City hires analyst to help assess proposed budget

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 27, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

For the first time, the city of San Diego has an independent budget analyst to help the council and the public assess the mayor's budget proposal. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more on Andrea Tevli

For the first time, the City of San Diego has an independent budget analyst to help the council and the public assess the mayor's budget proposal. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more on Andrea Tevlin's report, released today.

The report uncovers some of the hidden problems glossed over in the mayor's positive budget presentation. Tevlin says the mayor wants to increase the city's liability fund to 10 million dollars next year. But she points out that likely wont be enough, since the actual cost of investigations and lawsuits this year was double that: 20 million dollars!

Tevlin: "It has not been sufficient in the last year and this is a potential impact that perhaps is not budgeted."

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Tevlin says the budget should be more realistic about potentially astronomical legal costs next year.

She points out other trouble spots. She says though the mayor adds 24 million dollars to cover the police department's overtime, the police budget will still come up short if they succeed in recruiting more officers to reach full staffing next year. 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.