To the backdrop of a gigantic blow-up of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial “San Diego and the SEC,” City Attorney Mike Aguirre today offered a few nuggets of information:
- As developments unfold in perhaps the next week or two, any announcement regarding the SEC’s investigation would be handled by the Mayor’s Office, signaling an increased role for Mayor Jerry Sanders in negotiations that to date have been led by Aguirre and an outside attorney.
Fred Sainz, the mayor’s spokesman, said this afterwards: “The mayor has been involved and will continue to be involved on a more active basis.”
- A tentative settlement had been reached in a lawsuit brought by consumer advocate Michael Shames on behalf of residential users of the city’s wastewater systems. Numerous reports have detailed that for years the city’s residents subsidized large industry’s use of the sewer system because of a rate-structure that violated the Clean Water Act. Read some background on the issue here.
The City Council has not yet finalized an agreement. Aguirre wouldn’t disclose the financial details of the pending settlement. Estimates of the true cost of the subsidy have ranged around $200 million and $300 million. Aguirre said the settlement is something “that can be managed.”
Aguirre, who The Wall Street Journal referred to as “pugnacious,” also praised the paper’s editorial for its support of his efforts to roll back employee pension benefits.