What does Measure A do?
Measure A would allow the Office of the City Auditor and the city's Audit Committee to hire independent lawyers who are not part of the City Attorney's Office.
The Office of the City Auditor investigates waste, fraud and abuse, and the overall performance of city operations. Recent audits have looked into the city's street maintenance, brush management and employee hiring practices.
The Office of the City Auditor operates independent of the mayor and city attorney. But currently, the City Charter — which acts like the city's constitution and can only be amended by voters — does not allow the Office of the City Auditor to hire independent legal counsel.
Instead they can only turn to the City Attorney's Office for legal advice, even when the City Attorney's Office is the subject of an audit investigation.
For years, the Office of the City Auditor has asked for the authority to hire independent lawyers. It argues the City Attorney's Office is obligated to defend the city from lawsuits, and that audits can expose legal liabilities that the City Attorney's Office would prefer to keep under wraps.
Measure A requires the City Council to approve the budget for the auditor's independent legal counsel.
Who supports it?
Measure A's supporters include San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno, former San Diego City Auditor Eduardo Luna, current City Auditor Andy Hanau and state Assemblymember David Alvarez.
City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera told KPBS the council expressed its support for the auditor's ability to access outside attorneys in 2020 and 2022, but that efforts to put the question to voters got tied up in the lawmaking process.
"The question is if we are having the auditor take a look at an issue that includes work that the city attorney did, should we bring in someone who is not from the City Attorney's Office to analyze that work," Elo-Rivera said. "What the council has done is simply given voters the opportunity to weigh in on that. And we'll see what they decide."
Who opposes it?
Clifford Weiler, a retired public sector attorney, submitted the argument against Measure A to the official voter information pamphlet. He argues the city auditor is simply seeking more favorable legal advice and that the city attorney is already an independent party, accountable only to the voters, that is capable of providing neutral legal advice to the city auditor.
