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TOP
STORIES
Paying
City Officials Legal Fees Constitutes Double-Whammy Against Taxpayers
Today the San Diego City Council authorized the use of $150,000
to pay legal bills to defend city officials in SCC and U.S. Attorney
investigations.
Statement
Daily
Transcript: Mayor's chief of staff joins controversial pension
program
John Kern, chief of staff for San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy, has
enrolled in the notorious DROP pension program even while the
city is struggling to reform the system.
Daily
Transcript Article
City
Attorney Aguirre to Provide “Adult Supervision” to
Wayward City Pension Board
The
Performance Institute today applauded a decision by newly elected
City Attorney Mike Aguirre to re-assume the sole responsibility
for providing legal counsel to the San Diego City Employee Retirement
(SDCERs) Board.
Statement
Dec. 17 Letter from Aguirre
to Board (.pdf)
Dec.
17 Letter from Gammill to Board (.pdf)
Union-Tribune:
Delay of San Diego's Water Projects Raises Concerns
San Diego won't immediately face hefty fines or legal action for
halting new water and sewer projects, but environmental regulators
said yesterday they are watching to make sure the city's drinking
water and sewer systems are safe.
Union-Tribune
Article
Councilwoman
Donna Frye Calls for City Investigation of "Likely Illegal
Acts"
In a memo to City Manager Lamont Ewell and City Attorney Casey
Gwinn, Councilwoman Donna Frye calls for an investigation into
the "likely illegal acts" described by KPMG in letters
in October. "I request that the City strictly comply with
all requests by KPMG and that no further efforts to restrict or
narrow this investigation be taken," Frye wrote in the memo,
which has been obtained by the Citizens' Budget project.
October 29 Memorandum
(.pdf)
KPMG
Letters Criticize City Officials for Inadequate Investigation
of "Illegal Acts"
A pair of recent letters from auditing firm KPMG to City officials
have sufaced, shedding new light onto the delay in the release
of the firm's audit of San Diego's 2003 financial records. The
letters, sent Oct. 11 and Oct. 27, blast City officials for failing
to conduct "an adequate investigation in order to conclude
that likely illegal acts have not occurred, or that appropriate
remedial action has been taken." Without such an investigation,
the letters say, the audit can not be completed.
October 11 Letter (.pdf)
October 27 Letter (.pdf)
Union-Tribune:
'03 Audit Stalls; City Told Probe is Deficient
A widely anticipated audit of San Diego's 2003 books cannot be
completed until city officials fully investigate whether "likely
illegal acts" related to the pension system and City Hall's
financial-reporting practices have occurred, according to the
city's independent auditor.
Union-Tribune
Article
USA
Today: San Diego Now 'Enron by the Sea'
City Hall's Web site proclaims it "the most efficiently run
big city in California." Howard Jarvis, architect of Proposition
13, California's landmark 1978 ballot measure capping property
taxes, once said that if all cities were as financially prudent
as San Diego, there'd be no need for a tax revolt. That was then.
This is now: a financial mess dragging the nation's seventh-largest
city toward insolvency, federal investigators looking for evidence
of corruption, a $1.7 billion gap in city workers' pension fund
and retiree medical benefits brought on by years of mismanagement
and alleged sweetheart deals.
USA
Today Article
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