Aguirre accuses legal opponents of using assault tactics

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 31, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego's embattled city attorney Mike Aguirre accuses his legal opponents of using assault tactics to defeat his case that pension benefits were illegally granted. KPBS reporter Alison St John ha

San Diego's embattled city attorney Mike Aguirre accuses his legal opponents of using assault tactics to defeat his case that pension benefits were illegally granted. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Aguirre says only about 10 percent of his office is working on lawsuits trying to roll back pension benefits and he's up against 12 suits filed by some of the best law firms in town. Four of those suits are filed by the pension system, four by labor unions, and four by individuals.

Aguirre: "What this demonstrates there is a coordinated attack plan on the taxpayers with a goal of overwhelming the city and allowing outside law firms with access to unlimited resources to rein down and wasteful and duplicative litigation tactics."

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Aguirre was removed by the city council from a case last week after a judge called his defense quote, verging on careless. That suit now threatens the city with a potential $175 million payment. Some council members say Aguirre can't sue the city and defend it at the same time. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.