The City Council approved a change Tuesday to a controversial waste management contract that decreases the distance city trash travels for disposal, but increases the cost to the city – and, ultimately, to ratepayers. Council members voted in support of the amended contract with an 8–1 vote. Councilman Darrell Fong voted against the agreement. The service contract between the city and the current waste management provider, BLT Enterprises, sends 150,000 annual tons of city waste to a landfill in Lockwood, Nevada at a cost of $47.60 per ton. Under the new service contract, USA Waste (a subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc.) would take the place of BLT as provider, and city waste will be s

The Sacramento City Council discussed Thursday how to make major changes to city operations in the next few years to resolve the city’s long-term imbalance where costs outpace revenues. The city’s $39 million gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year is part of an ongoing trend of budget shortfalls. Multi-million budget gaps will remain until fiscal year 2015/2016 as a result of the city’s imbalanced finances, according to predictions by city officials. “We need to set the expectation of what the City Council wants to provide for the residents and the businesses of this city,” Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka said. Seven council members were at the budget meeting – Mayor Kevin Johnson

Gina Knepp has worked in high-stress city government jobs for more than two decades. But even though she spent nearly 20 years at the city’s 911 call center and now heads the 311 call center, her sense of humor remains intact. Knepp, 48, is the division manager of 311. She reflects her humor in certain activities – designating a day to wear tin foil hats – and in her office décor, which includes a sign that reads: “Dumb should hurt.” The 311 center, which handles a wide variety of queries about city services, has lost about 65 percent of its budget to cuts in the last couple years, she said. Though her division is understaffed and 311’s budget is tight, Knepp conveyed great enthusiasm a

New budget cuts will cause the city’s popular 311 call service to shut down for all requests except emergencies for two Fridays per month, according to city officials. The budget cuts result from the new contract for union employees represented by Stationary Engineers Local 39. As part of the union’s deal with the city, each member of Local 39 must take 88 hours of furlough time in the 2010/2011 fiscal year, and 96 furlough hours in the following fiscal year. Some of the union’s members work for 311, and they will be on furlough the two Fridays each month, according to city spokeswoman Amy Williams.  The call center’s new schedule with furloughs starts Sept. 17. “We are unfortunately as

 The city’s youth development programs are diminishing after a slew of budget cuts. The Office of Youth Development was one of many city programs that suffered from cuts when the city resolved a $43 million budget gap in June. The office, which launched in 2007, was gutted. It is no longer an office — its programs are now part of the Parks and Recreation Department. An Aug. 8 document on the city’s website said the Office of Youth Development is not looking for new funding. And the position of director and two neighborhood youth resource coordinator jobs were chopped, leaving only one remaining staffer from the office.  “It’s not going to be the proactive group that it was,” Lori Harde

Rashad Baadqir was at George Sim Community Center Thursday evening to learn how Mayor Kevin Johnson uses community input. He was one of many citizens who waited patiently to meet with Johnson during the mayor’s “office hours” monthly event. Short meetings were packed into the three-hour event. By roughly 5 p.m., 56 meetings between the mayor and residents had been scheduled. Baadqir, a resident in the Pocket neighborhood, said he attended the event to ask Johnson how he uses the input he receives from the public and if community concerns are being addressed. He said he wanted to learn about the process for handling citizens’ concerns so he “can be more engaged on some of the things that

Three community centers will close Nov. 1 if nonprofit groups are not interested in managing them, said Parks and Recreation Department Director Jim Combs. City officials are looking for groups to run the Southside Clubhouse at Southside Community Park, Robertson Community Center in North Sacramento, and Elmo Allen Slider Clubhouse near Power Inn Road. Without help from nonprofits, these centers will shut down in November, according to Combs. However, the centers would be open for rentals, he said. The city also wants a nonprofit to operate two rooms at George Sim Community Center on Logan Street. Summer programs were held at Robertson and George Sim centers, among other locations. For

For a second consecutive summer, Sacramento residents are dealing with limited hours at local swimming pools. But the situation could get a lot worse next summer, when the city is planning to close seven pools. Community groups are already brainstorming ways to keep their neighborhood swimming pools open in 2011. To counter a $43 million budget gap in June, city leaders made numerous cuts to city departments and services, including the rollback of pool services next summer. Pools also received cuts last year. Residents must work around the city’s tight schedules for recreational swimming. At many pools, recreational swimming is only available for only two hours at a time, Mitchell said.

The city’s $43 million budget gap means that the city’s Neighborhood Services Department won’t be a distinct department much longer. Neighborhood Services, which works with citizens on their concerns with the city government, will be moved into the Parks and Recreation Department to save money, according to a report from Interim Assistant City Manager Patti Bisharat. The Office of Youth Development will also join Parks and Recreation. Interim City Manager Gus Vina has scheduled the changes to be made in July, according to Bisharat’s report. But Neighborhood Services Director Vincene Jones isn’t leaving the city government. Jones will be the manager of Neighborhood Services under the Pa

Should the Neighborhood Advisory Group change its name to avoid the acronym “NAG”? That’s one of the questions neighborhood activists raised at Monday’s NAG meeting. Sacramento neighborhood leaders are mulling possible changes to the functions of their community group, as well as engaging in a more light-hearted discussion of their name. But it’s not like the neighbors didn’t realize the humor in the acronym. Margaret Buss of the Boulevard Park Neighborhood Association explained the name to other neighborhood leaders at the NAG meeting, which was held at the Hart Senior Center in Midtown. The group’s acronym was “definitely tongue-in-cheek,” she said, while its full name was formal. “

Police Chief Rick Braziel was just 19 years old when he joined the Sacramento Police Department. Now 50, Braziel said he has spent his “entire adult life” with the department. Braziel, who talked to reporters at a Monday night press conference, is competing for a police chief job in Seattle that would take him away from his 30-year career with the Sacramento department. Major city police chief jobs pop up infrequently, he said. “Knowing that I’ve been here 30 years, and there’s an opportunity that kind of intrigued me with Seattle, I went ahead and applied." He pointed out that he is an empty nester: None of his five children live at home. “So now is the time,” Braziel said. “If you’re

Interim City Manager Gus Vina responded to questions from six neighborhood activists in an April 9 interview with The Sacramento Press. The following are Vina’s responses to questions from three neighborhood activists. Read Vina’s responses to questions from three other involved citizens in an April 12 story at The Sacramento Press.  Question from Sacramento resident Dale Kooyman: (Ray Kerridge) felt residents did not know what was best for their quality of life when it came to communicating with city staff, historic preservation, streets, sidewalks, traffic, transportation, planning projects and related early notification, neighborhood-serving businesses, fiscal matters, entertainment a

Choosing bins for green waste instead of on-the-street pickup saves each eligible resident $3 per month. But if residents want to put their green waste into bins instead of on the street for pickup, it’s not guaranteed they’ll receive bins from the city. That’s because the city is using two separate green-waste pickup systems and bins are not currently available to all residents. However, residents can use the following information to encourage the city to bring bins to their neighborhood. How do I tell the city I want to use bins? Call 311 to inform the city that you want to put your green waste in containers, Utilities Department spokeswoman Jessica Hess said. You can also make a requ

The fiery public debate over possible changes to the city of Sacramento’s green waste pickup system has changed course. The City Council was expected to decide in January whether to ask voters to use bins for their green waste. But it will not make a decision on the issue in the immediate future, according to Marty Hanneman, Utilities Department director. The issue of scrapping the on-the-street pickup system has been “pushed back on the table, on the back burner,” he said. For weeks, residents have been debating whether bins should be used instead of on-the-street green waste pickup. Recent reports from city staffers said a bin system would be cheaper and more environmentally responsib

Several residents in the Alkali Flat and Mansion Flats neighborhoods downtown are tired of being awakened at odd hours. They’re asking a local solid waste agency to tighten the rules for the operating hours of private garbage trucks. About 20 people in the neighborhood want private trash haulers to start work later in the morning. The Sacramento Regional Solid Waste Authority, which oversees private waste haulers in both the city and county, allows trucks to travel through neighborhoods starting at 6 a.m. Alkali Flat and Mansion Flats residents want to change the rules so that private waste trucks would not operate until “full daylight hours” or 7:30 a.m. "[Noise from the trucks] wakes

Several residents recently used the city website’s new “eComment” tool to weigh in on the issue of green waste pickup. The City Council is expected to consider in January whether to ask voters to use bins for green waste. Sacramento voters decided in 1977 that the city could not establish the use of bins for green waste. If the city wants to enact bin use rules, it must ask voters to overturn the 1977 law, according to a Nov. 24 report from the Utilities Department. More bin opponents are using the eComment tool than proponents. Only one of six recent comments is from a bin supporter. Here are three eComments on the green waste issue. Bakken and Goldberg's comments have been shortened fo

Syringes on the ground. People emerging from boarded-up homes that don’t have water or gas. Vacant homes with human feces on the floor. You probably don’t associate the term “code enforcement” with drama, grime and social work. Yet, a day in the life of a Sacramento code enforcement officer makes for a gripping tale. The Sacramento Press observed Supervising Code Enforcement officer Bill Hutcheon, Ron O'Connor, department operations manager, and other officers during a three-hour ride-along on Sept. 14. The first stop on the list was a filthy vacant lot at 38th Street and 7th Avenue in Oak Park. Hutcheon scoped out the site, pointing out a syringe on the ground and a makeshift sleeping a

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department has heard the public and reversed a budget cut that was particularly aggravating to many residents: The department has reopened the bathrooms in city parks. However, the reopening of the bathrooms means the city will have less time for other tasks such as mowing and trash pick-up, department spokesman Hindolo Brima said. The bathrooms in most city parks were shuttered earlier this summer as part of the $8.3 million in budget cuts that the City Council approved for the department in June. But in response to complaints from residents, the department opened the bathrooms Friday. Jim Combs, director of Parks and Recreation, told the City Council in

The Sacramento City Council is about 99 percent sure that no firefighters will be laid off this week. The local firefighters’ union and city officials reached a breakthrough in negotiations Wednesday and have made a tentative agreement to not lay off 68 firefighters. The last step will be for Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522 members to vote on the agreement this week. It is likely that Local 522 members will vote in favor of the agreement because they proposed it to city officials. While dozens of firefighter jobs are likely to be saved, about 180 city workers in other departments still face layoffs on Thursday, according to Assistant City Manager Gus Vina. Several councilmembers

Got questions about what's going on in your 'hood? Got a problem that needs fixing? A city neighborhood resources coordinator just might be able to help. Central city residents will get a chance to discuss concerns and get information close to home next month when the city's Neighborhood Services Department sets up new "community hours" in Midtown. Neighborhood coordinator Janine Martindale will be available at Midtown's Hart Senior Center, 915 27th St. (I and 27th streets), from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2. The department has scheduled drop-in hours throughout the city. East Sacramento residents can visit Clunie Community Center, 601 Alhambra Blvd., from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 14. T