Sacramento City Government/Politics

Full time City Council? Members weigh in on idea

2009-11-20T06:22:27Z

Two members like the idea. Two are opposed. A fifth thinks it’s not a high priority.

These five members of the Sacramento City Council gave their views Thursday on a recommendation from an advisory group to make the council positions full time. The City Council has nine members because it includes the mayor. Currently, eight City Council positions are part time, while the mayor serves full time.

Councilmembers earn $52,000 per year.

The full-time recommendation comes from the city’s Charter Review Committee. Councilwoman Lauren Hammond asked the committee to study the topic.

Council positions are “full-time work,” Hammond said. Sacramento has become a big city and councilmembers should be able to concentrate full-time on their their jobs, she noted.

And it’s difficult “to go back and forth from one job to the other,” she said.

Hammond’s sole job now is councilmember. She worked for more than two decades as a telecommunications contract administrator for the state Senate.

Hammond said she doesn’t think the idea should be put into effect now because a salary adjustment would be involved.

“I think when the economy gets better -- I think that would be a better time to discuss it,” Hammond said.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell also favors the idea, echoing Hammond’s comments that Sacramento’s growth makes being a councilmember a more difficult job. “Several of us already work more than forty hours a week,” she said. Pannell’s sole employment is with the City Council.

Councilmembers Rob Fong and Steve Cohn are opposed to the full-time councilmember idea. “I think for someone like myself, it’s certainly important to be able to have another career,” Fong said. “It’s tough to raise a family on a councilman’s salary.”

He noted, though, that the committee recommends that full-time councilmembers could have outside incomes.

Fong works as a consultant for clients that include the California Democratic Party.

Cohn said he thought it was unnecessary to make the post a full-time job. He said he doesn’t see why there would be a need to “preclude people from having outside interests.” Cohn is an attorney for the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District. In response to a question he said he is SMUD’s “No. 2” attorney.

Councilman Ray Tretheway said the committee’s idea of a full-time City Council is a second-tier issue following other pressing key issues such as the city’s governance structure. He is the executive director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City's economic development director leaves position

2009-08-14T21:51:41Z

The city’s economic development director worked his last day in his position Friday. David Spaur told The Sacramento Press that he was being laid off as a cost-saving measure.

Assistant City Manager John Dangberg will be the interim economic development director, Spaur said. “By cutting my position and John assuming that role, it will save the city some money,” Spaur said.

Spaur has worked at the city for two-and-a-half years. He said he completed the organization and growth of the city’s Economic Development Department and its strategic plan.

The department just cut $500,000 from its budget for the 2009/2010 fiscal year, he said. “People didn’t believe our budget was tight,” he noted.

Other cities in Arizona, Washington, Oregon and Southern California are combining their building, planning and economic development departments to save money, he said.

Spaur said he is now looking for a new position and hopes to stay in Sacramento, where his family lives.

Dangberg, who was out-of-the-office Friday for a furlough day, was not immediately available by e-mail.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Vina to be interim city manager for 9-to-12 months

2010-03-10T23:40:43Z

Gus Vina, already serving as acting city manager, has been selected to be the interim city manager for the following nine-to-12 months.

City Manager Ray Kerridge resigned last month and will leave his post Friday. Kerridge has said he’s taking a private sector position, but has not yet announced where that position will be.

Mayor Kevin Johnson and several council members held a press conference Wednesday to announce Vina’s new position.

“And I think it’s very clear to all of us that (Kerridge) has very big shoes that we need to fill,” Johnson said. “And we feel that we found the right person to fill his shoes in a very short timeframe.”

Johnson and the council members unanimously chose Vina. They also interviewed Assistant City Managers John Dangberg and Cassandra Jennings.

Johnson explained that the City Council will hold a private meeting Tuesday to formally complete Vina’s new contract. The City Council wanted Vina to serve as interim city manager for nine to 12 months, Johnson said.

Vina previously held one of three assistant city manager positions. He supervised the police, fire, finance, human resources and labor relations departments, among others. He is also a former budget manager for the city.

Vina earned his master’s degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State University, Sacramento.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said Vina “is motivated for the city.” She added that he works well with neighborhoods, business and labor.

“We have challenges,” Vina said at the press conference, “but those challenges are opportunities.”

Johnson said that he and the council members were looking for many attributes in an interim city manager including expertise in local government issues, budget matters and labor relations.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Veteran politicos debate strong mayor initiative

2009-12-23T03:37:42Z

When a group of opponents to the “strong mayor” initiative talked to reporters earlier this month, a spontaneous debate over the initiative took place between two local veteran politicos.

Steve Maviglio, public affairs consultant and Mayor Kevin Johnson’s unpaid spokesman, sparred with Phil Giarrizzo, a political consultant who is working for the camp that opposes the strong mayor initiative.

Johnson, who leads the campaign for the initiative, would attain new powers if it passes. He would assume the duties of the city manager and create the city’s budget, among other responsibilities. Johnson's campaign says that more than 50,000 people signed petitions to put the initiative on the ballot.

The Sacramento County Registrar of Voters has confirmed that the initiative received the required 32,433 signatures.

The initiative goes to the polls June 8.

The group that Giarrizzo represents is Support Accountability, Voice & Ethics in Sacramento (SAVE Sacramento), which opposes the initiative and backs a lawsuit that was filed against it on Dec. 1 in Sacramento County Superior Court.

Bill Camp, executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, is the plaintiff who is suing the city government, the City Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative. Camp does not represent the labor council in the lawsuit; he filed it as a private individual.

Camp argues in his lawsuit that the initiative breaks state law because it would cause changes to the city’s charter, which is the city’s version of a constitution. While an initiative can be used to amend a city charter, it can’t be used to make major changes, Camp contends.

The city’s current system includes a powerful city manager. Hiring department directors and drafting recommendations for the city’s budget are two of City Manager Ray Kerridge’s many responsibilities.

Maviglio and Giarrizzo hashed it out after SAVE Sacramento's Dec. 1 press conference, which aimed to draw attention to Camp's lawsuit.

Steve Maviglio (reacting to criticism from opponents that the initiative was written by a “lawyer in a room”): An initiative by its nature is written by a lawyer in a room. We had more than 50,000 people sign it. I can’t imagine more public participation. The charter committee that [opponents of the strong mayor initiative] defend had about 250 people in about 10 rooms over the series of a few months. That’s not my idea of public participation. When people want something on the ballot, then they deserve the right to do it. And special interests shouldn’t charge taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars because they don’t want to see it on the ballot. It deserves to be on the ballot and the people have the right to be heard.

Phil Giarrizzo: And any reaction to the tens of thousands of dollars you’re spending on running a campaign [and] paying lawyers to draft initiatives? Yet, you criticize other people who disagree with your position ... The lawsuit is only one part of the campaign. Whether or not the courts find it technically appropriate to take the measure off the ballot is one part. The other part is: If it does go to the ballot, the people of Sacramento are going to vote this measure down because it’s not necessary, it does give more power to any mayor and there [are] no checks and balances. It’s an unnecessary measure at a time when the city should be focusing on jobs, helping to revitalize schools and focused on the task at hand. This is not a way that you run government.

Maviglio: I find it particularly amusing that [democrats] like Phil Giarrizzo, who’ve worked for good democratic mayors like Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown, Antonio Villaraigosa — all of who’ve worked in a strong mayor system — have an objection to this [strong mayor proposal] by our democratic mayor here.

Giarrizzo: There is no comparison. There is no comparison in those cities. And when you ... bandy about those names, you have to look at the structures of government in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and there’s no comparison to how the cities are run.

Maviglio: I think that’s the difference here. They don’t want to have [a] debate; the mayor wants to have that debate over the charter. He wants the people involved — not a few hand-selected politicos and inside hacks that had a meeting.

Giarrizzo: Oh, he must be talking about the people who wrote his measure.

Maviglio: Well, I guess you’re never going to vote for an initiative again, Phil? Is that true? Are you never going to vote for an initiative again?

Giarrizzo: You know what, there could be a time, yes...

Maviglio: You can’t really use that argument if you’re getting paid for people to work for initiatives ...

Giarrizzo: We believe differently that ...

Maviglio: We believe there should be things on the ballot — you apparently don’t. And you’re willing to charge the taxpayers of Sacramento to prevent [from] doing that.

Giarrizzo: No, we’re not charging the taxpayers.

Maviglio: You are — you filed the suit.

Giarrizzo: You’ve just moved the debate.

Maviglio: You filed the suit.

Giarrizzo: The issue here is: Should there be a debate by the way you and your advisers constructed this measure with no public opinion, misstating the intent of the [California] Constitution. That’s what the court will decide.

Maviglio: Well, the 50,000 people ... who signed the petitions ...

Giarrizzo: ... I know that when you go to the ballot box, you’ll have had a change of heart and seen the light. And you’ll be saving Sacramento with the rest of us over here.

Maviglio: I look forward to that day (laughs).

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Nestlé can legally set up bottling plant, city attorney says

2009-10-28T05:35:56Z

Nestlé has a green light in Sacramento, according to the city attorney’s office.

The Nestlé company’s work to set up a water bottling plant in Sacramento is allowed under the city’s existing laws, City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office said Tuesday.

It was clear at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the City Council and city staff are on-board with the Nestlé company’s plans to bottle and sell tens of millions of gallons of Sacramento’s water.

The city had placed a stop-work order on Friday at the plant on Nestlé intends to use for its operations. The city said it wanted to verify whether Nestlé had broken any of the city’s permitting and building laws. In turn, Nestle had said the city’s decision to release a stop-work order may have been illegal.

The stop-work order will now be removed. Some of the work that was being carried out at the site can continue as soon as tomorrow, according to Acting Community Development Director David Kwong. He said the company must still follow a process and timeline with the city to start work on other tasks to retrofit the plant, which is located at 8670 Younger Creek Drive.

The city is stopping the Facilities Permit Program that Nestlé was accepted under. City staff officials told the City Council Tuesday that the permitting program is not up to date with city building codes. Councilman Kevin McCarty indicated in a phone interview after the meeting that there may be significant problems with the program, calling it a "can of worms that's being opened."

During the meeting, Shaina Meiners of Sacramento spoke against Nestlé’s water bottling business. “I am aghast that Nestlé can come in, in this very secretive way,” Meiners said.

Matt Mahood of the Sacramento Metro Chamber was in favor of Nestle’s plant. He noted that the unemployment rate in Sacramento is approaching 12 percent. Rules cannot be changed on companies mid-stream, he said.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell said staff did not inform the City Council about early developments with Nestle’s plans to build in Sacramento. She asked, “Why weren’t we briefed?”

The discussion at the City Council meeting changed in light of Teichert’s analysis that Nestlé did not break laws. Councilman Kevin McCarty had proposed an interim urgency ordinance to mandate special permits for beverage bottling plants in the city. The ordinance would enable the Planning Commission or City Council to examine plans to expand or build beverage bottling plants. Nestle’s plans were not considered by the Planning Commission or the City Council; the city’s current rules did not require Nestle to go through that step.

McCarty’s proposal no longer applied to Nestlé after Teichert’s legal opinion.

However, McCarty’s proposal is not dead. Instead, it will consider future water bottling plants. The proposal will be moved to the city’s Law and Legislation Committee.

Along with McCarty’s proposal, the council decided it also wanted Law and Legislation to examine the issue of tiered water rates.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

A road map to the strong mayor debate

2010-01-22T05:38:44Z

Developments affecting Mayor Kevin Johnson’s strong mayor initiative have been highly controversial and complex.

Several entities have weighed in on the initiative, including the Sacramento City Council, the Sacramento County Superior Court and the Sacramento Charter Review Committee. Government officials, attorneys and citizens have interpreted the initiative in a variety of ways.

Here’s a road map to make sense of some of the key events in the strong mayor debate:

Johnson’s Day One Plan: Before taking office, Johnson promotes a strong mayor form of government in his “Day One” plan. An executive mayor system would mean that one leader would be accountable, Johnson says.

“Explore a change to the city charter moving to a strong mayor structure,” the plan states. “We need a single point of accountability in our city and to know where the buck stops. We should engage in a dialogue to determine if we can improve our city government through a different governance structure.”

February 2009: The City Council unanimously forms the charter review committee. Johnson votes in favor of the committee. Council members direct the committee to examine the strong mayor format.

May 18, 2009: The Charter Review Committee talks to academics about strong mayor government systems.

June 26, 2009: Sacramentans for Accountable Government (SAG), the group running the strong mayor campaign, brings to City Hall signatures from residents who favor the initiative. Acting city spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson says the papers with the signatures filled 13 boxes.

Aug. 6, 2009: The City Council decides in a 5-4 vote to put the strong mayor initiative on the June 2010 ballot. Council members Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty and Bonnie Pannell vote against placing it on the June 8 ballot. Before the City Council made this decision, the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters had declared that SAG received the required number of signatures (32,433) to place the initiative on the ballot.

Sept. 3, 2009: The Charter Review Committee favors the idea to allow the Sacramento mayor to appoint the city manager.

Oct. 19, 2009: The Charter Review Committee recommends that the City Council maintain its existing council/manager system. The committee opposes the idea of a strong mayor government for Sacramento. However, the committee recommends altering the current system to give the mayor the power to appoint the city manager. In the city’s council/manager system, the city manager is appointed by the City Council.

Dec. 1, 2009: Bill Camp files a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court challenging the strong mayor initiative. Defendants in the case are the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative. Camp contends in his lawsuit that the initiative breaks state law because it would create major changes to the city’s charter. He argues that that an initiative can amend, but not change, a city charter.

Jan. 14, 2010: Mayor Kevin Johnson reacts to Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster’s initial decision that the initiative should not go on the June ballot. “Voters deserve and have a right to vote on this initiative,” Johnson says.

Jan. 21, 2010: McMaster issues a final ruling saying the initiative should not be placed on the June ballot. He writes that the initiative would not align with state law. He determines that the initiative is a revision of the city charter, not an amendment.

Jan. 21, 2010: Thomas Hiltachk says SAG will appeal McMaster’s ruling to the 3rd District Court of Appeal.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Cohn, Hammond, Fong say they didn't know about permit program

2009-11-12T04:53:10Z

Some members of the City Council said Wednesday they were unaware of the permitting program that played a key role in the recent controversy over the Nestlé company’s efforts to set up a water bottling plant in Sacramento.

The city closed down its Facilities Permit Program Oct. 27 during the public debate over Nestlé’s plans. Nestlé’s project was greenlighted through the FPP.

With the FPP, businesses that work with the city on an ongoing basis can receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, said David Kwong, the city’s planning division director.

In the case of Nestlé, the company and its contractors received verbal approval from the city to start construction work. But the company and its contractors did not have a city building permit or “start-work authorization.”

Nestlé has said it followed city laws.

The city attorney’s office recently declared that it is illegal for the city to approve the start of construction for projects that do not have building permits, Kwong said.

Now, Kwong plans to ask the City Council to weigh in on the FPP program. Kwong said city staff will ask the council to let businesses begin work on their FPP construction projects before they receive building permits. However, businesses would need to obtain a written start-work order from the city before they begin work, he said.

He expects to bring the issue to the council in a few weeks.

When city staffers approach the City Council, they will be addressing at least three members who told The Sacramento Press they did not know about the FPP before the Nestlé controversy.

“I definitely am looking forward to this coming back to council,” Councilman Rob Fong said Wednesday. “We’ve not been briefed on this. We didn’t know there was such a program.”

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond had a similar comment. “I knew nothing about it,” she said.

Councilman Steve Cohn said that while he didn’t know about the FPP specifically, he knew the city was taking actions to streamline the building permit process.

While Hammond said she “wasn’t happy” that she was not informed about the FPP, she said she does not believe the mayor and City Council need to know about “every single thing” the city does. She suggested that it would be impossible for the city’s elected officials to know about every item in the municipal government, asking: “How could we possibly [know everything the city government does]?”

She noted that the city has monetary thresholds. If a program exceeds $100,000, it needs to come before the City Council, she said.

Mayor Kevin Johnson said earlier this week that the results of the audit of the Community Development Department will be key to his views of the FPP. Johnson, who said the FPP program has been effective, has talked about resuming it, with possible changes.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council debates audit proposal

2009-07-15T05:29:23Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson’s proposal to hire an independent company to audit city departments was hotly debated but not resolved by the City Council Tuesday. Johnson has repeatedly said that the City Council in January should have hired an independent firm to audit city departments.

The dispute that emerged Tuesday between Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilman Rob Fong over a new independent audit comes as the city projects future deficits. When the city balanced its budget last month, it closed out a $50 million deficit. However, Finance Director Leyne Milstein estimates that the city will need to address a $30 million deficit in the 2010/2011 fiscal year.

Fong and Johnson sparred over the issue of hiring an independent audit. Johnson expressed frustration with the City Council, saying it was not addressing the city’s need for an independent audit in light of the city’s budget problems, Johnson said. “This represents more of the same, business as usual,” he said.

Fong criticized the proposal for an independent audit, saying the proposal from city staff was generic. He said it was still unclear what the City Council was looking for in an independent audit.

The city has an internal auditor position, but the position is currently unfilled. The city’s former auditor, Marty Kolkin, accepted a job in Santa Monica in May.

Last month, the City Council voted to place the auditor’s office under the council’s supervision. This means that the auditor will no longer report to the city manager’s office.

A report by city staffers further points out that the city’s financial statements are audited by an independent certified public accounting firm each year.

*Photo by Cheya Cary

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Hall leaks: What is 'confidential' information?

2010-02-04T06:41:00Z

The Sacramento City Council is eyeing a proposed rule stating that city employees could be fired for leaking confidential information. What are city officials considering 'confidential' information? And what do the definitions mean?

City Attorney Eileen Teichert has drafted language for the proposed rule. The City Council postponed a decision on the proposed rule Tuesday but is expected to take up the issue again at an upcoming meeting.

Leaked information from City Hall has become big news lately. In October, the Sacramento Bee used a leaked memo to report that the Community Development Department's approval of 35 building permits in Natomas may have broken federal rules. The offices of the city attorney and city manager note in a recent report that the department broke rules set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Teichert’s proposal on leaks responds to a request from Councilman Robbie Waters. He had asked Teichert at the Jan. 25 City Council meeting to provide a legal definition for the term “confidentiality.” He said he wanted to see definitions for confidentiality that cover the term on moral and “punitive” level

Teichert defined “confidential information” in two ways in a Feb. 2 report. She wrote that information from closed sessions, in which legal matters are often discussed, are confidential. Information from Teichert is also confidential, the report states. Confidential information includes “oral or written communications by or from the city attorney, containing the city attorney’s legal opinions, advice, thoughts, mental impressions or conclusions that are given on behalf of the city,” the report states.

She noted there are types of information that don't fall under “confidential information.” This applies to information that is “required by law to be reported out of closed session; authorized by the City Council to be disclosed; or otherwise authorized to be disclosed under the law.”

Teichert's proposal states that an “employee disclosing or causing to be disclosed confidential information to any unauthorized person may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

Holly Heyser, a journalist and the faculty advisor of Sacramento State University’s student newspaper, said that when laws are in place to define specific types of information as “confidential,” the argument for the public’s right to learn about the information falls flat.

“If the law authorizes the city to keep certain kinds of information confidential in the first place, then the battle for the public’s right to know has already been lost with respect to that information,” Heyser said in an e-mail Wednesday. “For the city to say there are consequences for employees who leak such information is just an extension of current law.”

However, Heyser noted that people can clash in their views of which kinds of information should be public.

“Where you have the potential for problems is in cases of disagreement over whether certain pieces of information actually can be (or should be) withheld from the public – and that is, of course, what usually impels some employees to leak information,” she wrote.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy has opposed the idea of a rule stating that an employee could be fired for leaking information. She said it would have a “chilling effect” on whistleblowers.

Read the Feb. 2 report on the proposed rule here.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council 2010: How to follow the money

2009-11-06T04:53:29Z

It’s election season in Sacramento — do you know how to follow the money in the 2010 City Council campaigns? You can get the scoop on campaign contributions through the city of Sacramento’s Online Campaign Statement System.

The system, which is free and open to the public, provides information on contributions to City Council candidates.

Assistant City Clerk Stephanie Mizuno gave tips Thursday on navigating the online system.

In the past, Mizuno said, the public would have to appear in person to request campaign information. “In this case, you can do it at home, at your computer.”

There is a link to the online system at the city clerk’s website under the heading “Elections & Campaigns.” Click on the link titled “Online Campaign Statement System.”

That goes to a page with the following heading: “Welcome to the City of Sacramento Electronic Filing System.” Here, is the “Public Access Portal.”

Click on the “Get Started Now” link at the Public Access Portal.

This will take you to a page with a heading that reads: “Welcome to the City of Sacramento Public Portal for Campaign Finance Disclosure.”At the bottom of this page is a heading titled “Browse Candidates & Measures by Election.”

To learn about campaign contributions for the June 8, 2010 election, click on the plus sign for the heading titled “06/08/2010 Primary Election.” Then, click on the plus sign next to the heading titled “Candidates.” You can now click on plus signs for the four City Council districts.

You’ll see the following candidates for City Council District 1: Angelique Ashby, Lisa Kaplan and Ray Tretheway. The candidates under the “City Council D3” heading are Steve Cohn and Shawn Eldredge.

City Council District District 5 shows seven candidates: Kasey Cotulla, Lauren Hammond, Henry Harry, Terrence Johnson, Patrick Kennedy, Jameel Pugh and Jay Schenirer.

The four candidates listed under the heading for City Council District 7 are Ryan Chin, Darrell Fong, John Puente and Robbie Waters.

You can click on the names of each candidate to learn about their campaign contributions.

For example, if you click on "Angelique Ashby," you’ll arrive at a page that shows the forms Ashby has filed. Ashby is a partner in a consulting firm that contracts with government agencies and businesses.

Click on the word “View” for Ashby’s Form 460. You’ll be taken to a 10-page PDF document that lists her contributors and the amounts they gave. For example, you can read that retired Davis resident Patricia Grafton contributed $1,500 to Ashby’s campaign.

The 460 forms “are the ones you want to watch for,” Mizuno said. “Those are the ones that have detail in them.”

Other critical information on Form 460 includes the candidate’s contributions, expenditures, current cash statement, cash equivalents and debts. For example, Ashby received $10,274 in contributions from Jan. 1 to June 30. Her ending cash balance for that period was $9,220.26.

Five of the candidates don’t have 460 forms in the online system. Mizuno explained that those candidates opened their campaign committee after July 1, which means their deadline for the 460 forms is Jan. 31. Look for 460 forms in January from Darrell Fong, Jameel Pugh, Steve Cohn, Shawn Eldredge and Henry Harry.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council likes idea of Capitol Mall makeover

2009-11-11T06:41:58Z

The idea is non-controversial among members of the City Council: They all support the concept of a makeover for Capitol Mall.

And, they all like the idea of the city hosting a design competition for a remodel of the Mall from the riverfront to 9th Street.

The City Council gave its unanimous support to the fledgling plan, which was presented by Beth Tincher of the Economic Development Department Tuesday night. The details of the design competition would be crafted by city staff, the American Institute of Architects and stakeholders, according to a Nov. 10 city staff report.

Councilman Steve Cohn said he and council colleague Ray Tretheway have been working on the plan for a future revamping of Capitol Mall.

“But the whole idea would be to add value to Capitol Mall so that some of the stakeholders could chip in with whatever these streetscape costs might be,” Cohn said. “And I think it’s something that’s really going to tie in well with what we’re trying to do on the waterfront, with the Crocker [Museum], with K Street and with the Railyards.”

Details on funding for the project have not been decided. However, the Nov. 10 report notes that the city and the architects’ institute want to “solicit contributions to conduct the design competition and for the preparation of the Capitol Mall Plan and specific project design. Staff will report back to City Council if any city funds are requested.”

A working group of stakeholders suggested ideas for the remodel, such as setting up "iconic" art installations and creating additional public space, according to the report.

John Packowski, a Sacramento marketing and architectural design professional, urged the council to move ahead with the plan, despite the poor economy.

“There [are] going to be a lot of people that think we’re completely insane doing this with the current budget crisis that we have,” Packowski said. “But projects like this take time; they take a lot of energy ... but this is your chance to really get onto something that the public can latch onto and build something for generations to come.”

Read the report on the plan here.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Enters Debate Over Federal Labor Bill

2009-04-08T02:43:25Z

By Kathleen Haley

A controversial federal bill that would change the way employees join unions won the support of three Sacramento City Council members Tuesday.

Sacramento’s law and legislation committee -- made up of four city council members -- backed the federal bill known as the Employee Free Choice Act.

The legislation would give employees “more freedom,” said Councilman Steve Cohn, a member of the committee.

Sacramento “should be on board supporting it,” Cohn said.

The EFCA would revamp current procedures for joining labor unions. Supporters argue that the bill bolsters employee protections in disputes and gives employees the ability to unionize through a method of signing cards.

Opponents, meanwhile, argue that the bill would hurt businesses.

Opponents and supporters are debating the role of secret ballots in the bill: business groups say secret ballots could no longer be used in union elections if the EFCA passes, while unions say that secret ballot would continue to be one of two systems for unionizing.

The law and legislation committee decided in a 3-1 vote to recommend that the entire City Council officially support the federal legislation in a city resolution.

Councilman Robbie Waters opposed the committee’s recommendation, saying that the bill is outside of the purview of the Sacramento City Council and should be considered a federal issue.

The City Council is tentatively scheduled to address the federal bill at its April 21 meeting.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy chairs the city’s law and legislation committee. Council members Steve Cohn, Lauren Hammond and Robbie Waters are members of the committee.

The scoop on January public meetings

2009-12-24T18:06:51Z

It’s the end of December — a time for holiday celebrations, not public hearings.

But the democratic process begins anew in early January, with many issues to be debated at local government meetings.

The Sacramento Press has created the following schedule for residents who want to exercise their right to weigh in on public issues.

Sacramento City Council: The council is not meeting Dec. 29. Its first meeting in the new year will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 5 at City Hall, 915 I St.

Sacramento County Board of Supervisors: The board’s first meeting of 2010 will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 12. A second 2 p.m. meeting will be held Jan. 12.

Sacramento City Planning Commission: The Planning Commission will meet at 5:30 p.m on Thursday, Jan. 14 at City Hall, 915 I St.

For Art’s Sake (Mayor Kevin Johnson’s arts group): The group asks participants to RSVP for the meeting at the following e-mail address: sharongerber@sixdegreez.net The meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Jan. 27 at the California State Railroad Museum, 125 I St. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City auditor position still vacant

2009-07-16T03:34:26Z

Though the city has not had an auditor since May 20, important tasks are not being left undone as a result, according to Assistant City Manager Marty Hanneman. But Mayor Kevin Johnson's spokesman said that the missing position means there is a lack of accountability.

The city’s internal auditor’s office has undergone many recent changes. The city’s former auditor Marty Kolkin left Sacramento in May to take a job in Santa Monica. And the City Council decided in June to pull the auditor position away from the city manager’s office and place it under the City Council’s authority.

Now that the Sacramento City Council is supervising the city auditor’s office, councilmembers -- not the city manager’s office -- will hire the next auditor.

The transition has been in the works for months: Councilmembers in April said that the auditor’s office would operate in a more transparent fashion if it reported to the City Council.

Councilmembers Steve Cohn and Kevin McCarty said in April that the auditor would be more independent if he or she answered to the City Council. They suggested that an auditor’s investigations of city departments could be compromised because the auditor reports to the city manager’s office, which oversees city departments.

Hanneman said the city is not being impacted by the missing position because Kolkin "had wrapped up a lot of the audits the council asked him to do."

As the city’s internal auditor, Kalkin was working on a list of projects the City Council had assigned to him, Hanneman said, noting that there are plenty more projects remaining on the list. Still, at the time Kolkin left, he was at a good stopping point, Hanneman noted.

But Mayor Kevin Johnson’s spokesman Joaquin McPeek expressed a different view on the vacancy. "No auditor means no accountability," he said.

Hanneman also responded to questions from The Sacramento Press about why the hiring process has not moved more quickly. Hanneman said city officials were working on the kind of ordinances they would need to establish in order to move authority for the auditor’s office to the City Council from the city manager’s office.

Now that the auditor’s office is under the jurisdiction of the City Council, the city’s Human Resources Department is in the process of hiring a recruiting firm for the hiring process, Hanneman said.

The auditor will be selected from a nationwide search, Hanneman said. A hiring process to recruit for a specialized position usually takes months, he noted.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Jorge Oseguera becomes the new city auditor

2010-03-10T05:58:17Z

The city auditor’s office — vacant for nearly a year — has been brought back to life.

Mayor Kevin Johnson and three council members announced at a Tuesday morning press conference that Jorge Oseguera is the city's new internal auditor.

Most recently, Oseguera was a senior program performance auditor for the city of San Jose. He began work at the city of Sacramento Monday.

“I think the audit function is an essential element of the public’s accountability, and I look forward to meeting my objectives in meeting the public’s accountability,” Oseguera said.

He also said he would participate in preparations for an upcoming audit of the Community Development Department. The investigation will be conducted by an outside auditing firm.

The three council members — Robbie Waters, Lauren Hammond and Steve Cohn — joined Johnson to praise Oseguera.

Waters explained that the city received applications from about 12 people for the auditor position. After an interview process, the committee selected three candidates for in-depth consideration. At that point, the committee asked the entire City Council to weigh in on the three candidates, according to Waters.

Oseguera was "hands above all the candidates," Waters said.

Cohn, chair of the City Council’s audit committee, pointed out that Oseguera will be the first auditor for the city of Sacramento to be supervised by the City Council. The former auditor, Marty Kolkin, reported to the city manager.

Kolkin resigned from his position in May to accept a new job in Santa Monica.

Council members decided last year that the City Council — not the city manager — should supervise the city auditor. During a meeting in April, council members said that it would be a more transparent process for an auditor to report to the City Council, rather than the city manager.

“We look forward to working with Jorge to make sure we have the most efficient operations possible and that our citizens -- our taxpayers -- can have confidence that we are running a tight ship,” Cohn said.

At San Jose, Oseguera investigated building security, grant oversight and debt management, among other areas, according to that city’s website.

Oseguera earned his master’s degree in public administration at Syracuse University and his bachelor’s degree from California State University, Stanislaus.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Charter Committee in favor of mayor appointing manager

2009-09-05T02:18:10Z

Most of the members of a city committee examining the “strong mayor” issue are in favor of revising the city’s charter to allow the mayor to appoint the city manager. However, three of the 11 members of the city’s Charter Committee voted against the idea Thursday.

The committee’s early vote in support of the mayor’s ability to appoint the city manager means that most of the committee members think the mayor should have more power in this area. Right now, the City Council appoints the city manager.

Committee member Tina Thomas was one of the six members who favored a change to allow the mayor to appoint the city manager. “I think that when an individual is elected city-wide — after presumably a campaign about a citywide agenda that needs to be implemented — then that person needs to have somebody there who can work with him or her to implement that policy agenda,” Thomas said.

“I think that you have checks and balances by having confirmation of the council,” she added.

The Charter Committee’s preliminary recommendation supports the mayor’s ability to appoint the city manager, but the City Council would need to confirm the mayor’s candidate with a majority vote. The mayor would not be allowed to participate in the confirmation vote.

Committee member Chester Newland voted against the recommendation. Usually, the city manager “needs to work thoughtfully and on a sustained basis with the mayor,” he said. “On the other hand, a focus on a greatly empowered mayor tends basically to narrow the civic leadership of the city.”

Committee members are starting to define their ideas on the powers of the mayor and City Council. These ideas will eventually take the form of recommendations to the Sacramento City Council. Their suggestions will consist of possible changes to the city’s charter, which is similar to a constitution.

While the recommendations will be presented to the City Council, Sacramento voters will ultimately decide whether to change the city's current "council-manager" system. Voters will need to approve any changes that may be recommended by the committee. Members of the committee were unanimously appointed by the City Council in February.

Meanwhile, the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group has created a ballot measure to provide new powers to Sacramento’s mayor. In June, the group delivered to City Hall tens of thousands of signatures from residents who want a "strong mayor" city government. Earlier this summer, the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters found that the group had submitted the required 32,433 signatures in order to put the proposal on the ballot. Voters will go to the polls in June 2010 for that proposal, which is backed by Mayor Kevin Johnson.

The committee’s vote supporting the ability of the mayor to appoint the city manager is preliminary. It’s not considered a final recommendation because only six of the 11 members voted in favor of it. In order to make a final recommendation to the City Council, the committee needs seven votes in favor.

Here’s the vote breakdown:

Bill Edgar: Yes
JoAnn Fuller: No
Cecily Hastings: Yes
Grantland Johnson: No
Alan LoFoso: Yes
Robert Murphy: Yes
Chester Newland: No
Chris Tapio: Abstained from voting
John Taylor: Absent
Tina Thomas: Yes
Jay Wishan: Yes

City Council studying proposal for independent budget analyst

2009-08-28T02:18:47Z

As the “strong mayor” issue rages on, the Sacramento City Council is also examining a significant proposal from voters to set up an independent budget analyst's office.

The council asked city staffers Tuesday to prepare a workshop to explain how an office for the independent budget analyst could possibly be consolidated with the city’s internal auditor office.

City Treasurer Russ Fehr wrote in an Aug. 25 report that the independent budget analyst would report to the City Council and offer suggestions for changes separate from the city’s budget office. The city is looking at an office of three full-time employees. About $500,000 would pay for the employees‘ salaries, equipment, supplies and services.

“On behalf of the City Council, the independent budget analyst could provide detailed research and analysis including the preparation of reports with specific recommendations that are in addition to, or an analysis of, the work completed by the budget office on behalf of the mayor or city manager,” Fehr wrote.

The independent budget analyst office proposal is simultaneously linked with and separate from the proposal for a strong mayor in Sacramento. It’s linked to the strong mayor proposal because the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group created both proposals and put them before voters in the form of petitions. Each proposal received enough signatures to meet the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters’ requirements.

Both proposals can now be placed on the ballot. The City Council decided Aug. 6 to place the strong mayor proposal on the June 8, 2010 ballot. While the City Council could decide to add the independent budget analyst office to the ballot, it could also pass an ordinance to set up the office.

The independent budget analyst is separate from the strong mayor proposal because the budget analyst office would be developed through an ordinance, Fehr explained in a phone interview. The strong mayor format cannot be set up through an ordinance because the city’s governance structure is established in the city charter, he noted. The city charter must be changed in order for Sacramento’s mayor to gain new powers.

Fehr wrote that the independent budget analyst office could be paid for in two pieces: $370,000 would come from the city’s general fund, while $130,000 would come from special funds. The position could also lead to future savings for the city, according to Fehr.

“In addition, the initial budget could be based on an assumption that alternative view of the budget and the fiscal impacts of agenda items would result in cost reductions at least equal to the cost,” Fehr’s report noted.

Fehr clarified that a strong mayor controversy that arose during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting would not affect the proposal for the independent budget analyst position.

A controversy had bubbled over an opinion in a confidential memo from City Attorney Eileen Teichert. The memo said that Mayor Kevin Johnson should not have weighed in on the strong mayor item on Tuesday’s City Council agenda. Teichert said at the meeting that Johnson has a conflict of interest on the issue because he loaned Sacramentans for Accountable Government $25,000 in June. Johnson backs the strong mayor initiative.

As a result, Teichert recommended that Johnson recuse himself from the discussion.

“I think the opinion was made in error,” Johnson said in response to Teichert’s recommendation. “I will not recuse myself from this item.”

Johnson sat through the discussion, which changed course and was centered on Johnson’s alleged conflict of interest and the legal concerns of the council members. The City Council asked Teichert to take her opinion to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to see if Johnson is in conflict. The council hopes to hear back from the FPPC on the issue in two weeks.

But Tuesday’s strong mayor controversy and the independent budget analyst proposal are not tied together, according to Fehr.

“Again, they’re entirely separate issues on separate tracks,” Fehr said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council to define independent budget analyst job

2010-02-03T06:39:06Z

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.

Councilman Robbie Waters' plans for 2010

2010-01-14T04:36:27Z

Sacramento City Councilman Robbie Waters wants to advance public safety in his district by bolstering neighborhood associations and watch groups. Waters, a former Sacramento County sheriff, said that public safety is his top priority for the year.

The Sacramento Press is publishing a series on the 2010 goals of members of the City Council. Links to stories on other councilmembers’ goals can be found at the end of this story.

Waters represents District 7, which includes the Greenhaven, Pocket and Valley Hi neighborhoods. He is running for re-election in June. His opponents in the race are Darrell Fong, who had a longtime career as a Sacramento police officer, and Ryan Chin, the strategic communications director at California State University, Sacramento.

Patricia Clark, Waters’ district director, spoke on behalf of the councilman in a phone interview Wednesday. Clark said Waters has been working hard to build up neighborhood associations and watch groups. He wants to help make the groups stronger and expand their numbers, she said.

While the district already has many neighborhood groups, there are still parts of the district that are not covered by an association and do not have a neighborhood watch, she said.

Building up neighborhood associations and watch groups “can contribute to making our district a strong community so that criminals will know they will not succeed in our neighborhoods,” according to Clark, who said she was quoting Waters.

Waters’ second highest priority will be the Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library, Clark said. The councilman’s office plans to open the library’s doors in September, according to Clark. The 15,000-square-foot library will be part of the Sacramento Public Library system.

Pocket-Greenhaven Library will be located at Sacramento City Unified School District’s School of Engineering and Sciences. It will serve the school as well as the community, Clark said.

She added that efforts are underway to pursue “silver certification” for the library under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Waters’ third focus of the year will be communicating with residents about programs, resources and events, according to Clark. The councilman’s office frequently updates Waters’ website and communicates with residents through an e-mail list, Clark said. Waters wants to continue those efforts and increase the level of communication with residents, she added.

“We really want all residents to be well-informed of all the resources that are available to them,” Clark said.

Read Councilman Kevin McCarty’s priorities here. Learn about Councilwoman Lauren Hammond’s plans for the year here. Councilman Steve Cohn’s plans for 2010 can be read here.

Photo of Waters by Anthony Bento.
Drawing of the Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library courtesy of the city of Sacramento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor may start new environmental effort

2010-01-03T17:59:30Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson said last week he is considering the possibility of starting a “green initiative” in 2010.

While Johnson’s environmental initiative is still in a brainstorming stage, he mentioned that it is one of his priorities for the coming year.

He indicated that “green jobs” might be part of the possible environmental initiative.

“We’ve got to find ways to diversify, and I think that’s where the green initiative can also play a role,” he said.

Photo by Anthony Bento

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Republicans' report: Allegations about Johnson, St. HOPE females

2009-11-21T03:15:32Z

Editor's Note: The Sacramento Press editorial made a change to the headline of this article after it was published. We normally strike out incorrect information in an article, but since we cannot strike out a headline, we are adding an editor's note. We made this change to the headline because we do not have the actual ages of the females mentioned and we didn't want to use language that indicated an incorrect age range.

Allegations that Mayor Kevin Johnson engaged in inappropriate conduct with three girls females are included in a new joint report from a congressman and senator, both Republicans.

The report focuses on the firing of federal Inspector General Gerald Walpin, who was investigating the finances of Johnson’s nonprofit St. HOPE. Walpin was the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

The report, which was released today, can be read in its entirety here.

Sen. Charles Grassley, a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote the report with Rep. Darrell Issa, a ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Grassley and Issa argue in the report that Walpin’s firing by President Barack Obama was unwarranted.

The report says that Agents Jeff Morales and Wendy Wingers from the Office of Inspector General learned of the allegations against Johnson.

“While in Sacramento, Agents Wingers and Morales became aware of allegations of inappropriate contact between Johnson and three female St. HOPE students,” the report states. “Mr. Johnson’s attorney, Kevin Hiestand, approached at least one of the students describing himself only as ‘a friend of Johnson’s,’ and ‘basically asked me to keep quiet.' "

The report further notes: “According to her interview with OIG investigators, about one week later, Kevin Johnson offered her $1,000 a month until the end of the program, which she refused to accept. Moreover, the OIG uncovered evidence of two other female St. HOPE students reporting Johnson for inappropriate sexual conduct towards them.”

Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Johnson, said the report is “politically motivated” and groundless. Johnson is being used as a “political football” between “ultra-right wing” members of Congress and the Obama administration, Maviglio said.

Concerning the allegations involving the three girls females, Maviglio said: "There's nothing that has ever been proven."

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council holds tense discussion on utilities funds

2010-01-27T07:05:25Z

The City Council held a contentious discussion Tuesday night about a recent Sacramento County grand jury report that claims the city may have broken state law. The Jan. 6 grand jury report states that the city is not adhering to Proposition 218, a state law regulating city funds.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond made tough remarks to Marty Hanneman, director of the Utilities Department.

“I have no confidence in your cost allocations,” Hammond said.

She expressed the view that utilities monies over the years have not been managed properly.

“We need to come clean and start over,” she said.

Utilites Department spokeswoman Jessica Hess notes that the department will address 10 possible Prop. 218 issues during upcoming budget discussions. A report from Hanneman notes that staff will address the Grand Jury report in March.

Read the Sacramento County grand jury's report on the city’s financing here.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

District 3: Shawn Eldredge to run against Steve Cohn

2009-10-24T01:53:36Z

A Johnny Cash tune playing in the background, Midtown activist and former mayoral candidate Shawn Eldredge announced Friday that he is running for the 3rd District seat on the City Council held by Steve Cohn. Communities in the district include downtown, East Sacramento, Midtown and Arden Fair.

Eldredge, a building contractor, took a break from a construction project at the MARRS building in Midtown to talk about his plans. Last year, he lost the race for mayor to Kevin Johnson.

If elected to the City Council, Eldredge said his priorities would be “clean and safe” issues, noting that business growth is linked to people feeling comfortable in their environment. Business growth and development are key to generating tax revenue for city services such as police work and garbage pickup, he said.

The 44-year-old Midtown resident said he wants Sacramento residents to take pride in their city. “I think it’s time to be rock stars and not be scared."

Eldredge, who grew up in Carmichael and attended La Sierra High School, stressed the importance of stewardship and accountability. “Everybody needs to trust,” he said. “Let’s hope a non-politician like myself can instill that in city government.”

Eldredge also said he thinks businesses are “more than willing” to partner with neighbors to address issues caused by business growth.

He will be running against incumbent Cohn, who has held the 3rd District seat since 1994. “He’s done good work for us for a long time,” Eldredge said of Cohn, adding that he walked precincts for him in 2006.

Eldredge said he wants to see a “new energy” on the City Council. He called for new council members without giving any names.

“We have an awesome city and I think it’s time to behave like one," Eldredge said.

Photo by David Watts Barton.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor: Facilities permit program "effective"

2009-11-11T03:54:39Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson said Tuesday the outcome of the audit of the Community Development Department will be important to how he views the future of a permitting program that has drawn controversy in recent weeks. At the same time, Johnson said he thinks the Facilities Permit Program has been “very effective.”

The FPP, which is part of the Community Development Department, was shuttered Oct. 27 in the midst of public debate over the Nestlé company’s move to establish a water bottling plant in Sacramento. Nestlé’s plant had been approved through the city’s FPP program.

City officials investigated the Community Development Department’s approval of Nestlé’s construction work and temporarily shut down the FPP program. At issue was the approval that Nestlé and contractors received from a city building inspector to start construction work. While the company and its contractors had verbal approval from the city, they did not have a building permit or a “start-work authorization.”

Nestlé said that it has complied with city laws.

The city attorney’s office recently decided that it is illegal for the city to greenlight construction for a project that does not have a building permit, said David Kwong, the city’s planning division director.

Johnson told reporters at his weekly press conference Tuesday that the third-party audit underway on the Community Development Department will affect how he thinks about the FPP. “For me, I want to know what went wrong the first time,” he said. “We need to conclude that investigation.”

The third-party audit is in response to the city's approval of permits to build in the Natomas flood zone. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had prohibited the city from building in the flood zone.

Johnson talked of resuming the program, with possible changes. “I think people feel, by and large, it has been one of the best things that our city has done,” he said. “So, this would be an example that you can’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”

Through the FPP, businesses that work with the city can receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, Kwong said.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Judge's final ruling: Take strong mayor initiative off ballot

2010-01-21T18:02:52Z

A Sacramento Superior Court judge said in a final ruling that the strong mayor initiative should not be placed on the June ballot.

Judge Loren McMaster wrote that the initiative would not align with state law. McMaster determined that the initiative is a revision of the city charter, not an amendment.

In his lawsuit, plaintiff Bill Camp sued the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative. Camp argued that making significant changes to a city charter through an initiative would break state law. Amendments of a city charter, not major changes, can be made through an initiative, Camp argued.

Hiltachk said in a Jan. 14 statement that he would appeal the case to the Third District Court of Appeals if McMaster decided the initiative should not go on the ballot.

The strong mayor initiative would allow Mayor Kevin Johnson and future Sacramento mayors to have the powers of the city manager and create the city budget.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Ballot proposal aims to stop 9.2 percent city utilities rate hike

2010-02-11T05:03:43Z

A local group that watches public funds hopes to take its complaints over utilities rates to the polls. The Sacramento County Taxpayers League's new ballot proposal seeks to stop a 9.2 percent city utilities rate increase scheduled to start in July.

The proposal follows a Jan. 6 grand jury report saying that the city’s use of utilities funds may conflict with Proposition 218, a state law that dictates how city funds should be used.

The grand jury report claims that money collected from residents' utility bills may have been used to fund other municipal programs. Prop. 218 states that cities can use funds from utilities bills in one way: to cover the costs of delivering utilities services, according to the report.

The league partnered with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in January to sue the city over the Prop. 218 issue.

“What we have is a department that is utterly out of control and is getting worse by the day,” Craig Powell, chairman of the league's initiative campaign, told The Sacramento Press Wednesday.

The group argues that city residents have faced utilities rates that have been 321 percent higher than the inflation rate over the last nine years.

The league wants to put its “Utilities Rate Hike Rollback Initiative” on the November ballot. In order for the initiative to be certified for the ballot, the group must collect 5,420 signatures of city voters. Powell said the group will use volunteers to collect the signatures.

In addition to halting the 9.2 percent rate increase, the measure would require the city to tie its annual utilities rate increases to the Consumer Price Index, Powell said.

The City Council last June raised rates 9 percent for the 2009/2010 fiscal year. It also decided at that time to approve the 9.2 increase for the 2010/2011 fiscal year.

In June, the Utilities Department said it was experiencing budget woes because of the recession, increased operating costs and new regulatory and environmental requirements. The department also said in June that rates were not raised in the 2008/2009 fiscal year.

Utilities Department spokeswoman Jessica Hess said she and department director Marty Hanneman could not comment on the proposed initiative because they had not seen it.

However, Hess said the City Council will consider a budget presentation in a special meeting Thursday. The presentation includes the analysis from Management Partners Incorporated, a firm with offices in San Jose and Cincinnati, Ohio.

The analysis states that funding for the Utilities Department is “at seriously low levels.” If rate hikes are not made, the department will see “negative fund balances," according to the firm.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor plans to address "safe ground" ideas in October

2009-09-16T02:14:47Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson said Tuesday that he plans to deliver a proposal to the City Council in October that would lay out ideas for a “safe ground” site for homeless people.

Johnson told reporters at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that he wants to suggest to the City Council three to five sites as possible locations for a future campground. The campground would be exempt from the city’s rules against outdoor camping. In recent weeks, advocates for the homeless have called for city officials to create a safe ground site.

Johnson noted that possible locations for the campground would be controversial. “Everyone’s going to say: ‘We don’t want it in our neighborhood,’ ” Johnson said. The mayor’s office is also examining the costs of a safe ground site.

Johnson said that the safe ground issue is one element of a larger problem of homelessness in Sacramento. He said the safe ground campground will serve a few people, but the city needs to find permanent housing for its 3,000 homeless people. “Safe ground has to be embedded in a much more comprehensive strategy,” he said.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilman Steve Cohn announces 2010 goals

2010-01-07T06:04:52Z

While Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn expects dismal budget numbers for the city this year, he also thinks the local economy will begin to heal.

In an interview about his goals for 2010, Cohn said the city budget will be his top priority. He said he doesn’t yet know a specific number for the city’s possible budget deficit this year, but he expects the figures to be daunting. The Sacramento City Council made major cuts to services last year to address a $50 million deficit.

“In general, despite the tough economy, I’m actually very optimistic about the future,” Cohn said. “So I feel like we’re going to see things start to turn around in 2010.”

Cohn said he expects job opportunities to appear toward the end of the year. Though he has an optimistic view of what the year will bring, he said city leaders must be “very careful” about how they spend money.

Cohn, whose district includes Downtown, Midtown and East Sacramento, is running for re-election in the June City Council race. Since his term ends in late November, he noted that the re-election outcome would not impede his progress with his goals this year.

Cohn is running against building contractor and former mayoral candidate Shawn Eldredge and real estate businessman Christopher Little.

When budget time comes around in May, Cohn will be looking at public safety.

“Public safety is obviously the most significant thing that we do,” he said.

Cohn noted that the city’s reserves are nearly dried up. The city will need to guarantee that its expenses align with its revenues, he said.

Cohn does not want to lower funding for the police and fire departments: “It’s hard for me to see how we can cut police and fire any more than we already have," he said. "That's not to say that somebody can’t come up with creative suggestions for how to better deploy our resources, and so we look to our police chief and fire chief for ideas.”

After the budget, the transportation project at the Sacramento Valley Station is Cohn’s second highest priority for the year. The outcome of the three-phase project will be a new regional transportation complex. A key part of the first-phase of the project, which will cost an estimated $60 million, is relocating railroad tracks.

The city plans to put construction work out to bid and start building this year, Cohn said.

“The first phase is the most critical because it allows not only for the station to be expanded so it can handle all those different forms of rail and transit that come through there, but also to allow the development to occur in the Railyards,” he said.

The project is being paid for by federal, state and local sales tax revenues that go toward transportation projects. None of the city’s general fund money is going toward the project, Cohn noted.

The councilman’s third goal for the year will be to finish a set of enhancements to Sutter’s Landing Park at 28th and B streets in Midtown. The improvements should make the former dump feel more like a real park, Cohn said.

“Obviously, right now, it still has a little bit of the feel of the city dump that it used to be,” he said.

Cohn’s top three priorities for 2010 are among dozens of goals he laid out in a his 2010 State of the District Report. Read the full list of Cohn’s goals on page three of the report.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council supports idea of ethics commission

2010-01-20T06:29:20Z

The Sacramento City Council likes the idea of an ethics commission.

Councilmembers decided Tuesday to examine possibilities for a future ethics committee. The proposal to research ideas for an ethics commission came from the city’s Charter Review Committee.

Councilman Kevin McCarty said in a message after the meeting that he had suggested that the Charter Review Committee analyze ideas for an ethics commission.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy spoke in favor of the idea, saying that an ethics committee would be a way to ensure “sunshine and bright light.”

***

Underground tours in Old Sacramento are likely on the horizon.

The City Council unanimously decided Tuesday to loan the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation $185,000 to launch public guided tours of Old Sacramento’s underground sidewalks. The foundation expects to hold the tours on summer weekends.

Councilman Ray Tretheway called the underground sidewalks “a fantastic attraction.”

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Citizens speak out on strong mayor issue

2009-08-08T01:59:44Z

The heated debate over the “strong mayor” initiative drew a substantial crowd to Thursday’s City Council meeting. A total of 36 people filled out forms in order to speak on the strong mayor issue. The following comments from nine speakers provide a range of views about the initiative.

Tamie Dramer, Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento: “I am president of the Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento, which has, as a body, voted to take an opposing position to the intiative. [We] are especially opposed to bring such an initiative during the middle of the mayor’s term.... The way this initiative campaign has been run has made a lot of people uncomfortable.”

Thomas Hiltachk, Attorney, Sacramentans for Accountable Government: “So, it's clear to me that under the law that 2012 is not an option for you at all. And so, we would urge you to place it on the June 8, 2010 ballot."

Brandon Ruiz, Stop the Power Grab: “I was a volunteer with the Stop the Power Grab group that was formed to oppose this initiative back in January. I brought with me today a copy of an online petition signed by 400 residents within the city. It was created back in January.”

Josh Wood, Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange: “Our board of directors is voting unanimously in support of it. There are many reasons why this item should be put on the ballot immediately — one of which is just the fact that it’s honoring the will of the citizens who signed this petition with the intent of it being on as soon as possible."

Craig Powell, Land Park Community Association: “It is not their expectation that they [the petition signers] have to wait for four elections.”

Devin Lavelle, Communications Chair, Democratic Party of Sacramento County: "It is far more important to get the job done right than to get it done quickly.”

Jeff Tucker, Resident, Sacramento: “I am in support of the charter change. One of the things I’m very concerned with is that it seems like we’ve lost focus about ... the charter change. And it seems as though we’re getting involved in personalities and people, instead of the issue.”

Pastor Darryl Heath, St. John Missionary Baptist Church: “We elect you to serve us, not for us to vote and then you decide. The people are saying: ‘We want to vote. We want the right to vote.’ And the council is going to decide whether or not we have that right.”

George Raya, Member, Sacramento Parks and Recreation Commission: “Give the citizens time to have input on charter revisions.”

Thanks to Assistant City Clerk Dawn Bullwinkel for quickly providing the names of the speakers. – Kathleen Haley

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor, councilmembers clash over charter committee

2009-11-04T07:11:35Z

Councilmembers clashed with Mayor Kevin Johnson over the usefulness of the Charter Review Committee’s work after the committee presented its final recommendations on city governance Tuesday. Johnson and Councilwoman Lauren Hammond questioned the value of the charter’s work, while Councilmembers Ray Tretheway, Kevin McCarty and Sandy Sheedy called for the 11-member committee to keep working past its deadline so that it can address additional issues.

The 11-member committee is advising the City Council to keep the city’s current council/manager form of government. The committee’s recommendations oppose the strong mayor form of government that would be established if voters approve an initiative in June.

The City Council listened to the committee’s presentation but did not take any actions. After Tuesday’s discussion, it remains unclear if the City Council will decide to try to create an initiative to place before voters.

The committee’s work is planned to sunset in late January, according to Supervising Deputy City Attorney Matt Ruyak.

The City Council had earlier moved up the committee’s deadline for its work on issues relating to the strong mayor issue.

Johnson said the committee’s recommendations offered no substantial policy change. Community members “don’t want to wait” for the committee to continue working on city governance issues. “This is an extension of business as usual from my perspective,” he said.

Hammond also criticized the committee’s recommendations. “It’s basically the status quo with a little tweak,” she said.

Committee chair William Edgar said the committee was willing to stand behind its recommendations even though it did not have enough time to examine further issues including outdated and obsolete provisions of the charter, or topics such at-large city council seats.

Sheedy said the committee should have more time. “I think this is half-done,” she said. “I think you need some more time.” Tretheway also said the committee’s work was incomplete. “It’s just like we opened the book and read the first sentence,” he said.

While the committee supports the current government system, it recommends making two changes. One recommended change would enable the mayor to appoint and fire the city manager. The mayor’s choice for city manager would need to be approved by a majority of the City Council, according to the committee’s recommendation.

The majority of councilmembers must approve the mayor’s decision to fire a city manager, the committee recommends. In addition, a City Council majority would have the power to fire a city manager, according to the committee.

The city manager is appointed by the City Council under the current structure. The City Council currently has the power to fire the city manager.

Another change recommended by the committee would empower the mayor to make policy recommendations for the city’s budget. The City Council would have the power to review the mayor’s policy recommendations, the committee’s recommendation states. Currently, the city manager delivers budget recommendations to the City Council. The committee recommends that the city manager continue to create the budget recommendations that go before the City Council.

Read the committee’s final report here.

By contrast, an initiative will placed before voters in June that would give the mayor much more power than the committee recommends.

Mayor Kevin Johnson and Sacramentans for Accountable Government organized the campaign to put the strong mayor initiative on the ballot.

While the Charter Review Committee made recommendations and Sacramentans for Accountable Government developed an initiative, Sacramento citizens will have the power to decide whether the city changes its government system. That’s because changes to Sacramento’s city charter must be placed before voters.

If Sacramento voters approve the initiative, the mayor would take over the city manager’s duties. He or she would gain many other new powers, including the ability to create the budget and hire hundreds of city staffers.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Johnson aims to put strong mayor plan on November ballot

2010-02-16T22:02:52Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson has abandoned his effort to put his latest “strong mayor” proposal on the June ballot, saying there is not enough support from council members. Johnson said he now plans to start campaigning to place the proposal on the November ballot.

He also cited the city’s budget deficit as a reason to delay the initiative to November.

“There’s not a lot of appetite from council members to put it on the ballot in June,” Johnson said. “Secondly, we had a budget workshop last week on Thursday and we have some significant challenges that we need to deal with going forward.”

He said he will ask the City Council at tonight’s meeting to consider placing the proposal on the November ballot.

The city’s estimated budget deficit for the 2010/2011 fiscal year is $35-40 million, according to a Feb. 11 budget report.

Johnson presented his new strong mayor proposal last week after his old proposal was shut down by Sacramento Superior Court Loren McMaster in January. McMaster ruled that Johnson’s initiative broke California law.

Johnson had planned to ask the City Council to approve the new measure for the June ballot in time to meet a Feb. 23 administrative deadline. He had proposed the new measure on a two-week timeline.

The new proposal’s section on the mayor’s powers would retain three key parts of the original plan, Johnson said last week. Sacramento’s mayor would propose the city’s budget; hire and fire “key personnel”; and be able to veto specific items, he said. Council members could overturn the mayor’s veto, Johnson noted.

The new plan differs from the older version on hiring powers. Sacramento’s city attorney and certain city officials would not be appointed by the mayor, Johnson said.

Both the new and old strong mayor plans would give the mayor the power to appoint the city manager.

In the new plan, the mayor’s hiring authority would not apply to all city employees who are not represented by unions, Johnson said.

New items in the proposal include term limits, an independent budget analyst under the City Council’s supervision and an ethics committee, according to Johnson.

The proposal would also include an expiration date for the new system of city government, Johnson said. A vote from the citizens would decide whether the new government system should be halted or maintained.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor's education report praises charter schools

2009-08-25T03:26:05Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson issued numerous draft recommendations Monday for improvements to Sacramento’s education system. They included evaluating schools with letter grades and setting up new educational programs and schools.

The recommendations come out of the Mayor’s Education Summit, which was held in Sacramento in March and featured education figures such as New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, chancellor of public schools in Washington, D.C. The ideas expressed in the draft white paper also include input from local educators, parents and citizens.

“What we wanted to do with the white paper is to create a dialogue,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference with state and local education leaders at Valley High School in Sacramento. He said he did not have a set timeline for implementing the recommendations.

The draft white paper includes an idea to stress accountability by rating schools with A-F letter grades. The idea comes from the grading program being used at New York City schools. “These report cards provide a mechanism through which parents and community members can make decisions and determinations for their children based on consistent, clear and objective data,” the white paper notes.

The paper points out that the community would need to analyze the idea in order to figure out how a grading system could work in Sacramento schools. The recommendation would in part start a “community conversation to develop the components of a school and district report card.”

The recommendations also address charter schools, as well as other specialized programs at schools. One of the recommendations states that the city could contact “educational management organizations that have seen success across the state and nation to open schools in Sacramento or partner in turning around low-performing schools.”

Johnson also announced at the Monday press conference that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will make a presentation on education in Sacramento on Sept. 3. The city will hold a town hall meeting at which Duncan will speak. Also on Sept. 3, Duncan will meet with state leaders during his trip to Sacramento, Johnson said.

Read the entire white paper here.

Photos by staff reporter Jonathan Mendick.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City departments in trouble: What is the city manager’s role?

2010-02-02T04:50:28Z

News Analysis

City Manager Ray Kerridge oversees a city government that is struggling with major controversies in its Community Development and Utilities departments.

Council members are reacting to claims in a Jan. 6 grand jury report that the city may be breaking Proposition 218, a state law that mandates how city funds are used.

City officials are also confronting findings from an investigation into the department’s approval last year of 35 permits in a Natomas flood zone. The offices of the city attorney and city manager note in a recent report that the department broke federal rules by approving the permits.

The report lists new issues, including possible violations of city planning rules, that involve the building services division of the development department.

And the Sacramento Bee is reporting that Advantage Demolition & Engineering gained city contracts by allegedly turning in fake paperwork. The city has fired the firm, which was supposed to install water meters, the Bee reported.

While Kerridge runs the city government, Mayor Kevin Johnson and the City Council have not specifically discussed Kerridge’s role in the city’s troubles at recent public meetings.

In the spirit of accountability and transparency that Johnson, the City Council and Kerridge himself have championed, the Sacramento Press wonders: What is Kerridge’s role in current city problems?

The Sacramento Press asked city spokeswoman Amy Williams if Kerridge could answer that question and others in a phone interview on Friday afternoon or Monday morning. Williams said Kerridge was away from the office Friday afternoon and asked The Sacramento Press to e-mail questions to her. Kerridge e-mailed The Sacramento Press with a response Monday morning.

In his e-mail, Kerridge said that he is facing many issues that began before he became city manager in 2006.

“The greater majority of these issues like Proposition 218 predated my administration,” Kerridge said. “Because we have made it a priority to be transparent, when we have discovered these issues, we have addressed them and done it in public. When you do this, there are risks, and it can be very uncomfortable, but it is the right thing to do.”

Kerridge said that problems at city departments are being addressed.

“There are obvious areas that need to be improved and those improvements are being made,” he said. “For instance, multi-level checks and balances have been put in to place to address Community Development’s (front) counter operations. I have always been an advocate for systematic audits on all departments and I still am.”

City Councilman Steve Cohn said that while Kerridge may not have been city manager at the start of some of the Prop. 218 problems, the issues have been ongoing. “He’s certainly responsible for fixing the problem,” Cohn said.

Read the full list of questions and Kerridge’s response at the end of this story.

Johnson on Kerridge's Role

Meanwhile, Johnson is expressing multiple views of Kerridge. Johnson says he supports Kerridge but also says that voters should scrap the city manager position in favor of a strong mayor system.

Johnson acknowledges that Kerridge, as city manager, is ultimately in charge of the city departments facing problems.

He calls himself "a fan" of Kerridge but doesn't criticize him for controversies in the Utilities and Community Development departments under his control.

Johnson’s comments at a Tuesday press conference in Oak Park last week revealed his views of Kerridge.

Johnson openly acknowledges that the city government is facing multiple problems.

“There seems to be a pattern of mismanagement or poor judgement,” Johnson said. “What this does, it creates a sense of cynicism and lack of trust with the public.”

But despite the list of issues with two departments under Kerridge's authority, Johnson expressed his support for the city manager in response to a question from Capital Public Radio's Ben Adler.

“The utilities department falls under the responsibility of Ray Kerridge, so does the planning department,” Adler said to Johnson. “You’ve said repeatedly you’re a really big fan of Ray Kerridge. Has your position changed at all?”

“No, I’m a huge fan of Ray Kerridge,” Johnson responded. Then, in his next comment, Johnson conceded that “all of these things fall, in some shape or form, under his [Kerridge's] jurisdiction.”

“He’s not denying that,” Johnson said.

While Johnson said these problems have occurred under Kerridge's watch, and that Kerridge runs the city government, Johnson did not criticize Kerridge.

Instead, Johnson turned the discussion to argue in support of a strong mayor government. “That’s why I believe very strongly that we can change our form of government to an executive mayor form of government,” he said, noting that decisions and choices would then be made by someone elected by the public.

Johnson further said that a strong mayor would be held accountable by the public. In addition, he said in defense of Kerridge, the city manager must deal with competing visions of council members and the mayor, Johnson said.

“I think Ray Kerridge gets caught in the middle," Johnson said. “He has nine bosses. Who in here would want nine bosses? I mean, you can’t get anything done with nine bosses.”

Questions for Kerridge

The Sacramento Press asked Kerridge for comment on the Prop. 218 issue, the company that the city hired to install water meters and the problems with the Community Development Department. The list of questions follows:

What is your role in these issues?

How much responsibility do you feel you have for these problems?

Referring to current controversies in city departments, Johnson said this week that "all of these things fall, in some shape or form, under his [Kerridge's] jurisdiction." However, he is not publicly criticizing you or faulting you for these problems. Can you comment on that?

What are your plans to make sure these kinds of problems don't happen again?

When Johnson said these things fall under your jurisdiction, he then argued for a strong mayor form of government. In what ways, if any, has the form of government in the city affected these problems?

Are you retiring this year?

Kerridge’s Response

Kerridge provided the following e-mailed response to the questions Monday:

My style of leadership requires transparency and openness in our organization. I have created an environment that encourages change and
challenges us to look at our systems. The greater majority of these issues like Proposition 218 predated my administration. Because we have made it a priority to be transparent, when we have discovered these issues, we have addressed them and done it in public. When you do this, there are risks and it can be very uncomfortable but it is the right thing to do. Improvement is a continuous process and we should never be satisfied with the status quo.

There are obvious areas that need to be improved and those improvements are being made. For instance, multi-level checks and balances have been put in to place to address Community Development’s counter operations. I have always been an advocate for systematic audits on all departments and I still am. I am dedicated to serving this community and the City of Sacramento.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sheedy opposes crackdown on information leaks

2010-02-03T06:52:26Z

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy is opposing a proposed rule stating that city employees could be fired for leaking confidential information.

She said at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting the proposed rule would have a “chilling effect” on whistleblowers.

The City Council delayed a decision on the proposal.

The proposal Sheedy is opposing was drafted by City Attorney Eileen Teichert. It states that an “employee disclosing or causing to be disclosed confidential information to any unauthorized person may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

Councilman Robbie Waters wanted Teichert to address confidentiality in a rule. His views on the current proposed language were unclear Tuesday night.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Investigation: 'Potential quid pro quo' in city department

2010-01-26T06:40:11Z

An investigation into the city’s development department has brought to light several new issues, including “potential quid pro quo,” according to a new report from the offices of the city attorney and city manager.

The city attorney’s office and Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai, a third-party law firm, have been working together on an investigation into the development department’s approval of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone.

The offices of the city manager and the city attorney acknowledge in a recent report that the city broke federal rules by authorizing the permits.

The report lists new issues in the building division of the department such as “potential quid pro quo,” “demolition without CEQA review,” “non-compliance with city’s planning requirements” and “non-compliance with fee-deferral program.”

The report will go before the City Council Tuesday. The City Council could decide Tuesday that its audit committee should address the new issues. Councilmembers Ray Tretheway, Lauren Hammond, Steve Cohn and Robbie Waters sit on the audit committee.

In November, City Attorney Eileen Teichert said that “additional issues” surfaced when investigators were examining the Natomas permits. She also said that one of the additional issues was the Facilities Permit Program, a city permitting program, but she declined to talk about other concerns.

Read the report from the offices of the city attorney and the city manager here.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City's economic development director job to remain vacant

2009-08-20T03:37:02Z

The city’s spokeswoman said this week that Sacramento’s economic development director was laid off for cost savings, echoing comments the former director made last week.

City spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson said the economic development director position, which was held by David Spaur until last Friday, will remain vacant. In June, the city resolved a deficit that had been as high as $50 million earlier this year. In addition, the city recently laid off 135 city employees.

“It was part of the layoff process,” Klock-Johnson said, referring to Spaur’s departure.

Klock-Johnson was not able to provide by press time the figure for the total amount of money the city will save from cutting Spaur’s job. The Sacramento Press will publish this information as soon as it learns the figure.

Assistant City Manager John Dangberg is now managing the economic development director’s duties on top of his regular assignments. Klock-Johnson referred to Dangberg as the “interim” economic development director, but she clarified the “interim” part of the title does not mean Spaur’s position will be immediately replaced.

It is likely that the city will refill Spaur’s position sometime in the future, Klock-Johnson said, but the position is staying vacant for now.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor clashes with city staff over Nestlé decision-making

2009-10-27T20:12:53Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson said the city’s order to halt construction work at the plant Nestlé plans to use for a water-bottling operation is bad for business in Sacramento.

Johnson has praised the jobs that Nestlé will bring to Sacramento, while Councilman Kevin McCarty opposes the plant's plan to bottle and sell water from the American River. Councilwoman Lauren Hammond has also raised concerns about Nestlé's plans.

The city’s Community Development Department placed a stop-work order on Friday on two phases of construction at 8670 Younger Creek Drive, the plant’s site. The city is checking to see whether Nestlé broke any of the city’s permitting and building laws. Nestlé said it has not violated any laws. In fact, Nestlé is saying the city may be taking illegal action with its stop-work order.

Read staff reporter Suzanne Hurt's Oct. 26 story to learn more about the details of the stop-work order.

Johnson told reporters at his Tuesday press conference that he was concerned that the city is “changing the rules” with Nestlé as it carries out plans to set up the plant.

“What concerns me is we can’t create an environment where we do not look like a city that’s friendly to business,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to create a business climate that makes sense."

Johnson pointed out that he was not informed of the Community Development Department’s decision to release a stop-work order. “I didn’t get briefed on this work order that was stopped,” Johnson said. “I didn’t hear about it until sometime yesterday.”

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council members want to be city auditor's boss

2009-04-22T06:20:47Z

The auditor of Sacramento’s city government now reports to the city manager, but City Council members Tuesday said the auditor should answer to them.

Council members said they could create a more transparent process if they direct the city’s auditor to report to the City Council and mayor, instead of reporting to the city manager.

The city is currently looking for a new auditor to replace Marty Kolkin, who is leaving Sacramento in May to take a job in Santa Monica’s city government.

Council members asked city staff Tuesday to analyze the option of making the auditor answer to the City Council and mayor.

The auditor position was created in 2002, City Councilman Steve Cohn said, and was organized to report to the city manager as an effort to establish the new post quickly.

“I think the time has come where we need to be real clear that the auditor should report to mayor and council,” Cohn said. “To me, there shouldn’t be any grey area here. That’s no disrespect to the city manager or anyone else. I just think that’s the right model for an independent auditor.”

Council members repeatedly praised Kolkin for his work, but Councilman Kevin McCarty also delivered criticism.

“I think you’ve always been straightforward,” McCarty said, adding that he trusted Kolkin. “But in the back of my head, you’re kind of a company man.”

McCarty said Kolkin represents the city government and not always the City Council.

Mayor Kevin Johnson was the lone voice in support of the auditor continuing to answer to the city manager.

It would be the “clearest and most efficient way” for the auditor to continue to report to the city manager.

Johnson said that if the City Council took over the supervision of the auditor, work would take much longer to complete.

He also said the council should have decided to hire an outside firm in January to conduct an audit because the process would have been efficient.

Councilmembers voice concerns over Nestle bottling plant

2009-10-01T03:47:35Z

Two Sacramento city councilmembers are raising concerns and voicing skepticism about the Nestle company’s plan to set up a plant to bottle and sell water from the American River.

Councilmembers Kevin McCarty and Lauren Hammond are advocating for the City Council to get involved in the city’s negotiations with Nestle, which so far have been managed by city staffers.

Nestle Waters North America’s plan to set up shop in Sacramento early next year is drawing attention. A group of citizens created "Save Our Water Sacramento" to oppose Nestle’s plans. The group is calling for the City Council to set a moratorium on beverage bottling plants in Sacramento.

The company noted in a statement that it plans to start operations by bottling 30 million gallons of Sacramento water annually at a Florin/Fruitridge industrial park site. Nestle would buy the water from the city on a yearly basis. But a city staff memo dated Sept. 14 points out a different figure — it says the Nestle plant would use 81 million gallons, or 250-acre-feet of water annually.

McCarty said he is concerned about the project’s environmental impacts and said the proposal sounds like a “sweetheart deal.” He criticized city staff for giving him a “weak response” on the project’s details. He said he’s now going to engage in “further exploration to get to the bottom of this,” adding that he wants to have a thoughtful discussion on whether the project makes sense.

Hammond has also entered the debate, saying that city staffers need to look to the City Council for public policy direction before entering into an agreement with Nestle.

Hammond and McCarty are running against each other for Assemblyman Dave Jones’ seat in 2010.

A Sept. 14 memo from Utilities Department Director Marty Hanneman notes that Nestle’s planned use of 81 million gallons per year is “less than .2 percent of the city’s current demands.” Hanneman said the project does not fall under California Environmental Quality Act requirements.

Assistant City Manager John Dangberg responded to McCarty's criticism, saying that Nestle is not obtaining special water rates from the city. The company would pay the same water rates as any other water user in Sacramento, he said. The company is also going through the permitting process with the same requirements that other entities face, and is not receiving special incentives, Dangberg noted.

The company's proposal meets conditions under city requirements that allow it to apply for a building permit without going through the City Council or the Planning Commission, he said.

Meanwhile, Chris Kemp, Sacramento Plant Manager for Nestle Waters North America, said the company is taking all legally required steps in setting up its plant.

“We look forward to working with the members of the city council to provide them with information about our company and operations as we become an employer and neighbor in the Sacramento community,” Kemp said. "We are complying fully with the permitting requirements of the appropriate city, state and federal governmental authorities.”

Kemp said the public is invited to ask questions about the project at the “Ask Us” section on its website.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Staff Reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report.

Experts weigh in on "strong mayor" city governments

2009-05-19T05:04:25Z

The ambition of local leaders and city crises are two reasons cities choose to give their mayors more power, an expert on city governments told a Sacramento committee Monday.

The Charter Review Committee is analyzing the rules in the city’s charter. The city charter is similar to a constitution.

The 11-member committee is researching the idea of changing city government to a “strong mayor” format that would give the mayor new powers. The committee is examining both the “strong mayor” system, and the city’s existing “council-manager” system.

Mayor Kevin Johnson backs the campaign by the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group to bring a “strong mayor” system to Sacramento.

Committee member John Taylor asked experts at Monday's meeting why communities decide to form a “strong mayor” form of government.

Raphael Sonenshein, a political science professor at California State University, Fullerton, said the ambition of a city and its leaders plays a large role in a city’s decision to adopt a “strong mayor” system.

“I think it’s also a sense of unrealized ambitions,” Sonenshein said. When cities are growing and becoming more diverse, he said, many kinds of issues become seen as “political,” instead of “managerial.”

If a city is in such a situation, and also has one or more ambitious leaders, the public may then favor the idea of a “strong mayor” running city government.

Sonenshein said the ambitiousness of both the public and the selected leader to realize the potential of the city are major factors in a transition to a “strong mayor” government.

“I say it’s 70 percent ambition and 30 percent visible crisis problems,” Sonenshein said.

James Svara, an expert in local government at Arizona State University, said he generally agreed with Sonenshein’s view, but noted that many proposals for “strong mayor” governments fail. Crisis is often a “critical factor” in making a “strong mayor” proposal successful, he said.

While a leader in the city may say he or she want the new form of government to address the city’s potential, the leader may not be successful unless there’s been “some shortcomings in the performance of the city before that time,” Svara said.

Energy efficiency program for homes advances

2009-12-06T20:47:36Z

Residents may be able to schedule a household energy efficiency makeover in the coming months. Sacramento officials are making headway on a voluntary program to provide residents and businesses a way to make energy efficiency upgrades to their properties.

The program received a $740,000 infusion of federal stimulus dollars in November. It would allow property owners to choose from a variety of energy efficiency improvements. Participants would pay for their upgrades over five, 10 or 20 years, said Councilman Kevin McCarty, who directed city staff last year to create the program in Sacramento.
“I just think the upside is tremendous in this [program],” he said.

The charges for the upgrades would be placed on a homeowner's property taxes and participation in the citywide program would be voluntary. The list of options for upgrades is not final but some draft options include installing insulation, sealing leaks and window replacement, according to a document provided by Yvette Rincon, the city’s sustainability program manager. Other upgrades that may be available to property owners through the program are whole house fans, solar heating and lighting efficiencies.

If the City Council approves the program in early 2010, it could go into effect in the spring, McCarty said. The program will lower energy bills and cut carbon dioxide emissions, among other benefits, he noted.

And it may create as many as 710 jobs, according to figures from the Center for Strategic Economic Research, a Sacramento-based research organization. “Nearly every industry sector in the Sacramento region could benefit in some way from the indirect and induced impacts associated with the construction and installation work and additional household consumption,” its report states.

Rincon said the organization derived its figures from a potential 1 percent participation rate of property owners in the city and county of Sacramento.

The $740,000 in federal stimulus money that was approved by the City Council last month will go toward the program’s marketing and outreach effort and staff time, according to Rincon’s Nov. 24 report. She noted that the program will not use money from the city’s general fund.

Residents who sign up will receive an “energy audit” to show how much power they are using, Rincon said. The audit will include a list of recommendations for energy efficiency upgrades, she said, adding that some of the most cost-effective energy improvements are installing insulation and sealing leaks.

The city is working on the program with numerous local entities, including the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, Sacramento and Yolo counties, and the cities of Davis, Galt, Rancho Cordova, Folsom and Citrus Heights. These bodies are working to establish the program in their jurisdictions, Rincon said.

Those entities also plan to apply for more federal stimulus funding, she said.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council unlikely to address "strong mayor" issues raised by city attorney

2009-09-16T05:30:55Z

Several legal issues in the “strong mayor” initiative that were raised by Sacramento’s city attorney will likely not be addressed by the City Council. After listening to a Tuesday night presentation by City Attorney Eileen Teichert, councilmembers did not suggest taking any future actions to resolve the issues.

Instead of taking action on the legal issues that were raised by Teichert, some councilmembers said they look forward to analyzing the Charter Review Committee’s upcoming recommendations on the strong mayor system of city government. The committee’s ideas may be placed on a future ballot for citizens to decide.

The City Council had asked Teichert to prepare a report on the legal issues in the strong mayor initiative that will go before voters in June 2010. The initiative was the project of the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group, which Mayor Kevin Johnson backs. Johnson and Teichert have been clashing lately over their respective views of the legal soundness of the initiative, which would provide the mayor with more power.

The city’s 11-member Charter Review Committee is examining the strong mayor form of government and the city’s current council/manager system. The committee plans to deliver a report on governance and other related issues to the City Council Nov. 3.

Teichert’s report to the City Council Tuesday argued that the strong mayor initiative is legally flawed in several ways. In one of her key points, she asserted that the California Constitution does not allow voters to make “revisions” of city charters in a ballot initiative. She said the strong mayor initiative is asking voters to make “revisions” to the city’s charter, which is similar to a constitution.

While the state constitution allows voters to use initiatives to make “amendments” of city charters, the changes being suggested in the strong mayor initiative are actually “revisions,” Teichert argued. A revision would be a fundamental change to the charter, while an amendment would consist of changing details in the charter, she said.

Mayor Kevin Johnson did not make any public comments at the City Council meeting Tuesday. However, he told reporters earlier in the day that he wanted citizens to vote on the initiative, adding: “Let’s not play political games.”

Tom Hiltchak, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor proposal, disagreed with Teichert's analysis in comments to the City Council.

Following Teichert’s presentation, Councilmembers Steve Cohn and Lauren Hammond both said they look forward to hearing the recommendations from the city’s charter committee on the strong mayor form of government.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell blasted the strong mayor initiative in comments Tuesday, claiming that she thought the initiative was drafted in a “back-room” deal. “We really need to take a look at the initiative that was done in the back room,” Pannell charged. “I bet there were no people of color in that back room -- no women.”

Photo by Anthony Bento.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Fremont Park to become greener, harder to maintain

2009-08-05T02:36:13Z

Fremont Park will become greener, but its upkeep will also be more difficult. That’s the trade-off that volunteers and local anti-pesticide activists are accepting in order to turn the Midtown park, at 16th and Q streets, into the city’s first pesticide-free park.

City Councilman Rob Fong, the Pesticide-Free Sacramento group and the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation organized the new 2-year pilot program at Fremont Park to use green techniques, instead of pesticides, to destroy weeds. The organizers promoted the program at a press conference Tuesday. If the pesticide-free program is successful, the city hopes to expand it to other parks, Fong said.

The Fremont Park program shows “the city’s commitment to trying to be sustainable in all its practices,” Fong said.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department, which was hurt by $8.3 million in recent budget cuts, will rely on volunteers to maintain the park using green practices, according to Parks and Recreation Director Jim Combs.

“We’re not going to be using pesticides here,” Combs said at a Tuesday press conference at Fremont Park. “We’re going to be doing a lot of extra hand-work.”

The additional work it will take to maintain the park without pesticides could not be conducted by city Parks and Recreation staffers because of budget cuts, according to Combs. Because volunteers will carry out maintenance tasks at the park and Pesticide-Free Sacramento will provide expertise, the program will not bring any new costs to the Parks and Recreation Department, he noted.

The program will be assessed qualitatively and quantitatively, Combs said.

The city uses a minimal amount of pesticides because “we know that it’s not healthy for our environment,” Combs said. Pesticides leach through the soil and end up in water systems, he said.

Amy Barden, coordinator of Pesticide-Free Sacramento, said that Fremont Park has been maintained without the use of synthetic pesticides since early spring of this year. The group aims to lower, and work toward ending, the use of pesticides in local parks, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces, Barden said.

“The successful maintenance of Fremont will demonstrate that organically maintained landscape can be not only safer for ourselves and our children, but also beautiful and environmentally healthy,” she said.

Lizz Lagomarsino, a representative of Friends of Fremont Park, noted that the group’s members volunteer a lot of their time to cleaning up the park.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council to address Natomas permits investigation

2010-01-24T00:25:23Z

An investigation into the Sacramento development department’s approval of building permits in a flood zone will be considered by the City Council on Tuesday.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert and a third party-law firm, Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai, have been investigating the Community Development Department’s decision last year to greenlight 35 building permits in a Natomas area regulated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. At the Tuesday meeting, the city attorney’s office will make a presentation on the investigation.

Teichert’s office acknowledged in a Dec. 15 letter to the FEMA office in Oakland that the city broke federal rules by authorizing the permits.

Councilman Steve Cohn noted that the approval of the permits appears to be a “very limited issue,” not part of a widespread pattern.

Recommendations for how the city can prevent similar situations in the future may be part of Tuesday’s discussion, Cohn said.

Robert Graswich, special assistant to Mayor Kevin Johnson, said the mayor believes the city should work with FEMA and protect the city’s best interests. Graswich said city personnel did not intend to break rules, noting that “any transgressions were minor and certainly unintentional.”

The City Council’s Tuesday meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will be held at 915 I St.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

News Analysis: Council members display anger, confront city staff

2010-01-28T03:13:50Z

News Analysis

It’s a fact: Certain Sacramento city council members are angry with high-level city staffers about their role in current city scandals. The council members’ tense relationship with city staffers was apparent in several harsh remarks made at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond directed critical comments toward Utilities Director Marty Hanneman during a debate over issues outlined in a grand jury report. The Jan. 6 report claims the city may not be adhering to Proposition 218, a state law that mandates how city funds are to be used.

“I have to tell you: I have no confidence in your cost allocations,” Hammond told Hanneman. “It’s not personal — I just don’t believe you.”

Hammond expressed the view that annual increases in utilities rates have been higher than the costs of delivering the service. She said she has been raising concerns “for years” that the rate increases have been improper.

Prop. 218 requires utilities fee increases and service delivery costs to be proportional. Fee increases have a single use: to cover the costs of delivering the service, according to the law.

Sacramento residents have been “tricked,” she said.

“I don’t usually get personal with staff because I know everybody’s trying to do their job,” Hammond said. “But something is seriously wrong here and we have not fixed it. And management has not fixed it.”

Hanneman did not make any statements in response to Hammond’s criticism.

He explained Wednesday in an interview that the city’s protocol is for staffers not to debate with council members at City Council meetings. To debate with council members is disrespectful, Hanneman said.

“I just listen and take it in,” Hanneman said.

He pointed out that elected officials sometimes vent their frustrations.

“That’s part of doing business at the city,” Hanneman said. “I don’t take it personally. I take everything they say seriously and move on.”

Councilman Rob Fong faulted both the City Council and city staffers for the Prop. 218 situation. He said council members learned about Prop. 218 concerns during summer 2008 but did not address them.

“We need to do better; it’s just unacceptable,” Fong said.

Council members need to acknowledge that they are part of the problem, he said. However, he added that each council member has a small two-member staff. Plus, several council members have other jobs outside of their City Council position.

“We rely so heavily upon you all to collectively give us the information we need to make the decisions that we need to make at a policy level,” Fong said, addressing city staffers.

Fong said that the City Council finds out after the fact that legal memos from the city attorney’s office have been sent to top city staffers but not to council members.

He suggested that the City Council adopt a rule to require that all legal opinions being shown to top staff officials also be sent to council members.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said staff did not inform council members about the possible Prop. 218 violations.

“We say we didn’t know about it,” Sheedy said. “We really truly didn’t know about it. And it makes us look like fools.”

Sheedy echoed Fong’s idea, saying the council should receive all legal findings that come out of the city attorney’s office.

“I have a real problem with being left out in the dark and then getting all the blame,” she said.

Read the grand jury report here.

Hanneman’s report can be read here.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City plans energy efficiency program

2009-07-12T17:06:29Z

Sacramento city officials are brainstorming the components of a program called “Go Green Sacramento” that would allow residents and businesses to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes and pay for the upgrades over several years.

Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty, city staffers and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District want the program to offer homeowners and businesses a way to fund several different kinds of energy savings projects, such as weatherstripping and home sealing, duct sealing or installation of tankless water heaters.

The program would feature a voluntary “financing district,” which would serve as a system that homeowners and businesses could use to pay for energy efficiency upgrades. If a financing district is created, homeowners would voluntarily put assessments on their homes, explained Janelle Gray, the city’s treasury manager. The cost would appear on homeowners’ tax bills, she said.

Upfront costs for the energy efficiency upgrades would be “little” to none for participants in the program, according to a Go Green Sacramento fact sheet. McCarty said he and the other organizers want other cities in Sacramento County to participate in the program.

City staffers and SMUD staffers are currently outlining the elements of the Go Green Sacramento program. After the program is more defined, McCarty plans to bring the program to the City Council. City funds would not be used in the program, according to McCarty.

Go Green Sacramento is "loosely-based" on a city of Berkeley financing program for solar heating projects, McCarty said. A flaw in Berkeley's program is that it only focuses on solar, McCarty added.

McCarty said the program would give Sacramento residents a way to get involved with environmental efforts. “Because I think it’s important that as we address climate change and sustainability, that we empower our residents to be part of the effort as well,” McCarty told The Sacramento Press.

McCarty said that he and others planning Go Green Sacramento would like to give residents a menu of about 10 to 15 energy efficiency projects they could fund through the program.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Small auto companies protest planned city contract

2009-11-17T05:12:05Z

The owners of two mom-and-pop auto parts companies are protesting the city’s plans to hire a large auto parts firm through a no-bid $21 million contract.

The General Services Department will ask the City Council on Tuesday to hire the National Auto Parts Association (NAPA) to provide auto parts and services for the city’s fleet of 2,600 vehicles and equipment. Department staff say that the five-year contract with NAPA would generate savings of $2 million.

But at least two small automotive industry companies argue that the proposed contract with NAPA, an international chain, would harm local businesses.

Richard Johnson, who owns The Alternator Shop on Perkins Way in Sacramento, has prepared remarks for tomorrow’s City Council meeting. “Bringing NAPA into the City Fleet Service Parts Program as the sole supplier will have the same effect on the Sacramento business community as Walmart moving into a small town,” his speech reads.

Johnson contends that the city will not save money with NAPA; he says the city would save more money by continuing to allow local companies to bid on the work.

Norm Gentry, owner of Norm’s Electrical Supply on Stockton Boulevard, also is against the proposal. “It’s going to hurt the little people,” he said in an interview Monday.

Department staff noted in a report to the council that NAPA was the only one to respond to a request in March for proposals for the contract.

Read the department’s report to the City Council here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Post-Kerridge: Will development department change?

2010-03-14T22:11:39Z

Sacramento’s business community has said repeatedly that former City Manager Ray Kerridge established a customer-service culture in the city’s development department. At the same time, the department is wracked with investigations into possible breaches of laws. Now that Kerridge has left the city — March 11 12 was his last day of work — how will the culture of the Community Development Department change?

New leadership and the findings from an audit are two upcoming developments that may change the department. The recent resignations of Kerridge and department director Bill Thomas have created job openings.

At this point, both positions are being held by interim officials. Gus Vina is interim city manager; David Kwong is acting director of the Community Development Department.

A third-party audit of the department is on the horizon. An outside auditor will follow up on issues from an earlier joint investigation by City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office and the law firm Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai.

The auditor will analyze several issues identified by the Teichert/Renee investigation. They include possible violations of the city’s planning rules and possible decisions to bypass, delay or lower fees.

A Jan. 21 report from the offices of the city attorney and the city manager on the Teichert/Renee investigation also listed “potential quid quo” in the department as an issue that should be studied in more depth.

The Teichert/Renee investigation centered on another highly controversial issue: the 35 permits that the department approved last year for construction in a Natomas flood zone. The Jan. 21 report said a department employee broke federal rules by distributing the permits.

The city placed former department director Thomas on paid leave in October. He resigned March 1.

A Customer-Friendly Culture

The department had a poor reputation among developers before Kerridge’s arrival in 2005, according to a March 28, 2008 Sacramento Business Journal article. In 2003, members of the local building industry said in a Business Journal survey Sacramento's building department was the most problematic of all similar city and county departments in the area. Five years later, the industry said in the survey that Sacramento's building department was the area's best.

Kerridge served as assistant city manager for development before being promoted in 2006 to city manager.

Despite the department’s crises, Sacramento developers have praised Kerridge for his work to establish a customer-focused culture.

Developer Mark Friedman was one of the members of the business community who invited Kerridge to leave his job with the city of Portland and come to work for Sacramento.

“I think (Kerridge) did a great job,” said Friedman, whose company, Fulcrum Property, owns Arden Fair Mall. “He streamlined the building department processes and made the organization more customer-friendly than it had been.”

Richard Rich, development director for Thomas Enterprises, Inc., expressed a similar sentiment in a Jan. 25 comment on The Sacramento Press. Thomas Enterprises is developing the downtown Railyards.

“This department isn’t perfect but its people, including Bill Thomas, deserve credit for creating a culture of public service,” Rich said.

Elected Leaders Praise Customer-Service Attitude Toward Development

Mayor Kevin Johnson and several City Council members also applauded Kerridge for his customer-service framework at a March 9 council meeting. Their comments indicate that there is political support to maintain the customer-service environment at the Community Development Department.

“And this whole notion of ‘getting the customer to success’ is something I think we’re all proud of,” Johnson told Kerridge at the March 9 meeting. “And that’s going to be with us, Ray, for many years to come.”

Some council members, though, are running for re-election. Depending on the results of their races, they may not have much time to make decisions affecting the department. The City Council incumbents running for re-election are Ray Tretheway, Steve Cohn and Robbie Waters.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond is running for Assemblyman Dave Jones’ seat against fellow council member Kevin McCarty. Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson also is running for the seat. Hammond will leave the City Council.

McCarty’s seat is not up for re-election.

Hammond and Waters praised Kerridge for his work revamping the culture of the department. Waters said Kerridge “turned (the department) around” in a short period of time.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell commented that developers were Kerridge fans. “It’s obvious by the developers — who really want to keep you here — that you changed the way Sacramento does business.”

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy spoke of Kerridge’s view of city growth. “You taught us how to look at this city as something that could grow and be something bigger,” she said. “And it can be, and it will be.”

Cohn said Kerridge led the customer-service culture change in city government, which is a forward-looking approach.

The errors that people may point out in Sacramento’s government “have been errors of trying to be proactive,” he added.

In his speech to the City Council, Kerridge said the business community has been “a great source of strength” for him.

Like Johnson, Kerridge thinks greatness is in store for Sacramento.

“Sacramento has a destiny,” Kerridge said. “Its destiny is to become a great American city.”

How Do Top City Staffers View the Department?

Interim City Manager Gus Vina will run the department for nine months to a year, at which time a city manager will be named.

Vina told The Sacramento Press last week that he is interested in the permanent city manager position.

He said his priority will be on “best practices and a culture that gets the job done.”

Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said in a March 12 interview that the department can simultaneously help builders and abide by laws.

“Our level of customer service for people who want to invest in our city is of paramount importance,” Dangberg said.

The city wants to ensure that it’s adhering to laws and that buildings are safe, he said.

Meanwhile, Vina said in a March 9 interview that the upcoming audit of the department will be key to the next steps for the department. “We definitely need to regroup,” he said. “We don’t want to go to a bureaucracy that ... doesn’t deliver for the customer. But if the audit says, by the way, you got a little too loose on policy ... we’ve got to bring that back to the middle.”

He said the city needs to examine the audit’s findings, then ask: “Do we need to change rules? Are they too loose? Are they too tight?"

Photo of Mayor Kevin Johnson and city council members by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Attorney finds "additional issues" to investigate

2009-11-25T06:23:01Z

The Sacramento City Council’s audit committee will be busy for awhile.

During a Tuesday night briefing on an investigation into the city’s approval of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone, City Attorney Eileen Teichert told the City Council there are more issues to address. She identified one of the issues as the Facilities Permit Program (FPP), but declined to specify the other issues.

“During the course of these initial interviews and documentary review, additional issues have arisen,” Teichert told the City Council.

The FPP became controversial in a recent debate over Nestlé’s move to set up a bottling plant in Sacramento. In three weeks, the city attorney’s office will deliver a report to the City Council on issues related to the FPP, Teichert said.

The office will also give recommendations on how to revise the program to align to related laws, she said.

In addition to the FPP, the city attorney’s office has found other issues, according to Teichert. In response to questions from reporters after the meeting, she did not describe the new issues. However, she said information about the issues would be reported back publicly to the City Council as “as soon as we’re ready to reach some conclusions on them.”

The City Council’s audit committee will analyze some of these additional issues “where it’s appropriate, where it’s more of a systemic or a process issue,” Teichert said

Members of the audit committee include Councilmembers Steve Cohn, Ray Tretheway, Lauren Hammond and Robbie Waters. The committee is currently working on an audit of the Community Development Department; the new issues will be added to the committee’s plate, according to Teichert.

The briefing Teichert delivered Tuesday was not her final opinion on the Natomas building permits issue — it was an update on the investigative work being carried out by her office and Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai, a third-party firm. The city attorney’s office and the outside firm are reviewing documents and a database and holding interviews. Teichert’s office and the third-party firm are trying to find out if the 35 permits in question are an “isolated incident,” Teichert said.

“We still have some additional legwork to solidify that conclusion,” she said.

Bikes on K Street

The City Council likes bikes on K Street.

Councilmembers unanimously approved a rule change on Tuesday that will let bicyclists ride on the K Street pedestrian mall.

“If you want people to try alternative modes, you’ve got to make it a little more convenient for people,” said Councilman Steve Cohn.

Councilman Ray Tretheway praised the timing of the rule change. “It really seems like the time is right to put bicycles back on K Street,” Tretheway said.

Specifically, people will be able to bicycle on K Street from 13th Street to 7th Street and from 4th Street to 2nd Street. The Westfield Downtown Plaza will continue to be a no-bicycle zone.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council divided on $21 million contract, small businesses opposed

2009-11-19T05:02:35Z

A divided City Council decided Tuesday to approve a $21-million parts and services contract to an international auto parts corporation in the midst of opposition from local auto parts businesses.

Staff with the General Services Department said the new five-year contract with the National Auto Parts Association (NAPA) will yield $2 million in savings for the city.

After hearing from representatives from several local auto parts companies, the City Council voted 6-3 to approve the contract. Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilmembers Sandy Sheedy and Kevin McCarty voted against the deal.

“Small business is the backbone of our economy and we have to do everything we can to make sure that we support small business,” Johnson said. “And for me, in this case, if small businesses lose, there’s an impact on their families and the neighborhoods.”

On one hand, the city aims to save money in light of the poor economy. But local companies view the contract as a debate between small local businesses and large firms — they said they would lose contracts with the city to a large non-local corporation.

“We’ve been doing business for the city since 1961,” said Scott White, who spoke on behalf of Norm’s Electric in Sacramento. “We never had a problem keeping up with anything the city needed as far as the electrical end of things.” NAPA will “run us out,” he said.

City staff responded by saying the small businesses would not lose business with the NAPA deal. The contract would merely change the business relationship, staff said. Instead of working with the city government, the local companies would work with NAPA, according to city staff.

The city’s fleet manager, Keith Leech, said Monday the city plans to continue to work with local businesses under the NAPA contract.

“I think another important point is that we’re currently doing in excess of 30 percent small business participation here on our fleet parts,” Leech said. “We expect that to pretty much remain constant because NAPA’s agreed to commit to a 10-percent small business participation goal as part of their overall contract.”

Councilman Steve Cohn asked for a mid-year progress report on the contract.

“I want to be sure that this is really working the way we think it is, and that it is, in fact, saving money,” he said, adding that the city needs to ensure that small businesses can still compete for business with the city’s fleet.

The council approved the contract with the request that city staff provide an update at six months and one year.

At the meeting, Ted Loranza, director of NAPA’s Integrated Business Solutions program, addressed the issue of working with local businesses. He said NAPA would provide inventory management, noting that 20 percent of the products that the company sells to a government agency are NAPA products. The remaining products are purchased from local vendors, he said.

“It’s our job to use existing vendors within that local community and offer the best possible service that we can to a city or county government where we have an IBS location,” Loranza said. He also said his company has paid more than $8 million in salaries in the Sacramento area.

Johnson told General Services Director Reina Schwartz that he would have preferred for city staff to have brought NAPA and local businesses together to form relationships before bringing the issue to the City Council.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilman Ray Tretheway's goals for 2010

2010-02-06T20:51:02Z

Councilman Ray Tretheway’s key goals for 2010 are in response to problems caused by the poor economy. He said he plans to concentrate on public safety, jobs and foreclosure.

Tretheway’s priorities are listed here as part of a series of stories on council members’ top three goals for 2010. Links to the stories are at the end of this article.

The Sacramento Press made repeated requests to interview Councilman Rob Fong, but he was unavailable.

Tretheway represents District 1, which includes North and South Natomas and Alkali Flat. He is running for re-election in June against Efren Guttierrez, a real estate broker, and Angelique Ashby, a partner in a consulting firm that contracts with government agencies and businesses.

When he is not working on city matters, Tretheway is the executive director of Sacramento Tree Foundation.

Tretheway said his top priority for the year is public safety. He puts public safety into three categories: police and fire, levees and youth education.

The councilman said he would like to see a federal jobs bill signed into law. If it passes, then perhaps local police and fire services will receive federal funding to maintain existing jobs and add new positions, he said.

“To that end, hopefully the Obama administration jobs bill will pass.”

At the local level, Tretheway said there will be a groundbreaking next month for a fire station in Natomas that would serve residents on the west side of Interstate 5.

He said he also plans to focus on levee improvements, calling the barriers a public safety issue.

Tretheway noted that his other public safety push will be youth education and services. He cited progress in that area, including two teen clubhouses in Natomas that will open next month; a teen center in the Gardenland/Northgate area that opened last year; and a park affiliated with the Boys and Girls Club that opened in downtown last week.

Tretheway mentioned development in Natomas when he talked about his goal of creating jobs. If the levees were strengthened, then the Federal Emergency Management Agency potentially could release its building moratorium in Natomas, he said.

If FEMA removed its restrictions, there could be “more opportunities for building homes and offices and commercial (buildings)” in Natomas, he said.

Tretheway also said that many jobs will be created as work gets under way on the Township 9 and Railyards development projects.

The councilman said his third goal for the year will be to help residents fight foreclosures. He said he would continue to educate people about the issue at community meetings. “I think that’s going to be something that’s looming over us on the downside,” he said. “But the opportunities are really pretty positive. People have an opportunity to listen ... and find out the avenues for how they can keep their homes.”

Councilman Steve Cohn’s goals are listed here. Read about Councilwoman Lauren Hammond’s priorities here. Councilman Kevin McCarty’s plans are explained here. Learn about Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy’s objectives here. Councilman Robbie Waters’ goals are outlined here. Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell lists her priorities here.

Mayor Kevin Johnson presents his goal for a green initiative here. Johnson announces a goal relating to the building moratorium in Natomas.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Strong Mayor: Johnson to pitch new ballot measure

2010-02-09T06:18:08Z

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has not been deterred by two court rulings that prevent his strong mayor initiative from being placed on the June ballot. His latest strategy is to ask the City Council to place a new strong mayor proposal on the ballot.

But Johnson’s new plan, which he announced on his blog Monday afternoon, cannot include the existing strong mayor initiative. That's because Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster struck down the initiative last month, saying it broke state law.

Johnson's blog entry does not explain the components of his new proposal. He described his new plan as a "collaborative executive mayor reform package." Joaquin McPeek, Johnson's spokesman, declined to specify details Monday night. McPeek said Johnson will take questions from reporters on the proposal Tuesday.

Johnson said in his blog that he would ask the City Council on Tuesday to consider his new plan.

"The time has come to spell out in simple language a handful of points necessary to make executive mayor reform work in Sacramento," Johnson wrote.

If the City Council decides to vote on a new measure, it will need to create a new proposal in 15 days. The City Council has a Feb. 23 deadline to prepare a measure for the June ballot.

“The City Council has the ability to put their own measure on the ballot,” city spokeswoman Amy Williams said. “They are barred by Judge McMaster’s order from placing the strong mayor initiative on the ballot.”

Johnson's strong mayor goals have been stymied by two courts.

Plaintiff Bill Camp sued the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative. Making major changes to a city charter through an initiative conflicts with state law, Camp argued.

The January Sacramento Superior Court decision said the existing initiative would revise the city charter. A revision differs from an amendment because it makes major changes, according to the decision.

Johnson’s initiative also faced problems at the 3rd District Court of Appeal, which last week decided that it would not temporarily halt McMaster’s decision.

In a separate development last week, the group Sacramentans for Accountable Government held fundraisers for the initiative. Each person who attended a SAG luncheon at the Cosmo Café last Thursday paid $1,000. The contribution amount for an event sponsor was $5,000.

A second fundraiser focused on a conversation between Frank Luntz, a Republican consultant and pollster, and Willie Brown, who formerly served as California Assembly Speaker and mayor of San Francisco. The cost to attend that fundraiser was $100 per person.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Hammond wants bid preferences for local companies

2009-08-06T04:04:59Z

Local small businesses may be able to gain an advantage when bidding for contracts with the city of Sacramento if a new proposal by City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond is eventually approved by the City Council.

Hammond is proposing a program in which local small businesses would be eligible for a 5 percent bid preference with the city. The purpose of the 5 percent discount would be to give local businesses a boost in the city's bidding process.

Hammond told The Sacramento Press she would like to create the program because "there aren't enough companies getting contracts with the city of Sacramento." The city's other efforts to bring in more local companies have not worked because city staffers have not reached out of their "comfort zone," she said.

City staffers usually choose the lowest bid for contracts, Hammond said. The 5 percent bid preference would lower a local company's bid, which would make the local company more likely to be selected by the city, she noted.

Under Hammond's proposal, the city would decrease by 5 percent a local company's quote when the company competes for a contract, according to Trevor Walton, a program manager with the city's Economic Development Department.

Right now, Walton is crafting Hammond's proposal. An idea being discussed right now is to use the 5 percent bid preference for bids under $100,000, according to Walton. He expects that the city's Law and Legislation Committee will weigh in on the proposal in September.

The plan will need to be approved by the City Council before it can be established. A date for the City Council to consider the proposal has not yet been selected, Walton said.

The city currently provides a 5 percent bid evaluation preference now to small businesses located in the state, Walton explained. A small business that is also a local business could possibly be eligible for a bid discount of up to 10 percent, but those details have not yet [been] decided, he said.

The city has had bid evaluation preferences for many years, Walton said, noting that the City Council is "very supportive of small businesses." Bid preferences are used in various cities, he noted.

Ingrid Foster, vice president of communications for the Sacramento Metro Chamber, said the chamber had no comment on Hammond's proposal at this point. The Chamber's chief executive Matthew Mahood, as well as a Chamber spokesperson, were not available for comment Wednesday afternoon, Foster said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Public invited to Dec. 3 town hall on arena plans

2009-11-28T18:50:02Z

A task force that will examine developers’ ideas for a new Sacramento entertainment and arena center will hold a town hall meeting on Dec. 3.

Mayor Kevin Johnson’s 12-member task force includes real estate, finance and communications executives. Members are not paid.

Citizens are invited to attend the meeting and present their views on a future complex. Johnson will attend the meeting.

“The goal of the kick-off town hall meeting is to have the public identify the issues that it wants the task force to analyze and understand as it works to develop a proposal for a world class arts, entertainment and sports complex,” according to a Nov. 25 press release.

The meeting will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Sacramento Public Library, 828 I St.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Group wants guided tours of Old Sac underground

2010-01-17T01:54:41Z

A local foundation wants to create a program to allow public guided tours of Old Sacramento’s underground sidewalks. The Historic Old Sacramento Foundation is pitching the idea to the City Council Tuesday.

The City Council will decide whether the city should loan the foundation $185,000 to start the program.

“The tours will be high-quality presentations drawn from extensive original historic research,” according to a report from the Center for Sacramento History. “No two tours will be identical.”

The tour program, which would be held on summer weekends, would be a tourist attraction and a boon for Old Sacramento, the report says.

Read the proposal for the tour program here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor, Waters praise Kerridge, blast "divisive" politics

2010-02-19T04:42:14Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson and City Councilman Robbie Waters praised City Manager Ray Kerridge, who announced yesterday that he was resigning on March 12, at a joint press conference Thursday.

Without naming anyone in particular, Johnson and Waters both blamed other council members for the negative atmosphere at City Hall. The other council members did not attend the press conference. However, Joann Cummins, district director for Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, attended the event.

“I think the divisiveness has certainly played a role (in Kerridge’s decision),” Johnson said.

He said he was concerned that the work environment could cause “great talent” to leave.

Johnson also faulted himself for his part in the divisive atmosphere at City Hall.

Waters also used the word “great” to describe Kerridge.

“We’ve lost a great leader,” Waters said.

City spokeswoman Amy Williams answered questions from The Sacramento Press after the press conference. She said Kerridge was not available for questions Thursday afternoon. Williams responded to the question of whether Kerridge’s resignation is linked to the city’s problems with its utilities and community development departments.

A Jan. 6 grand jury report says the city may be breaking Proposition 218, a state law that mandates how city funds are used.

City officials are also confronting findings from an investigation into the department’s approval last year of 35 permits in a Natomas flood zone. The offices of the city attorney and city manager note in a Jan. 26 report that the department broke federal rules by approving the permits.

The report lists new issues, including possible violations of city planning rules, that involve the building services division of the development department.

“In any large organization, there will be issues,” Williams said.

She said Kerridge has dedicated more than 35 years to public service and felt this was a good time to transition to a private sector position. Kerridge felt the timing of his transition was good for the city, as well as for himself, Williams said.

Kerridge feels the timing of his resignation is good because of recent developments on the issues of the 35 Natomas permits and the city budget, Williams said. Kerridge said he felt there has been “significant movement” on the investigation into the city’s approval of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone, Williams said.

The City Council also came together at a Feb. 11 budget session — its first budget session of the year, Williams said. Kerridge said he viewed the council members’ unanimous agreement on the issue as a positive sign. The city manager’s office creates the proposed budget.

Williams further noted that Kerridge has a private sector job opportunity.

The city is facing a $35-40 million budget deficit for the 2010/2011 fiscal year, according to a Feb. 11 report.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell explains 2010 goals

2010-01-30T21:46:40Z

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell said she plans to concentrate on key issues facing her South Sacramento district this year, including flood protection, a beautification effort on Meadowview Road and youth services.

Pannell’s goals are explained as part of a series of articles on council members’ plans for 2010. Links to the articles are at the end of this story.

The Sacramento Press made repeated request for interviews with two council members, Rob Fong and Ray Tretheway, but they were unavailable.

Pannell represents District 8, which includes the Meadowview, North Laguna Creek and 63rd Street/Cromwell neighborhoods.
Her primary focus this year is on 100-year flood protection for areas in her district affected by South Sacramento streams. Pannell said Rep. Doris Matsui, (D-Sacramento), “has been working hard to get federal funds not only for North Natomas, but for South Sacramento stream levees."

Progress on the South Sacramento stream levees will depend on Matsui obtaining federal dollars, she said. Funding for the project also would come from local taxes, Pannell added.

Her second goal for the year is to complete a beautification effort involving a fence on Meadowview Road. Pannell said she expects a new fence along that road to be set up by mid- to late spring. The project, which costs about $670,000, involves removing the existing wooden fence and installing a fence made of masonry wall.

“I think it will change the look, the appearance of the community,” Pannell said.

The councilwoman’s third priority will be to work with youth. She noted that she is backs an initiative to fund jobs and other services for young people in Sacramento. Programs offered through the initiative, the Youth Jobs and Opportunity Act, would be paid for by a $29 annual tax on parcels of property.

Pannell also wants new services for youth who live in apartment complexes on Mack Road, citing problems with some young people in the area. She said she wants youth in the the apartment complexes to be involved in sports and after-school programs. Youth programs keep kids in school, off the streets and away from trouble, Pannell said.

The services would be funded by property fees from homes financed through the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

Pannell has set many other goals for the period of 2010 to 2012. The goals are listed on her website under the heading of "council district information." Read about them here.

Learn about Councilman Steve Cohn's goals here. Councilwoman Lauren Hammond's priorities are outlined here. Read about Councilman Kevin McCarty's plans here. Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy's objectives are explained here. Read about Councilman Robbie Waters' goals here. Mayor Kevin Johnson's announces his goal for a green initiative here. Johnson discusses a goal relating to the building moratorium in Natomas.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. 

City to hear from "strong mayors" Monday

2009-08-03T06:17:28Z

The contentious debate over whether Sacramento should revamp its “council-manager” system to a “strong mayor” format continues Monday night.

The city’s Charter Review Committee, which is studying the “strong mayor” issue, will hear from Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson at its Monday meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Chavez and Patterson are “strong mayors.”

Charter Committee meetings are open to the public. City Hall is located at 915 I Street. Read Monday night’s agenda here.

Source: City of Sacramento

RSVP for mayor's event with U.S. Education Secretary

2009-09-01T23:13:30Z

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is holding a town hall meeting Thursday with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The public is invited to the town hall meeting, but the city is taking RSVPs ahead of time. You can RSVP here.

Members of the public can find a seat at the meeting on a first-come basis. The city notes that space at the event will be limited.

The town hall meeting will be held from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Tsakopoulos Library at 828 I Street. The Tsakopoulos Library is located at the Central Library downtown. The city will open the doors to the event at 4:30 p.m.

Source: City of Sacramento

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy on her 2010 goals, hot issues

2010-01-21T04:58:50Z

Sandy Sheedy is ready for controversy.

The Sacramento city councilwoman plans to focus on a set of contentious issues this year. Her top citywide goals for 2010 are to address the budget and respond to concerns involving the development department and utilities funds.

The Sacramento Press is publishing a series on the 2010 goals of city council members. Links to stories on the goals of other council members are included at the bottom of this story.

Sheedy represents District 2, which covers neighborhoods north of the American River such as Del Paso Heights, Strawberry Manor and North Sacramento.

Unlike many of her council colleagues, she is not running for re-election or higher office. Her district seat is not up for election this year.

The City Council expects this year’s budget situation to be rough. To address last year’s $50 million deficit, council members made significant cuts to services.

Sheedy said when she considers this year’s budget top priority will go to “essential services that make the city run.” In her view, essential services are police and fire, code enforcement, solid waste, and streets and roads.

Sheedy also said she wants to work on the city’s Community Development Department’s permitting processes. The department’s Facilities Permit Program came under fire last fall during a public debate over Nestlé Waters North America’s move to Sacramento.

The program was halted from Oct. 27 to Dec. 15. In December, City Attorney Eileen Teichert said the program broke city laws. It was changed last month to conform to city laws, according to Teichert.

“I’d like to get the Community Development Department up and running again like it should be,” Sheedy said.

In addition, Teichert is examining the department’s decision to authorize 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone last year. In a Dec. 15 letter to the Oakland office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city attorney’s office acknowledged that the city broke federal rules by green-lighting the permits.

Teichert said in November she found “additional issues” with the department as she investigated the 35 Natomas permits.

Legal issues surround another of Sheedy’s top goals for the year — she plans to respond to a Jan. 6 Sacramento County grand jury report. At issue is the city’s adherence to Proposition 218, a state law regulating city funds.

“The Grand Jury found that, at best, the city has not done enough to determine whether the city is violating the law and, at worst, has shifted millions of dollars in costs from the general fund to utility enterprise funds,” the report states.

Sheedy said she will focus on the issues raised by the grand jury.

“Let’s find out what went on, and let’s fix what we need to fix and move on. We’ve got to get back to the business of the city.”

Sheedy also has goals for her district this year. They include making street and infrastructure improvements from Arden Way to Highway 160; ensuring that operations at a teen center at Robertson Community Center continue; and completing parks in Strawberry Manor and Del Paso Heights.

Read the Sacramento County grand jury's report on the city’s financing here.

Learn about Councilman Kevin McCarty’s plans for the year here. Councilwoman Lauren Hammond’s priorities are explained here. Read about Councilman Steve Cohn’s 2010 goals here. Councilman Robbie Waters’ objectives can be read here.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor in favor of Nestlé water bottling plant

2009-10-07T16:34:52Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson spoke favorably about the Nestlé company’s planned water-bottling plant and addressed other local issues at his weekly meeting with reporters on Tuesday.

Nestlé water bottling plant

Johnson praised Nestlé’s plan to set up a plant to bottle and sell water from the American River, saying the plant will create jobs.

“I knew that this would bring about 40 to 60 jobs in our community and that’s a good thing,” he said.

Johnson also said he wished he could have been more involved in the process of bringing the plant to Sacramento, but noted that the city manager’s office has jurisdiction on the issue.

But Councilmembers Kevin McCarty and Lauren Hammond disagree. They said they want the City Council to get involved in the issue. McCarty has called Nestlé’s plan “a sweetheart deal.”

Mayor praises “the soup guy”

Johnson had sympathetic comments for Daniel Pont, the owner of downtown’s La Bonne Soupe, who became ill and was hospitalized following the county’s closure of his restaurant. Sacramento County health inspectors cited cockroaches as the reason Pont’s soup and sandwich shop was shut down last week.

Pont plans to reschedule another county health inspection and then open the shop again early nex´t week, Johnson said. “If you have not been [to La Bonne Soupe], I would encourage everyone to go,” Johnson said, referring to Pont as “a treasure in our community.”

Seattle’s public transportation

When Johnson attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Seattle last week, he scoped out the city’s downtown scene. Johnson is observing the downtowns of various cities to gain ideas for revamping Sacramento’s downtown.

He said he admired Seattle’s use of public transportation in its downtown. Johnson pointed out that Seattle’s downtown features buses, a monorail, light rail, a subway system, Amtrak and other transportation methods.

“It just shows you when cities do it right, how pivotal public transportation is and the role of pedestrians,” Johnson said.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City attorney answers questions about investigation

2009-12-24T18:17:32Z

While local media outlets have reported on the third-party investigation of Sacramento’s development department, the details of the investigation are complex.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert shed light on the investigation’s details in a phone interview with The Sacramento Press last week.

The city, together with the third-party law firm Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, is investigating the Community Development Department’s approval this year of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone.

Teichert’s office acknowledges in a Dec. 15 letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the city broke federal rules when it approved the permits.

The city has placed Community Development Director Bill Thomas and department staffer Dan Waters on administrative leave.

During last week’s interview, Teichert addressed why the city and the third-party firm are working together on the investigation. She also provided a response to the question of whether City Manager Ray Kerridge was being investigated on this issue.

Teichert said she does not have an estimate on when the investigation will be complete.

The Sacramento Press: As I understand it — and correct me if I’m wrong — but the investigation into the Natomas building permits is being carried out by the third-party firm [Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai] and the city. Is the city partnering with the third-party firm?

City Attorney Eileen Teichert: Yes. Of course someone has to provide the interface between how the city operates and is organized, how to reach people, how to get documents and so on. Pursuant to the direction that we’ve received from the City Council, my office, along with the city manager’s office, is providing that coordination.

SP: Why is the city participating in the investigation if a third party was hired? Wouldn’t city participation then make the investigation less objective?

Teichert: Again, as I indicated, someone has to coordinate. My office had to serve as the conduit to hire the outside law firm. We’re the only ones pursuant to the charter authorized to retain outside counsel. So, that was why we did that.

And, in order to preserve attorney/client-privileged communication, those communications go through our office. And, we have to be able to ... obtain records and documents for [independent investigator Tim Yeung’s review] in order to be able to conduct [a] fair, objective investigation and interviews. Based upon his own opinion that he arrives at, as a result of reviewing records and meeting with witnesses without being influenced by staff ...

We agree it’s of the utmost importance that the investigation be conducted fairly and impartially.

SP: Was City Manager Ray Kerridge being investigated as part of the investigation into the Natomas building permits?

Teichert: We are not targeting any individual and I cannot comment on personnel matters. But again, we are using a fair and objective process and not starting into the investigation with any preconceived notions about who’s being targeted or what we expect to achieve.

SP: What is the status of Community Development Director Bill Thomas? Do you know if he’s coming back?

Teichert: The status of Bill Thomas is as it has been for the last number of weeks — that he is still on administrative leave.

Photo by David Watts Barton.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City cracks down on code violations

2009-08-19T05:13:07Z

Sacramento City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond did not like what she read on the list.

At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, Hammond was scanning a list of property owners that owe the city money for fees and fines related to housing code violations.

“There are so many bank-owned properties on this list,” Hammond said.

Banks that have not paid the city for violations at properties include heavy-hitters such as Wells Fargo Bank, Wachovia Bank and Bank of New York. Many properties owned by individuals are also on the city's list.

The city needs to examine how it can require banks to take care of properties in the same way that real estate agents do, she said.

The City Council approved liens on 250 properties for code violations Tuesday. The total amount of the liens is about $500,000.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Public can address mayor's task force on arena

2009-11-20T05:47:44Z

Citizens will get to present their views about a proposal for a new arena and entertainment center to Mayor Kevin Johnson’s task force, the mayor said. His remarks came at a news conference Johnson held Thursday in Old Sacramento to introduce the panel’s members.

Community feedback will be part of the review process before the task force makes its recommendations to the City Council, he said.

The 12-member task force is tentatively planning to hold public meetings on the first and third Thursdays of each month, said Chris Lehane, task force co-chairman and partner in Fabiani & Lehane, a public relations firm. The task force includes real estate, finance, and communications executives. Public meetings may begin in December, he said, adding, “We’re really looking for feedback and information from the community.”

Lehane said the task force expects to make its recommendations to the City Council in mid-March. 

Johnson has tied building an arena and entertainment complex to making Sacramento a “world-class city.”

The task force will analyze developers' ideas for the complex. Members, who come from a wide range of professions, are not paid.

Co-chair Chris Lehane was the Special Assistant Counsel to President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1997. Restaurateur Lina Fat is the other co-chair.

Other members include land development executive Dea Spanos Berberian; former city treasurer Tom Friery, infrastructure finance executive Mark Harris; local union leader Matt Kelly, sports facility designer Dan Meis, former aide to Gov. Schwarzenegger Adam Mendelsohn and lobbyist Ron Tom.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City to decide fate of public financing fund

2009-04-15T07:43:57Z

The fate of the city’s pot of money for public financing of local elections is at stake.

City council members Tuesday delayed a decision Tuesday on whether to abandon its public financing fund. Sacramento currently reserves $300,000 each year for public financing of city council and mayoral races.

The City Council decided to take up the issue of its public financing fund in the context of the city budget. Patti Bisharat, the city’s governmental affairs director, said the city expects to release its proposed budget May 1.

Public financing is intended to help candidates who may not be able to afford the high costs of running for office.

But the city’s fund for public financing has rarely been used. “If you can recall, it’s only been used once in the nine years it’s been in place,” Bisharat told council members Tuesday.

The city’s law and legislation committee had recommended that the City Council toss out the public financing fund.

Councilman Ray Tretheway said maintaining the fund is in the public’s interest, adding that the council could lower the amount in the fund.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy raised concerns about city employees at risk of losing their jobs due to the recession. She said the money in the public financing fund could go toward the jobs of city employees. “My top priority right now is the employees of this city,” she said.

Roseanna Torretto, president of the Sacramento County League of Women Voters, said the council should keep its public financing fund, and that it would be too big a step backwards to remove it. Public financing gives people the ability to compete fairly, she said.

Johnson reviews his first year as mayor

2009-12-03T06:03:01Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson has been at the helm of the city for one full year.

Johnson made remarks to reporters Tuesday about his past year in office, saying that his volunteer program and a drop in crime are among his accomplishments, and that the city’s business climate and City Council disagreements are some of his shortfalls. His one-year anniversary as mayor was Dec. 2.

“I’ve been in office 365 days,” Johnson said at his Tuesday meeting with reporters. “And I’m just as excited today as when I got elected.”

Johnson cited the city’s falling homicide rate and federal stimulus funding for police as achievements. The city was awarded more than $12 million in federal stimulus funds for police, Johnson noted. “That’s going to allow us to put even more police officers on the street in the next three years,” he said.

Of the roughly $12 million for the police department, $9.5 million is for hiring and $2.5 million is for equipment.

Johnson also said Tuesday that the city’s homicide rate has dropped significantly.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Norm Leong said Wednesday that homicides have declined this year during the period of Jan. 1 to Dec. 2.

In that timeline last year, the city reported 45 homicides, according to Leong. By comparison, there have been 26 homicides during that period this year, Leong said. Sacramento police have solved 21 homicides this year, he pointed out.

Johnson said his work on community service and volunteerism is another one of his accomplishments. His program Volunteer Sacramento had an original goal to clock 500,000 service hours, he said. Volunteers surpassed the goal and gave 800,000 hours of their time, Johnson added.

“Again, when you have a down economy, you have to call on the regular citizens to step up and they were able to do that in a very significant manner,” he said.

Johnson also identified shortfalls in his first year. The city “took a step backwards” when it came to fostering a positive climate for businesses, he said.

Michael Faust, senior vice president of public policy and economic development at the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, said “divisive politics” - not Johnson - are to blame for the city being less friendly to business than it could be.

Under City Manager Ray Kerridge’s leadership and programs like the Facilities Permit Program (FPP), the city “became known as a great place to do business,” Faust said.

But recent battles over Nestlé’s move to Sacramento and the national press attention to the issue sends a negative message to companies that may be interested in relocating to Sacramento, he added.

“It’s been very disappointing,” Faust said.

Johnson also said working relationships at the City Council have been a problem. The council has not functioned as well as he would have liked, Johnson said.

“It’s been frustrating, to say the least,” he said. “I think we’ve allowed differences and petty issues to get in the way. I campaigned with a commitment to try to make an environment where it’s not business-as-usual. And that’s an area certainly I have to improve.”

Johnson further said he wanted to improve relationships among councilmembers.

“I’ve got to do a better job and see if I can get us more collaborative and having more of a collegial relationship when we don’t agree on issues,” he said.

Councilman Ray Tretheway responded to Johnson’s comments Wednesday.

“I think I’ve witnessed both petty issues as well as large philosophical issues,” Tretheway said. “It’s a combination.”

Tretheway said that more communication is needed. If Johnson wants to work toward better communication with councilmembers, that effort would be welcomed, he said.

“I think all of us would want to take advantage of that offer,” Tretheway said.

Tretheway acknowledged that the debate over Johnson’s strong mayor initiative, which councilmembers do not support, has played a role in terms of the council’s communications with Johnson. The strong mayor debate “has been a factor in the inability to have full communications,” Tretheway said.

As Johnson moves into his second year, he said jobs will be his key focus. “Everything I do next year will have a lens of job creation in mind,” he said. “Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor lauds Goldman Sachs' work, Cohn sues the bank

2010-02-12T03:55:51Z

A major international bank that has generated controversy on the national level is being welcomed to Sacramento by the city’s mayor. At the same time, Goldman Sachs is being sued by a city councilman.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson’s volunteer arena task force has applauded Goldman for volunteering to work with task force members to analyze proposals for a new entertainment and sports complex.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Steve Cohn is suing Goldman as part of his day job. Cohn is the Chief Assistant General Counsel for the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, which is fighting Goldman in federal court in New York.

SMUD alleges that Goldman and 46 other financial companies together cheated the utilities district on "municipal derivatives," which are complex financial mechanisms.

Goldman’s billions in profits have received attention because the Bush administration gave the company $10 billion during the 2008 bank bailout, according to a New York Times report.

Goldman reimbursed the $10 billion to the federal government last June, the Times reported.

Johnson praised Goldman at a press conference last month, saying the firm could help the city.

“We wanted to negotiate from a task force standpoint from a position of strength,” Johnson said. “So, if Goldman Sachs is one of the best in the country, if I can get them to serve on the task force to evaluate proposals, the city wins.”

Rob Wassmer, a professor of Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento, said that while Goldman is currently volunteering with the task force, the company will likely be interested in future business involving a Sacramento arena and entertainment complex. If a proposal for an arena moves forward, Goldman would likely be interested in working on bond sales and financing, Wassmer said.

Goldman is not volunteering “out of the charity of their heart,” Wassmer said.

Michael DuVally, a Goldman spokesman, declined to answer questions from The Sacramento Press.

While Johnson praises Goldman, SMUD claims the bank has deceived public agencies.

Cohn told The Sacramento Press he was SMUD’s in-house attorney, managing the lawsuit with an outside law firm.

A SMUD press statement explains that the municipal derivatives are “financial products that allow SMUD and other entities to earn money on the unused portion of funds they get from selling bonds.”

The utilities district accuses 47 companies of working together to cheat public agencies. SMUD claims in the press statement that Goldman and 46 other firms “conspired to rig the bidding process for derivatives so they would know beforehand who would win the business of SMUD and other public entities.”

Cohn noted that Goldman’s volunteer work with the task force is not directly related to the SMUD lawsuit. He also pointed out that Goldman is one of many financial companies named in the lawsuit. Other companies being sued by SMUD include Bank of America, AIG, CitiBank and Wells Fargo.

SMUD’s case is now being joined with other cases, Cohn said. “This is a very, very large and complex litigation,” he said.

Cohn said he expects that the case will not see trial for at least one year, and possibly several years.

SMUD sued the financial companies Nov. 12 in federal court in Sacramento. Since then, the case has been moved to New York federal court.

Read SMUD’s Nov. 12 lawsuit here.

Photo of Steve Cohn, Sandy Sheedy and Ray Tretheway by Anthony Bento.

Photo of Johnson by Jonathan Mendick.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Opponents say strong mayor initiative faces lawsuit

2009-12-01T04:02:55Z

A group that opposes the “strong mayor” initiative says that a citizen is challenging the initiative through a lawsuit.

The group SAVE Sacramento announced it will hold a press conference about the lawsuit Tuesday at 10 a.m. at City Hall.

Detailed information about the lawsuit was unavailable at press time.

Mayor Kevin Johnson backs the initiative, which would provide him with many new powers.

Matt Kelly, executive secretary of the Sacramento-Sierra Building and Construction Trades Council, talked about the lawsuit Monday.

Kelly, who is affiliated with SAVE, said the plaintiff is Bill Camp, executive secretary for the Sacramento Central Labor Council. He added that Camp is suing as an individual, not as a representative of the council.

SAVE supports Camp’s efforts, Kelly said.

Camp’s attorney is Lance Olson of Olson, Hagel & Fishburn LLP in Sacramento, according to Kelly.

The lawsuit argues that the city’s charter cannot be revised through the strong mayor initiative because the initiative calls for changes, not amendments, Kelly said. While the charter can be “amended” through an initiative, it cannot be “changed” through a ballot measure, he said.

The strong mayor initiative “is not an amendment,” Kelly said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Read judge's initial ruling against strong mayor initiative

2010-01-14T23:23:38Z

The judge considering a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court over the “strong mayor” initiative has released an initial ruling saying that the initiative should not be placed on the June 2010 ballot. This is not the judge’s final decision on the case.

The strong mayor initiative would give Mayor Kevin Johnson many new powers.

Judge Loren McMaster noted that he analyzed the argument that the public has a right to participate in initiatives.

“The Court recognizes the right of the people to vote on initiative measures,” the judge wrote. “The Court does not lightly dismiss such, and has taken this very important right in consideration in ruling on the matter.”

But the judge wrote that many state Supreme Court rulings have found that revisions to the California Constitution should not be made through an initiative.

“The same legal principle should be applied to revisions to City charters,” the tentative ruling said.

Read the judge’s tentative ruling on the case here.

The case is titled Bill Camp vs. the city of Sacramento, and the text of the ruling is on Item 11 of the document.

Photo of City Manager Ray Kerridge and Mayor Kevin Johnson by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council to decide on new version of permit program

2009-12-12T00:09:08Z

The City Council will discuss Tuesday a new version of a permitting program that became part of the recent debate over the Nestlé’s company’s move to Sacramento. The city shuttered its Facilities Permit Program Oct. 27 to investigate whether the program breaks laws.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert declared recently that the FPP was being used illegally because the city was not directing builders to obtain formal building permits before starting construction work, according to David Kwong, the city’s acting planning division director.

The previous version of the FPP offered businesses -- those that worked with the city on an ongoing basis -- a way to receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, Kwong said last month.

Now, Kwong is presenting the remodeled FPP. One of the main revisions is a rule for formal building permits.

“The original program allowed individuals to start work with an oral or written ‘Authorization to Start Work,’” according to a report that Kwong is presenting to the City Council Tuesday. “The revised program requires that a building permit is issued before work is started as required by city code.”

Kwong plans to start the program again Dec. 16. It will be renamed the Facilitated Permit Program. An in-depth guide to the new program will be drafted by the Community Development Department in January, according to Kwong’s report.

Read the full report on changes to the program under Item 30 at the city's website.

The link between the FPP and Nestlé

Nestlé is setting up a bottling plant in Sacramento with plans to sell tens of millions of gallons of the city’s water. The city used the FPP to approve the bottling plant.

Nestlé’s plans drew protests from a citizen’s group called Save Our Water Sacramento, which opposed the city’s approval of the plant without a public hearing or an environmental impact report.

At the same time, a conflict surfaced over whether a building permit should have been used with Nestlé’s project. City Attorney Eileen Teichert said in October that Nestlé did not break any laws as it worked to build its bottling plant. But her office declared that the FPP involved illegal procedures, Kwong said in November.

Teichert said the city acted illegally because it allowed project construction even though Nestlé and its contractors did not have a building permit.

While Nestlé and its contractors received verbal approval from the city to start building the plant, that type of approval does not meet legal requirements, according to Teichert’s analysis.

Nestlé has said it followed city laws.

Photo by Sacramento Press reporter Suzanne Hurt. Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Court ruling: Strong mayor initiative won't be on June ballot

2010-02-05T04:05:42Z

In a day of twists and turns for the strong mayor initiative, the biggest event was summed up in five words:

“Petition summarily denied by order."

The 3rd District Court of Appeal earlier today published a ruling that prevents the measure from being placed on the June ballot.

This means the Court of Appeal chose not to temporarily halt the Sacramento Superior Court decision that struck down the initiative.

“I’m very disappointed by the decision, and that’s putting it mildly," Mayor Kevin Johnson said in a press statement. "At the same time, I’m inspired like never before to fight for the people of Sacramento. Today, citizens have been denied their right to vote and accountability has been told to wait in line.”

Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative, had asked the appeals court to speed up his appeal. Hiltachk, who was sued by plaintiff Bill Camp in Sacramento Superior Court, said the 3rd District Court of Appeal chose not to move quickly.

“The court’s finding that our appeal does not qualify to be expedited means that we would have to endure the regular appeal process, which can take years in our overloaded court system," Hiltachk said in a press statement. "Sacramento cannot afford to wait years for the courts to act."

Hiltachk indicated that the campaign for the initiative would not end, but he did not explain how it would move forward.

“We will continue to fight for charter reform to bring accountability, responsibility and oversight to city hall," he said.

Before the 3rd District Court of Appeal decision came out in the late afternoon, the campaign for the initiative was in full swing.

Sacramentans for Accountable Government, the group that leads the campaign for the initiative together with Johnson, hosted fundraisers this afternoon.

The admission price to the SAG-sponsored luncheon held at the Cosmo Café was $1,000 per person and $5,000 for each event sponsor.

SAG also held an event at the Crest Theatre featuring Frank Luntz, a Republican consultant and pollster, and Willie Brown, who formerly served as California Assembly Speaker and mayor of San Francisco. The admission price for that event was $100 per person.

Shawn Callahan, campaign manager for Sacramentans for Accountable Government, said Brown and Luntz were not paid to attend the fundraisers. He said about 130 people attended the event at the Crest Theatre.

Callahan also commented on whether the new court decision will affect the fundraising dollars that SAG garnered from today's events. "I don't know that it changes anything," he said. "We're still going to push forward."

At the fundraiser, both Luntz and Brown made comments supporting the strong mayor initiative.

“I served as a mayor of a fairly significant American city,” Brown said. “And I think every person who gets that honor needs the tools to implement programs, projects to do the job of being the mayor.”

A mayor does not have those tools unless he or she can be a strong mayor, he said.

The controversial debate over the initiative emerged at the Crest Theatre event when Brown and Luntz answered questions from audience members.

Oak Park resident Michael Boyd challenged Brown and Luntz on their familiarity with the initiative.

“You’ve convinced me that we should be well-informed voters," he said. "So, I assume you’ve both read this particular initiative in detail. And you’ve both read the charter commission’s report on the initiative. Would I be correct in that?”

Brown directly acknowledged he had not read the initiative. “Not with me you wouldn’t be,” he said, responding to Boyd’s comment.

Luntz indirectly acknowledged he had not read the initiative. He laughed, saying that he was “confirming that the mayor (Brown) has not read it.”

Boyd said Luntz and Brown were encouraging people to support the initiative without having read it.

Brown noted that he does not vote in Sacramento.

“And I don’t even live in your state,” Luntz said. “But I believe that you should have the right to vote on it. And no one should be denied that right to vote.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Gus Vina tapped to be acting city manager

2010-02-24T05:42:37Z

Assistant City Manager Gus Vina has been named the acting city manager of the city of Sacramento.

Departing City Manager Ray Kerridge is leaving March 12.

Mayor Kevin Johnson and the other members of the City Council made the announcement after Tuesday night’s council meeting. The City Council unanimously decided to choose Vina for the assignment.

Vina will be the acting city manager for 30 days, Mayor Kevin Johnson said. He assumes the role at noon on Friday.

Johnson said Vina “stepped up.”

After Vina serves his term as acting city manager, the City Council will appoint an interim city manager.

This means there will be two phases before the City Council appoints a permanent replacement for departing City Manager Ray Kerridge — an acting city manager phase and an interim city manager phase.

Johnson said that the City Council has asked Vina to consider applying for the interim city manager position.

However, Johnson also said that the City Council would evaluate internal as well as external candidates for the interim city manager position.

Once an interim city manager is selected, he or she will likely serve the city for several months, Johnson said.

The City Council predicts that the interim city manager will be at the city until the end of the year, according to Johnson.

Kerridge participated in the decision to select Vina as acting city manager, Johnson said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Johnson talks to residents about strong mayor issue

2009-09-25T05:02:09Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson laid out his reasons for supporting a “strong mayor” form of government at a town hall meeting held Thursday night in Land Park. He said a strong mayor form of government would allow citizens to have more influence over their government than the current City Council/city manager system.

Johnson spoke to a crowd of about 100 people at his former junior high school, California Middle School in Land Park. The meeting was an open forum for residents to ask questions; it was not organized around a particular topic.

Kathi Windheim of the Greenhaven / Pocket neighborhood asked the mayor to address controversial legal issues with the strong mayor initiative. The initiative, which will go on the ballot in June 2010, proposes to change the city’s current system of government to a strong mayor system. “It’s alarming -- the problems with the initiative,” Windheim said.

In response, Johnson made his case in support of the initiative. He said that cities often change to a strong mayor system when they become larger. Several other California cities that are the size of Sacramento have the strong mayor form of government, he pointed out. “When I said Sacramento has a chance to be a world class city, I think this is a tremendous opportunity to do that,” he said. “This is just an evolution.”

Among other arguments, he said that the strong mayor system would give residents more direct influence over city government. He said the city manager runs the city but is unelected. “It’s hard for you as a voter to have your vote count,” he said.

The mayor also took questions from citizens on several other local issues, including homelessness and a proposal to make it legal for residents to have chickens in their yards.

Photo by Jonathan Mendick.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Strong mayor friends, foes react to committee's report

2009-09-19T01:20:11Z

The two opposing camps on the "strong mayor" initiative are remaining consistent in their views as they react to the Sacramento Charter Review Committee's draft recommendations.

The panel recommended Wednesday that the city maintain its existing City Council/city manager system of government rather than adopt a "strong mayor" system. The initiative would expand the mayor's job to include the responsibilities of the city manager. The strong mayor initiative will go before voters in June 2010.

Sacramentans for Accountable Government, the group that created the strong mayor initiative, opposes the 11-member committee’s draft recommendations. "Not surprisingly, the do-nothing Charter Commission did nothing,” said Tom Hiltachk, the attorney who drafted the initiative, which is supported by Mayor Kevin Johnson.

An opponent of the strong mayor initiative, SAVE Sacramento (Support Accountability, Voice, and Ethics in Sacramento), was pleased by the initial report. "SAVE Sacramento applauds the open, inclusive, and well-informed process of the Charter Review Commission," said SAVE founder, Sacramento attorney Anna Molander. "These recommendations were made through public deliberation by a diverse group of Sacramentans - not written in secret by an ultraconservative lawyer and paid for by rich, out-of-town developers.”

The group opposes the strong mayor initiative.

Photo: Anthony Bento

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City eyes state buildings for future tax revenue

2009-10-23T04:38:58Z

City officials are eyeing state buildings in Sacramento as a potential source of local property tax revenue. A public affairs official with the state’s Department of General Services confirmed with The Sacramento Press on Thursday that it is moving forward with plans to sell some state-owned buildings in the city.

Sacramento does not receive property tax from state-owned buildings. But if the crisis-ridden state government sells the buildings it owns to private entities, property tax monies would flow to the city as well as to other local governments, such as the county and school districts, according to Assistant City Manager John Dangberg.

Mayor Kevin Johnson and the city manager support the planned sale. Johnson noted in a phone interview that if the state sold some its buildings, it would help its “cash-flow problem.” There are advantages and disadvantages to being the state capital; one disadvantage is the state’s ownership of some of downtown’s prime real estate, Johnson said.

Dangberg said the state needs to make its own decisions about the economic viability of selling its property. If the state sells its properties, the city “would want to be sure it was done in a manner that would allow us to collect property taxes,” he added.

Dangberg said he has talked about the state’s possible sale of Sacramento properties with Zach Miller, an official in the Real Estate Services Division of the state’s Department of General Services.

The Capitol Area Development Authority’s (CADA) role as a recipient of local property tax revenues adds another dimension to the issue. The city is examining the implications of the state’s possible sale of the Capitol Area East End Complex, which consists of five buildings and a parking facility at Capitol Avenue and N Street. The complex is in CADA’s jurisdiction, Dangberg pointed out. If the state sells the complex, CADA would receive all property tax revenues, he said.

In light of this, the city is trying to figure out if it can receive property taxes in areas under CADA jurisdiction, Dangberg said. He noted that the city provides police and fire services to the CADA area.

The state, meanwhile, appears to be seriously pursuing the sale of 17 buildings. The state plans to lease back the buildings after selling them. “Starting in the new year, we’re planning to market them aggressively,” said Jeffrey Young, deputy public affairs director for the Department of General Services. Details about the state’s plans to sell buildings -- including those in the city and county of Sacramento -- are featured prominently on the department’s website.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Initiative could cut retirement funds for city employees

2009-12-15T03:40:57Z

A sweeping proposal to cut costs at government agencies statewide could cut into the retirement benefits of new city employees in Sacramento, according to the initiative’s author.

The proposal, which would tighten employees' retirement benefits, comes from the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility. Citrus Heights accountant Marcia Fritz, the proposal's author, wrote in an e-mail that the initiative’s rules would apply to new Sacramento city employees and all other new government personnel starting July 1, 2011. She said she aims to put the proposal on the November 2010 ballot.

The initiative states that benefits for current public employees would not change.

Raising funds for the initiative campaign is the foundation's "main challenge," Fritz said.

It's unclear at this point how the proposal could affect future city of Sacramento employees. City spokeswoman Amy Williams said, "While staff has done a quick read of this proposed initiative language, we are not prepared to comment on possible impacts to this organization."

Fritz has issued two proposals on the subject. She explained in a Nov. 6 statement: “The initiatives are identical except for the voter requirement that allows agencies to increase benefits for new workers. [The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility] plans to poll voters to determine which version they prefer.”

The initiative includes the restriction that “a new employee’s annual average base wage shall be based on no greater than the highest annual average wage of the employee over a period of three consecutive years of employment by a public agency.”

The proposal also includes restrictions on retiree health benefits.

Meanwhile, Jon Coupal, president of the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, expressed mild support for the initiative. An advisory panel member for Fritz’s group, Coupal called the proposal “rather modest.” “There’s some criticism by some that it doesn’t go far enough.”

Still, Coupal said, the Howard Jarvis group is likely to back the measure.

The proposal has to go through many steps before it can qualify for the November 2010 election. The proposal now is receiving a summary and title from the state attorney general’s office, after which it will move to the secretary of state’s office.

The campaign then can start gathering signatures in support of the proposal, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Backers must gather 694,354 signatures to qualify the initiative for an election because it would bring about a constitutional amendment.

Read the first and second versions of the proposed initiative.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Economy slows city planning projects

2009-11-14T03:32:04Z

The poor economy is causing city departments to delay work on planning projects in several areas, including historic preservation and code enforcement.

The planning projects being slowed by the economy are outlined in the city’s “general plan” for 2030. The general plan is used as a roadmap for city growth. In March, the City Council approved the 2030 general plan.

Staffers from the Community Development Department presented a Nov. 10 report to the City Council on the general plan. It notes that city departments are having mixed results with implementing projects in the general plan. Projects that were completely funded are going well, according to the report. “Staff has reported progress, near completion, or completion on a number of measures,” it states. “This early success is attributed to projects that were already in process and fully funded at the time of the General Plan’s adoption.”

The city is making headway on its climate change plan, the report says. Staffers are examining "strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the city's internal operations."

But the troubled economy is slowing other projects that were slotted to be finished by 2011. “Although there has been a lot of activity in implementing the General Plan, many departments reported that the recent economic downturn has limited their resources, and as a result, some of the implementation measures will not be completed as soon as initially was hoped, or even be completed by the 2011 goal.”

A planning study on historic preservation “will not be conducted in the immediate future due to limited resources,” according to the report.

And in code enforcement, the city is delaying work on a plan to deal with dangerous buildings.

“Due to limited resources, the development of a comprehensive survey of older buildings and places of public assembly, and the strategy that would address structures that are determined to be unsafe, has been postponed,” the report states.

Read the city’s 2030 General Plan annual report here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Downtown Sac / West Sac streetcar plan slowly chugs along

2009-05-06T05:52:00Z

The Sacramento City Council will keep working on its plan to set up a streetcar that will, when completed, travel between downtown West Sacramento and downtown Sacramento.

However, most details about how the three-year-old plan would work are not settled.

Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to keep working on the plan, which is known as the Downtown/Riverfront Streetcar Project.

“By doing this, we’re recommitting not just to a streetcar, but to do a starter line between Central City and West Sacramento,” said Councilman Steve Cohn. “I think it’s been something that’s a regional priority, and one that the city certainly wants to be a part of.”

The exact route and alignment for the streetcar needs to be analyzed, he added.

West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said his city wanted to keep working with Sacramento on the project, which he called “a signature project for our two cities and the region.”

A city staff report notes that “several policy issues arose regarding the route alignment and project financing” during the past 18 months.

The cities have been examining a draft financial plan that states the project will have $69 million in capital costs.

In addition, business and development representatives have weighed in on the issue of the streetcar’s route. The staff report states that business groups “are concerned that the proposed route does not provide a connection to key development sites in Sacramento.”

Al Bulf of Sacramento urged the City Council to press ahead on the project. “I hope we’ll move past the inertia of doing more studies,” he said.

Specifically, the City Council pledged Tuesday to keep developing the streetcar plan by approving a new agreement with West Sacramento, the Yolo County Transportation District (YCTD) and Regional Transit (RT).

The agreement sets up a policy committee that will decide how the project will work.

Members of the committee will include council members from both Sacramento and West Sacramento, members of the “local community or business and development interests,” and representatives from YCTD and RT, according to the city staff report.

The committee will plan the project’s goals, scope, milestones, schedule and financing, the report also states.

"Strong Mayor" campaign brings signatures to City Hall

2009-06-27T01:45:26Z

Friday, the group organizing the campaign to provide Sacramento’s mayor with more power delivered to City Hall signatures of residents who favor a “strong mayor” city government. The paperwork that contained the signatures filled 13 boxes, said acting city spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson.

The idea of changing Sacramento’s current “council-manager” system to a “strong mayor” format continues to be controversial. The group, Sacramentans for Accountable Government, brought signatures to City Hall to meet requirements to put the “strong mayor” proposal on an upcoming ballot. Mayor Kevin Johnson supports the "strong mayor" campaign.

At the same time, the city’s Charter Review Committee is examining the “strong mayor” idea.

The total number of signatures must be 15 percent of the city’s registered voters. Staffers at the City Clerk’s office will now count the signatures. After that, the signatures will be verified by the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters. The City Council will then decide when the proposal will go before voters.

Thomas Hiltachk, an attorney with the group, was not immediately available to return phone calls Friday afternoon.

The campaign said it had gathered more than over 45,000 signatures, according to The Sacramento Bee.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert explored the issues raised by the "strong mayor" campaign in February reports to the City Council.

Teichert noted that the proposal would give Johnson numerous powers. “A true strong mayor system grants its mayor budgetary powers, appointment and removal powers, management of day-to-day city affairs, power to propose legislation and veto power,” Teichert wrote. “The Strong Mayor Initiative includes each of these powers and more.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Election money: Understanding the city's public financing program

2010-03-04T05:56:01Z

For the past six years, $300,000 in city funds has remained untouched. The city currently has that amount in its public financing pot for City Council and mayoral candidates to use in their campaigns, according to Assistant City Clerk Stephanie Mizuno.

But Rick Bettis, an active member of the Sacramento County League of Women Voters, said he thinks that many people don’t know the city’s public financing money exists.

“It doesn’t really jump out at you,” Bettis said.

Since the public fund was set up in 2003, only one candidate has used the money, according to Mizuno. In 2004, Craig DeLuz, a City Council candidate in District 2, used about $17,000 in public campaign funds, Mizuno said.

In Bettis’ view, public financing takes campaigns “out of the hands of the big contributors.”

Common Cause and the League of Women Voters urged the city years ago to set up the fund and enact other campaign finance and public disclosure measures, Bettis said.

Mizuno noted that the city has kept $300,000 in its public finance pot each year since it was established, with the exception of 2008. That year, a portion of the funds were used to pay for some of the city’s election costs, Mizuno said. But no one qualified for public financing in 2008, she said, which meant that it was not being used.

How does the city’s public financing program work?

A City Council candidate needs to follow specific criteria to use the public funds. The candidate must abide by an $88,000 spending cap, engage in one public meeting and turn in certain forms. In addition, the candidate is told to gather $7,500 for his or her campaign, according to the city’s guide to public campaign funds. In order for a candidate to use funds, his or her opponent needs to also be eligible to use public money.

A City Council candidate can receive as much as $35,200 in public matching funds for his or her campaign, according to the city document.

The amounts for mayoral candidates differ from the figures above.

Read the city’s guide to the public financing process here.

What is the fate of the program?

The city’s public financing fund has been in local headlines lately because Councilman Steve Cohn has raised the idea of putting the money toward other uses. The city is facing a $35 million-$40 million budget deficit for the 2010/2011 fiscal year, according to a Feb. 11 report.

Cohn’s comment about diverting the funds raised the ire of building contractor Shawn Eldredge, who is opposing Cohn in the City Council race for District 3. Eldredge noted in a Feb. 20 press release that he wants to use the public money. Real estate broker Chris Little is also running for the District 3 seat.

Cohn said in a Feb. 26 Sacramento Bee story that he did not know Eldredge intended to use the funds.

Photo of Shawn Eldredge by David Watts Barton.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Budget: City in talks with firefighters

2009-04-29T05:20:30Z

A city official said Tuesday he was optimistic about current efforts to save Sacramento $5 million and 50 jobs through negotiations with the local firefighters’ union.

Gus Vina, a Sacramento assistant city manager, said the city is currently in talks with the Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522.

The city government is trying to convince the firefighters’ union to give up pay increases scheduled for July.

Vina said the city and the firefighters’ union are engaged in “very productive” discussions.

If the firefighters’ union does not give up its pay increases, Vina said the city will need to lay off 50 department employees. The positions could come from any of the following types of firefighting jobs: firefighters, captains or the operators who drive the fire trucks.

But if the union makes concessions, Vina said, the city will save $5 million and won’t need to make the cuts.

Meanwhile, Chris Harvey, spokesman for the firefighters’ union, said the union disagrees with the city’s assessment that it will need to lay off 50 firefighters. Harvey called the figure of 50 layoffs “arbitrary.” He said that if 10 people from the department retire, the city wouldn’t have to lay off 50 people.

In addition to the discussion of whether the firefighters will give up scheduled pay increases, Harvey said the union is also discussing other issues with the city.

It does not necessarily mean that if Vina is happy, then the “union is prepared to give back the raises,” Harvey said.

But Harvey also said the union is happy that the attitude from both parties in the negotiations has been positive.

The city and Local 522 have not always had the best relationship, Harvey noted. If nothing else, the tone of the current negotiations is much better than past negotiations, he said.

Sacramento’s deficit is about $50 million. The city will release its proposed 2009/2010 budget Friday. It must approve a final budget by June 30.

Vina estimated that the city still needs to cut about 300 positions in city government in order to address its budget problems.

He said he hopes to complete negotiations with all city unions by the end of May.

If management convinces all eight of the city’s labor unions to make concessions, the city may only need to cut 150 positions, Vina said.
He pointed out that the city currently has a volunteer separation program in which employees accept buyouts.

The employee buyouts are part of the city’s strategy to further reduce the number of layoffs it may make, according to Vina.

So, Vina said, the number may be even lower than 150.

The city is asking the non-emergency services unions to give up pay increases, as well as for employees to take one furlough day per month, according to Vina.

City Manager Ray Kerridge wrote in an April 3 letter to employees that layoff notifications will take place in early June.

Joan Bryant, director of public employees for the Stationary Engineers, which includes a local union chapter for Sacramento workers, said the union has been talking with city management about the magnitude of the city’s budget deficit and management’s expectations for workers.

She said the union needs to gather more information to make sure it will act in the best interests of its members and the city.

Asked if the union’s members might be willing to give up pay increases and start a once-per-month furlough, Bryant said the union will look at all of those options.

She said the union was waiting to receive information from the city. Once the union gets the information it needs, it will have a better idea of what it will decide, she added.

At this point, one union has made concessions to the city. The police department’s union, the Sacramento Police Officers Association, chose to give up its July salary increases, Vina said. As a result, the city will not cut police officers, he noted.

Utilities director comments on rates, proposed ballot measure

2010-02-12T02:04:59Z

Utilities Department Director Marty Hanneman said Thursday that a new ballot proposal would hurt the city’s ability to provide utilities services. The Sacramento Taxpayers League has proposed a ballot measure that aims to block a 9.2 percent city utilities rate increase.

Hanneman did not comment on the proposal Wednesday, saying through a spokeswoman that he had not yet read it. However, he sent a lengthy e-mailed response to The Sacramento Press Thursday.

Read Hanneman’s response to the ballot proposal below:

The Department of Utilities has the following response based upon an initial review of the proposed language. The City Attorney's Office and others are conducting additional reviews to determine what if any other impacts, including those to the General Fund there might be.

*We take how rate payer funds are used very seriously and we know and understand that rate increases are difficult for many in our community. However rate increases are necessary to sustain our current water, sewer, drainage and solid waste services.

*Just as our customers have noticed an increase in their everyday costs for electricity and fuel, we too have faced those burdens. Additionally, we face increased costs for chemicals, labor, and state and federally mandated programs, such as water meters, and compliance with our permits to operate our water, storm drainage and sewer systems.

*To date, the Department has cut 50 positions, among them were 38 lay-offs, most employees have taken furloughs, and the department has drastically cut discretionary spending.

*The Department's water and sewer funds have little to no operating reserve and the solid waste fund is actually negative. In recent years, fund reserves were used to offset rate increases and to cover increasing costs of service.

*A study commissioned by the City Council by Management Partners has concluded that the City's utility funds are woefully underfunded and that the City has significant infrastructure needs. Without significant increases, Management Partners reported to the City Council today that the Utility Funds and Infrastructure needs pose a "significant threat" to the General Fund.

*To keep rates static at today's rate and to limit future rate increases to CPI would mean drastic cuts to the Utilities services. It may result in:

--Remaining reserve funds being decimated.

--The capital improvement program that rehabilitates and replaces water, sewer, and drainage infrastructure facing severe cuts and possible disbandment. This will mean that infrastructure will be allowed to fail, customers would face impacts of being without water, sewer or drainage service as preventative rehabilitation or replacement work will not have occurred.

--Further reductions to garbage, recycling, and yard waste collection service to every other week or even monthly service.

--Additional layoffs of additional Utilities staff at various levels. 

Council reacts to investigation of Natomas building permits

2010-01-27T06:54:39Z

A Sacramento city councilwoman said Sacramento’s municipal government has “gone wrong.” A second councilwoman blamed high-level city staff. And a councilman suggested that the city consider setting up a whistleblower hotline.

During an intense meeting Tuesday night, the Sacramento City Council grappled with an investigation involving the city’s community development department.

Council members wrestled with findings from an investigation into the department’s approval last year of 35 permits in a Natomas flood zone. The investigation was carried out by City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office and a third-party law firm, Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai.

In a recent report, the offices of the city attorney and city manager note that the department broke federal rules by approving the permits.

The report also points out several new issues with the building services division of the department. The issues include “potential quid pro quo,” “demolition without CEQA review,” “non-compliance with city’s planning requirements” and “non-compliance with fee-deferral program.”

The City Council unanimously decided Tuesday to move quickly to hire an external auditor to investigate the department.

“This council needs to find out what has gone wrong with city government, and we need to fix it,” Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond blamed the department’s management.

“The problem is the management of the department,” she said.

Councilman Kevin McCarty raised the idea of a whisteblower hotline for the city.

Courtney McAlister, an attorney for K. Hovnanian Homes, the company that received the 35 permits, said there was no “quid pro quo” involving the company and the city. Assistant City Manager John Dangberg made the same comment.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Following the money: City Council campaign contributions

2010-02-15T19:31:00Z

The Sacramento Press is reviewing campaign contributions for the candidates in June's City Council race. Here is a breakdown of the main contributions to the candidates in Districts 1 and 3 from July to December 2009. The July to December figures provide the most recent information on campaign contributions for City Council candidates.

Look for the list of key contributors for Districts 5 and 7 on Tuesday in The Sacramento Press.

DISTRICT 1

Angelique Ashby, City Council candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $26,452

Top five contributors, July to December 2009:

Sacramento Police Officers Association: $2,550
Ken Stevenson, auditor: $1,500
Molly Fling, retiree: $1,500
Shandra Arredondo, homemaker: $1,500
Sacramento County Probation Association PAC: $1,000

Efren Guttierrez, City Council candidate

Monetary contributions for 2009: $100

Single contribution in 2009:

Crescent Vellucci, self-employed: $100

Ray Tretheway, City Council incumbent

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $79,278

Top five contributors, July to December 2009:

California State Pipe Trades Council PAC: $5,000
Plumbers & Steamfitters Local No. 467: $5,000
California Real Estate PAC: $2,500
United Association Journeyman Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 343: $2,500
AT&T California Employee PAC: $2,500

DISTRICT 3

Shawn Eldredge, City Council candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $2,275

Top contributors, July to December 2009:

Friends of Joe Canciamilla for Attorney General 2010: $750
Heller Pacific, Inc.: $500
Tom Kurowski, clinical social worker: $300
Bobbin Mulvaney, caterer, restaurant owner: $250

Eldredge received $100 each from the following contributors from July to December 2009:

Marsha Tipton, office manager
Law Offices of Lori D. Calvert
Leslie Hill, personnel specialist
Celine Donaldson, research program specialist

Chris Little, City Council candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $11,975

Top contributors, July to December 2009:

Phyllis Hayashi, real estate agent: $1,500
Robert Eddleman, retired: $1,000
Greg Levi, real estate broker: $1,000

Little received $500 each from the following contributors from July to December 2009:

James Hastings, retired
Michael Yates, insurance broker
Melanie Conover, real estate agent
Joan Gann, retired
Timothy Mickiewicz, dentist
Denny Powell, administrator
Joe Reeves, CEO of Smile Business Products

Steve Cohn, City Council incumbent

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $50,585

Top contributor:

California Real Estate PAC and Board of Realtors PAC: $2,500

Cohn received 16 contributions totaling $1,500 each from July to December 2009:

A. Teichert & Son, Inc.
Alleghany Properties LLC
James Bright, partner at Bright & Brown
Maureen Bright, partner at Bright & Brown
C.F.Y. Development, Inc.
Chesapeake Investment Co. LLC
Law Offices of Remy, Thomas, Moose and Manley, LLP
Law Offices of Tina A. Thomas
Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc
Diepenbrock Harrison, A Professional Corporation
Fourth Quarter Properties 100, L1
Hurley Construction, Inc.
Paragary Family Trust
Sacramento Natural Gas Storage, LLC
Taylor & Wiley, A Professional Corporation
Yellow Cab Co. of Sacramento

Committee supports current council/manager system

2009-09-17T23:09:41Z

The city’s Charter Review Committee has released its draft recommendations on the “strong mayor” issue. It suggests that the city maintain its current council/manager form of government.

Read the committee’s draft recommendations here.

The committee’s draft recommends that the mayor should continue to serve as a voting member of the City Council. The mayor would not have the ability to veto the City Council’s decisions, according to the draft report. “The separation of an executive mayor tends to diminish the authority that is very clear in the City Council and the unified accountability in a parliamentary system (unified executive and legislative branches) is highly desirable,” the committee’s report states.

However, the committee recommends changing the process for how the city manager is hired. The committee suggests that the mayor would appoint the city manager. A majority of the City Council would need to approve the mayor’s candidate for city manager.

Right now, the City Council appoints the city manager.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Click for larger version

Labor, religious groups back youth jobs measure

2010-01-20T03:51:37Z

A proposed measure to fund jobs and other services for young people in Sacramento is being supported by a coalition of labor and religious groups and some local elected officials.

A $29 annual tax on parcels of property in the city would be set up to pay for programs provided through Youth Jobs and Opportunity Act. Property owners would be charged the tax.

The proposed initiative could appear on the November ballot. Supporters say they intend to collect 30,000 signatures from residents. Proponents say several kinds of programs could be funded through the program, including after-school programs, apprenticeships and street outreach services.

Groups supporting the proposal include the Yes to Youth Coalition, Sacramento Area Congregations Together, the Sacramento Central Labor Council and the Urban League of Sacramento.

Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson and City Councilman Kevin McCarty, who are running against each other for Assemblyman Dave Jones’ seat, both spoke in favor of the initiative at a Tuesday press conference.

Addressing reporters at the Asian Resources One-Stop Career Center on Broadway, Dickinson said the initiative could help cut youth violence.

“As a member of the Board of Supervisors, I understand just how expensive it is — over $90,000 a year — to keep a young person in juvenile hall,” Dickinson said.

McCarty said it was “imperative” to invest in youth through the initiative.

Councilman Ray Tretheway also backs the proposed initiative, said Alicia Ross, executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together.

Amanda Ramos, who graduated from Kennedy High School last year, told reporters that she gained job skills while participating in a local summer program at a Boys and Girls Club branch.

“I want other young people to have the same opportunities that I got,” Ramos said.

Young people ages 11 to 25 would participate in the programs. Funding would be doled out in three ways. Youth jobs and job training would receive at least 40 percent of the dollars. Programs for at-risk youth would receive at least 20 percent of the funding. At least 20 percent of the money would pay for programs to help students with their academic skills.

Read the full text of the proposal here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Union leaders back lawsuit against strong mayor

2009-12-02T05:49:57Z

In a sign that the opposing camp to the “strong mayor” initiative has significant union support, three local union leaders turned out for a Tuesday press conference to support a new lawsuit against the initiative.

The group SAVE Sacramento, which is chaired by local union leader Matt Kelly, is publicizing a lawsuit that aims to take the strong mayor initiative off the June 2010 ballot.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Bill Camp, the executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council. Camp filed the lawsuit as a private citizen — he is not representing the labor council in the legal battle. The defendants named in the lawsuit are the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative.

The lawsuit contends that the initiative would illegally make changes — not amendments — to the city’s charter.

“We believe this poorly conceived and badly written measure is not only bad public policy but it is an illegal power grab that exceeds the bounds of what is allowed under the California Constitution,” Kelly said at the press conference, held outside City Hall.

Mayor Kevin Johnson, who leads the initiative campaign, would have many new responsibilities if voters approve the initiative. In a strong mayor position, Johnson would attain the responsibilities of the city manager and create the city’s budget.

A divided City Council in August voted to place the initiative on the June 2010 ballot. The city currently uses a council/manager system. City Manager Ray Kerridge’s many powers include the ability to draft recommendations for the city’s budget and hire department directors.

Also appearing with Kelly and Camp at Tuesday’s press conference was Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Stationary Engineers Local 39. The union represents a wide variety of workers in numerous city departments, including code enforcement, parks and recreation, parking enforcement and the solid waste division.

Camp said before the press conference that it was clear the initiative would make changes to city government that are greater than what is allowed to be defined as an “amendment.” Amendments can legally be made through a ballot initiative, but changes cannot be made through that vehicle, Camp argues.

“I mean, this is a whole reorganization of the city government,” he said.

Lance Olson, Camp’s attorney, claimed that the initiative violates Article 11 of the California Constitution. Olson said the strong mayor initiative proponents did not follow the legal process for making changes to the city charter.

Since the Sacramento Central Labor Council had endorsed Johnson’s candidacy for mayor, Camp is now opposing the initiative of the mayor his group had once supported.

“There’s a difference between us supporting [Johnson] ... and taking this idea and saying, you know what, this is a bad idea,” Camp said.

The labor council still supports Johnson, Camp said, but disagrees with the initiative.

Reacting to the announcement of the lawsuit, Johnson said he was very disappointed. The lawsuit will take away scarce resources from the city and the taxpayers will have to pay the bill, he said.

“I do not think that’s in the best interest of the community,” he said.

Johnson also commented on the labor unions’ support of the lawsuit against the initiative. “I wish that wasn’t the case,” he said, adding that he thinks labor would “benefit immensely” as a result of changing the city’s governance structure.

Other supporters of the lawsuit who appeared at the press conference included Anna Molander, the chair of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County; Anne Rudin, former mayor of Sacramento; Bernard Bowler, former chair of the board of the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce; and Joe Goeden, former West Sacramento City Manager.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Attorney defends strong mayor initiative before judge

2010-01-16T01:55:28Z

A lawyer defending the “strong mayor” initiative made arguments Friday in an effort to convince a judge to throw out a draft ruling against the initiative. Judge Loren McMaster heard arguments from lawyers representing the plaintiff and defendants at Sacramento County Superior Court but did not issue a final ruling Friday.

McMaster did not announce when he would release his final decision. He issued a tentative ruling Thursday that said the initiative should not be placed on the June ballot.

Bill Camp is the plaintiff who is challenging the initiative through a lawsuit. Camp, the executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, filed the lawsuit as an individual.

The defendants in the case are the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative.

In the strong mayor government defined in the initiative, Mayor Kevin Johnson would gain the city manager’s powers and create the city’s budget.

Hiltachk did not attend Friday’s hearing. He was represented by attorney James Harrison of San Leandro law firm Remcho, Johansen and Purcell LLP.

Camp argues in the lawsuit that the initiative bypasses state law because it would create changes to the city’s charter. While an initiative can be used to amend a city charter, it can’t be used to make sweeping changes, Camp argues.

That point was debated at Friday’s hearing. “If the voters have particular changes in mind, amendment is the way by which they make them,” Harrison said. “And that’s precisely what they’re trying to accomplish here.”

But McMaster responded that voters also have the ability to vote on changes to a government structure if a charter commission, made up of local citizens, is used in the process. “So this argument that I’m somehow depriving people of a vote is hogwash,” he said.

Harrison said that the initiative “does not amount to a revision.”

Addressing McMaster, Lance Olson, Camp’s attorney, said: “We obviously agree with the court’s conclusions and its reasoning.”

Harrison said after the hearing that the case involves voters’ rights. “We’re pleased that (McMaster) took the matter under submission and that he’s going to give serious consideration to the right of the voters to propose amendments to their own charter and to provide for how they want their government to run,” Harrison said.

Olson had an opposing view. “(McMaster) understands very clearly that this has nothing to do with taking rights away from the voters,” Olson said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond outlines goals for the city

2010-01-10T00:09:54Z

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond has the local economy on her mind. Two of her top three goals for 2010 relate to jobs and business.

Hammond said her top goal for the year will be to seek passage of her initiative to give local companies an advantage over non-local companies when bidding for city contracts. Her other goal related to the economy is to save city jobs and services, which will be her third-highest priority of the year.

Hammond, who represents several neighborhoods including Curtis Park, Hollywood Park and Oak Park, is running for Assemblyman Dave Jones’ seat against her City Council colleague Kevin McCarty. Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson is also running for the seat.

Hammond’s proposal would provide bidding preferences on city contracts for businesses located in the city and county. Under her proposal, businesses located in the city would receive a 5 percent discount on their bids; those in the county would have a discount of 2.5 percent. She said her plan is expected to be discussed later this month at a meeting of the city’s Law and Legislation Committee.

Hammond, as well as councilmembers Sandy Sheedy, Robbie Waters and Kevin McCarty sit on the committee, which examines proposed ordinances. The committee will decide if Hammond’s proposal will be considered by the City Council.

Hammond said she’s making the proposal a priority “because our businesses here in Sacramento aren’t getting business from the city of Sacramento.”

“I just think that is patently unfair,” she said.

Asked if she thinks there are challenges to getting her proposal approved, Hammond said, “I’m sure. This is an election year.” She declined to elaborate.

Hammond said her second priority in 2010 will involve a controversial development proposal in Curtis Park. “I’d like a final resolution on the Curtis Park Village proposal,” she said. “And I don’t know what means: a project that’s completed, or a project that doesn’t get done.”

The Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association has frequently objected to the details of developer Paul Petrovich’s plan to build a residential and commercial project in the neighborhood.

The debate over the proposal has gone on for years, Hammond said. A second mediation process over the proposed development will begin soon, she said. “And my hope is, in the end, there will be a product that everyone can support.”

Hammond’s third goal will be to preserve city jobs and services in a harsh budget year. She noted that the city doesn’t have any more revenue than it did last year. “My goal this year is to keep as many jobs as we possibly can," she said, "which will maintain those programs and services that the citizens of Sacramento have grown accustomed to."

She said maintaining public safety will the top priority. “Well, of course, we have to look at public safety first, but all of the jobs in the city of Sacramento are important,” she said.

The Sacramento Press is publishing a series on the 2010 goals of city councilmembers. Read about Councilman Steve Cohn’s 2010 goals here.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Voters to decide "strong mayor" issue in June 2010

2009-08-07T05:41:48Z

The contentious debate over whether Sacramento’s mayor should gain more power continues, with a divided City Council voting to put the issue on the ballot in June 8, 2010.

This means that Sacramento voters will decide at that time whether to change Sacramento’s current “council-manager” system to a “strong mayor” format.

The 5/4 vote came after a lengthy and tense discussion among councilmembers, with Councilmembers Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty and Bonnie Pannell voting against putting it on the June 8 ballot.

The council was debating when to place the controversial issue on the ballot for voters.

To put a strong mayor form of government into effect, voters would need to change the city’s charter. The charter is similar to a constitution, according to city officials.

The campaign, Sacramentans for Accountable Government, successfully brought the issue before voters through a petition drive. Mayor Kevin Johnson backs the campaign. The Sacramento County Registrar of Voters recently approved the campaign’s signatures -- it declared that the campaign received the required 32,433 signatures. The City Council then chose a date to put the “strong mayor” on the ballot.

Mayor Kevin Johnson pushed for the June 8 date. “People out there want to vote on June 8, 2010, and I think we should respect your wishes,” he said.

Councilman Rob Fong said that citizens have not had “a sufficient chance to weigh in.”

Meanwhile, the city’s Charter Committee is still analyzing the “strong mayor” issue. The committee was not scheduled to complete its review of the "strong mayor" issue until January. However, the Council also voted Thursday to move up the timeline for the committee’s work. The committee will now be asked to complete its analysis before Dec. 1.

The City Council had other choices: It could have voted to put the issues before voters on Nov. 3 at the earliest. It also could choose other election years between 2009 and 2012.

Opponents and proponents of the strong mayor form of government addressed the City Council -- a total of 30 citizens presented their arguments.

Devin Lavelle, communications chair of Democratic Party of Sacramento County, urged the City Council to wait for the city’s Charter Commission to present its findings. He said it was much more important “to get the job done right than to get it done quickly.”

The intent of the people who voted to place the “strong mayor” initiative on the ballot was to qualify for the earliest ballot, said Thomas Hiltachk, an attorney representing Sacramentans for Accountable Government.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council softens policy on leaks, confidentiality

2010-02-24T06:15:03Z

The Sacramento City Council has backed away from a proposed rule stating that city employees could be fired for leaking confidential information. Instead, the City Council approved a new policy Tuesday that would apply only to council members.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert wrote both proposals. The Feb. 2 version of the rule stated that an “employee disclosing or causing to be disclosed confidential information to any unauthorized person may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

But the City Council decided Tuesday to restrict the scope of the policy to council members. Council members who leak confidential information can face punishment, according to the policy. The specific punishment is public censure, which is akin to a reprimand.

“Any council member disclosing or causing to be disclosed confidential information to any unauthorized person may be subject to public censure by the City Council,” the policy states.

Before a council member can be publicly reprimanded for leaking confidential information, several steps must be taken. The policy states that the council member in question must have been “provided with notice of the accusation and facts underlying such accusation, and an opportunity to be heard.”

Teichert said she received feedback from council members that they didn’t want to “squelch” employees’ rights to be whistleblowers. She did not specify how many council members asked for the proposed rule to be softened.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy has expressed her views on the original proposed rule publicly. She said at the Feb. 2 City Council meeting that the proposal would have a “chilling effect” on whistleblowers.

Councilman Robbie Waters in January started the council’s discussion on a confidentiality rule. At a Jan. 25 City Council meeting, Waters said he wanted Teichert to define the term “confidentiality” in legal terms. He asked Teichert to include moral and “punitive” information in her legal definition of the term.

The new policy that council members unanimously approved Tuesday will not be in the City Council's Rules of Procedure, Teichert said after the meeting. She described the new language on confidentiality as a policy, not a rule.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council campaign contributions for Districts 5, 7

2010-02-17T04:06:37Z

The Sacramento Press is reviewing campaign contributions for the candidates in June's City Council race. Here is a breakdown of the main contributions to the candidates in Districts 5 and 7 from July to December 2009. Read our guide to campaign contributions for Districts 1 and 3 here.

The June 8 election covers four City Council seats for Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7. The July to December figures provide the most recent information on campaign contributions for City Council candidates. The next deadline for candidates to submit statements listing their contributions is March 17, according to Assistant City Clerk Stephanie Mizuno. Those statements will list contributions from Jan. 1 to March 12.

Campaign contribution statements are published at the city’s online campaign finance system.

DISTRICT 5

Henry Harry, City Council candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $508.92

Top contributors, July to December 2009:

Felix Luna, law enforcement occupation: $100
Tony Brown, self-employed: $200

Terrence Johnson, City Council Candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $8,830

Top contributors, July to December 2009:

Mulleian Investments, LLC: $500
Ronald Emslie, retired: $200
King Smith, restaurant owner: $200

Patrick Kennedy, City Council candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $96,339.26

Top Contributors from July to December 2009

Kennedy received eight contributions of $5,000 each during the July to December 2009 timeframe:

California State Pipe Trades Council Political Action Fund
Pipe Trades District Council #36 Political Action Committee
Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 447 Federal Political Action Fund
Plumbers & Steamfitters Local No. 467 Political Action Fund
Sacramento Builders Exchange Political Action Committee
Southern California Pipe Trades District Council #16 Political Action Committee
U.A. Local #246 Plumbers & Fitters COPE Committee
United Association Journeyman Plumbers & Steamfitters Local No. 343 Political Action Committee

Jay Schenirer, City Council candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $69,512

Top contributor, July to December 2009:

AT&T California Employee Political Action Committee: $3,000

Schenirer received $1,500 each from the following contributors from July to December 2009:

John Adkisson, attorney
Eli Broad, founder of The Broad Foundation
Marcine Friedman, retired
O’Connell 2006
Dale Shimasaki, president of Capitol Impact

DISTRICT 7

Ryan Chin, City Council candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $76,525

Chin received $1,500 each from the following contributors during the July to December 2009 timeframe:

Garret Chong, not employed
Kristen Chong, not employed
Richard Ikeda, program director
Jone Lau, Realtor
Phillip Lee, not employed
Janet Louie, administration assistant
Leanne Lui, tutor
Anthony Wong, engineer
Irene Wong, legal assistant

Darrell Fong, City Council candidate

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $57,241

Top contributor from July to December 2009:

VOICE: $2,000

Fong received $1,500 each from the following contributors during the July to December 2009 timeframe:

Derrick Fong, CEO of restaurant group
Frances Fong, retired
Karen Fong, analyst
Mark Friedman, president of Fulcrum Properties
Friends of Fong 2008
Edward Lee, health administration occupations
Jeffery Owensby, attorney
Plaza Hof Brau, Inc.
Sylvia Tang, staff director
William K. Wong, consultant

Robbie Waters, City Council incumbent

Total monetary contributions for 2009: $159,300

Waters’ campaign committee also took out $11,000 in loans. His campaign had a total of $170,300 on Dec. 31, 2009.

Top contributors from July to December 2009:

Western Electrical Contractors Association: $3,500
Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs Association: $3,000
Sacramento Police Officers Association: $2,500

Waters received $1,500 each from dozens of contributors from July to December 2009. Here are 15 of them:

Second Opinion, Inc.
Kern Schumacher, developer
Lewis Investment Company
Gregory Thatch
Alleghany Properties, Inc.
Capitol Casino
Frank Ramos, business owner
Frank & Patti Stathos, real estate developers
Townsend, Raimundo, Besler and Usher, Inc.
Yellow Cab Company of Sacramento
Steven Moore, business owner
Peter Bollinger Investment Company
Sacramento Natural Gas Storage, LLC
Paul Snider, car dealership owner
Angelo Tsakopoulos, developer

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

R.E. Graswich on why he left journalism for City Hall

2009-08-21T02:48:28Z

Sacramento journalist R.E. Graswich is not sad to leave his 37-year journalism career for a new job as special assistant to Mayor Kevin Johnson.

“I figure I got one last shot in life here to do something worthwhile as opposed to what you guys do,” he joked while addressing reporters Tuesday.

Graswich, 54, left a 35-year career at The Sacramento Bee in 2007. In the two years following his departure from the Bee, he took up “wonderful chances” to work as a co-anchor at KFBK and commentator at KOVR CBS 13, he said. Now, though, he wants to work in the political arena. This is his first week working as a staffer at City Hall in the special assistant position with a salary of $80,000.

At Johnson’s office, Graswich will hold several roles. He will be a point-man in negotiations and discussions between the City Council and Johnson. While he won’t be the mayor’s contact for the media, he said he will provide assistance on communications issues and strategies. Graswich will work on policy issues relating to both K Street development and public safety in the city. In addition, he will work with community members on behalf of Johnson’s office.

Graswich told The Sacramento Press in an interview in downtown Sacramento on Wednesday that he achieved his goals as a Bee columnist covering city issues. “I ended up writing what I think was the top column in town. It was the most popular, the most widely-read column.” Additionally, he spent several years writing a sports column.

He also wanted to leave the Bee because he felt it had changed for the worse. “When you look at the decline of the traditional media -- and the Bee in particular -- I just didn’t want to stay around and watch that,” he said.

“I was there during the glory years,” he added. “I was there when it was a wonderful, viable, vital place to work. I thought it was a job for life, frankly...And here we are at this situation where it’s just not the same anymore. And there are a million reasons for it. But I just thought, it’s time to step away.”

Graswich noted that some people have told him that his move to Johnson’s office from journalism is like going to “the dark side.” But he argues that private sector media outlets are “the dark side” because they’re working for the sake of profits rather than for the public.

“The dark side?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m getting paid by the people. I’m working for the people.”

“You’re on the dark side,” he said, laying out his response to journalists critical of his career move. “Your boss is trying to make a dollar... Clear Channel and McClatchy — those are the two people I’ve worked for. They’re in it for the money. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m working for the people now. And they’re paying my salary. And by God, they’re going to get their money’s worth.”

He also said that he is taking a pay cut to work for Johnson's office.

Graswich freely acknowledged he has a hankering for politics. Though he’s considered running for local political office, he said he’s not able to run in the 2010 elections.

“In the back of my head, I always thought — if I could get into government,” he said. “I love the city issues; I love policy issues. There was some thought about me running for office.”

He said he would have needed three things to run for a City Council seat in 2010. One of those things was the backing of Councilman Robbie Waters. Graswich, who lives in Waters’ district, would have considered running for office if Waters decided not to run.

Graswich also said he would have needed the support of his wife, as well the backing of Mayor Kevin Johnson.

But Waters is running for office again in 2010, and Graswich’s spouse, Elizabeth, put her foot down. “Honest to God, I think it was that she didn’t want to be married to a politician,” Graswich said. “There was also a period of fund-raising -- the rubber chicken circuit, the stuff that you got to go through as a politician to get yourself elected...There’s a significant loss of income because I couldn’t work while I was campaigning.”

While Graswich denies plans to run for office in the 2014 local elections, he indicated that the issue could be raised again in a couple years. “It’s too far out there,” he said. “Talk to me in 2012.”

He also said he made an eight-to-10 year commitment to work with Johnson as a staffer. “In many ways, it’s better than being a politician,” he said. “You don’t have to run for office -- you’re already in there. You get to deal with all the same issues...I think it could potentially be more fun, though. All of that’s conjecture at this point because it’s only three days into it.”

Read The Sacramento Press Friday to learn more about what Graswich will do in his special assistant position and how he accounts for his changing views of Johnson’s performance as mayor.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council informed of permit program in 2006

2009-11-17T06:21:16Z

Several members of the Sacramento City Council said last week they were unaware of a city permitting program used for Nestlé’s controversial water bottling project, but the program was outlined to councilmembers in 2006.

Shawn Eldredge, a general contractor and candidate for the 3rd District City Council seat, pointed out that elected officials learned about the Facilities Permit Program during a council meeting on April 25, 2006. Eldredge, who has worked on two projects approved through the FPP program, said the program helps builders and contractors avoid lengthy delays.

The Development Oversight Commission, made up of community members who have been appointed by the City Council, wrote a report for the 2006 meeting. It includes a section on the Facilities Permit Program, noting that it is a project of the Development Services Department, now known as the Community Development Department.

“The DSD has taken the novel approach of assigning a plan review and inspection team to a particular development or building,” the report said. “The team will review and inspect all projects within the development, in some cases even performing the plan reviews at the job site. This is much more efficient and economical than the traditional approach of assigning the project to the next review team in line without regard to their familiarity or experience with the particular building.”

Eldredge said that builders who use the program are required to follow code requirements and pay fees. The inspectors who review the plans visit the construction sites, he said. “When [the inspectors] come to see you, they know the building,” Eldredge said. That knowledge improves and speeds the permitting process, he added.

“For politicians to be attacking the program means they don’t understand what works in this city.”

David Kwong, the city’s planning division director, said recently that the FPP is intended to speed approval for tenant improvements or renovation of commercial and industrial buildings involving businesses that often work with the city.

The informal approval process used in the Nestlé project has drawn attention to the FPP.

In the case of Nestlé, the company and its contractors received verbal approval from the city to start construction. But the company and its contractors did not have a city building permit or “start-work authorization.”

Nestlé has said it followed city laws.

The city attorney’s office declared recently that it is illegal for the city to approve the start of construction for projects that do not have building permits, Kwong said.

Councilmembers, meanwhile, responded Monday to a question about why they claimed no knowledge of the FPP when they were told about the program in 2006.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond said the 2006 report did not address the current controversial practice of allowing construction to start without a building permit. “I still don’t remember anyone describing to the mayor and council an approval process for building before actual permits are granted,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Councilman Kevin McCarty said that whether or not the Development Oversight Commission discussed the program, the city needs to address the FPP's legality. “In the meantime, it still appears that the council and city never legally authorized the FPP,” he said.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said she didn’t remember hearing about the FPP in 2006, noting that councilmembers receive extensive amounts of information. Regardless of when it was discussed, it should have been presented to the City Council as an ordinance “because it was a major change and it was policy,” she said.

Councilman Steve Cohn said it wouldn’t surprise him if there had been a briefing on FPP “years ago” and that now councilmembers don't remember the program’s name. Cohn said last week that he didn’t know specifically about FPP, but that he did know the city had been working to streamline the permitting process. He said the City Council has received “quite a few” briefings over the last few years on changes that would streamline permitting.

Councilmembers Bonnie Pannell and Rob Fong also said last week that they had not been informed about the program. They were not immediately available Monday afternoon.

Staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Youth jobs are focus of proposed ballot measure

2010-01-01T18:43:02Z

A measure to provide funding for jobs and other services for young people in Sacramento has been proposed for an upcoming ballot. The funding for youth would come from a $29 annual tax on parcels of property in the city, which would be paid by property owners.

The Youth Jobs and Opportunity Act is endorsed by the Sacramento Central Labor Council, said Bill Camp, the council’s executive secretary. The proposal was filed with the City Clerk's office Dec. 22.

“We’ll come out of this recession,” Camp said. “The point is: Do we come out of it with young people prepared to go after the jobs that are going to be created in this new economy?”

The proposed initiative aims to deliver services to young people ages 11 to 25. The funding would be split into three categories. Jobs and job training for young people would receive at least 40 percent of the funding. At least 20 percent of the funding would be paid to programs that help students with their academic progress. Services for at-risk youth would receive at least 20 percent of the dollars.

After-school programs, apprenticeships and street outreach efforts, among other programs, could be eligible for funding.

“In order to remain competitive in today’s changing global economy, Sacramento’s young people must be provided with the support, experiences and opportunities that will prepare them to thrive in the workforce and make positive contributions to the community,” the proposal states.

Camp noted that the proposed initiative includes a tax exemption for low-income property owners.

The City Clerk’s office expects to receive a ballot title and summary for the proposed initiative from City Attorney Eileen Teichert by Jan. 6, according to assistant city clerk Stephanie Mizuno.

Read the proposed initiative here.

The city’s process for a ballot initiative is outlined here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council splits with mayor on plans for budget analyst

2009-09-09T05:53:41Z

The Sacramento City Council split with Mayor Kevin Johnson Tuesday on plans to create an independent budget analyst’s office, with eight members of the council in favor of hiring one person who could hold the positions of both city auditor and independent budget analyst. Johnson, meanwhile, backed the idea of forming two distinct offices, with one office for the city auditor and another office for the independent budget analyst.

At issue is a proposal from the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group to create an independent budget analyst’s office. Johnson supports the group’s efforts, which also include a “strong mayor” campaign to allow the mayor of Sacramento to gain more authority. The City Council voted 8-1 to ask city staff to bring back a job description for a city official that would simultaneously be a city auditor and budget analyst.
The city could yield savings and gain efficiency if it can find a candidate who could hold both the city auditor and independent budget analyst positions, Councilmember Steve Cohn said.

Johnson strongly disagreed. By creating two offices, the city would spend a little more money on the front end but potentially save more on the back end, he said. “I think we’ve actually taken a step backwards if you don’t keep the two departments separate,” he said.

The city auditor would analyze the finances of city departments, while the independent budget analyst’s job would be to examine policy decisions in the context of city finances, City Treasurer Russ Fehr said.

The city’s internal auditor position has been vacant since May, when former auditor Marty Kolkin left the post for a new job in Santa Monica. Patti Bisharat, the city’s director of governmental affairs, told the City Council last month that the internal auditor position may not be filled until January 2010 or later.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Development Commission updates controversial proposal for city planning

2009-04-15T04:55:03Z

A commission that advises the Sacramento City Council on development issues has updated a controversial proposal to unite the city’s planning and design commissions into one body.

Brian Holloway, a member of the Development Oversight Commission (DOC), said Tuesday that the DOC is proposing a combined planning and design commission with nine members.

Of that nine-member group, four or five members would be design professionals, Holloway said. Representatives of the public would serve in the remaining positions on the commission.

He pointed out that the proposal would join the two commissions, saying the design commission would not be dismantled.

Asked why the commission wants to unite the two commissions, Holloway said: “First of all, there would be significant cost savings in doing that.”

Combining the two commissions would also streamline the current process for the public, according to Holloway. Right now, members of the public ask the design commission to look at land use, which is the planning commission’s role, he said. And residents also ask the planning commission to look at design issues.

Both commissions thought that creating a unified planning and design commission would be a good idea, Holloway said.

The DOC is meeting Wednesday, April 15, at 300 Richards Boulevard in the second floor training room. Members of the public are welcome to attend the meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m.

Holloway said the DOC created its current proposal after listening to public input.

The DOC will probably decide at its April 15 meeting to suggest its current proposal to the city, according to Holloway.

At the April 15 meeting, the DOC will also weigh in on a city development process known as the “early notification process.” In that process, the public is informed in advance of development projects that have been proposed to the city, Holloway explained.

But community members are telling the DOC that the early notification process isn’t working, he said. The DOC is likely going to suggest that the city improve the process, he noted.

The DOC earlier proposed a united design and planning commission with seven members, Holloway said. In that previous plan, two or three people on the commission would have been design professionals, according to Holloway.

The earlier plan had come under fire from the Midtown Neighborhood Association (MNA), which was formerly called the Winn Park/Capitol Avenue Neighborhood Association.

Local historian and MNA member William Burg had claimed in a March 25 post on The Sacramento Press that the DOC had suggested that five members from the development industry sit on a seven-member board. Burg has been raising concerns about the public's ability to participate in a joined planning and design commission.

The DOC is not comprised of city staffers. It consists of members from the development industry and the general public. The City Council receives suggestions from the DOC.

The public can make suggestions to the DOC by e-mailing DOC@cityofsacramento.org or calling 916-808-5908.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Committee to recommend council/manager system

2009-10-20T05:04:43Z

The Sacramento Charter Review Committee decided Monday to adopt its draft recommendation that the city continue to use its council/manager system of government. This means that the 11-member committee’s final recommendation to the City Council will oppose a “strong mayor” form of government.

The committee will deliver its final recommendations to the City Council on Nov. 3.

An initiative to create a strong mayor system that would give the mayor many new powers will go before voters in June. Mayor Kevin Johnson backs the initiative, which was led by Sacramentans for Accountable Government.

The committee also suggested that the city change its system for hiring the city manager. Currently, the City Council appoints the city manager. The committee recommended that the mayor appoint the city manager. The mayor’s choice for city manager would need to be approved by a majority of the council.

The committee made its decisions after holding nine town-hall meetings to gather input from Sacramento residents. Committee member Cecily Hastings said she was “on-the-fence” on the issue of whether the mayor should appoint directors of city departments. She said the community meetings persuaded her to favor the current process, in which the city manager appoints department directors. “People didn’t like that idea at all — across the board,” Hastings said.

About 250 people attended the town hall meetings, according to Patti Bisharat, city director of governmental affairs.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Police union supports strong mayor campaign

2010-01-12T04:12:34Z

The union that represents Sacramento police officers is supporting Mayor Kevin Johnson’s “strong mayor” initiative, saying it would give the mayor the power to guarantee sufficient public safety funding.

Meanwhile, Bill Camp, the plaintiff who challenged the initiative in a Dec. 1 lawsuit, said a strong mayor form of government could lead to job insecurity for police department employees who are not represented by unions. Camp is the executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council. He filed the lawsuit as a private citizen.

Sacramento residents will vote on the initiative on June 10. The initiative would give the mayor many new powers and would change the city’s existing council/manager form of government.

The Sacramento Police Officers Association said in a Jan. 10 press release that more than 1,100 police officers, dispatchers and department staff are union members.

“A mayor in Sacramento under this structure of government will have the authority to ensure appropriate levels of funding for public safety, which translates into safer streets for our police officers and citizens,” SPOA President Brent Meyer said in the news release.

Meyer could not be reached by phone Monday afternoon.

A strong mayor in Sacramento would have the ability to hire and fire as many as 800 city employees that are not represented by unions, according to the city’s Charter Review Committee, which studied the strong mayor system of government.

Camp noted that the mayor's hiring and firing powers would extend to unrepresented members of the police department. He argued that a future mayor — not Johnson — could abuse his or her firing authority.

The strong mayor initiative “does not build clean politics,” Camp said.

By contrast, Meyer said in the press release that the strong mayor system would “hold all elected officials more accountable to their constituency.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council Election: Money from outside the county

2010-02-22T03:29:49Z

All but four of 13 candidates running for a City Council seat in June received campaign contributions from sources outside Sacramento County from July to December 2009. It also should be noted that many of the candidates have received numerous contributions from individuals and groups in Sacramento.

To provide information about contributions to candidates from sources outside the county, The Sacramento Press has prepared the following guide. The following contributions were made to candidates between July 1 and Dec. 31.

DISTRICT 1

Angelique Ashby, City Council candidate

Top outside contributions:

Lewis Investment Company, Upland: $500
James Milliken, retired Superior Court judge, San Diego: $200
Ernest Aglipay, faculty member, California State University, at East Bay, San Jose: $150

Efren Guttierrez, City Council candidate

Guttierrez did not receive any contributions from sources outside the county.

Ray Tretheway, City Council incumbent

Top outside contributions:

Plumbers & Steamfitters Local No. 467, Burlingame: $5,000
AT&T California Employee Political Action Committee, San Francisco: $2,500
United Association Journeyman Plumbers and Steamfitters Local No. 343, Vallejo: $2,500
California Real Estate Political Action Committee, Los Angeles: $2,500

DISTRICT 3

Steve Cohn, City Council incumbent

Top outside contributions:

California Real Estate Political Action Committee / Board of Realtors Political Action Committee, Los Angeles: $2,500
James Bright, partner at Bright & Brown, La Canada: $1,500
Maureen Bright, partner at Bright & Brown, La Canada: $1,500
Fourth Quarter Properties 100, L1, Newnan, GA: $1,500

Shawn Eldredge, City Council candidate

Eldredge did not receive any contributions from sources outside the county.

Chris Little, City Council candidate

Top outside contributions:

Joe Reeves, chief executive officer of Smile Business Products, Roseville: $500
Stan Huser, executive at Karis Corp., El Dorado: $250
Kenneth Hammill, Jr., contractor, Woodland: $100
Scott Yuill, insurance agent, Rocklin: $100
John Appelbaum, attorney, Roseville: $100

DISTRICT 5

Henry Harry, City Council candidate

Harry did not receive any contributions from sources outside the county.

Terrence Johnson, City Council candidate

Johnson did not receive any contributions from sources outside the county.

Patrick Kennedy, City Council candidate

Top outside contributions:

Pipe Trades District Council #36 Political Action Committee, Fresno: $5,000
Plumbers & Steamfitters Local No. 467 Political Action Fund, Burlingame: $5,000
Southern California Pipe Trades District Council #16 Political Action Committee, Los Angeles: $5,000
U.A. Local #246 Plumbers & Fitters COPE Committee, Fresno: $5,000
United Association Journeyman Plumbers & Steamfitters Local No. 343 Political Action Committee, Vallejo: $5,000

Jay Schenirer, City Council candidate

Top outside contributions:

AT&T California Employee Political Action Committee, San Francisco: $3,000
Eli Broad, founder of The Broad Foundation, Los Angeles: $1,500
Genentech, South San Francisco: $1,000

DISTRICT 7

Ryan Chin, City Council candidate

Top outside contributions:

Chin received $1,500 contributors from several individuals and organizations outside of the county. Here are three:

Janet Louie, administration assistant, San Bruno
Phillip Lee, unemployed, Cupertino
Jone Lau, Realtor, San Francisco

Darrell Fong, City Council candidate

Top outside contributions:

VOICE, San Francisco: $2,000
Barry Azarcon, insurance broker, Auburn: $1,000
Ronald Vanderbeek, auto dealer, Granite Bay: $750

Robbie Waters, City Council incumbent

Top outside contributions:

AT&T California, San Francisco: $3,000
California Real Estate Political Action Committee, Los Angeles: $2,500

Waters received several contributions of $1,500 from organizations and individuals outside of Sacramento County. Here are three:

Chevron Corp., Concord
USA Hospitality Inc., El Dorado Hills
Kern Schumacher, owner of A&K Railroad Materials Inc., Incline Village, NV

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Hiltachk appeals decision on strong mayor initiative

2010-01-26T04:39:59Z

A prominent supporter of the strong mayor initiative has appealed a Sacramento County Superior Court judge’s decision to ban the initiative from the June ballot.

Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the initiative, appealed Judge Loren McMaster’s ruling on Monday to the Third District Court of Appeal.

In the strong mayor government outlined in the initiative, the mayor would assume the city manager’s powers and create the city budget. Mayor Kevin Johnson has led efforts to put the measure on the ballot.

"We expect that the Appellate Court will side with the people," Hiltachk said in a press release Monday afternoon.

In December, Bill Camp challenged the initiative in Sacramento County Superior Court. Camp sued the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Council and Hiltachk.

McMaster decided last Thursday that the initiative did not follow state law and should not be placed on the ballot.

Read Hiltachk’s appeal here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Public invited to Charter Committee town hall meetings

2009-09-22T03:28:03Z

A committee recommending that the city maintain its current City Council/city manager system is taking its ideas to the public in a series of town hall meetings. The Charter Review Committee’s draft recommendations object to the “strong mayor” system that is being proposed in a 2010 ballot initiative.

The committee’s nine town hall meetings will be held at various locations from Sept. 23 to Oct. 15. Each meeting will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The locations are listed at the end of this story.

While the committee has been receiving public input, members now are reaching tentative decisions that they want to explore with the community, said Bill Edgar, Charter Review Committee chairman.

How much can the public influence the committee?

“Quite a bit,” Edgar said, noting that the committee wants to see if the public agrees with its ideas or Mayor Kevin Johnson’s strong mayor proposal.

Bill Burgua, chairman of the Marshall School/New Era Park Neighborhood Association, said he probably would attend one of the meetings. “I just want to remind [the committee] that they need to be doing what is best for the citizens,” he said.

Burgua said he does not oppose a strong mayor system for Sacramento. However, he said that he objects to Johnson’s move to become a strong mayor before that system had been established. “I don’t think the people who are advising Kevin Johnson have the best interests of the citizens at heart,” Burgua said.

The vice president of the Land Park Community Association said he is disappointed with the committee's draft recommendations. Craig Powell, who plans to attend one of the town hall meetings, said he wanted the committee to propose reforms that would differ from the strong mayor initiative and the current system. "I was looking forward to the committee putting up a proposal that would spark such a debate this spring on two competing visions for improving local government," he said. "Instead, they are headed towards an endorsement of the status quo."

The Charter Review Committee’s Town Hall Meetings Schedule:

Wednesday, Sept. 23: Natomas High School — 3301 Fong Ranch Road

Thursday, Sept. 24: Ben Ali Shrine Temple — 3262 Marysville Blvd.

Wednesday, Sept. 30: Elks Lodge — 6446 Riverside Blvd.

Thursday, Oct. 1: Christian Brothers High School — 4315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Monday, Oct. 5: Tahoe Park Elementary School — 3110 60th Street

Wednesday, Oct. 7: Sam Brannan Middle School — 5301 Elmer Way

Thursday, Oct. 8: Caleb Greenwood — 5457 Carlson Drive

Wednesday, Oct. 14: Sam Pannell Community Center — 2450 Meadowview Road

Thursday, Oct. 15: Sierra II — 2791 24th St.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Lawsuit against strong mayor initiative online

2009-12-03T06:25:47Z

Sacramento residents can read the new lawsuit challenging the strong mayor initiative here.

The city currently uses a council/manager system. City Manager Ray Kerridge’s many powers include the ability to draft recommendations for the city’s budget and hire department directors.

Camp's lawsuit contends that the initiative violates state law because it would create changes to the city’s charter. While an initiative can be used to amend a city charter, it can’t be used to make sweeping changes, Camp argues.

Camp filed the lawsuit as a private citizen, not as a representative of the labor council.

The group SAVE Sacramento supports the lawsuit.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilman Kevin McCarty's 2010 priorities

2010-01-13T05:21:07Z

Councilman Kevin McCarty wants the city government to make it easier for residents to be environmentally conscious. Environmental programs — one program focused on energy efficiency measures and another on water conservation — are among his top three priorities for the year.

At the same time, McCarty is emphasizing the importance of the city’s looming budget gap. He said the city budget will be his first priority for 2010. City leaders made major cuts to local services when they closed out last year’s $50 million budget deficit.

“The budget is probably the single most important act that we do every year that affects ... the quality of life in our neighborhoods,” McCarty said.

The city should examine possible ways to increase revenues and set up efficiencies and consolidations in order to save money, he said.

While the city should keep public safety as its top budget priority, “we also can’t eviscerate other programs,” he said.

McCarty represents neighborhoods that include Fruitridge Manor, Tahoe Park and Colonial Village. He is running for Assemblyman Dave Jones’ seat against his colleague, Councilwoman Lauren Hammond, and Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson.

McCarty’s second priority for the year will be to advance two of his environmental programs. One of his programs, which received $740,000 in federal stimulus funds in November, would let homeowners and businesses fund energy efficiency improvements at their properties over a period of years. The cost of the upgrades would be charged to participants through their property taxes. McCarty plans to start the program this spring.

In addition, he said he is starting work on a plan to provide residents with incentives to lessen the amount of water they use for landscaping.

“I think that we as a city ought to be helping people do their part,” McCarty said. He noted that he believes in Mahatma Gandhi’s sentiment that people can “be the change” they hope will occur.

McCarty’s third priority will be programs at parks. The San Francisco Giants selected a park in his district, the George Sim Community Center, to receive grant funding, he said. The baseball team is providing money to upgrade the park’s baseball fields, according to McCarty. Sacramento’s Junior Giants play at the baseball fields at the park.

“We’re going to really have these top-notch, brand new baseball fields for a league that I created out there about five years ago,” he said.

McCarty is also working to set up a community garden at Tahoe Elementary School. The community garden could be used by the public when school is not in session, he said. He plans to put funds from cell towers toward the community garden project.

McCarty mentioned that he’s also working to set up parks at the Fruitridge Manor and East Tahoe Park neighborhoods.

The Sacramento Press is publishing a series on the 2010 goals of City Council members. Read about Councilwoman Lauren Hammond’s goals for the year here. Steve Cohn’s 2010 goals can be read here.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Kerridge says goodbye to development commission, comments on Bill Thomas' resignation

2010-03-02T07:08:13Z

Members of the city’s Development Oversight Commission said goodbye Monday night to City Manager Ray Kerridge, who has resigned from his position and will leave the city March 12.

The commission examines development in Sacramento and presents its views to the City Council.

Kerridge said the DOC has shown “guidance and leadership,” and he added that he “could not have worked with a better group of people.”

DOC members praised Kerridge’s work to advance development in Sacramento. Kristina McBurney said Kerridge’s vision for the city was “amazing.”

Holger Fuerst said Kerridge was a facilitator with a “can-do attitude.”

***
Kerridge reacted Monday night to the news that Community Development Director Bill Thomas is resigning. Kerridge and Thomas worked together at the city of Portland before taking positions in Sacramento.

“He’s done a lot of good work for the city of Sacramento,” Kerridge told The Sacramento Press outside the DOC meeting.

In October, the city put Thomas on paid leave. Thomas was director of the department when a staffer approved building permits in a Natomas flood zone last year. The city has said the staffer broke federal rules.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City seeks completion of partially build homes in flood zone

2009-12-19T05:18:29Z

The city of Sacramento has admitted to federal regulators that its development department bypassed federal rules by greenlighting 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone this year. At the same time, the city is asking the federal government if 25 of the homes can be completed.

A third-party law firm, Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, and City Attorney Eileen Teichert's office are investigating the issue. The city has placed Bill Thomas, community development director, and department staffer Dan Waters on leave.

Teichert said Friday she did not know when the investigation would be completed.

In a Dec. 15 letter to Cynthia McKenzie, senior flood planner at the Federal Emergency Management Agency office in Oakland, the Sacramento city attorney’s office sought permission forK. Hovnanian Homes to finish building the 25 homes in the Natomas area. Ten of the 35 homes in the flood zone have been completed, but the remaining 25 are in various stages of construction, according to the letter.

Teichert explained the city’s position Friday in a phone interview.

It would be “consistent with the law” to build the 25 homes, Teichert said. Among other reasons, she said, the 25 homes should be built to maintain public health and safety.

“We also are of the opinion that having homes half-constructed in a neighborhood is not a positive thing,” Teichert said. “It’s certainly not for the neighbors.”

In making its case for the 25 homes, the city cited the actions it has taken to respond to the issue. “However, staff’s diligence caused the transferred permits to be discovered and immediately brought forward to FEMA in order to address and resolve any FEMA concerns before more homes under those units were built, sold, and insured.”

The letter noted that about 24 witnesses have been interviewed for the investigation.

Teichert said the city is not expecting a reply from FEMA before Dec. 25.

Read the Dec. 15 letter from Teichert’s office here.

Photo by David Watts Barton

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City plans to beef up water conservation rules

2009-04-14T00:35:50Z

The city plans to bolster its existing water conservation rules by updating the way it fines residents who waste water at their homes and businesses.

Sacramento’s Department of Utilities is proposing to revise the city’s water conservation ordinance in part to respond to the third year of California’s drought, said Jessica Hess, a media and communications specialist at the utilities department.

The city is making major revisions to its process for managing water waste violations. In its current form, the ordinance is difficult to enforce, Hess said. City staffers currently visit sites numerous times as they seek to enforce the rules.

“It will be more efficient for our staff to address water waste concerns” with the new enforcement rules because staffers won’t have to make numerous visits to the property, Hess said.

The proposed revisions would allow city staffers to simultaneously fine and educate violators, she explained.

The City Council will address the water conservation proposal at its May 5 meeting. Sacramento residents can weigh in on the city’s plans by contacting Hess at jhess@cityofsacramento.org.

For a first-time violation, property owners and residents would receive a written warning. Under the proposal, a resident who commits a second violation of the ordinance would be levied a $25 fine. However, the violator has the option to take a water conservation class instead of paying the fine. The idea is similar to traffic school, Hess said.

A third violation comes with a $100 fine. The fine for a fourth violation jumps to $500.

The new fines and penalty system would replace the current enforcement process, which is more complex.

The revised ordinance would be applied citywide, affecting all Sacramento residents and businesses. The city plans to prepare separate rules for its properties.

As they prepare the ordinance, city staffers have been discussing the characteristics of Sacramento’s plants with landscapers and horticulturalists, Hess said.

Many Sacramento residents are unaware of the city’s existing water conservation ordinance, she pointed out.

Kathleen Haley is a staff writer for The Sacramento Press

McCarty's proposal for homeless patients fails to advance

2010-01-08T05:28:11Z

A proposal to crack down on hospitals if they leave homeless and unstable patients at various sites failed to advance to the City Council Thursday.

City Councilman Kevin McCarty proposed an ordinance that would have required health care facilities to get written permission from patients before transporting them to sites other than their homes.

If the proposal was passed into law by the City Council, health care facilities that did not comply with the ordinance would face a misdemeanor charge.

But the city’s law and legislation committee, which studies proposed ordinances, decided not to move the proposal to the City Council. Councilmembers Sandy Sheedy, Steve Cohn, Lauren Hammond and Robbie Waters sit on the committee.

Sheedy and Hammond said the proposal was not based on facts.

“There are no facts,” Sheedy said. “There are no substantiations. There’s nothing.”

Joan Burke, advocacy director of Loaves & Fishes, acknowledged that no facts had been gathered about hospitals that transport fragile patients to Sacramento sites and leave them.

“There is no data on this,” she said.

However, Burke, who supported the proposal, said there was anecdotal evidence that hospitals arrange for patients to be left at Loaves & Fishes. The group’s night watchman says that this occurs about once per month, she said.

Instead of delivering the proposal to the City Council, the committee decided to send the issue to a group that addresses homelessness issues. The committee to examine the issue will likely be the Sacramento Policy Board to End Homelessness, according to assistant city manager Cassandra Jennings and Cohn.

Three cases of hospitals arranging to transport fragile patients to various sites last year have been reported by The Sacramento Bee.

A suicidal and brain-damaged man arrived at Loaves and Fishes May 23 after leaving a hospital in South Sacramento, according to the Bee. The man, Jason Adams, was taken to the non-profit’s center in a taxi cab ride that was arranged by Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, South Sacramento, according to the Bee’s May 30 and June 6 articles. Loaves & Fishes was closed when Adams arrived, the Bee reported.

The hospital admitted it was at fault, according to the Bee.

The Bee reported two other cases last year in which hospitals from outside the city left patients at Loaves and Fishes.

McCarty, who refers to the practice as “patient dumping,” said he still thinks it’s an important issue.

“I think it’s happened here enough that we should stand up and have a rule in place that says we will not accept this type of behavior,” he said.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Permit program comes back with changes

2009-12-16T06:55:33Z

A city permitting program that recently caused a stir at City Hall has been updated and will go into effect Wednesday.

The City Council asked staff to continue to work on changes to the Facilities Permit Program Tuesday night. In the meantime, a new interim version of the program will be used.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert said after Tuesday night’s City Council meeting that the interim version of the program aligns with city and state laws.

A report from Teichert states that the FPP had caused problems with city and state laws.

City code was violated because builders did not have to pay fees and receive a building permit before starting construction on FPP projects, Teichert’s report said.

In another violation of city codes, FPP projects’ building plans and specifications did not need to be reviewed and approved ahead of construction, according to Teichert.

“Obviously there are some issues where we didn’t amend our code and we should have,” said Councilman Steve Cohn.

Read about the interim program here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Clear Channel may work with city on digital billboards

2009-08-26T05:01:03Z

New digital billboards from Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc., may be placed at city-owned locations if negotiations between the company and the city are successful. The city is pursuing talks with Clear Channel as a way to earn revenue for the cash-strapped city government.

The City Council unanimously decided Tuesday to start negotiations with Clear Channel for digital billboard placement. The city is undergoing severe economic problems and recently laid off 135 employees.

The digital billboards would be placed at the following three spots: the area following the south side of Interstate 80 and east of Northgate Boulevard; the area of Interstate 5 and Richards Boulevard; and near Haggin Oaks Golf Course at Fulton Avenue and north of Business 80 freeway.

Tom Zeidner, a senior project manager with the city’s economic development department, said the city is proposing that for every digital billboard set up by Clear Channel, a minimum of three traditional, non-digital billboards would be removed.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond suggested that one-half of the revenue from the billboards should be split evenly among the eight council districts, and the other half should go to the city’s general fund.

Details were not finalized Tuesday.

Mel Rapton Honda now leases the location at Fulton Avenue from the city. Clear Channel has talked with both Rapton and city staffers about the proposal.

Two companies responded to the city’s request for proposals for the contract for digital billboard placement. The city selected Clear Channel over CBS Outdoor Inc. Zeidner noted in a staff report that Clear Channel met the city’s requirements more closely than CBS.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Committee to study "strong mayor" format for Sacramento

2009-05-07T05:55:16Z

A committee tasked with examining the city government’s structure and functions is starting to address the contentious issue of whether Sacramento’s mayor should have more power.

Sacramento’s 11-member Charter Review Committee, which began meeting last month, is studying the rules in the city’s charter. The charter is similar to a constitution, the city explains.

One of the items on the committee’s list is the idea of changing city government to a “strong mayor” format that would give the mayor more responsibilities. The committee will contrast the "strong mayor" format with the city's existing "council-manager" system.

JoAnn Fuller, a committee member and associate director for the group California Common Cause, noted that the committee will not immediately address the “strong mayor” issue. The committee wants to present information to the public on the issue so community members can respond, she said.

She acknowledged that the “strong mayor” plan is “certainly a large issue on the agenda of the committee.”

While the committee is not yet diving into the topic, it is starting to plan how it will approach the issue. Charter Review Committee members Bill Edgar and Bob Murphy are suggesting that the committee study the “strong mayor” idea through a series of presentations on cities that changed the structure of their government.

“I believe an organized set of presentations should include representatives of cities in both California and other states that have converted both to a strong mayor and/or to a council-manager government,” according to an e-mail between Edgar and Murphy in a committee report.

A list of topics the committee will address can be read here.

The committee’s next two meetings are scheduled for May 7 and May 18, and will take place at City Hall, 915 I Street. The May 7 meeting begins at 6 p.m. All committee meetings are public.

By mid-December, the committee will make suggestions for possible changes to the charter. Sacramento voters have the final word on any charter changes – proposed changes go before the public on a ballot.

Fuller noted that the committee hasn’t yet finalized an outreach strategy, but she said her vision would be for the committee to “get out in the neighborhoods.”

Sacramento’s government is run in a “council-manager” format.

With the Charter Review Committee analyzing the “strong mayor” format, there are now two separate actions taking place.

The Charter Review Committee is studying the issue, and a separate campaign is promoting a “strong mayor” government for Sacramento. The campaign, Sacramentans for Accountable Government, is planning to bring the issue before voters. Mayor Kevin Johnson backs the campaign.

In February reports, City Attorney Eileen Teichert addressed the issues raised by the campaign’s December proposal to put the “strong mayor” government style on an upcoming ballot.

Teichert noted that the proposal would give Johnson numerous powers.

“A true strong mayor system grants its mayor budgetary powers, appointment and removal powers, management of day-to-day city affairs, power to propose legislation and veto power,” Teichert states in a report. “The Strong Mayor Initiative includes each of these powers and more.”

By contrast, the city’s current “council-manager” provides the city manager with considerable powers. The current format is a mayor and eight council members, “with the city manager as the chief executive officer of the city who shall be responsible for the effective administration of the government,” Teichert wrote.

Acting city spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson notes that the “strong mayor” campaign is still alive. The campaign must submit signatures from 15 percent of the city’s registered voters by June 29.

The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday that the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group has a total debt of $94,992.72.

Charter Committee deadlines for "strong mayor" study

2009-09-01T04:17:18Z

The city’s Charter Committee, which is studying the “strong mayor” issue and other topics, has a new schedule. The 11-member committee is examining the rules laid out in the city’s charter, which is similar to a constitution.

The new schedule was drafted after the City Council's Aug. 6 request that the committee move up its deadlines on the strong mayor issue. The issue is timely because voters will be asked to vote in June 2010 on a separate strong mayor proposal created by the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group.

The City Council unanimously decided to create the commission in February. The committee may recommend changes to the city charter. Any recommendations from the committee would need voter approval.

Charter Committee meetings, which begin at 6 p.m., are held in the City Council’s chambers on the first floor of City Hall at 915 I St.

Here are the dates and topics for Charter Committee meetings from September to January:

Thursday, Sept. 3: The meeting will address decision-making in the context of governance, budget, appointment authority, veto and term limits.

Monday, Sept. 21: The committee will review its draft report.

Thursday, Oct. 1: The committee will review preliminary public comments.

Monday, Oct. 19: Committee to approve final report on governance, budget, appointment authority, veto and term limits.

Tuesday, Nov. 3: The committee will deliver its final report during the City Council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. The committee’s final report will cover governance, budget, appointment authority, veto, term limits.

Thursday, Nov. 5: The committee will discuss the following topics: full-time mayor, full-time City Council, ethics commission.

Monday, Nov. 16: The committee will address decision-making in the context of a full-time mayor, a full-time City Council, and an ethics commission.

Week of Nov. 23: The committee will approve its first supplemental report on full-time mayor, full-time City Council and ethics commission.

Tuesday, Dec. 1: The committee will deliver its first supplemental report at the Dec. 1 City Council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. The first supplemental report covers the topics of full-time mayor, full-time City Council and an ethics commission.

Thursday, Dec. 3: The committee will discuss the elections process.

Thursday, Dec. 14: The elections process will be discussed again.

Thursday, Jan. 7: The committee will approve a second supplemental report on the elections process.

Tuesday, Jan. 19: At the 6 p.m. City Council meeting, the committee will deliver its second supplemental report on the elections process.

The committee notes that its new schedule is subject to change.

Source: The Sacramento Charter Review Committee schedule

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Johnson reacts to initial ruling in strong mayor case

2010-01-15T01:59:43Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson commented on today’s initial Sacramento County Superior Court ruling that the strong mayor initiative should not be placed on the June ballot.

Johnson made his remarks to reporters before an open house on proposals for a new Sacramento entertainment and sports complex. Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt reported Johnson's comments on Judge Loren McMaster’s draft decision:

“I think it was a temporary setback,” Johnson said. “This is something we’re going to fight. We’re going to fight nail and tooth.”

Johnson noted that the early decision was “very disheartening,” and indicated that it affects voters’ rights.

“Voters deserve and have a right to vote on this initiative,” he said.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Guide to the online campaign contributions system

2010-02-18T06:26:30Z

Campaign contributions to City Council candidates are not a secret. Citizens can access information about contributions online at the city of Sacramento’s Electronic Filing System.

The city has published campaign contributions online since 2002, said Assistant City Clerk Stephanie Mizuno.

In a Nov. 5 story, The Sacramento Press provided a guide to the city’s online system.

Since then, the city clerk’s office has changed its website. “The navigation is a little bit different,” Mizuno said.

To help the public understand the changes, The Sacramento Press is publishing the following updated guide to the online system.

The city clerk’s website now has two separate links that connect you to campaign contributions statements. These links are titled “Elections” and “Disclosures and Ethics.”

This guide will help you find information through the “Elections” link. Clicking on the “Elections” link takes you to the “City Elections” webpage. From there, you’ll click on a link titled “Campaign Statements and Disclosure.”

Once at the “Campaign Statements and Disclosure” page, click on the link titled “Go to Statements.”

You’ll arrive at a page titled “Welcome to the City of Sacramento Electronic Filing System.” Click on the link titled “Get Started Now” under the “Public Access Portal” section.

You will now be at a page with the following title: “Welcome to the City of Sacramento Public Portal for Campaign Finance Disclosure.” There is a section at the end of this page titled “Browse Candidates & Measures by Election.” Campaign contributions for the June 8, 2010, City Council race are listed under the heading “06/08/2010 Primary Election.”

Click on the “06/08/2010” button to open a section titled “Candidates.” Now, click on the “Candidates” button to see buttons for City Council Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7.

If you click on “City Council D1,” you’ll see the names of City Council candidates Angelique Ashby, Efren Guttierrez and Ray Tretheway.

You’ll also see Lisa Kaplan’s name listed as a candidate for District 1. It appears that Kaplan no longer is running for City Council. She wrote on her Facebook page that she is running for re-election to the Natomas School Board in November. Kaplan did not return two phone calls from The Sacramento Press.

If you click on a candidate’s name, you will go to a page that lists campaign statements. For example, City Council District 1 incumbent Ray Tretheway’s page includes his Form 460.

The 460 form will provide you with the names of contributors and amounts of money donated to candidates. These forms also include figures on candidates’ loans, nonmonetary contributions and expenditures.

By clicking on “View,” next to Tretheway’s Feb. 2 1 460 form, you’ll read that his campaign amassed $79,278 in contributions last year. You also can read that AT&T California Employee Political Action Committee gave $2,500 to Tretheway’s campaign on Dec. 23.

Some of the candidates listed on the city’s online system have not dropped out of the City Council race officially, but have said they are no longer running for office. John Puente and Kasey Cotulla told The Sacramento Press they are leaving the City Council race. Mizuno said Jameel Pugh is no longer running for the City Council District 5 seat. City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond is not running for re-election; she is running for Assemblyman Dave Jones’ 9th District seat.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sheedy, citizens weigh in on Johnson's new strong mayor plan

2010-02-10T07:09:11Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson’s latest strong mayor proposal drew strong reactions from a councilwoman and members of the public even though it was not officially on the City Council agenda.

Johnson’s new strong mayor package was taken off the agenda Tuesday night without explanation from city officials.

Even though the proposal was pulled from the meeting, the council heard comments from several members of the public, pro and con.

Then, Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy spoke of her opposition to Johnson’s plan.

“I think the entire city is suffering from a case of strong mayor fatigue,” she said, adding that the city needs to stop focusing on the issue of a strong mayor form of government. Sheedy suggested focusing instead on the city’s budget and problems with its Utilities and Community Development departments.

Trisha Flynn, an owner of Chops Steakhouse downtown, spoke in favor of Johnson’s proposal, calling the City Council “slow-moving” and “antiquated.”

Carolyn Veal-Hunter also supported Johnson’s plan. “The voters want to be heard in June,” she said.

Meanwhile, Bill Camp, the plaintiff who challenged the original strong mayor initiative in Sacramento Superior Court, said he wanted to see “adequate public vetting” of the new plan.

Matt Kelly, an opponent of Johnson’s original strong mayor initiative, was skeptical about the two-week timeline to complete the proposal.

The proposal is on a two-week timeline because the City Council has a Feb. 23 administrative deadline to complete the measure. The Feb. 23 deadline is for measures that will be placed on the June ballot.

Kelly said two weeks to complete the proposal was “a bit sudden.”

Johnson provided specifics on his new plan at a press conference Tuesday. The mayor said he has ideas but the proposal has not yet been written.

“Yes, we have two weeks left before this has to be on the ballot,” Johnson said. “But this has been debated in our community at a minimum over the last nine (or) ten months, and certainly while I was campaigning.”

Under the new proposal, the mayor would maintain three main elements of the original plan, Johnson said. The new plan would enable the mayor to propose the budget; hire and fire “key personnel”; and have veto powers over specific items. The council would have the power to override the mayor’s veto, he said.

Johnson also said he plans to make key changes. The mayor would not appoint the city attorney and certain city officials. However, the mayor still would appoint the city manager.

Johnson noted that he wants to add language specifying that the mayor’s hiring powers would not extend to all city employees who are not represented by unions. The city’s charter review committee said the original initiative would have allowed the mayor to hire about 800 employees.

Johnson further said he wants to include other elements in the measure, including language creating term limits, an ethics committee and an independent budget analyst.

He also called for adding a “voter reapproval” section to the measure. This means that the new strong mayor form of government would expire after a certain time, Johnson said. Citizens then would vote on keeping or removing the strong mayor government, he added.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Charter meeting: "Strong mayor" hiring powers discussed

2009-09-24T05:58:10Z

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.

City Council praises plans to develop alleys

2009-08-12T05:05:47Z

Current plans to develop alleys in Midtown received heaps of praise from the Sacramento City Council Tuesday. However, Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said that Midtown neighbors are upset that they have not been contacted about the city’s plans.

The City Council listened to an update on planned pilot projects for commercial and residential development of Midtown alleys.

The praise from councilmembers was effusive. “Brilliant” was the word Councilman Rob Fong used to describe the idea to develop the alleys. Mayor Kevin Johnson cited Midtown’s “creativity,” while Councilman Ray Tretheway congratulated Midtown on the plans.

Fong also gave credit to City Manager Ray Kerridge for suggesting a couple years ago that the city focus on its alleys.

Councilman Steve Cohn, a champion of alley development in Midtown, said the alleys are not used primarily for garbage and collection and disposal. “What we have is a wasted resource,” he said.

But Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy raised concerns. She said that she has received calls from Midtown neighbors who are upset that they haven’t been informed about the alley development plans.

“The neighbors are not happy that they’ve not been contacted to discuss this,” Sheedy said.

Sheedy also questioned why downtown alleys were not being planned for development, suggesting that downtown was being overlooked.

Two of the Midtown alleys being considered for makeovers stretch from 17th to 19th Streets between L Street and Capitol Avenue, and the third runs between I and J Streets from 16th to 17th Streets across from Memorial Auditorium.

The first two alleys would undergo upgrades intended to create an appealing pedestrian walkway connecting visitors to an after-hours parking garage in one of the city's most popular areas. The alley from 17th to 18th Streets also would get a small, alley-front condo building. The proposal for the third alley would turn that into a restaurant row with al fresco dining like San Francisco's Belden Street.

For more information about the planned alley pilot projects, please read staff reporter Suzanne Hurt’s Aug. 8 story here.

Staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Graswich moves from mayor's critic to mayor's advocate

2009-08-22T04:33:21Z

Longtime Sacramento journalist and City Hall newcomer R.E. Graswich has harshly criticized Mayor Kevin Johnson, going so far as to describe Johnson as a “power-hungry pol” in a Jan. 28 column published by The Sacramento Press. Now that Graswich is working for the mayor’s office, how does he explain his move from Johnson critic to Johnson advocate?

Graswich made the “power-hungry” remark in the context of the debate over whether Johnson should take more power as a “strong mayor.” But Graswich told The Sacramento Press in an interview Wednesday that he also questioned Johnson’s ability to lead the city.

“I wasn’t also sure, frankly, in January, that Mayor Johnson could be mayor,” he said.

But after watching Johnson’s performance as mayor over the last several months, Graswich said he is now certain that Johnson has what it takes. “He’s a visionary,” Graswich said, adding that Johnson is one of the remarkable men in Sacramento who come along “once every 20 or so years.”

Graswich completed his first week Friday in his new job as special assistant to Johnson. He spent all but two years of his 37-year career in local journalism at the Sacramento Bee. Most recently, he worked as a co-anchor at KFBK and commentator KOVR CBS 13.

At City Hall, he will have roles in the areas of policy-making, media communications, community dialogue and communications between City Council members and the mayor’s office. He said he is taking a pay cut for his City Hall position, which has an $80,000 salary.

Johnson and Graswich have known each other since Johnson was 17 years old. Their reporter/source relationship has had tense points. Still, Graswich’s love for the city and willingness to fight hard for it were the reasons why he was selected for the special assistant job, Johnson said.

“He didn’t always write and say good things about me,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday. For example, Graswich didn’t believe Johnson could make it to the National Basketball Association, Johnson said.

“But he’s a man who deeply loves Sacramento,” Johnson said.

More recently, in the Jan. 28 column for The Sacramento Press, Graswich challenged the mayor’s goals to change the city from its current council/manager format to a strong mayor system. In a strong mayor government, Johnson would have more authority than he does in the current system. Graswich came down hard on Johnson in the column, writing that the strong mayor push could have been Johnson’s undoing.

“The drive to give Kevin more power and rewrite the city charter with an off-year ballot suggested arrogance and irresponsibility on Kevin’s part,” Graswich wrote. “Indeed, it could have been grounds for removal from office.”

But Graswich said earlier this week that he has “changed his tune.”

Referring to his earlier description of Johnson as a “power-hungry pol,” Graswich said: “I certainly believed that as I wrote it. And I think we’re all able to change our minds on things.”

Graswich said he objected to the strong mayor campaign because he thought the budget-crunched city couldn’t afford a strong mayor election this year. “In this economy, it would not have been right for the city to do that,” he said. “I was hoping to do whatever I could to stop that momentum behind that.”

While the strong mayor initiative is not going on the ballot this year, it will be on the June 2010 ballot.

As a reporter for the Bee, Graswich covered Johnson’s high school, college and NBA careers. “I knew [Johnson] was an overachiever,” Graswich said. “And I knew he was tenacious. And I knew that you could never underestimate the guy.”

Graswich also said he admired Johnson for returning to Sacramento and for the work he's done with his nonprofit organization, St. HOPE. At City Hall, Johnson is showing tenacity and leadership, he noted.

The former journalist’s move to the mayor’s office has drawn criticism from some quarters. Graswich said that journalists told him he had gone to “the dark side.” There has also been speculation and criticism about Graswich on the “Joe Sacramento” blog. Joe Sacramento, who declined to provide his true name, said it was a “flip-flop” for Graswich to go from harshly criticizing Johnson to praising him as a leader.

“As recent as six or seven months ago, Graswich was lambasting Johnson on your site, and now he suddenly thinks Johnson is the ‘greatest Sacramento leader in the last 30 years'?,” Joe Sacramento wrote in an e-mail. “Really? On what grounds is Johnson a ‘great leader’? Because he has rallied a bunch of college kids to intern for him? Because he wants more power? How do those things make him a great leader?”

But Graswich’s fans include journalist R.V. Scheide, the news editor at the Sacramento News & Review. “I have always admired R.E. Graswich, especially after he said nice things about me once in his column,” Scheide said. “We also both shop at Swanberg on J’s, which has the best Hawaiian shirts in Northern California.”

Scheide also observed that Graswich’s move to City Hall is one of several major career changes. “Throughout his career, Graswich has demonstrated an almost chameleon-like ability to transform himself: from sports columnist to city columnist to radio personality to KJ spokesperson,” Scheide said.

What will Graswich do at City Hall?

As Johnson’s special assistant, Graswich will have several jobs to do at City Hall. His roles could change, he said, but there are a few key duties that have so far been set aside for Graswich.

He said he will be an “emissary” in negotiations and discussions between the City Council and Johnson. Graswich will work with the public, but he said the specifics of that role haven’t yet been ironed out. He said he will also weigh in on media communications issues and strategies, while noting that he is not the mayor’s press contact.

On the policy level, Graswich will work on K Street issues and public safety matters. He said he would work with City Manager Ray Kerridge’s office, developers and the community on K Street policy. “Anything we can do to make K Street whole, I’m here,” he said.

For his public safety assignment, Graswich will work with Kerridge’s office, Police Chief Rick Braziel’s office and Fire Chief Ray Jones’s office. Graswich noted that public safety was one of Johnson’s campaign goals and promises. Between the police and fire departments, Graswich has participated in more than 100 ride-alongs, he said, adding that he gained insight into the departments. While he is not a police officer or firefighter, he is an informed civilian, he said. “In other words, there aren’t civilians that can match me on that front."

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor wants federal ban on Natomas development lifted

2009-12-30T05:12:24Z

The city needs to make headway on flood protection efforts in order for the federal government to lift a moratorium on building in Natomas, Mayor Kevin Johnson said Tuesday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency banned development in Natomas in 2008 because of the threat of flooding. Johnson said at his weekly press conference that flood protection will be one of his priorities in 2010.

“We have to make progress so that (FEMA) will lift the moratorium,” Johnson said.

New building in Natomas would generate dollars for the city’s general fund, he said.

“If we want to grow revenue, we’ve got to find ways to have more economic development opportunities,” he said.

Still, he noted that the city should “diversify” because it relies too heavily on jobs in the public sector and the real estate industry. He indicated that he may create an environmental initiative to provide more "green jobs" that could play a role in the city’s economy.

Natomas development and FEMA rules have been a key issue for the city in recent weeks.

Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, a third-party law firm, and the city are investigating the Community Development Department’s approval this year of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone. In a Dec. 15 letter to FEMA, City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office noted that the city’s approval of the permits broke federal rules.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Let us know of debates for City Council candidates

2010-03-01T00:04:52Z

The Sacramento Press wants to know if your neighborhood association or community group is hosting debates for City Council candidates.

The Didion/Lewis Park Recreational Center Committee will hold a March 18 forum for District 7 City Council candidates. The event will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the recreational center, 6490 Harmon Drive.

The Sacramento Press will cover the forum, and wants to report on other neighborhood-level City Council election events.

Contact Staff Reporter Kathleen Haley at kathleen@sacramentopress.com with information about your neighborhood's City Council election event.

Strong mayor: Hiltachk to appeal, read judge's final ruling

2010-01-21T18:41:25Z

A defendant in the strong mayor lawsuit will appeal Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster's decision to strike down the initiative.

In his final ruling, McMaster decided that the strong mayor initiative should not be placed on the June ballot. He wrote that the initiative would not align with state law.

Defendants in the case are the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative. Bill Camp is the plaintiff.

In a press release issued this morning, Hiltachk said he will appeal McMaster's ruling to the Third District Court of Appeals. Hiltachk spoke on behalf of Sacramentans for Accountable Government, the group that campaigned for the strong mayor initiative.

“We will immediately appeal this unprecedented decision by Judge McMaster and we are very confident we will prevail in the Appellate court," Hiltachk said.

Read McMaster's final ruling here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council approves proposal for an outside audit

2009-09-02T05:10:30Z

In the coming months, the city may have three sets of eyes monitoring its books. In addition to the Sacramento City Council’s plans to fill the city’s vacant internal auditor position early next year, the council may bring in two more parties to review the city’s finances, according to members of the Sacramento City Council.

The City Council decided at its Tuesday meeting to start the process of hiring an independent company to audit the city’s finances. The city also plans to fill its currently vacant position for an internal auditor. And, there may be a third set of eyes monitoring the city’s books: Councilman Rob Fong noted that the City Council is likely to approve a proposal from the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group to create an independent budget analyst position.

At the meeting, the City Council asked city staff to request proposals from independent companies that could conduct the audit. Mayor Kevin Johnson has made many public comments calling for an independent audit from an outside company.

The City Council decided against an idea from staff to task the outside auditor with reviewing the city’s labor agreements. “To me, that’s policy,” Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said. The city decides whether labor negotiations are correct or incorrect, she said, and that task should not go to an outside firm.

Meanwhile, the city is saving money by keeping the internal auditor position vacant. The city’s internal auditor position has been vacant since May 20, when former auditor Marty Kolkin left the post for a new job in Santa Monica. Patti Bisharat, the city’s director of governmental affairs, told the City Council Tuesday that the internal auditor position may not be filled until January 2010 or later.

The city will have saved $100,000 by delaying the hiring of the internal auditor until December, according to Bisharat. The city still plans to hire an internal auditor.

When the city fills the internal auditor position, the auditor will report to the City Council instead of the city manager. Councilmembers in April said the internal auditor’s office could work in a more transparent way if it was supervised by the City Council. Because the city is changing the way the internal auditor’s office is supervised, the city needs to set up new ordinances, according to the city manager’s office.

Apart from thanking city staffers, city officials and councilmembers, Johnson did not make any comments about the outside auditor topic at Tuesday’s meeting.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

The invisible city manager?

2009-12-10T01:50:04Z

I have been trying to set up an appointment to meet with City Manager Ray Kerridge since Oct. 21. While I’ve introduced myself to him in the past, I haven’t had a sit-down meeting with him.

Since I cover city politics, I thought it would be good idea to have a conversation with the city manager. It just seemed, you know, logical for a City Hall reporter to talk to the city manager. After all, in lieu of a strong mayor, he is the city's top executive.

But my requests to meet with Kerridge have so far yielded no results. There was one meeting scheduled for Nov. 5 but city spokeswoman Amy Williams canceled on behalf of Kerridge.

After Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, I seized a chance to talk to Kerridge. And it was then that I learned why Kerridge hasn’t been able to meet with me.

As Kerridge was on his way out of the City Council’s chambers, I used a jovial tone to tell him that I wanted to meet with him. He responded, “I'm invisible.”

Yes, Kerridge appeared to be joking when he gave that response. But I still want to meet with the city manager because he runs the city government. Even if he is invisible.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.