No wonder everyone wants to keep the cross atop Mount Soledad. Where else will the City Council and the San Diego Union-Tribune have to affix City Attorney Mike Aguirre?

Three years ago, I wrote here about the need to get an outsider to take over the City Attorney’s Office. Under former City Attorney Casey Gwinn’s eight-year tenure, the office had become infested with anti-gay bias, incompetence, nepotism and political corruption.

This became vividly clear five years ago with the extension of the Balboa Park lease to the Boy Scouts of America. I had co-authored the Human Dignity Ordinance (HDO), which prohibits the city from doing business with any group that engages in bias based on sexual orientation.

When the HDO passed the council (back in ’91), then-City Attorney John Witt opined that the city could not extend its lease with the BSA because the BSA discriminates against gays and lesbians.

Witt’s protégé and successor was Casey Gwinn. Gwinn advised the council that Witt’s opinion was rubbish and there was no legal obstacle to extending the lease. My colleague, Barb Cox, testified before the council as to the illegality of such a move. That didn’t phase Gwinn or even attorneys (on the council at the time) Dick Murphy, Brian Maienschein and Scott Peters.

Five years later, no court has agreed with Gwinn on anything he had to say about the BSA. The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city of Berkeley was prohibited by local and state law from subsidizing the Scouts, and that the Scouts could not claim reverse bias.

So it came as no surprise to me last week when the Kroll report said, “The City Attorney’s Office failed the City.”

“As the top official in the City Attorney’s Office – which certified to the accuracy of incomplete and misleading disclosures – City Attorney Casey Gwinn negligently performed his disclosure responsibilities to the City, and failed to supervise other attorneys,” the report said.

The report chastised Gwinn’s office for years of falsifying billing records to the city’s water and wastewater departments for legal work.

Most lawyers here agree with Aguirre that one doesn’t “negligently” commit intentional fraud. This is criminal wrongdoing.

Unfortunately, Gwinn is now working part time for the district attorney, earning $50,000 a year and his illegal $80,000-a-year pension (for 16 years with the city). District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is standing by her man because Gwinn stood by Dumanis when she ran four years ago.

Dumanis needs to cancel Gwinn’s contract now. The obvious reason is that she serves the State Bar Board of Governors. The State Bar will investigate and decide whether Gwinn should be disciplined or permanently disbarred.

This community, however, needs to stand by Aguirre. Knowing what we all know now (reaffirmed in the Kroll report), Aguirre was the only attorney I knew three years ago who had the gumption, intelligence, tenaciousness and stomach for doing what needed to be done.

Some lawyers are inspired by Aguirre’s energy, idealism and tenaciousness. Others cringe at the thought of leaving the office later than 4:00 p.m. One of Aguirre’s hires is Alex Sachs, who is not just openly gay but has worked in legislative advocacy both here and in Washington, D.C. Sachs replaced one of Gwinn’s chief deputies, who referred to legendary gay-rights attorney Tom Homan as “Tom the Homo.”

Sure, Aguirre can be abrasive. He’s not like Mayor Jerry Sanders. Aguirre hasn’t spent a lifetime working around a bunch of felons.

And that’s good because Aguirre isn’t one to ignore white collar crime. He doesn’t want to do what the mayor suggests and just “put this behind us.”

That bothers some officials who seem to prefer enjoying illegal pension benefits while the city can’t pay for basic police services.

I don’t know why Aguirre bothers the paper, which now has engaged in a personal attack on Aguirre and his family by unsealing his ’91 divorce files.

What should happen is what’s happening now: Let the Department of Justice and FBI investigate. There are big fish to fry. Some of these folks are now judges, attorneys in high-powered law firms, politicians and union bosses. This is something that can’t be done by the city attorney or district attorney. There are too many conflicts.