Bad idea...I'll just vote no

Regrettably, conversations about different forms of government are about as sexy as betting on a snail race. Nevertheless, we best start paying more attention about the proposals to change our form of local government in Sacramento. Come June 2010 we could inadvertently give unthinkable powers to the Mayor of Sacramento, removing the checks and balances that have served the City so well for so long. Should Kevin Johnson’s ballot initiative succeed it will create a Chicago Boss-Mayor form of government for Sacramento that will not only reign over the people of the City, but will obliterate the checks and balances contained in the current Council-Manager form of government. As one professional commented: “Richard Daley would come back from the grave to become Mayor in Sacramento given he would have more power than he did as the infamous ‘boss mayor’ of Chicago!” But wait: in response to these concerns, the Charter Commission has devised yet another idea -- the Mayor-Manager form of government -- which may significantly dilute the role and purpose of the City Council. Only time and analysis will tell. Before we throw out the preverbal baby with the bath water, ponder this: today’s Council-Manager form of government was created to combat the very system of payback/patronage, graft and corruption that plagued communities in the eastern United States at the turn of the 20th century. The ‘Chicago Boss-Mayor’ and potentially the ‘Mayor-Manager’ forms of government proposed by the Charter Commission do not adhere to the system of ‘checks and balances’ imbedded into the Council-Manager form of government. Under the current Council-Manager form of government, public policy decisions and levels of basic service are provided on a level playing field – not based on patronage or who is on ‘top of the hill’ at any given moment. Why would we want to change a system of governance that has worked for decades? If the argument for the change is because ‘things are not getting done’ then, if my math is correct, it only takes six votes of the city council to fire/retire the city manager. We do not need a ‘vote of the people’ to do that now. So, the rationale for change confounds me. Simply put, the Council-Manager form of government guarantees a shared and equal flow of information whereby the City Council can make informed public policy decisions. Under the Council-Manager form of government, you need not worry whether or not you gave money to the Mayor’s last campaign, to make sure your garbage is going to be picked up, your water service is fixed or your leaves will be picked-up. Both the ‘Chicago Boss Mayor’ and potentially the ‘Mayor-Manager’ form of government remove s administrative oversight and checks and balances bestowed upon the City Council and no longer assures parity. Kevin Johnson’s ‘Boss-Mayor’ model or potentially the Charter Commission’s ‘Mayor-Manager’ form of government will dismantle the level playing field that exists under the Council-Manager form and replaces it with a field of the Mayor’s ‘team du jour’ and policy subject to the winds of change. As a final consideration, it is important to remember that any elected official, in many respects, is an ‘unknown’ -- in regards to his or her level of experience, knowledge and code of ethics. This leaves the quality and integrity of the management of the City strictly to chance and determined by the candidate’s ability to woo the majority of voters. If we “guess” wrong we either have to contest a costly recall or painfully await the opportunity to throw the incompetent Mayor out. That is not the case today. So if the management of the City is wanting, the City Council can and should act to remove the City Manager who is failing to implement the City Council’s directives. We should not have to recast the system of governance just to change the administrative leadership of the City. The proposals to change the form of government relegates the City Council to a ‘debating society’, no longer maintaining the checks and balances of governance, or maintaining a level playing field for the citizens of Sacramento . Kevin Johnson’s “Chicago Boss Mayor” and the Charter Commissions “Mayor-Manager” will introduce a system prone to the abuses of patronage. I urge you to voice a resounding “NO” in June 2010 to the proposed ‘Boss-M