City's pension troubles continue

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 17, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The legal costs of the city's pension problems are growing. The city council will decide next week whether to pay the legal bills of at least eight former elected officials, including two mayors, who

The legal costs of the city's pension problems are growing. The city council will decide next week whether to pay the legal bills of at least eight former elected officials, including two mayors, who want to defend their pension benefits against the city attorney's challenges. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Former mayors Dick Murphy and Susan Golding are among past elected officials asking the city to cover their legal bills to defend their own benefits, approved in 1996 or 2000. City attorney Mike Aguirre is suing to roll back some benefits, though he has not named individuals. Attorney Steve Strauss represents former city councilwoman Judy MCarty

Steve Strauss: "No one is representing the interests of your former colleagues the former council members and mayors and other who have served this city with distinction over the years, the purposed of this tender is to provide such a defense so that those interest can be fully and fairly represented."

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Council president Scott Peters says it will save money to retain one attorney to represent all former elected officials.
But Aguirre argues that labor unions also fighting to keep their benefits have not asked the city to foot their bills. 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.