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 si

The leader of a new effort to unionize city employees took issue with Interim City Manager Gus Vina’s recent decision to raise three managers’ salaries and lower the salary of a fourth manager. Dee Contreras, the former labor relations director for the city, is spearheading a campaign to unionize 677 city workers, including top managers and administrative staff. She retired in December but is once again involved in local labor issues – this time on the other side. Contreras said in an interview with The Sacramento Press on Wednesday that she will serve as the staffer for the emerging group, which is known as the Sacramento City Exempt Employees Association. “I will be working for them a

The city auditor’s office expects it will finish fewer audits by July 1 than planned because of high staff turnover in recent months, according to City Auditor Jorge Oseguera. He said in an interview on Wednesday that his office will release three audits by July 1: one on the city’s health benefits system, one on revenue collection practices and the third on citywide policies. In an interview last July, Oseguera said he planned to focus on four audits and hoped to start working on additional ones by this July. But Oseguera explained Wednesday that two of three staffers resigned in recent months, causing his office to take the fourth audit off the table. The auditors left in the midst of

The past year was a big one for resignations, promotions and elections of Sacramento city officials. Twelve personnel changes took place at City Hall involving elected and appointed leaders and city staffers in 2010. A major change was in the city manager position, which was replete with drama and press conferences. When former City Manager Ray Kerridge resigned in March, the city was wrestling with a host of issues. The Sacramento County Grand Jury had released a report in January saying the city may have broken state law Proposition 218. Utilities fees from ratepayers must correspond to the costs of delivering the utilities services, the law states.  At the same time, the city was dea

Policies. Procedures. Controls. Max Fernandez uses those three words frequently to describe the overhaul he’s leading at the city’s Community Development Department (CDD). Fernandez, the new director of the department, sat down with The Sacramento Press this week to discuss how he’s changing the culture and tightening rules at the department after it faced a host of recent crises with fees and building permits.  The CDD director job was a promotion for Fernandez, who was the former director of Code Enforcement. He started work at CDD in early July.  “A big change that we’ve had since I’ve been here is we’ve implemented all these policies and procedures,” Fernandez said. “That was a big

Max Fernandez, former director of the city’s Code Enforcement Department, has been promoted to lead the Community Development Department. In one of several recent consolidations of city departments, Code Enforcement became a division of Community Development. Fernandez started his new post July 6. A third-party firm is auditing the department. Auditors from Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting Inc. of Sacramento are analyzing numerous issues at the department, including claims that it broke the city's planning rules and did not gather fees from developers. “Obviously, there have been issues” at the department, Fernandez said Friday. The department is working on a plan to retrain its employees,

Sacramento’s city government is in the midst of a major overhaul. The merging of seven city departments and offices was among many cuts city leaders made to close out a $43 million budget shortfall. Consolidations of several departments, including Neighborhood Services and Parks and Recreation, are now under way. Neighborhood Services is no longer its own department. It’s now a division of the Parks and Recreation Department. The Office of Youth Development also lost its unique status — it now falls under the umbrella of Parks and Recreation. The consolidations include cuts to a few top positions. Vincene Jones, who was the director of the Neighborhood Services Department, is now the ma