Three years later, Swiller's firm made another attempt, she said.

She was the perky kind, one who looked more like the front woman for a health food chain than a drink swiller at a club.

Swiller's wife, who served as a Villaraigosa commissioner, lent her name to the events.

Before his surgery, Mr. Swiller did a lot of homework.

Mr. Swiller recalled meeting a deaf high school girl who received the implants at age 2.

And after Villaraigosa won, Swiller helped him decide who should be appointed to various city commissions.

I walked up to the swiller.

“The first week was a real disappointment,” Mr. Swiller recalled.

Swiller "has this friendship to the mayor.

“I was so used to paying close attention when other people spoke,” Mr. Swiller recalled in an interview.

Freeman also knows Swiller, having helped him found Renewable Resources Group in 2004.

A Loop fan and coffee swiller noticed the seemingly partisan selection and asked the manager about it.

"This was a tongue-in-cheek comment between the chairman and me," Mr. Swiller said.

When Villaraigosa announced his second mayoral bid in 2004, Swiller served as a campaign fundraiser.

Swiller's attorney said her client had no conversations about Onyx Ranch with the mayor or any of his representatives.

But far more remarkable is that the interview with me was conducted over the telephone, something Mr. Swiller, 37, could not have done three years ago.

Nonetheless, Mr. Swiller says based on his experience, “a small child with severe hearing loss should be implanted as soon as possible.

Willa Swiller, a 67-year-old artist in White Plains.

Josh Swiller was 22 and profoundly deaf when he applied to the Peace Corps in search of adventure.

Mr. Swiller sees some advantages to the external receiver, which, for example, is easily removed for showering or swimming.

Mr. Swiller told me he had no problem with the interview, which was conducted one-on-one in a quiet room, enabling him to hear and to read lips.

His lieutenant is Ari Swiller, a former Democratic National Committee fund-raiser.

“My hearing is so many light-years better than I ever could have imagined — it’s a miracle,” Mr. Swiller said.

I am the grave of hope and the tomb of truth, swiller of fame, gulper of residues.

A private wind developer who was party to the negotiations, however, said that he believes Swiller knew of the DWP's involvement months earlier.