Budget Battle Heats Up for City Council

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 29, 2007 at 9:27 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The San Diego city council will settle on their budget priorities today. The council members took a poll to evaluate city services. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The San Diego City Council will settle on their budget priorities today. The council members took a poll to evaluate city services. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

A budget battle is bound to heat up between the mayor and council this year, as the city tries to cut costs and yet save services.

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An anonymous poll of the city council finds they all agree their top priorities - police and fire - are performing well. Meanwhile parks, which council members rated as their third priority, are only just squeaking by. They agreed unanimously that trash collection, though not a high priority on everyone's list, is the thing the city does best.

The council rated street maintenance as moderately important but acknowledged it badly needs improvement.

They said local code enforcement in the neighborhoods is a low priority.

There's significant difference of opinion on how important arts and culture are to the city. One council member believes arts and culture define the city , while others say the city resources are not spread fairly among the districts.

The councils' priorities will go to the mayor as he crafts next year's budget.

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.