Audits of SEDC and CCDC Due

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 7, 2008 at 4:37 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The results of investigations into two troubled San Diego City Development Corporations are expected to be made public this week. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The results of investigations into two troubled San Diego City Development Corporations are expected to be made public this week. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The city’s audit of the South East Economic Development Corporation was to be released today, but final results have been postponed again until Wednesday.

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The audit originally began over a year ago, but produced few results till on-line media uncovered a pattern of hefty bonuses for top corporation staff.

The mayor then expanded the investigation, and city accountants discovered SEDC’s administrative costs have gone up from 16% to 38% of spending in the last 5 years

San Diego’s downtown development corporation, CCDC, is going though a parallel scandal, involving financial conflicts of interest on the part of its President, Nancy Graham.

The CCDC board has initiated its own investigation, employing outside attorneys. That audit threatens major development projects downtown that were all set to begin and may have to be renegotiated.

Both investigations should have recommendations of how the city can do a better job of overseeing the corporations, which manage millions of dollars of public money.

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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.