Major changes at city hall come faster than expected

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 22, 2005 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 19 years ago.

Changes at San Diego city hall are happening faster than anticipated. City manager Lamont has announced his last day will be next Monday, rather than the end of the year. To fill the void, Deputy Mayo

Changes at San Diego city hall are happening faster than anticipated. City manager Lamont has announced his last day will be next Monday, rather than the end of the year. To fill the void, Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins has asked mayor elect Sanders if his designated Chief Operating Officer could take over the position immediately. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Mayor elect Jerry Sanders says Ewell's decision to leave a month earlier than expected has further complicated matters at city hall. But he's asked Ronne Froman if she will jump into the breach. Froman, who has been working on a plan for a major shake up at city hall, accepted.

Froman: "I will do everything I can to maintain the delivery of city services at the same time we really need to restructure the city administration and we will be doing both of those at the same time. It's sort of like doing open heart surgery on the long distance runner while the runner is running the marathon."

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The city council is expected to confirm her appointment next Tuesday, and Froman will move in to tackle the job as soon as Ewell's office is empty. Frohman and mayor elect Sanders say they have already conducted interviews to hire new people to fill nine top positions at the city. 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.