Mayor announces two ballot initiatives to change labor laws

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 1, 2006 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders wants to put two initiatives on the November ballot that would change the city's labor laws. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Labor groups and business interests are lining up for and against the mayor's proposal to put an initiative on the ballot that would allow the city to privatize more city services. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Flanked by more than two dozen supporters, including representatives from the Chamber of Commerce and two city council members, Mayor Jerry Sanders launched his effort to change the city charter to allow more managed competition.

The mayor is under pressure to move rapidly on this issue, which was one of his campaign pledges.

Become a KPBS sponsor

However Donald Cohen of the Center on Policy Initiatives, who represents working families, says the devil is in the details when it comes to privatizing.

Cohen: "Until we know the exact details of how we're going to compare contractors, how we're going to protect against corruption, there's a lot of detailed language we need to look at to make sure we don't fall into the same sort of contracting situations we're seeing around the county."

Cohen sites recent corruption scandals breaking at the federal level.
Supporters of the mayor's proposal say it's time to make city services as efficient as the private sector. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

twitter

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.