The utilities department will be able to save more than $40 million over the next four years, according to an audit presented to the City Council Thursday, but some debate the accuracy of those numbers. According tho the audit, which can be read here, six main areas of the utilities department can be run more efficiently. The savings in the 2012 fiscal year would amount to approximately $8.6 million. The audit was requested by Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilman Kevin McCarty last October, partially in response to a ballot measure that dealt with utilities rates, with McCarty saying it should be on the audit schedule ahead of other audits. City Auditor Jorge Oseguera said that when talki

An official with a union representing 1,600 full-time city workers said that the union and the city government have found a way to avoid lay offs. Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Stationary Engineers Local 39, told the Sacramento Press that city managers and her union found common ground on contract negotiations Friday afternoon. Local 39 and the city worked out a tentative two-year agreement, Bryant said. She said the agreement would include no pay cuts. The contract also includes 11 furlough days for the 2010/2011 fiscal year, she said. In the 2011/2012 fiscal year, there would be 12 furlough days. The tentative contract also would give each employee 40 hours of personal

In a sign that the opposing camp to the “strong mayor” initiative has significant union support, three local union leaders turned out for a Tuesday press conference to support a new lawsuit against the initiative.  The group SAVE Sacramento, which is chaired by local union leader Matt Kelly, is publicizing a lawsuit that aims to take the strong mayor initiative off the June 2010 ballot.   The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Bill Camp, the executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council. Camp filed the lawsuit as a private citizen — he is not representing the labor council in the legal battle. The defendants named in the lawsuit are the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Counc