For years I’ve believed that the Union-Tribune does itself and its readers a dis-service by publishing two or more editorials a day. The sheer number of editorials – most of which will hardly be remembered by the second strip of bacon – leads readers to start ignoring them. Then, when the editorial board actually has something important to convey, the impact of the editorial is minimized.
Case in point: on Friday I skipped the editorials…. right when the editorial board was actually writing about something important: the reform movement at San Diego City Hall:
UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Target of scorn
Will council perpetuate lack of confidence in city
January 5, 2007
Last September Mayor Jerry Sanders asked the City Council to approve a sweeping package of financial reforms designed to restore San Diego’s shattered credibility on Wall Street. Predictably, maverick Councilwoman Donna Frye was the lone vote against the plan, whose key element was the creation of an independent audit committee to oversee the reform process.
Now, just four months later, Frye audaciously proposes that the City Council put her in charge of the audit committee. How infernally illogical is that?
More important, how could Wall Street analysts take seriously an oversight panel chaired by a council member who not only opposed the mayor’s reform initiatives but also was cited by the Kroll investigation as “negligent” for her handling of municipal bond offerings that the Securities and Exchange Commission found to be fraudulent?
The two questions San Diegans should be asking: How did our city government sink to this deplorable condition? Will the City Council ever wake up to the reality that, by its machinations, it is perpetuating the destructive lack of confidence in San Diego’s financial management?
As originally proposed by Mayor Sanders, the audit committee was to be composed of three members – two independent experts with significant expertise in accounting, auditing and financial reporting, and one member of the City Council. City Attorney Mike Aguirre, who like Frye opposed establishment of the panel, derailed Sanders’ plan by declaring it would violate the city charter. Until the charter is amended by voters, Aguirre opined, the audit committee could be composed of City Council members only.
This prompted a chaotic and excruciating City Council meeting in which Frye, aided by Councilman Jim Madaffer (a fellow conspirator among the Negligent Five), shamelessly surprised her colleagues with her bid to become chairwoman of the audit committee on the spot. Council President Scott Peters foiled Frye’s gambit for the moment and later nominated Councilman Kevin Faulconer as chairman of the panel, with Frye as the vice chairman and Councilman Tony Young as the third member.
As we have argued in this space in the past, no member of the Negligent Five identified by the Kroll report should serve on the audit committee. Faulconer and Young, at least, meet this essential criterion. Neither was on the City Council when it committed securities fraud and concealed an illegal sewage rate structure that penalized homeowners in order to ease the burden on industrial users.
The City Council will decide the panel’s make-up at a meeting on Tuesday. If it wants to make San Diego an everlasting target of scorn in the financial world, it will create an audit committee chaired by Donna Frye.
Say it ain’t so, Jim…. say it ain’t so…
January 7th, 2007 at 12:00 am
The UT editorial board can disparage Aguirre and Frye all they want – it has no effect on the attitude of voters.
The UT opinions are now blown off by 60% of the Republican voters. Democratic and Independent registrants long ago ceased to give credence to the UT.
Sanders won despite UT support, not because of it.
January 8th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Actually Bill, I agree and disagree with you.
Agree – They are the voice of a tone-deaf establishment. We’ve been polling their endorsement all year long and it doesnt appear to have any impact at all – except maybe a net negative. We polled a couple other papers for other races around the state and found the same thing.
Disagree – Notice all those negative ads during the last six campaign cycles quoting the UT (actually quoting the editorials, usually). 3rd party credibility is quite useful. Ask Mayor Frye or Councilwoman Gonzalez (or Assemblywoman Sherrard for that matter).
Aguirre and Frye understand the public’s disgust with the establishment and are using that disgust to their advantage, brilliantly for the most part, but simply populist with no real plan. Will the editorial board change public opinion on those two? Probably not. But will the editorial board weigh in when they are up for election again and supply some of the fodder needed to get rid of them? Probably.