Five Things KJ Needs to Do The First Month

Of course, high on the list is finally sitting in that fancy office chair! But let's get serious and discuss what really needs to happen in the very short term to start turning Sacramento around.

#1- Immediately hire an outside auditor: Yes, it'll be expensive but any good auditor worth their weight in excel spreadsheets will more than pay for themselves. We need an immediate accounting of excess, waste and lost goods. Progress will come quickly with a specific accounting and budget of every resource in the city.

#2- Make his schedule and work product public: By public, I do not mean hidden buried under five search engines on the city website. I mean open and transparent. Residents need to know who gets his ear and his time.

#3- Demand a meeting with all superintendents in the city: Get everyone around one table and lay it out. We need real education change right now. Tell the superintendents they do not get more money or more goodies but they need innovation immediately. Ask them to each identify two things that they can change in their districts right now. Then expect them to do it.

#4- Call true short-term moratorium on housing in North Natomas and call a meeting with all interested Natomas stakeholders: It's time to get the North Natomas Community Plan straightened out for once and for all. KJ owes the residents here who put our faith in him. We need a real plan that doesn't involve drowning us in all the low and ultra-low housing that the city feels like building. We need a new transportation solution, a revised housing plan and a serious discussion on police and fire services.

#5- Meet with the City Council and high ranking City staff. Demand a level of civil discourse and decorum in dealing with the public. KJ needs to show great leadership in how he conducts City Council and other public meetings. He should demand that residents be treated with respect, decency and a thread of compassion. Residents should not be scolded, chastized or publically embarassed because the City Council can't take the heat of their own decisions.

Mayoral Debate Tonight

If you haven't made up your mind yet, watch the Mayoral debate at 6pm on Channel 10. All seven candidates have agreed to appear and participate in the debate. The debate includes viewer questions and you can still submit them online on Channel 10's website.

Mayorial Debate- set for May 7th at California Museum

May 7th we will get an opportunity to see what the city plans are from our mayoral candidates. The Bee, News 10 and the California Museum will host the debate with an hour broadcast live on News 10 from 6 to 7pm, followed by a 30-min online discussion.

People have complained that Kevin Johnson would not agree to a debate. Perhaps those complaining should have waited a few weeks to give Johnson a chance to get his campaign up and running, to develop policy and position statements and to form a campaign team before whining.

I find it entirely reassuring that Johnson wanted to take time to have details before entering a debate. It's not interesting or informational for anyone for a candidate to debate by saying "I will have a policy on that." We want to see and hear actual information. In recent weeks, Johnson has issued a crime plan that lead to the endorsement of the Sacramento Police Officers Association. These are the kinds of details that I want to see.

Fargo's own website (which is new) does not talk about the future. She takes credit for many accomplishments of the past, most of which were team efforts or efforts of the city manager that she rubber stamped. We all know what's happened in the past, we were here. I want to know what her plans are for the future.

So Mayor Fargo and all the candidates running for office, since you've agreed to debate, I challenge you to lay out a 5 and 10 year plan for the city. I want to see your vision. I want you to specifically address:

• Plans for Railyard Development
• Plans for downtown and K street redevelopment, including what to do with the big holes left in the ground from failed projects
• Flood control and how you will work with SAFCA, the feds and environmental groups
• Crime control and fire control plans
• North Natomas development
• Lightrail and DNA line development

If we're going to be a world-class city, we need a world-class visionary to follow through.

KJ's on the cover of Sactown

If you haven't seen it yet, you have go out right now and get a copy of Sactown Magazine for this month. Kevin Johnson is not only on the cover but there is an excellent, in-depth piece about his history and campaign goals in the middle. We are more convinced than ever that KJ for mayor is the best idea we've heard around town since The Towers project was floated.

Does it mean Johnson is perfect? No. We have some concerns still about properties in Oak Park that have been left relatively unattended. But one man cannot do everything on his own and essentially, the city has left Oak Park to him.

Johnson brings change, hope and idealism to the city. He is bold and not afraid to ask, with friends in high places. He personally begged Howard Schultz to open a Starbucks in Oak Park and promises to bring big dollars and big names to town. We're in love with his plan to actually use our rivers to our advantage a-la San Antonio and Portland, instead of ignoring them. We are inspired by his plans to develop downtown faster and we believe that he will not take no for an answer.

Most impressive is Johnson's commitment to education and his follow-thru. This is not a guy who talks big and then disappears. St. Hope has made a major difference in the lives of nearly 2,000 kids- kids who Sac City Unified was not serving to the best of their abilities. Earlier this year, in partnership with the M.I.N.D. Institute and UC Davis School of Education, St. Hope opened the Triumph Center for Early Childhood Education. This center effectively makes it possible for kids from 3 to 18 to benefit from St. Hope's extraordinary vision.

You have just a few weeks to make up your mind for mayor. Get Sactown's April/May issue and we're certain it won't take you that long.

KJ's in and Fargo swings and misses

Kevin Johnson is officially in the race. Heather Fargo takes a swing and misses widely. And so the mayorial race for Sacramento begins.

We're still working on an in-depth profile of Johnson that we should have completed soon. In the meantime, here are some important links.

A map and listing of KJ's Oak Park Properties

Ongoing stories relating to Kevin Johnson:
October 2007 Neglected Properties
October 2007 Triumph School for Early Childhood Education
December 2007 Sac High keeps its charter

Important Links:
Sac High
St. Hope Schools
St. Hope Development

My biggest concern is that Fargo has already gone negative. Doesn't Sacramento deserve a campaign that focuses on the issues, based in fact and reality and gives voters a true picture of the candidates? Fargo needs to get a campaign manager who will fact check everything that goes out the door. We're a few days into a campaign and inaccuracies, incomplete stories and misrepresentation of the truth are already leaking out. Let's talk issues. Let's talk flood control, crime, development of the railyard and North Natomas, doing something about K Street and the big holes downtown. Let's talk about educating Sacramento's kids who are falling behind their counterparts in other cities and states.

Mayor Fargo, if you want to talk about personal fallacies, you'd better make sure you can back it up with fact and can accept the same in return. It goes both ways. Don't go all Hillary on us whining about how people are picking on you and then plant lies in the media about your opponent.

KJ for mayor?

Marcos Breton's article in the Bee this morning covers the possibility of Kevin Johnson for mayor. As you know, I am not a fan of Heather Fargo and just about any name being on the table is exciting to me. It's time for Mayor Fargo to face some stiff competition and actually have to fight for her spot for once.

Kevin Johnson has a long history in Sacramento, though as of late much has been controversial. Most around town know the former-NBA player as the guy who is cleaning up Oak Park or the guy who started St. Hope and took over Sac High. There's a lot more to this story with complex weaves of he said, they said. But it ends up in a pleasant place of "Local star makes good".

We'll be researching Johnson's history and politics carefully and keeping you up to date on whether or not he'll be our guy. Right now, we're happy to just have another name to consider.