The Morning Report
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Monday, July 3, 2006 | Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Five City Council members who voted on the 2002 pension plan increases, and to continue underfunding the plan despite the fact they were increasing benefits 20 percent, have spent three million or so dollars of taxpayer money for lawyers to represent them on the SEC investigation of the city. Old news.
But, it turns out the Union Tribune tried to get the details and these people, Peters, Madaffer, Maienschein, Atkins and Dick Murphy, spent another $20,000 or so on lawyer fees fighting the public information request filed by the newspaper, trying to avoid the details getting to the public. I don’t have to tell you where that dough came from.
Wait, it gets better! Seems Mayor Sanders, in an attempt to get public disclosure, made a deal with the lawyers for the council members to have them “edit” the bills, and a retired judge is reviewing the bills to make sure the editing is realistic. The retired judge is getting $400 per hour in city funds. It’s not known at this point how much the judge has rung up in fees.
Darn that Mike Aguirre. It’s all his fault.