The walls of the city attorney’s office are dotted with pictures of John and Robert Kennedy studiously working over legal briefs. And alongside a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, you’ll find a famous Norman Rockwell civil rights-era painting of U.S. marshals escorting a little black girl to school. These images represent the power the law has bestowed on the people. Yet for all the power it represents, the office on floor 16 of a Downtown skyscraper is surprisingly easy to access. Maybe that shouldn’t be so surprising given that it’s the city voters – every-day folks — who elect its chief occupant. Two candidates vie for that position, to be decided in the Nov. 4 general election – Jan Goldsmith, a 10-year veteran Superior Court judge and the former mayor of Poway, and current San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre. The race is important because whoever wields the city’s legal briefs can influence City Council policy decisions, protect the city’s pocketbook in the courtroom and act as the City Council’s legal council. The San Diego Community Newspaper Group recently met with both candidates for their views on several topics that in addition to Muhammad Ali, include: The city ­attorney’s role Besides their divisions down political party lines, Aguirre, a Democrat, and Goldsmith, a Republican, view the role and responsibility of the city attorney in vastly different ways. “I view the city attorney as serving the broad interests of the public. It’s a public office, and it’s supposed to serve the public interest. And that means everybody,” Aguirre said. Aguirre further accused his opponent of rolling over on pension reform, a pivotal local topic, to gain the support of some unions. “My opponent, his whole campaign is financed by the upper echelon of special interests that control our city, the developers, the municipal unions, the people that are in the bureaucracy, and he represents the old system and how we got ourselves in trouble… I represent a break with the past, and I represent the basic principle that government is established to serve the people,” Aguirre said. Goldsmith favors a stricter interpretation of the role of the city’s top lawyer. His past experience, he said, lends a sense of authority and establishes his credibility for the job. “I see the role of the city attorney as a law office. We focus and base our work solely on the law, similar to what I do as a judge. We state the law as we see it, not as the mayor may want to see it, or the city council, or what plays well with the press, or if we have a political agenda. We don’t have a political agenda. We have an agenda that’s based only on the law,” Goldsmith said. He takes issue with Aguirre’s use of the office as a “political operation.” Aguirre, he said, politicizes the office, and “as a result the city has been denied a lawyer, and that’s not good. As a result there’s been criminal prosecutions aimed at his opponents to punish people for being political opponents. I think that’s not only bad. I think it’s horrible. The main reason I’m running is to professionalize the office. I think what he’s done is wrong and it’s hurt the city.” City development versus future water provisions Both men agree that the letter of the law requires the city be able to provide water to city residents. There’s a law that says large developments must be able to provide water for people 20 years into the future, Aguirre said. So while average San Diegans may never wake up and turn on the faucet to find only schprits of dust, the question remains as to who would eventually foot the bill during a time when the city imports a majority of its current water supply. Goldsmith promises to give the city council sound legal advice, while Aguirre said he would write legal opinions and issue public reports outlining steps the city council can take try and tackle the problem. Whereas Aguirre said he would seek to enforce the law, Goldsmith would stay away from attempting to implement policy as city attorney. “There has to be a plan for water. That’s required by state law, and it has to be in the general plan. It has to be specific enough to address the needs of the city. And that’s what my advice would be to the city in no uncertain terms. How they go about doing that is up to the city council and the mayor. It’s not the city attorney. When I was mayor of the City of Poway, I was instrumental in pushing for water reclamation and water conservation. But that was a different role that I had,” Goldsmith said. Aguirre said the city is breaking the law when it comes to providing water supplies. He blames politicians who don’t want to tell the public the truth that eventually “we’re going to have to raise money to get ourselves a secure water supply. “We have not been, in my opinion, complying with that law. We need to have a very effective program to provide the people of San Diego a secure water supply – that’s a charter obligation. And that means we recycle. Whether we recycle ocean water or recycle wastewater, conserve water [to] increase our storage capacity, all those things are things that we’re going to have to do and we’re required to do under the charter, and I’ve been enforcing that,” Aguirre said. Council’s OK?of the city attorney’s role in suits The city attorney doesn’t need permission to prosecute a criminal case on behalf of the city, but in certain cases that may require litigation or a settlement agreement, such as a breach of contract or conflict of interest case, cooperation between the city council and the city attorney can save the city money, according to Goldsmith. While certain cases do require city council approval and the city attorney must carry out the city’s litigation, Aguirre maintains that the city attorney’s office should operate independently of city council decisions regarding these matters in order to protect the broader interests of the city. He points to the Sunroad Centrum building fiasco as another example of why city officials shouldn’t be in charge of litigation. According to statements released by the city attorney, Sunroad developers wanted to construct a building in Kearny Mesa that was too tall according to Federal Aviation Administration and California transportation guidelines. Aguirre wanted to stop it. Allegations of political insiders maneuvering to ensure the building became a reality despite the law caused a political dust-up between the mayor and city attorney, with accusations of corruption and political posturing on all sides. “If there’s ever an example of why you don’t want the council in charge of litigation, Sunroad is a perfect example, because there the city attorney brought the action and did so based upon the law. Had we had to get the OK from the council, I think we might not have gotten the building down. “You want the city attorney exercising independent judgment. The city attorney in essence is a trustee of the city that’s charged with the management of the city’s litigation,” he said. But Goldsmith said otherwise when it comes to the relationship between city council and the city attorney. He said that if elected, more cooperation with the city council, especially when it saves the city money by avoiding costly litigation, would benefit the city. Aguirre often sues without taking into consideration “less costly and more effective” alternatives, according to Goldsmith. “Often, [lawsuits and trials don’t] solve the problem, and I’ve seen thousands and thousands of lawsuits as a judge in the last ten years where I thought their clients could have been better served had they just pushed this other button before they decided to follow a lawsuit. That’s why the client has to be involved,” Goldsmith said. Dealing with potential for corporate corruption According to published reports, Southeastern Development Corporation (SEDC) officials gave themselves close to $1 million in bonuses over several years. Volleys of conflict of interest accusations led to the resignation of Centre City Development Corporation president Nancy Graham last July. According to Aguirre, “The city’s attorney’s role [in such cases] is to protect the public interest and ferret out wrongdoing and to prosecute it criminally or civilly and to hold people accountable under the law. The city attorney’s job is to vindicate the rights of the public, and the public have an absolute right to the undivided loyalty of its public officials.” According to statements from his office, Aguirre helped provide documents of conflict of interest attributed to Graham, and he advised the organizations to “take new official action” to correct the problem. But while Aguirre advised CCDC to take action toward the recent fallout from the $409 million mixed-use condominium development at Seventh and Market streets Downtown, and condemns corruption at every turn, Goldsmith said Aguirre should’ve have been aggressive and stepped in. “The lawyer should have been involved before anything happened to give the city better control,” Goldsmith said. And while he doesn’t blame Aguirre for what happened, he said appointing a receiver to take control of SEDC would have stopped any more money from being siphoned to employees in the form of bonuses. The city attorney’s role in forming public policy Aguirre’s open involvement in public policy issues have landed him in the spotlight and in the shadow of criticism. Through his office, he’s tried to get the city to implement water recycling and emergency water conservation procedures. He’s tried to get the city to repair infrastructure, often going head to head with Mayor Jerry Sanders over the best direction for such policies. “I just think those of us that are elected want to help make it a better city,” he said. “You don’t see me over at council very often… but a lot of times there’s interactions between law and policy. For example,… [d]isobeying the law is not a policy choice. A lot of times when people say ‘you’re involved in policy,’ really it’s the opposite; it’s that they’re involved in doing something that’s outside the boundaries [of the law]. The only reason it’s a policy [issue] is because past officials have treated violating the law as if that is a policy choice, and I don’t believe it is.” Goldsmith said he would try to stay out of the policy decision-making process because, as the city attorney, he would emphasize his role of ensuring people are held accountable to the law and not mix it up with politicos. “The city attorney ought to be the adult in the room,” he said. “That is, you don’t get down into the political sandbox and throw sand with the councilmembers. You stay away from the politics. The role of the city attorney is to give the legal guidelines, come up with creative options. And once the city council and the mayor decide on policy, as long as they are legal, [they then] help to implement those policies. If something slips through and there are crimes committed, the role of the city attorney is to make sure that the people are held accountable. You do not look the other way. I like to say: You are not a lapdog. You are not an attack dog. You are a watchdog.” Efforts in improving the office of the city attorney It’s hard to imagine how one could possibly improve a political position that demands the utmost integrity from an individual and office, but the candidates seem to know how. One of the key differences between the two revolves around access to information. Aguirre wants to increase information about city council meetings, while Goldsmith would clam up about ongoing criminal investigations. “Less talk, more action,” he said, adding he would avoid the “press conference of the week” practices of the current city attorney. Gone would be the days of lambasting public accusations of corruption. “This is serious business,” he said. Effectiveness would be the hallmark of a his office, Goldsmith said. “We do not believe in berating people. We believe in Muhammad Ali: Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee. And that will be our MO. We will not go berate people and yell at people and call people names, but we will be effective, and the people who we are targeting would find out that we mean business,” Goldsmith said. So as not to jeopardize legal cases or individual reputations, Goldsmith said he would not openly publicize criminal investigations the way Aguirre does. He added that it’s a waste of tax dollars to open investigations publicly and spend time and money on lawsuits only to have them dismissed quietly. “He’s called investigations on half of San Diego,” Goldsmith said of Aguirre. On the other end, Aguirre said he would work to increase public access to information about the city’s public dealings. “When matters come before the city council, there’s no reason for the materials that the council is receiving not to be put online,” he said. He added he would improve access to information by logging every legal opinion ever issued from the city attorney’s office onto the Internet all the way back to 1931. Aguirre said he would continue to try to create and maintain a diverse group of attorneys dedicated to the public interest. He said the office would run with a focus on one question: “Are we advancing the broadest interest of our city and the way we’re carrying out our responsibilities?” The biggest problem San Diego must face Aguirre does not hesitate. “There’s a lack of basic integrity,” he said. “There’s a lack of basic competence within in the city for a lot of different reasons. The city has lost its focus. We are not focused on serving the public. We are mostly focused on increasing financial benefits for people who work here.” He cited a laundry list of the city’s failures. “We don’t have the water. We don’t have the roads repaired. We don’t have the streets, the alleys, the buildings repaired… We’re behind on our wastewater system. We’re behind on our cleansing system and our water system,” he said. The city has done a very poor job of providing basic services that taxpayers expect, he said. “But at the same time” he added, “while were not doing all those things, we have one of the most massive lucrative pension pyramids that’s ever been built in the history of western civilization that pays people more money to retire than to work. And you have to wonder, ‘Gee, this seems to suggest, the circumstantial evidence suggests, that the city officials spent more time trying to figure out how to line their pockets than they have in figuring out how to serve the public.’” Aguirre thinks he has the answers. And some may agree. “That’s why The Wall Street Journal weighed in on this and said what I’m doing should be a model for the nation in trying to set aside the $800 million of illegal [pension] benefits, which my opponent has given up on so he can get the support of the powerful unions who have so much to say about the election,” Aguirre said. While Aguirre cites what is wrong with the city as a whole, Goldsmith sees Aguirre as part of those same problems. “The biggest problem facing the city is its fiscal problems. There’s no question about it,” Goldsmith said. “This is a multi-billion-dollar municipal corporation that does not have a lawyer that views the city as its client and doesn’t give advice. “[City officials] are prone to making some very big mistakes without legal advice, and that goes hand in hand.” Aguirre has tried to set himself as a steward of the community using the law to look out for Joe Taxpayer while painting his opponent as a protector of the Old Guard. Goldsmith has made a commitment to the people of San Diego to put the law, not the law office or its power, first and foremost — a commitment that he may well believe Aguirre has forgotten about. So who will it be? Goldsmith or Aguirre? You decide.