S.D. Council, Mayor Battle Over Purse Strings

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 19, 2007 at 9:05 AM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

San Diego City Council will take a third stab today at sorting out how much power the mayor has to control the city's purse strings. It's a struggle that affects residents because it could affect whet

San Diego City Council will take a third stab today at sorting out how much power the mayor has to control the city's purse strings. It's a struggle that affects residents because it could affect whether services are cut without notice. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diegans want the mayor to make changes to run the city more efficiently. But some are worried their services could get cut to balance the budget without anyone consulting them.

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Council President Scott Peters hammered out a compromise in which the mayor could make changes of 10 percent or up to $4 million without asking the council. Councilwoman Frye is not happy with that.

The city council's independent budget analyst Andrea Tevelin says the important thing is not now much money is cut but whether services are affected.

Tevelin: If he can make dollar changes that truly do not impact services that's efficient savings that makes sense if dollars are reduced and the teen center is closed that is when we're asking the mayor to come forward to the council… that's the most important thing to the community.

The city council will vote on how to resolve the issue this afternoon. 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.