(San Diego) – Scott Peters is infamously known as the architect of the “Enron by the Sea” scandal that nearly bankrupted San Diego when he voted to increase the city’s pension benefits while underfunding the pension system in 2002.
That is why it was so outrageous to find out that Peters never learned from his egregious mistake, when he offered a motion as a member of the Port of San Diego board to recommend underfunding the port’s pension system as a policy tool (10/12/12, San Diego Union-Tribune).
During this debate, Peters advocated for more flexibility to underfund the pension system and stated “It is fashionable, and I think for reasons we can all understand, to talk about the pension as if it’s the only thing we’ve got on our plates.” That is the same flawed reasoning that Peters used in 2002, which left San Diego with a $2.1 billion unfunded pension liability and left a generation marred in debt.
Peters’ latest response is just as alarming as his actions.
During the recent UT-TV debate, Scott Peters publicly denied offering such a motion, only to finally admit that he was not being truthful. What Mr. Peters fails to grasp is that his voting record is indicative of his reckless past, which should serve as a history lesson to San Diegans that he is unfit for this office.
“Scott Peters has defined himself through his own actions as the Bernie Madoff of San Diego for his fraudulent behavior,” said spokesman Patrick Howell. “It is clear that he never learned from his ‘negligent’ actions that left hardworking San Diegans on the hook for millions in taxpayer-paid legal bills to protect his reckless activity. And now he refuses to release his tax returns to the public in order to protect his shadow campaign financier, Cameron Holdings Corporation, which is trying to buy a Congressional seat.”