Is Mike Aguirre Qualified to Represent San Diego?

The following state was issued today by San Diego City Councilmember Jim Madaffer:

Today my attorney, who is himself a former SEC attorney, sent a letter to the City Attorney documenting his singular lack of qualifications to represent the City of San Diego in matters relating to the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as glaring omissions and lack of regard for the facts in his interim reports.

The purpose of our letter is to list the many facts that the City Attorney has conspicuously ignored and to provide a cogent analysis of those facts as they relate to the City Council. If he is going to be serious about representing the City and trying to resolve the pending investigations, then he needs to tell the whole story and leave out the politics.

The City Attorney’s unfounded allegations about the City Council and polarizing reports have not helped the process. If he intends to assist in resolving these matters, he has to get his facts straight. Most of his efforts to date have been a waste of taxpayer dollars filing lawsuits without merit and polarized the City with his politically motivated and misleading reports. He has done nothing to help the City get past its current quagmire.

What has been lost in most of the daily discussions are these three important, related issues that must be done in this order:

1. To allow the audit committee to complete its investigations. They are hoping to be finished by the end of the year.
2. To get our audited financial statements completed by KPMG once the audit committee has completed their work.
3. To get back into the bond market once KPMG has completed our audits.

Below you will find the link to download the letter from my attorney, Mr. Thomas A. Zaccaro.

Jim Madaffer

October 10, 2005

The main letter: http://jimmadaffer.com/cd7/eNewsletters/2005-10-10/Aguirre_Letter_101005.pdf

Exhibits 1-8 that accompany the letter can be accessed by clicking on the links below:

Exhibit 1http://jimmadaffer.com/cd7/eNewsletters/2005-10-10/Aguirre_Letter_101005_Exhibit_1.pdf

Exhibit 2http://jimmadaffer.com/cd7/eNewsletters/2005-10-10/Aguirre_Letter_101005_Exhibit_2.pdf

Exhibit 3http://jimmadaffer.com/cd7/eNewsletters/2005-10-10/Aguirre_Letter_101005_Exhibit_3.pdf

Exhibit 4http://jimmadaffer.com/cd7/eNewsletters/2005-10-10/Aguirre_Letter_101005_Exhibit_4.pdf

Exhibit 5http://jimmadaffer.com/cd7/eNewsletters/2005-10-10/Aguirre_Letter_101005_Exhibit_5.pdf

Exhibit 6http://jimmadaffer.com/cd7/eNewsletters/2005-10-10/Aguirre_Letter_101005_Exhibit_6.pdf

Exhibit 7http://jimmadaffer.com/cd7/eNewsletters/2005-10-10/Aguirre_Letter_101005_Exhibit_7.pdf

Exhibit 8http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/ct.php?t=1053568&c=648188058&m=m&type=1

Changes to Megan's Law - California

Effective July 1, 2005, residents of California have much greater access to information regarding sex offenders as a result of changes to the Megan's Law legislation originally passed in 2004. The substance of the original sex offender registry law itself did not change. The new law simply mandates easier access to the data on the registry by requiring the establishment of a Department of Justice sex offender web site. Previously, local law enforcement maintained a public access data base and the Department of Justice operated a "900" number.

The public can now access a database with specific information on tbe more than 63,000 persons required to register in California as sex offenders. Specific home addresses are displayed on more than 33,500 offenders in the California communities. An additional 30,500 offenders are included on the site with listing by ZIP Code, city, and county. Information on approximately 22,000 other offenders is not included on this site, but is known to law enforcement personnel.

Click here to begin searching for registered sex offenders in your neighborhood.

About the Author: Carl H. Starrett II has been a licensed attorney since 1993 and is a member in good standing with the California State Bar and the San Diego County Bar Association. Mr. Starrett practices in the areas of bankruptcy, business litigation, construction, corporate planning and debt collection.

Thinning blue line | The San Diego Union-Tribune

A recent article in the San Diego Union Tribune addressed the problem of officer within the San Diego Police Department. SDPD officers are leaving for greener pastures with other local law enforcement agencies. According to the Union Tribune, the City of San Diego has reduced the monthly take-home pay of San Diego police officers by an average of about $450 per month as it attempts to pay off a pension deficit of at least $1.4 billion. Some of the money goes toward retirement accounts, some helps pay for medical coverage.

This complicates an already serious problem regarding the lack of officers for SDPD. Currently, the city’s ratio of officers to citizens languishes near 1.6-to-1,000, one of the lowest in California and the nation. The average national ratio for a similar sized city is 2.2 officers to 1,000 citizens. The department would need to hire more than 110 officers a year for the next six years just to maintain the current substandard ratio.

In recent months, allegations have been that the San Diego Police Department has been manipulating crime statistics for political purposes to make it seem as if crime is down in San Diego. Instead of refusing to act on citizen's arrests to keep crime statistics down, it would more logical that the SDPD would want to inform the San Diego City Council of the true nature of its situation so that more funding could be made available to hire more officers.

The police department is not the only San Diego public safety agency that is vastly underfunded. San Diego’s firefighter-to-citizen ratio is currently .69-to-1,000, and experts say, like the police ratio, the figure is realistically much lower. Most other cities the size of San Diego have a 1-to-1,000 firefighter-to-citizen ratio.

It is vital that the City Council take ownership of the pension problem and work quickly to address the city's financial woes before the city's resources are stretched to the limit by another disaster like the October 2004 fires.

About the Author: Carl H. Starrett II has been a licensed attorney since 1993 and is a member in good standing with the California State Bar and the San Diego County Bar Association. Mr. Starrett practices in the areas of bankruptcy, business litigation, construction, corporate planning and debt collection.

Teenager alleges assault at mall | The San Diego Union-Tribune

The link shown above is to a local news story about a young man named Johnathan Tate. Mr. Tate alleges that he was assaulted by mall security at Parkway Plaza in El Cajon, California. Mr. Tate is fond of his "goth" clothing and was apparently wearing a colored bandana that could signify a gang affiliation. When Mr. Tate refused a request my mall security to remove the bandana or leave the premises, he instead sat down as if he was a war protester from the 1960's. Security placed him under citizen's arrest for trespassing. While Johnathon Tate is technically a teenager in that he is 19 years old, he is also an adult that should take responsibility for his own actions.

An owner of private property such as a shopping mall has the right to make rules and regulations regarding the use of the property. If a shopping mall owner wishes to ban colored bandanas because of potential gang problems, that is well within their prerogative to do so. Mr. Tate had no right to disobey an apparently lawful request for him to leave the property. From the facts described in the article, it appears that he resisted a lawful citizen’s arrest for trespassing.

Perhaps the most amusing part of the whole article was when the family consulted Andre Zeehandelaar, described as a “retired” attorney. Mr. Zeehandelaar isn’t retired; he was disbarred by the State Bar of California for unethical behavior after less than 10 years as an attorney. In a battle of credibility, I think that mall security would prevail over Mr. Tate and his “retired” attorney.

About the Author: Carl H. Starrett II has been a licensed attorney since 1993 and is a member in good standing with the California State Bar and the San Diego County Bar Association. Mr. Starrett practices in the areas of bankruptcy, business litigation, construction, corporate planning and debt collection.

Fighting Gang Activity in San Diego County

San Diego Deputy District Attorney Terri Perez and the San Diego Sheriff's Department are doing a great job in empowering the Vista community as well as combating gang violence. Recently, Perez won a court injunction which prohibits gang members from gathering in certain areas. To view Fox News footage of this injunction, click here.

It would be nice if the County of San Diego could obtain a countywide permanent court ordered injunction prohibiting gang members from gathering in a public place such as schools, parks, shopping malls, stadiums, theaters, etc. Interestingly, some argue that gang members have rights that we must not infringe upon. It would be nice if law abiding citizen’s rights would supersede that of the criminal elements that are destroying neighborhoods.

Last year, San Diego Police obtained a similar injunction targeting the Skyline area. The problem with the Skyline injunction is that it only prohibited gang activity within their own neighborhood. This resulted in the gang members relocating to other areas of San Diego such as the Mission Valley area. Shortly after this injunction, there were several gang shootings involving the Skyline gang in the Mission Valley area.