Is Carl DeMaio overpromising at debates?

And... they're off

SD CityBeat

by Kelly Davis

January 17, 2012

 

DeMaio was among friends—the Lincoln Club is a major backer of the Comprehensive Pension Reform ballot measure that's become the platform of DeMaio's campaign—and his string of digs at organized labor went over well with the crowd.

 

Low point: Less than a minute into his first answer, DeMaio held up a copy of The Roadmap to Recovery, the plan he rolled out more than a year ago to fix city finances. As we've reported, DeMaio used a large chunk of his office budget to pay for the glossy, spiral-bound book—$36,900 went to a consultant and thousands of dollars more to print up copies. It was a handy self-marketing tool that he spent most of last year shopping around to various community groups. But a large part of the Roadmap is based on numbers from—and makes assumptions about—the fiscal year 2012 budget, which went into effect on July 1, 2011. Also, a significant chunk of the savings it assumes, $21 million, comes from reforming retiree healthcare. That's already been done—and without DeMaio's support. And, a task force that examined city finances in March deemed half of the Roadmap's proposed reforms not feasible.

 

Aguirre 2.0?: Former City Attorney Mike Aguirre spent much of his four years in office trying to undo vested pension benefits that he argued were illegally granted. In each case, the court disagreed. Time and again, courts have ruled that a public employee's pension benefits can't be touched. But, DeMaio suggested Friday that he'd take a stab at it: "I will get the best and brightest people around the table, and we will crack the code; we will pick the lock." Good luck with that.