The Municipal Employees Association wants to study the costs and savings incurred by the City Attorney’s Office during the tenure of Mike Aguirre, who has engaged the white-collar union in a drawn-out, bitter fight over employee pension benefits.
According to a solicitation distributed by the union, MEA wants to hire a consultant to compile an “accurate and complete record of taxpayer costs, taxpayer savings if any; cost and service delivery matters in the office of the City Attorney under its current administration.”
The solicitation does not indicate how much the consultant would be paid.
The union has argued that the City Council should try to end Aguirre’s legal attacks against past pension deals because they have cost the city in legal fees and settlements and preoccupied lawyers in Aguirre’s office who would otherwise be working on other business.
Aguirre has tried to justify the expense by saying it is a small sacrifice to make if the city can recover up to $900 million by stripping employees, many of whom are MEA members, of the benefit increases he is challenging. His court case hit a major obstacle this month, but he has vowed to pursue rolling back the benefits through other channels.