City Council to Consider Charging Fee to Collect Recyclables

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 5, 2008 at 6:07 AM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

All eyes are on the presidential primary race this Super Tuesday. But San Diego city council is already thinking ahead to what will be on the ballot in June and November KPBS reporter Alison St John e

All eyes are on the presidential primary race this Super Tuesday. But San Diego city council is already thinking ahead to what will be on the ballot in June and November KPBS reporter Alison St John explains. There are few local issues on today's ballot. But that'll change in the next two elections.

The city council agreed to consider what has been a taboo subject in city politics for a long time, imposing a fee for collecting recyclables. Currently, the 90 year old Peoples' Ordinance forbids charging for trash pick up in the city.

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But Councilman Jim Madaffer says taxpayers may change their minds when they learn the truth about trash.

Madaffer : We're spending 51 million dollars of their hard earned tax dollars to pick up less than 50 percent of the peoples' trash.

The recycling fee issue is planned for the November ballot.

Meanwhile, voters in June could face two ballot initiatives with dueling solutions to the balance of power at city hall: one strengthening the mayoral veto, the other preserving the council's power.

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.