Wednesday, June 25, 2008 | Although this may be a little premature, our local polls seem to indicate we will have a new City Attorney come December, and Mr. Aguirre resumes his role as a private citizen and attorney. If past performance is an indicator of future performance, this worries me.
Prior to becoming San Diego’s city attorney, Mr. Aguirre had a penchant for inserting himself into the public affairs not only of the city of San Diego but also public and private entities too. While I will not call him a litigant with vexation tendencies, the potential for him to become an inexhaustible source of litigation seems likely to me. Why you might ask? Why to keep his name, his fight, his quest in the public’s mind. Remember, he’s repeatedly claimed to everyone who would listen that he is the people’s attorney not just the city’s attorney.
During the last four years Mr. Aguirre has gained the privileged knowledge of the city’s inner workings. In simple plain English, he knows the city’s secrets. As a private attorney will he be able to exploit this knowledge and file claims? Will he claim he’s still their advocate? Or, as in the Sunroad debacle, will the courts forever disallow the city’s former attorney from using knowledge gained as its attorney against it. Will the courts forever prohibit a breech of the attorney-client privilege and clarifying the city attorney’s role, not this fantasy of the people’s champion?