City Attorney Mike Aguirre said today that he will ask the Fourth District Court of Appeals to review Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Barton’s decision to deny Aguirre an expedited ruling on the pension benefits he is challenging.
Barton ruled Monday that there were too many factual disputes in the case to issue a judgment about whether $700 million worth of benefits were legal, which effectively sent the case to trial. Aguirre said he disagreed and will file a request to the appellate court within 20 days.
Aguirre said Anthony Taylor, the outside attorney who handled a similar case in Carson, will be handling that request. Barton called attorneys in the pension-benefits case back into courtroom last week to discuss how the recent Carson decision impacted Aguirre’s primary lawsuit.
Aguirre said that Taylor will be paid for with money out of the City Attorney’s Office’s budget so that he won’t have to seek the council’s approval for the hire.