City Beat

The City Council will discuss today the notion of a ballot measure in November to raise the sales tax in the city.

While the council will not yet vote on whether to place a measure on the ballot, some council members have already expressed support for a tax increase to fund core city services, including police protection, firefighters and parks.

Mayor Kevin Johnson does not appear to support a tax increase. Speaking at an event showcasing the production of energy-efficient air conditioners by Sacramento-based Beutler Corporation, Johnson told reporters this morning he would rather seek to solve the city's budget problems through economic development and job creation.

The city of Sacramento is proposing to lay off roughly 62 firefighters and 45 police personnel to address a budget situation that is among the most dire the city has ever faced.

The public safety layoffs are part of a plan to address a $15.7 million deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1 in the city's general fund, the portion of the budget that pays for most basic services. The cuts also include hits to parks maintenance and recreation programs.

"This is not the budget I had hoped to recommend to address next year's structural deficit," City Manager John Shirey said.

City Manager John Shirey said that just because the city's arena deal has collapsed, it doesn't mean City Hall will ignore other key projects linked to the deal.

Shirey told the City Council tonight the death of the latest arena plan "doesn't end everything," especially in regard to the city's ongoing development of the downtown railyard and developing 100 acres of city-owned property around Power Balance Pavilion.

On the railyard, where the arena would have been built, Shirey said "this setback does not mean we're giving up on" that site. He called it the "largest and maybe the best infill (development) opportunity anywhere in the country."

With copper thieves continuing to wreak havoc on city streets, the City Council wants to make cleaning up the mess more of a priority at City Hall.

Councilman Steve Cohn asked City Manager John Shirey on Tuesday to speed up the repair cycle for street lights left inoperable by copper wire thefts. Cohn said he has been told by some residents that it is taking the city six to 12 months to fix broken lights.

"Obviously the problem is much bigger than what we had feared initially," Cohn said.

One of the region's most respected political groups is supporting placing Mayor Kevin Johnson's revamped strong mayor plan on the November ballot.

The League of Women Voters' board voted to support placing the proposal on the ballot. The board has not decided whether it supports the measure.

The City Council is scheduled to debate whether to place the measure on the ballot next week. However, there appears to be more City Council support for a ballot measure seeking to create a charter review commission to explore changing how the city is governed.

It's more clear than ever that the top brass at City Hall has its eyes set on employee pensions as a way to slow the cycle of persistent budget deficits.

City Manager John Shirey told the City Council on Tuesday that roughly half of the city's budget deficit over the next two years could be eliminated if all city workers paid their employee share of their CalPERS retirement contributions.

While top city management, the mayor and the City Council pay their employee shares, no rank and file workers pick up the entire tab of their retirement contributions. Instead, the city handles those payments - an arrangement that cost the city $16.8 million in 2010, according to a recent Bee analysis.

Two former mayors are supporting Mayor Kevin Johnson's latest proposal to overhaul the city constitution.

Former Mayors Phil Isenberg and Jimmie Yee are endorsing Johnson's plan and will serve as "honorary co-chairs" of the measure's political campaign, according to a news release sent out by the campaign this morning.

Under the plan, Sacramento would be governed by a "mayor-council" form of government, transitioning from the current system in which the unelected city manager handles most day-to-day operations.

The city of Sacramento's fleet of take-home vehicles for employees costs taxpayers roughly $800,000 a year in commuting costs alone, an internal audit has found.

Nearly 250 employees have take-home cars, but in some cases, privileges "were granted to individuals that are not required to provide immediate after hour response or fill an essential City need," the audit found. Most of the cars are taken home by police officers, whose union has an "informal" agreement with the city to allow the practice.

While the perk of a take-home vehicle is granted to officers who are called to incidents and events at all hours - including homicide detectives, hostage negotiators and supervisors - incomplete records kept by the police department have made it difficult to track the total financial impact of those vehicles, city auditor Jorge Oseguera said.

City Hall continues to chip away at its pension costs.

The city's top management officials - including the police and fire chiefs, as well as other department bosses - have agreed to pay the employee share into their CalPERS retirement funds. In exchange, those employees will no longer be furloughed.

The changes, which the City Council is expected to grant its approval of tonight, will save the city $100,000 a year, according to a city staff report.

The city's controversial garbage contract is going to the City Council on Tuesday.

City staff is scheduled to recommend the transfer of the waste disposal and recycling contracts from BLT Enterprises to USA Waste of California, also known as Waste Management. The move is required to finalize the sale of the recycling and transfer station in south Sacramento from BLT to Waste Management.

Under the new deal, Waste Management has agreed to begin taking city trash to the Kiefer Landfill within the next few months, ending a years-long agreement that had led to city trash getting shipped daily to Nevada. That move will "reduce greenhouse gases, conserve fuel and reduce traffic congestion," according to a city press release.

Sacramento City Manager John Shirey has recommended immediately using a federal grant to rehire 25 police officers laid off this summer.

Shirey had indicated last week that he might recommend banking the $8.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice until next year's budget cycle. But at the end of Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Shirey said he made a "decision to recommend that we go ahead and hire those officers that were laid off as part of the current budget."

The City Council will debate the decision at next week's meeting.

Officials with the city of Sacramento, the NBA, arena development group ICON/Taylor and arena operator AEG will hold their first key meeting in Dallas on Wednesday to discuss the construction of a new sports arena in the downtown railyard.

According to a memo written by City Manager John Shirey, the sides will have a "preliminary technical discussion."

"Following this discussion, we will lay out the process and timeline that formal discussions and negotiations will take place," Shirey wrote. "Our collective goal is to reach a definitive financing plan by the end of the year."

While Sacramento city officials have indicated they may hold off hiring some of the 25 officers to be funded by a recently awarded federal grant, Mayor Kevin Johnson said today that "wasting even a minute in the race to restore officers is not acceptable."

The city was awarded Wednesday with $8.1 million in U.S. Department of Justice grants. The timing couldn't have been better for the city, which laid off 42 cops just three months ago.

But both Police Chief Rick Braziel and City Manager John Shirey have said the city could hold on to some of the funding until the 2012/13 budget next June. That budget is once again projected to have a shortfall and banking some of the grant money might ease potential cuts to the police department.

The Sacramento City Council will take a pivotal vote tonight on whether to hire a team of consultants to lead the city through the early stages of constructing a new sports arena downtown. But with just a few hours remaining before the debate, it was unclear if the plan had unanimous support from the council.

City Manager John Shirey has recommended hiring a team of lawyers, investment bankers and other consultants to help the city look at potential funding sources, plan for the project's construction and help represent the city in negotiations with the Sacramento Kings and the National Basketball Association.

The total cost of the consultant team would be $555,000.

Two of the highest-ranking officials at City Hall have quit, days before new City Manager John Shirey takes office.

Cassandra Jennings, who has been an assistant city manager for the past six years, worked her last day Friday. She is moving to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency "to work on special projects," according to an email she sent to high-level city staff earlier this month.

Also leaving is Marty Hanneman, the head of the city's Department of Utilities. Hanneman's last day of work is today, although his resignation does not go into effect until Sept. 16.

As expected, the City Council voted overwhelmingly late Tuesday to approve a contract for the new city manager that will make him the highest paid employee in the city's history.

John Shirey is scheduled to start Sept. 1 and will earn roughly $306,000 in salary and benefits. His base salary of $258,000 is the highest of any city manager in the region and is equal to Sacramento County Executive Brad Hudson.

The council approved a three-year contract for Shirey by a 7-2 vote. It's the first time Sacramento's city manager has been under contract.

The job of Sacramento city manager is about to become much more lucrative.

In a contract expected to be approved by the City Council on Tuesday, newly-appointed city manager John Shirey will make a base salary of $258,000. With retirement contributions, health benefits and allowances, his annual compensation will hit $305,940.

That's roughly $35,000 more a year than the previous two full-time city managers - Gus Vina and Ray Kerridge. Shirey's base salary will be equal to the region's highest-paid local government official, Sacramento County Executive Brad Hudson.

Negotiations with a new Sacramento city manager are hitting a pivotal stretch this week.

The City Council will go into a closed-door meeting at 3 p.m. today to discuss the contract they will offer to John Shirey, the presumed appointee. Shirey, the head of the California Redevelopment Association, emerged in recent weeks as the front-runner out of a field of roughly 30 applicants for the city's top executive.

It's unlikely the council will vote to offer Shirey the job today, but an announcement is expected by the end of the week.

How do you want your tax dollars spent?

At a Tuesday budget hearing, the City Council is going to hear from the Big Three: the police, fire and parks departments. All three are slated for cuts and the council wants to compare the budgets side-by-side-by-side to drive home the point that the city's options for dealing with a $39 million deficit are limited.

The pivotal hearing will also place council members face to face with three of the most influential special interest groups at City Hall: the police union, the firefighters union and Local 39, which is the city's largest union and represents many parks workers.

After a few years of keeping their budgets fairly untouched, the City Council made a significant concession on Tuesday.

In a unanimous vote, the council decided to transfer revenue from cell phone towers and electronic billboards into the general fund, which pays for cops, firefighters and parks. I mentioned the giveback in my story today about the city's budget situation, but wanted to take a deeper look at the impact.

Some have described the money as "slush funds," paying for nothing but pet projects and political favors. But there's another side to that. Many council members - especially those representing challenged neighborhoods - have relied on the revenue for programs and services that would have been axed otherwise.

City cops and firefighters went door to door this weekend trying to gather opposition to City Hall's proposal to lay off 80 police officers, brown out fire rigs and cut dozens of other positions from the police and fire departments.

Campaign-style signs are now showing up on front lawns and hanging from doors in support of that effort. The group behind the campaign - Protect Sacramento - is a coalition of the fire and police unions, along with neighborhood groups.

The group assembled an overflow crowd at City Hall last week, when the police cuts were presented to the City Council during a tense budget hearing. A similar scene is on tap for Tuesday night, when the fire department's budget is laid out.

Roughly 80 police officers will lose their jobs under the city of Sacramento's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

In addition, six fire department rigs will be shelved at any given time on rotating brownouts, up from two now. All but three of the city's 15 community centers will be closed.

The cuts are part of City Hall's plan to close a $39 million gap for the 2011/12 fiscal year that starts July 1. All together, as many as 300 city employees face losing their jobs. Look for more details on the cuts in tomorrow's Bee.

Sacramento City Hall has enlisted a pair of familiar faces to help guide it through the next few tumultuous months.

In a unanimous vote, the City Council voted Thursday to appoint former city manager Bill Edgar as the interim city manager for the next six months while a permanent candidate for the job is sought. Edgar was city manager from 1993 to 1999.

Most recently, Edgar chaired a council-appointed Charter Review Committee formed in the wake of Mayor Kevin Johnson's strong-mayor proposal. In contrast to the mayor's proposal, that committee did not recommend sweeping changes to the way the city is governed.

The city of Sacramento could save millions of dollars every year by requiring its public safety employees and top management officials to contribute to their retirement funds, an auditor has found.

A report released today by city Auditor Jorge Oseguera shows the savings could reach $7.4 million a year should police officers, firefighters and managers contribute 4 percent of their salaries into the CalPERS system.

Those employees currently do not pay anything out of pocket toward their retirements. Most other city workers contribute 4 percent of their salaries toward their pensions.

The state's political watchdog has slapped a $2,500 fine on former Sacramento city building official Dan Waters, who worked on a patio permit at a Natomas sushi restaurant where he co-owned a cigar bar.

Waters "violated the Political Reform Act by attempting to use his official position to influence a governmental decision in which he had a financial interest," according to a Fair Political Practices Commission decision.

According to FPPC documents, Waters - the son of former Councilman Robbie Waters - formed LEWA, Inc., with Ken Le, the owner of Oshima. LEWA is a cigar bar.

Sacramento Interim City Manager Gus Vina is resigning his post today, the second time in 13 months that the top executive at City Hall has abruptly stepped down.

And once again, a division on the City Council has played a role in the top manager's departure.

In an interview inside his office this morning, Vina told me "it's difficult as a city manager to work when you don't have at least a supermajority of the council (behind you)." Five council members voted earlier this year to conduct a national search for a permanent city manager, while the four others voted to hire Vina.

Earlier this month, the City Council did a U-turn on the "crash tax" and voted to bring the controversial ordinance back for its eventual repeal.

When the council made that motion, I was told the crash tax would come back in one or two weeks. That was three weeks ago and the ordinance isn't on the agenda for Tuesday night's meeting either.

This means, of course, that the crash tax - known by its supporters as the fire cost recovery program - is on the books in Sacramento. Under the ordinance, out-of-town drivers would be charged if they cause a wreck in the city requiring a response from the fire department.

Will tonight's City Council meeting lead to a shake-up among the city's most powerful appointed officers? Or will the status quo prevail?

It seems the second is more likely, despite job reviews of both Interim City Manager Gus Vina and City Attorney Eileen Teichert scheduled to take place during a closed-door session prior to the public council meeting. But you never can tell.

Teichert's review was called by Mayor Kevin Johnson after a memo by Vina surfaced two weeks ago accusing the city attorney of misleading the council during a discussion over the city's controversial "crash tax."

One thing has become clear in this persistent cycle of bad budgets at City Hall: the issue of public employee raises always generates strong reactions.

That was the case on Thursday, when I learned that Interim City Manager Gus Vina had granted raises to three department heads. The news was enough for one council member to say she was "really disappointed" by the move.

"The last thing we should be doing right now is giving people raises," Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy told me. "We're laying off frontline people and giving management raises and that's wrong."

By Ryan Lillis
rlillis@sacbee.com

Interim Sacramento City Manager Gus Vina on Tuesday night told The Bee that he will apply for the job permanently.

Also Tuesday, the City Council decided during a closed door session to extend Vina's interim standing through June as a national search is conducted for the permanent post.

The council also voted to hire a firm to conduct the search. In a split 5-4 vote last month, the council opted to not hand the job outright to Vina, who has been the city's interim city manager for a year.