Councilman Peters up for Second-Term Re-election

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 13, 2006 at 6:45 AM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego City Council returns from a three week recess today. One of their first orders of business is to decide if La Jolla City Councilman Scott Peters should be elected council president for a sec

San Diego City Council returns from a three week recess today. One of their first orders of business is to decide if La Jolla City Councilman Scott Peters should be elected council president for a second year. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Under the city’s strong mayor form of government, the position of council president is similar to the speaker of the house at the federal level. Peters has served in the role for the last turbulent year at the city. He is likely to have his colleagues' support for another year, in spite of the legal cloud hanging over him, and other council members involved in the 2002 pension agreements that led to the pension deficit.

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The mayor and the council have bumped heads on several issues, as they jostle to establish the new balance of power. Peters takes a conciliatory tone.

Peters: As long as we’re talking about power, that could bring us to a halt. Where I really prefer to concentrate is solving problems, and if we start spitting at each other we won't. People want us to solve the problems -- so that’s what I want to work on.

Today’s council agenda already includes a contentious issue --who should appoint the new audit committee to keep an eye on the city’s financial management? The mayor or the city council? 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.