Council Members Skeptical of Mayor's Budget Promises

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 2, 2007 at 12:43 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

San Diego City Council members began hearings Wednesday of the mayor's proposed budget. They had plenty of questions about the mayor's claims that his cuts will not result in any reduction in services

San Diego City Council members began hearings Wednesday of the mayor's proposed budget. They had plenty of questions about the mayor's claims that his cuts will not result in any reduction in services. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The city's parks and recreation department maintains 180 neighborhood parks, over 50 recreation centers, three golf courses and 13 swimming pools.

Become a KPBS sponsor

The mayor says next year's budget will keep park and rec maintenance at current levels.

But council members like Tony Young are skeptical of that promise, given that the budget cuts 30 ground maintenance workers, five park rangers, and other resources.

Young : I don't believe that the service levels will be the same, so what I've done is get my staff to go to all the park and recreation centers and got a whole list of things that are being provided.

The city council's independent budget analyst Andrea Tevlin says it'll be difficult to know if services are reduced because there's no detailed record of existing services. She says with more than 80 positions to be eliminated from parks and rec, it'll be important to monitor how the budget actually affects city residents.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

twitter

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.