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 i

Sutter’s Landing will not be the future site for the Sacramento Zoo. That determination was made during a City Council workshop Tuesday afternoon. The workshop was called so the council members could be brought up to date on the current status of the zoo – currently located on 14 acres in Land Park – and where it will be in the next 40 years.  The workshop was called by Councilman Rob Fong following a feasibility study released last July. For now, the council has decided to keep the zoo in Land Park. “I think it’s pretty obvious that we’re not going to be looking at putting the zoo anywhere else in the short term,” Fong said, adding that the “short term” means anywhere in the next 20 y

Sacramentans can soon apply to serve on the City Council’s redistricting advisory panel. Four of the 13 panel positions will be available to the general public. The eight council members and Mayor Kevin Johnson will each appoint a member of the panel. The remaining four spots are “at-large,” which means they will not be filled by appointees, said Scot Mende, the city’s new growth manager. Applications for the four positions will be screened by the City Council’s Personnel and Public Employees Committee, Mende said. Then, the City Council will vote to select the four members, Mende said. The city uses U.S. Census figures to restructure City Council districts every decade. Read a schedul

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 Coun

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

The Sacramento City Council decided Tuesday to move forward with all four teams vying to develop a new arena for the Sacramento Kings – for at least a little longer. Following a motion by City Councilman Steve Cohn, all nine members of the council voted unanimously to schedule a hearing in two weeks for the teams to provide their qualifications and financing approaches directly to the council. In doing so, they decided not to follow a recommendation made Friday by Mayor Kevin Johnson's arena task force that the city start working with just one team, led by Sacramento developer David Taylor and ICON Venue Group, a prominent Colorado sports facility developer. Several council members said

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 imme

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 col

A Buddhist church located at Broadway and Riverside Boulevard has recently raised concerns about a nearby recycling center, saying it has attracted problems such as trespassing at the church’s property and human urination. The center, MS Recycling, is located at a Valero gas station next to the Buddhist Church of Sacramento. The center leases from the property owner of the gas station, Vince Lera, according to city documents. “We've got community programs running from 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., seven days a week, that serve the very young and very old. And they deserve a safe and clean environment,” Kelvin Mark, president of the Buddhist church, said in an e-mail. Lisa Nava, district director for

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 mentio

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

I will remember Nov. 22, 2010, as a big blur of turkey – from spicy and delicious to bland and dry. As one of five judges in City Councilman Rob Fong’s 4th Annual Turkey Cook Off on Monday, I nibbled on slices of 16 cooked birds. Sixteen! In all my 31 years, I have never had so many consecutive tastes of separate turkeys. The event was a benefit for Loaves & Fishes’ Thanksgiving meal, which will be held Tuesday. While 16 restaurants entered turkeys in Monday’s cookoff, the restaurants prepared many other turkeys to add up to about 40. The event was held at Beatnik Studios near 17th Street and Broadway. Sister Libby Fernandez said community participation is key to Loaves and Fishes’ annu

Sacramento City Councilman Rob Fong said in an interview Thursday that further actions should be taken against city employees, including code division employee Dan Waters, who were involved in the recent scandals at the city’s Community Development Department. Waters approved 35 building permits in a Natomas flood zone last year. Officials with the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency say that Waters’ action to give the permits to K. Hovnanian Homes broke federal regulations. The City Council agreed earlier this week to pay up to $350,000 to correct its violations and comply with FEMA. The violations related to 38 permits – Waters approved 35 of them, according to city spokesw

The Sacramento City Council agreed on Tuesday night to shell out as much as $350,000 in general fund dollars to correct past violations of federal flood management laws. City officials have acknowledged that Dan Waters, a Community Development Department staffer and the son of outgoing City Councilman Robbie Waters, broke Federal Emergency Management Agency rules when he provided 35 building permits to a developer in a Natomas flood zone last year. Councilman Waters recused himself from the vote on the “corrective action plan” Tuesday night, while the eight other members approved it. Fong said that it was important to support the action plan to send a message to FEMA to ensure that the

Finding a way to shelter the homeless during the winter months is job one for city staff tasked with addressing the homeless following a City Council workshop Tuesday. “Winter waits for no one,” said Councilman Rob Fong. “We need to collectively figure out what we can do to make sure no one is exposed to the elements.” The council uniformly applauded the faith community in its work to shelter the homeless over the winter, but all agreed more has to be done both in terms of a more permanent solution to emergency winter shelters and eventual year-round permanent housing options. But not everyone agrees that opening the churches to the homeless is a solution. “It is not shelter. There are

Community leaders gathered to speak with local government to find out what is being done about the homelessness problem in Sacramento. It was a chance for the community to discuss the progress made toward more permanent housing and the setbacks that have hindered them. There was resolve that if the community efforts remain strong, the problem could be solved within the next few years. Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilman Rob Fong were among 13 community leaders who spoke at the Homeless Forum held Tuesday in the Redwood Room at Sacramento State. “This is a chance to bring the activists to the policymakers,” said moderator and event organizer Steve Watters. Fong was the first of many to re

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

An audit report stating that the city’s development department failed to collect more than $2.3 million in fees from developers raises a host of questions. The audit’s finding that city employees broke state and city laws makes the situation even more complex. The audit, prepared by Sacramento firm Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, Inc., investigated the department’s work from fiscal years 2007 through 2010. “In summary, the weak system of internal controls allowed employees to disregard state and city building laws, codes, and regulations aimed at protecting the public’s health, safety, and general welfare,” the audit states. Read the full audit report here. The City Council is expected to

The R Street improvement project  officially started today at a groundbreaking ceremony in front of the Fox and Goose Public House at 10th and R streets. “This is absolutely wonderful,” said Congresswoman Doris Matsui. “We have a history here – a thriving commercial history.” R Street is getting numerous upgrades from 10th Street to 13th Street as part of the more than $6 million project, including sidewalks, pedestrian-oriented traffic lights, designated parking spots and drainage, according to Sacramento Department of Transportation Director Jerry Way. In a nod to the R Street corridor’s history, rail lines will be preserved in the streetscape. “This project has been long and anxious