Politics

City Ethics Commission Hearing On Emerald Violation Postponed

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published February 25, 2010 at 12:21 PM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Press photo of Councilwoman Marti Emerald.

A hearing before San Diego City’s Ethics Commission today was postponed after Councilwoman Marti Emerald’s attorney challenged one of the commissioners.

A show down of sorts is in the cards. The Ethics Commission alleges Emerald failed to report campaign debts in a timely fashion. They have proposed fining her $10,000.

Emerald does not dispute the finding, but her attorney Bob Ottilie is challenging the Ethics Commission staff.

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“I am a strong supporter of the Ethics Commission,” Ottilie said after this morning’s hearing was postponed. “I was when it was founded; I’m still supportive of the Ethics Commission. This has nothing to do with the Ethics Commission, it has to do with their staff, which is, to a certain extent, out of control and unsupervised.”

Ottilie says the staff refused to sit down and negotiate a more reasonable settlement. He believes that was in retaliation against him because he spoke out against a proposal to give the Ethics Commission subpoena powers.

Ottilie asked one of the commissioners, Gil Cabrera, to be removed which means the full commission must now vote on a new panel to hold a hearing on Emerald’s violation at a later date.

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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.