The Sacramento Press has gathered questions from neighborhood activists for Interim City Manager Gus Vina. In an April 9 interview, The Sacramento Press asked Vina to respond to questions from six neighborhood activists.

Here are Vina’s responses to questions from three citizens involved in neighborhood issues. Check The Sacramento Press Wednesday for more of Vina’s responses to neighborhood-related questions.

Question from Sacramento resident Karen Jacques:
What can (Vina) tell us about the ongoing investigation of the Community Development Department? Does he know when that investigation will be complete and how much of it will be made public? (Are there) any other comments he can make about it?

Interim City Manager Gus Vina:
It’s really an audit now, not an investigation. And that audit is being managed by our new city auditor. (City Auditor Jorge Oseguera) [is] in the process of making a final selection on an audit firm. And how long it takes — I don’t know yet ... Whatever comes out of (the audit), obviously we’re going to get right on top of implementing any recommendations that make sense for the city.

Question from an Alkali Flat resident:
I would like to know if (Vina) supports and will help to implement a downtown exclusive franchise for commercial garbage hauling. Supporting such a bid for one hauler downtown will likely result in reduced commercial garbage service rates and provide more efficient service — such as one or two days a week service rather than the current pattern of heavy trucks on our roads five days a week.

GV:
First of all, I’m not going to get ahead of the mayor and council — and it’s really their policy call at the end of the day .... And, the issues we’re trying to solve are not hauling all the way to Nevada ... and all of the green issues that are related to that.

It’s still a little early in the process, and we’ll be going to the council with a recommendation on how can we save money — which translates into better rates for our customers — and it will include a very good discussion on the commercial side of the hauling.

Question from Sacramento resident LaTisha Lawson:
(The) elimination of so many programs and resources (is causing) stress and strain on my Sacramento families. How is the city working with other agencies or encouraging departments to partner to continue to provide needed services?

GV:
Obviously, the entire world is in a huge economic slump. I would say we really need to focus and understand that this is an issue not unique to just Sacramento — this is a global issue. The Sacramento region is suffering considerably — when you look at a 13 percent unemployment rate. So, we’ve got a lot of people out of work. We had one of the worst foreclosure rates in the nation. We’re one of five states that have the biggest budget problems at the state level.

So, we have plenty of challenges here that are going to have an impact on services. And, we will do our best to continue to provide (the) services that we can. But I can guarantee you, it won’t be everything that we’re doing today. We have a budget to balance as well.

In terms of working with other agencies, we are actively working with the county on any consolidations or efficiencies that we can develop by working together. Of course, the focus is to continue to provide services at the best level that we possibly can. But it is important for the community to understand that there will be service-level impacts.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.