Dueling press conferences: SEC accuse five former San Diego officials

City Attorney Mike Aguirre and Mayor Jerry Sanders held successive press conferences up on the 13th Floor of City Hall today. The Security and Exchange Commission had just accused five former San Diego employees of various forms of fraud and misleading the public in the city’s pension fiasco (The five were Mike Uberuaga, City Manager; Edward Ryan, City Auditor and Comptroller; Patricia Frazier, Deputy City Manager for Finance; Teresa Webster, City Auditor and Comptroller; and Mary Vattimo, City Treasurer). Neither Aguirre nor Sanders knew if the SEC is done filing accusations against individuals involved in this fiasco, a fact that may have some sitting City Council members fidgeting nervously.

As you’d expect, Sanders and Aguirre had two very different responses to the announcement. You can listen to each press conference for yourself (download only). Here’s Aguirre, and here’s Sanders and Jay Goldstone.

Aguirre started throwing bombs immediately. He accused the city of continuing some of the same behavior that had gotten it into the financial mess we now have (Aguirre says the city owes $2.2 billion to make up the difference in cash the pension has and what it owes). He said many of the same people – “progeny of these five people” – are still working in government right now. He said no action was being taken by the City Council or Mayor to fix these problems because “the city is still being run by the unions.”

Sanders began by saying that the announcement helps “bring us closer to the end” of this part of San Diego’s history. He reiterated some of his favorite talking points, saying that the city had implemented 76 percent of the Kroll recommendations (referring to the recommendations of a consultant the city hired to investigate the fiasco) and the city had hired an outside monitor. He disagreed with most everything Aguirre had said. He had COO Jay Goldstone come up and contend that the pension deficit was $1 billion, not two. He pointed out that the unions had spent the weekend picketing his campaign events, so they obviously weren’t running the city through him. And when asked about the “progeny”, he responded, “I have confidence in the leadership and reforms. We have all new leadership and an all new culture.”