KPBS Midday Edition

Roundtable: Troubles For Pension Reform, Food Stamps, Homeless Students

By Maureen Cavanaugh / KPBS Midday Edition Co-Host, Joanne Faryon / Investigative Reporter, Claire Trageser / Public Matters Editor, Pat Finn / Producer

Published February 17, 2012 at 7:59 AM PST

This story was published more than 12 years ago.

Dave Rolland, Editor of San Diego CityBeat, on Food Stamps

Roundtable: Pension reform, food stamps, educating homeless students

Guests: Katie Orr, KPBS News metro reporter David Rolland, editor, San Diego CityBeatKyla Calvert, KPBS News education reporter

San Diego County has long ranked at the bottom nationally in the percentage of eligible people who are actually enrolled in a food stamp program.

In 2003, the county was dead last of 22 metropolitan areas with just 26 percent of those eligible receiving food aid.

A new county phone hotline was supposed to make participation easier, but it drops five of every six calls.

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This week, San Diego CityBeat’s cover story focused on the “seemingly unending problems with San Diego County’s food stamps program.”

Dave Rolland, editor of CityBeat, spoke with KPBS Television’s “Evening Edition” about the story, which was written by the paper’s associate editor, Kelly Davis.

“We’ve known for about eight years that San Diego County has really just been hideously bad at enrollment rates,” Rolland said. “We’re not talking just bad, I mean, bottom of the barrel bad.”

Rolland said the county has worked to improve its enrollment since then, and has made some progress in boosting enrollment rates.

In 2009—the most recent data available—the county’s enrollment rate was about 40 percent, an improvement from the 26 percent in 2003, but still less than most major metropolitan areas.

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“Really at this point (the county) is just trying to catch up with the recession and the recession’s effect on people in need,” Rolland said. “It still has a long way to go to catch up to areas in terms of enrolling people who need help.”

Although county health officials commissioned a report on the food stamp program last year, Davis’ story says food stamp advocates have been telling the county about problems with the program for much longer.

“They have been telling the county about these problems for years, that they didn’t really need this consulting firm to come and lay out these problems because they’ve known about them for a long time,” Rolland said.

Part of the problem, Rolland said, is that the county’s method for detecting fraud in its food stamp program might be too stringent.

Davis’ story cites advocates working with food stamp applicants who said the county stops or denies benefits at a rate that “has consistently been one of the highest in the state.”

“Last year, roughly one of every five requests for new or renewed benefits was denied in error, according to data maintained by the state,” Davis writes.

Rolland said the county supervisors are overly worried about fraud, which means they deny applicants when they shouldn’t.

“They’re worried about fraud and we know fraud is really a minor problem,” Rolland said. “I believe, and I think a lot of the advocates believe, that the response to the fraud danger has been disproportionate to what that danger was in the first place.”

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KPBS Midday Edition Regional Governments

Maureen Cavanaugh

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Maureen Cavanaugh has been a familiar voice for KPBS listeners for more than 15 years, serving in a variety of capacities including announcer, host, and producer. As host of KPBS Midday Edition, Maureen has interviewed a wide range of notables, such as comedienne Sandra Bernhardt, actor John Lequizamo, author Chuck Palahniuk, composer Marvin Hamlisch, artist Robert Irwin, and designer Zandra Rhodes. But of all the interviews Maureen has conducted, her most special was with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Before joining KPBS in 1997, she worked as a news anchor for KSDO and KOGO News Radio in San Diego. While working for commercial radio stations in San Diego and in Salt Lake City, Utah, Maureen reported on both hard news and lifestyle features. Maureen has received three "Golden Mike" awards from the Radio and TV News Association of Southern California for economic reporting and breaking news. She has also received a "Best of Show" and “Best Radio Newscast” awards from the San Diego Press Club and the "Flo" Award from Public Radio Program Directors Association for Best Public Radio Announcer in a large market. Maureen is a native of Queens, New York, but after more than 20 years in San Diego she feels she qualifies as a real Southern Californian.

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Joanne Faryon

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As an investigative reporter, Joanne Faryon worked with the team of journalists at inewsource, a nonprofit journalism enterprise embedded in the KPBS newsroom. Faryon has more than 20 years of experience as a journalist, working in a print, radio and TV. She previously worked in Canada and the U.S., specializing in investigative reporting. During her time at KPBS, Faryon served as reporter, host, and producer for both TV and radio. Among her many stories and investigations is the 2010 look into the effectiveness of the Whooping Cough vaccine. The series of in-depth features lead the Centers for Disease Control re-examine their reporting and change their guidelines. Faryon’s work has been honored by the USC's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism with the Walter Cronkite Award for political journalism. The prestigious honor was for the Envision special, “Who’s Supervising San Diego?” – an in-depth look at the County’s Board of Supervisors. Faryon has also received an honorable mention from the National Press Foundation in 2010 for an in-depth look at the state's prison system as part of the Envision series. In addition, Faryon has earned two regional Emmys and several awards from the San Diego Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists. Her Canadian honors include a Manitoba Human Rights award for meritorious service for her investigative work on the Ku Klux Klan and right-wing extremism in Canada. Joanne has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Winnipeg and a creative communications diploma from Red River College.

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Claire Trageser

Claire leads the KPBS Public Matters initiative, a content hub that will provide news stories on politics and governance; facilitated, in-person discussions around important issues that often divide us; and helpful resources and explainers to ensure all San Diegans understand and act upon their opportunity to participate in the democratic process. Claire leads the KPBS initiative and its partnerships with news organizations Voice of San Diego and inewsource.

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What is a story that is going on in San Diego that people should know about?

Pat Finn

Pat Finn previously served as a producer for KPBS Midday Edition and KPBS Evening Edition. Finn began her career in broadcasting at KTLA and KCET in Los Angeles. In 1979 she became KPBS’ Public Information Director, then Director of Advertising and Promotion, Program Director, and Director of Broadcasting. She oversaw the station’s local and national productions, including the one-hour documentary Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the Guitar, and Child Protective Services, a one-hour look inside the San Diego County agency responsible for the welfare of at risk children. Both programs also aired on public television stations nationwide. Finn has earned honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

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