Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "eileen teichert"

City attorney drops Occupy arrest charges

2011-11-17T00:59:28Z

The City Attorney’s office released a statement Wednesday saying charges against some of the people arrested for violating park curfew hours at Cesar Chavez Plaza will be dropped and the cases dismissed “in the interest of justice.”

City Attorney Eileen Teichet said in a press release that a limited number of cases against people charged with only one violation of the city code would be dismissed.

“After evaluating the facts of each case and criminal history of each defendant,” Teichert said in the press release, “the City Attorney’s office has determined that the arrest and jail time that each dismissed defendant served achieved the People of the State of California’s demand for substantial justice.”

Eighty-four people have been arrested since Oct. 6, when Occupy Sacramento began protesting in Cesar Chavez Plaza, and some of them have been arrested multiple times.

According to the statement, the City Attorney’s office will continue to prosecute defendants charged with multiple violations of the City Code related to violations of park curfew at Cesar Chavez Plaza.

Local civil rights attorney Mark Merin filed a lawsuit Nov. 1 in federal court on behalf of Occupy Sacramento, claiming the city has violated protesters’ First Amendment rights by interfering with the group’s freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.

A Jan. 5 hearing is scheduled on the lawsuit in federal court.

In a similar court case, the New York Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that protesters' First Amendment rights did not extend to allowing "tents, structures, generators and other installations" in Zuccotti Park while protesting.

Attorneys for Occupy Sacramento were not immediately available for comment.

Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Council's closed meetings on Vina examined

2011-03-29T00:43:59Z

A number of recent City Council meetings relating to Interim City Manager Gus Vina, including the council’s January vote against his promotion, have been closed to the public. An attorney and open government advocate commented on the Brown Act Friday, saying he opposes “closed session” meetings on hiring and firing matters affecting the city manager.

Terry Francke, an attorney for the nonprofit open government group Californians Aware said city manager hiring and firing decisions should be made public.

Central to the issue of closed meetings is the way city officials interpret the Brown Act, a state law intended to make government meetings open to the public at the local level.

The City Council met in a closed session on Jan. 25, when it decided in a 5-4 vote not to promote Vina to the permanent city manager position. City Attorney Eileen Teichert said the closed session complied with the Brown Act.

“The closed session was duly noticed for the purpose of considering appointment or employment of the city manager, consistent with the Brown Act,” Teichert wrote in a Feb. 3 email. “The council’s decision in that closed session to proceed with a nationwide search was a byproduct of their discussions whether or not to appoint Mr. Vina as city manager.”

But Francke noted that the City Council made a choice to hold the meeting in closed session, saying that the Brown Act allows city councils to hold personnel discussions in closed sessions, but does not require it. In Francke’s view, the public should be welcome at discussions on city manager hiring and firing.

"People have a right to know about his or her qualifications and performance for two reasons,” he said.

“First of all, because they have a great interest in knowing the job is being done well, or, if not, what needs to be improved. Secondly, since this person is the most influential individual in the city structure, the council itself needs to be held accountable for choosing the right person and providing direction in a way that's appropriate to their responsibilities,” he added.

The council’s vote and decision to hold a national search for city manager was announced in the public City Council meeting held later in the evening on Jan. 25. But the discussion leading to the vote was held behind closed doors.

As a result, the public has no on-the-record information for why five of the members of the City Council voted against promoting Vina.

Vina told the City Council Friday that he was resigning with two weeks notice. His last day on the job will be April 8.

Council members Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty, Darrell Fong and Bonnie Pannell were the five who voted against promoting Vina in January. They are not speaking publicly about why they voted for a national search and did not promote Vina.

They did not return phone calls from The Sacramento Press Friday.

In early February, McCarty said he declined to comment on his vote because it was a “personnel” and “closed session” matter.

Teichert said in her Feb. 3 email that the council members cannot talk about the closed session meeting.

“The Brown Act, the privacy rights of the candidate, and the City Council’s confidentiality policy preclude disclosure of any confidential discussions during closed session,” she wrote.

But Francke said closed sessions on city manager hiring and firing signal that city officials are hiding from the public.

“If their decision, on this person, is shrouded from public accountability, their single most important decision is also shrouded,” he said. “And, if that's the case, then they're ducking accountability and public scrutiny, as well.”

Read the full text of the Brown Act here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City manager search stalled

2011-03-23T04:50:25Z

The city’s search for a new city manager has been delayed for weeks, according to the consultant leading the search.

The exact reasons for the delay are unclear, but a discussion at Tuesday’s City Council meeting indicated that the delay involves miscommunication between the City Council, City Attorney Eileen Teichert, city Human Resources Manager Geri Hamby and the consultant, Stuart Satow, an executive recruiter for CPS Human Resource Services.

Council members had been scheduled to tell Satow their opinions on city manager characteristics Feb. 22, but decided then that they didn’t want to have that discussion at that meeting.

Satow said Tuesday that he has not yet received direction from the City Council members and mayor about the qualities they want in a city manager.

“We’re not too far behind the eight ball, yet,” Satow told the City Council. “But the longer we wait, the further back the recruitment’s going to go, and the later you’re going to have candidates for consideration.”

An issue related to the delay is how the City Council can discuss the qualifications for the next city manager in a way that follows the Brown Act, the public meetings law aimed at making local government meetings transparent to the public.

Teichert said Tuesday it would be legally appropriate for Satow to meet individually with council members to ask them about the qualifications they are seeking in a city manager.

At the Feb. 22 City Council meeting, Teichert discouraged the council from meeting in a closed session on the topic of the qualities they seek in city manager, saying the topic didn’t meet legal requirements for a closed meeting. She said that closed sessions are allowed to protect the privacy of particular employees. A closed meeting on qualifications for a city manager does not meet that standard, according to Teichert.

Councilman Steve Cohn said he disagreed with Teichert’s opinion on the matter, but he added that he would follow it. He said he had liked the idea of the City Council meeting to discuss the qualifications in a closed session and then making the input public.

Councilman Darrell Fong indicated it was not his fault that he has not yet provided information on the qualities he seeks in a city manager.

“I’ve never been contacted at all,” he said.

But Hamby responded that she had sent three communications to the mayor and City Council about how the consultant needed more information.

The council members decided to talk to Satow individually about the elements they’re seeking in a city manager.

Interim City Manager Gus Vina’s term ends in late June.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Checkup on city's development department

2011-03-03T02:10:39Z

Five months after a consultant released a scathing audit of the city’s Community Development Department, the department is making headway on correcting its practices, according to City Auditor Jorge Oseguera. However, it’s still unclear when or if the city can obtain $2.3 million in developer fees that the department did not collect.

Oseguera presented a report on the department’s overhaul to the City Council on Tuesday. The council accepted Oseguera’s report and did not take any formal action on it.

The October audit, conducted by Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, Inc., faulted the department for not collecting more than $2.3 million in fees in recent years. The firm also accused city employees of violating state and city laws. The audit examined the department’s work from fiscal years 2007 through 2010.

Oseguera noted in his report that it’s still unknown if the city can collect the $2.3 million.

“According to the attorney’s office, the city is still evaluating whether the city may successfully recoup some or all of the previously noted $2.3 million in uncollected fees,” the report said.

Attempts to contact City Attorney Eileen Teichert on Wednesday afternoon for more information were unsuccessful.

Oseguera, who managed the consultant’s work on the audit, is also responsible for checking to see how the department applies the audit’s 40 recommended changes.

He gave the department positive reviews for its work to change its practices.

The recommendations cover an array of areas, including the department’s operations, policies, permitting practices and fee collection practices.

One of the recommendations, to verify that expired permits are voided, is fully in effect, according to Oseguera’s report. The department has “partly implemented” 35 percent of the changes, according to his report. CDD has begun work on 55 percent of the recommendations, while work on 10 percent of them has not yet begun, the report said.

“Overall, we are pleased to report that the Community Development Department has made substantial progress towards implementing the recommendations given the relatively short time that has transpired since the report’s release in October, 2010,” Oseguera told the City Council.

Oseguera said the department has made a “good start” on the work of applying the recommendations, but noted that he expects a “lengthy period” of time for the department to finish all the work.

The consolidation of Code Enforcement with the CDD, city budget cuts and the need for the CDD to form new policies and procedures are some factors that will lengthen the amount of time to finish the overhaul, according to Oseguera.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy praised Oseguera for providing an in-depth update on the department.

“I think this is going to help immensely,” she said.

Oseguera’s report briefly summarizes the department’s work on each of the 40 recommendations. One recommendation the department has “partly implemented” calls for it to create “an organizational culture that places importance on adhering to proper policies and processes while also meeting service level goals.”

The recommendation further says that the department’s leaders should show zero tolerance for violating permitting and fee rules. It calls for a new “tone at the top.”

One of the recommendations not yet applied says the department should examine how revenues were used in the past.

“Conduct a review of past Building Services’ revenues to analyze how the monies were utilized and determine whether the usage was appropriate, complied with regulations, and was in the best interest of CDD and Building Services’ operations,” according to the audit.

The city auditor’s office will assist the CDD on how to carry out that task, according to Oseguera’s report.

Read Oseguera’s report on the Community Development Department here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Police union revives strong mayor debate

2011-01-04T02:40:55Z

The local police union is reviving an effort to create a “strong mayor” form of government in the city, according to Det. Mark Tyndale, vice president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association.

Tyndale said in an interview on Monday that SPOA is “actively talking” to other groups on how to move an effort forward. SPOA is in discussions with the Sacramento Metro Chamber, Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522 and the Sacramento 60, a group of powerful business leaders, Tyndale said.

Sacramento 60 and the Sacramento Metro Chamber backed last summer’s strong mayor proposal.

The City Council and interest groups for and against a strong mayor government fought bitterly over previous campaigns for a strong mayor system last year and in 2009. The city currently uses a city manager/city council form of government. A strong mayor system would move many of the city manager’s responsibilities to the mayor.

SPOA backs the July 2010 strong mayor plan, which is the most recent in a series of proposals.

Tyndale said he hopes the City Council will agree to place the strong mayor issue on the November 2011 ballot, if special elections for other issues are also taking place then. He explained that it is more cost-effective for the city to put it on the ballot with other election issues.

“What we want is real accountability,” Tyndale said, adding that a strong mayor system would make one person – the mayor – more responsible for his or her actions.

He also emphasized that the proposed government system would affect future mayors.

“This is way beyond Kevin Johnson,” he said.

If a new system is put into effect, it would probably affect Johnson in 2012, the final year of his current term, Tyndale said.

Tyndale pointed out that the strong mayor system proposed in July 2010 would have included a City Council president. If a strong mayor government were put into effect, Tyndale said he would want the City Council president to be new City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.

Tyndale said the police union will try to persuade the City Council to put the July 2010 proposal on the November 2011 ballot. The July draft of the strong mayor proposal was written by third-party attorneys after the City Council blocked City Attorney Eileen Teichert from writing a draft in June 2010.

SPOA and other supporters will aim to advance the proposal through the City Council, Tyndale said, rather than through an initiative without the council’s support. However, he said SPOA and other strong mayor supporters would discuss the option of advancing the initiative without the City Council if that is the only option and if it can be accomplished legally.

Johnson and his supporters failed with the initiative approach last year. Bill Camp, executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, sued over the issue in December 2009 and stopped the proposal from advancing. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster decided in January 2010 that the initiative did not follow state law.

Johnson, who had led the strong mayor campaign in 2009 and 2010, abandoned it in July.

“There’s not enough appetite for council to put this on the ballot,” Johnson told reporters in July 2010. “I got that. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to quit fighting for reform.”

This time around, Johnson said he will not take a leading role in a campaign. “What I realize is, I don’t want this to be a distraction for all 2011,” he said at his weekly press conference on Dec. 28.

Meanwhile, Camp said Monday that voters need to decide if they want a council in which the mayor does not have a seat, he said. “People need to think it through,” he said.

Camp said that a new discussion of a strong mayor system needs to account for the need to change the number of City Council seats. The city would have to carve out nine new council districts under the strong mayor proposal. But the city already has to go through a redistricting process for its eight council districts this year, he said. This means there would be a second redistricting process if the strong mayor proposal goes into effect.

A second redistricting process would cost money, he said.

Tyndale acknowledged that the redistricting issue “does complicate things a little bit.”

However, Tyndale said that perhaps there could be a system set up for a couple years that consists of a strong mayor and eight council seats, instead of nine.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy was unavailable for comment on SPOA’s plans Monday afternoon.

Read a timeline of strong mayor events in 2009 and 2010.

Read the July 2010 proposal of the strong mayor plan here.

Photo of Det. Mark Tyndale by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Robbie Waters gives library $150,000

2010-11-24T05:59:47Z

Outgoing Sacramento City Councilman Robbie Waters is giving the Sacramento Public Library Authority up to $150,000.

Waters specified at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting that he wants his donation to go toward materials at the Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library.

He announced at the council meeting that he scrapped his earlier terms for the donation. Last week, Waters had planned to give the money to the Library Authority only if the City Council retains the name of the Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library.

If the City Council changed the name of the library, Waters had planned to give the money to the Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Waters said that he talked to City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office about his original plan and then decided against it. “I’m withdrawing that proposed resolution agreement that was published last week because there was a conflict of interest involved with that,” he said.

The $150,000 comes from City Council discretionary funds. Each council member is allotted $55,000 annually for his or her discretionary account, said city spokeswoman Amy Williams.

Leyne Milstein, the city’s finance director, explained that Waters’ $150,000 consists of a combination of discretionary account funds and funds that go to council members from cell phone tower agreements.

The city allows council members to carry over unspent money from previous years in their discretionary account, Milstein said.

“It’s an accumulation of unspent money,” Milstein said, referring to the $150,000.

City attorney Eileen Teichert explained that the city enters into agreements with cell phone companies that want to place towers on city property. A portion of the city’s revenues from these agreements are credited to council members’ discretionary funds when the towers are located in their districts, she said.

Photo by Kathleen Haley.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Should city charge at-fault drivers?

2010-11-09T02:40:15Z

The Sacramento City Council will decide later this month whether to bill at-fault drivers in collisions requiring an emergency response.

The city has released its draft ordinance for charging fees for emergency services. The fees for emergency responses would charged to all at-fault drivers, including residents and non-residents.

Fire Department responses to car wrecks would include a range of fees. On the low end, the city would charge $435 each time the department responds to an accident. A major wreck, meanwhile, could cost at least $2,000 in fees.

Council members are expected to discuss the ordinance at their Nov. 23 meeting, said special projects manager Mark Prestwich.

City staff has examined the issue for several months. An earlier version of the proposal would have only charged non-residents the fees. Residents were included in the proposed ordinance after City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office said that focusing solely on non-residents might be deemed discriminatory, according to the city’s report on the ordinance.

Fire Capt. David Dolson noted the department is affected by the tough economy. He said the fees could help the department maintain current service and potentially cover additional levels of service.

“We’re at bare bones right now,” he said.

City Councilman Ray Tretheway indicated he may vote in favor of the ordinance later this month. “I think all of (the council members) are somewhat ambivalent, but also moving toward support,” he said.

Tretheway said he was thinking of the issue in terms of the city’s budget problems and “the need to recover our costs.”

Under the city’s proposal, a third-party billing service would contract with the city to handle the billing paperwork, according to Prestwich. The vendor would bill the at-fault driver’s insurance company for the fees, Prestwich said.

But the insurance industry is opposed to efforts by local governments to charge for fire recovery fees. Various local governments are viewing these emergency services fees as a way to improve their budget situations, argued Janine Gibford, assistant vice president for the American Insurance Association, an industry group with a West Coast office that covers California. This means they’re using insurance companies to help their budgets, she said.

“And we’re not there to fill the hole when the budgets get cut,” she said.

Read the proposed fire cost recovery ordinance here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Law prompts change to city program

2010-10-08T01:31:41Z

The city is changing the way it manages illegally dumped garbage after the city attorney’s office found that the city’s old program might have broken state law.

The City Council agreed on Tuesday to make the city’s code division responsible for the city’s illegal dumping program, meaning the Utilities Department will no longer handle it.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office found that the city’s funding system for the program may have violated Proposition 218. That state law says that utilities fees from ratepayers must correspond to the costs of delivering the utilities services.

“The city attorney’s office has determined that under Prop. 218, garbage rate revenues may not be used to fund the citywide collection and disposal of illegal dumping, because this does not constitute a ‘cost of service’ for garbage customers,” according to the report from city staff.

The report said the Utilities Department has operated the illegal dumping program with money from garbage collection rates since 2001.

City spokeswoman Amy Williams could not confirm that the city has been violating Prop. 218 since 2001.

“There is no definitive answer to this question because there are no reported judicial opinions considering whether Prop. 218 allows the collection and disposal of illegal dumping to be funded from garbage collection rates,” said Williams said.

“The city’s decision to stop this practice was based on legal advice from the city attorney’s office that garbage rate revenues should not be used to fund the citywide collection and disposal of illegal dumping, because this does not constitute a ‘cost of service’ for garbage collection customers,” Williams said.

The Sacramento County Grand Jury published an investigative report in January of this year on how the city used utilities funds.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said that illegal dumping is a major problem in her North Sacramento district. Illegally dumped items, such as mattresses, furniture and refrigerators, are a blight and public safety issue, she said.

Piles of illegally dumped waste expand, she said. “Pretty soon, you don’t just have a little pile, you have a huge pile.”

Recent budget cuts to the city’s code division have slowed services, such as inspections of damaged buildings and pickup of abandoned cars, according to the city’s website.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Development department audit raises questions

2010-10-07T00:26:55Z

An audit report stating that the city’s development department failed to collect more than $2.3 million in fees from developers raises a host of questions. The audit’s finding that city employees broke state and city laws makes the situation even more complex.

The audit, prepared by Sacramento firm Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, Inc., investigated the department’s work from fiscal years 2007 through 2010.

“In summary, the weak system of internal controls allowed employees to disregard state and city building laws, codes, and regulations aimed at protecting the public’s health, safety, and general welfare,” the audit states.

Read the full audit report here.

The City Council is expected to discuss the audit’s findings on Oct. 12.

City Councilman Rob Fong said Wednesday that he will focus on obtaining the lost revenue to the city. The report’s findings are “outrageous and shocking and incredibly disappointing,” he said. “My priority is getting the money back.”

Interim City Manager Gus Vina on Wednesday answered a series of questions from reporters on issues relating to the $2.3 million in uncollected funds, violations of laws, the culture of the department and possible disciplinary actions.

Journalists from The Sacramento Press, Fox 40, KCRA, News 10, CBS 13 and Capital Public Radio posed the following questions to Vina at the Wednesday press conference.

Q: Do you find that these lapses were well-intentioned? Or, is there indication that there’s perhaps corruption involved?

Gus Vina: It’s difficult to answer that. Part of my job now is to look at some of the specific issues that the audit report has highlighted. I will need to dig a little further into that very question. We know at a minimum that because of the lack of rules and policies and the fact that the decision-making was being made at an extremely low level in the organization, we need to explore that very question.

Q: What is the likelihood that you’re going to get any of this $2.3 million back?

GV: We’re working with the city attorney’s office to answer that question. This is as fresh to us, really, as it is to you. So we need a little time to dissect it. But we are going to work with the attorney’s office on what can we do to go after some of the revenue that was not collected.

Q: As city manager, is it your hope that we might get some revenue as the result of this investigation?

GV: We will be as aggressive on that as the law allows.

Q: If the city had this $2 million, could any layoffs have been prevented in Fiscal year 09 or in FY 10/11?

GV: I suspect that we could have probably minimized some of the layoffs with the revenue having been collected. I think that what’s important to note is that when we look at staffing in Community Development, it’s not just the revenue that you look at ... it’s workload. The report spent some considerable amount of time looking at that workload. We’ve had over 70 percent decrease in some of our workload in Community Development. Obviously, this recession has had a profound impact on our business. And, so, we would have been in a declining mode in terms of our workforce two, three, four years, anyway.

Q: These lower level (employees) — why were they allowed to make these big decisions?

GV: Let’s talk about culture change for a minute. If you go back, say, three (or) four years, we brought in folks to Community Development to in fact look at the bureaucracy, and how difficult was it to work with the city on development projects. There was a lot of excitement created around a “Get the Customer to Success” theme, and looking at how we might streamline some of the processes. What this report is now pointing to, is that that probably went a little too far. The technology that was put in place ended up being too open to decision-making without policy in place. That’s the bridge now. We still want to provide good service to our developers. And we don’t need unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy. It needs to be streamlined. But the bridge to success here now is policy, training, and decisions that are consistent.

Q: Does this at all, in your mind, tarnish the legacy of Ray Kerridge? His big thing was “bring the customer to success” and make it easier to build and develop here.

GV: I respectfully am not going to comment on that. I’m not going to speculate on Ray Kerridge’s legacy, and I wish him well in Roseville.

Q: Will there be any disciplinary actions taken? And, if so, when...will the public learn about that?

GV: If, as I review the report, there’s a need to go down the disciplinary road, then I will certainly do that.

Q: Will that information be made public?

GV: Most of the time, personnel matters are not.

Q: The report though says flat-out that laws were broken.

GV: What you need to look at, is why were laws broken? And what I’ve read so far in the report is that it speaks to lack of policy that led to decisions that were inconsistent with the law. So, motivation is important. And that’s what we need to find out next — what was the motivation?

Q: Is it your opinion that the city attorney should look at these findings to see if any criminal charges should be brought?

GV: I will be working closely with the city attorney’s office and Labor Relations office as necessary.

Q: What does that mean?

GV: That means I don’t know enough to tell you whether there’s criminal charges or not. I would be speculating and I’m not going to speculate.

Q: When a low-level employee doesn’t comply with the law, how do you figure out if it’s their fault, or it’s the culture of the department and the fault of someone higher up? Or both?

GV: That’s exactly my next step: What was violated, what were the reasons and at what level? And the report has been pretty clear that decisions were being made at a low level due to lack of policy and procedures in place.

Photo: Vina and Councilwoman Lauren Hammond at the July 13 City Council meeting.

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Should city set up a whistle-blower hotline?

2010-09-16T00:56:03Z

Sacramento’s city auditor is exploring the idea of creating a whistle-blower hotline for City Hall.

City Auditor Jorge Oseguera told the city’s audit committee on Tuesday that he was talking to City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office about the idea. The audit committee is composed of City Council members Lauren Hammond, Robbie Waters, Ray Tretheway and Steve Cohn.

Whistle-blower hotlines are “a common topic right now in the auditing community,” Oseguera said on Wednesday.

The plan is in its early stages, Oseguera said, and no details have been established yet on how the hotline would work or when it would start operating.

In a Tuesday e-mail, Teichert said she could say only that the plan is “in the early discussion stage.”

Oseguera is not the first to suggest a whistle-blower hotline for the city of Sacramento: Councilman Kevin McCarty mentioned the idea on Jan. 26, when the City Council was discussing an investigation that involved the city’s Community Development Department.

However, Oseguera said his work on a whistle-blower hotline was not directed by McCarty.

Other California cities that use whistle-blower hotlines include San Diego, San Jose and Oakland, according to their websites.

Photo of Oseguera by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council revisits 2003 contracts with Sacramento Kings

2010-09-08T05:51:53Z

The City Council on Tuesday revisited the city’s 2003 loan agreements with the Sacramento Kings and decided to keep them in effect.

City Treasurer Russ Fehr said he discovered the possible issue with the old loan agreement a few months ago. He said he discussed the matter with City Attorney Eileen Teichert, and she suggested that the current City Council examine the contract because it didn’t go before council members in 2003.

The Kings’ remaining debt to the city is $68 million, according to Fehr.

In 1997, the Kings and the city signed a contract that permitted the Kings to pay back its loans to the city after reimbursing $30 million in debt to another party, Fehr said.

Then, in 2003, the Kings worked with former City Treasurer Tom Friery to alter its contract with the city. The Kings decided to borrow an undisclosed amount from the National Basketball Association, and wanted to be able to reimburse the NBA before it paid back the city, according to Fehr.

The amount of debt specified in the contract changed, too. The new language permitted the Kings to pay up to $75 million in loans to the NBA before reimbursing the city’s loans.

Friery made that change without City Council approval, according to Fehr.

The changes to the contract contained minimal risk, Fehr said.

Councilman Kevin McCarty voted against authorizing the old loan agreement, saying that he felt uncomfortable with the way it had been handled in 2003.

Five other council members voted to greenlight the old loan contract. Council members Robbie Waters, Rob Fong and Sandy Sheedy were absent from the meeting.

Janelle Gray, a debt officer for the city, wrote in a Sept. 7 report that the Kings have been paying their debts to the city.

Read the city staff report on the issue here.

Photo of Kevin McCarty by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Third-party attorneys write new strong mayor draft

2010-07-02T03:52:56Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson’s strong mayor campaign has released a draft of Johnson's proposal and plans to pitch it to the City Council in July.

The release of the new report marks a change in tactics for Johnson’s campaign because third-party attorneys — not the city attorney — wrote the draft.

For weeks, Johnson’s strong mayor campaign has said that City Attorney Eileen Teichert should write the formal language for the proposal. But the City Council prevented Teichert from writing the draft in a 7-2 vote last month.

The first strong mayor initiative was written by Thomas Hiltachk, a third-party attorney. That initiative was struck down by a Sacramento County Superior Court judge in January.

Shawn Callahan, who works on Johnson’s campaign, explained in a June 30 mass e-mail that the draft is part of the campaign’s strategy to persuade council members to vote for a strong mayor form of government. “With clear and detailed proposal language available for public review, council members have one less reason to oppose letting voters weigh in on this issue,” Callahan wrote.

The two attorneys who wrote the draft are Liane Randolph of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in Sacramento, and J. Clark Kelso, a law professor at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. As a "federal receiver," Kelso monitors the quality of health care at state jails.

Read the draft of Johnson’s proposal here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Development department audit may be ready in September

2010-06-29T04:13:20Z

An audit of the city's Community Development Department could be finished in September, said Kurt Sjoberg, one of the consultants working on the project.

Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting Inc. of Sacramento is carrying out the audit of the department. Auditors from the firm are tackling numerous issues at the department, including claims that the department broke the city's planning rules and did not gather fees from developers. The City Council voted to hire Sjoberg in April.

In a June 10 oral report to the city’s audit committee, Oseguera said the Sjoberg auditors are developing findings that they think will be “very useful to the city.” Oseguera declined to elaborate on that statement Monday.

When the auditors finish their work, they will issue a report, Oseguera said. He noted that the report will be made public.

If the report contains concerns about city employees, those issues would be communicated to the appropriate city department, Oseguera said.

One of the roles of the city's Labor Relations Department is to address disciplinary measures for employees.

When the report is complete, the city's audit committee will discuss it, Oseguera said. Then, the committee will likely send the report to the City Council for the council's consideration, Oseguera said. The audit committee is comprised of four council members: Steve Cohn, Ray Tretheway, Lauren Hammond and Robbie Waters.

Details of the audit will not be released until the report is complete, Oseguera said.

A separate investigation led to the audit. City Attorney Eileen Teichert and the law firm Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai investigated city building permits that were approved last year for a Natomas flood zone. Witnesses from that investigation made claims about further issues at the department, according to Teichert. Those issues are now being studied in Sjoberg's audit.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor confronts council members during long speech

2010-06-23T14:17:46Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson said he thought it would be a 9-0 vote.

He said he thought the Sacramento City Council would unanimously support his effort to ask City Attorney Eileen Teichert to draft official language for his updated strong mayor plan. When seven of his City Council colleagues voiced opposition to his effort at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, he let them know exactly what he was thinking.

In a 7-2 vote, the City Council prevented Teichert from drafting the language of Johnson’s new plan. Johnson and Waters voted in favor of asking Teichert to write the proposed measure. Under the city’s current government structure, the mayor votes on City Council issues.

After it was clear that he didn’t have the votes late Tuesday night, Johnson launched into a lengthy monologue and made comments to each council member.

Johnson indicated he felt slighted by Councilman Steve Cohn’s vote. “You were somebody that I went to bat for while you were running ... I watched you before I got to be an elected official, and I felt like you were one of the people that I was going to learn from,” Johnson said.

The mayor then called out Cohn for not voting earlier this month on whether the City Council should boycott Arizona companies.
It was “very disappointing” that Cohn did not participate in that vote, Johnson said.

“I’m sure you had your reasons; I certainly respect that,” Johnson said. “But I guess it makes me question ... the backbone, the ethos that you represent.”

Johnson told Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell he was disappointed with her vote.

“I remember before before I ran for office, I met you at Starbucks,” Johnson told Pannell. Johnson said Pannell told him that if he was elected, she would back him on his efforts.

Johnson’s exchanges with Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy were particularly tense. To express how she felt about Johnson’s new strong mayor plan, Sheedy used a quote from former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin: “You can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day, it’s still a pig.”

She referred to the strong mayor plan as “the pig” that was being remodeled with lipstick.

Toward the end of the meeting, Johnson accused Sheedy of making comments under her breath and being disrespectful. Sheedy then told the public what she had muttered: “That’s why we don’t have a strong mayor.”

When Sheedy made her remark, she received boos from some audience members.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Johnson releases more information on strong mayor plan

2010-06-02T03:36:46Z

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has released a new chart on his “strong mayor” proposal, which includes plans for changes to the city budget and the veto powers of the mayor’s office. But local labor leader Bill Camp is saying the chart should not be considered a draft of Johnson's proposal.

Johnson is referring to the new chart as a draft proposal, while Camp said it contains "ideas that we ought to talk about." In the lawsuit over the first strong mayor proposal, Camp was the plaintiff.

The City Council will weigh in on Johnson’s new plan June 15. Johnson’s office hopes the City Council will vote in mid-July to place the new proposal on the November ballot.

Read Johnson’s new chart on the proposal here.

Camp said in a phone interview Tuesday that people have told him they have seen a 10-to 12-page draft of the proposal. He claimed that the draft is being kept from the general public.

“Why are they hiding the 10-to 12-page document people have told me exists?” Camp said.

But Johnson spokesman Joaquin McPeek said there is no current draft circulating in addition to the chart and outline available online. The proposal's language will be based on the new chart, he said.

There was, however, an old draft of the proposal dated from three or four months ago, McPeek said. The old draft will not be used to write the proposal, he said.

At his Tuesday morning press conference, Johnson addressed a question on why the new chart is not in the form of a written report. If the proposal is placed on the November ballot, Johnson said, then City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office will need to be involved in the drafting of the plan’s language. For that reason, the draft has not yet been written in the form of a report, he said.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert's office has not received a written draft report of Johnson's proposal, according to city spokeswoman Amy Williams.

The new chart — which has been released to the general public — said the city’s budget would be proposed by the mayor 90 days in advance of July 1. This marks a change from the city’s existing charter, or constitution, which says the budget must be released 60 days ahead of July 1 by the city manager.

Johnson’s plan would also enable the mayor to veto budget decisions and ordinances approved by the City Council.

Some types of ordinances, including those that state law mandates, cannot be vetoed by the mayor, according to the chart.

The proposal envisions that the city’s chief executive would be the mayor, instead of the city manager. There would still be a city manager, but he or she would be hired by the mayor. The mayor would also hire department heads, according to the proposal.

An ethics program and term limits could be implemented as part of the new plan. The new form of government would last eight to 10 years, the proposal said. Voters could decide to keep the government system in effect after that period of time.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Tretheway claims police officers' union stole his online identity

2010-05-28T05:36:06Z

City Councilman Ray Tretheway has claimed that opponents of his re-election campaign have stolen his online identity.

In a May 21 letter addressed to several local agencies, including the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office, Tretheway alleged that the Sacramento Police Officers Association illegally registered the website domain name raytretheway.com.

The police officers’ union acknowledged that it has registered raytretheway.com but said it has not violated any laws.

Campaign statements show that SPOA provides financial support to Angelique Ashby, one of Tretheway’s competitors in the District 1 City Council race.

“It’s identity theft, clear and simple,” Tretheway said in an interview Thursday. “Identity theft of 2010. And I read a quote from another media — print media — that they intended to use (the domain name) to mislead voters. That doubles my anxiety.”

Tretheway alleges in his letter that Ashby supporter and campaign contributor Keith Sharward initially registered the domain name last August. SPOA became the new administrator of the domain name between April 19 and May 20, Tretheway claims.

He alleges that the registration of the domain name by Sharward and SPOA is illegal under a state law on cyber piracy. The law says that is it “unlawful for a person, with a bad faith intent to register, traffic in, or use a domain name, that is identical or confusingly similar to the personal name of another living person or deceased personality, without regard to the goods or services of the parties.”

Tretheway said he aimed to register the domain name last year, but found it was registered to Sharward. The councilman said Sharward was "new to politics," and he didn't want to fight with him.

But Tretheway said he views SPOA differently. When he recently became aware that the domain name was in the hands of the SPOA, it was like an "amber alert" went off, he said.

“It is my name, and I would like it back,” Tretheway wrote in the letter.

In addition to the District Attorney’s office, Tretheway sent the letter to Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel, City Attorney Eileen Teichert and the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.

“We have received the letter,” Sacramento Police Department spokesman Norm Leong wrote in an e-mail Thursday. “We are reviewing it at this time. Thus far it appears the sections referenced from the business and professions code are civil and not criminal but we are conferring with the city attorney’s office on the matter.”

Teichert was not available Thursday afternoon.

Mark Tyndale, vice president of SPOA, strongly disagreed with Tretheway’s statements.

“On the issue of the domain name, I did contact our attorney when we did it,” Tyndale said. “Our attorney assures us there is nothing illegal about it, as long as we’re not using it as a means to divide (people)," he said.

"We don’t feel like it’s anything illegal at all," he added. "We just think it’s a political tactic."

Tyndale alleged that it is inappropriate for Tretheway to send his letter to the city attorney. “And I’m also concerned that he’s using the city attorney to clarify his campaign legal issues, which I think there’s kind of a conflict there,” Tyndale said.

Ashby said she had no knowledge about the website until Tretheway publicized his letter last week. “I didn’t find out about it until I heard about it from the media,” she said in a Thursday interview. “I don’t think we need it. I don’t think it’s necessary.”

She and Tretheway have opposing views of Sharward's role in her campaign. In his letter, Tretheway said that campaign documents show that Sharward has been paid by her campaign. But Ashby said Sharward received a reimbursement, "not payment for services rendered."

At this point, SPOA has not done anything with the domain name. The website www.raytretheway.com is a blank page.

Read Tretheway's letter here.

Photo of Tretheway and council members by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City keeps quiet on claims of quid pro quo at department

2010-04-06T03:41:12Z

The city attorney’s office is not providing information on how the city will respond to claims of potential quid pro quo in the development department.

Allegations of possible quid pro quo at the Community Development Department were mentioned in a Jan. 26 report from the offices of the city attorney and the city manager.

But it’s unknown when an investigation into the allegations may begin.

In a Monday e-mail response to questions from The Sacramento Press, City Attorney Eileen Teichert referred to the claims of possible quid pro quo as a “personnel issue.” She indicated in her response that some information about the issue may eventually become public depending on whether the city takes disciplinary actions.

Questions for the city attorney

The Sacramento Press asked Teichert the following questions in an April 2 e-mail:

Which body will investigate that issue (the potential quid pro quo)? When will the investigation (of) this issue begin? Will information from the investigation be made public? If not, why?

Teichert’s response

Teichert responded to the above questions in an April 5 e-mail:

"Pursuant to Council direction all matters meriting further audit or investigation, that did not involve personnel issues, were provided to the City Council. I understand that the third-party auditing firm (yet to be selected) will be tasked with looking at these matters provided to the City Council. The timing for such audit is unknown and the results will be public.

"As for personnel issues, the City cannot divulge information regarding any such investigation, as to do so would compromise the investigation and would infringe on the subject's rights of privacy. At such time as the investigation is complete and if findings are made resulting in discipline, the nature of the discipline and a description of the basis for imposing the discipline will be make public."

Making sense of CDD investigations

The possible quid pro quo is among several issues that may affect the department, according to the Jan. 26 report.

The city has taken a variety of responses to numerous issues at the department. It may be helpful to break down recent city actions to understand the issues.

To begin with, a city employee last year gave permits to K. Hovnanian Homes to build in a Natomas flood area, according to a Dec. 15 letter Teichert’s office sent to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Teichert’s office and Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai, an outside law firm, investigated that issue. City officials have admitted that the employee’s decision broke FEMA rules.

Then, several more issues were mentioned in the Jan. 26 report on the Teichert and Renee Sloan investigation of the building permits problem. These issues included the possible quid pro quo, claims of unpaid development fees and problems with the department’s culture, among other concerns.

City officials released a 2,529-page document on the issues March 25. A third-party auditor will investigate the issues in the document, according to City Auditor Jorge Oseguera.

But the status of the possible quid pro quo concern remains unclear. Teichert’s e-mail to The Sacramento Press indicates that many details surrounding that issue will not be made public.

At a Jan. 26 City Council meeting, Assistant City Manager John Dangberg and Courtney McAlister, an attorney for K. Hovnanian Homes, both said there was no quid pro quo between Hovnanian Homes and the city.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sheedy, McCarty ask if city can collect unpaid developer fees

2010-03-31T04:55:31Z

At least two Sacramento City Council members don’t want to let bygones be bygones when it comes to fees that the city’s community development department may not have collected from developers in recent years.

Council members Sandy Sheedy and Kevin McCarty said Tuesday that they want the city to see if it can retrieve unpaid fees from development projects that took place in the past few years.

Sacramento City Attorney Eileen Teichert released a 2,529-page document last week containing claims about the department’s noncollection, waiver, underassessment and deferral of development fees.

The discussion of fees takes place as the city faces a $35 million-$40 million budget gap.

McCarty said in an interview that waivers on fees should be decided by the City Council. “We shouldn’t have staff somewhat arbitrarily doing these fee waivers.”

The city should find out if it can retroactively collect the fees, he said.

Sheedy made a similar comment, saying that the the city should wait on results from an upcoming third-party audit and then examine if it can gather the fees.

The issues presented in the document will be investigated by an outside auditor. City Auditor Jorge Oseguera said he is holding interviews later this week with prospective third-party auditors.

The City Council will be involved in the process of hiring the outside auditor, according to Oseguera. He said he hopes to have an outside auditor starting in May.

The document released last week also includes other concerns aside from fee-related issues. Among other issues, the concerns involve the culture of the department, a possible violation of the California Environmental Quality Act, claims that development projects began before completion of city procedures and possible violations of planning rules.

Teichert noted in a media statement last week that her office has not investigated the information presented in the document.

The information in the lengthy document comes from witnesses in a separate but related investigation, according to Teichert. That investigation was concerned with building permits approved for a Natomas flood area.

Developers mentioned in the document include:
John Saca, Towers on Capitol Mall, LLC
Bob Leach and Captain’s Table Hotel LLC
Kobra Properties, Abe Alizadeh
500 Capitol Mall LLC and George Tsakopoulos
Ose Properties, Inc. and Doug Ose
Tarik Taeha, S360 Development Services
Nathan and Erica Cunningham

Photo by Anthony Bento

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Attorney issues 2,529-page document on development department issues

2010-03-26T05:10:22Z

A series of issues at the city’s Community Development Department — including the noncollection, waiver, underassessment and deferral of fees charged to developers — are presented in a 2,529-page document the city attorney’s office released Thursday.

The document is an offshoot from a separate investigation by City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office and the law firm Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai.

In that investigation, Teichert and Renee Sloan examined city building permits that were approved last year for a flood zone in Natomas. As they investigated that issue, they discovered other issues at the department. These issues are the subject of the lengthy document released Thursday.

City officials made the document available to the media in the form of a compact disc Thursday. In a written statement to the media, Teichert clarifies that the document presents information on the new issues, but her office has not investigated them.

"The records relate to 16 development projects that witnesses in the Natomas Central investigation brought to the attention of the city attorney’s office as having issues meriting further review," Teichert wrote. "These records were provided to the city attorney’s office during the investigation or previously by CDD and other city staff.

"The city attorney’s office has neither investigated any of the issues nor independently gathered records regarding these projects, except to download certain records from the CDD building permit database Accela."

The document claims that fee issues surround development projects including the Towers on Capitol Mall, a mixed-use project; A-1 U-Stor on Stockton Blvd., a self-storage project; Le Rivage Hotel on Riverside Blvd.; a Sonic drive-through and TGI Friday’s restaurant on North Freeway Blvd; the Natomas Landing project in North Natomas; and the Villa Terrassa housing development at Abramo Walk and Monaldo Walk.

The document also describes other concerns at the department aside from fee-related issues. Among other issues, the non-fee related concerns involve the culture of the department, a possible violation of the California Environmental Quality Act, claims that development projects began before completion of city procedures and possible violations of planning rules.

A third-party auditor is expected to investigate the issues in the document.

The Sacramento Press is planning further coverage of the issues discussed in the document. In addition, staffers with The Sacramento Press are examining methods of uploading the 2,529-page file to make it available on the website.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Post-Kerridge: Will development department change?

2010-03-14T22:11:39Z

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 interim city manager; David Kwong is acting director of the Community Development Department.

A third-party audit of the department is on the horizon. An outside auditor will follow up on issues from an earlier joint investigation by City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office and the law firm Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai.

The auditor will analyze several issues identified by the Teichert/Renee investigation. They include possible violations of the city’s planning rules and possible decisions to bypass, delay or lower fees.

A Jan. 21 report from the offices of the city attorney and the city manager on the Teichert/Renee investigation also listed “potential quid quo” in the department as an issue that should be studied in more depth.

The Teichert/Renee investigation centered on another highly controversial issue: the 35 permits that the department approved last year for construction in a Natomas flood zone. The Jan. 21 report said a department employee broke federal rules by distributing the permits.

The city placed former department director Thomas on paid leave in October. He resigned March 1.

A Customer-Friendly Culture

The department had a poor reputation among developers before Kerridge’s arrival in 2005, according to a March 28, 2008 Sacramento Business Journal article. In 2003, members of the local building industry said in a Business Journal survey Sacramento's building department was the most problematic of all similar city and county departments in the area. Five years later, the industry said in the survey that Sacramento's building department was the area's best.

Kerridge served as assistant city manager for development before being promoted in 2006 to city manager.

Despite the department’s crises, Sacramento developers have praised Kerridge for his work to establish a customer-focused culture.

Developer Mark Friedman was one of the members of the business community who invited Kerridge to leave his job with the city of Portland and come to work for Sacramento.

“I think (Kerridge) did a great job,” said Friedman, whose company, Fulcrum Property, owns Arden Fair Mall. “He streamlined the building department processes and made the organization more customer-friendly than it had been.”

Richard Rich, development director for Thomas Enterprises, Inc., expressed a similar sentiment in a Jan. 25 comment on The Sacramento Press. Thomas Enterprises is developing the downtown Railyards.

“This department isn’t perfect but its people, including Bill Thomas, deserve credit for creating a culture of public service,” Rich said.

Elected Leaders Praise Customer-Service Attitude Toward Development

Mayor Kevin Johnson and several City Council members also applauded Kerridge for his customer-service framework at a March 9 council meeting. Their comments indicate that there is political support to maintain the customer-service environment at the Community Development Department.

“And this whole notion of ‘getting the customer to success’ is something I think we’re all proud of,” Johnson told Kerridge at the March 9 meeting. “And that’s going to be with us, Ray, for many years to come.”

Some council members, though, are running for re-election. Depending on the results of their races, they may not have much time to make decisions affecting the department. The City Council incumbents running for re-election are Ray Tretheway, Steve Cohn and Robbie Waters.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond is running for Assemblyman Dave Jones’ seat against fellow council member Kevin McCarty. Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson also is running for the seat. Hammond will leave the City Council.

McCarty’s seat is not up for re-election.

Hammond and Waters praised Kerridge for his work revamping the culture of the department. Waters said Kerridge “turned (the department) around” in a short period of time.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell commented that developers were Kerridge fans. “It’s obvious by the developers — who really want to keep you here — that you changed the way Sacramento does business.”

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy spoke of Kerridge’s view of city growth. “You taught us how to look at this city as something that could grow and be something bigger,” she said. “And it can be, and it will be.”

Cohn said Kerridge led the customer-service culture change in city government, which is a forward-looking approach.

The errors that people may point out in Sacramento’s government “have been errors of trying to be proactive,” he added.

In his speech to the City Council, Kerridge said the business community has been “a great source of strength” for him.

Like Johnson, Kerridge thinks greatness is in store for Sacramento.

“Sacramento has a destiny,” Kerridge said. “Its destiny is to become a great American city.”

How Do Top City Staffers View the Department?

Interim City Manager Gus Vina will run the department for nine months to a year, at which time a city manager will be named.

Vina told The Sacramento Press last week that he is interested in the permanent city manager position.

He said his priority will be on “best practices and a culture that gets the job done.”

Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said in a March 12 interview that the department can simultaneously help builders and abide by laws.

“Our level of customer service for people who want to invest in our city is of paramount importance,” Dangberg said.

The city wants to ensure that it’s adhering to laws and that buildings are safe, he said.

Meanwhile, Vina said in a March 9 interview that the upcoming audit of the department will be key to the next steps for the department. “We definitely need to regroup,” he said. “We don’t want to go to a bureaucracy that ... doesn’t deliver for the customer. But if the audit says, by the way, you got a little too loose on policy ... we’ve got to bring that back to the middle.”

He said the city needs to examine the audit’s findings, then ask: “Do we need to change rules? Are they too loose? Are they too tight?"

Photo of Mayor Kevin Johnson and city council members by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Hall leaks: What is 'confidential' information?

2010-02-04T06:41:00Z

The Sacramento City Council is eyeing a proposed rule stating that city employees could be fired for leaking confidential information. What are city officials considering 'confidential' information? And what do the definitions mean?

City Attorney Eileen Teichert has drafted language for the proposed rule. The City Council postponed a decision on the proposed rule Tuesday but is expected to take up the issue again at an upcoming meeting.

Leaked information from City Hall has become big news lately. In October, the Sacramento Bee used a leaked memo to report that the Community Development Department's approval of 35 building permits in Natomas may have broken federal rules. The offices of the city attorney and city manager note in a recent report that the department broke rules set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Teichert’s proposal on leaks responds to a request from Councilman Robbie Waters. He had asked Teichert at the Jan. 25 City Council meeting to provide a legal definition for the term “confidentiality.” He said he wanted to see definitions for confidentiality that cover the term on moral and “punitive” level

Teichert defined “confidential information” in two ways in a Feb. 2 report. She wrote that information from closed sessions, in which legal matters are often discussed, are confidential. Information from Teichert is also confidential, the report states. Confidential information includes “oral or written communications by or from the city attorney, containing the city attorney’s legal opinions, advice, thoughts, mental impressions or conclusions that are given on behalf of the city,” the report states.

She noted there are types of information that don't fall under “confidential information.” This applies to information that is “required by law to be reported out of closed session; authorized by the City Council to be disclosed; or otherwise authorized to be disclosed under the law.”

Teichert's proposal states that an “employee disclosing or causing to be disclosed confidential information to any unauthorized person may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

Holly Heyser, a journalist and the faculty advisor of Sacramento State University’s student newspaper, said that when laws are in place to define specific types of information as “confidential,” the argument for the public’s right to learn about the information falls flat.

“If the law authorizes the city to keep certain kinds of information confidential in the first place, then the battle for the public’s right to know has already been lost with respect to that information,” Heyser said in an e-mail Wednesday. “For the city to say there are consequences for employees who leak such information is just an extension of current law.”

However, Heyser noted that people can clash in their views of which kinds of information should be public.

“Where you have the potential for problems is in cases of disagreement over whether certain pieces of information actually can be (or should be) withheld from the public – and that is, of course, what usually impels some employees to leak information,” she wrote.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy has opposed the idea of a rule stating that an employee could be fired for leaking information. She said it would have a “chilling effect” on whistleblowers.

Read the Feb. 2 report on the proposed rule here.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sheedy opposes crackdown on information leaks

2010-02-03T06:52:26Z

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy is opposing a proposed rule stating that city employees could be fired for leaking confidential information.

She said at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting the proposed rule would have a “chilling effect” on whistleblowers.

The City Council delayed a decision on the proposal.

The proposal Sheedy is opposing was drafted by City Attorney Eileen Teichert. It states that an “employee disclosing or causing to be disclosed confidential information to any unauthorized person may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

Councilman Robbie Waters wanted Teichert to address confidentiality in a rule. His views on the current proposed language were unclear Tuesday night.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council reacts to investigation of Natomas building permits

2010-01-27T06:54:39Z

A Sacramento city councilwoman said Sacramento’s municipal government has “gone wrong.” A second councilwoman blamed high-level city staff. And a councilman suggested that the city consider setting up a whistleblower hotline.

During an intense meeting Tuesday night, the Sacramento City Council grappled with an investigation involving the city’s community development department.

Council members wrestled with findings from an investigation into the department’s approval last year of 35 permits in a Natomas flood zone. The investigation was carried out by City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office and a third-party law firm, Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai.

In a recent report, the offices of the city attorney and city manager note that the department broke federal rules by approving the permits.

The report also points out several new issues with the building services division of the department. The issues include “potential quid pro quo,” “demolition without CEQA review,” “non-compliance with city’s planning requirements” and “non-compliance with fee-deferral program.”

The City Council unanimously decided Tuesday to move quickly to hire an external auditor to investigate the department.

“This council needs to find out what has gone wrong with city government, and we need to fix it,” Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond blamed the department’s management.

“The problem is the management of the department,” she said.

Councilman Kevin McCarty raised the idea of a whisteblower hotline for the city.

Courtney McAlister, an attorney for K. Hovnanian Homes, the company that received the 35 permits, said there was no “quid pro quo” involving the company and the city. Assistant City Manager John Dangberg made the same comment.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Investigation: 'Potential quid pro quo' in city department

2010-01-26T06:40:11Z

An investigation into the city’s development department has brought to light several new issues, including “potential quid pro quo,” according to a new report from the offices of the city attorney and city manager.

The city attorney’s office and Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai, a third-party law firm, have been working together on an investigation into the development department’s approval of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone.

The offices of the city manager and the city attorney acknowledge in a recent report that the city broke federal rules by authorizing the permits.

The report lists new issues in the building division of the department such as “potential quid pro quo,” “demolition without CEQA review,” “non-compliance with city’s planning requirements” and “non-compliance with fee-deferral program.”

The report will go before the City Council Tuesday. The City Council could decide Tuesday that its audit committee should address the new issues. Councilmembers Ray Tretheway, Lauren Hammond, Steve Cohn and Robbie Waters sit on the audit committee.

In November, City Attorney Eileen Teichert said that “additional issues” surfaced when investigators were examining the Natomas permits. She also said that one of the additional issues was the Facilities Permit Program, a city permitting program, but she declined to talk about other concerns.

Read the report from the offices of the city attorney and the city manager here.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council to address Natomas permits investigation

2010-01-24T00:25:23Z

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 noted that the approval of the permits appears to be a “very limited issue,” not part of a widespread pattern.

Recommendations for how the city can prevent similar situations in the future may be part of Tuesday’s discussion, Cohn said.

Robert Graswich, special assistant to Mayor Kevin Johnson, said the mayor believes the city should work with FEMA and protect the city’s best interests. Graswich said city personnel did not intend to break rules, noting that “any transgressions were minor and certainly unintentional.”

The City Council’s Tuesday meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will be held at 915 I St.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy on her 2010 goals, hot issues

2010-01-21T04:58:50Z

Sandy Sheedy is ready for controversy.

The Sacramento city councilwoman plans to focus on a set of contentious issues this year. Her top citywide goals for 2010 are to address the budget and respond to concerns involving the development department and utilities funds.

The Sacramento Press is publishing a series on the 2010 goals of city council members. Links to stories on the goals of other council members are included at the bottom of this story.

Sheedy represents District 2, which covers neighborhoods north of the American River such as Del Paso Heights, Strawberry Manor and North Sacramento.

Unlike many of her council colleagues, she is not running for re-election or higher office. Her district seat is not up for election this year.

The City Council expects this year’s budget situation to be rough. To address last year’s $50 million deficit, council members made significant cuts to services.

Sheedy said when she considers this year’s budget top priority will go to “essential services that make the city run.” In her view, essential services are police and fire, code enforcement, solid waste, and streets and roads.

Sheedy also said she wants to work on the city’s Community Development Department’s permitting processes. The department’s Facilities Permit Program came under fire last fall during a public debate over Nestlé Waters North America’s move to Sacramento.

The program was halted from Oct. 27 to Dec. 15. In December, City Attorney Eileen Teichert said the program broke city laws. It was changed last month to conform to city laws, according to Teichert.

“I’d like to get the Community Development Department up and running again like it should be,” Sheedy said.

In addition, Teichert is examining the department’s decision to authorize 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone last year. In a Dec. 15 letter to the Oakland office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city attorney’s office acknowledged that the city broke federal rules by green-lighting the permits.

Teichert said in November she found “additional issues” with the department as she investigated the 35 Natomas permits.

Legal issues surround another of Sheedy’s top goals for the year — she plans to respond to a Jan. 6 Sacramento County grand jury report. At issue is the city’s adherence to Proposition 218, a state law regulating city funds.

“The Grand Jury found that, at best, the city has not done enough to determine whether the city is violating the law and, at worst, has shifted millions of dollars in costs from the general fund to utility enterprise funds,” the report states.

Sheedy said she will focus on the issues raised by the grand jury.

“Let’s find out what went on, and let’s fix what we need to fix and move on. We’ve got to get back to the business of the city.”

Sheedy also has goals for her district this year. They include making street and infrastructure improvements from Arden Way to Highway 160; ensuring that operations at a teen center at Robertson Community Center continue; and completing parks in Strawberry Manor and Del Paso Heights.

Read the Sacramento County grand jury's report on the city’s financing here.

Learn about Councilman Kevin McCarty’s plans for the year here. Councilwoman Lauren Hammond’s priorities are explained here. Read about Councilman Steve Cohn’s 2010 goals here. Councilman Robbie Waters’ objectives can be read here.

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor wants federal ban on Natomas development lifted

2009-12-30T05:12:24Z

The city needs to make headway on flood protection efforts in order for the federal government to lift a moratorium on building in Natomas, Mayor Kevin Johnson said Tuesday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency banned development in Natomas in 2008 because of the threat of flooding. Johnson said at his weekly press conference that flood protection will be one of his priorities in 2010.

“We have to make progress so that (FEMA) will lift the moratorium,” Johnson said.

New building in Natomas would generate dollars for the city’s general fund, he said.

“If we want to grow revenue, we’ve got to find ways to have more economic development opportunities,” he said.

Still, he noted that the city should “diversify” because it relies too heavily on jobs in the public sector and the real estate industry. He indicated that he may create an environmental initiative to provide more "green jobs" that could play a role in the city’s economy.

Natomas development and FEMA rules have been a key issue for the city in recent weeks.

Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, a third-party law firm, and the city are investigating the Community Development Department’s approval this year of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone. In a Dec. 15 letter to FEMA, City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office noted that the city’s approval of the permits broke federal rules.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City attorney answers questions about investigation

2009-12-24T18:17:32Z

While local media outlets have reported on the third-party investigation of Sacramento’s development department, the details of the investigation are complex.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert shed light on the investigation’s details in a phone interview with The Sacramento Press last week.

The city, together with the third-party law firm Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, is investigating the Community Development Department’s approval this year of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone.

Teichert’s office acknowledges in a Dec. 15 letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the city broke federal rules when it approved the permits.

The city has placed Community Development Director Bill Thomas and department staffer Dan Waters on administrative leave.

During last week’s interview, Teichert addressed why the city and the third-party firm are working together on the investigation. She also provided a response to the question of whether City Manager Ray Kerridge was being investigated on this issue.

Teichert said she does not have an estimate on when the investigation will be complete.

The Sacramento Press: As I understand it — and correct me if I’m wrong — but the investigation into the Natomas building permits is being carried out by the third-party firm [Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai] and the city. Is the city partnering with the third-party firm?

City Attorney Eileen Teichert: Yes. Of course someone has to provide the interface between how the city operates and is organized, how to reach people, how to get documents and so on. Pursuant to the direction that we’ve received from the City Council, my office, along with the city manager’s office, is providing that coordination.

SP: Why is the city participating in the investigation if a third party was hired? Wouldn’t city participation then make the investigation less objective?

Teichert: Again, as I indicated, someone has to coordinate. My office had to serve as the conduit to hire the outside law firm. We’re the only ones pursuant to the charter authorized to retain outside counsel. So, that was why we did that.

And, in order to preserve attorney/client-privileged communication, those communications go through our office. And, we have to be able to ... obtain records and documents for [independent investigator Tim Yeung’s review] in order to be able to conduct [a] fair, objective investigation and interviews. Based upon his own opinion that he arrives at, as a result of reviewing records and meeting with witnesses without being influenced by staff ...

We agree it’s of the utmost importance that the investigation be conducted fairly and impartially.

SP: Was City Manager Ray Kerridge being investigated as part of the investigation into the Natomas building permits?

Teichert: We are not targeting any individual and I cannot comment on personnel matters. But again, we are using a fair and objective process and not starting into the investigation with any preconceived notions about who’s being targeted or what we expect to achieve.

SP: What is the status of Community Development Director Bill Thomas? Do you know if he’s coming back?

Teichert: The status of Bill Thomas is as it has been for the last number of weeks — that he is still on administrative leave.

Photo by David Watts Barton.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City seeks completion of partially build homes in flood zone

2009-12-19T05:18:29Z

The city of Sacramento has admitted to federal regulators that its development department bypassed federal rules by greenlighting 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone this year. At the same time, the city is asking the federal government if 25 of the homes can be completed.

A third-party law firm, Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, and City Attorney Eileen Teichert's office are investigating the issue. The city has placed Bill Thomas, community development director, and department staffer Dan Waters on leave.

Teichert said Friday she did not know when the investigation would be completed.

In a Dec. 15 letter to Cynthia McKenzie, senior flood planner at the Federal Emergency Management Agency office in Oakland, the Sacramento city attorney’s office sought permission forK. Hovnanian Homes to finish building the 25 homes in the Natomas area. Ten of the 35 homes in the flood zone have been completed, but the remaining 25 are in various stages of construction, according to the letter.

Teichert explained the city’s position Friday in a phone interview.

It would be “consistent with the law” to build the 25 homes, Teichert said. Among other reasons, she said, the 25 homes should be built to maintain public health and safety.

“We also are of the opinion that having homes half-constructed in a neighborhood is not a positive thing,” Teichert said. “It’s certainly not for the neighbors.”

In making its case for the 25 homes, the city cited the actions it has taken to respond to the issue. “However, staff’s diligence caused the transferred permits to be discovered and immediately brought forward to FEMA in order to address and resolve any FEMA concerns before more homes under those units were built, sold, and insured.”

The letter noted that about 24 witnesses have been interviewed for the investigation.

Teichert said the city is not expecting a reply from FEMA before Dec. 25.

Read the Dec. 15 letter from Teichert’s office here.

Photo by David Watts Barton

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Permit program comes back with changes

2009-12-16T06:55:33Z

A city permitting program that recently caused a stir at City Hall has been updated and will go into effect Wednesday.

The City Council asked staff to continue to work on changes to the Facilities Permit Program Tuesday night. In the meantime, a new interim version of the program will be used.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert said after Tuesday night’s City Council meeting that the interim version of the program aligns with city and state laws.

A report from Teichert states that the FPP had caused problems with city and state laws.

City code was violated because builders did not have to pay fees and receive a building permit before starting construction on FPP projects, Teichert’s report said.

In another violation of city codes, FPP projects’ building plans and specifications did not need to be reviewed and approved ahead of construction, according to Teichert.

“Obviously there are some issues where we didn’t amend our code and we should have,” said Councilman Steve Cohn.

Read about the interim program here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council to decide on new version of permit program

2009-12-12T00:09:08Z

The City Council will discuss Tuesday a new version of a permitting program that became part of the recent debate over the Nestlé’s company’s move to Sacramento. The city shuttered its Facilities Permit Program Oct. 27 to investigate whether the program breaks laws.

City Attorney Eileen Teichert declared recently that the FPP was being used illegally because the city was not directing builders to obtain formal building permits before starting construction work, according to David Kwong, the city’s acting planning division director.

The previous version of the FPP offered businesses -- those that worked with the city on an ongoing basis -- a way to receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, Kwong said last month.

Now, Kwong is presenting the remodeled FPP. One of the main revisions is a rule for formal building permits.

“The original program allowed individuals to start work with an oral or written ‘Authorization to Start Work,’” according to a report that Kwong is presenting to the City Council Tuesday. “The revised program requires that a building permit is issued before work is started as required by city code.”

Kwong plans to start the program again Dec. 16. It will be renamed the Facilitated Permit Program. An in-depth guide to the new program will be drafted by the Community Development Department in January, according to Kwong’s report.

Read the full report on changes to the program under Item 30 at the city's website.

The link between the FPP and Nestlé

Nestlé is setting up a bottling plant in Sacramento with plans to sell tens of millions of gallons of the city’s water. The city used the FPP to approve the bottling plant.

Nestlé’s plans drew protests from a citizen’s group called Save Our Water Sacramento, which opposed the city’s approval of the plant without a public hearing or an environmental impact report.

At the same time, a conflict surfaced over whether a building permit should have been used with Nestlé’s project. City Attorney Eileen Teichert said in October that Nestlé did not break any laws as it worked to build its bottling plant. But her office declared that the FPP involved illegal procedures, Kwong said in November.

Teichert said the city acted illegally because it allowed project construction even though Nestlé and its contractors did not have a building permit.

While Nestlé and its contractors received verbal approval from the city to start building the plant, that type of approval does not meet legal requirements, according to Teichert’s analysis.

Nestlé has said it followed city laws.

Photo by Sacramento Press reporter Suzanne Hurt. Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Attorney finds "additional issues" to investigate

2009-11-25T06:23:01Z

The Sacramento City Council’s audit committee will be busy for awhile.

During a Tuesday night briefing on an investigation into the city’s approval of 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone, City Attorney Eileen Teichert told the City Council there are more issues to address. She identified one of the issues as the Facilities Permit Program (FPP), but declined to specify the other issues.

“During the course of these initial interviews and documentary review, additional issues have arisen,” Teichert told the City Council.

The FPP became controversial in a recent debate over Nestlé’s move to set up a bottling plant in Sacramento. In three weeks, the city attorney’s office will deliver a report to the City Council on issues related to the FPP, Teichert said.

The office will also give recommendations on how to revise the program to align to related laws, she said.

In addition to the FPP, the city attorney’s office has found other issues, according to Teichert. In response to questions from reporters after the meeting, she did not describe the new issues. However, she said information about the issues would be reported back publicly to the City Council as “as soon as we’re ready to reach some conclusions on them.”

The City Council’s audit committee will analyze some of these additional issues “where it’s appropriate, where it’s more of a systemic or a process issue,” Teichert said

Members of the audit committee include Councilmembers Steve Cohn, Ray Tretheway, Lauren Hammond and Robbie Waters. The committee is currently working on an audit of the Community Development Department; the new issues will be added to the committee’s plate, according to Teichert.

The briefing Teichert delivered Tuesday was not her final opinion on the Natomas building permits issue — it was an update on the investigative work being carried out by her office and Renee Sloan Holtzman Sakai, a third-party firm. The city attorney’s office and the outside firm are reviewing documents and a database and holding interviews. Teichert’s office and the third-party firm are trying to find out if the 35 permits in question are an “isolated incident,” Teichert said.

“We still have some additional legwork to solidify that conclusion,” she said.

Bikes on K Street

The City Council likes bikes on K Street.

Councilmembers unanimously approved a rule change on Tuesday that will let bicyclists ride on the K Street pedestrian mall.

“If you want people to try alternative modes, you’ve got to make it a little more convenient for people,” said Councilman Steve Cohn.

Councilman Ray Tretheway praised the timing of the rule change. “It really seems like the time is right to put bicycles back on K Street,” Tretheway said.

Specifically, people will be able to bicycle on K Street from 13th Street to 7th Street and from 4th Street to 2nd Street. The Westfield Downtown Plaza will continue to be a no-bicycle zone.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City staff seek building code changes

2009-11-10T05:27:54Z

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 the council," said Kwong, who is also serving as head of the Community Development Department, which oversees the planning and building permits divisions.

The department's director, Bill Thomas, and department supervisor Dan Waters, son of Councilman Robbie Waters, are on paid leave while the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city and an outside law firm hired by the city look into the department and home building permits approved for the Natomas flood zone despite a ban.

The FPP is intended to speed approval for tenant improvements or renovation of commercial and industrial buildings involving businesses that already have established relationships with the city, Kwong said. If the change were approved, the FPP could resume within about two months, he added.

The city suspended the FPP on Oct. 27 after questions about the program arose in relation to the Nestlé Waters North America water-bottling plant. A stop-work order had been posted on the plant's door Oct. 23 while Councilman Kevin McCarty and other city officials inquired into plant construction.

That's when city officials learned that Nestlé and contractors had begun the first phase of construction work without a formal building permit or start-work authorization. A building inspector who coordinates the FPP had given verbal approval only.

A Nestlé official said at the time that the company had complied with the city's building laws.

The city attorney's office, led by Eileen Teichert, determined the practice was not legal, and that allowing construction to start without a building permit violates city and state codes, Kwong said.

Teichert was out of town and not available to comment.

The use of start-work authorizations rather than building permits for some commercial construction predates the FPP in Sacramento.

"We found there was a common practice dating back to 1992 or 1995," Kwong said. "It seemed like an acceptable practice for 14 years, and they went forward with that."

The practice is used in other cities and was incorporated into the FPP when that program was brought to Sacramento from Portland about four years ago, said Kwong. "It's not something we invented," he said.

As planning division director for four and a half years, Kwong was not involved in building services until three weeks ago.

Sacramento City Manager Ray Kerridge, hired in 2004 as an assistant city manager in charge of development, brought Thomas with him from Portland after developers criticized Sacramento's development application and building permit processes as laborious and confusing.

The two have developed programs to speed the application process and encourage development in Sacramento.

Kerridge began his career in Portland as a building inspector in 1979. After becoming manager of commercial inspections, he developed Portland's Facilities Permit Program and the Commercial Combination Inspection Program.

Portland's FPP was designed to match one building inspection team with a building or group of buildings. That team would do all plan review, permitting and inspections of interior tenant improvements to speed improvements or renovations. Phoenix was the only other city in the country known to have a similar program when Portland's began in 1998.

In Sacramento, an inspection team may be replaced by one building inspector certified in several areas, Kwong said.

According to the city of Sacramento's website, "The FPP facilitates a rapid approval process for tenant alterations and improvements of commercial and industrial facilities, (including) minor tenant improvements, including maintenance, repair and minor alterations; and major interior tenant improvements and remodels. This includes tenant improvements to new and existing structures.

"The FPP is available to owners of commercial and industrial buildings, building management companies, and/or their tenants. The program best serves customers who have on-going interior tenant improvements and where facility maintenance, upgrade and renovation is frequent. A good example is a large shopping center with multiple tenants."

As a newcomer to Sacramento, Nestlé would not fit the program. However, Buzz Oates Real Estate Co., which is leasing the warehouse to Nestlé, or Panattoni Construction, which is overseeing the work, would fit the program as established customers, Kwong said.

Nestlé is the building permit applicant. Panattoni received a start-work authorization for the plant renovation's second phase on Oct. 7.

This is the first time the City Council has been asked to weigh in on the FPP.

State building codes must be reviewed to see if FPP practices would be in violation, or to align new city code with the state. City staff also will look for precedents in other cities and counties that use the start-work authorization form, Kwong said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council unlikely to address "strong mayor" issues raised by city attorney

2009-09-16T05:30:55Z

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 issues in the strong mayor initiative that will go before voters in June 2010. The initiative was the project of the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group, which Mayor Kevin Johnson backs. Johnson and Teichert have been clashing lately over their respective views of the legal soundness of the initiative, which would provide the mayor with more power.

The city’s 11-member Charter Review Committee is examining the strong mayor form of government and the city’s current council/manager system. The committee plans to deliver a report on governance and other related issues to the City Council Nov. 3.

Teichert’s report to the City Council Tuesday argued that the strong mayor initiative is legally flawed in several ways. In one of her key points, she asserted that the California Constitution does not allow voters to make “revisions” of city charters in a ballot initiative. She said the strong mayor initiative is asking voters to make “revisions” to the city’s charter, which is similar to a constitution.

While the state constitution allows voters to use initiatives to make “amendments” of city charters, the changes being suggested in the strong mayor initiative are actually “revisions,” Teichert argued. A revision would be a fundamental change to the charter, while an amendment would consist of changing details in the charter, she said.

Mayor Kevin Johnson did not make any public comments at the City Council meeting Tuesday. However, he told reporters earlier in the day that he wanted citizens to vote on the initiative, adding: “Let’s not play political games.”

Tom Hiltchak, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor proposal, disagreed with Teichert's analysis in comments to the City Council.

Following Teichert’s presentation, Councilmembers Steve Cohn and Lauren Hammond both said they look forward to hearing the recommendations from the city’s charter committee on the strong mayor form of government.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell blasted the strong mayor initiative in comments Tuesday, claiming that she thought the initiative was drafted in a “back-room” deal. “We really need to take a look at the initiative that was done in the back room,” Pannell charged. “I bet there were no people of color in that back room -- no women.”

Photo by Anthony Bento.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council studying proposal for independent budget analyst

2009-08-28T02:18:47Z

As the “strong mayor” issue rages on, the Sacramento City Council is also examining a significant proposal from voters to set up an independent budget analyst's office.

The council asked city staffers Tuesday to prepare a workshop to explain how an office for the independent budget analyst could possibly be consolidated with the city’s internal auditor office.

City Treasurer Russ Fehr wrote in an Aug. 25 report that the independent budget analyst would report to the City Council and offer suggestions for changes separate from the city’s budget office. The city is looking at an office of three full-time employees. About $500,000 would pay for the employees‘ salaries, equipment, supplies and services.

“On behalf of the City Council, the independent budget analyst could provide detailed research and analysis including the preparation of reports with specific recommendations that are in addition to, or an analysis of, the work completed by the budget office on behalf of the mayor or city manager,” Fehr wrote.

The independent budget analyst office proposal is simultaneously linked with and separate from the proposal for a strong mayor in Sacramento. It’s linked to the strong mayor proposal because the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group created both proposals and put them before voters in the form of petitions. Each proposal received enough signatures to meet the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters’ requirements.

Both proposals can now be placed on the ballot. The City Council decided Aug. 6 to place the strong mayor proposal on the June 8, 2010 ballot. While the City Council could decide to add the independent budget analyst office to the ballot, it could also pass an ordinance to set up the office.

The independent budget analyst is separate from the strong mayor proposal because the budget analyst office would be developed through an ordinance, Fehr explained in a phone interview. The strong mayor format cannot be set up through an ordinance because the city’s governance structure is established in the city charter, he noted. The city charter must be changed in order for Sacramento’s mayor to gain new powers.

Fehr wrote that the independent budget analyst office could be paid for in two pieces: $370,000 would come from the city’s general fund, while $130,000 would come from special funds. The position could also lead to future savings for the city, according to Fehr.

“In addition, the initial budget could be based on an assumption that alternative view of the budget and the fiscal impacts of agenda items would result in cost reductions at least equal to the cost,” Fehr’s report noted.

Fehr clarified that a strong mayor controversy that arose during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting would not affect the proposal for the independent budget analyst position.

A controversy had bubbled over an opinion in a confidential memo from City Attorney Eileen Teichert. The memo said that Mayor Kevin Johnson should not have weighed in on the strong mayor item on Tuesday’s City Council agenda. Teichert said at the meeting that Johnson has a conflict of interest on the issue because he loaned Sacramentans for Accountable Government $25,000 in June. Johnson backs the strong mayor initiative.

As a result, Teichert recommended that Johnson recuse himself from the discussion.

“I think the opinion was made in error,” Johnson said in response to Teichert’s recommendation. “I will not recuse myself from this item.”

Johnson sat through the discussion, which changed course and was centered on Johnson’s alleged conflict of interest and the legal concerns of the council members. The City Council asked Teichert to take her opinion to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to see if Johnson is in conflict. The council hopes to hear back from the FPPC on the issue in two weeks.

But Tuesday’s strong mayor controversy and the independent budget analyst proposal are not tied together, according to Fehr.

“Again, they’re entirely separate issues on separate tracks,” Fehr said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Committee to study "strong mayor" format for Sacramento

2009-05-07T05:55:16Z

A committee tasked with examining the city government’s structure and functions is starting to address the contentious issue of whether Sacramento’s mayor should have more power.

Sacramento’s 11-member Charter Review Committee, which began meeting last month, is studying the rules in the city’s charter. The charter is similar to a constitution, the city explains.

One of the items on the committee’s list is the idea of changing city government to a “strong mayor” format that would give the mayor more responsibilities. The committee will contrast the "strong mayor" format with the city's existing "council-manager" system.

JoAnn Fuller, a committee member and associate director for the group California Common Cause, noted that the committee will not immediately address the “strong mayor” issue. The committee wants to present information to the public on the issue so community members can respond, she said.

She acknowledged that the “strong mayor” plan is “certainly a large issue on the agenda of the committee.”

While the committee is not yet diving into the topic, it is starting to plan how it will approach the issue. Charter Review Committee members Bill Edgar and Bob Murphy are suggesting that the committee study the “strong mayor” idea through a series of presentations on cities that changed the structure of their government.

“I believe an organized set of presentations should include representatives of cities in both California and other states that have converted both to a strong mayor and/or to a council-manager government,” according to an e-mail between Edgar and Murphy in a committee report.

A list of topics the committee will address can be read here.

The committee’s next two meetings are scheduled for May 7 and May 18, and will take place at City Hall, 915 I Street. The May 7 meeting begins at 6 p.m. All committee meetings are public.

By mid-December, the committee will make suggestions for possible changes to the charter. Sacramento voters have the final word on any charter changes – proposed changes go before the public on a ballot.

Fuller noted that the committee hasn’t yet finalized an outreach strategy, but she said her vision would be for the committee to “get out in the neighborhoods.”

Sacramento’s government is run in a “council-manager” format.

With the Charter Review Committee analyzing the “strong mayor” format, there are now two separate actions taking place.

The Charter Review Committee is studying the issue, and a separate campaign is promoting a “strong mayor” government for Sacramento. The campaign, Sacramentans for Accountable Government, is planning to bring the issue before voters. Mayor Kevin Johnson backs the campaign.

In February reports, City Attorney Eileen Teichert addressed the issues raised by the campaign’s December proposal to put the “strong mayor” government style on an upcoming ballot.

Teichert noted that the proposal would give Johnson numerous powers.

“A true strong mayor system grants its mayor budgetary powers, appointment and removal powers, management of day-to-day city affairs, power to propose legislation and veto power,” Teichert states in a report. “The Strong Mayor Initiative includes each of these powers and more.”

By contrast, the city’s current “council-manager” provides the city manager with considerable powers. The current format is a mayor and eight council members, “with the city manager as the chief executive officer of the city who shall be responsible for the effective administration of the government,” Teichert wrote.

Acting city spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson notes that the “strong mayor” campaign is still alive. The campaign must submit signatures from 15 percent of the city’s registered voters by June 29.

The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday that the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group has a total debt of $94,992.72.