Campaign begins for manager competition ballot initiative

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 9, 2006 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diegans will see signature gatherers on the streets this weekend, as a campaign begins to open city services up to managed competition. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diegans will see signature gatherers on the streets this weekend, as a campaign begins to open city services up to managed competition. The campaign is primarily sponsored by Carl Demaio of the Washington-based think tank, The Performance Institute. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Since the city council has not yet approved putting a manager competition initiative on the November ballot, Carl Demaio is acting on his pledge to collect signatures to qualify a measure for the ballot privately. He says he will personally foot the bill to get the ball rolling.

Demaio: "I'm providing campaign support for the campaign personally and it's a pretty diverse coalition of community leaders and business organizations that have stepped forward to help."

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Carl Demaio, President of the Performance Institute, is playing a key role in Washington's efforts to outsource and privatize federal government services.

He says if the city council does not vote on March 28th to put the mayor's managed competition initiative on the ballot, he will place a broader measure on the ballot with even more sweeping government reforms. 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.