Councilman Ben Hueso Tells The Truth About Aguirre

On June 19, 2008, San Diego City Councilman Ben Hueso talks about abuses committed by City Attorney Michael Aguirre.

More interesting than the formal press conference, was Ben Hueso's response
to a question by a KPBS reporter while waiting in vein for TV reporters to
appear. He was asked why he, as a Democrat, would support a person who is
ostensibly identified as a Republican. Note that local races are by law
intended to be non-partisan.

Mr. Hueso stated on the record that: "As a council member, as a person who
makes policy for the City of San Diego, I want to make sure that we have the
best legal advice that we can get in making policy, and that we are led in
the right direction in terms of making the decisions that are going to keep
the city on a sound financial footing."

"We have not had that under our current City Attorney [Aguirre]. He has not
been giving us sound legal advice. He's been exchanging legal opinions for
political favors, and that's not something that the City Attorney's office
should be doing."

"He has politicized the City Attorney's office. He's made the City
Attorney's office a lightening rod for policy issues. That's not the City
Attorney's job."

"He's been forcibly recused, uh, removed, from doing his job by judges in
numerous actions because he's made himself unobjective in various matters by
pursuing his - by using his office to pursue his enemies, above really
representing the interests of our city government."

"He's losing all the lawsuits that he's filed without council direction.
It's costing us millions and millions of dollars. We're having to subsidize
his forty million dollar annual budget - this past year was twenty million
dollars in outside counsel. That's just a blatantly poor use of taxpayer
funds when we could be funding our pension, when we could be building parks,
libraries, when we could be paving our streets. We're funding outside
counsel to fix his [Aguirre's] mistakes - that he has done without [city]
council direction."




In response to another question, Hueso said Aguirre "has asked me to vote on
matters that are important to him. He has asked me to cast my vote in a
certain way, which I think is highly unethical, and because I haven't he has
sought to punish me.."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Michael
• Aguirre
• Ben
• Hueso

[montichan]

The reason Hueso endorsed Goldsmith is because he has had a 50 yard line seat on the City Council to watch Aguirre in action.

[chiefof]

Well said, Mr Hueso,