McMillin: City's Bad Math Means We Don't Owe

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 6, 2007 at 3:42 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The McMillin Companies are fighting back. Yesterday, city attorney Mike Aguirre accused the developer of inflating its labor costs to deprive the city of a share in the profits on a lucrative developm

The McMillin Companies are fighting back. Yesterday, city attorney Mike Aguirre accused the developer of inflating its labor costs to deprive the city of a share in the profits on a lucrative development project. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The city attorney says McMillin Companies claimed such high costs for the Naval Training Center redevelopment project, that there was not enough profit left to share with the city. But Mark Zebrowski, an attorney for McMillin Companies, says the developer followed standard business practices -- and he flat out denies Aguirre's allegations.

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Zebrowski : There's a dispute because there is nothing to dispute . He's just wrong about his math. He wants nine-and-a-half million dollars back -- or credited -- because he claims McMillin increased labor costs by 250 percent. He's wrong.

Aguirre says an auditor hired by the city reports there was a 250 percent mark-up on labor costs. The city attorney says he will pursue mediation, and if the developer won’t agree to that, he'll take the matter to court. 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.