With the arena deal off the table, the focus of the most recent District 4 candidate forum shifted to a variety of non-arena issues, including curbing urban sprawl and how to handle homelessness in the central city. Five of the seven candidates vying for Rob Fong’s District 4 City Council seat met at the Ethel Hart Senior Center in Midtown for Monday’s forum hosted by the Neighborhood Advisory Group. This was the third opportunity that candidates Phyllis Newton, Steve Hansen, Terry Schanz, Joe Yee and David Turturici have participated in since joining the race for the council seat. At the previous forums, discussion topics typically centered on the proposed entertainment and sports comp

City officials had the last word of the day Friday on the failed arena deal between the city and the owners of the Sacramento Kings – and that word was “disappointed.” “We are profoundly disappointed that the entertainment and sports complex project is not moving forward,” City Manager John Shirey said Friday. “We had great hopes, and there was great jubilation just a few weeks ago that a deal had been struck.” Assistant City Manager John Dangberg and City Councilmen Rob Fong and Steve Cohn joined Shirey for an impromptu press conference Friday in response to the sudden failure of a deal between the city, the Maloofs, arena operator AEG and the NBA to build a new arena in Sacramento. “T

David Turturici is one City Council candidate who said he refuses to drink the arena "Kool-Aid” because he thinks it’s a bad deal for the city. Instead, he wants to see Sacramento use its resources on shoring up basic services – especially public safety – to get the city headed toward being more livable. “The Kings are part of the city culture, but they’re not the only thing,” Turturici said Wednesday. “To gather up everything we can find to spend trying to keep them here is unconscionable.” Turturici, an estate planning attorney who moved to Sacramento from the Stockton area in 2000, is running for the City Council District 4 seat. He said he never considered running for a political of

Don’t be surprised if it feels like everyone from Mayor Kevin Johnson to the head of the Parks Department is on Twitter or Facebook – it’s one of the reasons Sacramento was recently ranked one of the top 10 social media-savvy city governments in the nation. The University of Illinois study released March 22 ranked Sacramento ninth among 75 major U.S. cities based on the level of civic engagement the city government has to offer. Criteria for the study included how accessible city officials are to residents and how easily residents can get information about services and neighborhoods, the study states. “Huge growth in the use of social media has been seen in the past two years,” said Kim

Neil Davidson said he starting wondering why so few people get involved in city government, so he’s leading the way by getting involved himself – by running for the City Council. Davidson, 35, joins a large field of candidates running for the City Council District 4 seat. A computer programmer by trade, Davidson said his penchant for wringing out answers from complex problems sets him apart from other candidates. “I really dig into information and data,” Davidson said Thursday. “I like to find ways to solve problems and make things work from the standpoint of number crunching.” Davidson said that, as a member of the City Council, he would want to focus on the financial aspects of city

As the overhaul of the McKinley Park Rose garden nears its May completion date, a neighborhood group is preparing to take control of the garden and events in the park – along with the profit and benefits that go with it. To date, the city has spent nearly $300,000 on refurbishing and upgrading the popular East Sacramento rose garden, including irrigation system improvements, new walkways and benches and a new entry sign. The City Council unanimously voted in favor of a five-year license agreement Tuesday between the city of Sacramento and local nonprofit organization Friends of East Sacramento for maintenance and control of the McKinley Park Rose Garden. The group will also assume respo

Water and sewer rates will head skyward for Sacramento residents after July 1 – and will continue rising for three years – as the city tries to raise revenue needed to pay for infrastructure improvements. City Council members Angelique Ashby, Steve Cohn, Rob Fong, Jay Schenirer, Kevin McCarty and Darrell Fong voted in favor of the rate increases, which were recommended by the Utilities Rate Commission and the city Department of Utilities. City Councilwomen Sandy Sheedy and Bonnie Pannell were opposed. “Our current water rates are among the lowest in the region, in the state and in the nation,” City Manager John Shirey said Tuesday, “and they will remain that way with the proposed rate i

Local attorney Michael Rehm said he is running for the District 4 City Council seat because he sees it as an opportunity to make a difference in the city that his family has called home for nearly 100 years. “I’ve worked extremely hard to get to this point, and I don’t take anything I’ve been blessed with for granted,” Rehm said Friday. “I think I can help a lot of people – not just in District 4, but in the whole city.” Rehm, 33, grew up in Land Park as a third-generation Sacramentan. He has been a practicing attorney in both California and New York since passing both state bar exams in 2006, and he now has a private legal practice in Land Park. Rehm said his courtroom experience has g

All seven official District 4 City Council candidates came together Wednesday to discuss issues that impact Sacramento its neighborhoods, including the arena, new bridges and bike lanes on Freeport Boulevard. Nearly 100 people attended the candidate forum hosted by the Land Park Community Association at California Middle School – including Sacramento City Unified School District Board Member Patrick Kennedy and former Sacramento Mayor Anne Rudin. One of the larger issues discussed was the proposed entertainment and sports complex. “We don’t know that it’s a bad deal yet. We don’t know that it’s a good deal yet – it’s uncertain,” candidate Phyllis Newton said. “I believe that a rising t

The City Council approved a $1.2 million loan from the city Housing Authority Tuesday for renovation of one of 10 residential hotels located in downtown Sacramento – a project that will result in 22 studio apartments for low- to very-low-income residents. The four-story, 58-unit Ridgeway Hotel, at 914 12th St., was built in 1921 and renovated in 1987, according to a report from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. “It has been vacant and boarded up for the past several years,” Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency Executive Director La Shelle Dozier said Tuesday. “It was designed in an old style with small units that had to share bathrooms and kitchens. It’s really in n

The Sacramento City Clerk’s Office released the final ballot list of candidates for the June City Council elections Thursday, showing crowded fields for the District 2 and 4 races – and some expected candidates not appearing on the final ballot. Mayor Kevin Johnson will face three contenders in the race for his seat: bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, insurance broker Richard Jones, and Parks and Recreation Commission member Jonathan Rewers. Padilla has run for mayor four times before, most recently in the 2008 race against then-Mayor Heather Fargo and Johnson. Two candidates who filed for candidacy in the mayoral race – Edgar Hilbert-Garcia and Andrew Lewis – did not qualify for the ballot

Kai Ellsworth said he is tired of the status quo at City Hall, so he’s running for a seat on the City Council to bring what he considers to be a much-needed new perspective to decision-making in Sacramento. Ellsworth, a full-time film student at Cosumnes River College, moved to Sacramento in 2009 to be closer to his parents after a two-year stint in the Air Force. He said he decided that – after living in such far-flung locales as England, the Middle East and Mississippi – Sacramento is the one place he would choose to stay put because of all it has to offer. As much as Ellsworth likes the city, however, he said he doesn’t like the way the city is currently being managed by its elected

Five City Council candidates faced off Saturday at a roundtable meeting to field questions about topics including preserving historic neighborhoods, the strong mayor initiative and the proposed entertainment and sports complex. The forum, hosted by the Sacramento Old City Association, featured District 4 candidates Joseph Yee, Terry Schanz, Phyllis Newton, Steve Hansen and Kai Ellsworth. Candidate Michael Rehm did not attend. The questions came primarily from the more than 50 members of the audience, and a few were prepared by moderators Kathleen Green and Rick Bettis. When asked about preserving the historic nature of Sacramento, Hansen referred to preservation as a core component of a

With a triumphant shout, Mayor Kevin Johnson cast the final vote in a 7-2 decision in favor of a financing plan to build a new entertainment and sports complex and keep the Sacramento Kings in town for another 30 years. Cheers, applause and chants of “SAC-RA-MEN-TO” broke out among the more than 250 people in council chambers Tuesday at the end of a four-hour-long City Council meeting that culminated in what Johnson called “a historic vote.” “Every one of you in the community did not give up,” Johnson said. “People far and wide all played a role and came together. I think we met every milestone along the way, and we made every minute count.” Johnson and City Council members Angelique As

City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with a plan to bring a modern, electric version of the single car “trolleys” to connect neighborhoods in the central city and make getting around town easier for residents, workers and visitors. Streetcars were a large part of the Sacramento cityscape between 1870 and 1947. “This plan is not only a transportation enhancement, it is a vital economic development tool that we want to introduce into the city of Sacramento,” Fedolia "Sparky" Harris, senior planner with the Department of Transportation, said Tuesday. Harris said that the purpose of the streetcar plan is to increase travel choices and mobility for short-range trips

Back-in angled parking has popped up one block at a time in Sacramento over the past few years, causing cyclists to breathe a sigh of relief – and making some residents fume. In the Midtown and downtown areas, the city is challenged with providing enough parking spaces for residents and their visitors and providing safe bicycle routes and lanes for the bicyclists that often share neighborhood streets with cars. One solution to this challenge is back-in angled parking, according to Ed Cox, Bike and Pedestrian Coordinator for the city of Sacramento. The backlash from a recent attempt to install back-in angled parking as part of a traffic-calming plan in Alkali Flat caused a long thread of

William Land Park is eligible for listing as a historic district – making it the first Sacramento park eligible to be listed on its own merits, independent of its location within a neighborhood historic district. The eligibility finding is the result of a recent landscape cultural survey conducted by independent researchers between April and December 2011. City Councilman Rob Fong said the survey conclusions will be helpful in future planning for the city. “The city and Land Park are well-served by having a document that will live on to the future and inform decisions that we want to make around the park,” Fong said Tuesday. Researchers conducting the survey found that numerous feature

Mayor Kevin Johnson held an impromptu press conference Wednesday to give an update on progress with discussions between Sacramento, the NBA and the Sacramento Kings’ owners, the Maloof family. “There are great discussions going on between the city and the NBA and we are confident that we, as a city, are doing our part to make (a deal) happen,” Johnson said. Johnson appeared at the press conference flanked by City Manager John Shirey and City Council members Jay Schenirer, Angelique Ashby, Darrell Fong, Rob Fong and Bonnie Pannell. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been before, and the bottom line is – the city controls its own destiny,” Johnson said. Earlier Wednesday, Johnson and NBA Comm

As Sacramento prepares to bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic games, having the right venues on offer – such as a new entertainment and sports complex – will be a key factor to a successful bid. Representatives from the California Winter Games Committee reported to the City Council Tuesday about progress the committee is making to join the bidding process to become a host city. The committee is a volunteer group composed of both state and local civic, business and labor leaders and is working in conjunction with a similar committee from the Lake Tahoe area. Jake Mossawir, chief financial officer for the CWGC, said the group has been polling residents, researching historical data and rev

The City Council unanimously voted to keep conversations going with bidders interested in taking over the city’s parking operations – and set the stage for a Feb. 28 vote finalizing plans for a new entertainment and sports complex. “Today is about narrowing 13 (bidders) down to 10, and it’s an intermediary step to a more significant vote,” Mayor Kevin Johnson said. Council chambers were full Tuesday night, and members of the public who signed up to speak included eight opposed to the prospect of a long-term lease of the city’s parking and 30 people in favor of it. Project Manager Fran Halbakken described the bidding for control of city parking operations as a competitive process, where