Seeing how San Diego is a mess, I would not tout them as a success. Furthermore, the reason for the revolving door at the manager's office lately has been due to KJ himself. Just ask Gus Vina. Even though he is not a SM, he wants to act like one and is getting in the way of running the city.

To run a city you need management experience. How much management experience does KJ have? ZERO! As a matter of fact, a couple of things that he has "tried" running have turned into a disgrace for Sacramento, especially the federal investigations. These strong mayor positions turn into a giant mess with the elected mayor appointing his buddies or buddies of the buddy who made contributions to the campaign. Furthermore, they can end up changing every four years, which creates a great deal of instability in city government. Don't let anyone tell you for a minute that the elected mayor is more accountable. That is just simply BS Mr. Maviglio. Can you say cronyism? There are several of us in Sacramento that will fight this concept to the end. We already won round one and if you want to give it another try - the water is warm - come on in!

This mayor must be smoking something funny if he thinks he has a chance at re-election! Besides creating hate and discontent among his colleges, he has wasted numerous opportunities to bring business into the city as he has been too busy promoting his EGO and everything Johnson. Johnson has spent so much time promoting his "Strong Mayor" self-effort, that he has had time for little else. Now we see him catering to special interest groups like Local 522 and others to whom he has already given the store away His brokering or deals with said labor groups will bring long lasting financial woes to the city long after he is gone. This only proves that he has no idea on how to run a city, a job better left to a professional city administrator. With his "celebrity" status he should have been out promoting the city instead of his BIG EGO. We need a strong person, not a strong mayor. I keep waiting and hoping that someone like Deborah Ortiz will jump into the race and provide real leadership, which is something this city is starving for. Whatever you do, please don't fall for this mayor's antics again!

Hey - Is the mayor's car exempt? I hear he parks illegally in the downtown area ALL the time? I don't think his undercover vehicle is part parking enforcement.......

Another bone-headed suggestion by Cohn and his cronies. This is simply a bad idea! The city just got spending millions under the direction of The Portland Boys to relocate CDD & Transportation employees to this location, and now they want to spend more by undoing what was done less than 2 yrs ago. How stupid! Cohn better figure out how to save the city money in these tight economic times and quit trying to figure a way to spend more. Has he forgotten that 2012 is next year?

That is GREAT news! The council in Encinitas must be a pretty sharp group, one that recognizes talent when they see it. Sacramento had not seen talent like Gus since Bill Edgar & Bob Thomas were around last time. Oh yes - Then came KeRIDge - What a disaster! The only thing we could say when he left was good riddance! The best to you Gus!

Great piece! You managed to bring out Gus' intelligence & integrity. It is too bad that the council did not see this. Gus did a great job bringing back morale in the city after the Portland gang of KerRIDge and Thomas left in disgrace. The best to Gus in his future endeavors!

"New leader must grapple with city budget, union negotiations" ....and current leadership has no idea on what to do! Now that Vina is gone and there is no leadership. Get ready for gridlock. The current council is split, managers left are too weak and there is a BIG vacuum in leadership at the city level. Add to that the fact that Vina was still in the process of cleaning up the mess left behind by KerRIDge and his cronie Bill Thomas and you have a bigger mess. Time for the 4 council members that seem to have their head on right to show some leadership and move the city forward. That should start by searching for candidates that can fill the void in 2012, including a strong mayoral candidate. One that has the interest of the city in mind, not his/her own. As someone famous once said, "NO MAS" Give the change back in 2012!

Another Sacramento City Council masterpiece! These characters can't get anything right if they tried. They finally had a guy that new the business, but did not know how to appreciate him. Gus did not make enough of his ideas - theirs. That fried the mayor especially. He wants all good ideas to appear as if they cam from him, except we know better. He can screw up a wet dream! Give the change back in 2012 - Time for real change!

Did you expect any different? Even Stewart Satow said last night that in the 150+ searches that he has done, he has not seen anything like this before. All goes to tell you that the discombobulated city council should not be in this position as they should have hired Gus Vina in the first place. Now they are spending thousands we do not have and when it comes down to it, they have no idea what they want. Furthermore, this is nothing more than a tug-o-war between certain council members. Some of these guys voted against Gus simply because the mayor supported him. Otherwise, we would have a city manager in place today to deal with the tough economic times. This is bad timingh, bad politics and bad for the citizens of Sacramento. Give the change back in 2012!!!!

I think that "newguyinsac" has been schooled! The rest of you are exactly right! Why keep spending on something that we've seen no results? I think that Gus Vina has done & is doing a pretty good job of cleaning house. However, now we have the additional issue that the city is spending thousands to replace him. What sense does that make? With all that he has done for this city, his experience and fiscal knowledge, the city council should have hired him and moved on. This on-going auditor saga is just another distraction. Either the auditor is capable of doping the audit or it all gets contracted out.

The more I read about this or that about the city, the more frustrated I get. Why is Oseguera getting into all these audits when he has not finished the one he has on-going. He started to audit the CDD never did a final report. Whatever happened to the mess left behind by KerRIDge & Billy Boy Thomas? Why does he not do an audit of the manager to employee ratio which the Portland boys really stacked in favor of the managers? Or, is he just simply trying to score brownie points with his bosses the mayor & council? This auditors position is starting to look like a BIG waste!

Based on the lot size, it sounds like they don't have much choice. Besides, there several infill projects of this type throughout midtown that have already been approved and thereby setting a precedence. Once more the historical folks getting hysterical over something very small! I suppose they also want them to install single pane windows. Nice job presenting the complete story.

There is no way you can compare old single glazed leaky wooden window with a retrofit that looks identical and much more energy efficient. This is where Sacramento historical folks get histerical about silly issues that have little or no importance.

George is a great guy who is well liked by the community. Always have received great service as the employees are very courteous. Oh yeah - The food is good too!

"Retirement from SMUD provides “just a little more time to focus on some of the policy issues that really interest me,” he said." What does that tell you? Simply, that he spent very little time there.

Sounds like something Fidel Castro would have come up with.....

Vina is a GREAT guy & would be an excellent choice. He has brought integrity & professionalism to a position that was disgraced by Ray kerRIDge. Mr. Vina is well liked by city employees and tells it like it is. Council should appoint him permanent ASAP!!!

The energies here have to be geared towards those that really screwed-up the department - kerRIDge & Billy Boy Thomas. They are the ones that with their corrupted ideas went way out of line and gave away the city's monies to developers. I would not doubt that they actually had knowledge of and approved what waters did. Fong should focus on making sure that RK & BBT are thoroughly investigated.

Concrete - I agree, but remember that seismic safety was not a concern then. Furthermore, the steel in the walls (if any) was subjected to extreme heat during the fire. The review approvals & inspections should be doe & people's safety should have priority over any celebration.