Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "john shirey"

Mid-year city budget update

2012-02-01T06:12:16Z

The city is spending more than it is bringing in, and even though that’s normal for this time of the year, officials need to make changes to keep spending under control and keep the budget on target.

According to the mid-year budget report presented to the City Council Tuesday, expenditures are at 50 percent of projections, and revenues are at 36 percent – about 14 percent less than anticipated.

This is typical for this point in the fiscal year, Finance Director Leyne Milstein told council members Tuesday – but adjustment is still necessary.

“Without these recommendations, we will not be able to balance our budget,” Milstein said.

It’s not all bad news, though.

The 2010-11 fiscal year ended with an unexpected $5.1 million surplus – largely due to savings from cutting back on expenses in a variety of city departments during the year, according to a city staff report.

That $5.1 million will be used to address a variety of budget needs including:

* $1.2 million to backfill General Fund revenue shortfalls;
* $1 million to the Police Department to cover a holiday pay budget shortfall
* $715,000 for unbudgeted utilities in the Department of Parks & Recreation
* $285,000 for payouts related to contracting out golf maintenance operations
* $750,000 for deferred maintenance projects at city-owned facilities

Another $3 million – left over from capital improvement projects that have been funded and completed ahead of schedule – will go into the General Fund Economic Uncertainty Reserve, bringing that “rainy day fund” balance to $20.7 million.

“Putting money into the reserve is wise, I think,” City Councilman Jay Schenirer said.

Staff also recommended adjustments – both up and down – to citywide revenues to keep the city budget balanced through the end of the fiscal year, including:

* $3.6 million reduction in property tax revenues, due to a greater-than-expected decline in property tax values
* $2.8 million increase in sales and use tax budget, due to a fourth consecutive quarter of sales tax growth

One adjustment to projected revenues comes from the closure of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.

With eight of 33 dispensaries in the city now closed, business operating tax revenue from the dispensaries – initially estimated in the city budget as $1 million – will be reduced by $250,000 to $750,000.

The actual reduction amount will depend on how many more dispensaries close before the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

The City Council began the budget process for the 2012/13 fiscal year with a workshop Jan. 24. The city manager will present his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year on May 1.

The Sacramento Press discussed the first quarter budget report HERE.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Editorial Note: A spelling correction was made to this story after it was published.

Redevelopment winds down, city must decide next step

2012-01-26T01:49:24Z

Mere days before the Feb. 1 deadline to end redevelopment, the City Council is faced with two important decisions: what role the city will take in the aftermath, and what will happen to agency staff when redevelopment ends.

Although the City Council did not take any action at the meeting Tuesday, City Manager John Shirey outlined the next steps for council members as the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency winds down.

Shirey is the former executive director ~~president~~ of the California Redevelopment Association.

SHRA is the agency responsible for redevelopment in Sacramento County and the city.

An important factor in the process is figuring out what responsibilities the city will take on, and which ones will be taken over by other agencies, Shirey said.

In August, the City Council agreed to take over the non-housing functions of SHRA.

The city is responsible for managing current construction projects and making required payments on bond debt and other financial obligations.

With redevelopment being disbanded altogether, though, the housing assets and activities of SHRA have to be disposed of as well.

The city could assume that responsibility – or it could allow the city’s Housing Authority to take it over, which is what Shirey encouraged the City Council to have the city do.

If the city Housing Authority assumes those responsibilities and they continue to be managed by the SHRA, Shirey said, Housing Authority staff would have the benefit of the expertise of SHRA staff to administer the ongoing housing activities and assets.

Another problem the city is faced with is how it will handle staffing.

Currently, SHRA provides staff for all redevelopment programs in the city and the county.

Once the redevelopment agency is disbanded Feb. 1, staffing duties will have to be transitioned from SHRA to whatever entity takes over.

There are nearly 100 employees working on various projects at this point, Shirey said, and not all of those people will be needed in the transition.

That means layoffs for a majority of those employees.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said Tuesday that she is concerned about potential layoffs.

“I hope that if any layoffs occur, that management is included and it’s not just the workers who take the hit,” she said. “I’ve seen that happen too many times.”

Bernadette Austin, a housing finance analyst with SHRA, spoke to the council on behalf of staff members who have worked behind the scenes on redevelopment projects such as the La Valentina housing project.

“I couldn’t do my job without (those staff members),” Austin said. “They helped create projects that really mean something to the community.”

Austin urged the council to keep as many current staff members in place as possible throughout the transition.

Shirey said attempts are being made in the Capitol to extend the dissolution deadline from Feb. 1 to April 15, but it’s not certain that legislation will make it to the governor’s desk in time to make a difference.

Redevelopment dissolution will be on the agenda at the Jan. 31 meeting, and the City Council is expected to take action then.

Editorial Note: A correction was made to this article after it was published. The incorrect information has been struck out and the correct information added.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

City Council begins 2012-13 budget process with workshop

2012-01-25T05:13:57Z

As Sacramento gears up to face a $16.5 million budget gap in the next fiscal year, consultants from Colorado met with City Council members to outline a new approach to budgeting that focuses less on dollar amounts and more on top city priorities.

The council budget workshop held Tuesday at the main branch of the Sacramento Public Library was designed to help council members refine fiscal priorities for the city and discuss ways to reshape the budget process.

Significant cuts to resolve a $39 million budget gap last year resulted in layoffs from the police force and rolling brownouts at city fire stations – actions that brought weeks of public outcry at City Council meetings.

The city charter requires the city manager to present a proposed budget to the City Council by May 1 for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The deadline for a finalized budget is June 30.

Budget consultants Jon Johnson and Chris Fabian were brought in by the city’s Finance Department to introduce details of “priority-based budgeting” – a method that focuses on matching funding decisions to predetermined city priorities, instead of on prior years’ spending patterns.

City Manager John Shirey said Sacramento, like many local governments throughout the nation, typically rely on such “spending-based budgeting” – that is, making spending and cutting decisions based on how much was spent last year with last year’s revenue levels.

The result, Shirey said, is recurring budget gaps and employee layoffs.

Fabian said the key to priority-based budgeting is having clearly defined priorities.

“Across the board reductions is egalitarian – there is a sense of fairness about it,” Fabian told council members, “but it doesn’t reflect priorities.”

In one budget exercise at the workshop, council members ranked providing a safe community, economic vitality and youth and education as top priorities.

In a detailed staff report presented to council members, 16 city departments – including Community Development, Parks and Recreation, Transportation, Utilities and others – were reviewed to sort programs and services into “mandated,” “essential” and “existing” categories.

As council moves through the budget process, Shirey said, the reviews will be part of the criteria to determine how city resources should be distributed across city programs.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Shirey told council members. “You’ve given us some direction on the focus areas that are important to you. Now we need to go back and apply it.”

The workshop was designed as a starting point for discussion for City Council members as they approach the 2012/13 budget year.

“We definitely need more time to dig into this information,” City Councilman Darrell Fong said Tuesday. “I get it – now I want to look at it closer.”

City spokeswoman Amy Williams said the City Council generally holds one workshop prior to developing the budget, but more could be scheduled if the council feels it’s needed.

Although the council does not make final budget decisions at workshops, the meetings are an opportunity for council members to work with and give direction to staff and the city manager as he begins to prepare the annual budget.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter with The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

The Sacramento Press on 'Insight': Strong mayor initiative

2012-01-18T01:07:27Z

Tuesday on Capitol Public Radio’s “Insight” program, I sat down with host David Watts Barton and Sacramento Bee editorial board member Foon Rhee to discuss the Checks and Balances Act of 2012 – more commonly known as the “executive mayor” or “strong mayor” initiative.

The mayor’s office rolled out the latest version of the strong mayor initiative Dec. 21 by a coalition of supporters led by Mayor Kevin Johnson’s chief of staff, Kunal Merchant.

The issue was scheduled to be on the agenda for City Council discussion Tuesday, and Johnson said he is hopeful that council members will put the initiative on the June ballot.

Rhee pointed out that Tuesday’s meeting was the 16th time the issue has been discussed at City Council – the most recent time being June 2010 when the City Council voted 7-2 against allowing City Attorney Eileen Teichert to prepare a strong mayor ballot initiative.

Although the initiative has been rebranded as the Checks and Balances Act of 2012, Rhee suggested it is more like “strong mayor initiative version 3.0,” because of some similarities with the previous version.

After so much discussion over the last couple of years, it is fair to ask if finally putting the proposal on the ballot will put the issue to rest.

Before the proposal gets put on the ballot, however, council members may want to see some tweaks to language in the draft as suggested by the city attorney’s analysis – such as clarifying ambiguities about a sunshine ordinance and the potential for creating a ninth council district.

The city attorney’s analysis of the proposed Checks and Balances Act can be read HERE.

City Manager John Shirey indicated in November that he wants no part of a strong mayor form of government. If the strong mayor initiative passes at the June ballot, the city may lose yet another city manager – the fourth one in the last three years.

The good news for Shirey is his severance package – guaranteed by contract – that gives him six months’ salary if he leaves office before his three-year contract expires.

In the last couple of weeks, the Checks and Balances Act received some big-name endorsements including former Sacramento mayors Jimmy Yee, Phil Isenberg and Anne Rudin. Monday, Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg added his name to the list of endorsements of the initiative, calling it “a solid and responsible proposal.”

Johnson has been something of a polarizing figure with the strong mayor initiative: Some people love the idea because of their affinity for the mayor, but others are opposed to it because of a fundamental opposition to Johnson himself.

Because of this, voters may welcome the chance to both vote for a new mayor and charter reform at the same time – an opportunity that wasn’t possible when the previous strong mayor initiative was floated for the 2010 city election cycle.

Read the entire Checks and Balances Act of 2012 proposal HERE.

Check The Sacramento Press Wednesday for a recap of the council meeting and strong mayor discussion.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

2011: The year at City Hall

2011-12-30T06:20:29Z

Sacramento City Council members had their hands full this year – from balancing the budget to redrawing district lines to a citizen uprising that found its way to the doors of City Hall.

Here’s the city government year in review.

CITY MANAGER DRAMA
The year started off with interim city manager Gus Vina not being promoted to the open city manager spot. Vina replaced previous city manager Ray Kerrige when Kerrige resigned in February 2010.

Vina resigned two months later – just a few weeks before the budget was due to the City Council. He later became the city manager of Encinitas.

The City Council was criticized for making decisions about the city manager position in closed sessions before voting not to promote Vina and instead open a national search.

City Council members stalled the search for City Manager saying they wanted to define the qualities they were looking for in the next person to fill the job. Two weeks later, they announced the qualities and the search continued.

The door was open for a new city manager, and while the nationwide search was ongoing, what Sacramento ended up with was not one but two interim city managers: Bill Edgar and Betty Masuoka.

Edgar and Masuoka followed through with the budget plan and presented it to the City Council on time.

As the city got closer to finding its next city manager, Mayor Kevin Johnson expressed disappointment about the search process, saying he felt “the pool of candidates wasn’t as deep” as he would have liked.

By August, Sacramento had a new city manager – John Shirey, former head of the California Redevelopment Association.

Shirey’s three-year contract included a $258,000 base salary – a 16 percent increase in salary over the previous city manager – making him the highest-paid in city history and the first to receive a labor contract.

BUDGET BLOWUPS
The budget process was complete by the time Shirey took his seat at the dais alongside City Council members.

The 2011 budget brought more challenges to face, including a $39 million budget gap.

After months of discussions and negotiations with unions, advocacy groups, public comment and hours-long council meetings, a budget was finally passed.

The new budget included severe cuts to fire and police personnel and city employees – as well as the closure of community centers and public pools.

REDISTRICTING: MAPS AND MAYHEM
As if there wasn’t enough going on in City Hall with the annual budget process, 2011 brought redistricting – a redrawing of council districts that happens every 10 years.

This time, the mayor and City Council appointed a Citizens Advisory Redistricting Committee to do the heavy lifting of vetting a variety of proposed district maps.

After months of review and discussion, the committee presented a group of four maps for the council to consider. From there, the discussions and map revisions really took off.

One unexpected twist to the redistricting drama came when one map was revealed to have been anonymously submitted by advisory committee member Steve Hansen.

Discussions heated up further when two council members – Steve Cohn and Sandy Sheedy – submitted their own map for the council to consider.

A week later, Cohn submitted yet another map, a hybrid version of Cohn and Sheedy’s previous submissions, this time called “Neighborhoods 2.0.”

A boundary dispute between council districts 5 and 6 over which district would contain the UC Davis Medical Center and Sacramento High School created a huge outcry from residents.

In the end, after six months and a grand total of 45 map versions, a final map was selected and approved by City Council, and new district lines went into effect on Oct. 6.

REDEVELOPMENT
With the passing of the state budget in July came big changes for the way redevelopment agencies are allowed to work in California.

Cities throughout the state are given an option to “buy in” to a new redevelopment plan – which would require large annual payments to the state from local agencies. Sacramento decided to go along with the plan and keep the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency alive.

Other cities wouldn’t go down without a fight, and a lawsuit was filed against the state by the California Redevelopment Association. While the case was pending, the court issued a temporary reprieve so cities did not have to make the required “opt-in” payments until a decision was made.

Some redevelopment projects that were moved ahead in 2011 in Sacramento included a revamp of K Street, the La Valentina project and housing projects in the south area of the city.

OCCUPY SACRAMENTO: CITIZENS TAKE A STAND
What started on Wall Street in New York as a citizens’ uprising against corporate greed in America became a nationwide statement of discontent from coast to coast.

When the first Occupy Sacramento protesters stepped into Cesar Chavez Plaza on Oct. 6, it was unclear how long they would stay – or what their message was going to be.

Quickly, the calm protest of Sacramentans showing solidarity with other Occupy movements was stunted by a city park curfew ordinance that prevented protesters from remaining in the park overnight.

Protesters were arrested – more than 100 in October alone – and the uprising was strengthened by a common goal: get the city to make an exception to the rule.

Over the next 10 weeks, large numbers of Occupy protesters spoke at the public forum of City Council meetings to ask the city manager and City Council to allow the group to remain in the park to continue to exercise its First Amendment rights.

Protesters who had been arrested – including war veteran mom Cindy Sheehan – had their day in court, and charges were dropped against many.

Meanwhile, attorneys for the Occupy group filed suit in federal court against the city claiming First Amendment violations, and some Occupiers moved the protest to the lawns at City Hall.

As the year came to a close, the number of Occupiers dwindled at Cesar Chavez Plaza, but the movement was not disbanded completely. A lawsuit is still pending in federal court, according to attorney Mark Merin, one of the representing attorneys.

Despite the ups and downs at City Hall this year, more change and drama is expected in 2012. Between elections and yet another budget – and the ever-present discontent bubbling just under the surface from events in 2011 – the new year is bound to be worth watching.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Naughty or Nice: If you were Santa, how would City Council fare?

2011-12-15T07:24:48Z

As the song goes, Santa’s making his list, checking it twice and deciding who gets cool goodies and who gets lumps of coal.

Between the budget, redistricting and facing dissatisfied citizens who took over a city park in protest, the City Council has been busy this year, so The Sacramento Press made its own “naughty or nice” list.

If you were Santa, how would City Council fare? Here’s our list for 2011.

Mayor Kevin Johnson: NAUGHTY
Sure, he led the way to advancing green technology in the city and supported a citizens advisory committee’s effort to redistrict the city.

But being absent for 10 City Council meetings in a single year? Tsk, tsk, Mr. Mayor.

(And we’re not bitter about not being invited to the wedding – we just really love wedding cake.)

District 1 Councilwoman Angelique Ashby: NICE
Between town hall meetings to discuss arena options and pulling neighborhoods together to search for a lost teen, Ashby found time to save a local parks program from being cut – and take on Congress for funding approval of levee improvements.

Of course, bringing Santa to Natomas on a fire truck for the first time in city history didn’t hurt her “nice” standing, either.

District 2 Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy: NAUGHTY
Two words: Arena poll. Oh, and two more: Sheedy map. It’s commendable to put voters first, but Sheedy lacks consistency. Telling voters they know what’s best for an arena, but not how to draw their own district boundaries sends mixed messages.

Kudos for keeping a popular teen center going for a third year, though – Santa wants kids to have a safe place to gather and play – and for taking over the Del Paso certified farmers market in the district to keep people eating their veggies.

Still, Sheedy gets coal in her stocking this year.

District 3 Councilman Steve Cohn: NAUGHTY
His work to develop a plan for Sacramento’s rail and transit future is bringing the city closer to becoming a true “intermodal hub” of the north state and if Cohn had his way, sleighs would be allowed on K Street – which Santa would think was very nice, indeed.

But, weeks into heated debate on redistricting, Cohn surprised the city with a compromise map that both galvanized citizens’ opinions on a sensitive topic, and left a bad taste in their mouths. With that Grinch-like move, Cohn earns a spot on the "naughty" list.

District 4 Councilman Rob Fong: NICE
As the council member voted most likely to play a practical joke by his fellow council members, Rob Fong gets points for best one-liners during a council meeting.

Standing up for the LGBT community as a community of interest during the redistricting process weighed in Fong’s favor this year, as well as his support of charitable organizations like Jumpstart 21.

We think Santa would agree that a guy who isn’t afraid of a little three-on-three basketball against local civic leaders falls squarely on the “nice” side of the page.

District 5 Councilman Jay Schenirer: NICE
Although Schenirer found himself in the middle of some battles in 2011, including redistricting struggles and unpopular budget decisions, he bucked up and trudged on in his first year on the City Council.

Schenirer helped bring a new community garden to area residents and offered to subsidize the first year of rent on garden plots for people who couldn’t afford their share. He also spearheaded the five-part “Way Up” initiative that is primed to be a model for building communities throughout the city.

For all that Santa-like generosity, Schenirer gets his name on the “nice” list – and a big mug of eggnog.

District 6 Councilman Kevin McCarty: NAUGHTY
When does Oak Park stop being Oak Park and start being Elmhurst? Somewhere along Stockton Boulevard, McCarty said during the tumultuous redistricting debacle this summer.

Santa would give a cheer for McCarty’s efforts to keep city pools open during the summer despite huge budget cuts to the parks department, and being a proponent of solar energy and “greening” city buildings gets a big ho, ho ho!

But when a whole community spends five weeks protesting a four city-block line adjustment, all the candy canes in Colonial Heights won’t make a sour move any sweeter.

District 7 Councilman Darrell Fong: NICE
The budget cycle was tough this year, and when it came down to brass tacks, Darrell Fong risked the wrath of his police brethren and voted to make cuts to the Police Department – including the layoffs of nearly 80 sworn officers – in favor of balancing the city budget.

Call him Scrooge if you will, but Fong declined his City Council salary and recently voted against pursing a lessee for the city’s parking system because it doesn’t seem fiscally responsible.

For his concern for taxpayers’ pocketbooks, Fong’s name goes on the “nice” list (but parking enforcement may still ticket his sleigh.)

District 8 Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell: NAUGHTY
Budget debates and the quest for the perfect redistricting map is enough to fray anyone’s nerves, but Pannell’s, ahem, “spirited” debate with audience members – and at times, the mayor – at City Council meetings this year earns her a bit of coal.

Yes, Pannell helped her district get much-needed development – including a new pet hospital and long-awaited grocery store – and valuable infrastructure improvements are on the horizon for the area.

Still, Pannell will need a little sugar to go with her “spice” if she wants to make the “nice” list in 2012.

City Manager John Shirey: NAUGHTY
Shirey has been in the big chair for four months now, and the city still doesn’t have a tidy budget, a full police force or flying cars. We expected more from a man who took the state to task for shredding redevelopment agencies.

On the other hand, Shirey did start restructuring his office to streamline operations, and he led the way in city pension reform by being first in line for administrators to pay a portion of their own retirement.

Still, we think Shirey can do more for our fair city. We hope you pull that Superman cape out of the closet and get down to business in 2012 – but for this Christmas? Coal.

Tell us what you think: Have City Council members been naughty or nice this year?

City first quarter finance report: revenues down, expenditures up

2011-11-08T05:38:45Z

After the first quarter of the fiscal year, city revenues are only about half of what was projected, but city finance officials said they aren’t ready to panic yet. The negative balance for the city budget is not just related to lower-than-anticipated revenues – a large part of the imbalance is due to greater-than-anticipated expenditures.

The $812 million city budget is running negative at the moment – “typical” for the first quarter of the fiscal year, according to the most recent report from the city Finance Department.

The first quarter financial report will be presented to the City Council Tuesday.

Of the six main sources of revenue for the city – property tax, utility user tax, sales tax, business operations tax, public safety tax and transient occupancy (hotel) tax – two sources have not been on par with projections made when the budget was approved in June.

Property tax – which at 34 percent of all general fund revenues is the largest source of revenue for the city – appears to be at about 2 percent of projections, but that number can be misleading, according to Dawn Holm, acting budget manager for the city Finance Department.

Property tax revenues are received by the city in late January and late May, so the current report doesn’t reflect revenue beyond June.

Once the city receives property tax revenues in January, the general fund ledger will be adjusted to reflect a new balance.

The new result still may not be as good as was expected when the budget was passed in June, however.

Property values continue to decline at a higher-than-expected rate throughout the state, according to a County Assessor’s Office property tax update given to the city Finance department earlier this month.

Initially, property tax revenues for Sacramento for fiscal year 2011-12 were projected to be close to $126 million – about 1 percent less than the totals received in 2010-11.

Taking into account the county assessor’s projections, though, the actual year-end number could wind up being down 2 or even 3 percent, Holm said.

“It’s really too early to tell with any precision,” Holm said.

The good news is sales tax revenues may take up the slack and balance out the potential property tax shortfall.

According to a city staff report, taxable sales in California are expected to increase by 1.7 percent in 2011, and Sacramento is currently projecting a 4 percent increase over the 2010-11 budget.

Sales tax results that come in better than anticipated will offset the decline in property taxes, according to the staff report.

Four areas of general fund expenditures that are already in the red – and may go deeper – include department spending for fire, police, convention and leisure, and parks and recreation.

The Sacramento Fire Department is facing a projected $2.3 million shortfall by the end of the year due to overtime spending required to restore two formerly browned-out stations and the costs of hiring 27 people as part of a federal grant program.

The city accepted a federal grant that will pay for the new staffers, but grant money doesn’t come in until the positions are filled, Holm said, and when the money does come in, it cannot be used to reimburse overtime spending.

One option the department is considering to manage the budget shortfall is potential funding from Medi-Cal transport reimbursement, which is allowed by the recently passed AB678.

“The alternative would be to direct the department to implement the two additional brownouts again,” Holm said. “We’d still be in the hole, but not as much as we look to be in right now.”

Fire department representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

The police department’s projected deficit of $3.1 million is due to unfunded employee services benefits, additional overtime because of staffing reductions and unexpected reductions in grant and contract service reimbursements, according to the staff report.

When the Convention, Culture and Leisure Department transfers golf maintenance to a private contractor in January, the city will incur one-time expenses associated with the transfer that had not been budgeted, according to the staff report.

“Part of contracting out (golf maintenance) is going to be letting go of some staff,” Holm said. “When we let go of any employees, we have to pay for unused sick leave, vacation and overtime.”

Holm said those costs are paid out as lump-sum payments to employees when they leave city service.

“That is never budgeted for,” Holm said, “so when you have a large group leaving, it’s a hit to the department.”

In this case, it is a $229,000 hit to the Parks Department budget, according to an Oct. 25 report to the City Council.

Golf maintenance included 58 positions, and contracting out the service eliminates those positions.

Fifty of those positions were filled at the time that the City Council approved contracting out the service.

The city’s fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30. Until this year, the City Council received semi-annual reports from the Finance Department: a mid-year update and an end-of-year final report.

Since coming to the position in September, City Manager John Shirey has instituted a quarterly report to council members to provide the most timely information regarding the city’s current financial condition, Holm said.

“He felt that every six months was just too long,” Holm said. “He wants everyone to have an understanding of where things are going on a more regular basis.”

The next quarterly financial report will be presented to the City Council at end of January or first week in February. Meanwhile, Holm said, department staff will continue to work toward meeting budget goals.

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

Bus tour shows off south area development

2011-10-21T02:12:03Z

District 8 City Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell hosted a bus tour Thursday highlighting recent redevelopment efforts and future growth opportunities throughout the district with a group of developers, real estate brokers and city employees – along with a few district residents and neighborhood association representatives.

“This is going to be a tour of opportunities,” said City Manager John Shirey at the start of the tour. “We’ve got a good future for this district.”

The Meadowview and south city areas have seen the second-greatest rate of growth in all of Sacramento, second only to North Natomas in District 1, Pannell said.

“We have had a lot of growth (in District 8),” Pannell said, “and we still have more land to be developed. We’re going to be looking for new projects – so developers on the tour, pay attention.”

Some of the economic development successes highlighted on the tour included a $350 million expansion of Kaiser Permanente, a new 20,000-square-foot Valley Hi/North Laguna public library, new recreational amenities with three new parks and the Phoenix Park development – a project completed in conjunction with the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

“One way we can get through our financial difficulties in the city is to grow our way out,” Shirey said. “I see the positives all around now. We’ve got something good started, and we can build on that.”

David Kwong, city planning director, pointed out on the tour more development activity at Meadowview Road and Freeport Boulevard, including a new Walgreens and a 20,000-square-foot veterinary hospital.

Kwong also noted the future site of a Fresh and Easy grocery store – something residents in the south area want and need but have very few of, according to Pannell.

“Meadowview really needs a grocery store,” Pannell said. “They’ve been talking about a grocery store for 13 years, and (the future Fresh and Easy) is the closest we’ve come.”

Pannell said residents often have to drive nearly two miles to the nearest store, and that creates a real challenge for people.

Nehla Buchanan, 46, a caregiver with the state of California, has lived in Pannell’s district for about a year. Buchanan said she moved to the Meadowview area because housing was affordable and there was a good opportunity for home ownership.

Buchanan’s neighborhood is adjacent to the future site of the planned Delta Shores development – an 800-acre mixed-use project that will include retail shops, single-family and multi-family housing, and office and commercial uses.

The project will also include at least one grocery store, according to Jain Wager, a developer with MerloneGeier Partners, the developer of Delta Shores.

“I love the Delta Shores development,” Buchanan said. “I can’t wait until they start building over there.”

Buchanan is part of the Meadowview Neighborhood Association, and the group has held numerous meetings with Pannell and city staff to give input into the many changes happening in the district.

“We’ve worked with Ms. Pannell specifically on improvements in our neighborhood, and it’s been so helpful,” Buchanan said. “We will continue to give our input to new things that are happening here.”

Jesse Reese, president of the Meadowview Neighborhood Association, has been a community activist for more than 35 years in the south city area.

“It’s good to see us grow,” Reese said. “It’s inspiring to see things that we’ve worked toward for a very long time finally happening.”

Reese said that, when the idea for Delta Shores was first discussed nearly 30 years ago, the developers at the time wanted to open “another Mack Road” with nothing but apartment complexes, Reese said.

“We wanted more of a development than that,” Reese said. “We now see (developers) MerloneGeier doing something better and hearing what (neighborhood associations) have been wanting.”

Reese said that, as the area develops more, he and the MNA will continue to reach out to City Council to make sure the issues that concerned neighbors want addressed don’t get lost in the shuffle.

City Economic Development Director Jim Reinhart said that, over the past five years, south area neighborhoods have experienced a real growth spurt – but it’s gone “unnoticed” for the most part.

Pannell said south area development has been largely ignored because downtown and North Natomas have been getting the lion’s share of attention at City Hall.

“We have a ton of land that needs to be developed,” Pannell said. “So, we’ve been quietly developing small plots, plugging along and hoping that one day someone would notice.”

The bus tour was the second one in four years that Pannell has hosted. The next one won’t be planned for another two or three years, she said, to allow time for “even more growth and development to show off later on.”

“Even though we still have a lot of vacant land, we have done a lot,” Pannell said. “And we’ll do even more before the next tour.”

Pannell said she hopes to see a new, 200-plus-unit senior center that is in the planning stages get approval in time to break ground next summer.

“I want the light rail South Line to start next year,” Pannell said, “and the Cosumnes River Boulevard connection (between Interstate 5 and Highway 99) to happen next year, too.”

Gwendolyn Feathers, 67, a resident of the district since 1988, said she has seen a lot of the growth and development projects going up in the district, but this was the first bus tour of the area that she has been on.

“I’ve learned so much today,” Feathers said. “We have really been building up in the area – it’s exciting.”

Although City Council approval is in place, the Delta Shores development does not yet have a planned construction start date, according to Wager.

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

City Council receives, reviews arena reports

2011-09-14T05:58:28Z

City staff and Think Big Sacramento representatives presented the City Council with technical and financial option reports on the proposed entertainment and sports complex Tuesday, and asked council to direct them where to go next.

“We have a lot of work to do in the next six months,” said City Manager John Shirey, “and we need both internal and external resources to do it.”

To keep things moving forward, though, Shirey told council members that he plans to deliver three things: “a game plan with a timeline, a list of the consultant work we need and a list of how we’ll pay for those things.”

Although the technical report presented Tuesday included more detail than previous reports, Shirey said it will take some time to “dig deeper and determine if the project is really feasible.”

Shirey said he and his staff will need “special help” from outside resources to do that digging. That means turning to consultants, investment bankers and outside council for the “due diligence” necessary to thoroughly review the entertainment sports complex proposal, Shirey said.

One of the aspects of the ESC project discussed Tuesday was the potential for re-use of the current Power Balance Pavillion site in Natomas.

“Natomas re-use possibilities present tremendous opportunity,” said Rachel Hazlewood, Economic Development Department senior project manager. “We need to develop a plan of action to bring (the space) to its highest and best use.”

Hazlewood said that, because the building moratorium in Natomas will be lifted in 2013, the large site may allow for multiple users and will require rezoning – aspects of the “total arena plan” that need to be considered.

“We will need to identify potential business prospects and get the site shovel-ready for development,” Hazlewood said, “before we can re-use the Natomas site for something other than the arena that is already there.”

Arena finance expert Dan Barrett outlined the recently released Nexus report of finance “menu” options.

Barrett told council members that a public-private partnership is essential to the success of the project.

“When you structure a deal like this, it has to work for all parties,” Barrett said. “It’s clear that the public cannot fund this facility on its own, and the team cannot fund it on its own.”

Barrett said that parking income potential discussed in the Nexus report is “not a standalone financing solution,” and the Kings’ loan has to be part of the solution.

“The $387 million cost (in the initial feasibility report) may change,” said John Dangberg, assistant city manager.

Dangberg noted that infrastructure costs are not included in the estimated $387 million cost of the facility.

Dangberg urged council members to direct staff to look at financial, legal and practical aspects of the project.

“As we come up with a definitive financing plan,” Dangberg said, “we want to include enough resources to cover the real cost of the project as it becomes clearer.”

Barrett said it will be important for council members to explore parking opportunities “aggressively,” and to “critically evaluate” other public funding options.

“We’ll work together with you and staff to prepare a definitive financing plan by the end of December,” Barrett said.

Although Mayor Kevin Johnson acknowledged that the reports presented to council were preliminary reports and not a “final proposal” for a new complex, he said they were a good place to start.

“We did our best to protect taxpayers with this plan,” Johnson said. “This is about jobs – 4,100 jobs – for our region.”

Johnson said the project is in “a very critical stage,” and he hopes City Council and the Think Big committee can finalize as much as possible by January so the city can be in the best position possible by the March deadline.

Councilman Rob Fong said he supports the arena project and that there needs to be “a closer look” taken at all of the financing options suggested in the Nexus report.

“It’s really important that we thoroughly vet what we are hearing,” Fong said. “We have to make sure the general fund is held harmless, and figure out if there’s a way for us to go forward with the project”

For Think Big, the challenge remains to keep going “until we reach a point where we know for sure that we can do this – or that we can’t,” Fong said.

The City Council asked staff to take the reports back for more review. Council will discuss arena options further at its next meeting, on Sept. 20.

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

Former interim city manager Edgar shifts focus to other endeavors

2011-09-13T00:51:39Z

Now that a new city manager has taken the helm, Interim City Manager Bill Edgar is ready for new things. But “greener pastures” is not necessarily where Edgar says he’s headed.

“Plans for me aren’t really set,” Edgar said in an interview last week. “I have plenty to do, so retirement isn’t exactly in my future.”

Edgar took over as interim city manager after the previous interim city manager, Gus Vina, resigned in April.

When the City Council appointed Edgar to the position, he was joined by Betty Masuoka as assistant interim city manager. Together, Edgar and Masuoka took on the responsibilities of preparing a difficult city budget and navigating some tough union contracts.

Edgar’s role was temporary – just long enough for the city to recruit a permanent city manager – an assignment that turned out to last six months.

The newly hired city manager, John Shirey, officially took over on Sept. 1. He will pick up where Edgar and Masuoka left off and move forward with many projects that they started.

“I told (Shirey) I’d be available for specific projects if he wanted me (to help),” Edgar said. “But he hasn’t really had a chance to talk with me about any of them.”

Once Shirey came on board, Masuoka was able to leave on a long-awaited three-week visit to Europe.

Edgar, however, said he hasn’t yet had “a down time.”

“I have a lot to catch up on,” Edgar said.

In addition to acting as interim city manager for the past six months, Edgar has maintained his responsibilities as executive director of the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency, and running the tax preparation business he’s owned since 1999.

The Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency (SBFCA) was formed in 2007 by the counties of Butte and Sutter and the cities of Biggs, Gridley, Live Oak and Yuba City. The agency has the authority to finance and construct regional levee improvements.

Now that there is less pressure from his duties at City Hall, Edgar will spend more time working on projects with SBFCA.

The SBFCA passed an assessment last year, Edgar said, that allows for the rebuilding of the west bank of Feather River – a project that has been anticipated since 1997 and is now in the design stage.

“It’s at about 60 percent (completed with the design stage) now,” Edgar said. “We anticipate construction beginning in spring, 2013, and construction should take two or three seasons.”

Edgar said the transition away from interim city manager has gone well, particularly since he has had to juggle outside responsibilities at the same time.

“Since I’ve had to do (everything) at the same time,” Edgar said, “now it’s just a little pressure off. It was very busy for me during the time I was interim city manager. That’s why it was necessary for (Masuoka) and I to do the job together.”

Edgar said that, during his time in City Hall, he enjoyed working with the mayor and City Council “most of all.”

“When I first went in (to the position), people told me it would be hard to get council members to work together,” Edgar said. “I didn’t find it that way at all, though.”

During his tenure, Edgar said he and his staff worked hard to accomplish some important things – such as putting together a “very difficult” budget at a very difficult time.

“We were able to finally get some concessions from one of the major unions,” Edgar said, “and to bring on a qualified city manager – those were big things.”

Edgar said he and Masuoka also set the stage for what’s coming down the road: restructuring the budget and making the organization more efficient.

There will be a lot of challenges for Shirey in the coming year, Edgar said, most notably the next budget and upcoming labor negotiations. But “there are always a lot of challenges,” Edgar said.

“The arena is coming up, and economic development is always an issue,” Edgar said. “And, a lot of restructuring has to happen.”

It won’t happen overnight, and Shirey won’t be doing it alone, Edgar said.

“The employees, the department managers and staff are committed to really working hard,” Edgar said.

During the last two weeks of Edgar’s transition out of the interim position, Edgar said he and Masuoka and their staff made sure that what they were setting in place was in line with Shirey’s own goals for the city.

“As focus areas (for changes in city organization) are brought up to council, not everything will be implemented,” Edgar said. “Still, there will be a lot to discuss, and (Shirey) will take the lead in that.”

As Edgar moves away from the responsibilities of interim city manager, he said he is looking forward to giving more focus to other interests.

“I think my family is happy to get me back doing tax returns,” Edgar said. “It’s good (for me) to be there for the family business.”

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

New city manager wants Sacramento to be 'best managed city in California'

2011-09-10T00:48:31Z

It would be fair to say that Sacramento’s new city manager, John Shirey, has hit the ground running. That’s a good thing, too, because he has a lot of ground to cover if he’s going to meet his goal of making Sacramento “the best managed city in California.”

His first official day with the city was Sept. 1, and he’s spent the first week on the job jumping right in to the work ahead, Shirey said in an interview Friday.

“I’m in a 90-day period of goal-setting,” Shirey said, “and understanding what this organization needs and what the City Council is willing to do as a group.”

Shirey said that means putting together a specific plan and sharing with city staff and council exactly how he wants to achieve that primary goal.

“That’s asking for a lot,” Shirey said, “considering there are a lot of very-well-managed cities in this state. We will be the best-managed.”

In a faltering economy with revenues down, Shirey said the city has been “put back several years.” But that’s the challenge he has to deal with.

It’s not all bad news as far as Shirey is concerned, though. He sees economic challenges as an “opportunity to reshape the organization for new times and new realities.”

Shirey said he sees it as a chance to make the city operate more efficiently – and efficiency is key to his primary goal.

“We need to figure out how to provide services that are important and essential to our citizens,” Shirey said, “but do it in a way that takes into account that we have diminished resources. That’s the equation I get to solve.”

Shirey brings to the equation a background in economic development. He said he wants to use his experience to focus on changing Sacramento’s reputation from being “a one-store town” where government is the main employer in town, to creating a reputation for being a great place for business.

“Sacramento and the Sacramento region are greatly underappreciated as a good place to do business,” Shirey said.

“We have a number of advantages here,” Shirey said. “We have a relatively low cost of housing, high quality of life and an environment which invites people to raise their families here. But we’re not thought of as a good place for businesses.”

Shirey said he wants to see more businesses locating here, because that would mean more jobs.

“That is the bottom line with economic development: jobs, jobs and jobs,” Shirey said.

And he’s not wiling to wait around for things to change.

“I’m going to be impatient,” Shirey said. “We’ve done a lot of planning and strategizing already. We need to drill down and be specific about where we think we can be competitive in attracting certain kinds of businesses and industries to Sacramento.”

To accomplish this, Shirey said he is developing relationships with other organizations in the region that are involved in economic development and finding ways to work together to reshape Sacramento’s reputation from “government-only” to “business-friendly.”

Shirey said his eight years as city manager in Cincinnati, while not always easy, taught him a lot.

“What I took away from that (experience),” Shirey said, “is that being the city manager is a tough job. It always will be when you take on the big-city challenges. It’s not easy in small towns, either.”

Shirey said that, with all of his experience and “a lot of miles” behind him, he no longer has to wonder what he wants for the city. He said he knows what a city organization should be capable of doing, and he knows how to handle tough issues.

“We have to be innovative, and we have to use technology to our advantage,” Shirey said.

Part of being innovative, Shirey said, is being willing to do new things and taking risks – measured risks.

“We want to be on the leading edge, not the bleeding edge,” Shirey said. “We’re going to make mistakes, but we’re going to hit a lot more singles, doubles, triples and home runs than we are strikeouts. That’s the way I want to manage the organization.”

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

Solving budget problems by 'getting our house in order'

2011-08-26T05:14:31Z

City staff members want to fix Sacramento’s budget problems by revamping the city’s current organizational structure – and they want to do it by February.

Northern California still struggles to recover from one of the worst recessions in more than 75 years, and the city of Sacramento has been hit especially hard.

Interim City Manager Bill Edgar reminded council members Tuesday of the reality of the city’s fiscal situation: A budget that is $39 million less than it was the prior year; 141 city employee layoffs, including 41 sworn police officers, and a $26 million structural imbalance expected to extend into 2016.

“The impacts (of the current budget structure) have been noticeable and significant,” Edgar said.

Speaking at a budget workshop at City Hall Tuesday, Edgar said that, in order to turn things around, the council will have to make some difficult policy choices and take a “longer-term strategic approach” than they have taken in recent years.

Due to years of worsening economic conditions, Edgar said, the city’s current organizational structure needs to be “re-sized” to fit available resources.

That is the aim of the restructuring project that Max Fernandez, director of the Community Development Department, and his staff will be working on over the next six months.

Fernandez told council members Tuesday that the goal of restructuring is to “achieve significant cost savings” and make the city more efficient wherever possible.

“Nothing is ever easy,” Fernandez said. “It will be difficult and take a lot of thought and processing by the right people, and I think we have a lot of the right people on this.”

Edgar said department staff has developed a three-pronged approach to improving the way the city works by restructuring budget and labor processes and streamlining organization in five areas:

* Department of Utilities and Department of Transportation
* Public safety
* Citywide contracting and purchasing
* Parks and Recreation Department and the Convention, Culture and Leisure Department
* City Clerk’s Office and Mayor/Council Administrative Functions

Fernandez will be taking a close at each of those areas to identify specific ways to reduce costs, including finding “any potential for consolidation.”

The city has already consolidated several departments in the past year, including the Code Enforcement and Community Development Departments and the Human Resources and Labor Relations Departments.

As Edgar and Fernandez began to organize the project in June, they asked department leaders in the focus area to put together teams that include talented people currently working with the city.

“We’re getting experts in the various parts of the operation that will be affected by this work plan,” Fernandez said. “We are going down as deep in the organization as we need to to get the right people.”

By bringing in people who have first-hand understanding of the focus areas, Fernandez said, the teams can draw on their expertise and skills to find “new, better, more efficient” ways of delivering city services.

Fernandez said it’s important to work quickly so the project can be completed by February to give City Council time needed to implement cost-saving measures before the next budget is complete.

“The No. 1 goal here is saving money,” Fernandez said.

Councilman Jay Schenirer disagreed, however, saying the “No. 1 goal” for the city should be to “provide all the services we can using the resources we have available.”

“This (budget restructure) is going to be one of the most important things that we do for a long time,” Schenirer said. “We don’t want to face down another $26 million budget shortfall anytime soon.”

Restructuring plans are in the “infancy stages” Fernandez said, but he assured council members that the process is under way.

“We have a very aggressive timeline,” Fernandez said, “and a good support team working to get the job done.”

Mayor Kevin Johnson said at a press conference Tuesday that the idea of restructuring is a “step in the right direction” for the city.

“I think it’s the first step,” Johnson said. “I think we can be a lot smarter. There’s plenty of economic development opportunities, but the first thing we need to do is get our house in order.”

“(The City Council is) committed to having a balanced budget,” Johnson said.

Fernandez and other city staff involved in the project will return to City Council with a progress report in late November.

The final report – including staff recommendations for council action – is expected to be completed in February.

Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. FOllow her on Twitter @MeilssaCorker.

City Council approves salary contract for new city manager

2011-08-10T08:25:58Z

Sacramento’s new city manager will get a 16 percent increase in salary over the previous city manager, making him the highest-paid in city history and the first to receive a labor contract.

John Shirey’s three-year contract, which includes a $258,000 base salary was approved by the City Council with a 7-2 vote Tuesday.

According to the staff report on the contract, Shirey’s annual salary is within the city’s current salary pay range of $187,357-$281,035 for the position.

The staff report also notes that Shirey’s benefit package is essentially the same as for city charter officers such as city attorney and city clerk, with two exceptions: Shirey will pay his own 7 percent contribution to PERS and, instead of the typical 4 percent contribution to a 401(a) plan, the city will contribute $15,000 to a deferred compensation plan.

These changes give the city a net savings of nearly $13,000 – approximately $10,000 for the PERS contribution and approximately $18,000 for the 4 percent contribution to a 401(a) plan.

The new contract includes a severance clause that provides for payment of six months’ salary and medical benefits if Shirey or the council terminates his employment before the contract expires.

A recent press release from Eye on Sacramento, a local political watchdog group, criticized the contract as “fundamentally wrong” for the 16 percent pay hike the contract includes.

“The (pay increase) for its city manager is immensely insensitive to city taxpayers and city employees who have seen their pay cut or jobs eliminated in the current recession,” the release states. “The council's extravagance with its top manager's pay cannot help but make future relations and negotiations with (the) city's unions more difficult and probably more costly to city taxpayers.”

Earlier this week, Local 522, the union representing 550 city firefighters, voted to defer a five percent payraise until 2013 and give six percent to their pensions, according to a labor leaders.

Jaymes Butler, municipal vice president for Local 522 and a captain in the department, told council members Tuesday that, when asked to “do their part” despite being the lowest paid in the region, “our (union members) stepped up to do it.”

Had they known what the city manager’s salary package would look like, Butler said, his union membership would likely not have voted for labor concessions as they did.

“The last time I checked,” Butler said, “none of these (city managers) save lives.”

Councilwoman Angelique Ashby said she’s looking forward to working with Shirey, though she is disappointed with the compensation package.

“It’s unfathomable to grant the largest compensation package in the history of Sacramento during one of the worst economic times in the history of Sacramento,” Ashby said. “It’s counterintuitive.”

Ashby said she could not support the contract “in the same week that firefighters step forward and help us initiate true pension reform for the first time” in the city of Sacramento.

“I just feel like there is no reason to make an exception to the standard of everyone working for the city to pull their weight and do more with less,” Ashby said.

Councilman Rob Fong supported the contract and welcomed Shirey to the position.

“The salary is within the range for the position,” Fong said, “so, yeah, he’s going to get more than we gave (the previous city manager). (Shirey) has an impressive wealth of experience. We are fortunate to have him.”

Mayor Kevin Johnson said he assumed the contract was supported by the majority of the council, but he reiterated concerns about the recruitment process that he expressed in a recent press conference.

Johnson said that the process could have been “more comprehensive,” and he was disappointed that there wasn’t any public input.

The recruitment process wasn't as transparent as it should have been, Johnson said, and he objected to granting a contract that makes Shirey the highest-paid city manager in the city’s history.

“This defies logic, in my opinion.” Johnson said.

With the new contract in place, Shirey will begin work as city manager Sept. 1.

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

Shirey hired as city manager

2011-08-05T05:34:58Z

John Shirey will take the job as Sacramento’s newest city manager Sept. 1 after being confirmed by the City Council in an 8-1 vote in closed session Thursday night.

Mayor Kevin Johnson, who was the only “no” vote, said he and the council are “very excited” to have Shirey on board.

He added at a post-meeting press conference that he and the council unanimously agree that Shirey is an honest person and the proper amount of vetting was done before hiring him.

Shirey was called to the podium to make a few quick remarks during the regularly scheduled City Council meeting.

“To be able to assume the position of city manager is a great highlight for me in my life and my career,” Shirey said.

The details of the job agreement – including salary – were not available Thursday night and are expected to be released Monday and approved by the City Council Tuesday, according to city spokeswoman Amy Williams.

He will have a contract, which Johnson said will be the first time for a city manager in Sacramento, but details won’t be known until Monday or Tuesday.

Shirey most recently served as executive director of the California Redevelopment Association and also served as city manager for Cincinnati.

Johnson, who has expressed his dissatisfaction with the hiring process on his blog, saying he was disappointed with the number of candidates, praised Shirey’s experience at the local level in many cities, including Long Beach and Los Angeles.

When interviewed by The Sacramento Press two weeks ago, Shirey said that, if he got the job, fiscal responsibility and taking care of Sacramento’s budget would be his first priority.

Thursday night, he pledged to work with the City Council and mayor “in the most efficient and economical way possible.”

After the City Council meeting, Shirey said he sees the city already taking steps in the right direction, noting the Department of Utilities audit, which was also presented to the council Thursday night.

Johnson said the main priorities moving forward will be fixing the structural imbalance in the city budget, working with labor organizations and restructuring organizations within the city to be more efficient.

Shirey said he is looking to work with the mayor and council in its entirety, saying he doesn’t have his own agenda for the city.

“It’s not my agenda, it’s our agenda,” he said.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

City manager search draws to a close – will it be Shirey?

2011-08-02T00:52:55Z

The search for a new city manager – which began nearly five months ago when Gus Vina resigned as interim city manager – may be coming to an end this week.

John Shirey, current executive director of the California Redevelopment Association, was recently named as a front-runner for the position, and now it appears that a finalized contract between Shirey and the city is in the works.

The City Council will be discussing the city manager position in a closed session Tuesday afternoon, however, city spokeswoman Amy Williams said that they do not anticipate any sort of announcement after that session.

“The city is currently negotiating with the preferred candidate,” Williams said. However, “no formal action has been taken by the council.”

Williams confirmed that those negotiations are with Shirey and said that the City Council will vote on the selection of a new city manager in a closed session, but the members are required by the Brown Act to report on that vote in an open session right after a decision is made.

If Shirey accepts the position, he will be the fifth person to hold the city manager spot (including interim city managers) since 2005 – a situation the mayor said is “nothing to brag about.”

In a recent blog post, Mayor Kevin Johnson spoke about his disappointment in the candidate pool for the position, saying “the water hasn’t run as deep” as he’d like.

Still, Johnson said that he will support the council’s final selection for city manager.

Councilman Jay Schenirer declined to comment on any of the city manager candidates Monday, saying that, “until we’re at the end and announcements are made,” it’s still a personnel matter.

“Our labor people are doing the negotiations,” Schenirer said, “and since it’s on (Tuesday’s closed session) agenda, I expect we’ll hear from them after that.”

Tom Hart, deputy director for the Calif. Redevelopment Association, said that when he heard that Shirey was the leading candidate for the city manager position, he was “sad for CRA but very happy for the city of Sacramento.”

Hart talked about some of the economic development programs that Shirey was a part of during his time in Cincinnati and Long Beach, calling the projects examples of “building better communities.”

Hart said Shirey has done some significant things that have improved each of the cities and counties that he’s worked for.

“He has an excellent feel for what’s going on in Sacramento and what direction to take it,” Hart said. “He’s a good person to have on board.”

Brian Holloway, president of Holloway Land Company, a land development and entitlement consulting firm, said that Shirey’s background with the Calif. Redevelopment Association will serve him well if he should be selected for the city manager position.

“Coming from the state RDA,” Holloway said, “he will have a natural inclination for economic development and the benefits of redevelopment and improving the downtown corridor.”

Holloway said that, despite the outcome of any policy issues being considered in the courts regarding redevelopment agencies, Shirey will still have an economic development focus.

“He’s had that focus for a long time, and that bodes well for the city,” Holloway said.

With the resignation of Interim City Manager Gus Vina in March, the city appointed a new interim city manager until a new permanent city manager could be found.

In April, Bill Edgar was brought in as interim city manager on a three-month contract for $46,800, and $15,600 per month thereafter.

Because Edgar’s contract was for only three days per week, Betty Masuoka was appointed to augment the interim city manager team for two to three days per week during the same period. Masuoka is paid through city payroll as a temporary, nonbenefit employee earning $100 per hour, according to city documents.

Both the contract with Edgar and the appointment of Masuoka will end when a new city manager is appointed. According to WIlliams, Edgar and Masuoka will complete their term for the city at the end of August.

According to Shirey, negotiations with the city are “still in the phase where we don’t yet know if we have a deal or not.”

“It’s not a matter of arm wrestling,” Shirey said. “It’s just a matter of working out details and getting everything done so all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed.”

Shirey said that, once everything is finalized, he would expect to take the position at the beginning of September.

According to Williams, the city has a total contract with a recruitment firm for $55,300, which is used for the recruitment of top city positions, including city manager.

The estimated cost for the recruitment of the city manager is $27,650, however, the total cost won’t be available until all of the outstanding invoices have been received, Williams said.

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

City manager front-runner emerges

2011-07-22T19:07:45Z

California Redevelopment Association Executive Director John Shirey emerged as the front-runner Friday for Sacramento’s city manager position.

“Right now, we’re going through the process (of hiring a city manager),” said City Councilman Darrell Fong. “He is definitely the strong candidate, and he is definitely the focus.”

The council has not made a decision, though there was a closed-session meeting Monday in which the city manager search was the topic. The city has been without a city manager since Ray Kerridge resigned in March, 2010.

In the meantime, both Gus Vina and a former city manager, Bill Edgar, served as interim city managers. Edgar is currently serving as interim city manager.

Shirey told The Sacramento Press Friday that the news is “a little premature because we haven’t made an agreement yet,” but confirmed that the city has indicated to him that he is a strong candidate.

“It’s a sensitive point in the discussion, and I want to make sure I don’t breach any confidences with the mayor and City Council,” he said, declining to speculate on whether an offer will be forthcoming.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson wrote on his blog Friday that he is unhappy with the direction the city manager search has taken, but will respect the collective decision of the City Council.

“Having reviewed the pool of applicants in our latest search for a new city manager, I am disappointed to report the water has not run as deep as I would have hoped,” he wrote.

Fong told The Sacramento Press Friday that a little over 30 applicants responded to the national search.

“I was comfortable with the process,” Fong said. “To me, the candidate base, it could have been larger, yes, but I have been through a lot of (hiring) processes with the Police Department, and I think (the city manager search consultants) did a good job.”

In a prepared statement Friday, Johnson said: "I'm disappointed in the process. It's the same process that has led to five city managers in less than six years. It's clear I have a different vision for the city and this position than the majority of council. But, I will respect our collective decision, and join all of my colleagues in offering my full support to the new city manager."

On his blog, he wrote that “a revolving door in your city manager’s office is nothing to brag about” and added that having repeated city manager searches does not instill leadership in a city.

But Fong said he thinks Shirey will fit the bill.

“If he is selected, I am confident he will do a very good job,” Fong said, describing Shirey as very professional and well-respected.

Shirey, 62, served as city manager for Cincinnati from 1993-2001 and said he is most proud of the redevelopment of the waterfront.

“When I arrived, it was mostly parking lots, abandoned rail lines and broken-down warehouses,” Shirey said. “It is now in a totally different state, including two new sports stadiums, which led to the retention of the Bengals and a home for the Reds.”

The Bengals arena, however, has been a controversial issue as noted in this recent Wall Street Journal article.

He said another accomplishment he oversaw in Cincinnati was the beautification of a freeway that traversed the area between much of the city and the waterfront.

“It’s a much safer route, and we incorporated a multimodal transportation center,” he said.

An arena and multimodal transit hub are two big projects the city of Sacramento is currently working on, but Shirey said that, if hired, those would not be his first tasks.

“I think the priority for me and the priority for the City Council is, first of all, we have to bring financial stability to the government, and we have to think how we’re going to do things differently that are going to be more efficient and economical while maintaining the important services the citizens expect,” he said.

Fong said talks of arenas and transit hubs did not factor heavily into the interview process, and were not brought up in the interviews he sat in on.

“He didn’t bring up those points,” Fong said Friday. “He’s talking about bringing economic development to Sacramento.”

After serving as city manager in Cincinnati, Shirey came to the California Redevelopment Association, headquartered in Sacramento.

“He has lived in the city for the past nine or 10 years,” Fong said, adding that it was to his district that Shirey moved. “He has strong knowledge, and given his employment, he’s been keeping up on what’s going on in the city.”

Shirey said he thinks that helps prepare him to take the job if it is offered to him.

“I’m a resident, and I work here,” he said. “Obviously, it has helped me to know the personalities in the city. I know the issues and the challenges it faces.”

Shirey is one of two candidates remaining in a process that drew more than 30 applicants, Fong said, declining to name the other.

The process involved hiring a consultant to conduct a national search for a city manager candidate. Council members gave the consulting firm a list of qualities they were looking for, and after the application process, it was narrowed down to the two remaining ones.

A decision on the city manager position is expected soon. The original contract with Edgar as interim city manager went into effect April 9 and was for a three-month period.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

State to take millions from SHRA

2010-11-18T02:34:12Z

The city of Sacramento and advocates for local governments are cheering the passage of a state ballot measure that bans the state from taking or borrowing local funds.

However, the new measure does not eliminate the $4 million the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency owes the state in May 2011, according to the California Redevelopment Association.

California voters’ approval of Proposition 22 on Nov. 2 helps the city while the state continues to face budget troubles, said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

The state is now looking at a $6 billion budget shortfall during the current fiscal year, said H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs for the California Department of Finance. In the next fiscal year, the state’s projected deficit is at least $19 billion, he said.

“When I hear the projections of the state deficit going up a little higher than people anticipated, that’s not good for anybody,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “But (Prop. 22) allows us to have a little more comfort and security, knowing that they no longer are allowed to take our dollars to balance their budget.”

Palmer noted that Prop 22 will cost California $1 billion in the current fiscal year, according to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“The total annual fiscal effect from these changes is not possible to determine, but could range from about $1 billion (in most years) to several billion dollars (in some years),” according to the Legislative Analyst’s report on Prop. 22.

Voters passed Prop. 22 with 60 percent of the vote.

Under the measure’s rules, the state can no longer take redevelopment property tax funds. It also bans the state from funding schools with property taxes from local governments. The state also won’t be able to use fuel tax revenues that go to local governments.

In one local government example, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency was required to give $19.6 million to the state in May, said John Shirey, executive director of the California Redevelopment Association. In May 2011, SHRA will have to pay another $4 million to the state, he said. Even though Prop. 22 is now in effect, it has retroactive language requiring the payments to be made in May, 2011.

The California Redevelopment Association is fighting the state in a lawsuit that’s currently at the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento, he said. The lawsuit aims to reverse 2009 state budget legislation that allowed the state to fund schools with $2 billion in local redevelopment funds from most of the state’s redevelopment agencies, according to Shirey. The $19.6 million that SHRA paid last year and the $4 million it owes in May made up SHRA’s share of the $2 billion.

Shirey had harsh words for the state: “There’s no borrowing here; it’s straight theft.”

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Redevelopment group to sue state over budget

2009-07-28T03:42:07Z

The Sacramento-based California Redevelopment Association is preparing to sue the state over a "devastating" $2.05 billion in redevelopment funds that state leaders want to be redirected to schools.

On Friday, the California State Legislature passed a budget that includes a provision ordering city and county redevelopment agencies to transfer $1.7 billion in property tax revenues in fiscal year 2009/10 and $350 million in 2010/11, said state Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor. The budget was crafted to close a $24 billion to $26 billion hole in the state's finances.

The order would siphon at least $20 million away from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, a joint powers authority that manages community redevelopment and affordable housing for the city and county. The money is set aside for investments in housing, infrastructure and other redevelopment.

Major redevelopment projects such as The Railyards, Township 9, Curtis Park Village -- as well as smaller projects -- could lose funding under the plan, sources said.

"I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this is devastating," said California Redevelopment Association (CRA) Executive Director John Shirey. "Most agencies will be shutting down for the year. They will not be taking on any new projects."

However, the provision won't become legally binding until 90 days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs the budget into law, which is expected Tuesday. The budget was passed by a simple majority, rather than a two-thirds majority required to approve tax increases. Vetoes are still possible in the meantime.

CRA has submitted a formal request that the order be vetoed. But Shirey said he doesn't expect the governor to veto the provision after Schwarzenegger made a similar proposal last year.

Last fall, CRA successfully sued the state to stop it from taking $700 million in redevelopment funds. Taking those funds was found to be unconstitutional. The California Constitution outlines that property tax increment must be used by redevelopment agencies to finance redevelopment projects.

Under the budget plan, the city of Sacramento is expected to lose $16.9 million and the county $2.8 million, totaling $19.7 million for both, according to the CRA, which broke down the figures to estimate what each redevelopment agency's responsibility would be.

Sacramento County officials estimate the county would lose $17 million in low- and moderate-income housing funds, plus $8 million in investment funds.

Some major local projects could lose Proposition 1C funding if redevelopment money is redirected, said city spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson. In 2006, voters passed Prop. 1C to help finance infrastructure for infill redevelopment that contains affordable housing.

Last month, the city won $55.8 million in Prop. 1C funds from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. That money was earmarked for four projects: the Railyards, Township 9, Curtis Park Village and Capitol Lofts.

However, Sacramento must provide matching funds to get the Prop. 1C grant money. The city was using its redevelopment funds as the matching funds, she said.

If the state takes city redevelopment funds, the city may not have the money to provide matching funds. So projects could lose the Prop. 1C grant money funding, Klock-Johnson said.

The state’s move to take redevelopment funds from Sacramento “jeopardizes our ability to stay in that [Prop. 1C] program,” she said.

In addition, the local economy would be hurt by the loss of jobs. Based on the number of construction sector jobs lost in California last year, CRA believes the entire state would lose 164,000 jobs the first year and 34,000 the second year if redevelopment agencies lose these funds. The Sacramento region has been hit especially hard by the loss of such jobs.

"It's as if the Legislature had set out to pass legislation to slow down California's economy," Shirey said. "If they had done that, this is the bill they would have come up with."

The budget provision orders the money to be sent to schools in redevelopment areas because the funding must be linked to redevelopment, Taylor said.

CRA legal advisers don't believe that link can withstand the legal challenge they expect to file within 45 to 60 says, Shirey said.

"The people who told the Legislature last year it was legal to take redevelopment money, which was later found to be unconstitutional, are the same people saying it is legal this time," Shirey said.

The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency could not be reached for comment.

Staff reporter Kathleen Haley contributed to this report.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at 916-804-2856 or suzanne@sacramentopress.com.