Residents and members of a city committee discussed on Wednesday night issues relating to the “strong mayor” initiative, including a statistic which says that a Sacramento strong mayor would have the power to hire a total of 800 city employees.

The city’s Charter Review Committee, which has tentatively recommended that the city maintain its existing City Council/city manager system, held the first of nine town hall meetings with 18 residents at the Natomas High School lunch room. The committee is accepting feedback from the public on its draft report. A separate strong mayor initiative -- which clashes with the charter committee’s draft recommendations -- will go before voters in June 2010.

A handout from the committee that was passed out to residents at the meeting says that the strong mayor initiative would give the mayor the power to hire about 800 non-union city employees.

Cecily Hastings, a member of the charter committee, discussed the issue with residents. “Under the strong mayor initiative — and this is a very controversial part of it — the mayor hires and fires those 800 people directly.”

The city currently has fewer than 800 non-union employees because of vacant positions and layoffs, Hastings said. However, the city could have 800 non-union employees if it is fully-staffed, she added.

Summarizing the committee’s view, she said that firing and hiring of these positions by the mayor would politicize the city staff “far too much.”

The city manager is responsible for hiring and firing non-union staff in the existing system. The committee is recommending in its draft report that the city manager maintain this duty.

Felicia Townsend, a resident who attended the meeting, told Hastings that if the mayor were in charge of hiring and firing the 800 people instead of the city manager, it would still be “just one person who has control over all those people.”

The committee felt that the mayor is a “political” job, while the city manager is a “professional” job, Hastings said, responding to Townsend.

Townsend said after the meeting that she is leaning toward supporting the strong mayor initiative. She said she attended the charter committee’s meeting because she wanted to hear the committee’s views.

The meeting also attracted supporters of the charter committee’s ideas. Brandon Ruiz, a volunteer with Support Accountability, Voice and Ethics in Sacramento, passed out print-outs opposing the strong mayor initiative. He also asked residents in attendance to sign petitions against the initiative after the meeting. The group is taking signatures on petitions in an effort to gather information and raise awareness of SAVE, he said.

Read this Sept. 21 story for the times, dates and locations of the charter committee's remaining town hall meetings.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.