Legal News

AG Brown challenges Aguirre's allegations of corruption by S.D. mayor

By Jason Siegel

The facts don't support the San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre accusations of mayoral corruption, the state attorney general's office said in a press release yesterday.

Last year, San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre accused the San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders of taking "an embarrassing and corrupt course of action,? regarding the construction of Sunroad Centrum 12 by developer Aaron Feldman, a campaign contributor to the mayor. The city allowed the building to be constructed, despite the Federal Aviation Administration warning that its height and proximity to an airport made it a hazard. Aguirre also alleged that Sanders used mayoral staff and a regional airport authority executive to lobby the FAA to have them changed planes routes, so that the building could stay and not be a hazard.

The 36 page report by state Attorney General Jerry Brown challenges Aguirre's allegations and makes a few against him. The report claims that Aguirre told Sanders that he would go easy on the mayor over issues with the Sunroad office tower if Sanders preserved the budget for 17 supplemental deputy city attorney jobs. If Sanders didn't do his part, Aguirre would publicly accuse the mayor of corruption, the report alleges.

Aguirre didn't cooperate with the investigation and claims it was the mayor who was playing hardball and that the report's findings were predetermined.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on May 21, 2008 (boomark / email).