What’s the opposite of the old saying that a broken clock is right twice a day? Maybe that even normally functioning watches need to have their batteries changed from time to time?
Odd, but interesting that the Wall Street Journal of all places would opine so favorably in Mike Aguirre’s favor given the well-documented troubles of the liberal Democrat Aguirre’s office.
A San Diego Retirement
A San Diego Retirement
Unfunded public employee pensions are a crisis waiting to erupt across the country, so a political brawl inSan Diego is worth watching. In a welcome change, a public official is looking out for taxpayers rather than for unionized public workers. San Diego first disclosed huge funding shortfalls in its public pension plan six years ago. Officials have since been charged with fraud by the SEC, the city has had its bond rating slashed, and both the IRS and the SEC have demanded changes in the way the city’s pensions are administered. Yet the generous pension benefits that were handed out by the derelict politicians and triggered the crisis remain in place — a billion-dollar liability hanging over city taxpayers for decades to come. This summer, San Diego ‘s mayor succeeded in negotiating a reduction in retirement benefits for city employees — but only for new hires, starting in 2009. The deal left the benefits negotiated in 1996 and 2002 untouched, and both city politicians and unions say those bennies are "sacrosanct." They include 50,000 years of pension credit for time not served that the city all but gave away, as well as a provision that allowed employees to take early retirement and a deferred-retirement program at the same time. San Diego ‘s contributions to the pension fund have quadrupled in recent years, and the fund is still $1.2 billion in the hole. California state law caps property tax levies. So San Diego has paid for the increased contributions by deferring road maintenance, and skimping on library funding and municipal recreation programs. And the city is still falling further behind. The garden at this skunk party is City Attorney Mike Aguirre, who has made himself very unpopular with the political establishment by suing to rescind the 1996 and 2002 pension promises. Though a liberal Democrat normally sympathetic to unions, he says the benefits were granted as part of "the largest municipal securities fraud in American history," and so taxpayers shouldn’t have to honor them. As for the mayor’s recent deal on future benefits, Mr. Aguirre says "that might save us $22 million 40 years from now." By contrast, he figures he can shave $900 million off the $1.2 billion deficit if he prevails in court. His case was tossed out of trial court but is now under appeal. The battle has been so contentious that one member of the City Council and a local judge both attempted to unseat Mr. Aguirre in a primary earlier this year. Judge Jan Goldsmith won the primary, but Mr. Aguirre, who came in second, will get a rematch in November’s runoff. Mr. Aguirre, who used to represent victims of Ponzi schemes in private practice, says these pension giveaways are the same beast. "But unlike most Ponzi schemes, this one is financed with taxpayer dollars," he says. The same goes for elsewhere around the country, where politicians have also padded pensions to buy union support, knowing that the bills will come due long after they’ve left office. In New York state, Albany has been granting expensive retirement benefits for years on the basis of cost estimates prepared by a actuary being paid by the same unions who stand to benefit from the increases. And in New Jersey , state lawmakers shortchanged the public pension funds in the 1990s by rewriting the accounting rules to make it look like they were fully funded. Taxpayers in those states need a rabble-rouser like Mr. Aguirre willing to stand up to union interests. The San Diego attorney faces a tough re-election battle in November, but he’s setting off an alarm that voters across need to hear.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Thx, Brandon, see my post two down for more info on Aguirre. WSJ is way off base if they think he is facing significant campaign opposition because of his efforts on the pension mess. That would be very simplistic and far from the full story.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I’m with you Barry. Aguirre is a trainwreck. Just found it interesting that such a reliably good-guy source as the WSJ ed-page could be so off base… that they wouldn’t even bother checking with local leaders to get “the rest of the story.”
September 7th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Judge Goldsmith’s letter to the WSJ:
Your editorial endorsing the incumbent San Diego City Attorney, Mike Aguirre (“A San Diego Retirement”, September 6), falsely spins this campaign as all about San Diego’s pension problems. It is not.
Although I am referred to as the “opponent” in the editorial, you never communicated with me. So, you only heard Mr. Aguirre’s side. I’d like to give my side.
Mr. Aguirre has lost every pension lawsuit he filed and the City has had to pay millions of dollars in legal fees awarded to the winning party. No matter how much it is spun, the fact is that an employer cannot get out from under a contractual pension obligation because it was a bad deal absent bankruptcy.
I have been a judge for the past 10 years and had nothing to do with creating the pension problem. That’s not what this election is about.
Here is what the election is about:
– Mr. Aguirre, the City Attorney, has often refused to provide legal advice to the City. He claims he represents the “people”, not the City. The City has been left without a lawyer. What would the WSJ do with your lawyers if they withheld advice to you because they believe they represent your subscribers and not you?
– Mr. Aguirre blatantly uses the power of his office to promote his “progressive” political agenda. Recently, he filed a lawsuit to create a “foreclosure sanctuary” in San Diego– a so-called “progressive” response to the home foreclosure crisis. To placate antiwar activists, he tried using his power as City Attorney to evict Blackwater- a government contractor that trains our troops– from San Diego . A federal judge issued an injunction against Mr. Aguirre’s plan because it would have violated the law.
– Mr. Aguirre regularly uses threats and intimidation to get his way. The former head of the criminal division, a 33 year veteran prosecutor wrote in a declaration signed under penalty of perjury: “It was my experience serving as assistant city attorney under Michael Aguirre that he sought to use the criminal authority of his office to attack people whom he believed to be his enemies.” Mr. Aguirre was thrown off a criminal prosecution after the judge found in a written decision that Mr. Aguirre used the threat of criminal prosecution to get an advantage in a civil case. http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/05/22/government/734aguirre051807.txt California Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 5-100 prohibits an attorney from threatening criminal charges “to obtain an advantage in a civil dispute.”
– Mr. Aguirre has publicly labeled many office-holders, citizens and institutions in San Diego as “corrupt” and part of a grand conspiracy– ranging from the Mayor to the newspaper to the police chief and judges. No evidence was presented and no charges were filed, but reputations were soiled. The Mayor went so far as to request that the California Attorney General investigate Mr. Aguirre’s corruption charge to clear his name. The Attorney General found absolutely no evidence of corruption. Mr. Aguirre then accused the Attorney General, a Democrat like Mr. Aguirre, of doing a “political favor” for the Republican Mayor. To this day, Mr. Aguirre has never provided evidence of corruption.
– During the wildfires last year, Mr. Aguirre called for an evacuation of the entire City. He pestered our firefighters and crisis management team to the point of harassment. During a landslide involving homes, Mr. Aguirre rushed to the site and explained to the media how the City helped cause it. Mr. Aguirre has no expertise in evacuations or soils engineering.
– Under Mr. Aguirre, about 125 of 135 lawyers in the City Attorney’s office left– most were fired or forced out. Many of the replacements were politicos with very little legal experience. The lack of experience was coupled with elimination of training programs on legal practice. The result is a disaster to the quality of civil and criminal practice in San Diego courts by the City Attorney’s office.
Had you spent the time to speak with me – Mr. Aguirre’s opponent – maybe you would have discovered there are two sides to this election. I am running to restore the City Attorney’s office as a law office.
Here is a suggestion to the WSJ – After Mr. Aguirre is bounced from office by the voters of San Diego who have lived with his antics, the WSJ ought to hire Mr. Aguirre as your General Counsel. And please make sure his office is in New York City.
Judge Jan Goldsmith
San Diego, Calif.