In a win for Mayor Kevin Johnson and his arena task force, the City Council agreed to start talks with Sacramento developer Gerry Kamilos on a plan to build a new sports and entertainment center in the downtown railyards and develop two other sites. The City Council’s approval to begin talks with the Kamilos Group was unanimous. While an agreement between the city and Kamilos was not completed Tuesday, the council moved closer to a decision to work with Kamilos. In Kamilos’ multi-layered plan, the downtown railyards would be the location of a new sports and entertainment center. The plan also calls for the creation of a new state fairgrounds at Arco Arena and nearby property. Kamilos’ t

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn is predicting deep budget cuts to local parks this year in light of the city’s $35 million-$40 million budget gap for the 2010/2011 fiscal year. Cohn’s worries about new cuts come after the city cut the Parks and Recreation Department by $8.3 million last year. “I fear that the cutbacks in parks will actually be more severe this year,” Cohn told a handful of neighborhood leaders gathered at Hart Senior Center Monday night. Cohn, who presented information about his district at the Neighborhood Advisory Group meeting, said the city may look for ways to work with neighborhoods and the business community to maintain the parks. “As we all know, most of

Angelique Ashby is a Natomas neighborhood activist who views public safety as the city's top priority. Ashby, who is running for Sacramento City Council, has the support of two major local public safety unions: the Sacramento Police Officers Association and Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522. The Sacramento Press is interviewing City Council candidates in advance of the June election. Ashby is running for City Council in District 1, which is now represented by Councilman Ray Tretheway. The district includes the neighborhoods of North and South Natomas and Alkali Flat. The 20-year Sacramento resident is a partner in a consulting firm that contracts with businesses and government age

Sacramento’s business community has said repeatedly that former City Manager Ray Kerridge established a customer-service culture in the city’s development department. At the same time, the department is wracked with investigations into possible breaches of laws. Now that Kerridge has left the city — March 11 12 was his last day of work — how will the culture of the Community Development Department change? New leadership and the findings from an audit are two upcoming developments that may change the department. The recent resignations of Kerridge and department director Bill Thomas have created job openings. At this point, both positions are being held by interim officials. Gus Vina is i

Thursday in a special session at City Hall, task force member Chris Lehane told City Council members that the task force thinks that the project that represents the best success right now is the Kamilos project. In Kamilos’ plan, the Downtown railyards will be the site of a 19,000-seat sports and entertainment arena. In a second part of the plan, a new fairgrounds would be built at Arco Arena and on nearby land. John Moag, a consultant for the NBA working with Kamilos, in January explained a third part of the proposal. For that part, Kamilos' development team intends to purchase the California Exposition & State Fair from the state. A mixed-use residential development would be built at t

Image courtesy of David Baker and Partners Architects. Sketch by Kevin Markarian.

Thanks, Rhonda. I appreciate your comment. Cheers, Kathleen

HI Fifthgen, Concolino suggested that the city attorney could answer your question. I will e-mail City Attorney Eileen Teichert right now. Cheers, Kathleen

Hi Bill, City Clerk Shirley Concolino said that "the confidentiality policy applies to the mayor as he is one of the electeds."

Hi Bill and Fifthgen, I'm working on your questions and hope to get back to you with answers soon. Cheers, Kathleen