Tag Cloud
Friday, February 10, 2012
Council to define independent budget analyst job
by Kathleen Haley, published on February 2, 2010 at 10:39 PM
Storyline: Sacramento City Hall / Politics
Loading images
While the strong mayor initiative is in the midst of a court battle, a second measure from the group that wrote the strong mayor proposal is much less controversial.
At its Tuesday meeting, the City Council supported a proposal to create an independent budget analyst’s office.
Councilman Steve Cohn said he thinks the council members “all agree there’s a need” for an independent budget analyst.
The budget analyst proposal is separate from the strong mayor initiative, but both plans were written by the Sacramentans for Accountable Government (SAG) group.
Council members asked staff to bring back a resolution so the council could vote to put the measure on the June ballot.
The council also wants to weigh in on the details of the office’s budget and staffing.
So, council members decided to simultaneously prepare SAG’s proposal for the ballot and to discuss the kind of budget analyst’s office they want to create. This means two separate plans could emerge: the SAG proposal and a possible City Council plan that could be crafted later this month.
The council was mandated to approve the SAG proposal as an ordinance or put it on the ballot, according to a report prepared by Matthew Ruyak in the city attorney’s office. That’s because the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters certified signatures from residents who backed the proposal, and the City Council signed off on registrar’s certification, according to the report.
Residents signed petitions to put both the strong mayor initiative and the independent budget analyst’s office on an upcoming ballot.
In the strong mayor form of government outlined in the initiative, Sacramento’s mayor would have many additional responsibilities. The mayor would assume the duties of the city manager and create the city budget.
Thomas Hiltachk, who wrote the strong mayor initiative, is appealing a recent Sacramento Superior Court decision that said the initiative broke state law and could not go on the June ballot. The case is at the 3rd District Court of Appeal.
Photo by Anthony Bento.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
Conversation Express your views,
debate, and be heard with those in your area closest
to the issue.
Leave a Comment
In the end we're going to have checkers checking the checked with far too many layers of unnecessary and mind-numbing redundant oversight... at a time when this city can ill-afford to do so, for merely the ego of a profoundly unfit mayor...
KJ ran his own organizations into the ground -- and now he's doing to this city what he did for his own firms and nonprofits...
If there is any justice, he needs to be recalled....