Regional Issues

Retiree benefits data released to the Bee

2011-06-17T02:23:39Z

The agency that manages retirement benefits for Sacramento County employees provided in-depth information about retirees’ finances to The Sacramento Bee earlier this week after a lengthy court battle.

The Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System released information about retirees on June 13, Richard Stensrud, the chief executive officer of SCERS said Wednesday.

Joyce Terhaar, executive editor of the Bee, confirmed in an interview Thursday that the newspaper received retiree information from SCERS after suing for it in 2010.“In general, it should have been available from the beginning,” Terhaar said, referring to the data SCERS submitted.

The Bee, which joined with the First Amendment Coalition in a lawsuit against SCERS in 2010, is currently working on stories about the retirees’ information, Terhaar said. She added that she did not know the dates the stories will be published.

The Bee stories may report information that includes the names of retirees and beneficiaries who are collecting benefits, their retirement dates, the names of the departments or agencies for which they worked, their jobs at the time of retirement and how long they were in the retirement system, according to a June 9 letter Stensrud sent to SCERS members.

Retirement allowances, cost of living payments and current retirement payments could also be included in the stories, he wrote.

A June 10 Bee editorial said that the taxpayers should not be blocked from learning the information. “That money comes not just from county employees and retirees, but taxpayers, too. Taxpayers have a right to know what they are paying for,” according to the editorial.

James Diepenbrock, the president of SCERS’ board of directors, said the board did not want to release the information because doing so would make SCERS vulnerable to lawsuits by its members.

Diepenbrock said SCERS must adhere to County Employees Retirement Law of 1937. “That act specifically states that we are to maintain the confidentiality of members’ records,” he said. “As a fiduciary, the board and I felt we can’t release this data because of the way the law reads.”

Terhaar said the courts disagreed with the board’s interpretation of the law.

Stensrud also acknowledged the courts’ views in his letter to retirees.

“Unfortunately, however, both the trial court and the Court of Appeals concluded that the disclosure principles of the (California Public Records Act) outweigh the confidentiality provisions of the 1937 Act,” he wrote.

The Sacramento Bee and First Amendment Coalition won both of their legal fights with SCERS. The Third District Court of Appeals decided May 11 that names of SCERS’ retirees and beneficiaries and their payment information should be publicly released, according to a statement on the SCERS website.

The prior court battle played out in Sacramento County Superior Court, which determined in July 2010 that the data about retirees and beneficiaries should be released under the state’s Public Records Act.

“SCERS does not agree with the conclusion reached by the courts, and continues to believe that ‘naming names’ adds minimal value to the oversight of public employee benefits,” Stensrud wrote in his letter.

“SCERS also continues to be concerned that in this digital age the release of such detailed information could be used by people with questionable motives to prey upon vulnerable retirees and beneficiaries,” he wrote.

SCERS charged the Bee $560 for the records it delivered on Monday, Stensrud said. The charge was to cover the costs of SCERS’ staff time to create a new report out of various databases and for conducting manual research for an element of the data that was not in an existing database, he said.

The Public Records Act states that a public agency can charge fees for “direct costs of duplication” of data.

The information can now be obtained by anyone who wants to make a Public Records Act request. Stensrud said he was unsure of what the charge would be to give out the same information that was provided to the Bee.

Read Stensrud’s June 9 letter to SCERS members here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Cuts to local children's services

2011-05-12T01:26:55Z

A Sacramento County commission that provides funding for local children’s services suffered severe cuts earlier this month.

The First 5 Sacramento Commission cut $43.7 million from its budget May 2. The cuts were ordered by the state, which is using funding from First 5 programs to pay for Medi-Cal children’s services.

The local First 5 cuts reduced funding for a county program that assists women with breast-feeding and for a program at nine school districts that helps young children transition into school, according to Toni Moore, executive director of the First 5 Sacramento Commission.

Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Glennah Trochet said the cuts were painful.

“We are a very resilient society,” Trochet said. “I’m hoping in better times, some of these programs will be restored. Or, as a society, we’ll make sure to give importance to the youngest and most vulnerable in our community.”

Trochet is a First 5 commissioner, but she did not vote on the budget cuts. Trochet’s department includes programs that receive First 5 funding, and it would have been a conflict of interest for her to vote, she said.

More cuts to the commission are still to come. The commission expects the state will require $4.8 million on top of the $43.7 million in cuts, according to a news release.

California Assemblyman Roger Dickinson of Sacramento commented on the First 5 cuts during a meeting with The Sacramento Press Wednesday. “I’m hopeful we’ll get back to restoring First 5 as we go,” he said.

Budget cuts totaling $43.7 million will be distributed until the 2014/2015 fiscal year, the news release said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Data: Homelessness declines in Sacramento County

2011-04-23T01:11:44Z

The number of homeless people in Sacramento County has sharply declined, according to 2011 figures on homelessness released Friday by Sacramento Steps Forward and Sacramento County. Long-term homelessness saw the biggest decrease, with a 50 percent drop since 2007.

Despite the lasting effects of the recession locally, the numbers for both long-term homelessness and overall homelessness have fallen compared to recent years.

On any given night in Sacramento County in 2011, there are 2,358 homeless people, said Paul Lake, director of the county’s Department of Human Assistance. That’s down from 2,800 people at any night in 2009.

“I think we were all pleasantly surprised,” Lake said.

The data released Friday is based on the Jan. 27 Homeless Street Count held by Sacramento Steps Forward.

“In addition to the substantial decrease of 50.8 percent in chronic homelessness between 2007 and 2011, this year’s homeless count also found a 15.8 percent decrease in overall homelessness since 2009,” according to a fact sheet on the data released by Sacramento Steps Forward and Sacramento County.

While the overall numbers are down, the county did see an 11.2 percent rise in families that are homeless since 2009, according to the figures.

Lake credited the drop in homelessness partly to the work of the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, a partnership between local government agencies and private firms in the Sacramento County. LINK

“I was hopeful that we’d see the success of the efforts that we’ve been making in the 10-year plan,” Lake said. “I think this points out that we have achieved some success.”

Lake also said that a federal stimulus program that started in 2009, the Homeless Prevention and Rapid-Rehousing program, helped lower the number of homeless in Sacramento County.

He said about 1,600 people in Sacramento County gained housing help through that program.

The numbers, which were crunched by the MKS Consulting firm, will be used by the county’s Department of Human Assistance to maintain federal Housing and Urban Development Department funding, said Lake.

The fact sheet on the results of the homeless count says the data is based on a “statistically reliable research-based method of counting that is approved by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.”

Sacramento County must provide statistics on homelessness to the federal housing department every other year, according to Michele Watts, program manager for Sacramento Steps Forward.

Lake explained that the data cannot be broken down by city to show how many homeless people are in each city in the county. The data was assessed by splitting up the county into areas that have a high number of homeless people and areas that have low numbers of homeless.

Volunteers counted homeless people in 100 percent of the high-density areas, said Megan Schatz, principal consultant for MKS Consulting, the firm that analyzed the data. About two-thirds of the low-density areas were counted, she said.

Because not every portion of the low-density areas were covered in the count, there is “no way to extrapolate how many people are in a given sub-section of the county,” Lake said.

Read the fact sheet on the new results here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Editorial Note: This is an updated version of an earlier story.

Local clinics treat tens of thousands

2011-03-06T19:24:04Z

While local nonprofit clinics The Effort and the Health and Life Organization are not as well-known as major hospitals like Sutter Health or UC Davis Medical Center, they each serve tens of thousands of people in Sacramento County and play a major role in health care for the region’s low-income and homeless residents.

The Effort and the Health and Life Organization allow patients to pay for medical services on a sliding fee scale.

About six community health organizations run 29 clinics in Sacramento County, according to Chris Patterson, a media relations consultant for the Capitol Community Health Network.

About 14,000 patients made about 35,000 visits to The Effort’s medical sites last year, said Jonathan Porteus, the chief executive of the organization.

Porteus said he expects to see even more patients this year because of Sacramento County’s budget cuts to mental health services.

“What we’re finding is, as the county trimmed their mental health system, we inherited a lot of people with mental illness,” Porteus said. “They come more frequently.”

He said The Effort expects about 20,000 patients to make about 45,000 medical visits this year.

The organization consists of four general medical clinics, an addiction treatment center and three other clinics housed at specific sites, including St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children.

The Effort’s operating budget for the 2010/2011 fiscal year is $17.8 million, Porteus said. It receives federal, state and local funding, and monies from foundations, he said.

In addition, The Effort runs the second-largest suicide hotline in the country, Porteus said.

Jocelyn Nash, a patient who receives medical services at The Effort, spoke positively about the clinic.

“They take time with me,” she said.

The Effort’s J Street location looks like a typical medical office. The Sacramento Press toured the facility Friday morning. About 11 people sat on rows of chairs in a waiting room. Fliers about birth control and HIV were available for patients. Fluorescent lights shone down on a row of exam rooms. Several rooms were designated for counseling services.

Funding is a key challenge for the organization, Porteus said. The health care group has many patients who do not have government-funded health insurance like Medi-Cal.

During a couple months last year, 60 percent of the The Effort’s patients did not have insurance, he said.

With such a high percentage of clients seeking service who do not have insurance, The Effort must focus on how it can financially sustain its clinics, he said.

Meanwhile, the Health and Life Organization’s medical clinic on Del Paso Boulevard in North Sacramento was much smaller than The Effort’s. It also looked like a conventional medical center, with a TV showing CNN in the waiting room, and a white-coated medical professional walking the halls.

In addition to its clinic in North Sacramento, the Health and Life group has a clinic in South Sacramento. The group’s current operating budget is $4.3 million, and it receives state and federal funding. It plans to soon open a third clinic, which will also be located in South Sacramento.

About 60 percent of the health group’s patients are Southeast Asian, said Jerry Bliatout, the organization’s executive officer. His health group’s key challenge is to communicate to Southeast Asian patients how they can be helped by Western medicine, he said.

“We have to explain to them how important Western medicine is,” Bliatout said.

He said his clinics also communicate to these patients how they are expected to have longer lifespans in the United States than in Southeast Asia.

“These people that migrate from Southeast Asia, actually, they die a little bit earlier,” he said.

At the Health and Life Organization’s two medical centers, about 11,500 patients made about 40,000 visits last year, Bliatout said.

Porteus, chief executive of The Effort, says the public is unaware of his health center’s many services for low-income people.

“People don’t even know a lot of the stuff we do,” Porteus said.

For more information about local community health clinics, click on the following links.

The Effort

The Health and Life Organization

Capitol Community Health Network

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Streetcar back on city's agenda

2011-02-05T01:43:10Z

The planning process for a streetcar connecting the city to West Sacramento is still chugging along. The City Council last addressed the study of streetcar routes in July 2010.

A study of possible routes for the streetcar will likely get under way soon after City Council members hire a consultant for the task Tuesday night, Councilman Steve Cohn said on Friday. Asked why it’s taken months to start the study, Cohn said $300,000 in federal funding awarded to the city was delayed.

The City Council is likely to hire a national transportation consulting firm, Fehr & Peers, to conduct the study. Fehr & Peers will be paid mostly in federal funds, according to the city’s Transportation Department.

The city has $300,000 in federal dollars and $90,000 in local funds to put toward the study. The local funds will not come out of the city’s strapped general fund, the Transportation Department report says.

The sight of a streetcar shuttling between Sacramento and West Sacramento is still years away, according to Cohn. The project has many steps to undergo, including environmental review, design work and construction, he said. In addition, the city will need to obtain more federal funding, Cohn said.

He expressed optimism about the city’s chances of qualifying for more federal funding. “I think we can be very competitive on this,” Cohn said.

Read the streetcar report on the City Council’s Tuesday agenda here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Volunteers count homeless on cold night

2011-01-29T00:40:56Z

Mike Morris wore a headlamp late Thursday night as he searched for homeless people in McKinley Park and areas around the freeway at 29th Street.

Morris, with two other volunteers and a law enforcement officer, interviewed two homeless individuals Thursday night as part of the Homeless Street Count event organized by the Sacramento Steps Forward group. A third homeless person declined to be interviewed. The Sacramento Press shadowed the group.

About 400 volunteers turned out on a cold and foggy Thursday night to count the homeless living in Sacramento County. The count is done every other year to comply with the federal Housing and Urban Development Agency.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” Morris said. “I didn’t even know this (count) existed, and I work for the Department of Human Assistance.”

The federal Housing and Urban Development Agency (HUD) awards about $14 million annually to Sacramento County for services and housing for formerly homeless people, according to Lucinda Serynek, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Assistance (DHA). HUD mandates that Sacramento County carry out the homeless counts, Serynek said.

While Sacramento Steps Forward managed the count, the data will be used by DHA, said Tim Brown, director of Sacramento Steps Forward, a group that address regional homelessness.

The 400 volunteers who participated in Thursday’s count were split up into small groups and sent to areas within Sacramento County, as well as parts of the county’s unincorporated area.

Morris was part of a volunteer interview team with two of his colleagues from the information technology unit at DHA. An armed law enforcement officer from the fraud investigation unit at DHA accompanied the volunteers as they searched areas near freeways and other remote spots.

“I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was,” Morris said, referring to the count. “It’s a pretty big effort.”

Teams did their searches as temperatures dropped into the 30s. Lt. Lori Babbage, the law enforcement member of the team, said it’s better to count homeless people at night because they won’t be moving around as much.

Homeless people move from spot to spot during the day, responding to various groups who don’t want them around, Babbage said. “We know they’re going to hunker down for the night.”

The teams asked homeless people a variety of personal questions. Kelly Newell, who was part of Morris’ team, said interviews included questions about mental health issues, substance abuse, disabilities, domestic violence and HIV.

Newell interviewed a cooperative homeless man who was sleeping near a tree in Midtown. “We won’t ask you your name,” she told the man, who answered her questions.

Another homeless man approached the volunteers. He listened as Newell explained the interview questions, but then walked away. Later that evening, the volunteers spotted him at 29th and E streets. This time around, he readily talked with Morris and Todd Dunbar, another volunteer in the group.

The man appeared to be more willing to talk when Babbage, who was wearing a vest printed with the word “Police,” was not near him.

The team fanned out at McKinley Park and searched the grounds and bathrooms thoroughly. A few joggers were doing laps around the park, but the only other people inside the park at 9:30 p.m. were a young couple sharing a blanket.

Brown said he thinks homeless people might not be sleeping at McKinley Park because law enforcement officers drive around the park and tell people to leave.

Isleton was the only part of the county that wasn’t included in the count, said John Culbert, GIS lead for the project. Areas were selected with input from many groups, including law enforcement agencies, park rangers, homeless people, citizen groups and homeless outreach workers, according to Culbert and Brown.

The count began around 8 p.m. and ended at midnight. Some groups finished their walks before midnight.

Numerous area law enforcement agencies participated in the event. Brown said there were no public safety issues with Thursday’s count.

In an interview Friday morning, Brown said he hopes to have a report on the new data from Thursday night’s walk in March. The report will be handled by the MKS Consulting firm.

County Supervisor Phil Serna joined the volunteers Thursday night.

“I think it’s important for local, elected leaders to see for themselves the extent of this challenge,” he said.

The public will be able to read the results of the count online in March, according to Serynek.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Homeless shelter program seeks $50K

2010-12-21T02:31:19Z

A local group that combats homelessness is asking the public for $50,000 to shelter the poor during the winter season. Sacramento Steps Forward needs the funding to continue its new Winter Sanctuary program, which allows homeless people to sleep overnight at certain churches, according to the group’s director, Tim Brown.

Volunteers of America is partnering with Sacramento Steps Forward on the program, which started Dec. 1, Brown said. The two groups have raised about $40,000, which will allow the program to run until the end of January, he said. Another $50,000 is needed to continue the program through the end of March, which is the goal.

“The churches have really stepped up to open their doors,” he said.

Eight churches are currently participating in the program, and another nine have pledged to participate later this winter, according to Sacramento Steps Forward. Not all of the religious centers are churches – one of the nine religious centers that has pledged to help is SALAM, a Sacramento mosque.

About 90 homeless people have used the overnight program since Dec. 1, according to Sacramento Steps Forward.

The bulk of the $50,000 would pay for bus expenses and staff, Brown said. The program buses the homeless from Loaves and Fishes to the churches at night, and back to Loaves and Fishes in the morning, he said. Volunteers of America staffers assist the churches with the overnight guests, he said, explaining the staffing costs.

Sacramento County runs a homeless program, but it did not have adequate funding this year to provide winter shelter for homeless individuals, he said. The county and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency received funding to house 100 homeless families, Brown said.

Tracie Rice-Bailey, an advocate who was formerly homeless, said the cold winter weather makes the Winter Sanctuary program necessary. “The river’s rising, the ground’s getting wet,” she said.

Sacramento Steps Forward is accepting donations for Winter Sanctuary through its website.

Religious centers that have participated in Winter Sanctuary:
St. John’s Lutheran Church
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in partnership with Atonement Lutheran
St. Paul’s Baptist Church
Capital Christian Center
Trinity Cathedral
Lutheran Church of the Master
First Covenant Church

Religious centers that have pledged to participate:
St. Mark’s United Methodist
Trinity Life Center
SALAM
Seventh Day Adventist
Arcade Church
Sun River Church
Living Stones Christian Reformed Church in partnership with City Life Church
Mars Hill Church

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

New sewer rules affect residents, environment

2010-12-10T18:33:43Z

New environmental rules for the Sacramento sewer district mean that local residents and businesses will be forced to pay high fees, according to opponents of the regulations.

But the new restrictions approved Thursday night will likely be viewed by many others as a big win for clean water and the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Five members of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, a state regulatory body that oversees water quality in the region, unanimously set new restrictions on the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District just before 11 p.m. on Thursday night. A crowd of more than 330 people gathered for the meeting in Rancho Cordova, which started at 8:30 a.m. Everyone from state senators to farmers had a view on the issue. About 100 people were still in attendance at around 6 p.m.

The state’s decision to establish the new rules means that the district will have to overhaul its wastewater systems and pass on the cost to residents and businesses, according to the sanitation district.

The state regulators and the sewer district clashed over all the major issues raised in Thursday’s hearing. There was no consensus between the regulators and the sewer district on the scientific need for the new rules, nor on the costs.

Stan Dean, the district engineer of the sanitation district, said the district estimated that monthly fees for residents could jump to $61.50 from the current fee of $20.00 over the next 10 years. Fees to connect a new property to the sewer system, known as a “connection fee” or an “impact fee,” could eventually rise to $35,000 from the current rate of $7,450, according to the district’s estimates.

Connecting an infill property to the sewer system could eventually cost $13,000, up from the current rate of $2,800, the district estimated.

“We will have to regroup and figure out if we have any next steps on it,” Dean said after the decision. He said the district has the option of appealing the decision to another state body, the Water Resources Control Board.

Asked if the district’s next steps could include litigation, Dean said the district would decide on that “down the road.”

The district estimated that the total costs would be about $2 billion. Meanwhile, the regulators cited estimates from firms that the total costs would be $1.2 billion or $1.3 billion.

Ken Landau, assistant executive officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, commented on the environmental issues after the vote.

“Recent science and studies show that the ammonia from the discharge is harming the Delta ecosystem,” Landau said. (And) the pathogens or disease-causing organisms are increasing the health risk to the people and the river. And there are issues associated with the nitrates impacting downstream drinking-water uses. What this permit (to the sewer district) does is give an enforceable time schedule (and) and sets limits to resolve those impacts to the environment.”

Residents and businesses in Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, West Sacramento and the unincorporated part of Sacramento County are in the sewer district’s jurisdiction and will pay any rate hikes the district approves.

“We certainly have an ailing economy,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said at Thursday’s meeting, “and this certainly impacts us in a very adverse way.”

While many speakers made their case against the fees at the Thursday hearing, environmental health was the primary concern of many others.

In comments before she voted, Sopac Mulholland, a member of the board that set the new regulations, said the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is suffering from excessive pollution.

“The Delta is in collapse,” Mulholland said. “And I think that we ... do have a feasible technology to eliminate the probable cause of pollution that’s being contributed by the sanitation district to the collapse of the Delta.”

Landau said the sewer district will now be required to remodel its sewage treatment plant. He said it will probably take 10 years for the district to design, build and operate the new plant and completely meet the state’s new restrictions on releasing pollutants.

“Many of their costs are way down the line,” Landau said.

But earlier in the meeting, Dean challenged the district’s scientific findings. “Let the science drive the permit, not the fear of the unknown,” he said in his presentation.

Photos of the scene at the hearing by Kathleen Haley.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Effort to count the homeless underway

2010-11-26T18:34:06Z

A local group that addresses homelessness is already preparing to count the county’s homeless population in January.

Sacramento Steps Forward, a group formed by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson to combat homelessness locally, is organizing the 2011 Homeless Street Count. While Johnson’s group is running the event, the information from the Jan. 27 count will be used by Sacramento County.

The county is required by the federal Housing and Urban Development agency to provide information from a count every other year, said Michele Watts, program manager for Sacramento Steps Forward. The federal housing agency provides millions of dollars to Sacramento County’s homeless programs, Watts said.

At this point, Sacramento Steps Forward is gathering information to map out where the county’s homeless are living. The group and hundreds of volunteers will use that information to find homeless people during the Homeless Count.

“What we have on our maps now is a lot of high-density areas,” Watts said. These areas include downtown and Midtown Sacramento, which are locations with many homeless people, she said.

About 20 people turned out for a series of drop-in sessions held last week to help pinpoint where the homeless are living in the county, she said. In addition, a group of about 50 participated in a session at Loaves & Fishes earlier this week.

Watts said she will continue to work on the mapping process in appointments with people who may have information about where the homeless are staying. For example, she said she had set up meetings with a Sacramento police officer and a Sacramento County park ranger.

Tracie Rice-Bailey, an advocate who was once homeless, participated in a recent mapping session. She echoed Watts’ comment, saying that the downtown area was mapped out well.

However, she said Sacramento Steps Forward needs more information about where homeless people are living in outlying areas, such as spots near Citrus Heights. She suggested that the group ask law enforcement officials in outlying areas for information on locations. “If they don’t know, nobody does,” Bailey said.

Watts also said that law enforcement representatives have good information on locations.

However, the role of law enforcement in the count and mapping sessions is a complicated matter, according to Watts.

Sacramento Steps Forward will not publish maps with the exact locations where homeless people live, she said. The group is making efforts to protect the homeless population from rousting, she said, pointing out that the city of Sacramento has a camping ban on its books.

“It is technically illegal to sleep outside,” Watts said. “That’s the concern.”

However, the group will rely on hundreds of volunteers to help count the homeless in January. The count will be conducted at night, which means there could be some safety concerns, Watts said. To address any safety issues, teams of volunteers will have a law enforcement official accompany them, she said.

The law enforcement presence during the count “is sort of a trade-off,” she said, between the group’s concerns about rousting and protecting the safety of the volunteers.

But Sgt. Norm Leong, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department, said the location of homeless people is not a significant concern for the department.

“Identifying where the camps are is not a major issue for us,” he said. “The reality is, we only enforce the camping ordinance when we get complaints.”

Sacramento Steps Forward will recruit volunteers for the count starting Dec. 10, Watts said. About 350-400 volunteers are needed to count the county’s homeless on Jan. 27, she said. Volunteers may sign up to volunteer on the Hands on Sacramento website. More information about the sign-up process is here.

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor to discuss Arden Arcade annexation

2010-11-04T23:28:04Z

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said Thursday that he wants to start discussing two controversial ideas in 2011: merging the city and county, and the city incorporating the community of Arden Arcade.

Johnson made his comments two days after voters rejected Measure D, a ballot measure to form a city of Arden Arcade.

Johnson said he did not know whether Arden Arcade residents would like to stay in the unincorporated county or join the city of Sacramento. But he added that he “would like to have a conversation with them.”

He mentioned that he did not support cityhood for Arden Arcade. “I think there’s a lot of reasons why being part of the city of Sacramento is a good thing,” Johnson said. He said he would explain his position next week.

Johnson also floated the idea of the city merging with the county to form a single government. In his comments, he indicated that a unified city and county government could better address issues such as unemployment and local government deficits.

“Are there things that (the city and county) can be doing better together?” he said. “I can’t tell you what that answer is. But why would we not, in earnest, have those conversations?”

The idea of merging the local governments is already generating controversy: A few hours after Johnson made his statements, the Sacramento Metro Chamber sent out a press release saying that it opposed a united city and county political body.

The Metro Chamber said it backs the idea of merging city and county functions, but not their political entities.

The chamber advocated for a united city and county in the early 1990s, the chamber statement said. But now, it supports linking city and county services and opposes the idea of a single political body, according to the news release.

Photo of Johnson by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

17 candidates attend forum on proposed Arden Arcade city

2010-09-30T05:58:07Z

Twenty-two people are running for City Council seats for a city that doesn’t exist. Seventeen of them turned out for a Wednesday night forum to discuss how they would govern the proposed city of Arden Arcade.

But voters must first pass Measure D on the November ballot to create the city of Arden Arcade before the candidates can land a City Council job.

The public will decide whether an area with about 98,000 people should split from Sacramento County and become its own city.

The proposed city would consist of land bordered “on the west and north by the Sacramento city limits, on the north by Auburn Boulevard and the centerline of Winding Way, on the east by the centerline of Jacob Lane and Mission Avenue and its northerly extension to the centerline of Cypress Avenue, and on the south by the centerline of the American River,” according to the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission.

The League of Women Voters of Sacramento County and Metro Cable TV hosted the candidates’ forum, and reporters from the Sacramento News & Review and The Sacramento Bee asked the 17 candidates about their ideas and qualifications.

While the candidates are competing against each other, they all seek an Arden Arcade divorce from Sacramento County.

Criticism of the county’s public safety services for Arden Arcade was voiced at the forum.

“The county has been doing a miserable job protecting us,” said candidate David Pegos, suggesting that the proposed city should create a police force with a mix of full-time and volunteer police officers.

The candidates also rebutted criticism from opponents of the measure who argue that incorporation would bring an unnecessary new layer of government to the area.

“This is not an additional layer of government,” said candidate Mary Ose. “This is a replacement government. The county of Sacramento has no business being in the business of providing municipal services.”

Jay Boatwright argued that having a separate city would not expand government. “It is a replacement government,” he said. “It’s something that’s smaller, it’s something that’s more efficient and something that’s way more accessible to the public.”

The candidates who appeared at the forum were: David Pegos, Warren Harding, Bob Stevens, Patricia Cole, Joel Archer, Carl Burton, Gerald Klaas, Anthony Hernandez, Liz Rice, Jay Boatwright, Mary Ose, Will Wright, Ryan Arba, Nathan Gauff, Matt Powers and Robyn Salter.

Learn about the opponents of Measure D here.

Read a packet of voter information on Measure D here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City still vague on specific Safe Ground sites

2010-09-14T20:40:34Z

More than one month after Mayor Kevin Johnson asked city staffers to select three possible Safe Ground sites for consideration, it does not appear the city is any closer to discussing specifics.

Johnson told reporters at his weekly press conference that he will discuss Safe Ground issues with the City Council, city staff and Sacramento County at the end of this month or in early October. He asked city staffers on Aug. 10 to pinpoint three possible sites.

“No matter what we’re able to do with Safe Ground, that will not be in place in time for November,” Johnson said.

In the upcoming discussions on Safe Ground, Johnson said the city and county will explore a possible timeline for establishing the site.

The mayor said he was “inclined to support” the idea of a Safe Ground site.

For more than one year, Safe Ground advocates have repeatedly asked the City Council to take action. They want a site that would not fall under the city’s camping ban.

While it does not appear that any immediate action will be taken on Safe Ground, both the city and county governments are now considering the idea of setting up a new nonprofit organization to combat homelessness.

City and county officials say a nonprofit will need to be set up in large part because the county’s Department of Human Assistance will not have enough funding to manage its homelessness program after February 2011.

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

County budget troubles spur new idea for homeless program

2010-09-14T03:58:12Z

Sacramento County’s budget woes are prompting county and city staffers and local groups to consider establishing a new nonprofit organization to address homelessness.

A new agency could lift some of the county’s burden to manage regional homelessness efforts, according to a recently released report from the county’s Department of Human Assistance.

After February 2011, DHA will not have enough funding to continue its homelessness program, according to the department’s report.

The county is running low on general fund dollars for the program, said Derrick Lim, a manager with the city’s Neighborhood Services division who is working on the issue at the city level.

“That’s why the situation is so dire,” Lim said.

The Sacramento City Council and the county Board of Supervisors are discussing the idea of a nonprofit organization in separate meetings on Tuesday.

The start date for the nonprofit could be June 2011, according to the DHA report. Money will need to be found for the nonprofit, the report said.

The nonprofit would do more than provide an alternative to the county’s current homelessness program. It would also help organize the region’s numerous homeless efforts, the DHA report said.

There are dozens of groups involved with homelessness issues in the region. A report that will be discussed by the City Council on Tuesday noted that 30 agencies were represented at DHA meetings on homelessness in May and June.

The county would continue to be a partner in regional homelessness efforts, said Kerri Aiello, spokeswoman for the Countywide Services Agency.

Read the report from DHA here.

Learn about the City Council’s role in this issue here.

Photo by Brandon Darnell. People rest at Loaves and Fishes.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

UC Davis law school building grows

2010-09-04T01:16:45Z

The law school at the University of California, Davis, is now a better fit for its 610 students. A $30 million new wing has been added to the school’s building, which was intended for only 50 students when it was first built in 1968.

“We were, in effect, bursting at the seams,” Kevin R. Johnson, dean of the law school, said in a Friday interview.

A ribbon-cutting event was held Friday for the new wing, which includes six new classrooms, one of which serves as a courtroom. The law school’s building gained 18,000 more square feet with the new addition.

The new courtroom has room for 125 people and is more technologically up-to-date than the courtroom in the building’s old wing, said Pamela Wu, the law school’s director of marketing and communications.

Funding for the new wing came from $17.9 million in state bonds, $3.9 million from campus funds and $5.5 million from private donations, according to a Sept. 3 news release.

The new wing also makes the building more accessible for disabled and female students, Johnson said.

Disabled students faced difficulties entering into the building through the front door, and had to rely on the back-door as an entrance, Johnson said. The expansion has changed the building so that disabled students can enter the front door, he explained.

The new wing also provides additional women’s restrooms. When the law school opened its building more than 40 years ago, school leaders apparently didn’t envision the high percentage of female law students now attending the school.

The lack of adequate bathrooms for women has “been a huge problem,” Johnson said.

Over the last five years, about 45 to 60 percent of each entering class has been composed of women, Johnson said.

Johnson said he intends to gather $2.4 million more from sources such as foundations and private donors to pay for a remodel of the old wing of the building. He hopes the old section of the building can be remodeled by spring 2012.

UC Davis was rated 28th out of about 200 law schools by the U.S. News and World Report magazine in April, according to a UC Davis news release.

Of the top 30 law schools in the U.S. News and World Report survey, Davis’ is the youngest program, the news release said.

Photo courtesy of Sam Sellers, UC Davis School of Law

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Local leaders discuss regional sustainability

2010-08-28T01:06:35Z

Local leaders in the fields of politics, business and environmentalism gathered in Sacramento on Friday to brainstorm how the region could advance its efforts to become more economically and environmentally sustainable.

The Sacramento Metro Chamber’s “State of the Region” event focused on sustainability in the area’s communities.

Chamber spokesman Hal Silliman said more than 300 people attended the event, which was held at the Hyatt hotel downtown and included a panel of local leaders and a presentation from an Environmental Protection Agency analyst. Elected officials from around the region — including Davis, Sacramento, Folsom and Citrus Heights — listened to the panel.

Matthew Dalbey, a senior policy analyst with the EPA, told the audience the Sacramento area is renowned for its “Blueprint,” which serves as a guide on sustainable regional planning.

The “blueprint” was approved in 2004 by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

“You all know that the ‘blueprint’ is looked on as a model for communities across the country,” Dalbey said.

Still, Dalbey urged regional leaders to ramp up their efforts.

“In order to keep on keeping on, you’re going to have to do things better,” he said.

Specifically, Dalbey asked the region to consider how its sustainable planning process can improve the economic, environmental and public health situation of rural communities and small towns.

In the discussion that followed Dalbey’s comments, panelist and West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon countered Dalbey’s statement that the region should do a better job.

Cabaldon said he becomes frustrated with the federal government agencies working on sustainability efforts “because it seems like they’re so slow.”

He said the area’s leaders should press the federal government to move more quickly to fund the region’s sustainable projects.

Scott Syphax, another speaker on the five-member panel, said the banking industry needs to lend money to sustainable projects.

“The banking spigot is still fairly closed,” he said. To put Sacramento and the region back to work, "we’ve got to turn that back on.”

Syphax is the chief executive of the Nehemiah Corporation of America, a community group based in Sacramento. The group launched in 1994 “for the purpose of promoting homeownership and economic development for under-served populations and communities,” according to its website.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Kevin McCarty noted that the city of Sacramento earlier this month joined an effort with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the county and Valley Vision to apply for $1.85 million in grant money through the federal Sustainable Communities Initiative.

Photo of Syphax and Cabaldon by Tia Gemmell

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Central Labor Council backs Potnick for West Sac mayor

2010-08-19T00:56:08Z

A prominent labor group in the Sacramento region has endorsed Mayor Christopher Cabaldon’s opponent, Greg Potnick, in the West Sacramento mayoral race.

The Sacramento Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, this week endorsed Potnick to become the city’s mayor. Potnick, a former City Council member of 12 years, said he will advocate for working families as part of his campaign.

“I’ve been a union member and supporter my entire life,” Potnick said.

Cabaldon said Wednesday that he had not yet heard from the labor council on its decision. He said he did not want to comment until he talked to the labor council and learned why it endorsed Potnick.

Bill Camp, the executive secretary of the labor council, said the council wants to be better connected to Cabaldon, but feels it does not have a relationship with him. Camp indicated that the council feels it’s not connected with Cabaldon, saying that the SCLC wants to know more details about upcoming construction projects in the city.

The city is developing its Bridge District on the riverfront. Cabaldon is promoting development for that area.

Cabaldon, an education policy consultant, has served on the West Sacramento City Council since 1996. He has been the city's elected mayor since 2004.

West Sacramento residents started electing their mayor in 2004, according to Janet Chapan, a deputy city clerk. Before the city held mayoral elections, council members named one of their council colleagues to hold the position.

Both Cabaldon and Potnick were chosen by their City Council colleagues to serve terms as mayor before 2004.

Potnick is a retired deputy regional administrator for the state Department of Corrections. He held a City Council seat from 1988 to 2000.

He said he is a former member of unions including the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the California State Employees Association and the Teamsters.

Photo of Cabaldon by Kathleen Haley. Photo of Potnick used with permission.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Streetcar plan explained

2010-07-30T21:32:24Z

A study to map out a streetcar route linking Sacramento to West Sacramento is expected to start this fall, according to city Transportation Department spokeswoman Linda Tucker.

More than $400,000 in funding has been set aside for the study -- $310,000 from federal grant funds obtained earlier this year and $90,000 from local transportation funds, said Azadeh Doherty, a principal planner in the department.

The current plan for the streetcar includes a path in West Sacramento, but does not lay out a route in Sacramento. Under the most recent plan, the streetcar would run from West Sacramento City Hall, across Tower Bridge and stop in Old Sacramento at the foot of the bridge.

The city will consider ideas for a route in Sacramento in the upcoming study.

Tucker provided more detail about the study Wednesday in an e-mail to The Sacramento Press.

The Sacramento Press: Who will conduct this study?

Tucker: The City will conduct the study to explore the best route to serve the most riders on the Sacramento side of the river.

City staff from (the) Department of Transportation and the Economic Development department will co-manage the project with the help of a consultant team. We will post a Request for Qualifications for a consultant sometime in August/September. The study should get going this fall.

SP: Will the public and stakeholders be able to influence this study?

Tucker: Absolutely, there will be opportunities for public input through public meetings and a stakeholder advisory group of Sacramento stakeholders and residents. Key stakeholders are Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), developers, business owners and advocacy groups such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, Chambers of Commerce on both sides of the river, Regional Transit (which will operate the streetcar), public transit riders, bicycle and walking advocates and Old Sacramento, to name a few.

We’re looking forward to getting started to have the public and experts weigh in. The study will be a companion to our previous studies: the Bikeway Master Plan, Parking Master Plan, Pedestrian Master Plan, General Plan, Regional Transit Master Plan, Township 9 and Railyards.

Once the streetcar study is completed, we will be able to do a comprehensive downtown circulation study next summer that will integrate all that was documented during these other studies completed in recent years.

SP: How will Caltrans be involved in the study?

Tucker: They are a stakeholder as they own the Tower Bridge, which will be the streetcar crossing. However, we do not expect they would have an inordinate amount of involvement merely because the funds passed through them from SACOG to us.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sac to plan streetcar's route

2010-07-29T03:29:16Z

The city of Sacramento is back at the drawing board — literally — on its efforts to set up a streetcar connecting to West Sacramento.

A new study to plan the streetcar route in Sacramento has received $310,000 in federal grant funds.

An additional $90,000 from a local source will help pay for the study, according to a July 27 report from the city’s Transportation Department. The City Council signed off on the new funding Tuesday night.

“What we’ll be doing now is looking now more broadly at the best routes for that system on the Sacramento side,” Councilman Steve Cohn said Wednesday.

In the most recent plan, the streetcar would run from West Sacramento City Hall, across Tower Bridge and stop in Old Sacramento at the foot of the bridge.

City leaders learned earlier this month that the Sacramento/West Sacramento project would not receive the millions of federal dollars for which it had applied.

Cohn said one of the weaknesses of the streetcar plan was that it didn’t outline a route in Sacramento beyond Tower Bridge.

In the new study, the city will examine ideas for a route.

“The project focuses on connecting some of the most active destinations in the City of Sacramento including: the dense urban central business district, the vacant 240 acre Railyards redevelopment area, the emerging commercial, arts, and entertainment neighborhood in Midtown, the R Street corridor, the Sacramento State University campus and the Arden Fair Mall,” according to the Transportation Department’s report.

Cohn said he does not expect the city will have a decision on the final route after this study is conducted. But he said he wants to make headway on extending the route past Tower Bridge and connecting it with other forms of transportation, such as light rail.

The city’s report did not specify when work on the study will start. Read the report on the new funding for a streetcar plan here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Streetcar hits roadblock

2010-07-13T03:29:57Z

Plans to set up a streetcar to connect the cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento have hit a roadblock. At the same time, the streetcar project is still on the agenda of both cities.

The federal transportation department bypassed the Sacramento/West Sacramento streetcar project last week when it chose projects for federal grant funding.

Instead, the federal government decided to award funding to cities in Texas, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said on Monday that he would like the project to compete for federal funds again if President Barack Obama’s Administration offers another grant program.

“We’re going to get it done,” Cabaldon said, expressing optimism about the project’s future. “It’s one of those things that’s kind of captured the imagination in the urban core.”

Meanwhile, Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn said the streetcar will not be running anytime in the near future. One of the weaknesses of the streetcar plan rebuffed by the federal government was that it didn’t have a route for the city of Sacramento, Cohn said. Under the old funding plan, the streetcar would have connected part of West Sacramento to Old Sacramento, but would not have gone further than that.

The city of Sacramento has not yet planned Sacramento’s streetcar route. Cohn said the city needs to spend time to decide where the route will go.

While there isn’t money available right now to put the streetcar on the street, there is funding for planning, according to city Transportation Department spokeswoman Linda Tucker.

Funding for streetcar planning will be on the City Council’s July 27 agenda, she said.

A pot of $310,000 in federal funds and $90,000 in local dollars is available for streetcar planning, she noted.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Rhee urges top school officials to get political, find supporters

2010-05-25T04:30:32Z

School district superintendents should find ways to gain political support from community members, according to Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

At a Sacramento Press Club luncheon Monday, Rhee urged the city’s businesspeople, media professionals and politicians to back Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond in his efforts.

These groups should “give this man some cover,” Rhee said.

Superintendents are not elected to their positions, but they can benefit from making alliances with groups, she said.

“When you are a superintendent and you want to do bold things that might not be popular, you have to have some political capital," she said.

Rhee, who is engaged to Mayor Kevin Johnson, gave the example of layoffs she made last fall. She said that because of a budget crunch, she laid off 266 teachers.

Rhee said she changed the way layoffs had been carried out, deciding that the criteria for a layoff should be the quality of a person’s work instead of the length of time they have worked for the school district.

The business community’s support of her criteria was helpful, she said.

“The business community were the ones who were my strongest supporters of this,” she said. “They came out and said: This is how we run our businesses. We would never run an organization in a way that you were just ... getting rid of people based on how many years they’ve been there instead of looking at what they produced for the organization.”

Rhee, who praised government systems in which mayors run schools, said she and Johnson were not planning any efforts to reverse California law to allow mayors to manage schools. However, she did say that an effort to change state law could be worthwhile later.

“Now, a few years down the line: Is this something that might be appropriate?” she asked rhetorically. “Absolutely.”

Asked after the event if she planned to move to Sacramento, Rhee responded that she still has a lot of work to do in Washington, D.C.

A move to Sacramento is “not going to be any time in the near future,” she said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Local groups brainstorm ideas for new Sac/West Sac river crossing

2010-05-11T04:59:00Z

About 40 people gathered at a local library Monday night to brainstorm ideas for new bridges or other structures to connect the cities of West Sacramento and Sacramento.

The two cities are currently exploring ideas for new river crossings. The workshop held by the cities at the Arthur Turner Community Library in West Sacramento was one of a series of public meetings on the topic.

Representatives from a variety of groups and agencies attended the workshop, including the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, the Sacramento Walking Sticks and the Land Park Community Association.

Members of the various groups suggested ideas to consultants working on the study. Mark Abrahams of the Land Park Community Association said a new span between the cities should not devalue the livability of the existing neighborhoods. “I’m here with that charge,” Abrahams said.

Jim Randlett of the Sacramento River Crossings Association said “the elephant in the room” is the issue of traffic congestion in West Sacramento.

Meanwhile, Dan Ramos of the West Sacramento development firm Ramco Enterprises pointed out that planned development could make his city a major job center. “We’re going to be a regional draw,” he said.

The discussions for new crossings are in the early stages. At this point, the two cities are working on the Sacramento River Crossings Alternatives Study.

Funding for bridges or other forms of crossings has not been allocated, and locations for projects have not been selected.

The study may be ready by early 2011, said Fedolia Harris, a senior planner with Sacramento’s Department of Transportation.

Questions from the public about the study can be e-mailed to Fran Halbakken at fhalbakken@cityofsacramento.org

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

About 50 people urge City Council to help form Safe Ground

2010-04-24T02:03:50Z

About 50 people urged the Sacramento City Council Thursday to help efforts to reserve land for the homeless. The people who addressed the City Council were supporters of the “Safe Ground” campaign, which opposes the city’s anti-camping ordinance and advocates for a living space for the city’s homeless.

The recent stabbing death of 68-year-old Bernice Nickson, a homeless resident, was mentioned in the comments of some of the Safe Ground advocates.

The Safe Ground supporters spoke during the part of the meeting reserved for public comments on subjects that are not covered in the agenda. Council members do not respond to citizens during that part of each City Council meeting.

Comments from some of the people who addressed the City Council Thursday are below:

Tracie Rice-Bailey, advocate for Safe Ground: Had [Nickson] had a safe place to sleep, she would be alive today. If this is not a solid reason for safe ground, what might be? We need to get real and not let this happen to anyone else. We need a moratorium on the anti-camping ordinance now.

Joan Burke, director of advocacy for Sacramento Loaves & Fishes: Please give us Safe Ground so that no woman has to sleep outside in Sacramento, and no woman has to die because she’s homeless.

John Kraintz, advocate for Safe Ground: Safe Ground is hoping to offer something that provides a solution of empowerment, rather than entitlement. To try to be contributors. That’s why these people are here tonight — because they’re part of your community. They care. How many normal citizens do we find coming out to talk to the City Council and tell them what’s on their mind?

Mark Merin, civil rights attorney: When people say they’re part of Safe Ground, and they’ve counted on Safe Ground, what they’re talking about is a group of people who stay together. They camp at night ... break their camp in the morning, and they drag their stuff away. So, it’s a clean site. That is not ideal. What they need is a place where they can actually be and their stuff can stay safe. And they can go about connecting with family (and) friends, qualifying for services, and moving up.

Cres Vellucci, member of the board of directors of ACLU of Sacramento County and a Vietnam veteran: As I understand it, a number of the people that are homeless ... are military veterans. As a veteran, I would like to encourage all of you to consider that these people have served their country. They’ve done what they had to do — whether they were drafted like I was, or whether they joined.

Photo caption: The city removed "Tent City" last year. Photo by Jonathan Mendick.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Regional Transit lays off 37 employees

2010-04-20T02:42:41Z

If you're wondering how budget cuts go from abstract accounting to real life, read on: Below is the list of local Regional Transit bus routes that will cease to operate in June.

As part of its response to a budget crisis, Regional Transit laid off 37 employees Monday. An additional 14 employees accepted retirement incentives instead of layoffs, according to RT spokeswoman Alane Masui.

Monday's layoffs are expected to be followed by further job cuts; transit system officials plan to lay off about 200 employees in the coming months, Masui said. All told, RT is carrying out $11.7 million in cuts.

RT has not laid off employees since the early 1980s, Masui said, noting that the current and upcoming layoffs are "unfortunate" and "sad."

But it's not just jobs. Services will also be cut, which means fewer buses and slower light rail pickups. And nearly four dozen different RT bus lines will cease to operate on June 20.

Put simply: There will be a lot fewer buses running, and after the budget cuts are administered fully, the transit agency will no longer offer light rail and bus trips after 9 p.m. The cuts after 9 p.m. apply to trips that begin after 9 p.m., Masui clarified. Some trips that start before 9 p.m. will still finish their routes after 9 p.m.

RT will stop the following weekday bus routes: 4, 8, 9, 10, 18, 20, 36, 50E, 63, 73, 83, 89, 94, 95, 100, 101, 102, 104, 106, 107, 141, 142, 200, 201, 210, 226, 251, 261

The following Saturday bus routes will be cut: 5, 6, 8, 13, 14, 16, 24, 28, 54, 61, 65, 74, 143

RT is slashing the following Sunday bus routes: 8, 13, 14, 22

Photos by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sac and West Sac hope to win federal grant for streetcar

2010-04-02T04:03:10Z

Efforts to establish a streetcar line between West Sacramento and Sacramento could advance if the project is awarded grant money from the federal government, West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said last week.

The West Sacramento/Sacramento line is competing with other projects for a grant of up to $25 million for streetcars, he said.

If the project is selected, the funds would establish a line from West Capitol Avenue in downtown West Sacramento to 100 Capitol Mall, the location of the Embassy Suites in Sacramento, according to Cabaldon.

Both cities would like to run the streetcar to a variety of locations, he said, but initial funding would get the streetcar started.

West Sacramento and Sacramento have been working together on the project. Yolobus also is involved, Cabaldon said.

Which agency would operate the streetcar is unclear, but there is talk of working with Regional Transit, Cabaldon said, adding that he hopes to learn whether funds have been granted in a couple of months.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Regional Transit board cuts: slower light rail, fewer buses

2010-03-30T05:48:05Z

Dozens of bus routes in the Sacramento region will vanish and light rail will slow down on the weekends as a result of sweeping Regional Transit budget cuts. The agency’s board of directors slashed bus, light rail and paratransit service Monday night to resolve a $10.6 million deficit.

One of the major budget fixes scales back night service seven days per week. The RT board decided that light rail, bus and paratransit trips that now begin after 9 p.m. will cease.

Public transportation will also be slower on weekends. Right now, light rail picks up passengers in 15-minute cycles during the weekend. The cuts mean that riders can catch the light rail every 30 minutes on weekends, explained Mike Wiley, RT’s general manager and CEO.

Cuts will take effect June 20.

While the board cut paratransit trips that begin after 9 p.m., that decision could be changed. Board Member Don Nottoli asked RT staff to look into ways that paratransit riders could take later rides.

Some paratransit riders expressed concern at the Monday meeting that they could be left on the street if they were out late.

Pamela Ross of Sacramento said that she takes paratransit late at night when she comes home from summer vacations. Ross, who uses a wheelchair and has two service animals, was worried that she wouldn’t have a paratransit ride home from the train station. She said she “really didn’t want to sleep in the train station at night.”

RT works with a private firm, Paratransit, Inc., to provide transit service for disabled residents.

The cuts yield $11.7 million, nearly $1 million more than the deficit, Wiley said. That extra million provides “wiggle room,” he said.

Wiley said that million-dollar cushion could be necessary because there are many assumptions in RT’s budget plans. The agency previously had a $25 million deficit, he said. The deficit number changed because recent state legislation moved $11.8 million to the agency. Before Monday, RT made more cuts and also found some new revenue opportunities, Wiley said. The state money, new revenue possibilities and new cuts brought the deficit down to $10.6 million, he explained.

However, the numbers are not set in stone, Wiley said. The new revenue possibilities — which include funds RT is hoping to receive from the federal government — will need to pan out.

An RT report for Monday’s meeting said the following weekday bus routes will disappear: 4, 8, 9, 10, 18, 20, 36, 50E, 63, 73, 83, 89, 94, 95, 100, 101, 102, 104, 106, 107, 141, 142, 200, 201, 210, 226, 251, 261

The report states that the following Saturday routes will end: 5, 6, 8, 13, 14, 16, 24, 28, 54, 61, 65, 74, 143

The following Sunday routes will stop service: 8, 13, 14, 22

Some bus routes will also have slower service on weekends.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Disabled residents urge RT to save paratransit services

2010-03-09T04:36:32Z

Many disabled local residents who regularly ride paratransit buses were among the approximately 250 people who turned out for a Monday afternoon public hearing on proposed cuts to Sacramento’s Regional Transit.

The disabled transit riders — which included many people in wheelchairs — urged the RT board of directors to maintain paratransit services.

In the 2011 fiscal year, RT predicts it will have a $25 million budget gap according to a statement on the RT website. The statement notes that RT has been hammered by low revenues from state and local taxes, as well as by the state’s discontinuation of State Transit Assistance funding. In addition, the statement points out that furloughs and the high unemployment rate have resulted in RT taking in less money from fares.

The board is analyzing nine different ways it could make cuts to balance its budget. RT is planning for layoffs to be part of the budget cuts.

RT’s board of directors will make a decision on budget cuts at its March 22 meeting. The cuts would take effect June 20.

At Monday’s hearing, many people waited in line outside the RT building at N and 29th Streets to enter the meeting rooms. Once the hearing room was filled, RT officials opened up several nearby rooms so that people could watch the hearing on televisions. At least 250 people attended the meeting, according to Mike Mattos, RT’s chief of facilities and business support.

Beverly King, who has used paratransit since 1979, said she started crying when she addressed the RT board. She said outside the meeting that she appreciates the service, and does not have an alternate transit service that she can use.

“We won’t be able to do things on the weekends,” King said.

Lilyann Mitchell told the board that the late civil rights activist Rosa Parks would have wanted the board to maintain services for disabled transit riders.

Mitchell was a personal friend of Parks — their friendship was the subject of a 2005 Sacramento Bee article.

Mitchell said that Parks, if she was still alive, would have said to the RT board: “Please do not deny the services of all these handicapped people.”

RT works with a private firm, Paratransit, Inc., to provide transit service for disabled residents.

There are no proposals to cut all paratransit services, according to Alane Masui, assistant general manager of marketing and communications for RT. While cuts are planned, the entire service would not be shut down, Masui said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

More than 100 winter shelter beds not available

2009-11-24T06:03:10Z

The number of beds available for the homeless in the Sacramento region during the cold-weather season is lower this Thanksgiving week than it was last year, according to Tim Brown, director of the Ending Homelessness Initiative. In addition, a Rancho Cordova city official expressed skepticism Monday about a plan to provide beds for 105 homeless people in that city.

However, a multiagency task force still plans to achieve its goal of providing 269 winter shelter beds, Brown said in an interview.

As of Friday, 52 winter shelter beds were available for the homeless. This week, the task force expects to offer 82 beds because 30 motel vouchers are available, Brown said.

Still, at this time last year, there were 150 winter shelter beds, according to Brown’s figures.

He noted that the task force is creating a new winter shelter system; it is not using Cal/Expo this year.

Brown addressed the delays in a letter sent Monday to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. “We have faced implementation challenges, but that is to be expected any time an effort is made to do innovative work across several organizations and jurisdictions in a short period of time,” he wrote.

Mayor Kevin Johnson asked the task force earlier this fall to create a plan for winter shelter in about a month-and-a-half.

The task force plans to have 164 beds ready for the homeless by next week, Brown said. “By Dec. 1, we’ll have more than the beds we had last year.”

Tom Armstrong, a Sacramento resident who is homeless, criticized the task force in a Nov. 20 article in The Sacramento Press, arguing that the task force’s work deserves an “F.”

But the task force maintains its goal of 269 beds. Brown said the group hopes to open some beds at a Rancho Cordova site before Christmas. The task force and city of Rancho Cordova staff are working on the issue. Rancho Cordova’s City Council must approve the plan.

One Rancho Cordova city official said there are many problems with the panel's plan to transform old bungalows into winter shelter. The bungalows need many repairs in order to be used for shelter, said Curt Haven, director of economic development and neighborhood services for Rancho Cordova. There are problems with lead paint, mold and broken windows, he said, adding, “It’s a mess."

The bungalows are near the Mather Community Campus, which provides services for 362 homeless people, Haven said.

He said he did not know of any available funding to bring the same kind of services to the a new group of 105 homeless people. The result could be that there will be one group of homeless people with many services at Mather Community Campus, and then 105 homeless people housed in the nearby bungalows without comparable services. “I feel like we’re setting this up to be a failure and set up a second class of homeless,” Haven said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Agencies plan to set up 419 winter shelter beds

2009-10-27T04:05:07Z

Despite Sacramento County’s financial crisis, the city and county intend to provide 151 more beds for the homeless this winter than last.

That’s because city officials expect 419 winter shelter beds to be funded through a variety of entities, including the city, nonprofit organizations, the federal government, the county and private donors. Last year, there were 268 winter shelter beds for the homeless.

“The strategy provides for a collaborative public and private solution to increasing winter shelter options for the region's most vulnerable population during the coldest months of the year,” according to an Oct. 27 report to the City Council from Cassandra Jennings, assistant city manager, and La Shelle Dozier, executive director for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

Councilmembers will hear a presentation on the funding plan for winter shelter beds at their Tuesday meeting.

The funding allocation from the city would be $149,000; the county’s portion would be $168,000. Allocations are not yet final.

Mayor Kevin Johnson held a press conference Friday to announce that a multiagency task force found funding for 269 winter shelter beds. Johnson is chairman of the task force, which is part of the Policy Board to End Homelessness.

City spokeswoman Amy Williams pointed out Monday that the city also is receiving federal stimulus money that can go toward 150 more beds, bringing the total number of beds to 419.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Finding homes for the homeless

2009-07-07T03:44:51Z

Religious congregations are assisting homeless families through a new housing program backed by Sacramento City Councilman Robert Fong. In the program, known as the Faith & Homeless Families Initiative, local religious groups find housing for homeless families with children.

The program is emerging as local homeless shelters say they’re turning away families because of limited shelter space, according to Tim Brown, director of the Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative, a local public/private partnership.

“There’s a lot of newer homeless families,” he said.

The program began in February and has linked six families to congregations. The congregations then found housing for the families, Brown said. The program is still working to house a seventh family, he noted.

The program is now connected to the Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative. Fong is currently working to set up the faith program as a nonprofit organization unique from the chronic homelessness effort.

“I thought there was something we could do as human beings,” Fong told The Sacramento Press.

The program, which is still in a pilot phase, plans to connect a new group of homeless families with a new set of congregations by August or September, Brown said. In order for the program to expand, organizers will need to raise money for additional staffers, he noted.

The program works with three local homeless shelters. Case managers at the shelters refer the families to the program, Brown explained. Volunteers from the congregations are trained in a three-hour session by program staff, he added.

In addition to locating housing for the families, the congregations can further help the families with rental assistance, Brown said.

One of the program’s rules is that the congregations cannot require homeless families to attend religious services, Brown said. However, the congregations are allowed to invite the families to services.

The local congregations currently participating in the program are: Spiritual Life Center, All Nations Church of God in Christ, St. John’s Lutheran Church, First United Methodist Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church and Bayside of South Sacramento.

Information for congregations interested in joining the program is available here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

SMUD staff to explain rate hikes at May meetings

2009-04-25T03:07:55Z

Representatives from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District are attending 52 community meetings in May to inform area residents about the utility district’s planned rate hikes.

SMUD’s board of directors will meet June 4 to consider whether to approve two sets of fee increases.

The first fee hike would appear on residents’ bills beginning September 1 – fees would jump about 9.5 percent. Residents can expect a second fee increase of about 3.5 percent starting January 1, 2011.

Rosanna Herber, SMUD’s supervisor of community engagement, said district representatives are attending the community meetings because they feel it’s important for customers to know what is happening with the utility rates.

SMUD staffers are attending about 75 community group meetings total, said Jim Tracy, the utility district’s chief executive officer.

At recent meetings, residents have asked questions about other SMUD efforts such as its low-income and solar programs, Herber said. Customers can ask questions about any SMUD program at the community meetings, she added.

Tracy said Thursday that SMUD is raising its rates for several reasons, some of which are falling revenues, hikes in healthcare expenses, and increasing prices for renewable energy.

The utility district is also facing lower interest earnings and higher borrowing costs, Tracy said.

A March 31 SMUD report explains that the chaotic situation in the credit markets “has increased SMUD’s borrowing costs on some of its existing debts while lowering interest earned on invested funds.”

The utility district also needs money to replace old facilities. Capital improvements are essential for reliability, according to Tracy.

He noted that SMUD predicted the economy’s downturn in late 2007, and took several actions to lessen the blow to customers. Still, the failing economy has battered SMUD.

New state and federal regulations have also raised expenses for the utility district, according to SMUD.

Herber pointed out that SMUD’s rates, after the 9.5 percent jump in September, will still be lower than rates at Roseville Electric, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

An average resident who consumes 750 kilowatt-hours in a month will receive an $86.22 SMUD bill starting in September, Herber explained. PG&E customers would pay $113.46 for the same amount of kilowatt-hours, and customers of Roseville Electric would be charged $88.95, she said.

SMUD representatives will appear at the meetings of the following community groups from May 4 to May 7:

Groups meeting May 4: Asian Pacific Islanders American Public Affairs Association; Fair Oaks Rotary; La Familia Counseling Center, Inc.

Groups meeting May 5: Rotary Club of Arden Arcade; Sacramento Association of Realtors; Hmong Women’s Heritage Association; Rio Linda/Elverta Chamber of Commerce; Organization of Chinese Americans.

Community meetings for May 6: Downtown Partnership.

Group meeting on May 7: The 100 Black Men of Sacramento

SMUD has more information on times and locations of the above meetings, as well as a list of meetings taking place later in May.

Homelessness: The public can help create new program

2009-04-20T01:24:41Z

Gerald Celestine knows Sacramento residents have a stake in how the city and county will spend federal stimulus dollars that are intended to counter homelessness.

Celestine, an active member of Sacramento’s Area 1 Neighborhood Advisory Group (NAG), planned a discussion for the April 20 NAG meeting so residents can brainstorm how they want their local governments to use about $4.8 million in federal monies for homelessness.

The pot of money will be distributed almost evenly between the county and city: The city is expected to receive $2.375 million, and the county expects $2.397 million.

Sacramento neighbors would like to express “some of our hopes and desires for this money,” Celestine said.

Residents can present their views on specific ways the money should be spent in two separate meetings on April 20.

Sacramento residents will discuss federal monies coming to the city and county at the Neighborhood Advisory Group (Area 1) meeting Monday at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will take place at the Hart Senior Center, which is located at 915 27th Street.

Shamus Roller, executive director of the Sacramento Housing Alliance, will explain to residents how the city and county are expected to receive the funds for homelessness through a new federal program.

The new federal effort, known as the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), is part of the national stimulus package.

Roller points out, however, that the federal funds for this program are not going to solve the big financial problems for social and health services in the county and city. “The stimulus money is not a panacea,” he says, and “it’s not going to fix everything.”

A separate public meeting on the federal funding will be held earlier on Monday. The public is asked to weigh in on how the city and county should create its application for the federal monies to address homelessness at the local level. The public meeting will be held Monday from 3 to 5 p.m. at 2700 Fulton Avenue.

The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, county Department of Human Assistance and the Interagency Council on Homelessness are hosting the forum.

Cindy Cavanaugh, an assistant director for policy at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA), explains that SHRA will apply to the federal government for the funds.

The federal dollars will be used for homeless people to rent housing and for prevention of homelessness. Cavanaugh explains that in the “rapid-rehousing” model, homeless people are encouraged to find housing rather than live in shelters. Under this program, a homeless person could receive up to 18 months worth of funds to help cover the cost of rent, she said.

Roller said there is flexibility in the program. The HPRP monies can be used in various ways, including for utility bill costs, Roller said.

SHRA and the county’s Department of Human Assistance are planning the application for funds.

The city and county are almost guaranteed to receive the federal funds as long as they complete the application process, Cavanaugh said. Assuming the application for funding is accepted by HUD, the city and county can access the funding October 1.

The city and county’s application for the federal funds will be addressed in public hearings at both the City Council and the Sacramento Board of Supervisors.

Sacramento’s City Council will discuss the application at its May 12 meeting. The Board of Supervisors will address the issue at its May 13 meeting.

The deadline to send the application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is May 18.

After May 18, the application will be completed but the program will continue, Cavanaugh said. SHRA will hold stakeholder meetings and form the details of the funding program with the help of the Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.