Scott Peters will run for City Attorney

San Diego City Council President Scott Peters has announced he will run for City Attorney, saying he will restore competence, integrity and ethics to an office that has seen the exodus of 100 or more lawyers under the tenure of Mike Aguirre.

Peters, who has represented City Council District 1 for nearly eight years, made the announcement Monday, Feb. 18 to approximately 200 supporters at the new North University Community Library and Nobel Athletic Park in University City, popular city resources Peters was instrumental in creating.

Peters also said he is the person best positioned to defeat Mike Aguirre because his campaign will “receive support from across the city and the political spectrum,” reflecting the range of people he has worked with over his career - businesses, environmentalists and labor, Democrats and Republicans and neighborhoods.

Saying he is proud of his record, Peters said that, “Once elected, I will recruit experienced attorneys, and I will manage them professionally. The City Attorney should help protect public resources, not spend them to hire outside attorneys.”

At his campaign kick-off, he addressed the city’s pension system.

“For the past five years, we’ve put the pension system back on its feet. We’ve fixed reporting and budgeting problems dating back to the 1980s,” Peters said. “We stopped pension under funding. Our employees made concessions in labor negotiations that resulted in a $350 million decrease in the pension deficit. As a result of this work, our city actuary has declared the pension system financially sound.”

Prior to becoming a city councilman for Council District 1, Peters spent 15 years as an attorney representing businesses, local governments and public interest groups, with a focus on environmental law. He worked in the private sector for two international law firms and ran his own private practice. In addition, Peters spent five years as a supervising attorney at the Office of County Counsel, which is a model of efficiency and talent for a public law office.

Peters earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University and spent a year in Washington, D.C., as an economist for the United States Environmental Protection Agency before attending New York University School of Law.

He and his wife Lynn live in La Jolla with their daughter and son.