Labor union against settling pension settlement via mediation

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 5, 2006 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The City of San Diego's white collar labor union shows little sign of agreeing to mediation with the city on the question of rolling back pension benefits. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The Metropolitan Employees Association has reacted to a call from Mayor Sanders and city attorney Mike Aguirre for a mediated settlement. The MEA has an alternative suggestion, that instead of trying to roll back benefits, the city should focus on paying down the pension deficit.

MEA President Judie Italiano says the union doesn't have the authority to bargain away constitutionally protected benefits without the consent of the membership.

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Italiano: "But if we're talking about going into this with Aguirre still standing on his platform that all benefits are illegal that were granted in 96 and 2002, they're never going to give that approval."

MEA attorney Ann Smith has written to the mayor saying she would prefer to settle the matter in court, rather than in what she calls a circus at the city.

Mayor Sanders says a court could take six years to settle the question of whether benefits were illegally granted and therefore could be rolled back. 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.