San Diego Officials Looking for Ways to Raise Millions for Fire Protection

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 21, 2008 at 11:58 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

San Diego County and City officials are considering different ways to raise millions of dollars to bring the region's fire protection up to scratch. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diego County and City officials are considering different ways to raise millions of dollars to bring the region's fire protection up to scratch. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

One of the most sobering comparisons is between what San Diego County spends on fire protection : $8.5 million and what LA. County spends : $900 million.

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UCSD professor Steve Erie, a member of the San Diego Regional Fire Safety Forum, says L.A. voters agreed in 1997 to pay for fire protection with a special property tax assessment.

Erie: Basically its $50 a household, you know, it's like a fire insurance policy and it generates nearly a billion dollars a year.

The city of San Diego spends $180 million a year on fire rescue, but estimates it needs $25 million more for annual operating costs. The independent budget analyst says a special property tax of $55 dollars a year for single family residences could raise that. A joint city county fire task force plans to release a report on funding fire protection, but not till after the June election.

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.