Water, sewer fund audit finds $1 million used inappropriately

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published August 6, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

An audit of the way the city spent water and sewer funds in 2003 found $1 million were used inappropriately. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The audit was commissioned by Mayor Jerry Sanders, after questions arose over whether water and sewer rates were siphoned off to other cash strapped city departments. The auditor found several examples of questionable transfers Sanders concluded this did not constitute abuse of rate payer funds.

Sanders: "I'm pleased to announce the auditor did not find any evidence of abuse of rate payer funds or misuse of bond proceeds. What the auditors did find is sloppy booking in potentially inappropriate charges by the water and wastewater funds totalling $1 million."

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Sanders says he'll ask the city council to refund a million dollars to the water and sewer departments from the city's general fund.

Sanders set up a task force to decide if more money should be reimbursed, and how to prevent the so-called sloppy book keeping in the future. 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.