Sanders to be officially sworn in as Mayor

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 4, 2005 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The man San Diegans elected to be their new mayor will be officially sworn into office today. Jerry Sanders becomes the city's first strong mayor at a time of unprecedented financial turmoil. KPBS rep

The man San Diegans elected to be their new mayor will be officially sworn into office today. Jerry Sanders becomes the city's first strong mayor at a time of unprecedented financial turmoil. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Sanders has already begin to name his new executive team and is talking of shaking up the administration at city hall. But UCSD political scientist Steve Erie says the most immediate problem for the new mayor is something he has little control over

Erie: "The clock is ticking financially, and we're going to face cash flow problems by early summer unless we can get into the bond market , as it is, the Bank of America which is doing our short term financing, is beginning to raise interest rates, so the sword of Damocles that is hanging over the head of the mayor and council is the audits."

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The city's 2003 audit is still not approved, as a massive combs through tens of thousands of city documents. Meanwhile, rating agencies say they are waiting for evidence of fiscal discipline from Sanders, before readmitting the city to the bond market. 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.