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.

Important questions left unanswered in the mayoral race

The Bee took the least effective route to endorsement in the mayoral race this weekend, an absurd attempt to get the election to extend until November. Really people, what happens if we accidentally elect Muriel Strand? It's possible, with the Bee's plan, that whomever the candidate listed at the top of the ballot would be elected. We've seen voter mistakes before so why would our editorial board want to encourage it?

Perhaps it is time the Bee took a serious approach to journalism and started asking some hard hitting questions. I've been thoroughly impressed with the research and detail that Joe Sacramento has put into these questions and I strongly encourage you to email Mayor Fargo (hfargo@cityofsacramento.org) and ask her these questions yourself. A few of Joe's best and my favorites:

In the 2008 State of the City address you disagreed with the Corps of Engineers’ AE flood zone designation, and stated you felt the levees were “strong as ever” —-yet in the KCRA debate with Johnson you agreed with him that we are in fact in severe danger of catastrophic flooding, and you were working hard with agencies to bring the levees up to 100, then 200 year flood protection levels. Can you please discuss the conflict between your two statements?

When members of the Metro Chamber recently complained that you were not responsive to their emails and inquiries, your response was that your job was complicated, and that your limited staff “triaged” requests daily–a word that paints a picture of a frantic hospital emergency room. If your office is so inundated with inbound help requests and questions from folks in our city who need your help, how do you justify missing 125 days of work since Oct 2005?

The NNFF (North Natomas Financial Plan) is said to be in flux now, and residents have heard that a $36 MILLION rebate to developers is even being proposed. Residents in N Natomas are paying EXTRA for amenities and public safety measures that were promised to them in the master plan for the area. What can North Natomas residents expect in terms of your commitment in seeing these broken commitments repaired? And, is it true that a $36 MIL rebate to developers is on the table?

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.

Dear Mayor Fargo, you have really done it now

This morning I opened up the Bee to find an article that has had me grinding my teeth for three hours. I am so mad I could spew! Thank you Mary Lynne Vellinga for getting out what I've been complaining about since we moved to North Natomas in 1999. The North Natomas community plan was a farce designed to make the city look like good planners. Don't believe me? Read the Grand Jury Report.

Somehow all the lies of Lennar and the promises of the city have slipped the councilmembers and the mayor's minds. I have ranted extensively about the lack of police substation, the unfinished parks, the rezoned school land that disappeared. But Mayor Fargo has outdone herself this time.

Quoting from the Bee article "While she frequently hears complaints about a lack of police services, Fargo said the area has much less violent crime than many other city neighborhoods."

Seriously North Natomas residents, your mayor just told you to stop whining because people don't die here.

I ran the crime stats myself this morning from 8/1/2007 to 9/30/2007. The area classified as North Natomas had 194 crimes, 22 assaults. East Sacramento had 240 crimes, 19 assaults and Land Park had 119 crimes, 10 assaults. Yes... the data suggests that we are faring better than Oak Park or Del Paso Heights.

But when I bought my house, I wasn't promised that it'd be better than Oak Park.

We bought our house in Natomas Park in 1999 on a PROMISE from the city that it would be the most amazing development in all of California and even maybe all of the west coast. We gave up a nice house in East Sac, near everything, including the light rail to work. We were promised regional parks, bike and walking trails, great schools, a light rail line, public transportation and walking commercial centers.

According to the article, planning director Carol Shearly says "We were cautious about overburdening the development with fees because we really wanted it to get started." So the city didn't bother to make sure that all the promises they and Lennar were selling, were actually funded. They didn't stop Lennar from publishing their fancy brochures with all the wonderful amenities. Mayor Fargo and Ray Tretheway talked up North Natomas like a new Disneyland- everything you could want and more.

Knowing full well that they were unfunded and that many things, like the police substation and community centers, had been taken off the table long long ago.

Councilman Tretheway says "I talk to a lot of average people. They love Natomas. They're going crazy over it." Seriously Mr. Tretheway, do they live here? I love my neighborhood but I wouldn't say that anyone I know is "going crazy over it." Afraid to walk to school? yes. Afraid to walk around at night? yes. Afraid of getting hit in one of the disastrous parking lots? yes. But going crazy? That's a major leap of faith.

Ms. Vellinga's article points out that the city decided the grand jury report used outdated information. That is correct, but that was the entire point of the grand jury report. The city did not follow the original community plan; they simply changed it at will. Many of us bought our houses based on "outdated information."

To Mayor Fargo:
Now I'm mad. You have a reelection campaign coming up. I'm throwing my money, time and energy behind someone else. I'll be knocking doors and ringing phones for another candidate who perhaps won't be so overburdened by the job. You are no Joe Serna.