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Monday, May 21, 2012
Johnson: People are ready to talk about strong mayor initiative
by Melissa Corker, published on November 22, 2011 at 7:22 PM
Storyline: Politics
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The 2012 election cycle is ramping up in Sacramento, and one topic that is sure to be on the table is a strong mayor initiative.
Mayor Kevin Johnson brought the topic to the fore
during his 2008 campaign for mayor
shortly after his 2008 election win in his race against then-mayor Heather Fargo, but the idea didn’t fly with members of the City Council, and the initiative never got off the ground.
With another mayoral race coming up in 2012, Johnson said he believes the idea of a strong mayor initiative is ripe for ballot consideration once again.
“This is a topic that people are ready to take on,” Johnson said at a press conference Tuesday. “There are many people involved and interested in changing the way things are happening here in Sacramento.”
Johnson announced in September that he will run for a second term as mayor, and one other opponent – Edgar Hilbert – has already stepped up to run against him.
A strong mayor form of city governance is one where the mayor acts as chief executive and the City Council is the legislative body. In this system, which is modeled after the U.S. Constitution’s structure of government, the city manager’s role is eliminated in favor of a chief administration officer appointed by the mayor.
Currently, the city of Sacramento is governed under a council-manager form of governance: The elected body establishes policy that is carried out by an appointed city manager.
The city manager is accountable to the entire council for implementing council policy and for the day-to-day operations of the city, such as preparing the city budget, hiring and firing employees and acting as a technical advisor on government operations.
According to the California City Management Foundation, council-manager government is the fastest-growing form of government in the United States. In California, 31 of the state’s 50 largest cities have a council-manager system in place.
Johnson said he believes people are “convinced” that a strong mayor initiative is necessary after watching the City Council work for the past three years of his term as mayor.
“I’ve been the mayor for three years, and we’ve had four city managers in that short period of time, which is very strange,” Johnson said. “It’s something that is very dysfunctional.”
Sacramento city managers and interim city managers since 2005 have included Ray Kerridge, Gus Vina, Bill Edgar and current city manager, John Shirey.
The strong mayor initiative was controversial from the outset and, despite more than one draft of the proposal, Johnson could not garner enough support on the council to move the initiative forward.
In June 2010, the City Council voted 7-2 against putting a strong mayor initiative on the ballot for the following November. The two votes in favor came from then-City Councilman Robbie Waters and Johnson.
After the proposal was voted down, Johnson said he wouldn’t continue campaigning for the initiative, but would not stop fighting for it – essentially putting the initiative on the back burner.
With the 2012 election forthcoming, however, the issue will likely come up for discussion again, Johnson said.
“I’ve made no secret that I believe we should modernize and improve our form of government,” Johnson said Tuesday.
Johnson said that citizens want accountability and transparency, and that the checks and balances people want are possible within a strong mayor government.
“I think the best goal would be for council to put it on the ballot and allow the people of Sacramento to vote on it,” Johnson said.
Shirey said Tuesday that he’s uncertain a strong mayor proposal will be on the table for the City Council – but if it is, he wouldn’t be interested in playing a role in it.
“The mayor has had that goal for a long time,” Shirey said, “but I don’t know that anyone (on the council) is willing to talk about it.”
Shirey said he believes the council-manager form of government is the best form, but the key to success for a city manager is a City Council that works well together.
“That doesn’t mean they can’t have disagreements,” Shirey said. “It means that, at the end of the day, they work together for the betterment of the city. They don’t make the manager the issue – they make the issues the issue.”
According to Stephanie Mizuno, assistant city clerk, a charter amendment such as a strong mayor initiative could appear on the June ballot in one of two ways: by certified petition from voters, or as a measure initiated by the City Council.
In either case, all initiatives headed for the June 2012 ballot must be filed with the City Clerk’s office by the end of February.
Mizuno said that a citywide mayoral race will incur the initial cost on the June ballot – an estimated $120,000, paid from the city’s election budget.
If a strong mayor initiative – another citywide issue – is added to that ballot, it would cost an additional $21,000. Further initiatives would also cost $21,000 each.
Mizuno said the current balance of the city’s election budget is sufficient to cover the estimated $400,000 cost of the June election, including any potential strong mayor initiative.
Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.
Editorial Note: A correction has been made to this story after it was published. The incorrect information has been struck out and the correct information has been added.
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Excerpt: "The best-managed and cleanest local governments in the United States are not strong-mayor governments; they are council-manager governments. This is the structure of almost half of the local governments in the US. There are a few varieties of this form of government, in terms of the roles of the mayor and the city council; In all of them, however, the job of the mayor is not to be the chief executive officer, with responsibility for day-to-day management and decision-making. That job is handled by a professional city manager hired by the mayor and city council. There are universities that train these managers, who would bring expertise in management/administration and an ethic of clean and efficient government."
http://www.citymayors.com/government/council-manager-government.html
City managers aren't elected by voters; they aren't accountable to us. These type of governments work best in smaller cities without full-time elected officials.
You will also notice that the last budget cycle had some very hard choices that had to be made. Those included the laying off of Public Safety personnel, sworn and non sworn. It wasn't what people wanted to have happen, yet there were many issues that could have mitigated the depth of the cuts....yet some union leaders refused to consider paying into their own retirements to help lessen the impact.
At the end of the day, your candidate, along with two of his perceived allies...along with "strong' ties to SFD and SPOA voted against the budget put forward. We all know the gamesmanship of 5 & 6 votes...and how once achieved, some can worm there way out of an unpopular decision, knowing it's the right decision but leaving themselves open to say to there allies "I didn't vote for those cuts"...meanwhile having nothing to offer in exchange for the proposal...except to cut more services elsewhere.
But again what's the city budget problems currently in Oakland, San Fran and LA? Your making a strong case not to have a Strong Mayor if your really using those as examples...but that's OK.
And I really don't want a CEO whose only resume requirement for applying for the job is 30 days of residency.
That was after Hiltachk , Johnson etal, financed by about 15 mostly out-of-towners...crafted the Emperor Mayor Initiative and went on a signature gathering binge under false pretenses and ultimately unconstitutional use of the initiative process.
And as far as blaming our form of government, that has survived over 90 years, as being the case for excessive city manager changes along with being dysfunctional...Both dysfunctionaity and this mayor arrived in City Council Chambers at the same time....and it was a lot more than coincidence.
A lot of citizens are looking to this council to provide the ultimate accountability index to the voters of this city....A binding Vote on any and all public contributions and general fund debt associated with any arena financing scheme. Wasn't accountability the foundation of your argument for more power....well you don't need more power and the citizens want a vote on your single biggest focus...the public money and debt associated with any arena deal.
You should read up on I-91 in Seattle....From an initiative perspective...it's got a lot more traction than any form of SMI. I could easily see a Real Grass Roots Campaign on that!
We could even borrow on the Name used up there...
Citizens For More Important Things!
http://www.citizensformoreimportantthings.org/I91TEXT.html
And now that the candidate's spokesperson has weighed in...
So Steve, When is the accountable preaching mayor going to make a similar contribution to the City of Sacramento...like he did for Open Sacramento....before they shut down...to pay off their share of the Legal cost incurred by Bill Camps sucessful lawsuit against the unconstitutional SMI.
City Clerk documents pretty clearly show the path of the money....$25,000 from KJ's 2012 account along with a personal KJ contribution of $10,000...to pay down the $57,000..owed by Open Sacramento (formerly known as SAG) for their share of Camp's legal bills.
Given Hiltachk's and Johnson's role in the events that led up to the lawsuit.....if KJ truly wants to walk the talk instead of him or you just doing the talking....the city could really use a similar contribution of $35,000 to pay down the legal bill debt owed to Camp by the city. KJ's always been good at pulling out the checkbook to make problems go away.
On Another Note
Here's a change to the city codes I'll support:
Candidates for City of Sacramento public office being limited to the amount of money they can "loan" their campaigns....just like we do at the state level.
If $100K is the outstanding debt limit a candidate for CA Governor can have loaned, in total, to all their campaigns.....$50K for a mayor should be more than adequate.
They can still freely give all of their own money they want...they just can't loan it . You know, loans are just debts, expected to be paid off...by someone....so lets keep them in check.
Hm...Kim Mack. That's a name we have heard again recently, isn't it?
You're right. It was. There were many "promises" made in that booklet. Many more were broken than were kept.
http://www.teamkj.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=Xop8oL_OIi4%3d&tabid=76&mid=441
http://cityofsacramento.org/mayor/KJ_day_one.pdf
Page 6:
"AS MAYOR I WILL:
Set a new standard for open government by making the mayor's calendar and the calendars of all city council members open to the public for review at any time."
Then Mr. Mayor, (and I know your staff reads this site because I've been contacted by them for my articles) consider this my request for all information regarding meetings about the arena that you or anyone in your office has worked on. Place, times, who was in attendace, who paid the bill, what was discussed, etc. This should be no problem since you want to "set a new standard for open government."
And the nice thing about Sacpress is you can actually go back to the beginning...easily...to see that Jan 6th, 2009 was the kick off to Hiltachk and Johnson's charter revision by initiative (ultimately determined to be illegal use of the initiative process) hardly an exploration...and never discussed in open forum, or in any way engaged in a community dialogue. We can also see who financed it...the charter members to the Sacramento Gang of 60....Sacramentans For Accountable Government
And here we see the seeds being planted again for using the initiative process over an actual community dialogue afforded by use of an elected charter commission.
2nd Verse...same as the First?
The issue came up so soon after the election in 2008 that I mistook it for having been an issue included in the campaign itself. My apologies.
...SO SOON, Melissa, that is safe to say that is was in the works all along, but not mentioned during the campaign for fear of turning off voters. Otherwise, it would have been part of the platform. I can't believe that it never crossed KJ's mind while running for his first term...
Jerry Brown was a strong mayor. Gavin Newsom was a strong mayor. In fact, nearly all of California's large cities have this system of government rather than the chaos that now is common practice at City Council meetings.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/24/4001793/mayor-johnsons-absences-from-council.html
Did I miss the rage?
When this was first brought up a few years ago, I went to several public meetings about it. I learned that no other city ever changed to a Strong Mayor system while the sitting mayor was still in office, rather the change would be made for the NEXT term, and in the meantime public input would dicate the powers of the strong mayor. The only time this didn't happen was for Brown in Oakland, but he put the Strong Mayor system on the ballot while he wasn't mayor yet...
...If the people really wanted a strong mayor system let them vote on it, and then let it start at the beginning of the next term, just as it has in 99% of the other cities that have adpoted it. No power grab in Sacramento!
He should have tied it to his re-election in the first place. It would make his re-election a referendum on Strong Mayor, but that would be his risk to take.
Not Opaque Initiatives....that smell like day old fish wrap.
And given the tactics that the paid signature gathers were provided with the first time around...Would any one be surprised , if they now claimed to be gathering signatures for a referendum on the arena financing scheme as compared to a new or re-drawn SMI?
And "You Want What" .. the Charter Commission on this issue was not elected, it was appointed. As in unaccountable to the voters.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/24/4001793/mayor-johnsons-absences-from-council.html
And thanks for yet another personal attack. Classy as always.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/24/4001793/mayor-johnsons-absences-from-council.html
http://ransackedmedia.com/2011/11/23/kevin-johnson-nominated-for-hall-of-fame-by-one-of-his-own-staff-members/
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!
And while you are out it, how about letting sacpress readers know your real name.
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!
Mayors in these cities (like Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, or Jerry Sanders in San Diego, which went to a strong mayor system) are held accountable for their government. They hire folks to run the city, with the difference being that the Mayor is held accountable. In our current system, the city manager reports to city councilors instead of voters.
It's pretty clear this is a failed experiment in Sacramento given the turnover in the city managers office lately.
Even though he is not a SM, he wants to act like one and is getting in the way of running the city.