San Diego City Council Balks at Pay Raise Initiatives

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 15, 2008 at 3:32 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego city council members decided not to put an initiative on the ballot this November which would have tied their salary increase to those of State Superior Court Judges. KPBS reporter Alison S

San Diego city council members decided not to put an initiative on the ballot this November which would have tied their salary increase to those of State Superior Court Judges. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diego city council members currently have to vote on their own pay raises, recommended by a Salary Setting Commission. But because of the 2002 vote that led to the billion dollar pension deficit and the city’s fiscal problems, council members have found it politically impossible to accept a pay raise without causing public outrage. The council considered two options to give themselves and the mayor a raise next year and then tie subsequent raises to pay hikes the State Legislature awards Superior Court Judges.

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But when it came time to vote, 6 out of 8 councilmembers said they couldn’t support putting anything on the ballot. Councilwoman Donna Frye voiced one major problem

Frye: Again most unfortunate timing but the fact is its going to be very difficult to talk about on one hand rolling back pension benefits for a group of city employees while at the same increasing the salaries of the elected officials

The council will vote next week on a ballot measure that would reduce guaranteed pension benefits for non public safety city employees, and increase the amount employees have to pay into their own pension fund.

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.