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 i

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 h

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 cha

City officials are supporting a proposed ballot initiative that aims to ban the state from taking or borrowing local government monies. Mayor Kevin Johnson stood with three city councilmembers and local public safety officials outside City Hall to publicize the initiative in a press conference Tuesday morning. California is in the process of borrowing $12 million of the city’s tax funds as part of last year’s state budget crisis, according to city finance director Leyne Milstein. By the end of the month, the city will have given that total amount to the state, she said. Don Cavier, finance director for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, said that the state plans to take $19

Sacramento officials need to know a lot more about the Community Development Department's construction approval process and a suspended commercial building program before any action should be considered, Sacramento City Councilmember Kevin McCarty said Thursday. Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, a law firm hired by the city to investigate the Community Development Department, must investigate how construction on a Nestlé water-bottling plant began in McCarty's district without building permits, how home-building permits were issued for a Natomas flood zone, when these practices began and how pervasive they are, he said. Two weeks ago, the department's Facilities Permit Program was suspended af

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 i