Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "matt kelly"

Task force weighs four arena teams

2011-01-07T02:45:51Z

An arena task force will use flexibility to analyze a second round of project proposals because there is such a wide range of plans now before them, a task force co-chair said Thursday.

Co-chair Chris Lehane called the proposals to build Sacramento a new sports and entertainment facility "apples and oranges.” Each plan from the four teams has different levels of detail and preparation, ranging from three weeks to more than a year, he said after a public hearing at historic City Hall.

Lehane and member Matt Kelly, executive secretary of the Sacramento-Sierra’s Building & Construction Trades Council, said they appreciated the work Sacramento developer Gerry Kamilos and the Convergence Team put into their proposal last year. Their team was given the first shot at the project, and their effort helped move forward a process that can take years, Lehane said.

But task force member Mark Harris, an infrastructure finance expert, berated Kamilos and the team for asking for more time after failing to make enough progress on their proposed three-way land swap during the exclusive negotiating period they had with the city until late October.

Last year, Harris had called the land-swap proposal a "three-card monte." On Thursday, he sarcastically apologized to "the hustlers and scam artists throughout the world" for having compared them to the development team.

"I'm not only disappointed, but I'm offended that we've wasted so much time with the Convergence group," Harris said, raising his voice.

Standing alone before the task force, Kamilos asked for four more months to work out agreements with Cal Expo, the NBA and the Sacramento Kings owners, the Maloofs, in order to build a $500 million – $550 million project at the downtown railyards. His team was the first to get the NBA and the Maloofs to put a financial agreement to build a new arena on the table in 10 years, Kamilos said.

"I take offense to the fact that you choose not to recognize all these elements that have been accomplished in the last year and that have never been made in this city before," he said.

The Convergence presentation and a question-and-answer session with task force members dominated nearly half of a hearing that ran more than two hours.

Kamilos is no longer partnering with another Sacramento developer, David Taylor, who was a member of the Convergence Team until they didn't produce a viable proposal on deadline. Taylor said he joined ICON Venue Group and other members of a team hand-picked by the mayor three weeks ago because he felt they needed to simplify the project and bring in expertise he hadn't seen yet.

Taylor gave a presentation with Tim Romani, president and chief executive officer of Colorado-based ICON.

ICON has managed more arena and stadium development projects worldwide than any other firm. Romani counseled the task force against continuing with the competition Johnson established by putting out a public call for proposals, first in late 2009 and again in late 2010, and appointing the task force. He said leaders should be collaborating to build an arena.

"I don't believe a competing process is going to get you where you need to go," he said. "The collaborative process of all the business leaders, along with the city and the team, is what it's going to take to make this happen."

Presentations were also given by the CORE team, led by entrepreneur Ali Mackani and McClellan Park President Larry Kelley, and by Natomas Entertainment Sports Center Partners, led by Mike Corrick of Nacht & Lewis Architects and Rick Millitello, general manager and executive vice president of Skanska USA Building Inc. of Oakland. Natomas ESC Partners is the only team proposing a plan for the existing Arco Arena site.

The teams focused on the need to determine funding plans, their individual expertise and how soon they could present development and funding plans to the city. All four recognized the need for a public-private partnership on funding, which they said could take several forms except for any type of tax increase.

“There’s no way in hell that this project is going to get done without public help,” Taylor told the task force.

The CORE team and the ICON-Taylor team have no financing plans yet. The Convergence Team and Natomas ESC Partners have detailed finance plans, but questions remain for both.

Romani said the ICON-Taylor team could tell the city whether they can take on the project and how they'd develop and finance it within three months. The CORE team asked for six months to work with city on a financing plan.

The task force will release an analysis of the concepts Jan. 21. The four proposals may be ranked in order of preference, but that's still being determined, Lehane said.

Over the next two weeks, subgroups of the task force will meet with each of the four teams at least once but possibly several times to get more specifics about the teams' expertise and plans.

Task force members advised Natomas ESC Partners to create a more individualized funding plan with several financial models to offer the Maloofs more flexibility, and to flesh out their argument that keeping the arena in Natomas fits with the city's 2030 General Plan and plans for economic growth and increasing jobs.

The task force will present a report on the proposals to the City Council Jan. 25.

Johnson didn't attend the hearing, but he issued a statement later.

"The competition is great for the city, because it gives us more options and ensures we move forward from a position of strength," he said in a prepared statement sent by e-mail. "The public hearing is a great step forward, but we all know these types of deals are not easy – even in the best of times. I look forward to reading their upcoming analysis along with my council colleagues at the end of the month."

Photo 1 of arena task force member Mark Harris and Photo 2 of developer Gerry Kamilos by Brandon Darnell. Photo 3 of Convergence Team lead counsel Chuck Trainor speaking and Don Johnson of Kamilos Co., seated, by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Union spends $23K on anti-Ashby mailers

2010-06-08T00:27:38Z

Special interest groups for and against Sacramento City Council candidate Angelique Ashby have spent large sums on mailers blasting or lauding her campaign. While business interests poured about $36,000 into campaign mailers backing Ashby, a major local union paid $23,577 on mailers attacking her.

The Sacramento Building Trades Council Political Action Committee spent $23,577 on anti-Ashby mailers, according to statements filed with the California Secretary of State’s Office and the Sacramento city clerk’s office.

Mailers from the committee depicted Mayor Kevin Johnson as a king with a crown and Ashby as a puppet.

In response to questions about the attack mailers, Matt Kelly, an official with the Building Trades Council, said, “They are what they are. Whether or not they’re effective, we’ll find out tomorrow.”

The showdown between incumbent Ray Tretheway and neighborhood activist Ashby is arguably the most controversial City Council race in the June election. Ashby and Tretheway are two of three candidates running in District 1, which includes the neighborhoods of North and South Natomas and downtown’s Alkali Flat.

Efren Guttierrez is also running for the District 1 seat.

The city has rules for individuals or groups that want to give money to the candidate’s campaign.

An individual can give no more than $1,500 to a City Council candidate during the span of a primary or general election.

Large political committees are barred by law from giving more than $5,000 to a City Council candidate during those time periods.

But with their mailers, business and labor interests used funding mechanisms that legally allow contributions higher than the amounts most citizens and groups can make to local candidates’ campaigns, according to Assistant Clerk Stephanie Mizuno.

These funding mechanisms are called “independent expenditures” and they do not fall under city rules for campaign contributions.

The independent expenditures are not managed by the candidate. Ashby is not controlling mailers from the Independent Expenditure Committee for Jobs and Prosperity that backs her campaign.

Her opponent, Ray Tretheway, is not in charge of the anti-Ashby mailers from the Building Trades Council committee.

“An ‘independent expenditure’ is an expenditure made in connection with a communication (e.g. a billboard, advertisement, mailing) that expressly advocates the nomination, election, or defeat of a clearly identified candidate or the qualification, passage, or defeat of a clearly identified measure,” according to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission website.

“An independent expenditure is a payment that is not made to — or at the behest of — the affected candidate or committee."

Read the election statement filed by the Building Trades Council Political Action Committee.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Metro Chamber endorses strong mayor initiative

2009-12-11T03:30:33Z

The Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce on Thursday endorsed the strong mayor initiative going before primary election voters next summer.

Following study by a task force, the business association voiced support for an executive mayor with more power than the current city charter allows.

The initiative's passage would change the form of city government that was established in 1921, according to the chamber.

"The city of Sacramento deserves a government structure that is effective and accountable," said Matt Mahood, president and chief executive officer of the chamber, in a press conference at chamber headquarters.

The press conference was held about a week after several local union leaders threw their support behind a lawsuit against the strong mayor initiative.

The initiative was put on the June 8 primary election ballot by Mayor Kevin Johnson and a group called Sacramentans for Accountable Government. The initiative calls for city charter changes allowing the mayor to assume city manager duties such as creating the budget and hiring hundreds of city employees, including department directors.

Most city councilmembers have expressed opposition to the ballot measure.

On the other hand, a City Charter Review Committee recommended keeping the current city council/city manager form of government, with some changes.

Currently, only the council can hire or fire the city manager. The committee recommended the mayor have the power to appoint and fire the city manager, but only with the council's approval. The council would retain its power to fire the manager with a majority vote.

The committee also recommended empowering the mayor to make policy recommendations for the city budget, which would continue to be created by the city manager.

Business association members believe Sacramento has outgrown the current system. A majority of large U.S. cities — 31 of the largest 50 — have executive mayors, said Linda Cutler, chairwoman of the chamber board.

"The Metro Chamber's endorsement is based on the belief that the time is now for changing the way Sacramento is governed and managed," she said.

Chamber members fear the City Council is "unfriendly" to business, especially after a temporary stop-work order was placed on a water-bottling plant being built in Councilmember Kevin McCarty's South Sacramento district, chamber CEO Mahood said.

Work was halted while city officials and staff members investigated how the work began without a formal building permit. The city building division program involved in approval for the plant — known as the Facilities Permit Program — has been suspended pending city investigation.

The business association is concerned that issues "get caught up in the political process" and don't get resolved because the city manager must report to nine city councilmembers, including the mayor. Those members "have very divergent interests," Mahood said.

Johnson thanked the chamber for its support of the measure at the press conference.

"This was an opportunity for the Metro Chamber to do what you do best: Lead by example," he said.

The current city council/city manager form of government is the most widely used in this country, said Matt Kelly, co-founder of SAVE Sacramento — Sacramentans for Accountability, Voice and Ethics in Sacramento — which supports the lawsuit filed Dec. 1. Members of the group include workers, and union and business leaders.

"What we believe is the strong mayor initiative, as it is written, is nothing more than a power grab that puts all the power in the hands of the mayor, without any accountability or checks and balances," Kelly said in a telephone interview Thursday. "To change the structure of government in Sacramento, I think you would need to demonstrate that something is wrong with that government.

"We don't think there's anything wrong that some good leadership would not remedy," he said.

Photo provided by the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Union leaders back lawsuit against strong mayor

2009-12-02T05:49:57Z

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 Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative.

The lawsuit contends that the initiative would illegally make changes — not amendments — to the city’s charter.

“We believe this poorly conceived and badly written measure is not only bad public policy but it is an illegal power grab that exceeds the bounds of what is allowed under the California Constitution,” Kelly said at the press conference, held outside City Hall.

Mayor Kevin Johnson, who leads the initiative campaign, would have many new responsibilities if voters approve the initiative. In a strong mayor position, Johnson would attain the responsibilities of the city manager and create the city’s budget.

A divided City Council in August voted to place the initiative on the June 2010 ballot. The city currently uses a council/manager system. City Manager Ray Kerridge’s many powers include the ability to draft recommendations for the city’s budget and hire department directors.

Also appearing with Kelly and Camp at Tuesday’s press conference was Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Stationary Engineers Local 39. The union represents a wide variety of workers in numerous city departments, including code enforcement, parks and recreation, parking enforcement and the solid waste division.

Camp said before the press conference that it was clear the initiative would make changes to city government that are greater than what is allowed to be defined as an “amendment.” Amendments can legally be made through a ballot initiative, but changes cannot be made through that vehicle, Camp argues.

“I mean, this is a whole reorganization of the city government,” he said.

Lance Olson, Camp’s attorney, claimed that the initiative violates Article 11 of the California Constitution. Olson said the strong mayor initiative proponents did not follow the legal process for making changes to the city charter.

Since the Sacramento Central Labor Council had endorsed Johnson’s candidacy for mayor, Camp is now opposing the initiative of the mayor his group had once supported.

“There’s a difference between us supporting [Johnson] ... and taking this idea and saying, you know what, this is a bad idea,” Camp said.

The labor council still supports Johnson, Camp said, but disagrees with the initiative.

Reacting to the announcement of the lawsuit, Johnson said he was very disappointed. The lawsuit will take away scarce resources from the city and the taxpayers will have to pay the bill, he said.

“I do not think that’s in the best interest of the community,” he said.

Johnson also commented on the labor unions’ support of the lawsuit against the initiative. “I wish that wasn’t the case,” he said, adding that he thinks labor would “benefit immensely” as a result of changing the city’s governance structure.

Other supporters of the lawsuit who appeared at the press conference included Anna Molander, the chair of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County; Anne Rudin, former mayor of Sacramento; Bernard Bowler, former chair of the board of the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce; and Joe Goeden, former West Sacramento City Manager.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Opponents say strong mayor initiative faces lawsuit

2009-12-01T04:02:55Z

A group that opposes the “strong mayor” initiative says that a citizen is challenging the initiative through a lawsuit.

The group SAVE Sacramento announced it will hold a press conference about the lawsuit Tuesday at 10 a.m. at City Hall.

Detailed information about the lawsuit was unavailable at press time.

Mayor Kevin Johnson backs the initiative, which would provide him with many new powers.

Matt Kelly, executive secretary of the Sacramento-Sierra Building and Construction Trades Council, talked about the lawsuit Monday.

Kelly, who is affiliated with SAVE, said the plaintiff is Bill Camp, executive secretary for the Sacramento Central Labor Council. He added that Camp is suing as an individual, not as a representative of the council.

SAVE supports Camp’s efforts, Kelly said.

Camp’s attorney is Lance Olson of Olson, Hagel & Fishburn LLP in Sacramento, according to Kelly.

The lawsuit argues that the city’s charter cannot be revised through the strong mayor initiative because the initiative calls for changes, not amendments, Kelly said. While the charter can be “amended” through an initiative, it cannot be “changed” through a ballot measure, he said.

The strong mayor initiative “is not an amendment,” Kelly said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Public can address mayor's task force on arena

2009-11-20T05:47:44Z

Citizens will get to present their views about a proposal for a new arena and entertainment center to Mayor Kevin Johnson’s task force, the mayor said. His remarks came at a news conference Johnson held Thursday in Old Sacramento to introduce the panel’s members.

Community feedback will be part of the review process before the task force makes its recommendations to the City Council, he said.

The 12-member task force is tentatively planning to hold public meetings on the first and third Thursdays of each month, said Chris Lehane, task force co-chairman and partner in Fabiani & Lehane, a public relations firm. The task force includes real estate, finance, and communications executives. Public meetings may begin in December, he said, adding, “We’re really looking for feedback and information from the community.”

Lehane said the task force expects to make its recommendations to the City Council in mid-March. 

Johnson has tied building an arena and entertainment complex to making Sacramento a “world-class city.”

The task force will analyze developers' ideas for the complex. Members, who come from a wide range of professions, are not paid.

Co-chair Chris Lehane was the Special Assistant Counsel to President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1997. Restaurateur Lina Fat is the other co-chair.

Other members include land development executive Dea Spanos Berberian; former city treasurer Tom Friery, infrastructure finance executive Mark Harris; local union leader Matt Kelly, sports facility designer Dan Meis, former aide to Gov. Schwarzenegger Adam Mendelsohn and lobbyist Ron Tom.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.