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

The three outgoing Sacramento City Council members were swarmed by a crowd of city staffers and well-wishers Tuesday night. The City Hall lobby was abuzz with chatter as roughly 100 people turned out to say goodbye to Council members Ray Tretheway, Lauren Hammond and Robbie Waters, who are all leaving their seats later this month. Waters and Tretheway lost their re-election bids in June, while Hammond did not run for re-election. Angelique Ashby, who won the District 1 City Council race, will replace Tretheway starting next Tuesday, according to Assistant City Clerk Stephanie Mizuno. Waters’ District 7 seat will likely be transferred later this month to Darrell Fong, the frontrunner in

The fate of chicken keeping in Sacramento is still undecided after Tuesday’s Law and Legislation Committee meeting when Councilman Steve Cohn walked out and prevented Sandy Sheedy and Lauren Hammond from voting down the ordinance advocated by CLUCK (Campaign to Legalize Urban Chicken Keeping). Cohn was the only supportive voice on the committee. “What I’d like to do,” he said, “is allow more work to be done and have an actual ordinance be drafted.” Hammond said, “I have never been enthusiastic about the idea.” Cohn replied, “If you wanna kill it, kill it, but I’ll bring it back when you’re gone.” This was a disappointing finale for CLUCK as supporters were left puzzled by Cohn’s abrupt

The Sacramento City Council’s Tuesday-night discussion made it clear that the investigations of the city’s development department are not over. Seven council members spoke at length about the Oct. 6 audit, which found that the Community Development Department broke city and state laws. Council members also indicated that they want to claim the money that the department failed to charge developers – a sum of more than $2.3 million, according to the audit.  Councilman Steve Cohn was absent from the meeting, and Councilman Robbie Waters recused himself from the discussion of the audit’s findings. Waters’ son, Dan, is a former employee of the department who was involved in an earlier investi

Mayor Kevin Johnson released his endorsements for several Nov. 2 political races on Friday. He named his candidates in local, state and federal elections in a post on his blog.  In the Sacramento City Council runoff in District 5, Johnson endorsed education policy consultant Jay Schenirer. He had endorsed Schenirer for the first time in May, when the City Council candidate was running against four other candidates. Schenirer is competing against attorney Patrick Kennedy in the November runoff. The winning candidate will replace current City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond. Johnson decided not to endorse a candidate in the District 7 runoff. Ryan Chin, a communications director at Sacramento

The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday night unanimously gave final approval to the contentious Curtis Park Village project, which had drawn criticism from many Curtis Park neighbors. Councilwoman Lauren Hammond, who represents Curtis Park in District 5, expressed her satisfaction with the project’s conclusion by singing the words: “This is it.” Developer Paul Petrovich’s Curtis Park Village has raised concerns among neighbors because it involves the cleanup and development of a contaminated area. A Sept. 28 report from city staff noted that the project could include 259,000 square feet of commercial and office space, 527 residences and a 6.8-acre park. Rosanna Herber, president of the

Sacramento’s city auditor is exploring the idea of creating a whistle-blower hotline for City Hall. City Auditor Jorge Oseguera told the city’s audit committee on Tuesday that he was talking to City Attorney Eileen Teichert’s office about the idea. The audit committee is composed of City Council members Lauren Hammond, Robbie Waters, Ray Tretheway and Steve Cohn. Whistle-blower hotlines are “a common topic right now in the auditing community,” Oseguera said on Wednesday. The plan is in its early stages, Oseguera said, and no details have been established yet on how the hotline would work or when it would start operating. In a Tuesday e-mail, Teichert said she could say only that the pl

A green tie with white polka dots atop a pink dress shirt. White nubuck leather shoes, green pants and an orange leather belt. A purple tie with orange stripes paired with a mint-green shirt. These combinations represent three wardrobe choices in three days for Rob Fong. The Sacramento city councilman and legislative consultant doesn’t get dressed in the dark — the bright colors and jazzy details are all intentional. Fong, 51, shared his fashion philosophy with The Sacramento Press this week. “The way I started to express my sort of ‘Inner Rob,’ was I decided that my shirts and my ties can be my signature,” he said. He said his 16-year-old daughter, Rebecca, has noticed that he tends

A group that presses for a designated camping space for homeless people in Sacramento opposed on Tuesday the City Council’s decision to move the open public comment section of council meetings to the end of the meeting. About 18 supporters of Safe Ground Sacramento stayed until the end of Tuesday’s City Council meeting to oppose the controversial decision the body made last week. Before last week’s decision, open public comment was heard by the City Council at the beginning of weekly council meetings. During the open public comment part of council meetings, Safe Ground Sacramento supporters regularly urge the city to reserve a space in which homeless residents can camp. The city enforce

Residents will need to attend Sacramento City Council meetings later in the evening if they want to speak about issues that are not on the weekly council agenda. The City Council changed its meeting rules Tuesday night to move the open public comment section to the end of the weekly meeting. Currently, the public can speak at the beginning of the meeting on any issue that is not related to the City Council agenda. Council members were split on the issue and voted 5-3 to alter the time of the open public comment section. Mayor Kevin Johnson and council members Kevin McCarty and Ray Tretheway opposed the change. Councilman Steve Cohn was absent from the meeting. Johnson and Tretheway said

While the city and Stationary Engineers Local 39 saved 80 jobs with an agreement Friday, the city laid off 11 workers represented by the local plumbers’ union. The city did not find common ground with Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447 by Friday, the city’s deadline for layoffs. Harry Rotz, business manager for Local 447, did not return phone messages earlier this week. No one answered the phone at 4:45 p.m. Friday at the union’s office. Interim City Manager Gus Vina said the city would continue to negotiate with Local 447. “There’s 80 people in the city of Sacramento that were packing up and were planning on going home to tell their son or daughter — their family members — that they’

Sacramento officials should consider requiring special use permits for large water users, including water and beverage bottling companies such as Nestlé, a City Council committee decided Thursday. The council's Law & Legislation Committee passed a recommendation that the City Council approve a working group to explore whether the city's biggest water users should be subject to conditional use permits that would help give the city more ability to monitor and regulate their water use. The recommendation was approved unanimously Thursday afternoon by the committee's three present members, Chair Sandy Sheedy and councilmen Steve Cohn and Robbie Waters. "We have a scarce resource that we don

  Two local groups continue to protest the Sacramento City Council more than one month after the council decided to boycott Arizona companies. One of the groups, Boycott Sacramento, is intentionally avoiding local businesses in response to the council’s sanctions on Arizona businesses.  Another group, Recall Sacramento, is saying it will attempt to remove certain council members from office. However, Assistant City Clerk Stephanie Mizuno said the group has not yet officially started the recall process.  The groups formed after the City Council decided June 15 to dispute Arizona’s new immigration laws by boycotting that state’s companies.  The council passed the boycott in a 6-1 vote, wi

On Thursday, Sacramento planning department staff will recommend against requiring a special land use permit for water and beverage bottling companies. However, city officials and staff will continue to consider creating tiered water rates that could take effect in 2012 or sooner. Staff from the city's Community Development Department will report to the City Council's Law & Legislation Committee, in response to requests made by council members Kevin McCarty and Lauren Hammond involving Nestlé Waters North America last October. Bottling plants are permitted in zones approved for light industrial, heavy commercial and heavy industrial businesses in Sacramento. A staff survey found that co

Mayor Kevin Johnson and three City Council members said Tuesday they were not aware that Sacramento’s new deputy city auditor had been fired from his previous auditor job. Gerald Silva, a deputy city auditor in Sacramento, resigned from his position Monday after The Sacramento Press asked him to comment on a case that ended his career in San Jose. Silva worked as the city auditor for San Jose for 22 years. The San Jose City Council unanimously fired him in 2007 in the wake of a sexual harassment lawsuit. Asked about the past allegations Monday, Silva said he didn’t want to be a source of embarrassment to Jorge Oseguera, the city auditor. Oseguera hired Silva in March; the two had work

Sacramento’s elected leaders agreed to boycott Arizona companies in protest of the state’s new immigration laws. The City Council passed the boycott Tuesday with a 6-1 vote. Mayor Kevin Johnson and council members Rob Fong, Bonnie Pannell, Ray Tretheway, Sandy Sheedy and Kevin McCarty voted to approve the boycott. Councilman Robbie Waters opposed the move. Council members Steve Cohn and Lauren Hammond were absent. Hammond was absent from the entire City Council meeting, but Cohn appeared at City Hall to discuss a separate issue after the hearing on the Arizona law. Arizona’s new law says that an individual’s immigration status should be addressed by police officers in certain circumst

Thirty-three votes divide the two local politicians fighting for a state Assembly seat in the Democratic primary. Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson currently has a tiny lead of 33 votes over City Councilman Kevin McCarty in the race for the District 9 Assembly seat. Dickinson has 35.05 percent of the vote, while McCarty has 34.93 percent. With all precincts reporting, McCarty had 9,634 votes to Dickinson’s 9,667. Jill LaVine, Sacramento County’s top election official, estimated that more than 86,000 remaining ballots still need to be counted. That total is comprised of unprocessed ballots that came to the elections office before Tuesday night, vote-by-mail ballots delivered t

The city’s elected officials are still sorting out how to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries nearly a year after they set a rule blocking new pot clubs. At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, council members added another year to the existing ban on new medical pot dispensaries. However, Michelle Heppner, the city staffer who is working on ideas for regulation, said Wednesday that she would like to have an ordinance ready before the end of the year. Heppner, a special projects manager, said the time frame for setting up a medical pot ordinance would depend on the City Council’s decision-making process. The city currently has 39 medical pot clubs, Heppner said. Speakers in suppor

In a statement Tuesday on his blog, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson made his endorsements for candidates competing in the June 8 primary election.  A KCRA reporter asked Johnson at a Monday press conference if Johnson would endorse candidates who oppose a “strong mayor” form of government. Johnson is leading an effort to bring more authority to the mayor’s office. In response to the reporter’s question, Johnson said: “I think that’s not really the issue before people. I don’t think that people have had to make a decision on that. So, there’s not a litmus, in general, for that right now.” Johnson said the candidates he is supporting are not content with the status quo. He explained that h

A student Democratic group at California State University, Sacramento, is more than just a club of like-minded young people — it’s a major political player that attracts thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. The College Democrats group at Sacramento State both receives financial contributions from various interests and contributes to political candidates. A few months ago, the student club received a hefty sum: Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation contributed $10,000 to the group Dec. 22, according to campaign records. The student group is also a political player in advance of the upcoming June 8 primary: Just a few days after receiving the $10,000, the College Democrats contr