Institute Warns the Public: “They Are Doing It Again!”
“The proposed labor contract grossly misleads the public by claiming to impose a salary freeze and reform pension benefits when it does exactly the opposite. Even worse, this contract seals the deal of the ill-fated pension benefit giveaway from November 2002 by affirming ALL existing pension benefit packages.”
Statement
Mayor and Council to Vote Tomorrow on Resolution Calling for SDCERS Cooperation
At the urging of Concilmember Toni Atkins, the Mayor and Council has docketed a resolution to pressure the City's Pension Fund Board (SDCERS0 to cooperate fully with the federal investigations and auditors looking into the mismanagement of the city's finances.
Resolution Being Considered Before Council (.pdf)
Letter from Councilmember Toni Atkins to Mayor Murphy (.pdf)
Three Criteria Should Guide Selection of San Diego's Next Mayor
Just two days after the mayor's announcement, a raft of potential mayoral candidates has emerged. How the field shakes out will probably not be known for weeks. In selecting the next mayor, San Diego voters might want to consider three key factors.
Read the Entire Op-Ed Published by the Union Tribune
Statement
Mayor's Resignation Will Give San Diego a Fresh Start
“Today's decision was the right one and will give San Diego a much needed fresh start. This is a huge opportunity for the City to move past this state of paralysis and engage in bold financial recovery.”
Statement
Gonzalez and Hueso Silent on Their Ideas for City’s Financial Crisis
Institute Gives Faulconer and Acle High Marks for Their Ideas for Solving City’s Financial Crisisl.
Statement
Institute Launches Voter Education Campaign that Evaluates Financial Recovery Plans of Mayoral Candidates
The Performance Institute, working with the campaign committee "San Diego Citizens for Accountable Government," is unveiling a voter education effort intended to inform San Diego voters on where mayoral candidates stand on several budget and financial reforms to the City of San Diego.
Institute Endorses the Francis Financial Recovery Plan
Statement
Mayoral Candidate Survey
2005 Voter Education Guide
Two Roads For San Diego One Clear Choice for the People
Statement of Carl DeMaio on Upcoming Mayoral Race and Campaign to Bring Financial Recovery Plan to Public Vote
Statement
Institute Evaluation Concludes Jerry Sanders’ Financial Recovery Plan is Stronger & More Credible
The Institute today released an analysis of the financial recovery proposals and positions of the San Diego City Mayoral candidates. “While both candidates’ plans have certain strengths and weaknesses, Jerry Sanders’ Financial Recovery Plan offers San Diego the best chance to put its fiscal house back in order,” commented Institute President Carl DeMaio.
Statement
Read the complete candidate analysis
Read the candidate surveys and financial
_ recovery plans
San Diego Daily Transcript article on endorsement
San Diego Magazine: A City in Crisis
America’s so-called Finest City has dug itself into a multibillion-dollar hole. Bankruptcy may now be the only salvation for San Diego, judged a decade ago to be the best-managed municipality in the country.
San Diego Magazine Article
San Diego Magazine: The Go-To Group
There was a time not so long ago when the downtown business crowd pretty much ran things in this city. As the squeakier, more well-connected wheels at City Hall, they invariably got the most grease. But the San Diego political machine is being retooled, as evidenced by the recent success of classic “fifth wheel” politico Donna Frye.
San Diego Magazine Article
Time Magazine Lists Murphy Among Nation's Worst Mayors
A Time Magazine article released this week lists San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy among the worst big-city mayors in the nation by profiling San Diego 's financial crisis.
Statement
Time Magazine Article
Institute Opposes the ‘Pass Now, Pay Later' Living Wage Ordinance
Appearing before the San Diego City Council today The Performance Institute voiced its opposition to the Living Wage Ordinance, saying that it will exacerbate the City's financial crisis.
Statement
City HR Director Characterizes City Pension System as “Gravy Train”
As reported in the San Diego Daily Transcript Cathy Lexin, San Diego’s Human Resources Director, has aptly described the City of San Diego's pension benefits as a “gravy train.”
Statement
Daily Transcript Article
City of San Diego Poised to Punish Pension Whistleblower
SAN DIEGO – At a meeting of the San Diego City Council today, Mayor Dick Murphy will propose to the City Council that Diann Shipione, a pension trustee and famed whistleblower to the City’s reckless pension underfunding scheme, be removed from the retirement board.
Statement
San Diego Business Journal Editorial
San Diego Magazine: The Open Government Long Sought by San Diego’s Idealistic City Councilmember is Suddenly on the Front Burner
Jim Fitzpatrick is a genial, yet imposing man with a deep voice and a rumbling laugh. A pro-business Republican (redundant, granted), he was among those deeply worried last year that kooky City Councilmember Donna Frye might get elected mayor. Our owner doesn’t tell us what to write. Period. But he does pass along anecdotes. Imagine my surprise when he says he’s met “my new friend, Donna Frye, and she’d be happy to talk about open government.”
San Diego Magazine Article
City Busts Budget Again; $5.6 Million Spent on Federal Investigation
According to a mid-year financial report released quietly yesterday by the City Manager, the City of San Diego has busted its budget for the year.
Statement
City Manager’s Mid-Year Budget Review
Federal Government Issues More Subpoenas to Investigate City Finances
The federal government has issued two additional subpoenas in connection with the ongoing investigation into the mismanagement of San Diego City finances. One subpoena relates to documents relating to the representations made to the three leading national credit rating agencies. More importantly, the second subpoena targets the Mayor’s chief budget advisor: Dennis Gibson..
U.S. Grand Jury Subpoenas (pdf)
Institute Announces Launch of Initiative on City’s FY06 Budget; Requests Key Budget Data from City
The Performance Institute announced today a second phase in its San Diego Citizens’ Budget Project initiative for the FY 2006 city budget deliberations.
Statement
Letter to the Mayor and Councilmembers (pdf)
Mayor’s Committee Held “Unstated Concern Over Ball Park Bonds” and Intentionally Watered Down Public Report on City’s Financial Problems
A private memo leaked this week suggests that Mayor Murphy’s Blue Ribbon Committee on City Finances intentionally softened its assessment of city finances in its public report while harboring an “unstated concern over the ball park financing and any impact to the city’s credit rating in general…” .
Statement
Memo from Richard Vortmann (pdf)
A Pension Reform that Benefits Taxpayers and Retirees
The Performance Institute today applauded Councilmember Brian Maienschein’s bold proposal to revamp San Diego’s embattled employee pension system by implementing a defined contribution plan.
Statement
City Violated Tax Code in Granting Union Presidents’ Benefits Package in 2002
The notorious retirement benefits granted to four top city union leaders in 2002 that have been called an “improper gift of public funds“ in the media, also violate the federal tax code—according to documents obtained by the Performance Institute.
Statement
Memo from Retirement Board (.pdf)
Letter to Councilmembers Madaffer and Peters (.pdf)
Union Tribune Editorial
Unions Push for City Attorney Ouster at Key Council Meetings
The Performance Institute today called on the Mayor and Council to publicly reject requests by public sector unions that City Attorney Michael Aguirre be barred from City Council deliberation relating to the City’s pension scandal.
Statement
Dec. 20 letter
Paying
City Officials Legal Fees Constitutes Double-Whammy Against
Taxpayers
Today the San Diego City Council authorized the use of $150,000
to pay legal bills to defend city officials in SCC and U.S.
Attorney investigations.
Statement
Daily
Transcript: Mayor's chief of staff joins controversial pension
program
John Kern, chief of staff for San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy, has
enrolled in the notorious DROP pension program even while the
city is struggling to reform the system.
Daily
Transcript Article
City
Attorney Aguirre to Provide “Adult Supervision”
to Wayward City Pension Board
The
Performance Institute today applauded a decision by newly elected
City Attorney Mike Aguirre to re-assume the sole responsibility
for providing legal counsel to the San Diego City Employee Retirement
(SDCERs) Board.
Statement
Dec. 17 Letter from Aguirre
to Board (.pdf)
Dec. 17 Letter from Gammill
to Board (.pdf)
Union-Tribune:
Delay of San Diego's Water Projects Raises Concerns
San Diego won't immediately face hefty fines or legal action
for halting new water and sewer projects, but environmental
regulators said yesterday they are watching to make sure the
city's drinking water and sewer systems are safe.
Union-Tribune
Article
Councilwoman
Donna Frye Calls for City Investigation of "Likely Illegal
Acts"
In a memo to City Manager Lamont Ewell and City Attorney Casey
Gwinn, Councilwoman Donna Frye calls for an investigation into
the "likely illegal acts" described by KPMG in letters
in October. "I request that the City strictly comply with
all requests by KPMG and that no further efforts to restrict
or narrow this investigation be taken," Frye wrote in the
memo, which has been obtained by the Citizens' Budget project.
October
29 Memorandum (.pdf)
KPMG
Letters Criticize City Officials for Inadequate Investigation
of "Illegal Acts"
A pair of recent letters from auditing firm KPMG to City officials
have sufaced, shedding new light onto the delay in the release
of the firm's audit of San Diego's 2003 financial records. The
letters, sent Oct. 11 and Oct. 27, blast City officials for
failing to conduct "an adequate investigation in order
to conclude that likely illegal acts have not occurred, or that
appropriate remedial action has been taken." Without such
an investigation, the letters say, the audit can not be completed.
October
11 Letter (.pdf)
October 27 Letter (.pdf)
Union-Tribune:
'03 Audit Stalls; City Told Probe is Deficient
A widely anticipated audit of San Diego's 2003 books cannot
be completed until city officials fully investigate whether
"likely illegal acts" related to the pension system
and City Hall's financial-reporting practices have occurred,
according to the city's independent auditor.
Union-Tribune
Article
USA
Today: San Diego Now 'Enron by the Sea'
City Hall's Web site proclaims it "the most efficiently
run big city in California." Howard Jarvis, architect of
Proposition 13, California's landmark 1978 ballot measure capping
property taxes, once said that if all cities were as financially
prudent as San Diego, there'd be no need for a tax revolt. That
was then. This is now: a financial mess dragging the nation's
seventh-largest city toward insolvency, federal investigators
looking for evidence of corruption, a $1.7 billion gap in city
workers' pension fund and retiree medical benefits brought on
by years of mismanagement and alleged sweetheart deals.
USA
Today Article
Candidate
Surveys Submitted by District 4 Council Candidates
Dwayne
Crenshaw
Jim
Galley
Bruce
Williams
Voter Education Guide
Write-In
Mayoral Candidate Donna Frye Submits Survey
News10:
Financial Watchdog: City Pension Plan May Be Void
City
Beat: DeMaio Challenges Candidates on Fiscal Reform
Taxpayers
Shelling Out More Than $3.2 Million to Investigate City Financial
Crisis
Pension
Reform Package Incomplete and Leaves Taxpayers Holding the Bag
In
Sign of Worsening Financial Situation, City's Credit Rating
Suspended
News Release
Union-Tribune
Story
Vinson
& Elkins Report Sidesteps Issue of Criminal Behavior in
City Pension Scandal
Voter
Education Campaign to Focus on San Diego’s Financial Crisis
