Pension roll-back court battle continues

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 4, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Attorneys in the legal battle over whether to role back San Diego pension benefits were back in court today. Judge Jeffrey Barton called a special hearing to consider a new legal ruling on state confl

Attorneys in the legal battle over whether to role back San Diego pension benefits were back in court today. Judge Jeffrey Barton called a special hearing to consider a new legal ruling on state conflict of interest laws. KPB reporter Alison St John has more.

An attorney from Carson argued that, in a case he litigated for three years, a development loan was cancelled after a city official was found guilty of extortion. The judge ruled the developers had to repay the city the $850,000 loan, even though they were not the guilty party.

Anthony Taylor says the state's 1090 conflict of interest statute doesn't require the financial incentive, or extortion to be part of the contract, for the contract to be voided.

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Taylor: "1090 doesn't work that way, it's actually a lot broader, and the statute is construed very equitably in favor of protecting the public."

Judge Barton will decide if thousands of San Diego city employees should forfeit pension benefit increases, even though they are not personally accused of any conflict of interest.

Attorneys for the pension board say the Carson case does not affect the San Diego suit pension 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.