Sanders eagerly begins 'Strong Mayor' task

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 1, 2006 at 9:00 PM PST

San Diego's new mayor, Jerry Sanders, assumes the mantle of the city's first strong mayor this week. KPBS reporter Alison St. John has more.

Mayor Sanders says things should get done more efficiently at the city, now that there's a new leadership structure that holds him responsible. He used as an example, the bridge in Mission Valley that got flooded out in last spring rains and took eight months to fix.

Sanders: "There didn't seem to be anybody responsible for getting the bridge fixed and there was no answers and nobody really knew how to go to ask about that. The citizens of San Diego know that if they want an answer to a question at the mayor's office, they'll either have the answer or they can get the answer and they can hold the mayor responsible for getting the job done."

Mayor Sanders says he will announce the last two top leadership positions in his administration this week, and gradually reorganize city hall over the next six months.

City council members will still be responsible to their neighborhoods, and will have to approve many of the mayor's actions. 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.