Carlsbad City Council candidate Glenn Bernard alleged at a candidates forum yesterday that a former councilwoman resigned last year because she feared a brewing credit-card scandal, and she had wanted to see a new council member on the panel.

But former Councilwoman Norine Sigafoose, who resigned in February 2007 because of ill health, denied making the statements.

“That's just ludicrous. I never said it and I didn't think it,” Sigafoose said. “There has never to my knowledge been any hint of credit-card fraud.”

Councilwoman Ann Kulchin, who attended yesterday's forum in southwestern Carlsbad, said the city doesn't issue credit cards to council members.

“Norine Sigafoose told me that credit cards were being widely abused by city personnel,” Bernard said after the forum. “She named no names.”

Bernard said he would take a lie-detector test to prove his veracity.

He said Sigafoose told him two months before the November 2006 election that she wanted a new council member. Bernard, who ran last in a three-person race for mayor that year, said she didn't endorse him and didn't imply she would.

Mayor Bud Lewis and incumbent council members Matt Hall and Mark Packard were re-elected.

Sigafoose has endorsed Kulchin and Keith Blackburn this year.

The other candidates running for two seats are Thomas K. Arnold, Farrah Douglas and Evan Delaney Rodgers.

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Michael Burge: (760) 476-8230; michael.burge@uniontrib.com