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City councilmember Scott Peters, who purports to represent La Jolla on city council, boasted in council chambers recently, "We are taking over the city attorney's office." By "we" he apparently meant the city council. Although supposedly a lawyer, Peters apparently doesn't know that the council has no such authority. The incident brings to mind an interchange between Peters and Union-Tribune editorial writer Bob Kittle -- the one who penned an ill-conceived screed October 10 charging City Attorney Mike Aguirre with breaking the law by accepting small donations from employees. The overwhelming consensus of campaign finance experts is that the part of the law Kittle cited does not apply to campaign finance, and other local pols accept similar donations. Background: according to the ethics code of the Society of Professional Journalists, journalists should avoid conflicts of interest and refuse gifts, FAVORS (emphasis mine), fees and the like. In January of 2004, Peters was getting ready to come in for a pre-election interview at the U-T. So Kittle asked Peters to do something about telephone poles in his neighborhood and speeding on his street. Peters reported he would do something and got the enthusiastic endorsement of the U-T. That's San Diego ethics, as proved by email exchanges.
City councilmember Scott Peters, who purports to represent La Jolla on city council, boasted in council chambers recently, "We are taking over the city attorney's office." By "we" he apparently meant the city council. Although supposedly a lawyer, Peters apparently doesn't know that the council has no such authority. The incident brings to mind an interchange between Peters and Union-Tribune editorial writer Bob Kittle -- the one who penned an ill-conceived screed October 10 charging City Attorney Mike Aguirre with breaking the law by accepting small donations from employees. The overwhelming consensus of campaign finance experts is that the part of the law Kittle cited does not apply to campaign finance, and other local pols accept similar donations. Background: according to the ethics code of the Society of Professional Journalists, journalists should avoid conflicts of interest and refuse gifts, FAVORS (emphasis mine), fees and the like. In January of 2004, Peters was getting ready to come in for a pre-election interview at the U-T. So Kittle asked Peters to do something about telephone poles in his neighborhood and speeding on his street. Peters reported he would do something and got the enthusiastic endorsement of the U-T. That's San Diego ethics, as proved by email exchanges.