Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "sacramento city council"

No longer a ‘pedestrian mall,’ K Street prepares for cars

2011-07-12T02:39:31Z

On Tuesday evening, the City Council will consider revising a local ordinance that will bring the city one step closer to seeing cars on K Street for the first time in more than 45 years.

The revised ordinance will change a city code that has been in place since the early 1960s that defined the five blocks of K Street between Eighth to 12th streets as a “pedestrian mall,” closing it to vehicular traffic.

“It was something that was happening in a lot of places back then,” said Denise Malvetti, department manager at the city’s Economic Development Department. “Cities were trying to replicate the suburban experience, and they created a lot of these pedestrian malls. It was a failed experiment, though.”

Roughly 150 cities in the U.S. installed pedestrian malls in the 1960s, Malvetti said, and now about half of those have converted back to allow street traffic.

“We’ve been working on getting cars back on K Street since late 2008,” Malvetti said. “We’ve put a lot of consideration into this project, and we did a lot of outreach to the community.”

Business owners were outspoken in saying that returning cars to K Street is vital to increasing retail activity in the area, Malvetti said, but they won’t see an instant change.

“It will likely be an incremental increase over time,” Malvetti said.

City Council recently approved numerous projects intended to revitalize the J-K-L corridor, and K Street in particular, in order to stimulate economic activity in the area and bring people back to what was once a hub of activity in the city, Malvetti said.

The “Cars on K Street” project was part of a $2.7 million construction and design project approved by City Council in April 2010.

The purpose of the project, according to a staff report, is to “increase access and visibility to businesses, promote a safe environment, stimulate additional economic activity, and improve (traffic) circulation.”

“Sacramento needs to be more pedestrian-friendly,” said Councilman Steve Cohn, “but the way that part of K Street is laid out, it wasn’t working as a pedestrian-only street.”

Cohn said returning cars to K Street makes sense because it will help with traffic flow and make it easier for people to get to the businesses along that part of K Street.

In order to allow for the reintroduction of cars on K Street from Eighth to 12th streets, the city code must be amended to remove the definition of “pedestrian mall” currently applied to those five street blocks.

According to provisions in the city charter, the council must first pass the revised ordinance for publication, and then it can finalize the approval at the following City Council meeting.

This is one of the last steps before construction can begin, Malvetti said. The Department of Transportation will bring a construction contract to City Council next week for approval, and then groundbreaking can begin within the first week of August.

Design plans for the “Cars on K Street” project include creating new crossing signals at 11th and K streets, wheelchair access at intersections and the addition of edge treatments (possibly planters or street furniture) to provide a buffer between the roadway and sidewalks to increase pedestrian safety and make the blocks more visually appealing.

“Our goal is to have cars back on K Street in early November,” Malvetti said. “It’s one more step in the revitalization of K Street.”

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

AB678 moves ahead, federal funds for fire dept more likely

2011-06-24T01:28:48Z

The State Senate Health Committee unanimously passed Assembly Bill 678 (AB678) Wednesday, bringing the possibility of millions of federal dollars for California fire departments closer to reality.

Currently, fire departments that provide ambulance transportation for Medi-Cal patients are not reimbursed for the cost of the service from the federal Medicare program. These costs are instead absorbed into the fire departments’ general fund.

AB678 would allow fire departments to tap into a federal program that provides a 50 percent match of those unreimbursed expenses, bringing in much-needed revenue in an economy that has forced fire department brownouts and reduced services.

“First responders are bound by law and by duty to answer every call,” said the bill’s author, Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Natomas). “Currently, they are paid less than cost by Medi-Cal for care to patients they cover.”

Medi-Cal transports in the state went up 19 percent between 2006 and 2009, Pan said. In some fire departments, Medi-Cal transports can be up to one-third of their total service.

Pan said the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District and California Professional Firefighters have worked together to identify the federal funding, which could total $90 million in the first year, and $50 million in each subsequent year for fire departments throughout the state.

“The (federal fund-matching) program doesn’t cover the full cost of the service,” Pan said, “but it draws down the cost, and every bit helps.”

At the June 7 Sacramento City Council meeting, council members decided that any funds collected through AB678 for Sacramento would be reinvested in the Fire Department.

The additional funds would be used to reinstate fire stations that have been put on brownouts, and/or to add staff for advanced life support medic units.

Each fire department is responsible for submitting its own reimbursement requests, so the amount of federal funds directed to individual departments will depend on the cost of services each one provides.

Pan said the bill has “tremendous bipartisan support,” and he is “cautiously optimistic” that the bill will soon become law.

AB678 will move to the Senate Appropriations Committee and then to the Senate floor for a vote before it is sent to the governor. The date for the hearing in appropriations has not yet been scheduled.

City fee increases cause concern for local businesses

2011-06-16T03:49:09Z

The Sacramento City Council approved changes to a variety of fees for city services and permits for the upcoming fiscal year Tuesday night, including an increase in the cost of entertainment permits for businesses that provide music and dancing.

All totaled, the council approved 18 different fees, including increases to 12 existing fees and the addition of six new ones.

City Finance Director Leyne Milstein outlined the proposal in a public hearing presentation to a full council and about 50 people in the chamber audience before the council unanimously voted to approve it.

Citing cost recovery as the basis for the adjustments, Milstein noted that 18 fee changes is a relatively small number compared to the 237 approved fee adjustments in fiscal year 2009-10 and the 59 fee changes that were approved for the current fiscal year.

“Cost recovery offsets general fund costs,” Milstein said. “For certain fees, we believe that it’s reasonable for people to pay the full freight for the benefit that they’re getting.”

Included in the new fee changes were some adjustments intended to make fees more predictable.

The hourly rate for building plan review previously varied depending on whichever individual staffer was doing the review. Now, the rate will be a consistent $140/hour.

Review of building permit applications for flood zone regulation, however, previously had no associated fee but now will also be charged at a rate of $140/hour.

Other fees were increased to keep up with changes over time in actual costs to the city. Utility customers who need a water supply test will find that the fee has been increased $200 from $753 to $953.

Although the majority of the changes proposed for fiscal year 2011-12 reflect less than a 100 percent cost recovery for the city, some of the fee changes were met with criticism from the business community.

The entertainment permit fee increase, in particular, came under fire from representatives of businesses where amplified music and dancing are cornerstones of the operation.

“We can’t exactly say that we’re excited about the fee increases,” said Rob Kerth, executive director of the Midtown Business Association (MBA).

Kerth said the Midtown Business Association (MBA) works to make Midtown a place where artists, businesses, entertainment venues and residents prosper together.

“We’re business people and we understand things cost what they cost,” Kerth said. “We just want to make sure it’s fair and businesses aren’t frustrated by the process or the enforcement.”

Prior to the council’s approval of the fee changes, a new two-year entertainment permit from the city cost applicants $1,428. Now, the fee is $1,722 and renewals of the permit have nearly doubled, going from $743 to $1,331.

According to a Finance Department report from May 31, however, the fee charged for the permit doesn’t cover the city’s actual cost of providing it.

A 2009 city-wide fee study determined the actual cost recovery for the application review process on a new two-year entertainment permit is $3,445. For a renewal, the actual cost recovery is $2,662.

The newly increased permit fees only recover about 50 percent of the department’s actual cost.

Shortly after reviewing that 2009 fee study, the Council approved an incremental increase over several years until the department reaches 100 percent cost recovery to avoid “sticker shock” increases.

The last time the entertainment permit fee was increased was in 2009.

“(The city) thinks they’re doing us a favor by not recovering 100 percent of their cost from businesses,” Kerth said. “But really, it’s a disincentive to the business owners who pay the fees because they are levied unfairly.”

Kerth explained that, although the initial permit fee may be the same for all applicants, conditions placed on receiving the permit are “very subjective, depending on the (permitting) officer of the day,” and that enforcement of permit conditions and violations is inconsistent.

“There may be two businesses across the street from one another, and the terms of their permit will be completely different. Each one thinks the other got a sweet deal, and there’s resentment and animosity created,” Kerth said.

To some business owners, the fee increase is an unnecessary burden that only makes it harder for them to afford to do business in the city.

“Five years ago, I was paying $50 a year for a permit to have dancing in my clubs,” said Terry Sidie, owner of three Midtown dance club locations: Faces, Headhunters and Club 21.

“Once the economy started to go bad, the city came up with the ‘e-permit’ and started charging us a huge fee,” Sidie said. “They don’t understand all that (business owners) have to pay every year. It’s crazy.”

Sidie listed fees ranging from royalty fee requirements for the music he plays to a county health permit, an annual fire inspection fee and more – fees totaling almost $16,000 per year, for each of his business locations.

Not all of those fees are paid to the city, but Sidie said the city’s increased entertainment permit fee is “just one more thing added on.”

“The council members say the city is business-friendly, but it doesn’t feel that way,” Sidie said.

Kerth said the MBA is eager to sit down with city staff and talk about ways to streamline the permit process to make it more cost-effective, and to discuss a more consistent code enforcement policy that will level the playing field for all businesses who use entertainment permits.

Read the full Finance Department staff report on the new fee increases here.

Get more information about all city fees and charges here.

Layoffs of 35 city cops avoided

2011-06-15T05:37:18Z

Thirty-five police jobs were saved from proposed layoffs after the Sacramento Police Department received a waiver on a federal grant that funds officer positions, spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong confirmed late Tuesday night.

The number of proposed layoffs in the 2011/2012 budget for Sacramento police officers has dropped from 81 to 46.

The City Council will vote next week on proposed budget cuts that include layoffs of cops and other Police Department staffers. Council members were weighing whether to lay off 81 police officers, but the grant waiver means they will decide whether to lay off 46 officers. The council will also choose whether to lay off 68 civilian police department staffers – those proposed cuts were not affected by the federal grant waiver.

The city is facing a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

"This grant exemption is a positive in an otherwise difficult budget year,” Police Chief Rick Braziel wrote in a Tuesday night press statement. “We are thankful for the quick approval of this grant exemption, which would not have been possible without the efforts of Bernard Melekian from the Department of Justice, the support of Congresswoman Doris Matsui and the hard work of our police staff.”

Meanwhile, Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka told the City Council at a Tuesday night budget hearing that she had no update on any labor concessions from city unions. Despite the standstill, “staff continues to have an open door” to negotiations with city unions, she said.

In addition, the city could still negotiate with the unions for possible concessions after the budget is approved, Masuoka said.

While Councilman Darrell Fong, a retired police captain, has said he intends to vote for the police cuts, he announced at Tuesday’s council meeting that he would redirect his City Council salary for the 2011/2012 fiscal year to the Police Department’s budget.

The base pay for Sacramento City Council members is $60,800 annually.

“I’m hopeful as we continue between now and next week to keep having discussions and hope to get to a better place,” Mayor Kevin Johnson said at the meeting.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Top EPA official speaks in Sacramento

2011-06-14T02:27:27Z

The nation’s top environmental official, Lisa Jackson, expressed her view in Sacramento on Monday that federal and state environmental regulations can help create demand for green businesses and technologies.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Jackson spoke about environmental regulation and green jobs to an audience of more than 250 people at the Cal/EPA building downtown. She was the latest in a string of high-profile speakers brought into town to speak on behalf of “Greenwise,” Mayor Kevin Johnson’s environmental initiative.

Contrary to the views of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which argues that businesses are stymied by many environmental regulations, Jackson said that regulations from EPA can help prod the formation of new green businesses.

By cracking down on pollution through regulation, EPA pushes companies to consider the pollution that comes from products, she said.

“You have to demand ‘clean.’ And we do that through our regulations,” she said.

Jackson said she was confident that environmentally sound technologies and products can be created.

“So there’s no doubt in my mind, as an engineer, that once this country continues to demand clean, green, sustainable, environmentally just solutions, that we can and will develop and invent and commercialize the technologies to make it happen,” she said.

State and federal environmental regulations can provide “the push” necessary to build demand for green products, Jackson said.

Johnson, who also spoke at the event, issued another call for Sacramento to be a national front-runner with its environmental efforts. He said a green economy can benefit the region in two ways: “One, we could create jobs with the green economy, and we can improve our environment,” Johnson said.

Julia Burrows, the project manager for the Greenwise program, told the audience about the status of the program’s efforts.

She said the Greenwise team is forming a group to finance environmental retrofits at schools.

Greenwise is also forming a business leadership council “to advocate for policy and to work on the bottom line in the region,” she said.

In addition, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments is working on efforts to bring more electric vehicle charging stations to the region, she said.

Kim Smith of Sacramento said after the event that Jackson’s speech was the second Greenwise function she had attended. “I just think it was an honor to have her here,” Smith, a Cal/EPA employee, said. “She’s a real person, and I enjoyed her conversation.”

Smith said she was enthusiastic about the Greenwise program’s upcoming efforts.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

In-depth look at proposed police layoffs

2011-06-10T01:05:21Z

Sacramento Police and union officials warned Thursday a spike in crime is expected if 81 cops are laid off when the City Council approves a budget.

Police officers – angered over the likelihood that dozens of them are about to lose their jobs – are vowing to take action come election time, said detective Mark Tyndale, vice president of the local police union, the Sacramento Police Officers Association.

On Tuesday, the Sacramento City Council tentatively voted to make deep budget cuts that would include slashing $12.2 million from the police department's budget and laying off 81 sworn officers and 68 civilian police employees. If the council approves the 2011/2012 budget with a final vote as expected June 21, the officers will be laid off July 1.

Police Chief Rick Braziel on Wednesday announced losing that many officers would force the department to reduce services. The department would eliminate more than a dozen specialized units, including gang crimes, narcotics, high-tech crimes, traffic, marine, mounted, bike and foot patrols.

The department would shift its focus to core services, mainly handling emergency calls and investigating major crimes required by law including murders, rapes and robberies. Bad guys will commit more crime because citizen crime reports will drop. That will provide police with fewer tips that can help stop criminals earlier in their careers, Braziel said Thursday.

"I expect crime to go up. You'll see criminals getting away with more because there are just less of us out there," Braziel said by phone. "The ultimate victim in all of this is the community. That's who suffers most."

Patrol officers who have the least seniority in the department are the ones facing layoffs. Detectives would be reassigned to fill those patrol slots or the remaining investigation units, such as homicide, robbery, sexual assaults or general investigations, Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said.

The city has the right to lay off officers and would not be violating a contract with the union by doing so, according to Tyndale and Leong.

Such cuts would mark the first time sworn officers have been laid off – for as long as anyone can remember – at least since the 1970s, Leong said.

SPOA members said they believe the council's vote made it clear city officials aren't interested in negotiating any contract concessions in lieu of layoffs. No negotiations have begun, and none are expected before the budget is approved by the council, Tyndale said.

"Everybody's hoping some miracle can occur," he said. "I just don't see (it) at this point."

Morale among police officers is low. Tyndale said union members believe the six City Council members who tentatively approved the layoffs have turned their backs on police. Councilman Steve Cohn, Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilwoman Angelique Ashby voted against the tentative decision.

According to Tyndale, union members think the six council members created a "mess." Officers are now saying, " 'This (2012) is an election year. You guys are going to pay for this mess you made,' " Tyndale said.

A total of 372 positions have been cut from the department over the last three years. Those were either civilian layoffs, or vacant posts that had been filled by civilians or sworn officers. The officer posts were vacant due to attrition through retirements or resignations, he said.

The total of sworn officers who would be cut now stands at 81 due to a retirement. That would leave 620 full-time officers – of 701 currently – working for the department. The department currently employs 318 civilians. The cuts would leave 250.

In addition, 17 vacant slots would be eliminated under the current budget plan, Leong said.

If that happens, the department won't have the investigation units or number of officers needed to keep Sacramento streets safe, Tyndale said.

"It is going to destroy Sacramento," said Tyndale, a detective with the sexual assault investigations unit who has served with the department 23 years. "It will completely devastate us – the department and the community."

However, 35 officers could be immediately rehired if the department wins a waiver on a federal grant that would provide funding to restore those positions. Police officials don't know when the exemption might be granted, Leong said.

A union representing 1,400 other city employees has been calling for "balance and equity" in layoffs among all city employee groups in order to balance the budget. At Tuesday night's council meeting, a business representative from Stationary Engineers Local 39 described claims about the impact of public safety cuts as "civil terrorism."

"The city can no longer afford to spare any group during this economic crisis," Local 39 official Linda Norman told the council. "I am also speaking out against the city's public safety unions' recent campaign of what I will call 'civil terrorism.'

“Through the use of media announcements, door hangers and lawn signs, these public servants are perpetrating a negative, harmful and divisive atmosphere, saying any reduction of public safety funding will leave our citizens vulnerable and unprotected from increased crime," she said.

SPOA President Brent Meyer later described those comments as unprofessional.

The units that would remain include patrol, crime scene investigation, front counter assistance/security, K-9, helicopter and the criminal apprehension team, as well as the other investigation units mentioned previously. The department's number of detectives would drop from 104 to 71 because some investigators will return to patrol, Leong said.

The crime scene investigation unit, currently staffed entirely by civilians, would be filled only by sworn officers as of July 1.

The department's two full-time SWAT teams, which do a lot of specialized training and assist with investigations and arresting criminals, would become part-time. Cuts would mean they will work on patrol when not doing entries or training.

There will be some cost-savings from laying off administrative clerks or other civilians tied to the units that would be eliminated. However, the units aren't being eliminated to save money. They're being eliminated because there won't be enough people left to fill them once officers are transferred to operational services such as patrol, Leong said.

As a result, officers will be responsible for handling so many cases they won't be able to do as much proactive crime-fighting. And that will lead to a loss of expertise in such areas as narcotics and gang crime over time, he said.

Braziel has been meeting for months with his executive command staff, made up of deputy chiefs and captains, to determine how to reorganize the department if the council approved major police layoffs to help balance the budget.

The chief said he's especially concerned because of the cumulative impact that may result if there are budget-induced layoffs in Sacramento County law enforcement agencies, in addition to an expected upcoming prisoner release, loss of social services and lack of jobs for prisoners.

The layoffs aren't spread out more evenly throughout the department because they must be made based on seniority. The majority of patrol officers are the newest members of the squad.

The announcement the units would be eliminated is not a negotiating tactic to get concessions from the union or City Council, according to Braziel and Leong.

"The police department has followed the direction of council who on Tuesday made it clear their intent is to move forward with the budget cuts, and there is nothing to indicate any foreseeable changes to the budget," Braziel said in an emailed statement.

Sacramento Press staff reporter Kathleen Haley contributed to this report. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Council intends to make major public safety cuts

2011-06-08T07:44:49Z

The Sacramento City Council’s tentative decision Tuesday night to make severe budget cuts to public safety is not final, but it made a big statement.

Council members voted 6-3 to say they intend to make budget cuts later this month that include layoffs of 82 sworn cops and increases in brownouts or alternating closures for fire services.

A big caveat to the tentative decision is the council’s statement that it is still open to further negotiations with the city’s public safety unions.

Tuesday’s hearing drew intense public interest. Many people arrived more than an hour early to the 6 p.m. meeting. Shortly before 5 p.m., about 70 people waited in line for the doors at City Hall to open.

About 340 people were at City Hall around 6:15 p.m. The 230 seats inside the City Council’s chambers were filled, and another 110 people were outside, in the lobby and in a second-floor overflow area.

A City Hall police security officer estimated at 7 p.m. there were 400-450 people at City Hall.

City leaders are facing a $39 million deficit for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. The City Council is expected to approve a budget June 21.

Council members Jay Schenirer, Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty, Darrell Fong and Bonnie Pannell voted to say they intend to make public safety cuts, among other reductions, though they may still negotiate with unions for changes to the cuts.

Council members Angelique Ashby and Steve Cohn and Mayor Kevin Johnson voted against the tentative decision.

Schenirer proposed the tentative decision, stating that cuts to public safety were necessary in order for the city to get on a fiscally responsible track.

“The right thing happens to be the more difficult thing this year, unfortunately,” he said.

The proposal includes $12.2 million in cuts to the Police Department and $9 million in cuts to the Fire Department.

The suggested cuts include layoffs of 82 sworn cops in the Police Department and 68 civilian personnel, according to updated statistics provided Tuesday night by Sgt. Norm Leong, police department spokesman.

The department could restore 35 staff if it obtains a waiver on a federal grant, according to city officials.

“I just can’t, in good conscience, support a budget where we’re going to cut $12 million from police,” Johnson said.

In addition to its tentative decision, the council made a final decision Tuesday night to approve a federal grant for the Sacramento Fire Department. The funding from the federal government comes from the federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant Program.

The six council members also said they intend to make fire cuts that would raise the number of alternating closures, or “brownouts,” of fire services from two to four. Without the grant, the city would be weighing whether to make six brownouts.

The city manager’s office is not proposing layoffs for the Fire Department.

As part of the 6-3 vote, the council also said it intends to keep 11 community centers open without setting aside any money for them through the Department of Parks and Recreation. It’s unclear how that can be accomplished. Schenirer suggested that neighborhoods could help keep the centers open.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Guide to salary and benefits for police officers

2011-06-05T18:45:55Z

The local media is abuzz about the city’s proposals to lay off 80 sworn Sacramento police officers, among other police staffers, to help balance the city’s budget.

But while information on the proposed layoffs has been reported, many Sacramento residents may not know the basic facts and salary information for police officers in Sacramento.

The City Council, which is wrestling with a $39 million budget gap, is expected to approve the city’s budget for the 2011/2012 fiscal year on June 21. The recommendation to lay off cops – as well as other cost-cutting measures – comes from the city manager’s office.

Here is a guide to help residents understand the salary and benefits for the average police officer in Sacramento.

Pay and benefits for police officers in Sacramento

The average police officer in Sacramento earns a salary of about $70,000, according to police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

Police officers’ salaries increase through a range of steps. Leong explained that six months into the job, a police officer rises to the second salary step, and then each year the officer rises to the next step. There are five steps.

The Step 1 salary is $56,897. An officer at Step 2 earns $59,742, rising to $62,729 for Step 3. The Step 4 pay is $65,865 and jumps to $69,159 at Step 5. Read the step information here.

Most of the officers in the department earn about $70,000 per year, Leong said.

On top of the base salary, benefits for police officers include the city’s payments of about $28,000 into CalPERS each year for each officer, Leong said.

Management salary ranges are higher than the ranges for the average police officer. For example, a police captain – the department has eight – can garner a minimum salary of $113,872 and maximum earnings of $170,808. View salaries for management police personnel here.

The department has 701 sworn personnel, including 31 lieutenants, captains and deputy chiefs, led by the chief of police, according to Leong.

Police Chief Rick Braziel's salary is $207, 855, according to the city's website.

A consulting firm, Management Partners, studied the city’s finances and operations in an April 2010 report. The firm evaluated Sacramento in relation to Bakersfield, Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Ana, Stockton, Albuquerque, Austin, Denver and Oklahoma City.

Management Partners found that “per capita expenditures for the Sacramento Police Department ... are slightly below the average” of the comparable cities.

The firm wrote in the report that “care must be taken to avoid reductions in the core service of patrol and call response.”

Police retirement benefits explained

A sworn police officer can retire with benefits at age 50, Leong said.

In order to retire, an officer must have five years of work experience connected to the CalPERS system, according to Leong.

City police officers, firefighters and managers do not have to pay a percentage of their earnings to their retirement benefits, according to a recent audit of employee benefits conducted by City Auditor Jorge Oseguera’s office.

Instead, the city pays the full amount of their contributions to the CalPERS system, the audit notes.

By contrast, other kinds of city employees, such as those in the building trades and in the engineering unit, must pay a part of their salaries to their retirement benefits, according to the audit.

“If all employees contributed 4 percent to their pensions, the city would save about $39.7 million over the next five years – or about $7.9 million on average per year,” the audit states.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council explores long-term budget issues

2011-06-03T05:19:26Z

The Sacramento City Council discussed Thursday how to make major changes to city operations in the next few years to resolve the city’s long-term imbalance where costs outpace revenues.

The city’s $39 million gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year is part of an ongoing trend of budget shortfalls. Multi-million budget gaps will remain until fiscal year 2015/2016 as a result of the city’s imbalanced finances, according to predictions by city officials.

“We need to set the expectation of what the City Council wants to provide for the residents and the businesses of this city,” Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka said.

Seven council members were at the budget meeting – Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilman Kevin McCarty were absent. Some of the council members said they wanted to explore the long-term budget problems on a regular basis after the budget is approved June 21.

The topic of city services was discussed during the meeting.

“We don’t even really have to be a full-service city,” Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said, “but we have to maintain core services.”

Councilman Rob Fong said the City Council should examine the ways the city administers services.

“We need to look at how we deliver the services that our citizens have come to expect,” Fong said. “So, what I would ask is that we take a strong look with our best thinkers ... and say, ‘Shake the Etch A Sketch up ... erase the white board.’ ”

Councilman Steve Cohn said that discussions about how to change the city and its budget should involve the rank-and-file workers. He questioned the format of Thursday’s meeting, saying that the council should consider meeting with workers in a format that is less formal than a City Council meeting in which council members sit on a dais or stage.

Councilman Jay Schenirer asked Masuoka to draft a schedule for council members to work on the long-term budget problems.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

New group of city employees unionizes

2011-06-02T01:17:03Z

A group of 103 city employees including workers’ compensation claims representatives and administrative analysts will likely be represented by a new union, according to city spokeswoman Amy Williams and labor organizer Dee Contreras.

A majority of the group of workers, who had not previously been represented by a union, recently signed cards in favor of joining a new union, the Sacramento City Exempt Employees Association, Williams said last week.

The signed cards were verified by California’s Mediation and Conciliation Service, according to Williams.

By unionizing, the analysts and other workers in the group will be able to negotiate with management on policies that affect them, according to Contreras, who is organizing city employees in the new union. She is the former labor relations director for the city.

“The reality is, those people want to help the city,” Contreras said. “The goal is to do as much as they can to help the city, but to get recognition and to participate in that decision-making process.”

Williams said the city plans to formally recognize the new union next month.

“By law, we support our employees’ right to organize for the purposes of collective bargaining,” Williams said. “A majority of a group of employees has authorized a union to represent them. The city will grant that right at the end of the 30-day notice period, which ends on June 20.”

During the 30-day period after the cards were verified, a competing union can apply to represent the group of city employees, Williams said. But according to Contreras, no other union has said it wants to represent the group of 103 employees.

Contreras formally told the city manager’s office about her plans to organize three groups totaling 677 employees, including the group of 103 staffers, in February.

She said she is currently negotiating with the city’s human resources and labor relations officials and the city attorney’s office over plans to unionize the other two groups of employees. One of the groups includes managers and the other group includes staff assistants.

If Contreras eventually organizes all three groups, the total will likely be less than 677 people. That’s because city officials and Contreras have been discussing whether some of the employees in those groups should not be part of the union, according to Contreras.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Local libraries to face budget cuts

2011-06-01T05:27:58Z

The Sacramento City Council is likely to make major cuts to local library services, according to a preliminary vote by council members Tuesday night.

Seven of the nine City Council members voted that they intend to cut the Sacramento Public Library Authority by nearly $800,000 when they approve the city’s budget in June. The authority runs 28 libraries in Sacramento County and its proposed budget for the 2011/2012 fiscal year is $35.7 million.

Councilwomen Sandy Sheedy and Angelique Ashby voted against the plan to make $792,121 in cuts to libraries next month.

The City Council is expected to make widespread cuts to services to resolve a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. Tuesday’s budget hearing addressed the city’s funding for its partner agencies, including the library and the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The Sacramento Public Library Authority has several government agencies on its board, including officials from the city, the county and other cities in the county.

“You’ve been cut past the bone,” Sheedy told Sacramento Public Library Director Rivkah Sass at the City Council meeting. “I think we’re in the marrow.”

The council made its decision after library supporters made public comments arguing against the cuts.

“It’s really the young people that really need us in the neighborhood,” Pauline Grenbeaux, president of Arden-Dimick Friends of the Library, told the City Council.

Allison Yamamoto, a sophomore at C.K. McClatchy High School, told council members that a library staffer sent her information on how to apply for a summer program focused on international leadership. Yamamoto said she applied and then received a scholarship to attend the program.

“Without the library, I would have never even had this opportunity,” Yamamoto said.

Meanwhile, city budget cuts planned for the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau would shut down a visitor center in Old Sacramento and dissolve the Sacramento Film Commission.

However, no one spoke at the City Council meeting about cuts proposed for the bureau.

Read the city staff report about the proposed library cuts here.

The Library Authority’s proposed budget is here.

Read the city’s schedule for budget hearings here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mark Merin's battle with City Hall

2011-05-30T23:20:15Z

Sacramento civil rights attorney Mark Merin is once again in the spotlight.

This time, he’s being quoted by the local media for his role in a federal class-action case about homeless people’s constitutional rights and personal property. And, in the March issue of Harper’s Magazine, Merin’s work with Safe Ground is mentioned. The article, titled “Homeless in Sacramento: Welcome to the New Tent Cities,” focuses on Sacramento’s homeless and the city’s ordinance against camping.

These are only two of many examples of Merin’s highly visible and controversial advocacy work for Sacramento’s homeless.

Earlier this week, a federal jury released its verdict in Lehr v. City of Sacramento, finding that the city has mismanaged homeless people’s belongings.

Merin is representing a group of homeless people in the lawsuit. When police officers enforce the city’s ordinance against camping outside, they seize homeless people’s belongings, Merin claimed in an April 1 court document.

“We, who live in our comfortable homes, surrounded by all the clutter that we’ve accumulated, may not realize how devastating it is when someone comes in and just grabs the few things that you do have,” Merin said in an interview with The Sacramento Press earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Senior Deputy City Attorney Chance Trimm noted this week that the jury did not fault the city on four or six claims. The city may appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Trimm said.

Merin is requesting compensation for his clients as well as attorney’s fees. He explained earlier this month how the payment process for his fees works.

“If we are successful and we win, in many cases, we’re entitled to get fees awarded by the court,” Merin said. “There’s a procedure by which we show how much time we put into it. The court evaluates the work and assigns an amount of money, and then we get that.”

In addition to criticizing the city’s interactions with the homeless in his lawsuit, Merin has appeared before the City Council to argue for Safe Ground.

“The minimum demand that is being made with Safe Ground is (to) designate some place (for the homeless). Don’t even give it to us, but allow us to take a space and say, ‘homeless people can be here, can leave their stuff here, can use this as a staging area to do something else,’ ” Merin said earlier this month in an interview.

“But if they’re constantly having to guard their stuff ... then they can’t even go anywhere. They can’t even go to the doctor’s appointment for fear of losing it.”

In September 2009, Merin provided his property as place for the homeless to stay.

Councilman Rob Fong said he has observed Merin’s comments to the City Council. Fong said he has also attended board meetings on homelessness at which Merin was present.

“My impression of Mark is I think he’s a very strident advocate,” Fong said. “I think he’s a thoughtful guy, too.”

Fong has worked on the issue of homelessness through the local Faith and Homeless Families program, in which religious groups assist homeless families with housing.

“I think, given where I am, I’ve tried to work within the system and to improve the system,” Fong said. “I think Mark has a different vantage point. I just think we’re probably both working in different ways for the same thing.”

Merin has also taken on Sacramento County in the past. His lawsuit over homeless people’s belongings included Sacramento County, along with the city, when he filed it in 2007. But court documents show the county settled the case last year.

Meanwhile, John Kraintz, president of Safe Ground, praised Merin’s work with the group, composed mostly of homeless people. Merin helps the group communicate its views to the City Council, Kraintz said.

“His input is always very valuable,” Kraintz said.

While the next step in the lawsuit over homeless people’s property is unclear, it’s apparent that Merin will play a big role in it.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City cuts not limited to police, fire, parks

2011-05-27T01:59:26Z

While proposed budget cuts to public safety departments have attracted a lot of public attention, the Sacramento City Council also discussed millions of dollars in proposed budget cuts to many other offices and departments earlier this week.

At a Tuesday afternoon meeting, council members examined cuts to departments and offices that include the mayor and City Council, Economic Development, Finance, Human Resources and Transportation. The city is in the throes of a budget crisis with a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

The City Council members decided on Tuesday to give a large chunk of its budget to the city’s general fund.

Council members’ budgets include revenues from cell phone towers and billboards. They moved $417,567 of $665,067 of these revenues to the general fund.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell was visibly frustrated by the council’s choice to move that money to the general fund, even though she voted to do so at the end of a discussion.

She said she utilizes her funds from cell phone and billboards on programs that help children in South Sacramento.

“What’s going to happen to the kids?” she asked.

Councilwoman Angelique Ashby said the council members receive hundreds of funding requests from community groups each week. She said that community groups that support the arts, sports and festivals will need to understand that the council members will no longer be able to help fund them.

“We simply won’t have the money,” she said. “We won’t be able to do that.”

While they took $417,567 out of their collective budgets, each council member will still have a pot of $55,000 in discretionary account funds in the next fiscal year. The $247,500 remaining from the pot of $665,067 in cell phone and billboard revenues will be moved into the discretionary accounts to help each council member reach the $55,000 figure, according to Dawn Holm, a city staffer in the budget, policy and strategic planning division.

The $55,000 for each council member is not a new amount, Holm explained. Council members had that amount of discretionary funding in their budgets in the 2010/2011 fiscal year, Holm wrote in an email.

The discretionary accounts are available for the City Council to help fund community projects.

The council also listened to Finance Director Leyne Milstein explain proposed cuts to various departments. Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka are proposing a $707,406 cut to the Economic Development department, including four full-time employee positions.

The Human Resources Department could lose two full-time employee positions as part of a proposed $240,000 cut.

A recommendation to chop $480,884 from Transportation’s budget is also included in the city manager’s proposed budget.

Breaking the trend of cuts, the proposed budget recommends two new hires to the Finance Department. The new employees would be hired as revenue collectors, Milstein said.

It’s unclear at this point how many people will actually be laid off as a result of the proposed cuts to positions.

Also on Tuesday, Councilman Darrell Fong said he wants to explore the idea of making more cuts to Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology. He did not explain at the meeting why he wanted to make those cuts. The council did not act on Fong’s idea Tuesday.

Read a report on proposed cuts to many city departments here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council sets new hearing on parks, police and fire

2011-05-25T16:47:49Z

If you thought the last few budget hearings on proposed budget cuts to the city’s parks, police and fire services were heated, just wait until June 7.

At the close of a nearly four-hour budget meeting on proposed cuts to the Sacramento Fire Department Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously decided to discuss the cuts again on June 7.

But the June 7 meeting will be different from previous hearings because the council decided it will discuss all the controversial budget cuts – to the Parks and Recreation, Police and Fire departments – at that time.

Councilman Rob Fong said the cuts should be discussed all at the same time because the city does not have enough money to prevent cuts to those departments.

The council does not have funds to restore money to one of the three departments without cutting money from another of the departments, Fong said.

“When anyone comes and says ‘don’t cut us, just keep us whole,’ please understand what you’re really asking us to do is cut them,” Fong said.

“When the police say don’t cut us, they’re saying ‘cut the fire department’ ... because that’s where we are – it’s a zero-sum game. We don’t have enough money,” Fong said.

City leaders are wrestling with a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

Council members indicated Tuesday night that they will likely approve a federal grant for the Fire Department next month. Several council members said Tuesday night that they support the idea of approving the $5.6 million in federal funds from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant Program.

The department has already been selected to receive the grant and is waiting on the council to approve it.

If the council signs off on the federal grant, the proposed cuts to the Fire Department would be lessened. The department would still face “brownouts” or alternating closures of fire services, but the number of brownouts would be less severe.

The department now closes two fire companies on an alternating schedule. The current budget proposal from Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka would bump the number of these closures to six.

But the federal grant money would bring the number down to four, according to Fire Chief Ray Jones. The department would still see an increase from two to four, but not from two to six.

Jaymes Butler, municipal vice president of Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522, told the council Tuesday that the cuts would hurt communities.

“Whole communities will be without emergency medical response and fire,” Butler said.

In a press conference before the City Council meeting, firefighters protested proposed cuts to their department.

When talking about the proposed cuts at the press conference, Butler said firefighters would be “laid off.” However, when pressed by reporters if there would be “out-the-door” layoffs, Butler said that 49 positions slated for cuts were not filled and no current workers would actually be laid off.

Earlier Tuesday, Mayor Kevin Johnson commented on the proposed budget cuts. When asked about proposals to save money with cuts to police and fire, Johnson said he'd rather hear from all departments and get information from them before the council makes a decision on what they can or can't do.

"I've said from day one I want to hold the line on public safety if at all possible,” Johnson said. “And that's police and fire. Certainly parks and being a full-service city are very important."

Video by Kathleen Haley

Staff Reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Firefighters protest proposed budget cuts

2011-05-25T03:49:35Z

About 150 firefighters and their families protested the city’s budget proposal Tuesday night to cut $9.1 million from the Sacramento Fire Department. As part of press conference held to protest the cuts, the fire department staffers stood in a large group outside City Hall to show their opposition.

The city is facing a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. The idea to make cuts to the Fire Department is included in the budget plan proposed by Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka. Final decisions on the budget will be made by the Sacramento City Council next month.

A group called Protect Sacramento, led by Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522 and the Sacramento Police Officers Association, held a press conference Tuesday evening to protest the proposed cuts. The press conference was held shortly before the start of a City Council budget hearing on the Fire Department.

The proposed cuts “will put neighborhoods at risk, lengthen response times, and stand in the way of our ability to deal with real life-and-death emergencies,” said Jaymes Butler, vice president of Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522.

The proposed budget cuts to the department could increase the number of alternating closures of fire equipment and staffers. The number of these proposed closures was unclear at press time because the City Council on Tuesday night may approve a $5.6 million federal grant for the department. The grant may lessen the Fire Department cuts. The money comes from the federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant Program.

The Sacramento Press will provide an overview of the Fire Department budget hearing Wednesday morning.

Read the budget schedule here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Citizens create 37 redistricting maps

2011-05-24T02:32:31Z

Local groups and individuals created 37 maps by reconfiguring the eight City Council districts as part of the city’s redistricting process.

The number of maps turned into the city for consideration this year marks a significant jump from the 2001 redistricting process, when the public created 13 maps, said Maria MacGunigal, the city’s geographic information system manager.

Residents drew their city maps through the city’s new online redistricting tool. MacGunigal attributes the increased participation in part to the online program.

“The tools were more accessible,” she said.

The city conducted outreach and marketing for the redistricting process, she said.

City Council districts in Sacramento are rearranged with U.S. Census data each decade. The city’s charter says that the deadline for the city to restructure its districts is six months after Census data is released. This year, the deadline will fall in early September, according to city staff.

After 10 years of growth, the city’s districts are no longer even in size. The city’s population jumped from 407,018 in 2000 to 466,488 in 2010. At the current population citywide, 58,311 people should be placed in each of the city’s eight districts, according to city staff.

The 37 maps came from various sources, including neighborhoods and groups representing residents by race or ethnicity.

The African American Leadership Coalition wrote in a statement attached to its map that it aims to “promote voting rights and representation for all Sacramentans while protecting the voting interests and rights of African American communities to elect a representative of choice.”

The coalition also wrote that its map intends to protect neighborhoods and divvy up the districts so they have the same number of people.

In another example, a majority of board members of the East Sacramento Improvement Association submitted a redistricting map. The group said it wants to see a district include River Park, East Sacramento, Midtown and downtown, according to the statement accompanying the map. The current districts have three different City Council members representing East Sacramento, Midtown and downtown.

“It preserves the integrity of traditional neighborhoods and respects groups with shared interests,” the association wrote about its map.

At least two prominent constituencies did not create maps but are still presenting their views to the redistricting committee.

A local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender coalition is advocating for the central city to be represented by one council member.

“We know that we have strong support in the urban core for LGBT issues – that’s split up, (and) we want to put it back together,” according to Rosanna Herber, a community activist involved in the coalition’s effort.

The group also wants the Central City to be joined with one of three other neighborhoods – Land Park, Curtis Park or East Sacramento.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership also did not draw a map, but told the redistricting committee earlier this month that it would like to see the Central City in one district. The Central City is the heart of a region and a cultural center, said Wendy Hoyt on Monday, representing the partnership.

The citizens’ redistricting advisory committee can decide how it would like to handle the maps the public turned in, according to MacGunigal.

The committee could send one or more of the maps created by the public to the City Council, MacGunigal said. The committee could also create its own map or recommend a combination of ideas from the public maps, she said.

Comments and testimony from the public could affect the committee’s recommendation, MacGunigal said.

On July 12, the advisory committee will make recommendations to the City Council on how the districts should be re-formed. The council will ultimately make the redistricting decisions.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

New group to focus on gardening, health

2011-05-20T17:50:25Z

Local organizations focused on healthy communities are hosting an event in Oak Park on Saturday to educate the public about gardening and fresh food.

The new coalition, Grow Together Sacramento, will create a few small gardens and teach the public how to set up gardens at the event.

Paul Towers, state director of the environmental group Pesticide Watch, said the coalition will build gardens and focus on the question: “How do we get as much healthy food as possible into the hands and bellies of Sacramentans?”

The Pesticide Watch Education Fund is a partner in the coalition, along with City Councilman Jay Schenirer’s office, Sacramento environmental group Ubuntu Green, the Sacramento Area Community Garden Coalition and others.

Towers said Saturday’s event will be the first of many centered around building gardens.

Making healthy food more accessible to the public through gardening will be a key part of the coalition’s work, according to Towers and Schenirer.

“We find that Sacramento is a heart of some of the richest agricultural land in the country, if not world,” Towers said.

But many Sacramento residents don’t have access to healthy, fresh and local food, he said.

While Schenirer’s office is playing a role in the coalition, Schenirer said it will not be run by the city.

“We want ownership (of the gardening campaign) to be in the community,” Schenirer said. “Ownership doesn’t necessarily need to be the city or city bureaucracy.”

At Saturday’s event, residents can also talk to Bill Maynard, the city’s community gardening director, about the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. community garden.

There will be a lottery for people interested in plots at that garden, which will open in June at 3668 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Maynard said. Residents who would like to be in the lottery should contact Maynard at the event or by phone at 808-4943. The garden will have 38 plots.

A small number of plots have been reserved for people with disabilities, he said. Those plots will be higher than the other plots, and people won’t have to bend down, he said.

“They can stand up and garden,” Maynard said. Or, they can garden alongside their plot in a wheelchair, he said.

Gardening is a hot topic right now at City Hall. Ramping up the number of community gardens in the city is the subject of a proposed ordinance. It’s unclear when the City Council will consider the proposal – Schenirer said he did not know when the council would examine it.

If you go:

Where:

40 Acres Complex at 3434 Broadway

When:

10 a.m.: Garden training

11 a.m.: Remarks by speakers including Mayor Kevin Johnson and press conference

A second garden training will follow the press conference.

The event is free to the public.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council aims to lessen police budget cuts

2011-05-18T15:46:54Z

The Sacramento City Council members made it clear Tuesday night that they do not want to make the $12 million in cuts to the Police Department recommended in the proposed budget. But it’s unclear at this point how the council will lessen the cuts to the department.

A crowd of police staffers and supporters, which swelled to about 400 at its high point early Tuesday evening, turned out for the City Council’s budget hearing.

The city is grappling with a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. A total of 149 department staffers, including 80 sworn cops, would be laid off in the proposed budget, according to police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

The city currently has 701 sworn cops.

“Twelve million (dollars) in cuts is too much for public safety to share this burden,” Councilman Darrell Fong, a retired police captain, said.

At the end of the City Council meeting, which ran longer than four hours, six City Council members voted not to move forward with the current proposed budget of $12 million in cuts proposed by Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka.

The city manager’s office is responsible for proposing the amounts of budget cuts, while Police Chief Rick Braziel is responsible for divvying up how to make the proposed cuts at the department.

The City Council makes final budget decisions.

Six of the nine council members rejected the proposed budget because three were absent.

Mayor Kevin Johnson was at the NBA draft lottery in New Jersey, representing the Sacramento Kings. Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell was mourning the recent death of her mother and Councilman Rob Fong was in Los Angeles on a business trip, according to Councilman Steve Cohn.

RE Graswich, the mayor’s special assistant, presented the following statement on behalf of Johnson:

“In Sacramento, we’re in the fourth year of a devastating budget crisis and we continue to face difficult challenges. When I ran for mayor in 2008, I said public safety would be my top priority.

“That continues to remain true today,” Graswich said. “Public safety is a core function of city government. It plays a critical role in how we operate as a full-service city.

“It’s critical that as we move forward, we continue to practice fiscal responsibility, eliminate wasteful practices, capitalize on efficiencies and make collective sacrifices to provide the service our residents expect and deserve. I look forward to continuing to work with my council colleagues and finding the best solutions to solving the budget crisis.”

Greg Galliano, a 25-year-old Sacramento police officer, was one of many department staffers who urged the council not to make the cuts. He said the department is currently dealing with “massive call volumes.”

“If we take these cuts,” Galliano said, “we’re going to experience something that we’re not going to be able to protect you from.”

Leong explained the breakdown of the proposed layoffs: Sworn cops, 80; Community Service Officers, 38; Crime Scene Investigators, 14; Supervising Dispatchers, 6; Records Supervisor, 1; Administrative and Clerical, 10.

At a press conference before the City Council meeting, police staffers held up numbers that signified they could be among the numbers of people laid off.

Read the schedule of budget hearings here. Learn about the debate over cuts to the Parks and Recreation Department here.

The City Council is scheduled to adopt the city’s budget for the 2011/2012 fiscal year on June 21.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Police budget hearing draws hundreds

2011-05-18T04:17:18Z

A dramatic scene unfolded at Sacramento City Hall on Tuesday evening as more than 160 employees gathered for a press conference to protest proposed layoffs in the Police Department. The staffers held numbers up, signifying that they could be among the numbers of people laid off.

They were part of a crowd of more than 400 people that gathered at City Hall around 6 p.m. for a Sacramento City Council hearing on proposed layoffs at the Police Department.

About 80 sworn officers could be laid off if the City Council follows recommendations from Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka’s proposed budget.

An additional 38 community service police staffers could be laid off. Community service officers’ duties include working with neighbors and controlling crime scenes, said Brent Meyer, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association.

They also respond to traffic accidents and do crime prevention work, among other tasks, said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

The city currently has 701 sworn cops.

The city is examining severe cuts to city services to resolve a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

A new group called Protect Sacramento, led by the Sacramento Police Officers Association and Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Association Local 522, held the 5:30 p.m. press conference before the council meeting.

“We’re asking Sacramento residents to let their council members know that these public safety cuts are dangerous, they’re unacceptable and they must not be implemented,” Meyer said.

Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, joined the press conference.

“We know there are tough decisions that need to be made, but they really should not be made on the back of public safety as it relates to the urban core,” Ault said.

The Sacramento Press will post a recap of the budget hearing Wednesday morning.

The City Council will examine the Fire Department’s budget May 24. Read the budget hearings schedule here.

Under the proposed budget, Fire Department “brownouts” would increase from two to six.

Two rolling brownouts are now in place, which mean that certain fire trucks and engines are out of service at various times, according to former Fire Department spokesman Jim Doucette.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Residents fight to keep community centers

2011-05-13T15:29:44Z

Sacramento residents packed into a Sacramento City Hall meeting room Thursday night to protest proposed budget cuts to community centers and other local parks programs.

About 45 citizens addressed the City Council, according to Mayor Kevin Johnson’s count. Citizens waited in lines for a seat in the the meeting room and to speak to the council.

The hearing on the Parks and Recreation Department was part of a series of meetings on how the City Council can resolve a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

Proposed budget cuts would slash hours at the Hart Senior Center in Midtown by half.

Some of the speakers contrasted the proposed community center cuts with city leaders’ efforts to bring a new sports arena to the area.

“You just knocked out all the senior people, so you better get us some seats up at your new arena,” Helen Blatta, a supporter of the Hart Senior Center, told Johnson.

Recommendations from Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Parks Department Director Jim Combs would shutter the following community centers and clubhouses: Oak Park, Sim, Hagginwood, Robertson, Clunie, East Portal, Belle Cooledge, Evelyn Moore, Southside, Woodlake and Slider Centers and Clubhouses.

Clunie’s library at McKinley Park would keep operating.

The South Natomas, Coloma and Pannell Meadowview centers would stay open, according to a report from the Parks Department.

Jamillah Kirk, an office manager at Bret Harte Elementary School, was one of many speakers who urged the City Council to save the Oak Park Community Center. The community center provides positive activities for young people, she said.

“If you think Sacramento Police Department is busy now, you wait,” said Kirk, 39. “We are asking for trouble.”

After hearing from the public about the community centers, the City Council asked staff to study ways to put $1 million back into the parks budget.

The Sacramento Press will continue to follow the debate over proposals to cut community centers.

Slashing community centers would help the city save a little more than $400,000, but it is only one piece of nearly $1.8 million in cuts proposed to the parks department.

Also on Thursday, about 80 local high school students who participate in a law-enforcement training program attended the City Council’s public comment period to oppose proposed cuts to the Criminal Justice Magnet Academy. Budget cuts would end the Sacramento Police Department’s role in the program, according to police spokesman Norm Leong.

“You have role models that you can look up to,” Timothy Chang, a 17-year-old Grant Union High School student, told the City Council. “This academy has changed my life. It’s another family away from home.”

Read information about upcoming budget hearings here.

Neighborhood Services could shrink to 5 staff

2011-05-11T00:57:10Z

The city’s Neighborhood Services Division is on the chopping block again this year after it lost its status as a department in last year’s budget cuts.

In June, the City Council is expected to make major cuts to close out the city’s $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

The Neighborhood Services Division, which links neighborhoods to city issues and events and works with residents on local concerns, could lose two full-time employee positions to budget cuts. While two positions may seem like a low number, the division has only seven employees, according to Vincene Jones, Neighborhood Services manager.

In last year’s budget process, the Neighborhood Services Department became a division of the Parks and Recreation Department, two staffers were laid off and Jones’ title changed from department director to division manager. In recent years, Neighborhood Services’ staff has been cut from 16 employees to seven, Jones said.

Cuts to the division are recommended by Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka.

“We support every neighborhood association that comes to us and doesn’t come to us,” Jones said. “We support every department, including mayor and council. It will be a decrease in our level of service, and that’s unfortunate.”

Jones declined to identify the employees who may be laid off. She said she thinks the position cuts will result in at least one layoff. Jones said she was unsure of how the second position cut will play out.

“It hurts, and it is the hard part,” Jones said, referring to the potential layoffs.

The city would save $140,556 by making cuts to the division, the text of the proposed budget states.

The cuts would scale back the division’s services “to the City Council, city departments and community organizations on a variety of projects, events, initiatives and collaborations,” according to the budget’s text.

Michael Moore, 52, a UC Davis Medical Center employee and member of the Boulevard Park Neighborhood Association, asked whether the division could be effective with a staff of five.

“As a recent graduate of the '11 City Management Academy sponsored by the Neighborhood Services Division, I'm extremely aware of the already-diminished services several years of increasing budget, and staffing cuts have caused citywide,” Moore said in an email Tuesday.

“Certainly the loss of two more (full-time positions) would only add to the reduced impact of this vital city department, and might bring into question whether the city can efficiently and pragmatically continue to provide the range of services Sacramentans have come to expect (if not demand) of our tax-supported municipal government. When does a department become so small as to be functionally useless?”

Read a list of the budget hearings here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Utilities audit pinpoints $8 million in savings

2011-05-06T01:07:33Z

As much as $8.6 million could be saved in the city’s budget for fiscal year 2011/2012 if the City Council makes certain changes to the Utilities Department, according to a new audit released Thursday.

Because ratepayers pay for Utilities Department services, savings would not relieve the general fund gap but could lessen the burden on property owners and businesses.

Among other suggestions, the audit says the city could save money by not replacing backyard water mains that are still functional and cutting workers’ hours at water treatment plants.

However, it’s unclear at this point whether the city could garner the $8.6 million in savings, because the City Council must review the suggestions and decide whether to make them, City Auditor Jorge Oseguera said Thursday.

The audit, which focused on saving money by making the department’s operations more efficient, was conducted by consulting firms Public Financial Management, Inc.; Diemer Engineering, Inc.; EMA, Inc.; and Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc.

City Councilman Steve Cohn said he was reading the audit Thursday.

“There were some interesting ideas,” he said.

Cohn said he didn’t know how feasible it would be to put the recommendations into effect, noting that city leaders will need to study the audit’s suggestions.

The audit also says the Utilities Department could find savings by creating an energy savings program for the department; gathering green waste in a more efficient manner; finding quicker travel routes for trucks by using software and educating the public to not place trash items in recycling cans.

The Utilities Department’s budget and rates for utilities services will be addressed during the summer after the City Council approves the general fund budget in June, Cohn said.

The Utilities Rate Advisory Commission will weigh in on proposed rate increases from the department.

Read the audit here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Guide to city budget hearings

2011-05-05T00:25:51Z

Sacramento city officials have scheduled 10 public meetings on the city budget over the next seven weeks.

The City Council is wrestling with a $39 million budget gap and is considering recommendations from the city manager’s office to lay off hundreds of municipal employees.

The public is welcome at the budget hearings, which will be led by the City Council.

“It’s important that the public’s voice is heard,” city spokeswoman Amy Williams said. “These are hard decisions that lie ahead.”

During the next few weeks, Williams said she aims to keep as much budget information as possible on the city’s website.

A link to city budget documents is on the front page of the website.

All of the budget meetings will be held at Sacramento City Hall at 915 I St. The budget schedule may change, Williams said. Citizens can check the city’s website for updated information throughout the budget process, she said.

Here is the list of hearings on the 2011/2012 fiscal year budget:

When: Thursday, May 12, 6 p.m.
On the agenda: Parks and Recreation Department, budget assumptions, planned budget cuts

When: Tuesday, May 17, 2 p.m.
On the agenda: Convention, Culture and Leisure Department; Community Development Department

When: Tuesday, May 17, 6 p.m.
On the agenda: Police Department

When: Tuesday, May 24, 2 p.m.
On the agenda: Economic Development, General Services, Support, Transportation, Utilities, Charter Offices (City Attorney, City Clerk, City Treasurer)

When: Tuesday, May 24, 6 p.m.
On the agenda: Fire Department

When: Tuesday, May 31, 6 p.m.
On the agenda: Library, agencies that partner with the city

When: Thursday, June 2, 6 p.m. (Tentative meeting)
On the agenda: Budget options

When: Tuesday, June 7, 6 p.m.
On the agenda: Facilities and infrastructure budget (known formally as the capital improvement program), discussion of budget cuts

When: Tuesday, June 14, 6 p.m.
On the agenda: Update on city labor unions, finish plans for budget cuts

When: Tuesday, June 21, 6 p.m.
On the agenda: The City Council will approve the budget.

Source: city of Sacramento

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Intense city budget talks begin

2011-05-04T06:09:21Z

Sacramento City Council members began discussions Tuesday on the city manager’s recommendation to cut as many as 366 jobs in the budget for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

One city union protested the proposed layoffs at City Hall before the City Council meeting, and representatives from two other unions expressed their opposition to the cuts during the meeting.

City officials presented the budget recommendations from the city manager’s office at Tuesday’s meeting and summarized the budget document.

As part of the meeting, Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka explained a chart on the job cuts recommended by the city manager’s office.

The city would need to slice 250 full-time positions to gain the $39 million in savings. But Masuoka and Interim City Manager Bill Edgar are making recommendations for cuts on top of the $39 million in light of the city’s ongoing financial woes.

City officials project that the city will continue to face budget gaps until fiscal year 2015/2016.

The gap for fiscal year 2012/2013 is $11.7 million and is expected to rise to $22.9 million in fiscal year 2013/2014. In fiscal year 2014/2015, the city expects to be $18 million in the hole. The gap drops to a $13 million deficit predicted in fiscal year 2015/2016.

If the City Council decides to cut all the positions that Masuoka and Edgar have suggested, 366 positions would be lost, according to page 28 of the chart Masuoka referenced.

It’s unclear at this point how many actual layoffs would result if the City Council decided to cut the 366 jobs. The numbers may change during the budget process. Plus, the city uses a process of demoting some employees while laying off others that can change the numbers.

Regardless, the City Council could decide to make hundreds of layoffs in the next few weeks.

“This budget is very painful,” Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell said.

Councilwoman Angelique Ashby indicated she would make efforts to avoid layoffs to police and fire employees. As many as 80 sworn officers could be laid off in the proposed budget, according to the Sacramento Police Department.

Ashby said the citizens she represents are concerned about police and fire staffing and levee improvements.

“I’ve got to find ways to make those my top priority,” she said.

Councilman Kevin McCarty asked city staff to prepare an alternate budget that would show the city’s financial situation if the City Council made no public safety cuts.

Mayor Kevin Johnson said he was concerned about the layoffs.

Marcia Mooney, business representative for Local 39, said there could be about 150 layoffs of members of her union, who work in city services including parks maintenance, utilities and solid waste, she said. Local 39 is pressing the City Council to not put the brunt of layoffs on rank-and-file workers.

Representatives of the Sacramento Police Officers Association and Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522 addressed the City Council during the meeting.

“You’re making life-and-death decisions,” said Detective Mark Tyndale, vice president of the police union.

The police department, he said, has already been “cut to the bone.”

Jaymes Butler of the firefighters’ union said Fire Department cuts could hurt communities. The proposed budget would ramp up the number of Fire Department “brownouts” from two to six.

The city fire department has two rolling brownouts in effect, which means that certain fire trucks and engines are out of service at various times, according to former Fire Department spokesman Jim Doucette.

The next public budget meeting will be held Thursday, May 12. The Sacramento Press will publish the time and place of the meeting as soon as it can obtain that information.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Gus Vina named city manager of Encinitas

2011-05-04T05:22:29Z

Former Sacramento interim city manager Gus Vina is headed for the coast.

Vina, who resigned from his post in Sacramento in March, will start a new job on July 1 as the city manager of Encinitas in San Diego County. The Encinitas City Council announced Monday that it chose Vina, 50, for the job.

The city of roughly 60,000 is known for its beaches, surfing and flower-growing operations.

“I’m excited to be able to continue at the city manager level,” Vina said Tuesday, adding that the Southern California city will be a “completely different environment.”

The Encinitas City Council is not facing any budget troubles, Vina said. By contrast, the Sacramento City Council is grappling with a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

“We are pleased and very fortunate to have Gus join the city of Encinitas and look forward to his leadership,” said Encinitas Mayor Jim Bond in a Monday news release.

Vina earned $225,000 as interim city manager in Sacramento. He said Tuesday that he was still negotiating his salary with officials in Encinitas.

Vina had a 12-year career at Sacramento City Hall, working in a variety of management positions.

When he gave notice to the Sacramento City Council in March, he told The Sacramento Press he did not “have the confidence of the entire council.” Sacramento’s City Council chose not to promote him to the permanent city manager position in a 5-4 vote on Jan. 25.

Vina said he looks forward to working on projects in Encinitas involving beachfront restoration and street beautification on Highway 101. His priorities include updating the city’s long-term development strategy, known as a “general plan,” and monitoring city finances, he said.

The answer to one question remains unclear: Will Vina learn to surf?

“At almost 51, I don’t know,” Vina said, promising that he would be “open-minded” about the possibility.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Proposed budget would cut 100 cops, 50 fire staff

2011-04-29T00:39:05Z

Layoffs of about 100 police officers and nearly 50 Fire Department staffers are listed as possible budget cuts in the city’s proposed 2011/2012 budget, scheduled to be released Friday.

The city released a summary of the budget recommendations from Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Interim Deputy City Manager Betty Masuoka late Thursday afternoon. The budget was largely put together by previous Interim City Manager Gus Vina, who resigned last month.

The city manager’s office recommends that police officer cuts should be made in the department’s special units. The summary said that 167 full-time employees would be cut in the police department. Of the 167 employees, 98 are sworn police officers, the summary says.

“This reduction will result in the loss of the special units in order to protect patrol (units) as much as possible,” the report said.

The proposed budget would also ramp up the number of Fire Department “brownouts” from two to six, and lay off 49 full-time Fire Department employees. However, the suggested cuts to the Fire Department were unclear at press time because the city has been selected to receive a federal $5.6 million grant earmarked for firefighters.

Parks and Recreation is slated for major cuts, as well. “All but three community centers will be closed, and all but three swimming pools will be closed starting the summer of 2012,” according to the budget summary. The budget recommendations also said that youth and senior programs will face “significant reductions.”

While the city manager’s office has released budget cut plans for the police, fire and parks departments, it’s unclear how many people will actually be laid off. The City Council is responsible for all final decisions on the budget, and the numbers of proposed layoffs often change during the city budget process. Union negotiations can change the numbers. When the city cuts positions, it uses a process of demoting employees that can also change the number of layoffs.

Read the summary of the proposed budget here.

The full proposed budget is expected to be released Friday. The Sacramento Press will cover the budget in depth on Friday.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City loans California Musical Theatre $300,000

2011-04-28T01:17:51Z

The struggling California Musical Theatre in Sacramento will receive $300,000 from the city to help it stay afloat.

The Sacramento City Council unanimously decided Wednesday to loan the amount to the theater over the next three years. The theater can withdraw the money in $50,000 increments each quarter until the $300,000 total is reached, according to a report by city staff. The money will go toward the theater’s operations.

California Musical Theatre runs Music Circus, the Broadway Series and Cosmopolitan Cabaret.

“It’s an important piece of downtown,” Councilman Jay Schenirer said, referring to the theater. The business the theater brings to downtown is “incredibly important,” he added.

The city is taking $300,000 from its Community Center Theater Renovation Project for the loan.

Councilwomen Sandy Sheedy and Angelique Ashby noted that the money for the loan is designated for the arts and cannot be used in the city’s general fund.

When the theater withdraws money from the loan during a fiscal year, it must pay back the city the amount plus interest by June 30 of that fiscal year, according to the city staff report.

The theater cannot receive a bank line of credit because of its financial situation, the staff report said.

Still, the theater provides benefits to the city, according to the report. The theater employs more than 550 people, and pays $800,000 to the Sacramento Convention Center in rent annually, the report said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council weighs in on safe ground

2011-04-27T05:49:46Z

Should a group of homeless people be allowed to camp together in Sacramento without outside monitoring?

Safe Ground Sacramento, a group of mostly homeless people, says it should have the right to be “self-governing” and to operate an overnight camp independently.

But a few Sacramento City Council members said they disagreed with that idea Tuesday.

The City Council held a workshop on the safe ground issue as part of its weekly meeting. Over the past two years, Safe Ground Sacramento has asked the city to dedicate land for a site where the homeless could camp legally overnight. The city has an ordinance that bans overnight camping.

One of the group’s key principles is that its members are “self-governing” and that operations are led by elected members, according to a presentation by Safe Ground Sacramento Executive Director Stephen Watters.

The group is a community of people with “common needs,” Watters said.

“People watch out for each other and provide mutual support,” he told the City Council. “The community spirit that develops has turned people’s lives around.”

The Safe Ground Sacramento group asks its members to be drug- and alcohol-free and to not engage in violence. Members of the group camp overnight together, despite the camping ban.

But Councilman Rob Fong disagreed with the self-governance principle.

“I am not comfortable with a self-governing population,” Fong said. “I know that everyone I’ve talked to suggests that there needs to be a programmatic aspect to transitioning people out of homelessness.”

Homeless people need to be matched up with social services to help them find permanent housing, Fong said.

Mayor Kevin Johnson said he supported the safe ground idea but wanted the group to link to a social services program.

Councilman Kevin McCarty mentioned the model at Quinn Cottages, which combines housing with social services.

While Safe Ground Sacramento regularly lobbies the City Council to set aside land for homeless people to stay overnight, a spot has still not been selected.

Watters discussed the thorny issue of finding a location in an April 12 statement sent to City Council members.

“Members of the Safe Ground Sacramento Site Development Team, after concluding a series of meetings, have been unable to select an appropriate location that could be developed as a long-term housing site from the list of more than 1,900 city-owned properties provided by city staff,” Watters wrote.

“Parcels deemed appropriate based on size, proximity to public transit (i.e. Regional Transit bus and light rail stops), and other locational factors were found unacceptable due to various ecological, political and existing city planning factors when investigated in depth by the joint city / Safe Ground team.”

The group is now searching for two kinds of locations – an 18-month site as well as a permanent spot – and working on building relationships with the city and county governments and local business sector, Watters wrote.

No specific date for deciding a location was set Tuesday.

Read Watters’ statement here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council to discuss "safe ground" idea

2011-04-26T01:17:21Z

The Sacramento City Council will discuss the idea of setting aside land for the homeless on Tuesday night, but it will not decide on specific locations for a homeless living space.

Council members will participate in a workshop on the “safe ground” idea, promoted by a group that wants the city to provide a place for homeless to live together. The Safe Ground Sacramento group opposes the city’s ordinance against overnight camping.

The group, composed mostly of homeless people, has pressed its case for two years, but the city has not designated an area where the homeless can camp legally.

As part of the workshop, the Safe Ground group will present its ideas to the City Council.

Councilman Jay Schenirer, who initiated the upcoming workshop, said he wants the council to understand the safe ground plan. He pointed out that Safe Ground Sacramento now runs a campground for homeless people who are drug-free, and does not allow violence.

“For a cohort of individuals who are off drugs and violence, this is a viable alternative,” Schenirer said.

A designated living space is one of many methods that could address local homelessness, he said.

Safe Ground Sacramento is also looking at the idea of small cabins as temporary shelter for the homeless. John Kraintz, president of the group, said a community of cabins could be set up and paid for by businesses or churches in an “adopt-a-cabin” model. The cabins would have proper sanitation and clean, running water, he added.

“But first we need to get the land to put these things on,” he said.

The workshop will be part of the regular City Council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at 915 I St.

Read the city staff report on the safe ground workshop here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Costly water treatment plant upgrades ahead

2011-04-22T04:47:06Z

When the City Council approved $7.4 million for design work to upgrade the city’s two water treatment plants on Thursday night, it inched forward on a long-term and costly project to overhaul the plants.

Remodeling the city’s aging water treatment plants will take years of work, may cost about $150 million and could involve significant utilities fee hikes for property owners and businesses in Sacramento, according to an April 21 report by city staff.

But the City Council and city staff agree that the treatment plants are so old that the remodel of the plants will be necessary. One of the city’s plants, located on the Sacramento River, was built in the 1920s. The other plant was built in the 1960s and is located on the American River.

“I think we’re living on borrowed time,” Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said at Thursday night’s City Council meeting.

The council unanimously approved the $7.4 million, which comes from the city’s water fund and is not part of the general fund, according to Utilities Department Director Marty Hanneman.

City staffers said in their report to the City Council that the plants cannot remain as they are.

“Much of the existing infrastructure at the city’s water treatment plants has exceeded its service life and is at risk of failing,” the report said.

The City Council did not make any decisions Thursday on how to fund the $150 million in upgrades for the plant.

Right now, city staff is examining the idea of selling revenue bonds to pay for the projects. In that scenario, city ratepayers – property owners and businesses – would be charged an estimated 11 percent rate hike to help cover the city’s debt accrued from selling bonds, according to the city staff report.

If the council wants to set rate hikes, it could phase them out over a series of years, Hanneman said.

Hanneman said the 11 percent figure was an estimate that could change. The Utilities Department will present a funding strategy to the City Council in August, Hanneman said.

At that time, the City Council may discuss numbers that are significantly higher than $150 million, according to city staff. The department noted that it had additional upcoming infrastructure costs, such as the city’s need to replace pipes that are 100 years old, Jamille Moens, the department’s business services manager said.

Read the city staff report here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Cars on K project drives forward

2011-04-21T01:07:23Z

City staffers are moving forward on the project to bring cars to K Street, saying Wednesday that the street will see its final days as a pedestrian mall in the fall.

Nader Kamal, a senior projects manager for the city, said the street may be ready for cars by November. People will be able to drive between Eighth and 12th streets once the project is complete.

Cars have been barred from K Street since the 1960s, when the city turned it into a pedestrian mall.

“It seemed to be the trend at that time,” city Transportation Department spokeswoman Linda Tucker said, referring to pedestrian malls.

Thursday, the Law and Legislation Committee — composed of four City Council members – will examine updates to an ordinance on pedestrian malls. The ordinance updates, which would allow cars on K Street, are technical changes. The updates will need to be approved later by the full City Council. The City Council decided last year to dedicate $2.7 million to prepare K Street for cars.

Kamal said construction on K is scheduled to begin in July. The construction work will include installing a new traffic signal at 11th and K streets, changing the existing traffic signals on the street and putting in stripes for two-way lanes.

City officials and the downtown business community have said that cars on K will help attract customers to shops on that street.

The increased traffic from cars “will create just a little more visibility on K Street,” said Denise Malvetti, a senior project manager for the city.

Vehicles will also make people feel safer on K Street because the cars will bring activity to the street, she said.

But Sacramento resident Linda Moss, 63, had a different view of cars on that street. “It’s pollution,” she said, while walking from K Street to a bus stop Wednesday.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City considers cost savings with pension plan changes

2011-04-13T04:02:01Z

The Sacramento City Council is expected to consider cost-cutting changes to employee benefits and how they are managed in the next few weeks after an internal audit report moved forward Tuesday.

Recommendations for ways to save money are being made as the city grapples with an expected budget deficit of $35 million - $40 million for fiscal year 2011/2012. The four members of the City Council Audit Committee voted unanimously to forward a report on the completed Audit of Employee Health and Pension Benefits to the full council in as soon as two or three weeks.

City Auditor Jorge Oseguera gave a brief presentation on the report's five findings and some of its 28 recommendations to help solve issues determined by the audit. One of the findings indicates that the city's growing costs for employee pensions could be reduced if the city shares pension costs with all employees.

One recommendation would require police, fire and management personnel to pay into their retirement funds for the first time – which could save the city about $40 million over the next five years. Some committee members indicated after the meeting that they would consider supporting such a change in pension contributions.

However, employee contribution rates are set in labor contracts, so changes in employee contributions and the exact rates would have to be negotiated with labor unions.

"That's probably where we have to go," Committee Chair Steve Cohn said after the meeting at City Hall. "I think most of our labor unions understand that will be on the table. We're not trying to do a Wisconsin here where we impose things unilaterally."

City Councilman Jay Schenirer, Councilwoman Angelique Ashby and Councilman Darrell Fong are the other committee members.

Employee Pension Contributions

Like more than 1,500 other local public agencies statewide, the city of Sacramento has a contract with the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) to provide pension benefits to city employees after retirement. Contributions typically come from both employers and employees, according to the report.

The city's annual contribution toward pensions grew from $29 million in 2004/2005 to nearly $45 million in 2009/2010 – a total increase of more than 50 percent. Pension contribution increases have grown more quickly than city revenue, which decreased slightly year to year from 2004/2005 to 2008/2009, according to the report.

"The city's pension costs have increased over the last several years," Oseguera told the committee. "Unfortunately, those costs are projected to continue to increase well into the future."

The report recommends management, fire and police personnel who have not been contributing to their pensions now start contributing 4 percent, and management support employees who've contributed 2 percent also now pay 4 percent – the same rate as all other employees.

Sacramento employees are divided into two groups: safety workers (most fire and police department employees) and miscellaneous workers (most other employees, including managers).

For most miscellaneous employees, the city pays 14 percent for each employee's pension contribution, which includes 3 or 5 percent of what would normally be the employee's total 7 percent contribution – while the employee pays 4 or 2 percent to make up the difference.

However, exempt management, fire, police and other safety employees have not paid any contributions toward retirement pensions. The city has paid both the employer and employee contributions for those groups.

The total city contribution for these employees is also higher, ranging from about 18 percent for exempt management to nearly 32 percent for fire, police and other safety employees.

Such a change is expected to save the city an average of $7.9 million a year, or $39.7 million total, over the next five years, according to the report.

Representatives of firefighters, retired city employees and management not currently represented by a labor union raised questions and concerns and gave recommendations.

The audit didn't include comparative data from all six cities that it's required to, based on city population: San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno, Santa Ana, Anaheim and Long Beach, said former city Labor Relations Director Dee Contreras, who's leading efforts to unionize 677 employees including managers and administrative staff.

Dick Mayberry, who represents Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522, said the city and unions agreed the city would pick up the employees’ pension contribution in lieu of raises because making pension contributions cost less in the long run.

"It wasn't a gift," he said. "That was arranged as a benefit to the city."

Mayor Kevin Johnson recognizes cost-cutting measures are needed, according to his staff in a phone interview Monday. But it remains unclear whether he would support police and fire employees making contributions to their retirement benefits.

"Public safety is our top priority. In general, we have to look at opportunities to create savings across the board," mayoral spokesman Joaquin McPeek said."We must pursue them aggressively."

Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Stationary Engineers Local 39, said she agrees with the audit's findings. She thinks non-unionized managers and police and fire personnel who don't pay for retirement have an unfair advantage over other city employees. Requiring them to contribute to their retirement funds would show there isn't "favoritism" for those employees, she said Monday in a phone interview.

"If the city were to have this group of safety employees paying a portion of their retirement, it certainly would boost the morale of the people we represent," said Bryant, whose union represents about 1,400 city employees.

Committee members also agreed that Cohn should discuss with city staff when the report should go before the council in order to give city auditor staff time to respond to concerns raised Tuesday and to coordinate a possible decision with action on the city budget. Cohn will also talk with the city attorney and others to determine if any of the issues involving labor negotiations or legal strategy need to be discussed in closed session.

Schenirer said he doesn't know how much of a contribution safety and management personnel might be asked to make to their pensions. But the city can't gloss over impacts to people's lives as it works to find answers to its financial problems, he said.

"When you're facing a $40 million deficit, we're out of easy fixes," he said. But "Those are our employees. They're human beings. Those are not just numbers. We have to think about what's behind the numbers and how that affects individuals."

Staff reporter Kathleen Haley contributed to this report. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Interim city manager to earn $46,800

2011-04-12T01:01:01Z

The Sacramento City Council is expected to approve a contract Tuesday to pay new Interim City Manager Bill Edgar $46,800 for a three-month period.

If the City Council extends the contract, Edgar will earn $15,600 per month for his work for the city.

Edgar and Betty Masuoka started work as temporary city leaders on April 9. The City Council chose Edgar to be interim city manager and Masuoka to be interim deputy city manager on April 7. The pair will manage the city while the City Council searches for a permanent city manager.

The contract relates to Edgar’s employment and does not specify Masuoka’s pay. However, Edgar said Monday that Masuoka will earn $100 per hour.

The city is not paying benefits to Edgar and Masuoka, Edgar said. They will save the city money “or at least be cost-neutral,” Edgar said.

From 1993-1999, Edgar served as Sacramento’s city manager. Masuoka previously worked in the posts of assistant city manager and finance director for the city.

Edgar also said the city won’t need to pay payroll taxes for him because the city will be contracting with his company, Edgar and Associates, LLP, for his services. Contracts with the city don’t involve payroll taxes, Edgar explained.

“We want to get a permanent city manager on board as quickly as possible,” he said.

Read the city’s draft contract with Edgar here.

The City Council is expected to discuss the qualities it wants in a permanent city manager at its weekly Tuesday night meeting.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Create an online redistricting map

2011-04-09T01:21:09Z

Anyone in the city can use the city’s online tools to carve up the eight City Council districts and present their redistricting ideas to city leaders.

The mapmaking tool for the 2011 redistricting process is free to use, and the city welcomes maps from residents.

Maps developed and submitted by citizens will be shared with the City Council, the council’s redistricting advisory committee and the general public, said Maria MacGunigal, the city’s Geographic Information Systems manager.

Every decade, the city rearranges its council districts by applying U.S. Census data.The reordered districts should all have the same population, according to city staff.

“The primary objective of redistricting is to balance population,” MacGunigal said.

Another concern is the makeup of the districts: The balanced districts must not disenfranchise various groups of people, MacGunigal said. Issues related to disenfranchisement of racial groups were discussed at a Feb. 28 Neighborhood Advisory Group meeting.

The deadline to turn in maps to the city is May 16. All maps must be designed using the online tools – the city is not using paper maps, MacGunigal said. The City Council will make final decisions on redistricting in September.

The city worked with a consultant, Environmental Systems Research Institute, to set up the redistricting tool. ESRI created redistricting software, MacGunigal said, and city staff helped set up its design, function and delivery to citizens.

The online tools are sophisticated and give users the ability to share their maps with others.

“You can share your plan, you can create a group and invite users of the tool to participate with you,” MacGunigal said.

Users can work on the maps in sessions by saving their online work and returning to it – they do not have to create the map in one sitting.

The Census data shows that the city’s population rose from 407,018 in 2000 to 466,488 in 2010. With the city’s population at 466,488, each district must have 58,311 people.

District 1 is the largest, with 106,729 people. Districts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are relatively close in size, ranging in population from about 46,000 people to about 53,000 people. District 4, represented by Councilman Rob Fong, has 45,703 people, making it the least-populated district in the city.

The Sacramento Press tried out the online tools Friday for illustration purposes and to help citizens understand the process of making your own map.

First, a free account must be created.

Next, read the city’s instructions on how to use the online tools to cut up the districts.

The “create” tab is where the redistricting action takes place. Using the tools here, you can move pieces of one district to another district. Remember, the districts will need to each have 58,311 people.

Divvying up the population in the city is like playing with a Rubik’s Cube. It’s not quick or easy to bring all the districts to the same population numbers. When a user moves a piece of one district into another, the population may bring one district to the 58,311 goal but make another district much larger than 58,000.

Here is the existing map of District 1 before The Sacramento Press took a stab at it.

And here is the map of District 1 after The Sacramento Press brought it down to 58,313 people. (It was too tricky to bring it down to 58,311 on a journalism deadline.)

The Sacramento Press test map shows that it is a time-consuming process. Once a user lowers or raises a population to 58,311, the other districts may fall out of balance. While Ashby’s district was reduced to 58,313, District 2 now has too many people, with 80,119 people.

In addition, The Sacramento Press did not account for any of the crucial demographic data and how the map would affect neighborhoods. The online tool allows users to see the racial breakdown of how their maps affect communities.

City staff will hold training sessions next week that will demonstrate how to use the redistricting software. Three one-hour training sessions will be held at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., Monday, April 11, at La Familia Center Computer Lab, 5523 34th St.

Training sessions will also be held at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 13, at North Natomas Library Computer Lab, 4660 Via Ingoglia.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Zipcar attracts car-sharing fans

2011-04-08T01:26:35Z

Mary Beth Schwehr was already well-informed about car sharing when she stopped by the Zipcar tent at Cesar Chavez Plaza on Thursday.

Zipcar, a company that provides cars for people to use for short periods of time, has been operating in Sacramento for a little over a week. Company representatives were in Sacramento on Thursday to sign up customers.

Schwehr, a Sacramento County resident, said she has an older car but uses public transit to commute to work.

“I’ve been anxious for this to come to Sacramento for a long time,” Schwehr said. “Rather than having to drive my car on a day when I have some other errands that I have to do where transit doesn’t go, I’ll use the Zipcar at lunchtime and after work ... to do some errands.”

Rachel DuBose, an air quality planner for the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality District, also checked out Zipcar’s tent Thursday.

“At the air district, we really believe in getting our employees to walk and bike and ride share,” she said.

A one-year membership fee to use Zipcars in Sacramento is $50. The application fee is $25.

From Monday through Friday, the charge to use a Zipcar is $8 per hour or $66 per day, according to Dan Grossman, the company’s regional vice president. On Saturdays and Sundays, the cost is $9 per hour or $72 per day. The hourly and daily fees are on top of the membership fee.

The membership fee includes the car insurance, Grossman said. Customers pay for gas by using a charge card provided by Zipcar.

Zipcar, which formed in 2000, operates in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company has 530,000 members and 8,000 cars.

Grossman said he couldn’t comment on the number of Zipcar customers who have signed up in Sacramento.

Zipcar representatives parked a Honda Insight car at Cesar Chavez Plaza to demonstrate to prospective customers how the car works.

To use a Zipcar, a member makes a reservation online or by phone. Grossman held a card over a built-in modem attached to the window of the Honda. The card unlocks the door, he said, and the customer can find the ignition key inside. The cards to unlock the Zipcars are given to members, according to Grossman.

City Councilman Steve Cohn joined the small group of people at the Zipcar tent, saying that he and the Sacramento Air Quality Management District had both advocated for a car-sharing program in Sacramento.

“What this does is it enables people that have that occasional need (to drive) not to have to invest in a very expensive car, insurance (and) all the upkeep,” he said.

Cohn said the city is now contracting with Zipcar in an effort to save costs on the city’s vehicle fleet. The city wants to scale down the number of vehicles it owns and maintains, he said. To save money on city fleet expenses, the city agreed to use Zipcar services, Cohn added.

The city also gave Zipcar the use of 10 city parking spaces, he said.

Read the list of downtown locations where Zipcars will be available.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Green waste on-the-street pickup rates could rise

2011-04-07T00:45:48Z

Loose-in-the-street green waste pickup may become more expensive for residents, according to comments made by City Council members Tuesday night.

During a discussion of green waste at Tuesday’s council meeting, the council asked city staff to prepare detailed plans for raising the rates on loose-in-the-street pickup and reducing the level of pickup service from weekly to biweekly. Council members did not make any final decisions on the issue.

Gerald Celestine, a founding member of Friends of Fremont Park, said Wednesday that he thinks loose-in-the-street pickup works better than container pickup for Central City residents.

“We have more trees,” he said. “We have much more green waste.”

The idea of using multiple containers also doesn’t work, he said, because there is not adequate room in the street to place the containers. “Where would people park?” he asked.

The Central City’s situation may be addressed by city staff in the future: The City Council asked staff to provide more information about ways to deal with geographic areas that are particularly leafy.

The city’s systems of green waste pickup – containers and loose-in-the-street – are linked to a 1977 law. Voters passed Measure A that year, which says City Hall cannot force residents to use green waste containers.

While the city says that only 12,121 properties now use loose-in-the-street pickup, it must offer loose-in-the-street pickup because of Measure A.

By contrast, 103,787 properties in the city are using containers now, according to the Utilities Department.

The rate cannot remain at $13.71 per month because there are so few people now sharing the cost burden, according to city staff.

City staff argue that keeping the rates at $13.71 breaks state law Proposition 218, which says utilities rates must correspond to the costs of providing utilities services.

The rates should be higher, according to city staff, because so few people are still using loose-in-the-street pickup that their service is being subsidized by other solid waste rates.

Councilman Kevin McCarty noted Tuesday that city staff would work with the city’s Utilities Rate Advisory Commission on plans to raise rates for loose-in-the-street pickup.

Utilities Department staff has suggested raising rates for weekly loose-in-the-street pickup from $13.71 to $40 per month to match the costs of the service.

Alternately, staff suggested that the City Council could raise rates from $13.71 to $25, but scale down the service from weekly to every other week to align with the cost of service.

Staff also pointed out that the city still provides eight loose-in-the-street pickups each year to customers who use containers.

While council members said they want to explore the ideas of raising rates for pickup, McCarty and Cohn expressed hesitancy about the dollar amounts that staff proposed and noted that they weren’t agreeing to those amounts Tuesday night.

“Let’s not be on the record saying we approve either one,” Cohn said.

Council members also said they want to ask the public to vote in 2012 on whether to repeal Measure A.

“I’d like to go to the voters as soon as possible to take a look at repealing Measure A from 1977,” McCarty said Wednesday. “Clearly, times have changed, and I think we ought to look at reversing course on this 35-year-old policy.”

McCarty said there are a number of benefits to containers, including improved air quality resulting from fewer trucks picking up leaves and cleaner bike lanes.

Utilities Department spokeswoman Jessica Hess said the department has not yet set a date for when the green waste issue will be addressed at City Council again.

“We have a desire to correct the issue,” Hess said. “We are going to work on getting that expedited.”

Read the staff report here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City treasurer explains Kings' contracts

2011-04-06T00:41:58Z

City Treasurer Russ Fehr explained the city’s contracts with the Sacramento Kings in a Tuesday interview, saying that the 1997 contracts anticipated a scenario in which the Kings may move.

Kings owners are legally bound to pay the city $77 million in lease revenue bonds before relocating.

Fehr pointed out specific paragraphs in July 1, 1997 agreements that say that if the Kings have not paid their loan, they cannot move out of town. The city’s concern that the Kings repay the loan in light of the team’s possible move is not a new development, Fehr said.

“It was thought of 14 years ago” in the 1997 contract, Fehr said.

The 1997 agreements were made between the city and the Kings’ former owner, Jim Thomas. The Maloofs assumed the debt to the city in 1999, when they purchased a majority share of the team.

A “team owner’s relocation assurance agreement” between the Sacramento Kings Limited Partnership and the city includes language saying that the Kings must pay their debt.

“That’s what we’re trying to enforce,” Fehr said last week, referring to the relocation agreement, which is a public document.

The agreement confronts the possibility of the Kings leaving town without paying the loan.

“The team owner hereby covenants and agrees it will not relocate the Kings from Sacramento, California to another venue if the city obligation is not satisfied,” according to the document.

If the Kings move to Anaheim despite the rules in the contract, they would still have to pay back the loan and would also be the arena’s owner.

The Kings face an April 18 deadline to ask the NBA if the team can be relocated.

View the contract here.

Staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this report. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Community gardens to be discussed

2011-04-05T01:42:17Z

Four Sacramento council members will discuss ideas for growing the number of community gardens in the city on Tuesday afternoon.

City Council members Jay Schenirer, Sandy Sheedy, Darrell Fong and Steve Cohn sit on the Law and Legislation Committee, which analyzes ideas for local ordinances. The committee will examine ways to regulate community gardens and increase their presence.

Councilman Rob Fong spurred the committee’s discussion, according to a city staff report. The city should do everything it can to encourage community gardening and to explore urban farming, Fong said Monday.

“I just think we need to utilize our spaces well,” Fong said.

Committee members will evaluate a proposed ordinance that would lay out how residents could create community gardens on their private properties, according to Joy Patterson, principal planner for the city.

“The city already has a community garden program,” Patterson said, explaining that the proposed ordinance will relate to private citizens and private property.

The ordinance would set rules for community gardens on vacant, private land, Patterson said.

The proposed rules for community gardens would vary depending on a garden’s size. If a proposed garden is less than 16,600 square feet, citizens who want to maintain the garden could easily register their garden with their city and pay a small processing fee, according to the report.

The city’s zoning administrator would need to approve gardens for spaces that are larger than 16,600 feet because these gardens may have a bigger impact on nearby areas, according to the report.

The Planning Commission would be in charge of issuing permits for community gardens on private lands that are one acre or larger, the report said.

The proposed ordinance being discussed by the Law and Legislation Committee Tuesday would also need to be addressed by the city’s Planning Commission and the City Council, according to the staff report.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department oversees eight community gardens. Bill Maynard, the city’s community gardening director, said community gardens produce oxygen and beautify communities.

The committee will meet Tuesday, 3 p.m., Sacramento City Hall, 915 I St.

Read the staff report on the community gardens discussion here.

View Community gardens overseen by the city in a larger map

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Two new spots on redistricting committee

2011-03-31T01:24:56Z

Two seats are still available on the city’s redistricting advisory committee.

The Sacramento City Council decided Tuesday to reopen the application period after Latino residents said they were concerned that Latinos were not represented on the committee.

“We were very dismayed to see there were no Latinos appointed,” Vanessa Cajina, president of the Latino Democratic Club of Sacramento, told the City Council.

Council members unanimously voted to add two more seats to the committee, bringing the number of seats to 15.

The new deadline for residents to apply online for the two new seats is April 3 at midnight.

The City Council did not say whether Latinos would be selected for the new seats.

The city reshapes its council districts once each decade, using U.S. Census data. Each district should have the same population when the districts are reorganized, according to city staff.

Nine of the 13 members selected for the advisory committee so far were named by individual council members and Mayor Kevin Johnson.

The other four members were chosen through the city’s Personnel and Public Employees committee. The committee nominated the following four people: Linn Hom, Natomas activist; Miranda Perry, League of Women Voters staffer; Phil Pluckebaum, vice president of River Park Neighborhood Association and Maya Wallace, a state employee.

The council is expected to officially confirm the 15 members on April 12, according to city staff. It’s likely that the 13 people already selected will be confirmed.

Read about the nine committee members selected by individual council members here.

Learn how to apply for an open committee seat here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Anaheim approves $75 million in bonds for Kings, Honda Center

2011-03-30T05:28:52Z

In less than two hours Tuesday night, the Anaheim City Council paved the way for the Sacramento Kings to relocate there by agreeing to issue $75 million in bonds – $25 million to improve the Honda Center and $50 million for a loan to the Kings.

The council's unanimous vote by its five members propelled Sacramento further on its path toward losing the National Basketball Association team that has made its home in the state capital for 26 years.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait presided over what he described as a historic meeting.

"Tonight, Anahiem took a giant step closer to bringing an NBA team to Anaheim and the Honda Center," Tait said. "I am thrilled. I think a better word is 'stoked.' "

The council's move was supported by many in Anaheim and Orange County's business community, who spoke during a public hearing that preceded the vote. Neither the Kings' owners, the Maloofs, nor Anaheim Arena Management owner, billionaire Henry Samueli, spoke at the meeting at Anaheim City Hall.

Anaheim Arena Management later issued a statement saying the council's vote was sure to be seen favorably by the NBA board of directors, which is expected to vote April 14 or 15 on a request from the Kings to relocate. The Kings must file a request for relocation by April 18.

“We are grateful to the entire leadership group of the city of Anaheim, who tonight fully endorsed our shared efforts to bring an NBA franchise to the region,” Michael Schulman, chairman of Anaheim Arena Management, said in the prepared statement. "This vote is an important first step as we continue working toward hosting an NBA franchise at Honda Center.”

The loan to the Kings is expected to cover the team’s moving costs, which include a hefty relocation fee from the NBA.

The bonds will be issued only if the team and Anaheim Arena Management sign a venue contract within 180 days and the team relocates, Anaheim spokeswoman Ruth Ruiz confirmed.

The Kings' name was never mentioned Tuesday during consecutive meetings of the Anaheim City Council and the city's Public Financing Authority. The authority, consisting of the same members as the council, also approved authorizing the bond issuance and the terms.

The taxable lease revenue bonds will be issued by the Anaheim Public Financing Authority and financed by three private investment companies. Anaheim and its taxpayers won't be obligated to repay the bonds under any circumstances, Anaheim Finance Director Bob Wingenroth said.

The bonds have a 10-year term, and investors will be reimbursed from arena revenue over that period.

The agreement requires the team name to include "Anaheim," rather than "Orange County" or any other location identifier.

The council's decision ignored a request made Monday by Sacramento city officials that Anaheim drop the financing plan and stop negotiating with the Kings. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson indicated Tuesday afternoon he wouldn't oppose the team's move if the Maloofs repay $77 million in lease revenue bonds owed to Sacramento – and the Maloofs assured him Monday that they would.

Johnson also said the Maloofs may agree to let the city run Power Balance Pavilion after paying off the loan. The Maloofs agreed to be "good partners" and do what is in the city's best interest, Johnson said during a press conference in North Highlands Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday morning, Kings owner Joe Maloof issued a statement calling the loan from Sacramento a "non-issue."

"We’ve always paid our financial obligations in the past, we’re going to do it in the present and we’re going to do it in the future," Maloof said in the statement. "Whatever the future holds to ensure the long-term viability of the team, the city of Sacramento will be paid in full.”

The council approved a venue contract between the team and Anaheim Arena Management that requires the team to use the Honda Center as its home base for at least 15 years. The council also approved extending its facility management agreement with Anaheim Arena Management by another 10 years to June 2033.

Anaheim's 18,336-seat arena, which the city owns, was built to accommodate two professional sports teams and opened in 1993. Anaheim is close to realizing a "20-year dream" to bring an NBA team to the city, Anaheim Councilwoman Kris Murray said.

Also Tuesday, state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento promised to do everything he could to protect the Sacramento region's "economic well-being." He is considering legislation, as requested by the city, to force the Maloofs to repay the Sacramento loan if needed, Steinberg spokesman Mark Hedlund said.

"His primary concern is to ensure Sacramento is made whole by full repayment of the city's $70-plus million loan if the Kings leave," Hedlund said in an emailed statement. "He's also concerned with the possibility Anaheim may use taxpayer funds to entice a business to leave one major California city to relocate in another major California city."

Meanwhile, the ICON-Taylor group, which is studying the feasibility of building a new arena in Sacramento, has not met with the Maloofs, Sacramento Assistant City Manager John Dangberg told the Sacramento City Council Tuesday evening.

The ICON-Taylor group is making “significant progress in their analysis and are moving forward regardless of what happens with Anaheim,” Dangberg said.

The developers are likely to complete their arena analysis in mid-May, he said.

Before the vote, city attorney Eileen Teichert fired off a letter to Tait asking Anaheim to continue consideration of the environmental impacts of the new Honda Center operations until conducting a "proper" environmental review or issuing a mitigated negative declaration saying the project will have no impact. Anaheim did not respond to that request.

At the Sacramento City Council meeting, the mayor said Anaheim’s decision to give $75 million in financial incentives to the Kings was not a surprise.

“I think it’s disappointing," Johnson said. "(But) I think Anaheim made a decision that’s in their best interest.”

Staff reporter Kathleen Haley contributed to this report. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Johnson: Maloofs say they'll pay loan

2011-03-29T23:32:44Z

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said the Maloofs told him Monday they would pay back the $77 million in lease revenue bonds they borrowed from the city in 1997.

Johnson told reporters about his conversation with the Maloofs at a press conference in North Highlands Tuesday.

Assistant City Manager John Dangberg sent a letter to the city of Anaheim Monday asking officials to stop negotiating with the Kings to be their new host city. If Anaheim won’t stop talks with the Kings, then Sacramento wants Anaheim to require the Kings to pay their debt to Sacramento, the letter said.

“The Maloofs have told me, time and time again, that they are going to fulfill the obligation and pay back the loan,” Johnson said.

They have consistently made their loan payments, he said.

However, the city sent its letter to Anaheim with taxpayers in mind, he said. The city is looking for “written assurance” that the Maloofs won’t ignore the loan.

“We need to make sure that our interests – the interests of the taxpayers – are protected,” Johnson said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council's closed meetings on Vina examined

2011-03-29T00:43:59Z

A number of recent City Council meetings relating to Interim City Manager Gus Vina, including the council’s January vote against his promotion, have been closed to the public. An attorney and open government advocate commented on the Brown Act Friday, saying he opposes “closed session” meetings on hiring and firing matters affecting the city manager.

Terry Francke, an attorney for the nonprofit open government group Californians Aware said city manager hiring and firing decisions should be made public.

Central to the issue of closed meetings is the way city officials interpret the Brown Act, a state law intended to make government meetings open to the public at the local level.

The City Council met in a closed session on Jan. 25, when it decided in a 5-4 vote not to promote Vina to the permanent city manager position. City Attorney Eileen Teichert said the closed session complied with the Brown Act.

“The closed session was duly noticed for the purpose of considering appointment or employment of the city manager, consistent with the Brown Act,” Teichert wrote in a Feb. 3 email. “The council’s decision in that closed session to proceed with a nationwide search was a byproduct of their discussions whether or not to appoint Mr. Vina as city manager.”

But Francke noted that the City Council made a choice to hold the meeting in closed session, saying that the Brown Act allows city councils to hold personnel discussions in closed sessions, but does not require it. In Francke’s view, the public should be welcome at discussions on city manager hiring and firing.

"People have a right to know about his or her qualifications and performance for two reasons,” he said.

“First of all, because they have a great interest in knowing the job is being done well, or, if not, what needs to be improved. Secondly, since this person is the most influential individual in the city structure, the council itself needs to be held accountable for choosing the right person and providing direction in a way that's appropriate to their responsibilities,” he added.

The council’s vote and decision to hold a national search for city manager was announced in the public City Council meeting held later in the evening on Jan. 25. But the discussion leading to the vote was held behind closed doors.

As a result, the public has no on-the-record information for why five of the members of the City Council voted against promoting Vina.

Vina told the City Council Friday that he was resigning with two weeks notice. His last day on the job will be April 8.

Council members Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty, Darrell Fong and Bonnie Pannell were the five who voted against promoting Vina in January. They are not speaking publicly about why they voted for a national search and did not promote Vina.

They did not return phone calls from The Sacramento Press Friday.

In early February, McCarty said he declined to comment on his vote because it was a “personnel” and “closed session” matter.

Teichert said in her Feb. 3 email that the council members cannot talk about the closed session meeting.

“The Brown Act, the privacy rights of the candidate, and the City Council’s confidentiality policy preclude disclosure of any confidential discussions during closed session,” she wrote.

But Francke said closed sessions on city manager hiring and firing signal that city officials are hiding from the public.

“If their decision, on this person, is shrouded from public accountability, their single most important decision is also shrouded,” he said. “And, if that's the case, then they're ducking accountability and public scrutiny, as well.”

Read the full text of the Brown Act here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Vina transfers pressures with budget, unions to council

2011-03-28T02:09:57Z

The clock is ticking for the Sacramento City Council.

Sacramento Interim City Manager Gus Vina’s resignation on Friday morning means that the City Council must take immediate actions that will impact the city budget and labor negotiations with municipal unions.

Council members must find a new top city official one month before the city’s proposed budget is due. Vina’s resignation also means that the city’s labor unions will take up budget negotiations with a new city leader.

“We don’t have time to grieve,” City Councilman Steve Cohn said in an interview Friday.

Cohn was one of four council members who supported Vina’s earlier effort to become Sacramento’s next permanent city manager. In a split 5-4 vote on Jan. 25, the City Council decided not to promote Vina to the permanent city manager position. The five council members who voted to hold a national search for a new city manager were Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty, Darrell Fong and Bonnie Pannell.

Though the council did not promote him on Jan. 25, Vina said in February that he planned to compete in the national search.

But that plan came to a halt Friday, when Vina gave his resignation letter to the City Council and Mayor Kevin Johnson. He gave two weeks’ notice and will leave his post April 8.

“I need to move on and pursue other opportunities because I feel that for a city manager to be effective, you really have to have the confidence of the entire council,” Vina told The Sacramento Press on Friday. “I don’t feel that’s the case right now.”

Like Cohn, Councilwoman Angelique Ashby also commented on the need for the City Council to move rapidly.

“For me, he was the front-runner to be the next city manager for the city of Sacramento,” Ashby said. “Now, I think we have a pretty big challenge on our hands. We need to make some quick decisions. We need to come together as a council and really look at the future of our city.”

“And (we need to) find ways to be successful coming out of this situation,” she added.

Johnson’s office had not released a statement on Vina’s resignation by press time, even though spokesman Joaquin McPeek said a statement would be issued on Friday. Johnson supported Vina’s bid to become permanent city manager, saying in January that he hoped Vina would apply for the job in the national search.

The five council members who voted against promoting Vina in January did not return phone calls seeking comment on Friday. The Sacramento Press left phone messages with McCarty, Darrell Fong, Rob Fong, Sheedy’s office, Sheedy’s District Director Joann Cummins and Pannell’s office.

Turnover for the city manager position has been high lately. The City Council selected Vina for the interim post one year ago. Former City Manager Ray Kerridge resigned in February 2010.

New leader must grapple with city budget, union negotiations

The city’s government structure empowers the city manager to develop the city budget. While the City Council makes all final decisions on the budget, the city manager is responsible for preparing the proposed budget document.

Budget preparation at Sacramento City Hall is a weighty responsibility, especially in light of the city’s $35-40 million budget gap.

While the city is in the midst of a major budget shortfall, Cohn and Vina both expressed confidence that Vina’s departure would not delay the budget.

Cohn said Vina told him that the draft budget is on track and should be available to the public by the May 1 deadline. Cohn also said the city has experienced staffers working on the budget.

Vina said Friday that he is carrying out his budget responsibilities.

“We are very close to finishing the proposed budget,” Vina said. “It will be ready to meet the May 1 deadline.... I committed to council that I would get the budget done, and I will.”

But Councilman Jay Schenirer indicated that Vina’s departure will make the budget process more challenging.

“I think it’s a difficult time for the city right now,” Schenirer said. The budget process “was certainly a place where Gus was very strong,” he added.

While Cohn said he was confident that the budget work will get done on time, he expressed concern about labor negotiations, which are often a key part of balancing the budget.

The city manager’s responsibility as leader of labor negotiations for the city is critical, he said, especially when the city is asking the unions to make concessions.

“The bigger problem I see down the line is labor negotiations,” Cohn said.

Mark Tyndale, vice president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association, said his union was already talking to Vina about issues that would affect the city’s budget. Vina’s resignation interrupts that process, Tyndale said.

“These relationships are really important for us,” Tyndale said, noting that SPOA was able to communicate well with Vina, even when the union disagreed with him.

“With Gus departing ... it takes us back to square one,” Tyndale said.

However, another major city union may prefer Vina’s replacement over Vina.

Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Stationary Engineers Local 39, said on Friday that she strongly opposed Vina’s recent decision to award raises to Finance Director Leyne Milstein, Human Resources Director Geri Hamby, Community Development Director Max Fernandez and Police Chief Rick Braziel.

Local 39 represents city workers in the areas of solid waste, code enforcement and animal care, Bryant said. The union represented 1,600 full-time city employees, according to statistics provided by Bryant last September.

“I think he was rewarding his loyalists,” Bryant said.

The amount of money in raises that went to top officials could have paid the salary of a parks worker, she said.

Vina raised Hamby’s salary from $151,402 to $162,000. Fernandez’ salary jumped from $164,445 to $172,667. Milstein’s salary rose from $131,270 to $150,304.

Braziel received an 8 percent raise in June, four days before he told the public he would not leave the city of Sacramento for a potential police chief position in Seattle.

Maurice Chaney, acting city spokesman for the city, responded to questions about the raises on Vina’s behalf in February.

“Two of the three salary changes (Community Development director and the HR director) were envisioned as the next planned step of last fiscal year's consolidation process, which occurred last July and resulted in a cost savings of more than $4 million,” Chaney wrote in an e-mail to The Sacramento Press. “Salary adjustments specific to these positions were considered because of the associated increases in departmental duties that resulted with these mergers.”

Chaney also commented on the raise for Milstein.

“The finance director has played a crucial role during the last four years in assisting with a budget deficit that has affected all city employees,” he wrote.

On the topic of Braziel’s raise, city spokeswoman Amy Williams said in September that he deserved the money because he had voluntarily taken a pay cut in 2008 with the understanding that it would be restored later.

Is Sacramento an unstable city?

In the view of city employee Cindy Bates, Vina’s resignation will not destabilize the city government.

“He’s left competent leaders behind to take care of the ship,” said Bates, a program analyst in the transportation department.

But Sacramento Metro Chamber President Matt Mahood said Vina’s resignation is bad for business.

The business community must work with the city government, he said, giving the example of the requirement for businesses to receive city permits. An unstable city government discourages businesses within the region and those looking to bring business to the city, he said.

“There’s a lot of instability in the city of Sacramento, and that does not help foster a positive business environment,” he said Friday.

Mahood said the council members should change the way they interact if the city manager feels like he has to resign because he doesn’t have their support.

The council members need to align more with each other, he said, “and figure out a way to work together.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Vina resigns weeks before budget due date

2011-03-26T00:45:09Z

Interim City Manager Gus Vina’s resignation comes just weeks before the city must propose a budget for the next fiscal year.

In Sacramento’s city government, the city manager prepares a proposed budget and the City Council makes final budget decisions. Vina told the Sacramento Press on Friday afternoon that the proposed budget will be on time even though he is leaving April 8.

“We are very close to finishing the proposed budget,” Vina said. “It will be ready to meet the May 1 deadline … I committed to council that I would get the budget done and I will.”

He said he was leaving because he was not supported by the full City Council. “I need to move on and pursue other opportunities because I feel that for a city manager to be effective, you really have to have the confidence of the entire council,” he said. “I don’t feel that’s the case right now.”

The City Council voted 5-4 on Jan. 25 against promoting Vina to the permanent city manager position.

Council members Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty, Darrell Fong and Bonnie Pannell voted to conduct a national search for a new city manager.

Mayor Kevin Johnson said then that the council felt that Vina did a “great job” as interim city manager.

Vina said in February that he planned to compete in the national search.

It’s unclear at this point who will replace Vina as interim city manager, said city spokesoman Maurice Chaney. The City Council will decide the next steps, Chaney said.

“In terms of identifying who will fill that void, (that) has yet to be determined,” Chaney said.

The City Council selected Vina for the interim post one year ago. Former City Manager Ray Kerridge resigned in February 2010.

Read in-depth coverage of the impact of Vina’s resignation Sunday.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Editorial Note: This is an updated version of an earlier story.

City manager search stalled

2011-03-23T04:50:25Z

The city’s search for a new city manager has been delayed for weeks, according to the consultant leading the search.

The exact reasons for the delay are unclear, but a discussion at Tuesday’s City Council meeting indicated that the delay involves miscommunication between the City Council, City Attorney Eileen Teichert, city Human Resources Manager Geri Hamby and the consultant, Stuart Satow, an executive recruiter for CPS Human Resource Services.

Council members had been scheduled to tell Satow their opinions on city manager characteristics Feb. 22, but decided then that they didn’t want to have that discussion at that meeting.

Satow said Tuesday that he has not yet received direction from the City Council members and mayor about the qualities they want in a city manager.

“We’re not too far behind the eight ball, yet,” Satow told the City Council. “But the longer we wait, the further back the recruitment’s going to go, and the later you’re going to have candidates for consideration.”

An issue related to the delay is how the City Council can discuss the qualifications for the next city manager in a way that follows the Brown Act, the public meetings law aimed at making local government meetings transparent to the public.

Teichert said Tuesday it would be legally appropriate for Satow to meet individually with council members to ask them about the qualifications they are seeking in a city manager.

At the Feb. 22 City Council meeting, Teichert discouraged the council from meeting in a closed session on the topic of the qualities they seek in city manager, saying the topic didn’t meet legal requirements for a closed meeting. She said that closed sessions are allowed to protect the privacy of particular employees. A closed meeting on qualifications for a city manager does not meet that standard, according to Teichert.

Councilman Steve Cohn said he disagreed with Teichert’s opinion on the matter, but he added that he would follow it. He said he had liked the idea of the City Council meeting to discuss the qualifications in a closed session and then making the input public.

Councilman Darrell Fong indicated it was not his fault that he has not yet provided information on the qualities he seeks in a city manager.

“I’ve never been contacted at all,” he said.

But Hamby responded that she had sent three communications to the mayor and City Council about how the consultant needed more information.

The council members decided to talk to Satow individually about the elements they’re seeking in a city manager.

Interim City Manager Gus Vina’s term ends in late June.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mueller: From councilwoman to federal judge

2011-03-22T01:14:08Z

The wide range of professions represented by U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller’s friends show the depth of her long involvement in Sacramento’s legal and political worlds.

A mix of well-wishers that included state Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, black-robed judges and a retired animal control manager all gathered earlier this month to honor Mueller in her new position as a federal judge.

U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Mueller for the position and the U.S. Senate approved her candidacy in December. Mueller’s official ceremony or “investiture” for the position was held March 11 at the federal courthouse on I Street in Sacramento.

Mueller, 53, sat down with The Sacramento Press last week to discuss her career in Sacramento.

A past life in city politics

Mueller, the first woman to become a federal judge in the Eastern District of California, has roots at Sacramento City Hall. She said she loved working with constituents and solving local problems when she served as a city councilwoman from 1987 to 1992.

“City Council really was a way of being a public servant in an elected capacity,” she said, adding that serving on the council was a “great privilege.”

Though she was born in Newton, Kansas, and raised in Grinnell, Iowa, Mueller’s career has centered around Sacramento. She moved to Sacramento in 1981 after graduating cum laude from Pomona College.

“I grew up professionally here,” she said.

Ruben Mora, a retired animal control manager for the city government, has positive memories of working with her when she was on the City Council. In an interview, Mora said Mueller was considerate with her constituents and city staff.

“She’s a real caring person,” Mora said.

Mora, who worked for the city for 40 years, said he expected Mueller to achieve success because of her caring personality. “I felt like she was going to go a long way,” he said.

Mora attended Mueller’s ceremony earlier this month, where he watched state Senate President Steinberg give a speech in her honor.

Steinberg also has a City Hall connection with Mueller – he ran for Mueller’s City Council seat when Mueller left politics to attend law school at Stanford University in the early 1990s.

“He got his political start because I went to law school,” Mueller said.

A federal career in Sacramento

When Mueller left politics, she left it for good. As a judge, she doesn’t participate in local groups apart from the district court’s historical society and the Sacramento Trust for Historic Preservation.

She worked as a U.S. magistrate judge at the federal courthouse for eight years before she became a federal district judge. Mueller worked as an attorney earlier in her legal career.

Her husband, developer Bob Slobe, had suggested that she apply for the district judge position.

Mueller said Slobe told her: “I think this is the kind of thing that would appeal to you.”

It took her awhile to decide to apply, she said.

As a district judge, she now handles both civil and criminal cases that relate to federal law. Federal issues surrounding drugs, immigration and guns are the types of cases she manages, she said.

She earns a salary of $174,000 in her new position.

Tam Ma, a Sacramento resident and third-year law student at UC Berkeley, externed for Mueller a few months ago, when Mueller was still a magistrate judge.

“I think she really took a lot of time to sit down and talk to me,” Ma said.

Mueller said she doesn’t feel superior because of her success.

“The law keeps you grounded,” she said. “You will never know anything there is to know ... This profession is, in my mind, automatically humbling.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Gay community forms redistricting group

2011-03-17T01:10:57Z

Gay leaders in Sacramento are organizing an effort for their community to be considered in the city’s redistricting process.

The gay community has formed a redistricting committee through the Sacramento Rainbow Chamber of Commerce’s foundation.

Rosanna Herber, chair of the new committee, said the center of the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is in Midtown and downtown.

“We would like to see those areas in one district,” Herber said.

The LGBT population wants to be considered a “community of interest,” which is one of the elements the City Council will use to redesign its districts, Herber said.

Steve Hansen, a member of the city’s advisory redistricting committee who is also active in the gay community’s redistricting effort, said the LGBT vote is now split between three City Council districts in the city’s urban core. Because three council districts represent the area, the gay community’s vote is weakened, he said.

“And we’ve never had a LGBT official on the City Council or on the County Board of Supervisors. Our electoral power has been diluted,” he said.

Specific numbers on how many people identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in the city are unclear at this point.

The group is using statistics from city voters’ positions on Proposition 8 to show that LGBT community members and supporters are concentrated in the city’s urban core, Hansen said.

In the 2010 U.S. Census, people had the option of filling out information on whether they are married to or living with a same-sex partner.

The data on same-sex couples is expected to be released later this year or early next year, according to Hansen.

Scot Mende, the city’s new growth manager, confirmed that the city has not yet received any Census data on same-sex couples.

If the data is released after September, it may not assist the gay community’s effort with the redistricting process, as the city must complete the process by September, according to the city charter.

Mende said the city doesn’t have Census data to back up a strict geographic boundary for the LGBT community. Still, the city is open to the idea of an LGBT community of interest, he said.

“We are open to anecdotal evidence if someone can explain reasonably well where that community resides,” he said.

View the Sacramento Rainbow Chamber Redistricting Committee's map of Proposition 8 votes in Sacramento County:

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City wants 65th Street bike lanes

2011-03-15T00:35:46Z

New bike lanes could be added to 65th Street if the city receives enough cash from the state.

The City Council is expected to approve the application for funding to install bicycle lanes on 65th Street between Fourth Avenue and Folsom Boulevard. The issue will be reviewed at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

The city’s transportation department estimates the new bike lanes will cost $337,000 to install. California would pay most of the project’s costs if it selects the city’s application for the state’s Bicycle Transportation Account grant program. The city would pay 10 percent of the cost from revenues from Measure A, a local half-cent sales tax applied to street projects, according to Ed Cox, the city’s bike and pedestrian coordinator.

“The city is seeking to put bike lanes at this location because there are few opportunities to cross Highway 50,” Cox said in an e-mail Monday.

Bike lanes at the 65th Street site would link bicyclists to several key spots, he said.

“This location happens to connect existing student housing at Fourth Avenue to the (Sacramento) State campus,” Cox said. “It also connects East Sacramento residents to the new Target store, and it connects residents south of Highway 50 to the 65th Street light rail station.”

Tricia Hedahl, executive director of the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates organization, spoke positively about the city’s plans. She said bike lanes on 65th Street would link with the T Street bikeway, allowing bicyclists more access to points such as Sacramento State.

“This is a really important connection,” Hedahl said.

At the same time, she said she is concerned about the high traffic on 65th Street. If the city moves forward on the project, it should ensure that bike lanes are 6 feet wide and “very visible,” she said.

The city could create the bike lanes by October 2012 if the state decides to fund the project, according to Cox.

Read the report by city staff on the bike lanes proposal here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Redistricting committee members appointed

2011-03-12T03:26:33Z

The City Council has appointed nine of the 13 members of the citizens’ advisory committee on redistricting.

Each council member and the mayor selected one committee member. City Clerk Shirley Concolino announced the appointees at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Their names are listed below.

U.S. Census data helps shape the redistricting process, which occurs each decade. When new lines are drawn, each district should have the same number of people, according to city staff.

In a Jan. 18 report, city staffers wrote that the following elements will be assessed in the redistricting process: topography, geography, cohesiveness, continuity, “integrity and compactness of territory,” community of interests, existing neighborhoods and community boundaries.

The other four advisory committee members will be selected through a different process. The city’s Personnel and Public Employees committee, composed of four council members, will evaluate 34 applicants for the remaining positions on March 15.

Later, the full City Council will vote to approve the four committee members, according to Scot Mende, the city’s new growth manager.

The council is expected to decide on the four members in the next few weeks. The citizens’ committee is scheduled to start meeting next month, according to the schedule for the redistricting process.

The committee will make suggestions to the council on the redistricting process, and the council will make the final decisions on restructuring the districts. The City Council is mandated by the city charter to finish the process by September.

Political communications consultant Steve Maviglio will return to the realm of city politics as Mayor Kevin Johnson’s appointee on the redistricting committee.

Maviglio is a former volunteer spokesman and campaign manager for Johnson. The Sacramento Bee reported earlier this week that Maviglio is the new communications representative for Californians for Health Care and Retirement Security, a group representing government employee unions.

In an interview Thursday, Maviglio said he would focus on neighborhoods in the redistricting process. “My philosophy is that neighborhoods should be kept together as much as possible,” he said.

Steve Hansen, who was selected by Councilman Jay Schenirer, said some of the current districts don’t make sense because they break up Tahoe Park, Valley Hi and the urban core of the city. “Tahoe Park is split in half,” he said, between Districts 5 and 6.

Hansen, who serves as the vice chair of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s board, lives in District 1 but was selected by the District 5 council member. Appointees for the committee were not required to live in the same district as the council members who selected them.

Here is the list of appointees to the citizen’s advisory committee on redistricting:

Mayor Kevin Johnson: Steve Maviglio, political communications consultant

Angelique Ashby, District 1: Roman Porter, executive director of the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission

Sandy Sheedy, District 2: Bill Camp, executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council

Steve Cohn, District 3: Cyril Shah, commissioner, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency

Rob Fong, District 4: Julius Cherry, former fire chief for the city of Sacramento

Jay Schenirer, District 5: Steve Hansen, vice chair of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership

Kevin McCarty, District 6: Bill Motmans, president of the Tahoe Park Neighborhood Association

Darrell Fong, District 7: Bernard Bowler, former board chair of the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce

Bonnie Pannell, District 8: Sandra Frye-Lucas, faculty member of Sacramento Unified School District Florin Technology Educational Center. Ph.d. from UC Davis’ School of Education.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Census: Ashby's District 1 grew 123 percent

2011-03-10T02:34:34Z

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby’s district has grown 123 percent since 2000, skyrocketing from a population of 47,670 in 2000 to a population of 106,729 in 2010. But it won’t stay that way for much longer – the city intends to chop it up in this year’s redistricting process.

The 2010 U.S. Census numbers relating to the city’s redistricting process came in Tuesday, three weeks earlier than the city had expected, said Scot Mende, the city’s new growth manager. And Ashby’s District 1, which includes North and South Natomas and part of downtown, is much larger now than any other district.

Maria MacGunigal, the city’s Geographic Information System manager, attributes the changes in District 1 to “unprecedented growth” in Natomas over the last 10 years.

The Census data shows that the city’s population rose from 407,018 in 2000 to 466,488 in 2010. With the city’s population at 466,488, each district must have 58,311 people.

The city must divvy up the districts so residents can be represented equally under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, MacGunigal explained.

“We need to draw the boundaries to as near as equal a population as possible,” MacGunigal said.

While city staff had expected Ashby’s district would have the largest population, they had predicted the city’s overall population to be more than 480,000. The city had estimated the population using information sources that included the U.S. Postal service, building permits and commercial databases, MacGunigal said.

“I was surprised that the population was a little lower than we had anticipated,” MacGunigal said.

Districts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are relatively close in size, ranging in population from about 46,000 people to about 53,000 people. District 4, represented by Councilman Rob Fong, has 45,703 people, making it the least-populated district in the city.

District 8, which covers South Sacramento, is a little larger. It now has 61,458 people, up 13 percent from 2000, according to the Census figures.

The city applies U.S. Census figures to its redistricting process, which occurs every 10 years. The city’s charter says the city has six months to reassemble its district boundaries after the Census data is released.

The city’s deadline for completing the redistricting process is Sept. 6.

View the city’s map of the new Census data here.

View a chart of the population changes in each district below.

Chart by Kathleen Haley and Brandon Darnell

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Police chief plans to reopen top positions

2011-03-09T06:06:54Z

Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel received support from the City Council Tuesday on a plan to bring back three or four job openings that have been eliminated in the department as part of budget cuts.

Braziel told the council and Interim City Manager Gus Vina that he must reopen some key positions because nine of the department’s top 11 officials, ranked captain and higher, will be eligible to retire within three years.

The city is facing a $35 million - 40 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. Braziel said he would be able to open the positions without asking the city for additional money.

“It’s not the right time, but we have to do it,” Braziel said. “We don’t have a choice.”

Braziel said he would pay for the top positions by moving over money currently saved for refilling other positions in the department. By moving the funding in this manner, he would be able to open the positions within his existing budget and not lay off anyone, he said.

The department could promote from within if it opens up top management positions, he said. The newly promoted staffers would gain executive experience, which is necessary because many executives serving in the department could soon retire, he said.

“I am shocked that nine of the command staff are basically aging out in the next three years,” Councilman Rob Fong said in response to Braziel’s comments.

Braziel asked the council and Vina for the authority to revive three or four executive openings during a presentation on succession planning at the department. The City Council did not make a formal decision on Braziel’s request, but voiced support for his plan.

“On behalf of all of us, I think we are very excited about you being proactive so we are aware of what’s going on,” Mayor Kevin Johnson said. “We do not want to be caught flat-footed.”

Vina also indicated that he supported Braziel’s plan.

“We can certainly work with the chief on that,” Vina said.

The Police Department has sliced its executive positions in recent years in response to budget cuts. Braziel said that before he became police chief in 2008, the department had 19 executive positions. The number has since dropped to 11, he said.

Vina said Braziel's plan should be part of the city budget, indicating that the positions could be reopened before the next fiscal year begins on July 1.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Chief Braziel to discuss succession plans

2011-03-08T01:46:58Z

Within the next three years, nearly 75 percent of the Sacramento Police Department’s staff, ranked captain and higher, will be eligible for retirement, according to police department spokeswoman Laura Peck.

Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel will address the department’s succession plans and other concerns regarding top staff at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

City Councilman Rob Fong requested Braziel make a presentation, saying he was concerned over former Sacramento Police Capt. Daniel Hahn’s move earlier this month to become Roseville’s police chief.

“Whenever there are openings in the region, people tend to look at our folks,” Fong said, adding that the city should ensure it’s not “grooming” chiefs for other cities.

In addition to Hahn’s recent move, Braziel seriously considered leaving last year to become Seattle’s police chief. Braziel ultimately decided to stay with Sacramento and stopped the interviewing process in Seattle.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Braziel will discuss “the future of the organization,” Peck said.

The department will need to start preparing for possible retirements of its leaders, she said. Sworn officers are eligible for retirement contributions at age 50, she noted.

Braziel, 51, said last June that he planned to retire in three to four years. Peck said Braziel was unavailable to be interviewed Monday afternoon.

The City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 915 I St.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Checkup on city's development department

2011-03-03T02:10:39Z

Five months after a consultant released a scathing audit of the city’s Community Development Department, the department is making headway on correcting its practices, according to City Auditor Jorge Oseguera. However, it’s still unclear when or if the city can obtain $2.3 million in developer fees that the department did not collect.

Oseguera presented a report on the department’s overhaul to the City Council on Tuesday. The council accepted Oseguera’s report and did not take any formal action on it.

The October audit, conducted by Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, Inc., faulted the department for not collecting more than $2.3 million in fees in recent years. The firm also accused city employees of violating state and city laws. The audit examined the department’s work from fiscal years 2007 through 2010.

Oseguera noted in his report that it’s still unknown if the city can collect the $2.3 million.

“According to the attorney’s office, the city is still evaluating whether the city may successfully recoup some or all of the previously noted $2.3 million in uncollected fees,” the report said.

Attempts to contact City Attorney Eileen Teichert on Wednesday afternoon for more information were unsuccessful.

Oseguera, who managed the consultant’s work on the audit, is also responsible for checking to see how the department applies the audit’s 40 recommended changes.

He gave the department positive reviews for its work to change its practices.

The recommendations cover an array of areas, including the department’s operations, policies, permitting practices and fee collection practices.

One of the recommendations, to verify that expired permits are voided, is fully in effect, according to Oseguera’s report. The department has “partly implemented” 35 percent of the changes, according to his report. CDD has begun work on 55 percent of the recommendations, while work on 10 percent of them has not yet begun, the report said.

“Overall, we are pleased to report that the Community Development Department has made substantial progress towards implementing the recommendations given the relatively short time that has transpired since the report’s release in October, 2010,” Oseguera told the City Council.

Oseguera said the department has made a “good start” on the work of applying the recommendations, but noted that he expects a “lengthy period” of time for the department to finish all the work.

The consolidation of Code Enforcement with the CDD, city budget cuts and the need for the CDD to form new policies and procedures are some factors that will lengthen the amount of time to finish the overhaul, according to Oseguera.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy praised Oseguera for providing an in-depth update on the department.

“I think this is going to help immensely,” she said.

Oseguera’s report briefly summarizes the department’s work on each of the 40 recommendations. One recommendation the department has “partly implemented” calls for it to create “an organizational culture that places importance on adhering to proper policies and processes while also meeting service level goals.”

The recommendation further says that the department’s leaders should show zero tolerance for violating permitting and fee rules. It calls for a new “tone at the top.”

One of the recommendations not yet applied says the department should examine how revenues were used in the past.

“Conduct a review of past Building Services’ revenues to analyze how the monies were utilized and determine whether the usage was appropriate, complied with regulations, and was in the best interest of CDD and Building Services’ operations,” according to the audit.

The city auditor’s office will assist the CDD on how to carry out that task, according to Oseguera’s report.

Read Oseguera’s report on the Community Development Department here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City eyes employee pay cuts

2011-03-02T06:39:06Z

The City Council is allowing the city manager’s office to explore new ways of closing the city’s $35 million - 40 million budget gap, including employee pay cuts and benefit rate hikes.

The strategies include a 5-10 percent pay cut for all city employees.

The City Council unanimously decided on Tuesday to allow city staff to consider a range of ideas for closing the budget shortfall.

Councilman Steve Cohn said that examining several options for budget cuts does not mean that he supports them.

“I’m fine with looking at a whole potpourri of different ideas,” Cohn said. “I don’t want that to be mistook for supporting any particular strategy at this point.”

The city would need to reach an agreement with its unions on pay cuts, according to a March 1 report prepared by Assistant City Manager Patti Bisharat.

City unions would also need to sign off on other possible strategies, which include hiking employees’ costs to maintain their health and retirement benefits, according to Bisharat’s report.

Interim City Manager Gus Vina said that the ability to assess numerous ideas for budget cuts would help the budget process. Under the city’s charter, the city manager crafts the city’s proposed budget.

“These items before you today give us maximum flexibility as we build a proposed budget for you that’s coming before you May 1,” Vina said. “This is not a proposed budget. There are no layoffs associated with our report tonight.”

A new effort to organize about 700 city employees who are not members of unions could add a wrinkle to some of the budget-cutting strategies.

Bisharat’s report assumes that there will be non-unionized employees. If some of the strategies are adopted, those employees could face pay cuts and see their contributions for benefits rise without negotiating with city officials.

However, if the unrepresented employees decide to unionize, the city would have to negotiate with the new union, according to Dee Contreras, who is organizing the effort to form the union.

Many of the city’s managers and supervisors would be represented by the union, the Sacramento City Exempt Employees Association, if it is formed.

In an interview before the City Council meeting, Bisharat said that her report was written with non-union employees in mind because no new union has been formed.

“I think the process to get a contract with the unrepresented (non-union employees) would be a pretty lengthy process,” Bisharat said.

If the unrepresented employees unionize, the city would work with the new union at that time, Bisharat added.

Read the city staff report on budget strategies here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Residents discuss redistricting issues

2011-03-01T06:30:26Z

A group of nearly 40 residents and city staffers held an in-depth discussion on the city’s redistricting process Monday night at the Ethel Hart Senior Center. Residents explored a range of topics, including the role of race in the process.

The city redesigns its City Council districts every 10 years by using U.S. Census data. The 2010 Census data that the city will use is expected to be released in April.

The new districts must be drawn up and finished six months after the Census data is available, according to the city’s charter. The city’s deadline for the 2011 redistricting process will be Sept. 27.

At Monday night’s redistricting forum, hosted by the Area 1 Neighborhood Advisory Group, residents asked city staffers questions on how the new council districts will be determined.

City staffers explained that racial distribution plays a role in the redistricting process. The city follows the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which “prohibits minority vote dilution,” according to a redistricting guide published by the NAACP, the Asian American Justice Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Resident Priscilla Barnes asked city staff, “What would be an example of disenfranchisement in the city?”

“Splitting up Meadowview,” responded Scot Mende, the city’s new growth manager. “Suppose you have an African-American community and you manage to elect an African-American councilmember in that district. Now you split it up ... They no longer have the voting power to elect someone of color.”

Barnes questioned the relevance of analyzing race in the redistricting process at the city level.

“Yes, it’s relevant,” said resident George Raya. “Otherwise you have an all-white council ... There has to be a representative from everybody.”

Barnes said after the meeting that she thinks applying race to redistricting in the city “assumes separation” of people by ethnicity.

Meanwhile, in April, the City Council will establish a 13-member citizens’ committee to advise the redistricting process. The citizens’ group will hold its first meeting on April 25, Mende said. The committee’s meetings will be open to the public.

View Central City Districts in a larger map

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Green waste debate to resume

2011-02-26T02:04:51Z

A city staff proposal to eventually stop loose-in-the-street green waste pickup and move to container pickup will not work for all city residents, Interim City Manager Gus Vina said in an interview Thursday.

In tree-laden areas such as Midtown, a container is not adequate to hold all of the fallen leaves, Vina said, explaining why he pulled the green waste issue from the City Council’s agenda on Tuesday.

“I want to make sure I’ve challenged staff enough on creativity and the solutions that are possible,” Vina said.

The plan that Vina delayed would have encouraged moving away from loose-in-the street pickup and raised rates for residents who continue that method of pickup. Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said the green waste issue will be on the City Council agenda again within a couple weeks.

The city uses two systems for green waste pickup because of a law that was passed in 1977. Measure A states that the city cannot compel residents to put their green waste in containers. Therefore, the city must continue to provide loose-in-the-street pickup.

The proposal that was pulled from the council agenda Tuesday asked the City Council to take steps to eventually overturn Measure A. This would allow the city to enforce containerized pickup as the sole method.

Voters would have to approve a counter-measure that would abolish Measure A.

City staff had planned to ask the council on Tuesday to consider draft language for a counter-measure “for use if the City Council determines at a subsequent time to call such a measure to the ballot,” the Feb. 22 staff report said.

But Vina said Thursday that changing the measure doesn’t solve the green waste problem for people living “in heavy areas where a container doesn’t do it.”

“Land Park and Midtown are good examples,” he said Friday. “Basically, we have lots of trees, and in older areas, the trees are big.”

The proposal also included major rate increases for people who choose loose-in-the-street pickup over containers as long as Measure A is still in effect. A resident who chooses loose-in-the-street pickup now pays a fee of $13.71 per month. One of the ideas suggested in the proposal would raise the rate to about $40 per month.

City staff explained in the proposal that the number of loose-in-the-street customers has declined over time – the 103,787 container customers far surpass the 12,121 loose-in-the-street customers. The number of loose-in-the-street customers no longer pay enough in fees to pay for the cost of the service, the report said.

“The current loose-in-the-street rate of $13.71 was sufficient to recover the full cost when 57,000 customers were putting their green waste in the street,” according to the report. “With only 12,121 loose-in-the-street customers remaining paying the same rate, there is now insufficient funding to cover the cost of the service.”

Because there are no longer enough customers to keep the rate at $13.71 per month, city staff say the rate should be raised.

Green waste pickup is a recurring point of contention between the Utilities Department, which favors containers, and some residents, who want to keep their loose-in-the-street pickup.

The department’s position, which is included in the staff report, is that the containers are cheaper and better for the environment than loose-in-the-street pickup. It takes two vehicles to do loose-in-the-street pickup, while only one is needed for containers, according to the department. Reducing the number of vehicles helps prevent pollution, the department points out.

Read the Feb. 22 green waste proposal that Vina withdrew from the council’s agenda here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Firm hired for Utilities Dept. audit

2011-02-25T01:46:43Z

The Sacramento City Council hired a Philadelphia-based firm earlier this week to audit the city’s Utilities Department.

Public Financial Management, Inc., will receive up to $116,902 for its audit of the department, the council decided on Tuesday.

In a Feb. 22 staff report, City Auditor Jorge Oseguera wrote that he and his staff judged the seven firms that applied for the job on “proposed scope of work, timeliness of work product, each firm’s expertise and qualifications, project cost and references.” The city’s audit team also interviewed three of the firms.

The outcome of the process was Oseguera’s recommendation that the City Council hire Public Financial Management for the audit.

Last month, the council decided it wanted two audits of the department – one managed by an independent firm, and the other conducted by Oseguera.

Public Financial Management’s audit will focus on cost savings and the department’s operations, while Oseguera will audit the department’s billing practices. Oseguera said Public Financial Management will begin work on the audit during the first week in March. The firm is expected to present initial findings in late April, he said.

The Sacramento County Grand Jury heavily criticized the Utilities Department’s work in a January 2010 report. Read more about the department’s past problems here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City outsources tree pruning work

2011-02-24T00:51:57Z

The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday to hire an outside contractor for tree pruning and removal work despite opposition from a major city union, Stationary Engineers Local 39.

Council members voted 7-2 to pay up to $3.7 million to Roseville-based Jensen Tree Service, Inc., for a contract that could span five years. The contract has a one-year guarantee of work – after that, the city manager will decide each year over the following four years whether to continue the contract, according to Craig Lymus, the city’s acting procurement manager.

A representative for Local 39, which represents urban forestry workers, among many other groups of city employees, said the work that Jensen Tree Services will carry out is usually done by city employees.

“I find this to be an affront to the public employees and the residents of this city,” Linda Norman, business representative for Local 39, told the City Council. “These dollars will be lost to the city’s embattled economy.”

Each year, the city will pay the contractor $749,000, according to Transportation Director Jerry Way. The money will come from a lighting and landscaping fund, he said.

Way told council members that his department is trying to balance its tree pruning work between in-house workers and outside contractors to save money. The city’s Urban Forest Service is part of the Transportation Department.

“We’re growing our outsourcing a little bit, because, you know, we’ve been hemorrhaging general fund dollars,” Way said.

Councilwomen Sandy Sheedy and Bonnie Pannell voted against hiring the contractor. Pannell raised concerns about contracting with an outside firm when the unemployment rate is high. “My problem is: Unemployment is 12 percent,” she said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Oseguera to pitch audit proposals

2011-02-19T02:14:44Z

City Auditor Jorge Oseguera will present to the City Council on Tuesday night a list of audits he wants to work on during the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Ideas for audits include examinations of the Utilities Department’s billing practices and payments to city employees on top of their base salary.

The Utilities Department will experience a double dose of audits. In addition to Oseguera’s audit of the department’s billing procedures, an independent consultant will review many of its other functions, including service, operations and staffing levels.

The City Council will decide whether to approve Oseguera’s list at its meeting. The rules for the auditor’s annual plan, which are outlined in the city code, allow for changes to the plan. The City Council must approve those changes, the code says.

Other areas Oseguera would like to audit in the 2011-2012 fiscal year include the city’s fleet management, city sidewalk repairs, Fire Department inspection fees, purchase cards and the 311 call center.

Oseguera wrote in a staff report that he uses a variety of sources and methods to choose his audits.

“For example, in order to identify and prioritize potential audits based on the level of risk to the city, the city auditor’s office completed a citywide risk assessment,” he wrote. “The city auditor’s office also solicited audit suggestions from the mayor, city councilmembers, city management, and city staff, and identified potential audit areas by reviewing city financial information, reports, policies, procedures, ordinances and regulations. Finally, the city auditor relied on professional experience and expertise to identify areas of high audit potential.”

Several of the audits Oseguera would like to work on in 2011-2012 come from his 2010-2011 audit list.

Oseguera’s office is currently working on three audits – one on the city’s health benefits system, one on revenue collection practices and the third on citywide policies.

He said in January that he would release the three audits by July 1, but in an interview on Friday, he said there is a possibility that all three might not be complete by then. His work to oversee the upcoming consultant’s audit of the Utilities Department has “sidetracked” some of his resources, he said.

“We’re trying to do as much as we can,” he said.

Read Oseguera’s list here.

Kathleen Haley is staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

New union courts nearly 700 city workers

2011-02-18T02:21:49Z

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 and representing them in their struggle,” Contreras said. “I don’t know whether the city will fight this or not.”

Contreras, who used to work for city management, criticized Vina’s decisions during the public comment section of Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

City spokesman Maurice Chaney confirmed in a Thursday e-mail to The Sacramento Press that Vina recently made salary changes for four top managers – three raises and one decrease in pay.

Contreras claimed at the council meeting that Vina’s salary changes “raise the spectre of an unfair labor practice charge.”

She said that changes to employees’ salaries should not be made while a union organizing effort is in process.

“In general, an employee cannot give or take away from the employees while you’re in an organizing mode,” she said Wednesday.

But Vina disagrees. In response to Contreras’ claims about unfairness with the salary changes, Chaney, speaking on behalf of Vina, wrote, “Those comments are unfounded.”

The city is facing an estimated $35 million - $40 million budget gap for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Chaney commented on Vina’s raises for Finance Director Leyne Milstein, Human Resources Director Geri Hamby, Community Development Director Max Fernandez and a salary decrease for Utilities Director Marty Hanneman.

Hamby’s salary was raised from $151,402 to $162,000. Fernandez’ salary jumped from $164,445 to $172,667.

“Two of the three salary changes (Community Development director and the HR director) were envisioned as the next planned step of last fiscal year's consolidation process, which occurred last July and resulted in a cost savings of more than $4 million,” Chaney wrote. “Salary adjustments specific to these positions were considered because of the associated increases in departmental duties that resulted with these mergers.”

Chaney also provided Vina’s rationale for raising Milstein’s salary from $131,270 to $150,304.

“The finance director has played a crucial role during the last four years in assisting with a budget deficit that has affected all city employees,” Chaney said. “As we enter another year in dealing with yet another deficit, Leyne Milstein's expertise, institutional knowledge of our city budget and fiscal experience was critical to retain as we navigate through this budget process. Therefore, a pay adjustment was made.”

Chaney further commented on Vina’s reasoning for lowering Hanneman’s salary from $186,101 to $167,491.

“The Utilities director, who transitioned from an assistant city manager to a department head, retained his previous position salary,” Chaney said. “After an across-the-board examination of city director’s compensation, a salary adjustment was made to parity salaries of other department heads.”

But Contreras, who aims to represent a group that includes managers, disputes Vina’s view of Hanneman’s salary decrease. Vina is reducing Hanneman’s salary to a rate that is below the salaries of other department heads, Contreras claimed.

Contreras sent a Feb. 4 letter to Vina about her organizing a campaign, which can be read here.

The number of people Contreras is attempting to organize represents a large slice of the city’s 5,001 employees, according to statistics provided by Chaney.

If the organizing effort runs quickly, the union may be formed in three or four months, Contreras said.

“The city has not taken care of its unrepresented (non-union) employees,” Contreras said.

Contreras retired from a special projects position with the city’s Labor Relations division in December. The Labor Relations Department became a division of the Human Resources Department when the city consolidated departments last year to save money. Before the consolidation, Contreras was the director of the Labor Relations Department.

While she represented the city as Labor Relations director, Contreras noted that she has worked for unions in the past, including the Service Employees International Union.

The people Contreras wants to organize include high-profile managers, such as assistant city managers and the city attorney. Other job descriptions for people being recruited include the titles of investigator, administrative analyst and staff aide. Read a list of the jobs that Contreras wants to include in the union here.

Contreras said she is now working to organize the campaign because city employees approached her to help them unionize.

“After numerous discussions and approaches, I agreed to assist them,” Contreras said.

City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy commented on Contreras’ new role as a city labor organizer. “Dee is very effective,” Sheedy said. “She no longer works for the city, but she understands the city.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Big plans for River District

2011-02-16T06:21:01Z

Major changes are in store for the city’s River District, as the Sacramento City Council approved a set of future development plans Tuesday night.

The planning documents set a path for development of the area over the next 25 years, according to a report from city staff. The city’s plans for the River District, a 773-acre swath between the Sacramento Railyards and the American River, focus on ramping up residential, commercial, office and hotel development and moving away from industrial development.

Council members approved the plans in a 8-0 vote. Mayor Kevin Johnson did not attend the City Council meeting because he was out of town, said Johnson spokesman Joaquin McPeek.

The city wants to remodel the River District area into a “transit-oriented mixed use urban environment,” according to the Feb. 15 city staff report. The refashioned district would feature 8,144 homes, 3.9 million square feet of office space, 854,000 square feet of retail and wholesale, 1.4 million square feet of light industrial and thousands of hotel units, according to the report.

The plans would be a major change from the district’s current developments, which are mostly industrial.

City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby praised city staff’s development plans for the River District, noting that planned projects for the area would involve redevelopment funding. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed disbanding redevelopment agencies and using redevelopment money on other local services. The city hopes to use $25 million in redevelopment funds on the River District in the future.

“One thing I do want to point out is that this is a really great example of why cities need to have control of ... redevelopment dollars,” Ashby said. “These are exactly the types of gems and pearls we’re trying to bring into our cities.”

Infrastructure upgrades, public resources and administrative costs for the River District remodel over the next 25 years will cost an estimated $323 million, according to the report. Fees paid by developers would cover $180 million of the amount.

If Brown throws out redevelopment agencies, work on the plans will slow, said Rachel Hazlewood, a senior project manager for the city’s Economic Development Department.

In addition to development, the city is also designating nine sites in the area as historical landmarks and setting up a North 16th Street Historic District. Sites that will be identified as historical landmarks include the PG&E Sacramento River Power Station at 400 Jibboom St. and Fire Station No. 14 at 1341 N. C St.

Read the city staff report here.

View River District Landmarks in a larger map

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Development sought in North Sac

2011-02-11T05:41:09Z

The Sacramento Planning Commission gave the green light to plans to re-zone parts of North Sacramento to attract future development.

The commission made a recommendation, Thursday night, to the City Council to vote on plans that will allow for more commercial development near a Regional Transit line.

City staff formally refer to the plans as the Northeast Line Implementation Plan. Areas near a light rail line that has stations at Globe Avenue and Del Paso Blvd, and at Arden Way and Del Paso Blvd, are the focus of the proposals. The city’s plans also cite areas around Royal Oaks Drive and Arden Way.

The City Council is expected to vote on the plans next month. The commissioners approved the plans but did not comment on them.

In an interview earlier on Thursday, Greg Sandlund, an associate planner for the city, said, “We just see this area having tremendous potential.”

The areas around the light rail line are unique, Sandlund said. “It’s the only corridor outside of the Central City where you have light rail running along a commercial corridor,” he said.

***

In other light rail news, Regional Transit is making headway on work to bring a light rail extension from Meadowview Road to Cosumnes River College.

As part of its extension, the agency intends to purchase parts of the backyards of 47 homes, according to Diane Nakano, assistant general manager of engineering and construction for RT.

Nakano said the environmental process is expected to run until May.

View Northeast Line Implementation Plan in a larger map

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Councilman McCarty pitches soda tax

2011-02-10T02:03:59Z

Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty is working on a proposal to tax soda and use the revenue on programs to combat childhood obesity. McCarty outlined his plan in an interview with The Sacramento Press on Wednesday.

McCarty said he is examining a soda tax of one cent per ounce of soda, with a cap of 10 cents per soda can or bottle. The tax would be confined to the city of Sacramento.

McCarty is considering having the revenue go to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department for recreation programs.

“You could use the money for recreation – to keep kids fit – but also keep them out of trouble,” McCarty said.

McCarty’s proposal is in its early stages. He said he is talking to City Attorney Eileen Teichert about the public process for his proposal. A soda tax may need a two-thirds vote from Sacramento voters, according to state law Proposition 26.

A soda tax bill authored by former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) did not advance through the Legislature last year.

The California Retailers Association, which opposed Florez’s bill, said it would also oppose McCarty’s proposal.

Bill Dombrowski, the group’s president, argued that the tax would be “inappropriate” because it could be used to help balance the city’s budget.

But McCarty argued that the money would go toward recreation programs. He said a tax makes sense because soda is connected to childhood obesity. “This is a tax on soda, which is one of the major drivers of childhood obesity,” McCarty said. “There’s an actual link.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Vina still wants city manager job

2011-02-09T07:00:20Z

Interim City Manager Gus Vina received mixed signals from the City Council Tuesday night as it unanimously voted to extend his interim status until the end of June and to hire a recruiting firm in a national search for the permanent position.

City Council members agreed to pay up to $27,650 to the recruiting firm.

Meanwhile, Interim City Manager Gus Vina confirmed in a text message to The Sacramento Press on Tuesday night that he will compete for the permanent city manager position in the national search. The council decided in a split vote not to promote him last month.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, the city’s elected officials chose to hire Sacramento-based CPS Human Resource Services to manage the nationwide city manager search. The company will charge fees up to $27,650, according to a city staff report. The total fees may turn out to be a little less than that amount – a representative from CPS told the council the fees would be about $25,000.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

ICON-Taylor team gets 90 days to study arena viability

2011-02-09T06:50:30Z

The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday picked Sacramento developer David Taylor and the Colorado arena builder ICON Venue Group to lead the city's next effort to build a new arena.

In a unanimous vote, the nine-member council gave the ICON-Taylor team the go-ahead to work exclusively with city staff for the next three months to determine the financial feasibility of replacing Arco Arena, the home of the Sacramento Kings.

The council did not technically approve a development contract with the team. The project's developer and location will be chosen later. But the council's vote paves the way for the ICON-Taylor team to meet with the Kings' owners, the Maloofs, and other stakeholders to determine what it will take to construct a new sports and entertainment center.

The team, which was put together by Mayor Kevin Johnson in December, was one of four competing for a thumbs-up from the council.

At a Tuesday night meeting, council members repeated their requests to focus on how construction can be financed.

"While I appreciate dreams and visions that people have for whatever sites they want to promote, I have to say, for me, it comes down to financing," Councilman Steve Cohn said. "I want straight answers, and I want the best possible team to get straight answers. Based on what I've seen, I think those answers can best come from the ICON-Taylor group."

Taylor is a prominent developer who has galvanized much redevelopment in downtown Sacramento, with projects including the Sheraton Grand Sacramento on J Street, Esquire Plaza on K Street Mall and the new City Hall on I Street.

ICON, a Denver company led by President and CEO Tim Romani, has built more than 50 sports facilities throughout the world and is especially experienced in building NBA arenas. ICON's projects have included Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center, Denver's Pepsi Center and the Chicago White Sox's new Comiskey Park, named US Cellular Field.

The team also includes the Kansas City, Mo., sports architecture firm Populous, New York-based Turner Construction and former arena task force member Dan Meis, who designed the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell and other council members voiced support for Taylor's offer to possibly involve developers from other teams when creating a plan.

The ICON-Taylor team will explore building a new arena wherever that would be most viable, including Natomas, Romani said.

At least two teams estimated the cost to build new arenas and surrounding infrastructure and supporting development such as hotels, restaurants and retail to be at least $600 million.

Romani said he wouldn't expect an arena to cost much more than $300 million, but he didn’t go into detail about what that would cover. The team needs 90 days to analyze up-front capital costs, annual operating costs and revenue drivers for a 20-year period, he said.

"Is this an aggressive schedule? You bet it is," Romani said. "Frankly, I think we're about the only people you can turn to to get it done in 90 days."

On Wednesday morning, the team will try to set up a meeting with the Maloofs. The team will also meet with Natomas business leaders, the area's council member, Angelique Ashby, and others to discuss options for the Arco site, Taylor said.

The council postponed a decision on which team should move forward on an arena project with the city two weeks ago. At the Jan. 25 council meeting, the mayor's arena task force had urged the council to choose the ICON-Taylor team. But council members wanted to learn more about the teams before making a choice.

The decision kicks off the Johnson administration's second effort to build a new arena. The city worked with one of the four contenders, the Sacramento Convergence Team, under an exclusive agreement last year after the mayor called for proposals in late 2009.

That team had proposed a complex three-way land swap that involved moving the state fairgrounds to the Arco Arena site in Natomas and privately developing the existing California Exposition and State Fairgrounds site to help finance an arena in the downtown railyards.

Cal Expo officials voted against the plan in September. The Convergence Team's exclusive negotiating period with the city ended the next month.

The ICON-Taylor team will now work with staff from the city manager's office, treasurer's office, finance department and Department of Economic Development to create a proposal to finance construction.

After three months, city staff will evaluate the proposal's viability. Staff members are expected to present their findings to the City Council in July.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Council weighs arena teams

2011-02-08T03:50:21Z

The Sacramento City Council will take a closer look Tuesday at four development teams competing for a new Sacramento Kings arena project.

The teams will take turns presenting credentials, experience and plans to analyze the financial feasibility of building a new sports and entertainment center to replace the Kings' current home, Arco Arena – soon to be known as the Power Balance Pavilion.

The City Council is expected to decide at its Tuesday night meeting which team will work exclusively with the city for the next three months. The council postponed that decision two weeks ago so council members could get more information about the developers.

The teams are:

• The ICON-Taylor team, put together by Mayor Kevin Johnson and led by Sacramento developer David Taylor and Tim Romani, president and CEO of ICON Venue Group, a prominent Colorado sports facility developer;

• The CORE team, led by entrepreneur Ali Mackani and McClellan Park developer Larry Kelley;

• Natomas Entertainment Sports Center Partners, led by Jeff Baize of Brookhurst Development Corp., Mike Corrick of Nacht & Lewis Architects and Rick Millitello, general manager of Skanska USA Building Inc. of Oakland;

• The Convergence Team, led by Sacramento developer Gerry Kamilos.

Prior to the meeting, at least one team expressed confusion over an inability to meet with the Kings' owners, the Maloofs. Other teams discussed efforts to move their plans forward.

Natomas ESC Partners tried to set up a meeting with the Maloofs last week to get information and feedback on the team's financial plan and to see if the Kings' owners were open to the ideas. An attorney for the Maloofs said a meeting wasn't possible, Natomas Chamber of Commerce President Ed Koop said.

"The response back was we needed to get in touch with Mayor Johnson, because he was coordinating any potential projects with the Maloofs going forward," Koop said.

Two other teams – the CORE team and the Convergence Team – will be able to tell the council that they have been able to set up or held meetings with stakeholders in their plans.

The CORE team has a Feb. 16 meeting set up with the Westfield Group to begin negotiations to buy Westfield Downtown Plaza after securing commitments for up to $100 million. If that happens, they'd begin talks with Macy's to see if the department store chain would be interested in expanding its store there. The team believes that site makes the most sense financially for a new arena, Mackani said.

But the CORE team doesn't want to be part of a continued four-way competition. The Kings' owners won't be involved in a process like that, he added.

"The Maloofs aren't going to sit across the table from four teams," Mackani said. "That's not how business is done."

The Convergence Team has continued negotiations with California Exposition and State Fair officials on a scaled-down plan to privately develop the existing state fair site to help fund an arena, said Jeff Raimundo, a communications consultant on the team.

Last September, Cal Expo board members voted against the team's plan to relocate the fairgrounds to Arco Arena in Natomas and develop the 350-acre Cal Expo site to finance an arena. A Cal Expo manager told the mayor's arena task force this month that agency officials are reluctant to consider the updated plan.*** See correction at the bottom of the story

City staff will recommend the council choose one of the teams Tuesday night, as the task force suggested two weeks ago. Last month, the task force recommended the city work with the ICON-Taylor team in an effort to build a new arena. The task force ranked the CORE team second.

The team should be chosen based on its experience developing arenas or other large entertainment venues and using public/private funding for big projects and ability to analyze the project’s feasibility in the scheduled time frame, rather than on its proposed arena site, according to a city staff report.

The selected team will then work with city staff to analyze the project's financial viability.

Correction:

When appearing before the task force in January, Cal Expo Deputy General Manager Brian May had addressed questions concerning Cal Expo officials' reluctance to consider the Convergence Team's original proposal, which involved a three-way land swap.

Cal Expo officials are willing to consider the team's new proposal, but only as part of a competitive process. They have met with Kamilos and others proposing plans to rebuild the state fairgrounds and develop other property there, May said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Streetcar back on city's agenda

2011-02-05T01:43:10Z

The planning process for a streetcar connecting the city to West Sacramento is still chugging along. The City Council last addressed the study of streetcar routes in July 2010.

A study of possible routes for the streetcar will likely get under way soon after City Council members hire a consultant for the task Tuesday night, Councilman Steve Cohn said on Friday. Asked why it’s taken months to start the study, Cohn said $300,000 in federal funding awarded to the city was delayed.

The City Council is likely to hire a national transportation consulting firm, Fehr & Peers, to conduct the study. Fehr & Peers will be paid mostly in federal funds, according to the city’s Transportation Department.

The city has $300,000 in federal dollars and $90,000 in local funds to put toward the study. The local funds will not come out of the city’s strapped general fund, the Transportation Department report says.

The sight of a streetcar shuttling between Sacramento and West Sacramento is still years away, according to Cohn. The project has many steps to undergo, including environmental review, design work and construction, he said. In addition, the city will need to obtain more federal funding, Cohn said.

He expressed optimism about the city’s chances of qualifying for more federal funding. “I think we can be very competitive on this,” Cohn said.

Read the streetcar report on the City Council’s Tuesday agenda here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City manager search could cost $35,000

2011-02-05T00:45:53Z

The city will conduct a national search for a new city manager in response to the City Council’s Jan. 25 decision against promoting Interim City Manager Gus Vina.

Recruiting fees could cost the city as much as $35,400, according to Sacramento’s Human Resources Department. An executive recruiting firm will be hired to conduct the search. The range in fees is estimated between $27,650 and $35,400.

One of two recruiting firms may be chosen by the City Council on Tuesday night. The two Sacramento-based recruiting firms are Wilcox Miller Nelson and CPS Human Resource Services.

The Human Resources Department’s report on the city manager search, which will be presented at the Feb. 8 City Council meeting, is now available online.

Mayor Kevin Johnson said Jan. 25 that he hopes Vina will apply for the city manager job during the national search. Asked earlier this week if he would apply for the job, Vina said, “I don’t know. I’m keeping all my options open.”

City Councilman Steve Cohn said Friday that the national search is likely to take a few months. He said a new city manager will likely not start work before July 1.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City budget discussed in Pocket

2011-02-04T06:40:45Z

About 65 Pocket and Greenhaven residents gathered Thursday night to learn about current city issues. City staffers briefed the citizens on the city budget, green waste pick-up services and other topics during the community meeting, which was organized by City Councilman Darrell Fong.

Attendees were fully engaged throughout the meeting, asking plenty of questions. It began at 6:30 p.m. and by 8:30 p.m. few had left John F. Kennedy High School on Gloria Drive.

City Finance Director Leyne Milstein presented information to the group about the city’s $35-$40 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

She noted that the $35-$40 million represents about 20 percent of the net general fund, which means the city expects to cut its budget by that percentage.

Resident Bob Pecora asked Milstein about ways the city could bolster the economy.

“We need to take the initiative ourselves and try to put measures into place that will help us to grow the value of our economy locally,” Milstein responded.

The issue of trash pick-up was brought up later in the evening. Resident Roger Fong asked Utilities Department spokeswoman Jessica Hess about problems with his loose-in-the-street green waste pick-up.

The city uses two green waste pick-up systems – green waste is picked up in the street or in containers. The Utilities Department is in favor of the container system, which it says is more affordable.

Roger Fong said that he pays more for his loose-in-the-street pick-up. But his neighbors, who have containers, still put their green waste in the street, he said.

“My neighbors don’t seem to understand ... I always pay my fee and they don’t.”

Hess said the department is going to soon take action on that issue.

The meeting covered the work of various city departments. But the city’s budget crisis was a central theme of the meeting.

Darrell Fong told his constituents that he wanted them to help him with budget decisions on city services.

“I’m going to get you involved to decide what services are important to you,” Fong told the group.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Citizens' group will study redistricting plans

2011-02-02T06:58:50Z

The Sacramento City Council decided Tuesday night that it will create a citizens' group to assist with this year’s redistricting process.

Council members voted 8-1 to form a citizens' advisory committee that would scrutinize redistricting plans suggested by the public. Councilwoman Angelique Ashby opposed the idea of a citizens' group, saying that the public should bring its redistricting plans directly to the council, instead of to a committee.

“I think the citizens should have direct access to us on this issue,” Ashby said.

But some of her colleagues on the City Council said that forming a citizens' committee would make the process more inclusive to the public. “Erring on the side of more citizen participation is what we should be doing,” Councilman Jay Schenirer said.

The council members decided the committee should have 13 members. Each council member and the mayor will appoint one person to the committee. The other four members will be at-large members.

Every 10 years, the city uses U.S. Census data to redesign its districts. City officials expect the relevant 2010 Census data to be released in April.

The city’s charter says the redistricting process should be completed six months after the Census data is released. To comply with the charter’s rule, the city’s deadline for the 2011 redistricting process will be Sept. 27, according to city staff.

City staffers wrote in a Jan. 18 report that city leaders will weigh the following elements in the redistricting process: topography, geography, cohesiveness, continuity, “integrity and compactness of territory,” community of interests, existing neighborhoods and community boundaries.

The city will also aim for each district to have the same number of people, according to city staff.

A series of neighborhood meetings on the redistricting process will be held this month. More information about the meetings can be found here.

Read the city’s redistricting website here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Auditor working on three city audits

2011-01-27T02:57:29Z

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 their work on projects, Oseguera said. “But as they left, I obviously had to stop the progress and then re-initiate those audits with new people,” he added.

One of his previous staffers, Gerald Silva, was a former San Jose city auditor. Silva resigned last July after The Sacramento Press asked him to comment on sexual harassment allegations that involved San Jose’s auditor’s office when he was in charge. A second staffer left recently for medical reasons, Oseguera said.

Oseguera’s previous goal of starting additional audits by July also looks unlikely. He said his staff won’t able to start work on additional audits until they complete the three they’re working on now.

But the auditor’s office is fully staffed again. Oseguera hired two new auditors in November.

So how does Oseguera measure up to the city’s previous auditor?

Oseguera has been the city auditor for 10 months, and if his office completes the three audits by July 1, his office’s number of independent audits will be similar to the output of former City Auditor Marty Kolkin’s office. Kolkin’s office usually produced two or three audits each year.

Oseguera pointed out that his attention has also been given to additional projects, besides the three audits now under way. He was responsible for overseeing a consultant’s audit of the Community Development Department. He is also working on a report that will be released next month on how the CDD is applying the findings of the consultant’s October report, he said.

City Councilman Steve Cohn, chair of the City Council’s audit committee, said he is satisfied with Oseguera and that Oseguera has been carrying out the council’s directions.

“It took him a while to get a team in place, and he’s lost a couple people he’s had to replace,” Cohn said.

With the current size of Oseguera’s staff, only one or two audits can be addressed at a time, Cohn said.

Community Development Department Director Max Fernandez said Oseguera has spent an extensive amount of time with his department.

“There’s a lot of work being produced from the CDD audit,” Fernandez said. “He’s done a lot, and there’s a lot more to go.”

Oseguera made a similar comment about the overhaul at the CDD. “They have a lot of work before them, and they’re making good progress at implementing some of these very difficult changes,” Oseguera said.

Read city audits from 2003-2008 here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Vina details financial recovery plans

2011-01-26T03:18:49Z

Addressing an estimated $35 million-$40 million budget gap for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, Interim City Manager Gus Vina hosted a special workshop on economic recovery for the City Council.

He presented a variety of plans to bring in more revenue, including enhancing the city’s parks with tourist attractions, providing incentives to businesses and creating a mix of opportunities in the city’s job market.

Vina urged City Council members to move quickly on the economic recovery plan so the city can begin to see results.

“I don’t expect the benefits in 2012 and 2013 to be huge, but it will be a good beginning,” he said.

He told council members that unemployment in 2011 is expected to remain between 11.5 and 13.5 percent. Vina said he wants to apply incentives toward small and medium-sized businesses, which make up 96 percent of the employers in the Sacramento region.

“We need to focus on small, medium businesses (and) what we can do for them,” Vina said. These businesses have 500 or fewer employees, he added.

Vina also said the city needs to broaden its employment market, a point that Mayor Kevin Johnson often makes at his press conferences. The city can’t rely overly on its government workers to keep the local economy working, Vina said.

He said he wants to focus on the sectors of green and clean technology, heath and medicine, higher education and agriculture.

“You need to diversify to avoid risk,” Vina said.

Another idea discussed at the workshop is to upgrade regional parks so they draw more visitors. To beckon tourists, the city could explore adding attractions such as museums, aquariums and centers for competitive sports, said Jim Combs, the city’s Parks and Recreation director.

Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell said the city could create skate tournaments as an attraction.

Combs also presented the idea of hiring youth part-time and paying them minimum wage to help maintain city parks.

Combs acknowledged that the department will likely face layoffs as part of budget cuts. “We probably will lose some of our workforce,” he said.

Public hearings on the city budget will begin on Feb. 1.

Vina has taken the lead on the economic recovery plan. The City Council voted Tuesday night in a private meeting not to promote Vina to the permanent city manager position. In a 5-4 vote, council members decided to hold a national search for a new city manager. The council members who voted to conduct the search and not promote Vina were Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Bonnie Pannell, Darrell Fong and Kevin McCarty.

It’s unclear at this point how the City Council’s decision not to promote Vina will affect the economic recovery plan.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council does not promote Vina

2011-01-26T02:40:50Z

The City Council voted 5-4 Tuesday night against promoting Interim City Manager Gus Vina to the permanent city manager position.

Council members Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty, Darrell Fong and Bonnie Pannell voted to conduct a national search for a new city manager.

Mayor Kevin Johnson briefed reporters after he and the members of the City Council held a private meeting about Vina’s job status.

Johnson said the council feels that Vina did a “great job” as interim city manager. However, he said the City Council voted to conduct a national search for a city manager candidate.

Johnson said he hopes that Vina will apply for the job as part of the national search.

Vina was not immediately available for comment.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City economic workshop, public welcome

2011-01-25T01:29:19Z

The Sacramento City Council will gather Tuesday afternoon to brainstorm ways City Hall can help the city’s financial recovery.

Joann Cummins, district director for City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, said Interim City Manager Gus Vina has worked on the economic recovery plan that will be outlined at Tuesday’s workshop.

“It’s basically a blueprint for getting Sacramento on the road to recovery,” Cummins said.

Council members will gather for the economic recovery workshop at 2 p.m. at the Sacramento Library Galleria, located at 828 I St. The meeting is open to the public.

City spokeswoman Linda Tucker said Vina’s economic recovery plan includes goals for economic recovery and prosperity; handling the city’s assets; livability in the city; public safety; and attaining a sound budget and keeping it that way.

Vina said earlier this month that he aimed to connect the City Council’s priorities with the economic recovery workshop.

Council members discussed their priorities at a meeting earlier this month. Some of the priorities that council members expressed were jobs, city services and the city’s budget.

The City Council will hold its regular Tuesday night City Council meeting starting at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 915 I St.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

2011-01-22T01:58:59Z

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Club in Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Park in Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiple media outlets.

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that the city should consider doing so.

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Utilities Department faces audits

2011-01-20T02:06:59Z

Three months after Mayor Kevin Johnson and City Councilman Kevin McCarty publicly called for an audit of the Sacramento Utilities Department, the department will be audited extensively. The city’s internal auditor and an outside firm will conduct audits, the City Council decided Tuesday night.

The council’s decision comes a year after the Sacramento County Grand Jury claimed in a report that the department may have broken state law Proposition 218. The law says that utilities fees from ratepayers must correspond to the costs of delivering the utilities services.

Partly in response to the Prop. 218 issue, a citizens’ group placed a measure on the November ballot to roll back city utilities rates. It failed.

In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the City Council began the process of hiring a third-party auditing firm. Under the city’s proposed timeline, the council would decide on a contract with an outside firm next month. The selected firm would present findings to the City Council in May or June, according to the city’s initial timeline, which was prepared by city staff.

The third-party auditor will “seek to identify best opportunities for immediate cost saving and operational efficiencies for the department as a whole,” according to a Jan. 18 report from the city manager’s office. “The study will include a review of levels of service, administrative and operational procedures, staffing levels, organizational structure and consideration of industry best practices.”

Mayor Kevin Johnson commented on the audit earlier on Tuesday, during his weekly press conference. He said the audit could revive the public’s trust. “I think it also gives us a chance to demonstrate fiscal responsibility,” he said.

City Auditor Jorge Oseguera will hone in on one or more specific issues at the department. After he pinpoints particular issues, he is expected to examine them in the 2011 / 2012 fiscal year, according to the report.

Assistant City Manager Patti Bisharat noted at the council meeting that the auditing process will also take into account studies that are currently under way in the department.

City staffers estimated in a Jan. 18 report that the cost range for the outside audit would be $80,000 to $120,000.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City leaders back redevelopment agency

2011-01-19T06:28:47Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson and Sacramento City Council members on Tuesday discussed their opposition to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to de-fund local redevelopment agencies.

Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday morning that Brown’s proposal could interfere with $108 million in local redevelopment funds that have not yet been spent on projects. He said he wanted to examine the option of fast-tracking redevelopment projects in light of Brown’s proposal.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to fight like crazy to try to prevent redevelopment agencies from being cut,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to salvage and preserve the dollars that we do have by almost any means necessary.”

Council members and Johnson discussed the issue at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

“I think we should do all that we can from a City Council perspective to protect the redevelopment dollars,” Ashby said.

The council members discussed the issue after hearing a presentation on state issues from the city’s lobbyist, David Jones.

“We don’t have any details on the (redevelopment) proposal,” Jones said outside the City Council meeting. “But we know ... that to entirely eliminate redevelopment would be devastating to this community and others.”

Meanwhile, Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford said redevelopment funds could be used for other purposes. “We hope that the redevelopment agencies rushing through billions in taxpayer dollars are going to use these funds to create jobs now,” according to an e-mailed statement from Ashford. “These scarce dollars, which could be used to protect police, firefighters and teachers, should not be banked away for special projects.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City begins redistricting process

2011-01-19T06:11:10Z

The Sacramento City Council kicked off the city’s redistricting process Tuesday night.

City leaders use U.S. Census data to rework district lines each decade. The city expects to receive the necessary data from the 2010 Census in early April, according to a Jan. 18 report by city staff.

At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, council members discussed the idea of creating a citizens’ committee to advise them on the redistricting process, but they did not come to a final decision on that matter. The council unanimously asked city staffers to return in two weeks with details about the role of the citizens’ advisory committee. At that time, the council may decide whether it wants to form a citizens’ committee.

Councilwomen Sandy Sheedy and Angelique Ashby both said that a citizens’ advisory committee would limit the ability of citizens to talk directly to their council representatives.

“I was elected to listen to the people, and that’s what I do,” Sheedy said.

The redistricting process costs $160,000, which will be paid for by city funds that have been set aside for unanticipated expenses, said the city’s New Growth Manager Scot Mende.

The city has created a redistricting website, which can be read here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Cohn retires from SMUD career

2011-01-08T02:02:01Z

City Councilman Steve Cohn retired from his attorney position at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District on New Year’s Eve.

Cohn, a chief assistant general counsel, was second-in-command in SMUD’s legal department. He served at SMUD for nearly 19 years. Before his career at SMUD, Cohn worked as an attorney for the California Energy Commission.

Cohn, 57, will continue to serve as the District 3 city councilman representing East Sacramento and parts of the Central City.

He said he chose to leave SMUD because he has a “pretty decent retirement.” Cohn also said that he has simultaneously held his SMUD job and City Council jobs for the past 16 years.

“I thought it would be nice to focus on one job for a change,” he said.

Cohn said he’s experiencing a slightly slower pace since he retired from SMUD. “People have really asked me: ‘How the heck do you do both those jobs?’ ” he said. “You just get used to moving back and forth, moving high speed” and not taking time off.

Now that he has fewer demands on his time, he said he wants to help advance local and regional rail and transit, as well as the city’s connections with state and national rail systems.

Retirement from SMUD provides “just a little more time to focus on some of the policy issues that really interest me,” he said.

Photo of Cohn by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Council talks priorities, budget

2011-01-07T03:03:11Z

As part of a Thursday workshop led by Mayor Kevin Johnson, the Sacramento City Council discussed its current priorities as well as ideas for the upcoming “State of the City” address.

Johnson described the workshop as a “mini-retreat” for the City Council. The city leaders kept the budget in mind when discussing their priorities, but exact budget numbers were not discussed.

City Finance Director Leyne Milstein said after the meeting that she was still working on the budget figures and would present concrete budget information at a Jan. 25 public meeting.

Johnson will speak at the State of the City event, which will be held Jan. 20 at the Sacramento Convention Center. His City Council colleagues gave him advice on points to include in the speech.

Councilman Rob Fong suggested that Johnson mention some of the positive developments in the city, such as the city’s work on streetscape improvements.

“I think there are lots of little things that are happening that we don’t necessarily focus on that make a big difference to a lot of people.”

Councilman Jay Schenirer said that gangs and public safety should be addressed in the speech.

The council members also discussed their priorities. Councilman Kevin McCarty said he wanted the council to consider city services. “How do we maintain a full-service city?” he asked.

Council members Steve Cohn and Bonnie Pannell mentioned the importance of jobs. “To me, everything has to be focused right now on jobs, jobs, jobs and our budget,” Cohn said.

The soundness of the city’s budget should be a priority, said Councilman Rob Fong. “I think we have to start focusing on sustainable budgets.”

Mayor Kevin Johnson responded to Rob Fong’s comment. “I couldn’t agree with you more,” he said.

Councilman Darrell Fong mentioned water rights and flooding as key issues. Meanwhile, both Johnson and Schenirer talked about focusing on youth. Johnson also said education is a priority.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy noted that the city’s budget should be presented in a transparent way “so that people out there understand it.”

Councilwoman Angelique Ashby urged the council members to tour each other’s districts to learn about the districts’ various issues.

Interim City Manager Gus Vina said after the meeting that he would revisit the council’s ideas during a discussion of economic recovery in the city. “My goal is to tie this conversation with the Jan. 25 date, where we’re going to do a workshop on our recovery plan,” he said.

File photo of a Sacramento City Council meeting held last July. Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Bonnie Pannell named vice mayor

2011-01-05T04:19:01Z

The City Council on Tuesday selected Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell to be its second-in-command after the mayor.

Pannell will serve as the city’s vice mayor for 2011. She replaces former City Councilman Robbie Waters, who held the vice mayor position in 2010. The vice mayor fills in for the mayor in certain circumstances.

Assistant City Clerk Stephanie Mizuno said the duties of the vice mayor are spelled out in the city’s charter.

“During any absence of the mayor from the city or a meeting of the city council, the vice-mayor shall be the acting mayor until the mayor returns,” the charter states. “In addition, if the mayor becomes incapable of acting as mayor and incapable of delegating duties, or if a vacancy exists in the office of mayor, the vice-mayor shall become the acting mayor.”

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Police union revives strong mayor debate

2011-01-04T02:40:55Z

The local police union is reviving an effort to create a “strong mayor” form of government in the city, according to Det. Mark Tyndale, vice president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association.

Tyndale said in an interview on Monday that SPOA is “actively talking” to other groups on how to move an effort forward. SPOA is in discussions with the Sacramento Metro Chamber, Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522 and the Sacramento 60, a group of powerful business leaders, Tyndale said.

Sacramento 60 and the Sacramento Metro Chamber backed last summer’s strong mayor proposal.

The City Council and interest groups for and against a strong mayor government fought bitterly over previous campaigns for a strong mayor system last year and in 2009. The city currently uses a city manager/city council form of government. A strong mayor system would move many of the city manager’s responsibilities to the mayor.

SPOA backs the July 2010 strong mayor plan, which is the most recent in a series of proposals.

Tyndale said he hopes the City Council will agree to place the strong mayor issue on the November 2011 ballot, if special elections for other issues are also taking place then. He explained that it is more cost-effective for the city to put it on the ballot with other election issues.

“What we want is real accountability,” Tyndale said, adding that a strong mayor system would make one person – the mayor – more responsible for his or her actions.

He also emphasized that the proposed government system would affect future mayors.

“This is way beyond Kevin Johnson,” he said.

If a new system is put into effect, it would probably affect Johnson in 2012, the final year of his current term, Tyndale said.

Tyndale pointed out that the strong mayor system proposed in July 2010 would have included a City Council president. If a strong mayor government were put into effect, Tyndale said he would want the City Council president to be new City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.

Tyndale said the police union will try to persuade the City Council to put the July 2010 proposal on the November 2011 ballot. The July draft of the strong mayor proposal was written by third-party attorneys after the City Council blocked City Attorney Eileen Teichert from writing a draft in June 2010.

SPOA and other supporters will aim to advance the proposal through the City Council, Tyndale said, rather than through an initiative without the council’s support. However, he said SPOA and other strong mayor supporters would discuss the option of advancing the initiative without the City Council if that is the only option and if it can be accomplished legally.

Johnson and his supporters failed with the initiative approach last year. Bill Camp, executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, sued over the issue in December 2009 and stopped the proposal from advancing. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster decided in January 2010 that the initiative did not follow state law.

Johnson, who had led the strong mayor campaign in 2009 and 2010, abandoned it in July.

“There’s not enough appetite for council to put this on the ballot,” Johnson told reporters in July 2010. “I got that. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to quit fighting for reform.”

This time around, Johnson said he will not take a leading role in a campaign. “What I realize is, I don’t want this to be a distraction for all 2011,” he said at his weekly press conference on Dec. 28.

Meanwhile, Camp said Monday that voters need to decide if they want a council in which the mayor does not have a seat, he said. “People need to think it through,” he said.

Camp said that a new discussion of a strong mayor system needs to account for the need to change the number of City Council seats. The city would have to carve out nine new council districts under the strong mayor proposal. But the city already has to go through a redistricting process for its eight council districts this year, he said. This means there would be a second redistricting process if the strong mayor proposal goes into effect.

A second redistricting process would cost money, he said.

Tyndale acknowledged that the redistricting issue “does complicate things a little bit.”

However, Tyndale said that perhaps there could be a system set up for a couple years that consists of a strong mayor and eight council seats, instead of nine.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy was unavailable for comment on SPOA’s plans Monday afternoon.

Read a timeline of strong mayor events in 2009 and 2010.

Read the July 2010 proposal of the strong mayor plan here.

Photo of Det. Mark Tyndale by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sacramento development in 2010

2010-12-30T03:28:33Z

Development in Sacramento suffered some significant setbacks in 2010. But there were modest moves forward as well, making for a mixed picture heading into 2011.

The focus was on five major projects, which included:

1. The Railyards
A suburban Chicago real estate investment firm, the Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, took ownership of most of Sacramento's historic downtown railyards in a courthouse foreclosure auction held in October. Inland foreclosed on the 203-acre Railyards site after then-owner Thomas Enterprises defaulted on nearly $194 million in loans in June. The two sides had been negotiating on a loan extension for several months but failed to agree on terms. Since October, Inland has been working with city, state and independent contractors to keep infrastructure construction going on such projects as the Fifth and Sixth street bridges and railroad track relocation.

The bridges are expected to be done in January. Work on the $60 million railroad track relocation was delayed after bids came in $12 million over budget in May and Thomas defaulted. In August, the City Council approved a track relocation redesign as part of the first phase of the new train station and public transit center being built adjacent to downtown's Sacramento Valley Station. The city delayed seeking new bids for relocation construction from fall 2010 to January. Inland was scheduled to publicly discuss its approach to the site for the first time at a City Council meeting Dec. 14. The presentation was postponed until early January.

2. Sacramento Arena
The city of Sacramento spent a large portion of 2010 trying to find a workable plan to build a new multipurpose arena to house the Sacramento Kings and host music and other events. Seven development teams made brief, public pitches at City Hall in January. Mayor Kevin Johnson formed an arena task force to consider the proposals. The task force recommended three plans as the top contenders in March. In April, the City Council approved an exclusive negotiation agreement with the Sacramento Convergence Team, a group led by developers Gerry Kamilos and David Taylor. That team lost its exclusive negotiating rights in October after failing to sell Cal Expo officials on their idea: to move the state fairgrounds to the area around Arco Arena and to then allow private development of the existing fairgrounds, which would clear the way to build an arena on city-owned property at the downtown railyards. The mayor reopened the process and set a noon Thursday deadline for new and modified proposals.

3. K Street Mall
Movement also took place on K Street Mall. The most important development took place in July, when the Sacramento City Council chose two teams — one led by D & S Development, Inc., and CFY Development, Inc., and the other by Sacramento developer David Taylor — to revitalize the troubled 700 and 800 blocks. Work continued in 2010 on the $4.5 million project by the city and Sacramento Regional Transit to renovate St. Rose of Lima Park and the 700 block streetscape. The City Council also allowed bikes to return to K Street Mall and paved the way for cars to return in 2011.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership hired a retail recruiter to help reduce vacancies, upgrade the retail mix and support business owners in the 66-block property-based business improvement district. Work also got under way on several new K Street Mall businesses. San Francisco nightclub owner George Karpaty’s crew worked through 2010, and he expects to open Dive Bar, Pizza Rock and District 30 at 1016, 1020 and 1022 K St. in January. Ernesto Delgado also expects to open his Tequila Museo Mayahuel at 12th and K streets in early 2011. Vive Cocina opened in February next to St. Rose of Lima Park

Meanwhile, a grand opening for St. Rose of Lima Park's renovation wasn't held during summer as planned following a conflict that kept the city from turning on the park's new interactive water fountain, or sprayground.

4. Docks Area Riverfront Promenade
In June, the city marked the completion of Pioneer Landing Park and the first phase of the $15 million Docks Area Riverfront Promenade with a ground breaking. The $5.4 million first phase included the park and 1,200 feet of parkway from O Street to R Street. The one-mile promenade is expected to provide a paved path connecting Old Sacramento and Miller Park by 2013 or 2014.

The first phase was paid for with money from State Proposition 40, State Proposition 1B street improvement funds, redevelopment tax increment financing and development impact fees from parks. The city has already applied for nearly $5 million in Proposition 84 grant funding from the state to finance most of the promenade's second phase. The third phase, which would also cost about $5 million, is expected to start in 2013 if funding is available. An estimated $14 million in infrastructure for the Docks Area had been expected to begin between mid-2011 and the start of 2012. The start of infrastructure work is expected to be postponed while the city seeks funding.

Just across I-5 from the Riverfront Promenade and connected by the O Street bridge and refurbished bike and pedestrian viaduct at R Street was the $100 million expansion of the Crocker Art Museum.

5. River District
City staff unveiled the River District Specific Plan, which the City Council is expected to vote on in January. A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new, temporary Greyhound bus terminal in August. The $5.4 million bus station is being built at 420 Richards Blvd. on about 1.75 acres in the Discovery Centre development in the River District. The old Greyhound terminal at Seventh and L streets is expected to close in 2011. The bus terminal will eventually move to the new regional transit facility expected to be built in the Railyards development within eight to 15 years.

Work also continued on Sacramento Regional Transit's new green line from downtown to the River District, and eventually, to the airport. Utilities were relocated, track foundation was laid and some overhead poles to hold wire were installed. The line is expected to open in mid-2011, but no date has been determined. In September, Sacramento's Discovery Museum and its partners sought the community's help in applying for $7 million in state grants to build the Powerhouse Science Center. PG&E readied the site near the vacant 99-year-old PG&E power station on Jibboom Street for construction. Museum officials hope to break ground in late 2011 or early 2012 and open the new museum in late 2013 or early 2014.

First photo by Brandon Darnell. Arena graphic provided by the CORE group. Other photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Fong: Outreach needed in Valley Hi

2010-12-30T01:58:28Z

New Sacramento City Councilman Darrell Fong said his district consists of one neighborhood that does not get involved with local issues, and another neighborhood that intensely participates in civic decision-making. Fong said one of his goals as city councilman for District 7 will be to connect with residents in the politically passive Valley Hi neighborhood in South Sacramento.

The councilman and his district director, Noah Painter, gave a driving tour of the Pocket/Greenhaven and Valley Hi neighborhoods for The Sacramento Press on Tuesday.

The residential Valley Hi neighborhood faces major problems with foreclosures, Fong and Painter said. While Valley Hi residents are affected by political issues like flood protection, the voter registration rate in the area is about 26 percent, according to Painter.

“We tell people – you need to get involved so you have representation,” Fong said.

He said he needs the neighbors of Valley Hi to get involved with his office so he can learn more about their challenges.

“If you don’t get engaged, we’re not going to know what the problems are,” Fong said, addressing Valley Hi neighbors through his remarks to The Sacramento Press. “Listen: there are resources that you can utilize. We’re going to be out here. We’re going to be accessible.”

However, Fong pointed out that he may be able to provide only limited help with a flood-control problem Valley Hi residents face. Because District 7 neighborhoods border the Sacramento River, flood control protection is a concern.

Valley Hi does not have the 100-year flood protection, while the Pocket has that level of protection, Fong said. Because Valley Hi doesn’t have the bolstered flood protection, its residents pay higher flood insurance rates than Pocket residents, he said.

The problem is that the flood protection is administered by the state and federal government, Fong said.

“We’re a different entity than the state and federal government,” Fong said, noting that he was not going to “make any promises we can’t keep.”

At the same time, he said he will work on the issue. Valley Hi neighbors “want us to make sure their voice is heard at the state, local and federal level about flood protection,” Fong said.

More Pocket/Greenhaven residents than Valley Hi residents have signed up to be on Fong’s e-mail list, Painter said. “You’re going to see a more active base of residents in Pocket and Greenhaven than you are in Valley Hi,” he said.

Property crimes and traffic-related issues make up most of the public safety concerns in the Pocket/Greenhaven neighborhood, Fong said. There is not a lot of violent crime in the neighborhood, he said.

Residents in a part of the neighborhood called “Old Pocket” are concerned about public safety and keeping the streets maintained, Fong said. “This is a bedroom community,” he said about Old Pocket. “This is a very quiet area.”

Fong explained that Greenhaven and Pocket are two sections of one neighborhood. While it’s considered a neighborhood, it’s not tiny. About 26,300 residents live in Pocket / Greenhaven, according to new 2011 U.S. Census postal code data provided by Painter.

Fong also discussed a now-vacant former Nugget Market building at the Riverside Plaza Shopping Center in the Pocket. He said he aims to meet with the two owners of the complex and talk about the process of finding tenants for the building.

Click on “e-mail updates” at the left side of this website to sign up for the District 7 e-mail list.

Photos of Fong by Kathleen Haley.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Hall: The year in scandals

2010-12-22T02:45:51Z

Scandals shook Sacramento City Hall throughout 2010. A review of the past year in local politics shows city leaders in turmoil over debacles at the Community Development and Utilities departments.

The troubles in the development department prompted City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy to declare in January that council members should find out what has “gone wrong” at City Hall. Before we ring in a new year, let’s take a look at the scandals that shaped city politics over the past 12 months.

Troubles with the feds
A scandal that began in 2009 involving the city’s development department and a Natomas flood zone continued full-throttle until the end of 2010. City employee Dan Waters, son of recently-retired Councilman Robbie Waters, gave permits to K. Hovnanian Homes to develop an area of Natomas that the federal government had defined as a flood zone, according to city officials.

City officials said Waters broke Federal Emergency Management Agency rules by giving the permits to the builder in 2009.

The crisis made waves all through 2010 as FEMA and the city wrestled with how to resolve the breach of federal rules. The City Council approved an expensive solution to the problem just weeks ago, at a Nov. 16 meeting. It will cost $350,000 in general fund dollars to correct the blunder and take several actions to follow FEMA rules.

Following the scandal, Waters was not fired, but was moved to a code enforcement job from a community development department position. Community development and code enforcement were separate departments at the time Waters was transferred in 2009. The departments have since consolidated.

A Dec. 1 Sacramento Bee story quoted anonymous sources to report that the city’s management was preparing to fire Waters. City spokeswoman Amy Williams would not confirm the Bee’s report, saying that the city does not comment on personnel matters.

What happened to $2 million?
The development department faced a second scandal this year that involved more than $2 million in fees. City Attorney Eileen Teichert and independent firm Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai encountered a number of issues relating to fees at the department when they investigated the problems with FEMA and the building permits for the flood zone.

Teichert received the information about the fees, but did not investigate the claims. Instead, Teichert handed over the information on fees to a third-party auditor, Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, Inc., which conducted an audit of the department. The audit, released in October, said the department did not collect more than $2.3 million in fees from developers. The amount is a significant sum in light of the city’s ongoing budget woes.

The issue is likely to rage on at City Hall in 2011. Councilman Rob Fong has been pushing for the City Council to do a separate investigation of the problems at the department. He also has said he wants to find out if the City Council can get the money back.

Grand Jury rips Utilities Department

The Sacramento County Grand Jury claimed in a January report that the Utilities Department may have broken state law Proposition 218. The law says that utilities fees from ratepayers must correspond to the costs of delivering the utilities services.

Partly in response to the Prop. 218 issue, a citizens’ group placed a measure on the November ballot to roll back city utilities rates. But Measure B failed at the polls.

Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilman Kevin McCarty both said on Oct. 13 that the Utilities Department should be audited. McCarty and Councilman Steve Cohn actively campaigned against Measure B.

Look for the next installment of our year-end review in the coming days. We’ll refresh you on the resignations and promotions of city officials in 2010.

Photos of Natomas homes by Kathleen Haley. Photos of council members by Brandon Darnell. Photo of Measure B sign by Suzanne Hurt.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Schenirer to focus on neighborhoods

2010-12-18T01:56:16Z

New Sacramento City Councilman Jay Schenirer said he wants to improve Sacramento’s neighborhoods. He’s approaching neighborhood groups because he believes local activism is essential for change.

Schenirer, who represents 19 neighborhoods including Oak Park, Curtis Park and Brentwood, hosted a driving tour for The Sacramento Press on a rainy Friday.

Neighborhood involvement was a topic that came up frequently as he talked about the troubles, successes and quirks of District 5.

“People have been here a long time,” he said, as he drove around the Hollywood Park neighborhood. “They take a lot of pride. They have a good neighborhood association.”

As Schenirer drove through South Oak Park, it was apparent that public safety concerns were connected with the neighborhood. Homes were surrounded by chain link fences. Two tough-looking dogs guarded a house in the front yard of one home.

Schenirer pointed out large industrial locks on chain fences that blocked visitors from entering homes. “You can’t get to a house here,” he said, commenting on the locks.

“This, right here, for the district (is) the greatest need,” he said. “There’s no neighborhood leadership. There’s nothing going on here that’s positive.”

Schenirer said he wants the Oak Park Neighborhood Association to expand its efforts southward. “I think the Oak Park Neighborhood Association is doing some great things. If you go to one of their meetings – 50, 60, 70 people show up – it’s great. It’s mostly North Oak Park people.”

He also said he wants to work with Habitat for Humanity on housing needs in his district.

Oak Park’s neighbor, Curtis Park, has an entirely different atmosphere. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson lives in the well-kept neighborhood, a few doors away from California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. Curtis Park is also home to Schenirer, KFBK 1530 radio host Kitty O’Neal and Mike McKeever, executive director of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

“An incredibly political neighborhood,” Schenirer said, referring to Curtis Park. “They go to war over tot-lots and street closures.”

Schenirer also drove through the tiny neighborhood of Fuller Town, which borders the east side of Sacramento Executive Airport. The neighborhood, which has only two streets, has a quirky feature – Schenirer pointed out airport hangars that are attached to homes. Some of the neighbors are pilots who own planes, Schenirer said. They can take to the sky from their backyards.

Schenirer said he plans to hold a meeting with neighborhood associations in his district on Jan. 27 in Oak Park. At the meeting, he intends to talk to the neighborhood groups about what they need from his City Council office. He said he views neighborhood pride in the context of public safety.

“It’s all about getting people to take pride in their neighborhoods,” he said.

“At the end of the day, we’re not going to be able to put a whole lot more cops on the street for a long time. We just don’t have the money. When you think about public safety, you have to think about neighborhoods really taking ownership,” he said.

View a map of District 5 here.

Photos of Schenirer by David Watts Barton, editor in chief of The Sacramento Press.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Council members discuss Central City

2010-12-16T02:42:44Z

Sacramento’s Central City has received a lot of media attention for shootings and muggings in recent months. However, the area is also frequently in the spotlight because of large-scale development projects, such as the downtown Railyards or George Karpaty’s trio of businesses on K Street.

The Sacramento Press recently interviewed three City Council members to learn about their plans for the Central City. Councilwoman Angelique Ashby and Councilmen Steve Cohn and Rob Fong shared their priorities for the different parts of the Central City they represent.

Ashby’s portion of the area includes the downtown Railyards, K Street, Old Sacramento, Alkali Flat and the River District. Ashby mentioned the Railyards and K Street Mall as examples of key development sites in her district.

“Some of the best opportunities in the city lie in the downtown portion of District 1,” she said.

As an elected official, she said she wants to help avoid hurdles in the development process. “In my position, I can help make sure they get those projects done in a timely manner,” she said.

Ashby also said she wants to be a behind-the-scenes facilitator for the various groups involved with projects in the area. Stakeholder groups involved with Central City development projects, such as community members, government agencies and environmental organizations, need a “point person” at City Hall, she said, adding that she wants to take on that role.

Public safety in her district, and throughout the city, is a key priority, Ashby said.

Cohn, too, emphasized public safety when asked about his work in District 3. His section of the Central City includes Midtown and part of downtown. His district’s stretch of K Street starts at 16th Street and heads east.

He pointed out the shooting death of a 24-year-old that occurred after a Second Saturday Art Walk event in September. Cohn also mentioned that the neighborhood has bar and nightlife issues. He said he wants neighborhoods and businesses to work together to solve public safety and public nuisance issues in Midtown. In his view, Midtown’s development has been a success, he said.

“I want to make sure it can continue to succeed and not be a victim of its own success,” he said.

On a different topic, he said work is under way to enhance Sutter’s Landing Park on the northeast edge of Midtown.

Meanwhile, Fong said he was excited about the R Street streetscape project in his district. Fong’s piece of the Central City includes part of Midtown and downtown. The street improvements will make the street more pedestrian-friendly and inviting, he said.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the effort to revamp the street with new lighting and parking enhancements was held in September. The street will be remodeled from 10th to 13th streets.

Click on the following links to view maps of City Council Districts 1, 3 and 4.

Learn more about some of Ashby’s priorities for North and South Natomas here.

Photos of Cohn and Fong by Brandon Darnell. Photo of Ashby by David Watts Barton.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Vina wants permanent city manager job

2010-12-15T06:29:27Z

Interim City Manager Gus Vina said Tuesday that he would like to serve as Sacramento’s next permanent city manager.

The City Council held a private meeting on Tuesday to discuss the council’s plans for hiring a city manager. The council did not discuss the details of the private meeting at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. It’s unclear at this point if the council will search for a city manager outside of City Hall. The timeline for the council’s hiring process also remains unclear.

Meanwhile, Vina is expressing his interest in the permanent job.

“When I took the position, I understood it was interim and that they can discuss the interim status and appointment at any time up to March of next year,” Vina said in an e-mailed statement. “Should mayor and council decide to launch a recruitment effort, there’s no question I’ll apply.”

If selected for the permanent job, Vina said he would like to focus on recovery in the city. “That means focusing on three things: achieving long-term budget sustainability, pursuing economic recovery and keeping the community safe,” he said.

Former City Manager Ray Kerridge resigned in February, and the City Council selected Vina for the interim post in March.

Photo by Kathleen Haley.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Iceland to open doors this month

2010-12-15T05:11:38Z

The opening of the remodeled Iceland skating rink in North Sacramento was approved unanimously by the City Council on Tuesday.

The ice skating rink, which an arsonist burned down last spring, could reopen as early as Saturday, or on Christmas at the latest, according to Rob Kerth, the grandson of the couple who founded the rink.

He commented on the city permit the City Council approved Tuesday night.

“Iceland has the right to operate as an indoor facility at that location,” Kerth said after the council’s vote. “It doesn’t have the right to operate as an outdoor facility. What (the City Council) gave us was a three-year permit to operate as an outdoor facility. Within three years, we either need to put the roof on or get an extension.”

Kerth said he wants to put on the roof two years from now, but he said he’s worried about the cost.

He estimated the new roof could cost $500,000, at a minimum. “Honestly, I can’t promise we’re going to make it,” he said. “It takes a lot of money to get there.”

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy had lengthened the public process on the rink’s reopening by bringing the issue to the City Council. The Planning Commission would have been the last stop for reopening the rink, but Sheedy said the council should address it. But Sheedy praised city staff for its work on the permit on Tuesday night and voted in favor of the permit, along with her colleagues.

Park maintenance debate on hold

2010-12-14T00:46:17Z

The debate on whether property owners should pay the costs of maintaining parks has been put on hold. City spokeswoman Linda Tucker said Interim City Manager Gus Vina is stopping work on the issue until city leaders hold budget workshops early next year.

“That way all the budget needs and available tools to generate revenue can be viewed as a whole,” Tucker wrote in an e-mail. “(Vina’s) belief is that a more strategic discussion can be held with this approach.”

The City Council was expected to decide on Tuesday, Dec. 14, whether to hire an engineer to examine the issue. The council will not make that decision this week.

Learn more about the assessment proposal here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Parks maintenance plan sparks debate

2010-12-09T01:31:46Z

Two Sacramento Parks and Recreation Commission members urged the City Council on Tuesday to consider asking property owners to pay for the maintenance costs of city parks.

The City Council decided it would weigh the issue next week because Councilman Darrell Fong wanted more information on the idea. Council members still heard the appeals of the Parks and Recreation Commission members at the meeting.

Commissioner Cynthia Cooke said that if the public pays an assessment, general fund money for public safety and fire protection could be freed up.

“We want to help you get parks operations and maintenance off the general fund,” Cooke said.

Setting an assessment would involve several steps. The City Council is in the early stages of examining the idea.

The City Council may decide next week whether it should hire an engineer to prepare a report “about the feasibility and timing of a new assessment district for park and recreation facility maintenance,” according to a Dec. 7 report written by city staff. The cost to hire the engineer would be $83,000.

Even if the City Council decides it wants to pursue the idea of a parks maintenance assessment, city property owners would need to vote on it.

Commissioner Jonathan Rewers pointed out that the city is in difficult budget times.

“We’re at a point where, at least in my opinion, it’s time for the residents of the city of Sacramento and our property owners to decide what services they want to support and what things they want to pay for,” Rewers said.

Parks and Recreation Director Jim Combs said in an interview Wednesday that parks maintenance has been slashed in the past three years. Over that period of time, more than 50 percent of parks maintenance staff has been cut, and more than half of the general fund budget for park maintenance has been cut, he said.

The idea of a new assessment on property owners is already controversial among certain City Council members. Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell expressed concern about the voters being asked to pay for various needs, and she said she would not support a parks maintenance assessment.

“How many times are we going to go to the public and ask for money?” Pannell said at the council meeting.

The Sacramento County Taxpayers League is already joining the debate, saying in a Dec. 7 statement that the assessment would be an unwelcome tax.

The plan “fails to to account for (or prioritize) the cumulative impact of recently approved and future proposed local government rate, fee and tax hikes on Sacramento's struggling residents and businesses,” the letter said.

Combs countered in an interview Wednesday that the assessment is not a tax because it involves asking property owners if they’re willing to pay the assessment.

Read the Dec. 7 report from city staff on the proposed parks maintenance assessment here.

Photo by Kathleen Haley.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Treasurer: City must borrow cash

2010-12-08T05:54:18Z

City Treasurer Russ Fehr explained the city’s cash flow problems to the City Council Tuesday night, noting that the city’s general fund will need to continue to borrow cash.

The city has a $90 million cash flow gap, Fehr said. To address its cash flow troubles, the city recently borrowed $40 million, he said.

The city’s cash situation changes throughout the year, according to a report by Fehr. That’s because the city receives property tax revenues during the second half of the fiscal year, which begins Jan. 1, Fehr said.

The heart of the problem is the cash situation with the general fund, he said.

“I want to emphasize that the cash flow issue in first half of the year is not new,” he told the City Council. “Nearly all cities, counties, districts (and) school districts that receive property taxes face this problem. It’s sort of generically known as ‘the dry period.’

“Why it’s become a new issue for us in recent years, is that the general fund is now having to borrow for cash flow purposes,” he said.

The general fund has had cash flow troubles since Fiscal Year 2008-2009, according to Fehr’s report. “It’s certain that the general fund is going to have to borrow cash for the foreseeable future,” he told the council members.

Fehr urged the City Council to minimize and then stop using unsustainable solutions to balance the budget.

City Councilman Rob Fong was the only council member who commented after Fehr’s presentation. “It is a critical situation,” he said. The City Council and city staff must work on the cash flow problem together during budget season, Fong added.

Mayor Kevin Johnson commented on the situation at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “When times were good in the Sacramento economy, we spent more than we should,” Johnson said.

Fehr said last week that the city is not at risk of bankruptcy.

Photo by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Development Oversight Commission to disband

2010-12-08T04:40:04Z

A city commission composed mostly of members of the construction sector is disbanding Dec. 31. However, a report by city staff said the Development Oversight Commission, which made recommendations to the City Council on the city’s work with the building industry, may morph into a group that explores economic development goals.

The Development Oversight Commission (DOC) will dissolve because the ordinance that formed it gave it a Dec. 31 expiration date, according to the city report. The City Council decided to set up the commission in 2000.

Darryl Chinn, a DOC member and local architect, said the current DOC members may participate in a future economic development commission.

Top city staffers in the economic development, public works, utilities and development departments are brainstorming a strategy for a citywide economic development program, Chinn said.

“The idea would be that the DOC reinvent itself to be a part of that movement,” Chinn said.

He added that a new economic development commission could possibly include experts in the fields of law, finance and banking, in addition to the construction sector professionals currently in dominating the DOC.

City Economic Development Department spokesman Maurice Chaney also said more professionals may be added to the group.

“We will be conducting outreach to our stakeholders for a possible new commission,” he said. “This may include an expansion of the group to include more disciplines.”

Chaney said the City Council would need to approve the new commission in order for it to go into effect.

In response to a question from The Sacramento Press, Chin said the disbanding of the DOC was unrelated to the troubles in the development department, which include an audit that found the city did not charge developers more than $2.3 million in fees.

Read the report on the commission here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Editorial: Beyond downtown with Angelique Ashby

2010-12-07T04:08:13Z

If there's one thing Sacramento needs more than anything right now, it's optimism.

OK, perhaps there's one thing we need even more than optimism: Realism.

The two are often seen as contradictory, but there is at least one place where they converge: in City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby's mind.

Ashby, 35, who just started her new gig as a member of the Sacramento City Council, took city hall reporter Kathleen Haley and me on a 90-minute tour of her sprawling District 1 on Monday.

It was an eye-opener.

Kathleen's report on Ashby's guided tour is informative regarding the issues the councilwoman addressed, but I wanted to add just a little color and optimism of my own.

We drove around Natomas in Ashby's SUV (she's a married mother of two) on a glorious, spring-like day that showed Natomas off to fine advantage. Sunshine, white clouds and green fields always play well, so she had a natural advantage. And she needed one: Like many downtown residents, I know little about Natomas, and have felt that I know as much as I want to: I know how to get to ARCO Arena.

Having driven past Natomas' endless sprawl to ARCO or points beyond, I was disinclined to appreciate it. I have no interest in living in such a place, I am not a fan of auto-centric culture, and I'm not crazy about big-and-new – so I have to admit to a certain downtown-centric disdain.

But while I'm a single guy with no personal interest in finding a good school or the best playground options - and because I generally avoid fast food and chain coffee - I still respect their appeal to others, especially to those raising children.

So even for me, Ashby is a savvy advocate for her district, and by the end of our tour, I was rooting for Natomas right alongside her. Ashby makes a number of very good points, the essential one being this: Whether you live there or not, for Sacramento to succeed, Natomas needs to succeed.

Spread out on former farmland that was first opened in the '80s and is inextricably linked to the building of ARCO Arena, at its best, Natomas has many of the family-friendly features that have lured many thousands out of Sacramento, first into Arden Arcade and Orangevale and Citrus Heights, and then into the hilly subdivisions of Roseville, Folsom, Lincoln and Rocklin.

As someone who has an interest in Sacramento as a whole being a healthy, successful city, I understand that an area of more than 70,000 people (nearly a fifth of Sacramento's total population) matters. If Natomas is not successful in drawing business, in developing its undeveloped land, in curbing its crime rate, in improving its schools and in protecting itself from natural disaster (i.e., flooding), then Sacramento will not be successful. Families will vote with their feet, literally heading for the hills.

Denizens of downtown, Midtown and the inner "Park" neighborhoods, who would never dream of living in Natomas, might want to keep that in mind. Natomas matters.

Beyond that rather abstract notion, on this particularly beautiful day, Natomas was lovely. Ashby made a point of driving us past a number of parks, including the unnamed (and unfunded) regional park that held a number of pheasants and jackrabbits, as well as a small lake and a running path. Flat as a pancake, there was nothing to block a glorious view of the Sierra Nevada.

But the new councilwoman was also honest enough to drive us by the unfinished "Stonehenge" she wants torn down, as well as the boarded-up houses that have caused the city so much trouble with FEMA. She also pointed out the over-abundance of apartment complexes and the less-than-lovely stretches of funk along Northgate Boulevard.

So, realistic and yet optimistic, Ashby shares the feelings of many: that Sacramento, one of the oldest cities in the western United States, still has its best days ahead of it, with lots of room, literal as well as figurative, to grow. And as much as the Railyards or K Street, how we "do" areas like North and South Natomas will say a lot about how we develop as a city.

While it is necessarily the crucial focus of many of our efforts, the central city is not all that matters.

As for Ashby, she is young and unproven, and we will be watching her. But her vision of the larger city, her fresh outreach to her fellow council members (whom she has also taken around in her SUV), as well as her firm defense of her own very diverse district (which also includes the Railyards and most of downtown), bodes well for Natomas and the city as a whole. I, for one, wish her - and Natomas - the best of luck.

Ashby talks arena, Natomas housing

2010-12-07T02:09:13Z

New Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby hosted a driving tour of North and South Natomas and the Gardenland/Northgate neighborhood for The Sacramento Press on Monday. Throughout the tour, Ashby commented on a range of issues affecting Natomas, including plans for a new basketball arena and her views on the city’s low-income housing ordinance.

Ashby’s district includes the downtown Railyards and Natomas — two spots discussed in recent months as potential homes for a new arena. As she drove by Arco Arena, she said she wants to ensure that site in Natomas is factored into any development plans for a new sports and entertainment complex.

“But if the consensus is that if an arena best serves the city of Sacramento by being built downtown, or the Railyards, or wherever, then I’m OK with that — so long as that plan includes a designated re-use plan for this Natomas site,” she said.

“And I won’t be in support of anything that doesn’t address the Natomas component.”

While driving around North Natomas neighborhoods, Ashby expressed her views on the area’s planning issues. She said she would like to reexamine a 2000 city ordinance that aims to distribute affordable housing in neighborhoods.

“Because of the low-income inclusionary housing ordinance only applying to new growth areas, we have a lot of low-income inclusionary housing in North Natomas,” she said. “[This] isn’t really a problem, except for that it’s all stacked up. And we don’t have any services for low-income folks.”

For example, North Natomas doesn’t have a food bank, she said.

“Let’s see if there aren’t some modifications (to the ordinance) we can make to help stabilize our communities,” Ashby said. “And make the neighborhoods a little bit more balanced as they address serving the needs of folks.”

Ashby also pointed out large, neglected structures that were supposed to be developed but are now bank-owned blight. She nicknamed the failed development near East Commerce Way “Stonehenge,” and said the structures should be torn down. Graffiti and a knocked-down Porta-Potty were some of the features of the site.

Ashby also provided a tour of South Natomas, pointing out Regional Transit’s plans to run a Light Rail line there on a busy part of Truxel Road.

“I’m just not convinced that running Light Rail down this street will help it,” she said. “But I’m open to the discussion and I’m listening.”

Ashby also commented on the relationship of the Gardenland/Northgate neighborhood to South Natomas. “I think Gardenland/Northgate is its own community. But they very much are neighbors with, and associated with, South Natomas,” she said.

Ashby expressed optimism about the Natomas community and future plans for the area. “Who would choose to live here, I think, is a pretty cool family,” she said. “It’s somebody who wants a suburban setting like a Rocklin or a Roseville, but they want to be in the city of Sacramento. They want to be green ... They would be willing to hang out downtown.

“When people talk about building out downtown, this is who is going to go down there and shop and eat,” she said. “So, what you don’t want is to allow this community to fall apart at the seams. Because this is the community that will help stabilize the rest of the city if we can keep it as an attractive solution to the suburbs.”

Photos by David Watts Barton.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Fails to Plants Seeds of Empowerment But Plants Surveillance Cameras

2010-12-06T03:42:03Z

An Open Letter to the Mayor and Council for the City of Sacramento

As a resident of the City of Sacramento who has continuously stood before you begging, crying, pleading for you to address the violence, which has left our children dead on Sacramento city streets or leaving Sacramento to become the walking dead in California prisons, I have several questions regarding your position on surveillance cameras.

In regards to Sacramento Press article: Police Working on Surveillance System
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/41637/Police_working_on_surveillance_system

Within the article it states: “There are many factors that will determine where the cameras will be placed...Among those factors are crime rates, crime trends, special events and areas that may present a threat to public safety. The fixed cameras will be placed based upon recommendations from City Council, the Police Department, and the availability of existing infrastructure.”

Instead of planting seeds of employment, resources, opportunities in crime areas the City of Sacramento decides to continue to plant weeds of surveillance cameras? Why haven't you used the factors of crime rates, crime trends, special events, scientific based, researched based, evidence based studies to determine where to place resources for those affected/ exposed to crime/ violence?

Are you planning on placing the cameras in low income communities?

When the City of Sacramento held the closed-door-away-from-the public-discussion- on where the cameras would be placed did you even once consider if the area is in need of surveillance cameras then it must be in need of resources, opportunities, employment for the residents of that area?

So, the City of Sacramento had the time, energy, resources to have a discussion among themselves on how to arrest people but has YET to have a discussion among themselves and with the public on the needs, other than suppression, of those same areas? You can't have a discussion on crime prevention other than law enforcement funding but you can discuss where to place cameras due to crime?

Will the cameras be placed in Oak Park, Meadowview, Valley Hi, North Sacramento? If you felt the need for the cameras in those areas why have you never felt the need for a Boys & Girls Club in those same areas? Why have you never felt the need to hold a Council session to address crime in those areas? Did money -a grant- have to become available for you to value the life or freedom of City youth?

Their are no Boys & Girls clubs...in Valley Hi, Meadowview, Oak Park, North Sacramento but their is crime so instead of resources those areas get cameras in an ignorant, ineffective attempt to arrest away crime?

Surely you're not ignorant to think this is in any way a solution to crime prevention for the city of Sacramento. Their are surveillance cameras at schools, stores, gas stations, regional transit, malls, on police units, businesses, cameras within the Department of Human Assistance which capture images a block away and crime has not decreased.

We see surveillance criminal activity images on the Sheriffs site, media releases stating "Do you know these thieves?" surely you can't think placing additional surveillance cameras will significantly address violence in our city. Ask the District Attorney's office how many cases they are prosecuting due to surveillance footage? It doesn't appear the District Attorney's office case load has decreased due to surveillance cameras.

It doesn't appear our jails have become less crowded due to surveillance cameras? It doesn't appear surveillance cameras significantly prevents crime. Lots of not-so-bright often under educated and living in communities lacking resources, employment, opportunities commit crimes. It appears surveillance cameras merely aid in arrest / prosecution but the crime goes on. Will you create a balance and give us employment, opportunities, resources in the same areas you place cameras?

You can not pacify a community affected and exposed to crime by merely placing surveillance cameras in their communities and call it crime prevention. You can not silence our cries as you shift crime away from one area (the area with a camera) and move it to another area (the area without a camera). How long will you continue to shift crime instead of looking at avenues to prevent it?

Do you plan to continue to let this cancerous polyp of violence in Sacramento break off and spread to other streets and bodies of Sacramento area youth and families? As it is our cries echo from one Sacramento neighborhood to another due to the city decades long neglect of addressing youth violence with employment and opportunites.

Since it is obvious many of you were looking at money- a grant of $615.000- and not at the people will you NOW have the discussion on how you plan to prevent crime?

If you place surveillance cameras in areas affected by crime/ violence and do not place employment, opportunities, resources in those same areas you are doing no more than rounding people up as cattle and milking the County of Sacramento of Social services programs. The City of Sacramento will become a contributing factor in the County of Sacramento taking away programs, services, opportunites for the needy to fund Sheriff, District Attorney, Probation, Courts.

Your surveillance cameras will aid in the County budgets being monopolized with suppression rather than services for the mentally ill, poor, and needy.

Do you plan on planting seeds of empowerment in the same areas you plan on weeding out people with cameras for incarceration? In the May 28, 2009 SN&R 'Surveillance City' article, SPD Sgt Norm Leong stated, "It’s free money, why wouldn’t you take it?” Is that why cameras are gong up because it's free money?

Are you looking at money or looking at the people affected/ imposed to crime? When will you look at life, freedom, prevention verses grants and money for suppression? Have City residents, affected/ exposed to crime, become a Sacramento City Commodity?

Cities have received Homeland security grants for over 6 years (http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=31334 ) have you spoken with the cities and asked how or if the surveillance cameras reduced crime or were you just looking at money and not the people?

Many of us know you value grants but when will you value LIFE and FREEDOM for city youth?

I hope you can or will answer the questions listed in this letter at the next city council session.

Related articles on Homeland security grants:
http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=42502 Homeland Pork

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=998297 Surveillance City
"The ALCU has for years produced studies showing that surveillance cameras don’t prevent crime. In fact, according to an ACLU survey of crime statistics in San Francisco, crime actually increased overall at locations where public-surveillance cameras were installed."

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/snog/blogs?date=2009-09-01 City Council Humors ACLU but won't slow down on Surveillance Scheme

Police working on surveillance system

2010-12-05T22:49:21Z

The Sacramento Police Department is moving forward with plans to set up security cameras in multiple locations in the city by May 2011. However, the number of cameras the department plans to use and where they will be placed is unclear.

In April 2009, the department announced it would use $615,000 in federal Homeland Security grant funding to purchase a surveillance equipment package. The deadline for the department to buy and put the surveillance equipment into effect is next May, according to department spokesman Konrad von Schoech.

“Equipment has to be purchased and operational by May 2011, but some equipment will be operational before that date,” von Schoech wrote in an e-mail.

The department is making some headway on its plans. The City Council last week decided on a vendor, Southern California-based Absolute Surveillance, for three surveillance trailers. About $245,000 of the Homeland Security grant funding covers the trailers, according to a Nov. 30 city report.

“The camera trailer is intended to be used as a mobile video recording system where a permanent camera system is unable or undesirable to be installed,” von Schoech explained. “The deployment is usually for a short duration, just a few weeks of remote monitoring. There will be one surveillance trailer assigned to each substation.”

He further said that the department will use the camera trailers in the areas of the city’s three substations, which are located in the northern, central and southern parts of the city.

The department has some ideas for where it wants to place fixed cameras, but von Schoech said the department is not elaborating on those ideas because they are not final.

“Some locations have been identified, but not finalized,” he said. “The locations were based upon input from the area captains with input from the City Council person’s office in each district, past crime statistics and current crime trends.”

The Sacramento Press asked von Schoech to describe the process for how the locations will be selected. “There are many factors that will determine where the cameras will be placed,” he responded. “Among those factors are crime rates, crime trends, special events and areas that may present a threat to public safety. The fixed cameras will be placed based upon recommendations from City Council, the Police Department, and the availability of existing infrastructure.”

At this point, it is unknown how many fixed cameras the department intends to use. When the department announced the grant in April 2009, it said it wanted 32 security cameras to be part of the surveillance package. The police department’s request to the state for the federal grant funding also mentioned 32 cameras.

But the department is no longer saying it will use 32 cameras. Spokesman von Schoech said that he could not provide a specific number for the cameras, saying that the number will depend on many factors, including cost.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Sacramento maintains its position that the cameras represent a privacy violation. The group protested the department’s plans in 2009.

“The ACLU wants Americans to have their privacy respected,” said Debra Reiger, chair of the local chapter.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Darrell Fong rejects City Council salary

2010-12-04T01:21:55Z

New City Councilman Darrell Fong officially declined his $60,800 salary Wednesday, becoming the first council member to reject a salary since council members began receiving annual salaries in 2003, according to city staff.

Fong sent a Dec. 1 letter to city Human Resources Director Geri Hamby to tell her that he would not accept a salary.

“It is my intention to annually decline the City Council salary and benefits until the local economy improves and we are able to balance the budget without unnecessary cuts to city services or employees,” Fong wrote.

Fong had pledged to reject a salary when he was running for the District 7 council member job. “It wasn’t a gimmick,” he said in an interview on Friday.

While Fong is turning down his City Council salary and several city benefits, he does have other income. Fong is a retired Sacramento police captain who receives a gross monthly retirement benefit of $11,179, according to the press office of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

Along with his salary, Fong is rejecting medical, dental and vision benefits associated with the position, that would have ranged between $6,900 to $14,040, said Kimberly Isaacs, the city’s human resources manager for benefits and retirement.

He is also refusing to participate in the city’s 401K plan and retirement benefits that come with the job, she said.

Fong is, however, accepting a few of the benefits. He will receive a life insurance policy at $552 annually and long-term care disability insurance at about $140 per year, Isaacs said.

The councilman will also accept a $1,200 technology allowance and a $4,800 auto allowance, according to Isaacs.

Fong said the Human Resources Department suggested that he accept his life insurance benefit. It will be useful for his wife in case he is “killed on city business,” he said.

Fong said that when the city budget situation improves, he intends to take a salary. “It may be awhile” until that point, he said.

Fong also said he is not inferring that other city council members should give up their salaries, adding that the city council position is the sole source of income for some council members.

Read Fong’s letter here.

Photo of Fong's swearing-in ceremony by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Treasurer: City running out of cash

2010-12-02T21:37:07Z

The city is in serious trouble because it is nearly out of cash.

City Treasurer Russ Fehr made that dire prediction in a report released Thursday afternoon. He wrote that the city faces a major problem with its cash flow.

“Due to the differences in timing in General Fund expenditures and revenues, there is a cash flow gap of approximately $90 million in the first half of the fiscal year,” Fehr wrote.

The City Council is expected to discuss Fehr’s report at its Dec. 7 meeting.

“If the City's discretionary cash holdings fall below the needs of the General Fund in the first half of a fiscal year, then the City will assume an appalling new risk level,” the report said. “If the City cannot borrow from internal sources for cash flow needs, then the City will be absolutely
dependent on short-term borrowing on the financial markets. The City will lose control of its financial destiny. There is no guarantee of success in borrowing in the future. Even with a balanced budget, the City could run out of cash before property taxes are allocated in late December.”

The Sacramento Press will provide more coverage of Fehr’s findings shortly.

Read the full text of the report here.

Photos by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Fong, Schenirer sworn into office

2010-12-01T05:43:14Z

The Sacramento City Council underwent a makeover Tuesday night when two new council members were officially sworn into office. The swearing in of Jay Schenirer and Darrell Fong is the last step in the City Council’s changing of the guard.

Schenirer’s ceremony had an element of star quality because state Senate President Darrell Steinberg administered the oath of office for the new councilman.

Angelique Ashby, the other new council member, was sworn into office Nov. 23 to represent District 1.

Schenirer replaced Lauren Hammond as the District 5 council member, while Fong took the District 7 reins from Robbie Waters.

Also on Tuesday night, Steve Cohn was sworn in for a fifth term as the city councilman for District 3.

Schenirer thanked his family and his volunteers, among others, for their help with his campaign.

“I so appreciate all the work that you did. (And) all the sacrifices that you made, taking time away from your family to help me get here,” he said, addressing his volunteers. “And I promise not to let you down.”

After the swearing-in ceremony, Steinberg told The Sacramento Press why he read the oath of office to Schenirer.

“I’ve been a longtime friend and supporter of Jay,” Steinberg said. “He gave me the honor of swearing him in. I was just so thrilled for him; he’s going to be great.”

Steinberg mentioned that he served on the Sacramento City Council from 1992 to 1998. “I also came out (to the swearing in event) because, as a former city council member, this never gets old ... It’s a wonderful part of democracy and tradition. I just wanted to honor all the new members and returning members who are serving the city.”

Fong’s identical twin brother, Derrick Fong, swore in the new District 7 council member. Derrick Fong is the board chairman of the Mikuni Japanese Restaurant Group.

Darrell Fong thanked former City Councilman Robbie Waters after taking his new District 7 chair. Waters and Fong ran against each other in June, but Waters lost the race to a runoff between Fong and Ryan Chin. Waters supported Fong in the November runoff.

“I want to acknowledge Robbie Waters,” Fong said. “Without you, I wouldn’t be sitting here. So, thank you again for your public service.”

Fong peppered his speech with jokes, telling his aunt in the audience that she was not allowed to dance in front of the City Council members. She respected his request.

Derrick Fong said outside the meeting that he and his brother would have wanted their late father to be there. “He would have been so proud of my brother in terms of the service he’s going to render,” Derrick Fong said.

Cohn was sworn in for a fifth time by City Clerk Shirley Concolino. “I’m still very excited and very enthusiastic after all these years,” he said.

With Darrell Fong and Rob Fong in office, there are now two Fongs on the City Council. Darrell Fong recently said that people would be able to tell them apart because Rob Fong is “tall and better-looking.”

As he did last week with Ashby, Councilman Kevin McCarty required Schenirer and Fong to don propeller-head caps as a form of initiation.

All photos by Brandon Darnell.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.