The first time Kevin Johnson was involved in the National Basketball Association draft, he was passed over by the Sacramento Kings. Now mayor of Sacramento, Johnson will represent the Kings at the NBA draft lottery Tuesday. The lottery will be televised on ESPN during a pregame show just before Tuesday night's playoff game in Dallas, when the Oklahoma City Thunder takes on the Dallas Mavericks in game one of the Western Conference finals. The draft lottery portion of the show, which determines the order for the NBA draft June 23, could begin as early as 5:10 p.m. Pacific time. In 1987, Johnson was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who got the seventh pick in the draft. The Sacramento K

The clock is ticking for the Sacramento City Council. Sacramento Interim City Manager Gus Vina’s resignation on Friday morning means that the City Council must take immediate actions that will impact the city budget and labor negotiations with municipal unions.  Council members must find a new top city official one month before the city’s proposed budget is due. Vina’s resignation also means that the city’s labor unions will take up budget negotiations with a new city leader. “We don’t have time to grieve,” City Councilman Steve Cohn said in an interview Friday. Cohn was one of four council members who supported Vina’s earlier effort to become Sacramento’s next permanent city manager.

Major changes are in store for the city’s River District, as the Sacramento City Council approved a set of future development plans Tuesday night. The planning documents set a path for development of the area over the next 25 years, according to a report from city staff. The city’s plans for the River District, a 773-acre swath between the Sacramento Railyards and the American River, focus on ramping up residential, commercial, office and hotel development and moving away from industrial development. Council members approved the plans in a 8-0 vote. Mayor Kevin Johnson did not attend the City Council meeting because he was out of town, said Johnson spokesman Joaquin McPeek. The city wan

 Mayor Kevin Johnson said he is disappointed that finding housing for Sacramento’s homeless has not progressed as much as he anticipated, when speaking on the issues of SafeGround in a press conference Tuesday. “I am disappointed that we are not further along,” Johnson said. “This is not about finger pointing, this is about all of us collectively together figuring out a way that we get to were we need to be.” It has been a year since Johnson camped out with Sacramento’s homeless community and launched a plan to find 2,400 housing units for homeless people during the next three years. “From October 2009 to May 2010, 833 households have received housing assistance through Sacramento’s Hom

Mayor Kevin Johnson’s office released an older draft of the strong mayor proposal one month after The Sacramento Press requested a copy of it. Kunal Merchant, Johnson’s chief of staff, wrote in a note accompanying the old draft that the strong mayor campaign is no longer using it. Johnson used the old draft months ago when he tried to convince the City Council to put a strong mayor measure on the June ballot, Merchant said. The mayor gave up on the idea of the June ballot in February, saying at the time that council members were not backing a June timeline. Read the old draft and Merchant’s note here. Johnson’s campaign referred to the old draft as the “Collaborative Reform Package,” a

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

Sacramento consulting firm Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting Inc. will audit the city’s Community Development Department, the City Council decided Thursday. The vote to hire the firm was unanimous. Four candidates were interviewed by city staff for the job.  Jorge Oseguera, city auditor, wrote in a report to the council that Sjoberg was the “highest ranking competitor and most responsive bidder.”  The city will pay Sjoberg as much as $66,424 for the audit, according to Oseguera’s report. That amount is within the auditor’s budget, Oseguera said. The idea of hiring Sjoberg drew criticism from some of Mayor Kevin Johnson’s critics. In recent comments on The Sacramento Press, the mayor's criti

Critics of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson are raising concerns over a consulting firm’s ability to conduct an objective audit of the Community Development Department. But City Auditor Jorge Oseguera said Tuesday that Sacramento firm Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting Inc. does not have a conflict of interest. Oseguera will ask the City Council on Thursday to hire Sjoberg to conduct the audit. Some of Johnson’s critics pointed out in comments on The Sacramento Press that Sjoberg has worked with the law group Bell, McAndrews and Hiltachk. That group's managing partner, Thomas Hiltachk, wrote the strong mayor initiative. Johnson would have obtained more authority from the initiative, which was str

Gus Vina will earn a salary of $215,000 for his duties as Sacramento’s interim city manager. The City Council approved Vina’s salary Tuesday night. Vina’s salary is the same amount that former City Manager Ray Kerridge earned, said Geri Hamby, the city’s human resources director. Vina will serve as interim city manager for nine to 12 months before the City Council hires a permanent city manager. He recently told The Sacramento Press that he plans to apply for the permanent city manager position. The salary range for the Sacramento city manager position is $187, 357-to-$281,035, according to a March 23 report that Hamby sent to the City Council. The city manager's salary is determined b

The Sacramento Press wants your neighborhood-related questions for Interim City Manager Gus Vina, the city’s highest-ranking official. What issues or concerns do you have about your neighborhood? What do you think the city government should do to improve your neighborhood? Write your questions in the comments section at the bottom of this article. Questions for Vina can also be e-mailed to kathleen@sacramentopress.com. The Sacramento Press will choose several questions from community members for Vina to answer. Vina was chosen as interim city manager by Mayor Kevin Johnson and the eight City Council members and will serve for nine to 12 months. He replaced Ray Kerridge, who resigned fr

Mayor Kevin Johnson on Tuesday announced two community meetings to exchange ideas on reviving K Street Mall and Westfield Downtown Plaza, shortly before an independent analysis comes out. The mayor will meet with business and property owners next Monday, and then with the rest of the public on Oct. 19, as a way to involve the community in the ongoing effort to develop a new strategy for K Street and the rest of the J-K-L corridor, the core of downtown. "We want to create a new vision," Johnson said in his weekly press conference inside city hall. “We need to re-imagine what downtown looks like.” The issue has vexed other mayors and city councils. The meetings will be the first such comm

City officials and civil liberties advocates are taking opposite positions on the city’s plans to set up security cameras at several locations in Sacramento. The two sides are presenting opposing views on the effectiveness of surveillance systems. Mayor Kevin Johnson said in April that the surveillance system would help decrease crime in Sacramento. While locations for the cameras have not yet been selected, Johnson has said that K Street and Regional Transit stations are the kinds of high-traffic and high-crime sites that could be suitable for surveillance. The city intends to purchase a $615,000 surveillance package that includes 32 security cameras, four mobile surveillance trailers a