Aguirre attempts to collect debts

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 20, 2005 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre has added five people to his collections department, and says he will send out thousands of letters to people who owe the city money. KPBS reporter Alison St John,

San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre has added five people to his collections department, and says he will send out thousands of letters to people who owe the city money. KPBS reporter Alison St John, has the story.

Aguirre says he'll focus more resources on debt collection, after an article in the San Diego Union Tribune showed the fiscally strapped city is owed over $90 million by creditors.

Aguirre: "We have not been using our highest potential when it comes to collecting money, as a result of unlawful and fraudulent business practices which we have the ability to do and also when it comes to moneys that were due and payable to the city."

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The city attorney's collection division will send out 30,000 letters, at a cost of about $15,000, in an attempt to recoup over $50,000 in delinquent business taxes, unpaid rent, and parking tickets. Aguirre says he will also go after higher water and sewer rates from businesses that were billed less than state law requires. 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.