Politics

Oceanside's Prop K: A City Charter For Whose Benefit?

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published June 7, 2010 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

Oceanside's Prop K: A City Charter For Whose Benefit?

Oceanside voters will decide whether to adopt a city charter tomorrow. Proposition K would affect development in the city, and jobs.

Oceanside voters will decide whether to adopt a city charter tomorrow. Proposition K would affect development in the city, and jobs.

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Charter cities are independent of many state regulations, and more than 100 California cities have adopted charters. But Oceanside has not. It is considered a general law city.

Oceanside city councilman Jerry Kern said his main goal in adopting a charter is to save money.

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“It gets us out from some of the state mandates -- the main one is the prevailing wage requirement,” Kern said. “As a voter, do you want the best value at the lowest possible price? The best value is given by the Charter.”

But Jerry Salyer, a former president of Oceanside’s Chamber of Commerce, said though he supports the idea of a city charter, he won’t vote for this one. He said it was thrown together in a hurry for Oceanside by Associated Builders and Contractors, a national group working to break the power of labor unions.

“The sentiment toward unions is probably as low as it’s been since World War II, because of the economy,” Salyer said. “This is just taking advantage of that sentiment and trying to translate it in a means that allows developers freer rein.”

Salyer said there are many moving parts to a city charter, and he would like to see more public input before placing a proposal on the ballot.

Kern admits the charter was crafted with the help of lobbyists for Associated Builders and Contractors. But he said it is simply a compilation of charters already adopted by Vista, Carlsbad and Fresno.

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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.