City Attorney Michael Aguirre said yesterday that tapes of San Diego pension board meetings from 1996 and 2002 bolster his contention that recent increases in employee retirement benefits are illegal and should be eliminated.
Aguirre released partial copies of those tapes, along with transcripts, at a news conference at City Hall. A Superior Court judge is expected to make a tentative ruling this week on the status of the contested benefits.
More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed in connection with the city's handling of its pension system, which has a $1.43 billion deficit that is due in part to the increase in benefits.
While courts have ruled on several mostly minor issues, a judge has yet to make a determination on the central point of whether the benefits should stand.
The question has divided the city since Aguirre took office in December 2004 and began attacking agreements that led to the increases, a position that has angered city employees who fear losing a significant portion of their retirement incomes.
The City Attorney's Office filed legal arguments yesterday to answer objections from opposing attorneys. Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Barton has scheduled a hearing for Monday.
The court papers, Aguirre said, “offer the most comprehensive, factually supported presentation yet to the courts about why the illegal benefits must be set aside.”
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More online
 The city of San Diego's legal arguments against increases in pension benefits and related audio excerpts from retirement board meetings can be found online at www.uniontrib.com.
For past stories and documents on San Diego's pension problems, go to pension.uniontrib.com.
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Aguirre has maintained for most of his 18 months as city attorney that city officials used the threat of erasing the negotiated benefit increases to persuade members of the retirement board to accept a plan to allow the city to delay making its full annual contribution to the pension fund.
He wants the 1996 and 2002 pension deals to be voided in part because of a state law that bars public officials from improperly benefiting from their decisions. He also says the benefit increases violate funding provisions in the state constitution and city charter.
At his news conference, Aguirre offered statements from a dozen former city and pension system officials as proof that they knew and understood that the deals linked benefits to the underfunding plan and could cause the city considerable financial strain.
Former City Manager Jack McGrory told the retirement board on June 21, 1996, that if members didn't accept the city's budgeted payment to the system, which was less than a pension expert had recommended, “none of the benefits would take place . . . so the entire package would (fall apart).”
That action, along with the 2002 extension of the deal, Aguirre said, “reconfigured the system into one that created liability much faster than it created assets, and that's how we got where we are today.”
Attorney Bob Rose, who represents former pension board member John Torres, said the tapes have been available for about a year and offer no new information. He questioned why Aguirre would discuss them as the court date approaches.
“There's no revelation going on here,” Rose said. “It's just old stuff being recycled.”
Rose said Aguirre should have mentioned letters sent Wednesday that dismissed Torres, five other former pension board members and one city official from the suit before Barton. They were dropped at Aguirre's request.
Besides Torres, the others dismissed were City Auditor John Torell and former pension board members Mary Vattimo, Cathy Lexin, Terri Webster, Sharon Wilkinson and Ron Saathoff.
“(Aguirre) dropped them and hasn't said a word publicly about it,” Rose said. “That would have been a good topic for a press conference.”
Aguirre also said the pension recordings were hard to obtain and contained gaps, accusations that were challenged by Rebecca Wilson, a retirement system spokeswoman.
The pension system's private law firm, which is handling litigation related to the dispute over the benefits, negotiated with the City Attorney's Office over the handling of 5,000 audio recordings, she said, and accommodated numerous requests from the city.
“There was no conscious effort to keep the tapes from him,” Wilson said. “I mean, they're public record.”
Jennifer Vigil: (619) 718-5069; jennifer.vigil@uniontrib.com
