S.D. Council to Vote on Mayor-Council Compromise

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 5, 2007 at 7:21 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The San Diego City Council will vote this afternoon on a possible truce in the ongoing power struggle over who controls the city's purse strings. The outcome will affect the mayor's freedom to cut pub

The San Diego City Council will vote this afternoon on a possible truce in the ongoing power struggle over who controls the city's purse strings. The outcome will affect the mayor's freedom to cut public services. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The compromise on the table today is an attempt to resolve a deadlock reached last month. The council, upset to hear the mayor Jerry Sanders had cut a program without telling them, voted to radically limit the mayor's power to make any changes without getting their approval.

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Council President Scott Peters says his proposal would let the mayor cut programs by up to 10 percent or $4 million, as long as he lets the council know when he's done it.

Peters: This is part of a number of steps I credit the mayor for being willing to do this. I think it sets the table for working well.

Councilwoman Donna Frye is not happy with Peter's proposal.

Frye: This compromise proposal is nothing more than a compromise of the public interest. The public has a right to know what is going on before those service cuts are made -- not after they're made.

Today's vote will be a significant step in the ongoing struggle to define how the new strong mayor form of government will actually work. Alison St John, KPBS News.

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.