S.D. City Council Takes on Budget Battle Ground Rules

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 5, 2007 at 11:52 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The San Diego City Council will vote today on ground rules for the upcoming budget battle. The mayor is trying to close a multi-million-dollar budget gap, but the city council wants to make sure he do

The San Diego City Council will vote today on ground rules for the upcoming budget battle. The mayor is trying to close a multi-million-dollar budget gap, but the city council wants to make sure he doesn't cut city services without consulting them. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Today's council vote will define who has the power to decide where the city's scarce dollars are spent. The mayor wants the authority to analyze city services, cut positions and shift employees from one department to another. But the council is unhappy with changes the mayor has already made that have major repercussions for parks, pools and libraries.

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The council's independent budget analyst says ordinances should be changed because the mayor does not have the authority to make unilateral decisions that affect public services without the council's knowledge. The mayor says changing the ordinances will tie his hands, and hamper his efforts to increase efficiency and balance the budget.

Part of the discussion today will be about how other cities like Phoenix and Oakland have dealt with these questions, since these cities have recently moved to a strong mayor form of government. 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.