Eye on Sacramento, a nonprofit Sacramento-based government watchdog organization, has recently been launched in the city of Sacramento to maintain a watchful eye on the policies and actions of the city government. “We formed EOS because we believe that too little attention is paid to the broad public interest and too much attention is paid to special interests,” said EOS President Craig Powell. “The public has little inside knowledge of what really goes on in city government. We hope to change that.” “Eye on Sacramento was started by a core group of about nine people who were active in the Campaign for Common Sense Utilities Rates (the group that sponsored Measure B on the November 2010

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 staf