max s. gerber(the latest shot)

i’ve been meaning to post these pics for a while now, but i’ve been struggling to figure out how to explain the story concisely. in the end, i think i gave up trying to explain it. there was (is?) an ongoing pension scandal in the city of san diego with city workers, but the story is very convoluted and a little hard to follow and likely not particularly interesting unless you really, really enjoy being a securities lawyer.

for my money, even though i didn’t really understand the legalese involved, i found the key players to be very interesting to talk to. the main subject in the story is san diego city attorney mike agguire (above). the son of a boxer, he’s called a “bulldog” by his enemies. aguirre seemed to be the driving force behind the pension investigation that – and i know i’m going to screw this up – i think involved many people getting overinflated pension benefits illegally, while at the same time robbing the system of sufficient funds to finance those pensions. regardless of my inability to be a lawyer, mike aguirre was one of the smartest guys i’ve gotten to talk to in a long, long time. he’s one of those guys who immediately seems fiercely intelligent the second he opens his mouth. i left there with a very good impression of the guy, and i always admire someone who’s so open as a photo subject. in his defense, we shot these pics on a sunday. he was still at work, but with shorts and sandals. hey, it’s san diego.

other key players, also working with aguirre were don “the rat” mcgrath and bryan vess. don is the assistant city attorney, and all of us at the magazine spent some time trying to figure out why he was called “the rat”. there was speculation amongst the photo department that he might look rodent-like, perhaps, though this proved not to be the case. the real reason: it was a nickname he had in college (no explanation why, and also no explanation as to why he would choose to keep it many, many years later). bryan vess is an outside attorney hired to help with the investigation. this has been ongoing for a long while, you can see all the document boxes surrounding bryan. in case you all think being a lawyer is glamorous, imagine having to go through all that paperwork just to find something that might help your case. no thanks! wait a second, though, lawyers get to bill in 15-minute increments, right? maybe that’s not so bad.

i just heard from bryan vess that mike aguirre just lost the election and is no longer the city attorney in san diego. i wouldn’t count the guy out, though. he’s got some fight in him. all i know is if someone’s suing me, i want that guy on my side.