Controversial decision gets delayed by SD City Council

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 24, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The San Diego city council has put off, yet again, a controversial decision on whether to pay the legal bills for former elected officials fighting conflict of interest charges. KPBS reporter Alison S

The San Diego city council has put off, yet again, a controversial decision on whether to pay the legal bills for former elected officials fighting conflict of interest charges. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The same conflict of interest issue that has landed several pension board members in court is now plaguing city council members.

The council hesitated over whether to use public money to defend former elected officials who approved their own pension benefit increases in the 1990s.

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City Attorney Mike Aguirre alleges the current council members would violate conflict of interest laws if they vote in the issue.

Aguirre: "What they're doing is they're voting on something they have a financial interest in, which is the issue of whether to roll back the benefits, so they're basically giving money to someone to defend their interest, their financial interest."

An attorney representing former city councilwoman Judy McCarty told the council salaries and benefits are exempt from state conflict of interest laws, and warned them delay jeopardizes the case. But council members decided they need another two weeks to tease out the legal intricacies. 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.