S.D. in Talks with Police Union

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 19, 2007 at 1:10 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

Vital negotiations begin today between the city of San Diego and the police officers' union. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Vital negotiations begin today between the city of San Diego and the police officers’ union. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more

Mayor Jerry Sanders promised in his state of the city speech to carefully consider increasing police salaries and benefits to make them more competitive with other cities.

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San Diego’s police force should be more than two thousand strong, but it’s currently short more than 200 officers.

Police Union President Bill Nemec says after a two-year pay freeze, these negotiations are crucial.

Nemec: A lot of the officers are watching to see what the outcome will be because they’re going to have to make some critical career decisions about whether they are going to stay or move to other departments

The city’s white and blue collar workers will get a four percent raise this summer, after a pay freeze of more than a year. But the mayor is trying to cut a deficit of over $2 billion dollars for commitments made over the past decade to pensions and retiree health. 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.