San Diego City Atty. Fined Over Election Funds

City Atty. Michael Aguirre, who has repeatedly criticized city officials for not providing information to the public, has been fined $9,000 by the city’s Ethics Commission for not providing information about his political campaign.

The commission’s executive director, Stacey Fulhorst, said Monday that Aguirre has agreed to pay the fine for failing to promptly disclose more than $316,000 in payments to television stations and brochure companies and nearly $56,000 in unpaid bills before the November 2004 election.

“I’ve been held accountable, I’ve paid the penalty and the matter is closed,” Aguirre said at a news conference.

The former federal prosecutor has become the most controversial city attorney in recent San Diego history and has redefined the role of the office.

His critics delighted in the turnabout of Aguirre being found to have violated disclosure rules.

“Seems the emperor really has no clothes, just dirty laundry,” said John Kaheny, a retired assistant city attorney who sends out a near-daily e-mail critique of Aguirre’s performance in office. “This shows that the emperor is an ethical hypocrite, but we already knew that he was.”

The disclosure forms filed by his campaign committee showed payments to a consultant for television advertising but did not detail payments made by the consultant to specific stations.

Even as he was answering questions about the fine, Aguirre was exchanging insults with Judie Italiano, head of the Municipal Employees Assn.

Italiano also labeled Aguirre a hypocrite for raising the salaries of some of his employees while demanding that other city employees agree to a cut in pension benefits.

Aguirre said the union should elect new officers “rather than continuing the corruption.”

Although his office largely lacks the authority to file criminal charges in such matters, Aguirre has launched his own investigations into the city’s pension deficit and the City Council’s failure to inform Wall Street of the deficit.

He has released several reports alleging incompetence and corruption by a growing list of officials, bringing protests that he is engaging in “prosecution by press conference.” Last week, he suggested that the city government is acting like a “crime family.”

Aguirre has feuded with the district attorney, police chief and former city manager, as well as former Mayor Dick Murphy and several City Council members. On Monday, he said his predecessor as city attorney “set an attitude of facilitation of wrongdoing.”

Despite his critics, Aguirre has retained a loyal following. At a City Council meeting in which members were pleading with him not to file lawsuits without consulting them, an Aguirre supporter likened him to a religious figure being persecuted by the establishment.