City Hall heats up over Aguirre's budget

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 15, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Budget hearings at San Diego City Hall took on a heated emotional tone Monday in public testimony over the budget for the office of City Attorney Mike Aguirre. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The city attorney has become a lightening rod for controversy and his critics had a field day as city council considered his budget. Some accused the city attorney's office of being in shambles, run on a cult- like culture of loyalty. But others praised the success of neighborhood code enforcement and revenue recovery efforts. The key bone of contention is Aguirre's position that, as an elected official he is independent of the city council

Aguirre: "Had it been an independent legal department telling you what you needed to hear rather than what you wanted to hear, the city would not be in the situation that it is today."

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Aguirre has filed suits naming some former and current city council members, in connection with his efforts to rollback pension benefit increases granted in 2002. However, the council did not attempt to cut his budget. 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.