The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
Thursday, April 5, 2007 | Re: Cooper’s opinion piece, It is important the public knows that Police Chief Lansdowne’s legal assistant, Paul Cooper, was fired as an assistant city attorney by City Attorney Mike Aguirre from his role as the legal advisor to the police department police. Lansdowne then hired him using police department funds. So Cooper is hardly a disinterested party.
Lansdowne has played politics before, most notably in the attempted coup by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to remove all criminal misdemeanor cases from the City Attorney’s Office and transfer them to her.
No one who was present can forget the scene of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis marching into council chambers with Sheriff Kolender on one side and Lansdowne on the other trailed by an entourage of minor players to demand she be given the City Attorney’s Criminal Division. This was one of the most offensive examples of a political power play I have ever witnessed until now.
Lansdowne implicitly attacked the integrity and intelligence of the judge issuing the search warrant in the Sunroad affair and failed to do his duty as the chief of police.
San Diego has too many problems to tolerate Lansdowne’s political activities but the question is whether the “strong” mayor will have the courage to do the right thing and fire him.
And Bonnie Dumanis should stick to her knitting and finally after more than five years in office file charges against at least one of the many elected officials in the county and at City Hall who appear to have violated the law.