Politics

San Diego Voters To Decide Whether To Keep Strong Mayor Government

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published June 3, 2010 at 2:17 PM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

San Diego city councilwoman Donna Frye says the strong mayor form of government is costing San Diego more money and cutting access to the Mayor.

San Diego City Councilwoman Donna Frye says the strong mayor form of government is costing San Diego more money and cutting access to the mayor.

Frye says her analysis of costs since the strong mayor experiment began five years ago shows it is costing the city a million dollars a year more.

“That’s $5 million that could have been used for public safely,” she said, “instead of paying for these strong mayor staff salaries.”

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Frye says the mayor’s office costs 45 percent more than the city manager’s office did, even though there are fewer staff. She says since the mayor no longer has to attend council meetings, there is less public access to the halls of power.

But Councilman Kevin Faulconer, who supports the strong mayor form of government, says it saves money because the balance of power between the mayor and council has tightened controls on city spending. He says the budget process is more transparent now that the council has its own independent budget analyst..

“I believe San Diegans do not want us to go back to an unelected city bureaucrat running the day to day operations of the city,” Faulconer said. “That hid so much information from the city council. I believe there’s been a stronger role for both the council and the mayor.”

San Diego city residents will decide at the polls next week whether to make the five year experiment permanent.

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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.