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

The city auditor’s office — vacant for nearly a year — has been brought back to life. Mayor Kevin Johnson and three council members announced at a Tuesday morning press conference that Jorge Oseguera is the city's new internal auditor. Most recently, Oseguera was a senior program performance auditor for the city of San Jose. He began work at the city of Sacramento Monday. “I think the audit function is an essential element of the public’s accountability, and I look forward to meeting my objectives in meeting the public’s accountability,” Oseguera said. He also said he would participate in preparations for an upcoming audit of the Community Development Department. The investigation will

 An investigation into the Sacramento development department’s approval of building permits in a flood zone will be considered by the City Council on Tuesday. City Attorney Eileen Teichert and a third party-law firm, Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai, have been investigating the Community Development Department’s decision last year to greenlight 35 building permits in a Natomas area regulated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. At the Tuesday meeting, the city attorney’s office will make a presentation on the investigation. Teichert’s office acknowledged in a Dec. 15 letter to the FEMA office in Oakland that the city broke federal rules by authorizing the permits. Councilman Steve Cohn

Questions and concerns — as well as support — have been raised over a city of Sacramento planning and building department program suspended after it was illegally used to fast-track the Nestlé water-bottling plant. The little-known Facilities Permit Program came to light in late October when Nestlé's renovation of a South Sacramento warehouse was temporarily halted and a city investigation revealed work had started without legally required building permits. Many people, including those criticizing some aspects of the current building approval process, said city staff have worked hard in the last few years to become more developer-friendly by improving the building approval process and re

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

The Sacramento City Council soon may be asked to amend city code to legalize a longtime practice that helped bring about the suspension of the Facilities Permit Program. In the next few weeks, city staff want to ask the council to allow FPP construction projects to start before building permits are issued — as long as a business has a written start-work authorization from the building division, said David Kwong, the city's Planning Division director. Staff is working with the city attorney's office to learn if the practice and the building code amendment would be legal, Kwong said. "What I'd like to do is vet that form with the city attorney's office, make some tweaks and take that to t

Mayor Kevin Johnson said the city’s order to halt construction work at the plant Nestlé plans to use for a water-bottling operation is bad for business in Sacramento. Johnson has praised the jobs that Nestlé will bring to Sacramento, while Councilman Kevin McCarty opposes the plant's plan to bottle and sell water from the American River. Councilwoman Lauren Hammond has also raised concerns about Nestlé's plans. The city’s Community Development Department placed a stop-work order on Friday on two phases of construction at 8670 Younger Creek Drive, the plant’s site. The city is checking to see whether Nestlé broke any of the city’s permitting and building laws. Nestlé said it has not viola

The city of Sacramento has announced its plans to demolish the Bel-Vue Apartments, a registered city landmark, in order to clear land on 8th Street for a potential future parking structure. Located adjacent to the now-vacant corner of 8th and K Street, the Bel-Vue was built in 1910 as the American Cash Apartments. Built in the Craftsman style with Asian overtones, the three-story brick building contains apartments above a commercial ground floor. When the Bel-Vue was built, it was one of many downtown apartment buildings. If it was built today, the Bel-Vue would be described as a mixed-use, transit-oriented infill project. The building is currently owned by the city of Sacramento’s housi

The city’s Development Services Department has a new name. It’s now known as the Community Development Department (CDD). City records manager and acting spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson explained that the new department brings together long-range planning staff and development services staff. The administrative change is an efficiency, she said. The city’s 2009/2010 proposed budget includes a plan to move Planning Department employees. Under the plan, the Planning Department would move 26 full-time positions and $2.4 million to the new CDD “as part of the consolidation of planning services,” the budget states. Of the 26 positions, one is not funded and the remaining 25 are funded. The ne