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Friday, July 30, 2010
Is the Quickest Way to the Mayor's Office through the Strong Mayor Campaign?
by Evan Hawkins, published on March 17, 2010 at 2:34PM
Storyline: Strong Mayor
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Consider the case of Republican mover-and-shaker Jon Bagatelos of Sacramento, who until recently was relatively unknown at City Hall. Bagatelos, along with his relatives and his family’s commercial glass businesses, has been particularly kind to Kevin Johnson – including sponsoring fundraisers and doling out $15,150 in contributions to his mayoral race. When Johnson launched his strong mayor power grab, the Bagatelos clan once again was generous, handing out $10,550 to the effort in December 2009.
In January 2010 – a month after those strong mayor contributions -- Johnson smiled on Jon Bagatelos and made him a city planning commissioner.
And now Bagatelos is back, part of a development team vying to redevelop K Street. Will Johnson smile on Bagatelos again?
On March 4, the city revealed four teams competing to revamp the blighted 700 and 800 blocks of K Street. Heading Bagatelos’ group is Bridge Housing, an affordable housing firm from San Francisco. (Bridge spokesman Randy Schaber is also a strong mayor donor). Also on the team is Saca Development, unfortunately best known for its failed twin condo tower project on Capitol Mall.
While Bridge and Saca have established development records, Bagatelos’ experience is unclear. Little can be found about his company in public records – he hasn’t even registered the development firm with the Secretary of State’s office.
What is part of the record is Bagatelos’ long-standing activism in Republican politics – starting as an intern for Gov. Pete Wilson. In 2000, Bagatelos was co-chairman of the Sacramento County Bush for President campaign, according to The Sacramento Bee.
In 2002, Bagatelos made a stab at the political limelight, running to represent District 10 for the state Assembly – a sprawling area that includes parts of Lodi, Rancho Cordova, El Dorado and Amador counties. The Bee reported Sacramentan Bagatelos didn’t even live in the district, but rented a friend’s Carmichael apartment to establish residence. He raised lots of money – donors included the likes of tobacco company Phillip Morris -- but he was shellacked by other Republican primary contenders. It’s believed he still has political aspirations.
Even back then, Saca and Bagatelos were linked. Saca contributed to Bagatelos’ campaign, and Bagagelos threw a fundraiser for Gubernatorial-hopeful Bill Simon at Saca’s home.
Somehow, this staunch Republican in 2008 found his way to Kevin Johnson.
During the mayoral campaign Bagatelos and NBA star Charles Barkley threw a swanky fundraiser for Johnson at then-Mason’s restaurant. Bagatelos also was part of a group of local heavyweights who sponsored a Johnson fundraiser at the home of mega-developer Angelo Tsakopoulos.
Bagatelos and developer Mark Friedman are now at the heart of the strong mayor campaign, sources said. Look for the pair to become co-finance chairs for the power grab campaign and step up the pressure on the City Council to place the initiative on the November ballot.
Editor's Note: This story was written on behalf of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County.
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Back to the subject, I am really impressed with your article. Again, thank you.
“Which City Planning Com. Nominee & family contributed the most to both SAG and the council person who nominated them? B) How much collectively did they contribute to both committees? Here’s 2 hints-watch last week’s city council meeting at the end…then pull out those campaign contribution statements-It’s more than $10,000.00...& More than $20,000.00 It could also be a harbinger of this city under the proposed SMI”
I guess others are now asking the same question. BTW that CC meeting was 11/24/09 and the nominations came just before Council Comments & Questions at the end of the meeting.
Thankfully we have a City Clerk’s office, under the authority of City Council, that makes the availability of campaign contribution info a basic principle, unlike our County Sups. In fact SacBee just had an excellent editorial on that very subject.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/10/2595394/supervisors-need-to-join-computer.html
So who were in the pool of candidates that submitted their applications to the city clerk’s office. How do their list of backgrounds and experiences compare?
To see the entire list and their applications, resumes & qualifications- here is the link from the 11/10/2009 City Council Agenda:
http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=22&clip_id=2139&meta_id=187074
How many were involved in developing the GPAC 2030, you know…our new General Plan? Some pretty stellar resumes there…along with a few less so.
Here’s one for Tom Runge, one FPPC watchdog: Tom, you were at the forefront of demanding an FPPC number on the SAVE website, which appeared within 15 days of their qualifying as a committee, unlike SAG which took over a month. So is KevinJohnsonformayor.com subject to your same scrutiny? As of 1:30PM 3-19-10 …it still wasn’t there, 2+years. The website does have a “donate” link attached to it…and I’m not talking "time" donations…you can’t put that on a credit card!
Now we're back to where this story started Campaign Contribution$, Rewards and the $-greening-$ of Sacramento City Hall Access.
You might also find “Bites” interesting in today’s SNR, RE: use of discretionary funds by the Mayor’s office for the "Year 1" pamphlet that had too many campaign literature overtones for Cosmo. I wonder if that pamphlet has the FPPC # on it, since it “contains a prominent link to the website”? Not his official city website...but his campaign committee website.
The mayor's staff initially said there was no problem with using the discretionary funds...
"Well, a couple of days after Bites started asking questions about the booklet, McPeek called back to say that the mayor and his staff had done some thinking, and that Johnson has now decided to pay for the booklet out of his own pocket, “just to be on the safe side.”
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1388221
Ironically, neither Devin nor Evan wrote this article. Sac Press should investigate...
On your previous post didn't you share Mayor Johnson's blog link of "his accomplishments" and haven't you shared information from his blog on this site? So information was on another site who cares I'm glad it found its way here for me to read and learn what's going on. Since it appears you are selective in what information you will share.
To clarify -- this article and any that are published on the website you referenced are researched and written by several folks, including myself, on behalf of the Democratic Party. Evan is the Executive Director for the Party. SacPress requires a specific individual to be named, which is why it says it was written by Evan.
I hope this clarifies the situation. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. We aim to be entirely open and transparent at the Democratic Party.
DPSC took in AT LEAST $5000.00 from Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447 at their most recent fundraiser. You surely remember the Plumbers and Pepefitters and their incredibly racist "No Way KJ" campaign that used the vilest images of a black man as a pimp and slumlord.
"Earlier this year, the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447 launched an independent expenditure campaign that smeared Johnson with glossy mailers and a Web site. "Never before have Sacramento voters seen such a despicable independent expenditure campaign," The Bee said in an editorial at the time."
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/the_swarm/2008/10/pipefitters-create-new-committ.html#ixzz0iUquDvfH
Most people were rightly repulsed at the time. The DPSC, instead of shunning the Plumbers went to them with their hand out. That's not the Democratic Party I'm a member of.
Hm. The only thing on the Bee site that matches that description is a blog post...there doesn't appear to be an editorial to go along with what the Bee purportedly said...so who is the blog poster quoting? A Google search doesn't find any hits either...what editorial does this blog post refer to?
Slumlord
Violating City Codes
Failures to Appear
Allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls
Cover-up?
Federal Investigation
KEVIN JOHNSON - No Answers. No responsibility. No remorse. No way, KJ! Sexual Misconduct - Failure to Appear - Property Citations
Kevin Johnson - The Measure Of A Man Should Be Taken By His Actions, Not By His Words
It's easy to do the right thing when you're an NBA star. It's easy to say the right things when you're running for Mayor. But what matters in a person is what they do when they think no one is watching. What they think they can get away with when no one will find out.
Take the measure of a man in the way he treats his neighbors. In the way he runs his business. Take the measure of a man in the way he takes responsibility for his actions.
KEVIN JOHNSON - No Answers. No responsibility. No remorse. No way, KJ!
Listen to the WIRETAPS KJ in the Headlines Public Docs: Police and Child Abuse Reports
No Way! KJ Authorized and paid for by
Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447 Federal Political Action Fund
a committee independent of any candidate
http://web.archive.org/web/20080609231514/http://www.nowaykj.com/
It does appear Tom is unable to fight/ dispute the contents of this particular article and pulled a race card out his hat in efforts to do damage control and change, redirect, the subject matter. That's sad. And worse, I bet Johnson will condone his behavior
Heck, I'm kind of glad it took this route I learned something from all of this, some, myself included, will avoid, become distracted, overlook... the point - a valued point- you are trying to make, heck even dismiss the valued information you can share if your opponent can find one flaw even if it's an honest mistake..... I also learned we, myself included, are so suspicious now of nearly everyone and everything and in my opinion since Johnson has been in office we just have so little trust and so much suspicion aiming at everyone. Heck, again, I'm glad it went this route--THANKS for the lessons!!
What a farce this mayor is!!! He should be prosecuted and resign in shame!!!
This type of campaigning tactic is pathological and stems from the warped personalities of the candidates, in KJ's case, no doubt guided by the likes of Frank Luntz and that crowd of deformed GOP mobsters that twist language worse than any Orwellian nightmare to suit their aims at cynically fooling the voters and playing passive/aggressive with issues like the race card...
But, there's a special place in Hell for such people, witness the late Lee Atwater, who confessed his campaign dirty tricks and sins just before he died of a brain tumor that had distorted his cranium and facial features to the point of being unrecognizable from when he managed GHWBush's campaigns of the late 80's and early 90's...
I truly believe that people who seek goals by doing harm have a considerable karmic (if not legal) debt to answer for, and KJ and his ilk of urchins are among them...
Btw, Rhonda, I hope all is well with your family -- I am far too controlling and impatient to ever have children, but I can imagine the angst and worry a parent sustains should their kids find themselves in harm's way... Take care.....
Thanks bbbbmer. My son is doing a little better. My brother came by to spend time with him today. This is the first friend he has lost and I hope it will be the last premature death he will know. I went through this with my older son and I don't want to do this again. But it is what it is from pain comes strength and without pain we wouldn't have a warning that something is terribly wrong and action has to be taken. Heck, the pain is merely the symptom the disease has to be tackled. So we must work through the pain.
Ah, I can't believe you are far too controlling or impatient to ever have children- lol . I have an aunt who couldn't have children and she's the best aunt always extending her heart to others heck she doesn't have that much patience either- lol but she's a good person. Some people have kids and aren't the best parents some don't have kids and are always there for others. Thanks for being here for me and those like myself. Heck, I've been told I'm controlling and impatient at times too. Only recently have I learned patience is a virtue--lol but there are times I still get ants in my pants. lol Have a great evening.