San Diego's Ethics Commission Given Power Boost

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 13, 2006 at 1:58 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The Ethics Commission will now be able to take the initiative to open investigations rather than waiting for someone to file a complaint. Executive Director Stacey Fullhorst says until now, few have b

San Diego City’s Ethics Commission will have expanded powers, under a change approved Monday by the city council. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The Ethics Commission will now be able to take the initiative to open investigations rather than waiting for someone to file a complaint. Executive Director Stacey Fullhorst says until now, few have been willing to come forward with complaints against elected officials because they couldn’t do so anonymously. As a result she says, the public has criticized the Commission for not investigating many issues.

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Fullhorst: So we’re either not taking the action that they expect, or we’re not taking it in a timely manner. Enabling us to initiate our own complaints would ensure that we are handling our enforcement effectively and evenhandedly.

Fullhorst says the Commission will only follow up complaints based on facts, not speculation. The Ethics Commission was created by former mayor Dick Murphy. Until now, it has had only one full-time investigator, but Fullhorst says a second has been approved, allowing the commission to take on more cases. 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.