Aguirre Asks Judge to Declare Past Pension Agreements Illegal

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 31, 2006 at 12:38 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre launched his legal effort to roll back city pension benefits Tuesday. He urged a Superior Court Judge to undo the 1996 and 2002 agreements that resulted in the cit

San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre launched his legal effort to roll back city pension benefits Tuesday. He urged a Superior Court Judge to undo the 1996 and 2002 agreements that resulted in the city’s billion dollar pension deficit. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Aguirre, who is facing a phalanx of six pension fund and labor union attorneys, asked Judge Jeffrey Barton to "undo the damage" by declaring past benefit agreements illegal. He invited the judge to see the case in terms of a hierarchy of values, and put restoring the health of the pension system above the rights of individual retirees.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Aguirre: This is not about taking away benefits - because an unfunded benefit doesn’t exist - this is about resorting the actuarial soundness of the system by removing the rotten core.

Aguirre compared the deal to raise benefits and underfund the plan to a cancerous tumor that must be removed. He suggested the judge issue a temporary ruling that the deal was illegal and then call a 90 day “stay” in the trial. That would empower the city council and the mayor, Aguirre said, to declare the benefits illegal. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

twitter

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.