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Council President Scott Peters Joins Race for City Attorney

By Alison St John / Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published February 18, 2008 at 2:34 PM PST
This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego City Council president Scott Peters has thrown his hat into the ring to challenge Mike Aguirre for his job as city attorney. Peters is joining a field of eight other candidates, including A

(Photo: Scott Peters speaks during a press conference to announce his run for San Diego City Attorney. Alison St. John/KPBS )

San Diego City Council president Scott Peters has  thrown his hat into the ring to challenge Mike Aguirre for his job as city attorney. Peters is joining a field of eight other candidates, including Aguirre, and he has some serious baggage to overcome to gain support. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

There are good reasons why Scott Peters has waited till now to declare his intention to run for the city attorney's job. He is one of the city council who voted back in 2002 to underfund the pension plan. That crucial vote ultimately led to a billion dollar pension deficit that nearly put the city into bankruptcy.

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But at his press conference yesterday Peters tried to turn what could be a fatal political flaw into an advantage.

Peters: Our votes in 2002 -- we were mistaken in deferring pension costs -- but that was actually a practice that stated in the 90s. And it's a practice that this council ended. We are the council that stopped underfunding the pension.

There is a good reason why Peters is risking running the gauntlet of his admitted mistake – he is the preferred candidate of the city's labor unions.

Alan Bersin's name was put forward as the other prominent candidate who might jump into the race But Bersin's reputation as a top down autocrat still wrangles with the teachers after his seven years at city schools.

Judi Italiano of the Metropolitan Employees Union says the teachers union wouldn't go for Bersin. She backs Scott Peters claim that he's learned from his mistakes.

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Italiano: From our point of view Scott has a better handle on the issues because he's lived the nightmare of this whole mess.

But there are other candidates in the race who do not have to deal with the political baggage of working for years at City Hall during it's financial meltdown. The most prominent is former Poway mayor, Jan Goldsmith. Goldsmtih was a California State legislator for six years, but he's spent the last nine years as a judge. He says he wants to keep politics out of the city attorney's office.

Goldsmith: It's going to be independent and it going to be non political. I used to be a politicians 10 years ago. I know the difference. I don't want to the mayor, I always wanted to be a lawyer since I was a  kid.. I want to be in law.

Goldsmith already has the endorsement of the San Diego Republican Party locked down, plus the backing of District attorney Bonnie Domains and Sherriff Bill Kollender. But Andrew Poat of the San Diego Economic Corporation was at Peter's press conference. He says the business community is looking for someone with a track record of begin effective at City Hall.

Poat: Scott Peters has demonstrate a real strong ability to work with mayor Sanders, so we want to stand up for somebody who has brought some good change to city hall and that's why we're here today.

For Poat, the most important thing is to find someone who will beat incumbent Mike Aguirre.

Peters is positioning himself as the candidate who will calm the infighting between the city attorney and the rest of city hall

Peters: You won't find an attack dog, you’ll find a watch dog in me.  

But Peters will have to campaign carefully to adopt the mantle of watch dog at City Hall, when some of his past votes were the very things that set off the barking.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John
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.
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