ginsborg. "Her husband was a little slower at getting around to it," Ginsborg third-personally confesses about the lag time. He says part of the reason is that "it's just a lot harder for a guy to get his name changed." Ginsborg said he probably had to shell out about $300 to make the change, and even had to run legal ads and appear in Superior Court, where a judge signed off on the switch May 1. Now, he's still sending the court-issued paperwork off to places like the DMV, Social Security Administration, California Secretary of State and his credit card companies. He also has to bring the paperwork to the county property records department, just a short walk down the stairs from his office. And while Eye is perfectly content to call him something interesting, like Stone's propagandist hatchet man, Ginsborg also points out that his promotion last week gave him a newer, longer title, too: director of special programs and external affairs. ... In other name news, Eye last reported that downtown Councilwoman Cindy Chavez and husband Mike Potter, still unsure what to name their unborn son, were considering two hyphenated options. Well, the baby arrived May 3, and he's now known as Brennan Mateo Chavez Potter, no hyphen. The new dad, an aide to state Sen. Byron Sher, tells Eye that Brennan is a nod to former Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, an Eisenhower appointee who stepped down in 1990. Mateo is in honor of "Padre Mateo," or Fr. Mateo Sheedy, the longtime church leader and activist at the Sacred Heart Church on Willow Street who passed away last year. On the Ropes Tarzan-wannabe Mike Honda will be swinging through the trees up in the Santa Cruz Mountains next week. The congressman has accepted a challenge issued by John Coyle, a Santa Clara businessman who said he'd pay for a group of kids to do the course if Honda showed up. Coyle expects to pony up a tax-deductible sum of about $700 for the event. Honda eventually took the bait. "I had to remind him and remind him and remind him, but he finally agreed to do it," Coyle recalls. The friendly challenge was also issued to Assemblywoman Elaine Alquist, who said she couldn't make the outdoor event. Her excuse was that she'd be voting on the state budget, an equally athletic event. ... As part of the deal, Honda got to choose the class and picked one from Monroe Middle School in west San Jose. Coyle said he supported Honda's bid last year by buying a $1,000 ticket for last year's fundraiser headlined by President Clinton. But instead of going, Coyle gave the ticket away to the student head of the Democratic Club at Gunn High School in Palo Alto. And now that he thinks about it, she never did get back to him with a thank you. ... But in any case, Coyle says Honda has committed to the June 1 event at a kids' camp in the mountains above Saratoga. But instead of just taking a tax write-off, Coyle says he's organizing the event to give the kids something they'll remember, and jokes: "If Mike Honda at his age and his weight can do it, anyone can." Eye For An Eye Giving the occasional slap on the wrist is one of those parts of the job that Eye never particularly enjoys but must accept as an unpleasant but necessary part of the job. This love pat goes to Merc Wiretap columnist Peter Delevett, who, perhaps unwittingly, this month tried to pass off a 2-month-old Eye disclosure as one of his own. "Remember where you heard it first," the local daily's tech columnist clucked last week in an item about mayoral budget man Joe Guerra. Delevett's skinny for biz-section readers was that Gonzo's right-hand guy can be a bit abrupt sometimes, and Guerra's style has been rubbing a few folks--including some of the developers who bankrolled his boss's first campaign--the wrong way. That has some of the mayor's advisers suggesting that it might be easier for him the second time around if Guerra walks the plank--which should be old news to Eye watchers, who really did hear it here first, in March. If he's straying from tech talk, and is interested in venturing into the deep, shark-infested waters of SJ politics, Delevett might want to start tapping this wire once in a while. It's even free. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]