City Council Votes Down Its Own Pay Raise

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 9, 2007 at 1:42 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

San Diego City Council voted unanimously today not to take a pay raise this year. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Several council members said they would not accept the raise recommended by the city’s Salary Setting Commission at a time when city employees are being laid off to balance the budget.

Council President Scott Peters said he’s uncomfortable voting on his own salary because of the obvious appearance of a conflict of interest.

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Peters : After what we’ve been through, there’s six pension board members who were given legal advice that it was ok to vote on their own benefits who are in quite a bit of hot water. We should not be in the position of voting on our own salaries.

Peters suggested the process to decide mayoral and council salaries be referred to the rules committee to consider other ways of deciding on raises. While none of the council members accepted the raise, some said it is not easy to buy a home in their own districts on a council member’s salary, which is currently $75,000 a year.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.