"So now it is up to Sanders. Will he back off and avoid repeating the disclosure frauds of Dick Murphy? Or is he, like Murphy, a slave to the "strong union form of government" this city has endured for decades?"

That's what I wrote on February 2, 2008.

Sanders did not back off. He pressed on. He stacked the City's five-member Disclosure Practices Working Group (DPWG) with three of his top aides, COO Jay Goldstone, CFO Mary Lewis and Director of Debt Management, Lakshmi Kommi.

This "Sanders' Three" will always outvote the other two, City Attorney Aguirre and his public finance deputy, Mark Blake.

For Sanders to now claim that his administration is untainted by those who committed the 2002 SEC fraud is staggering in its audacity. Lakshmi Kommi was at the very heart of the SEC fraud, yet Sanders has put her in charge of his bond disclosures.

Here is what I wrote about her on February 2, 2008:

"Lakshmi Kommi is Director of Debt Management, (formerly the Financing Services Division of the City Treasurer's Office). She has been with the City since 1993, succeeding her Financial Services boss Mary Vattimo, who became City Treasurer in May 2001.

The Manager's Report announcing her appointment in 2001 said that she would be: "responsible for initial and continuing disclosure reporting in compliance with federal securities regulations, and for managing the Equipment and Vehicle Financing Program. Ms. Kommi serves as a liaison with the bond rating agencies and will be responsible for structuring and executing financing plans for a variety of bond financed projects."

It seems that Sanders now wants her "disclosure" expertise.

Vattimo was subsequently demoted to the purchasing department in December 2004 amid reports that employees in her office had destroyed documents. She resigned from the City in May 2005. How much of that rubbed off on Kommi is not clear. I remember her from the strange bond issuance affair involving the "Banc" of America who masqueraded as the "Bank" of America, in October 2005."

Sanders is in deep trouble and he knows it. His aides are desperately trying to spin him out of it but they are doomed to fail. Facts are facts.

And the fact is that Jerry Sanders has conspired with the perpetrators of the 2002 securities fraud (many of whom are still in office), the current pension administrator, David Wescoe and the union leaders, to try to hoodwink the SEC and rating agencies for the second time.

Will our city ever escape its sordid past? Take the time to read my February 2, 2008 blog and watch the video clips. Watch Toni Atkins walk out of the Audit Committee when Mr. Aguirre expressed concerns about the Mayor's disclosure practices and her rude interruption of John McNally, the DPWG's outside disclosure counsel and one of the top securities lawyer in the country, when he dared express the opinion that Aguirre's disclosure concerns were genuine.

San Diego seems to have a problem with the truth, which has gotten worse under Sanders. Something has to change.