Mayoral candidates Sanders and Frye face off in biggest debate

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 1, 2005 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 19 years ago.

San Diego's two mayoral candidates will face off in a televised debate this evening, hosted by KPBS and KGTV and also heard live on KPBS radio starting at 6 p.m. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more

San Diego's two mayoral candidates will face off in a televised debate this evening, hosted by KPBS and KGTV and also heard live on KPBS radio starting at 6 p.m. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The two hour forum with former Police chief Jerry Sanders and councilwoman Donna Frye will give San Diegans a chance to compare the candidates widely differing approaches to solving the city's fiscal crisis.

Next week's election has been called the most important mayoral election in San Diego history. The city is in unprecedented financial turmoil under Federal investigation and blocked from the bond market because of its $1.4 billion pension deficit.

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Both candidates plan radical changes that would have to be approved by voters at ballots next June or November.

Sanders wants to privatize some city services, restructure the pension plan and issue Pension obligation bonds once the city is back. in the bond market.

Frye wants to immediately stop paying pension benefits deemed illegal, put in place a half cent sales tax and move the pension system to the statewide public employees plan.

With less than a week till the election, recent polls suggest between nine and three percent of San Diego voters remain undecided. 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.