Shortly after I published Angelique Ashby’s smoldering letter to the Natomas community about the West Natomas fire, District One Councilman Ray Tretheway sent his own email to the community, replete with canned sentimentality only Razor Sharp Ray could cook up on a moment’s notice.
I received Sunshine Ray’s letter via email this afternoon. In classic Tretheway style, he opens by sharing a riveting anecdote about having lost his own home to fire (who knew?), then goes on to state his commitment to getting the second fire department built in Natomas. He concludes by suggesting Natomas focus on “what matters most” … as though he’s some sort of inspirational leader the community turns to in time of crisis.
Once again tragedy precedes action in Sacramento. At what point do we say “Enough with trees already dude! What about our safety!? Give us what we are paying for!”
[Sidebar: This Saturday from 2pm to 7pm the police are hosting a "Cops and Community" celebration at the North Patrol facility at 3550 Marysville Blvd. Download brochure here. Angelique Ashby has worked with the PD and rallied the community to donate food and all kinds of stuff for this event. To my knowledge Ray Tretheway has not even acknowledged the event].
Apparently Ray’s got more anecdotes than answers. Ever heard the standard “Everything Happens to Me?” That’s Ray’s song. At the Natomas crime meeting a few months ago, in his opening statement about the home invasions terrorizing Natomas residents at the time, Ray said he too had experienced a home invasion —- by a 12 year old boy. Heartbreaking stuff.
Like McCain, Ray is old school and apparently still believes anecdotes are a sure way to a voter’s heart, by golly. Chicken Soup for the ol’ voters’ soul, I guess. Only difference between McCain and Tretheway is that McCain calls me “friend” and Tretheway calls me “neighbor.” But I find both equally disturbing…
Dear Neighbor,
First of all, my thoughts and prayers are with the family and our firefighters. Thankfully, the entire family is safe. Three of the firefighters have been released from the hospital, while one remains. We pray for a full recovery. My family has experienced the devastating tragedy of losing our house to a fire, and to this day we are forever grateful to the firefighting team.
The Red Cross was onsite to assist the North Natomas family and provide emergency shelter. I know that we will pull together as a community to offer our assistance to them as well as to demonstrate our appreciation to all of our firefighters.
Under my leadership, and working with community volunteers and the firefighter’s union, we were successful in building Station 30 in North Natomas.
Today, I am again working with community volunteers, city staff and the development community to fund a new Natomas fire station west of I-5. As early as next month, the city council will vote on my proposal to fund and begin construction of the fire station. Earlier this summer I met with some of our firefighters onsite at Station 30 to make sure that the new fire station will adequately address our community’s needs. I have also met with Congresswoman Matsui to ensure the upcoming federal building restrictions in Natomas will not impact the schedule for building our new fire station.
Let’s now keep our thoughts on what matters most–the family with their tragic loss; and the firefighters and their health.
Sincerely,
Ray Tretheway
Ray Tretheway
Councilmember, District One
City of Sacramento
(916) 808-7001
First, is that how the first fire station got built? Really? With your leadership? Or was the fire station simply a mandate given the size of the neighborhood, the same way the neighborhood on the other side of I-5 mandates a fire station? Second, the fire station your supposed “leadership” made possible is browned out half the time right now, isn’t it? Let’s not forget THAT happened “under your leadership” too.
And what is this about YOUR proposal you are writing? What happened the Joint Use Facility Police Chief Rick Braziel has talked about? Is that off the table now? Whatchutalkinbout YOUR proposal Ray? What proposal are you working on Ray? Please let us in on your proposal. Forget your crooked council cronies for a minute. Let’s see what the community thinks about your proposal first.
And what exactly is YOUR leadership Ray? Is that the same leadership that led to the worst cop-to-resident ratio in Sacramento in Natomas? Is that the same leadership that piled four hundred ka-trillion tons of “inclusionary” (not even a word in my browser’s dictionary!) stucco and mortar into North Natomas, yet sent essentially NONE to West Lake? Is that the same leadership that has led to only one standing church in all of North Natomas (which is buried deep in a residential neighborhood)? Is that the same leadership that has enabled some of the worst truancy rates in the city at Natomas High (a school in your OWN NEIGHBORHOOD)? Is that the same leadership that brought ZERO family venues to North Natomas residents, and took nearly a decade to break ground on the regional park? Is that the same leadership that never responds to his emails? Is that the same leadership that hasn’t updated his city web site’s press release pages since 2006? Is that the same leadership that has left North Natomas to its own devices to fight lawless drivers who have already maimed and killed pedestrians? Is that the same leadership that steered the area’s only bike trail into a center divide in the middle of the street with no stop sign or light?
Is that the leadership you are talking about, Ray? If so, NO THANKS to that leadership.
That’s not leadership. That’s a travesty of epic proportions. And speaking of travesties, have you heard the latest? Rumor has it that two fire stations were mandated for Natomas, and instead of building the second with earmarked funds, the city chose to instead fund the South Natomas Community Center in Fargo and Tretheway’s own neighborhood. If this is true, wouldn’t this mean Sacramento officials put citizens and firefighters directly in harm’s way in leiu of a pet project? Doesn’t this warrant an investigation?
In conclusion, I am still blown away that Ray Tretheway has the audacity to tell Natomas residents to focus on “what matters most.” Like he knows what matters most! The gall! Tree man. Telling me to focus. Talk about appalling.
Call to action: Write to Fargo and Tretheway and demand the fire station in West Natomas is built NOW, and ask the Bee to investigate the rumor circulating about fire station 2 monies being diverted to So Natomas. And let’s get the 8,000 signatures we need to get the Recall Tretheway initiative in front of voters.
Well I can tell you this there was two fire stations planned and they axed one. The station Ray boasts about did not get built by his leadership. It got built by firefighters going door to door and explaining to the citizens of Natomas park that they needed a fire station. Ray did nothing!!!! Also the new station that should be at El Centro and Arena the money to build it was spent on parks instead so they don’t have that money. The city would need to borrow from somewhere else to get that. The council has the brilliant idea to borrow from one area to pay for another. GREAT PLAN!!! The money for parks (ie funds we all paid when we bought our homes) well the city took that money and sat on it for years then tried to build the parks themselves when the real estate market was at its highest point. Umm has anyone at the city ever heard of inflation?
Agree with Rachel. They are a brilliant bunch, huh? What a parade of fools we residents are for not getting involved earlier. It’s our fault in a way. We trusted them to take care of business, and they have not. They have failed us. When they should have been nurturing the cash cow that is North Natomas (which they themselves have admitted they are too reliant on for revenue) to ensure it became a safe, thriving community, they were traveling to every country on earth to global warming conferences. It is disgraceful how Fargo has conducted herself. It is disgraceful that she has the nerve to smear Kevin Johnson also. She should be apologizing to us, not talking shit about someone who genuinely cares about the city. Yes Natomas has problems and it is our job to get involved and demand these lazy asses do something about the problems. We are paying them to be good stewards of our city and they are failing their job responsibilities.
How can we start the process of removing members of the city council that do nothing but harm to this city, including the lackluster mayor? Start getting signatures, what? I, for one, of ready to start getting more involved after seeing my brothers burned yesterday.
What a sappy, irrelevant letter from Tretheway! His letter should have went like this:
This was a terrible accident that could have been avoided had the city prioritized in a responsible manner. I find this completely unacceptable on every level. You have my assurances we are now making the fire station our number one priority. I am working on a proposal now and I commit to posting the first draft to my web site page for your review prior to submitting it to the council for vote.
Tretheway will play the victim card soon. “I am sorry I have failed you, Natomas, I tried my best for you.” I guarantee it. I saw him do it at a neighborhood event speech already. He’ll make it sound like everyone has ganged up on him unfairly. Watch.
Listen I know Raymond Tretheway. He is a fine man and a very conscientious citizen who wants to do the right thing. The problem is that he doesn’t have those leadership qualities that Joe is constantly rambling about. To be a leader one must truly be a servant and I think Joe has expounded on the importance of that on many articles I have read here. Ray, like Heather, does not have that servant-orientation. They are of the old top-down, memo-from-management style of supervision we did away with decades ago in the business world. So basically, Fargo and Tretheway in particular are simply obsolete models and should absolutely be replaced as soon as possible.
I agree both models are obsolete.
you actually want SERVICES, like a Fire, Police, Sanitation? In Sacramento? You’ve got 10 million for Sacca highrise, 10 million for Nassi highrise, 10 million for expensive condos and restaurants on K and 16th Street, millions on the Magoof Arena fiasco, millions for bad chain seafood restaurants, such as McCormick and Schitz…all paid for by the Fargo/Kerridge/Dangberg/Fong Syndicate, run like a Crime Family…and then SHRA and CADA spread millions for this and than millionaire developer…and it all comes out of BONDS…paid out fo the PEOPLE’S money, either property or sales tax…and these bozos get first draw…so when spending 10 million it will actually cost Sacramento 20 million….and guess what? in Sacramento you don’t have Charles Schwab, Bechtel, Wells Fargo, Chevron yada, yada, yada to draw on…just the State, but unfortunately the State doesn’t PAY TAXES…only those State workers who decide to buy a sack lunch at the little Deli…
and now you want actual Services that make a city liveable? That’s a laugh!!! What you need is someone from PRIVATE ENTERPRISE to shake this kook show UP…and there’s only one guy left who fits that bill…
” the Fargo/Kerridge/Dangberg/Fong Syndicate.. run like a crime family…”
Amen to that!
Hi Joe. Long time, no see. Busy time of year for me.
I think it is great people in Sacramento are sick and tired of these maroons running our city——into the ground.
I support Tretheway recall
Oh isn’t it sweet that Ray sent such a nice, warm and fuzzy letter. He’s such a humanitarian isn’t he? Not. He can be glad I don’t live in Natomas. Natomas needs to do what we have done in Rocklin and fight back! Take your city back people!
Joe your site is a complete waste of internet space. Your opinion is worthless. You are sloppy writer and a scatter-brained thinker. Most Natomas residents, myself included, do not agree with you on any count. Most of us feel Ray Tretheway is an awesome council man, and has performed many miracles for this community with limited support from his colleagues. Ray is a great public servant and far more important to the vitality of this community than you are. Please shut your site down like you were going to and leave the leadership to the leaders. And please take your little kooky child-molesting friend Johnson and his nutty campaign manager with you. If you have room in the trunk, put the citizens for accountability goof in it.
um spoiled goat cheese??? I don’t know who you talk to or what part of Natomas you call your home but I have been speaking with many neighbors and friends in natomas and I have not come across one person (well you now) who thinks Fargo or trethaway are doing a good job. In fact in North Natomas I haven’t seen a single Fargo sign posted anywhere. I think Trethaway is a nice man and means well he just doesn’t know what to do when people actually question what he does. Fargo on the other had is a wolf in a pant suit (a sears one at that) who is backed into a corner with claws scratching.
Spoiled goat cheese, I love the sarcasm!!!
If you want real answers, go see Mark Griffin. He works at city hall and has developed the North Natomas Finance Plan. Or see Gus Vina, in charge of public safety for the city. They will tell you how much is available for a fire station or other needs. RT certainly needs a lashing, but most comments here miss the point, RT is one on 9 on the council, the other members of the council share just as much blame real or not for the perceived failings in Natomas. I am still amazed no one has challanged Ray, considering all the inflamatory remarks he seems to be receiving. I agree with Cole, millions of dollars have been given away to developers downtown, are the profits returned to the general fund??
Spoiled Goat Cheese: Thanks for your input. I agree with everything you wrote about me. Well said. I will share your feedback with my therapist as well as my AA group and anger management team.
As for Ray Tretheway and Fargo, you gotta be kiddin’ me?
Time for a change…
1. Change the system…you need a real Mayor…so if things go to hell you know who to blame…if you don’t like SF you can yell at DiFi or Moscone, if you don’t like Oakland you can yell at Jerry Brown, and if you don’t like LA you can yell at Tom Bradley…who can you yell at in Sacramento? Some squirrely jerk named Ray Kerridge? Nobody but nobody knows who Kerridge is, and what rock they found him under…Kerridge and his minions run a shameless self aggradizement scheme with NO accountability
2. Set up tension between the City Council and a REAL Mayor…and not the ambiguous BS that exists now where bureaucrats can hide behind some nebulous City Manager (see squirrely Kerridge above) and all the various public and quasi public agencies (SHRA, CADA and others) can run amok with NO leadership and NO accountability…
3. With a Strong Mayor, perhaps Sacramento can do battle with the State and actually get something accomplished FOR THE CITY OF SACRAMENTO and the PEOPLE OF SACRAMENTO instead of basically feeding endless bureaucrats…Sacramento needs money from the State…the State screwed up the City and now they should pay to help fix it…Sacramento doesn’t have the Private financial where with all of Portland, Seattle or SF…
4. Even with a strong neighborhood association as now exists in parts of Sacramento, you guys are basically still at the mercy of the bureaucrats badly running the show in Sacramento
5. It will not be easy, for the Bureaucrats, Apparatchiks and Technocrats are deeply embedded in Sacramento and they will not go easily into the night…so it will take a strong Mayor to carry out the People’s business and create a safe and habitable City…
good luck
You are so right. There is no accountability. The city manager does not even present his own budget from what I understand. He’s is neither seen nor heard. There is no accountability.
LEADERSHIP *is* ACCOUNTABILITY. Perhaps that is why hair-trigger Fargo snickered and sneered every time Johnson said the word leader or leadership in the debate. The concept of accountability scares the boo hoo out of her
Goat vomit, I don’t know what your problem is, but I bet it’s hard to pronounce. I must confess, after reading your post, I’ve decided I am in favor of abortion in cases of incest. You sir are about as useless as rubber lips on a woodpecker.
No offense, of course. May a child be within you.. forever unborn.
Hey Goat Cheese, go back to milking goats. This is a big city slicker conversation you would not understand.
Joe! Joe! Joe!
Charlie you are w r o n g. Ray is to blame. He is the district councilman! He is the geek in the “N” magazine column grinning and shucking writing “Dear neighbor” and acting like he is the chief and this is his reservation. And it is. He is responsible for this area succeed or failure. Ever heard of influence? He has none over his colleagues. And Charlie weren’t you the one who said you saw him at a neighborhood event and he spoke and you thought he was totally washed up and should be replaced because he is out of touch? Charlie you sure seem to flip flop a lot.
Charlie is a redneck conservative. Read his earlier posts. He’s just pissed off because McCain is getting slaughtered and the “puke” (as Charlie calls him) Obama is going to win. Tough luck Charlie old boy.
Joe, I am very grateful for the service you do for our community…These issues need to be discussed. I am finally getting the feeling that there is a grass roots groundswell to change our local government. Citizens have sat idly by for far too long, and look what it has gotten us. What is happening in the City is a microcosm of the problems in our state and national government, which has led us into financial ruin, but for us in Sac working on the local level is by far the easiest way to make needed changes.
More about Rays dealing will be in the press soon, it has taken a lot of research and we will inform the public what he has been up to. He needs to resign from either the City Council or from the Sacramento Tree Foundation, it’s that simple. If he refuses then Citizens For Accountability will circulate a recall petition and we will need all the help we can get.
One thing I’d like to say is many of us may have differing political opinions and views, but one thing we mostly all agree on is that we need change in our City. As for me, I don’t care if someone is a Republican or a Democrat, if someone supports getting rid of Fargo and Tretheway, McCarty.et al.. then they can play on my team any time; divisiveness and polarization what they want, and it is how they will stay in office. This community must become organized on this single issue.
We are working on an in depth story with a reporter on how much pork barrel and pet project money has been spent by Fargo and crew… this is not easy to do since they hide their expenditures very well. Many of their multi-million dollar scams are not in any budget, (the “budgets” are all for show) and unless you know exactly whee to look you are sifting through hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, it is not an easy task.
Anyone with information on projects and pork barrel spending please contact us so we can research the expenditures and include it in our story.
Oh and Cole….jeez Moscone has been dead for decades
thanks
thegadfly@thesacramentoinsider.com
Joe, is that you using the Major’s name. I hope it is not some fraudulent name, degrading our military. Sounds like you’re tone. I did not think my last post would cause you to react that way, yes I am upset the economy has tanked and no one seems to care that they are about to elect a flawed candidate, I hope that view is tolerated here, or else you have been watching MSNBC too much. McCain has done a poor job in highlighting Obama’s weaknesses in regards to radical people and groups(Ayers, Wright, Resko, ACORN). Have you heard how Dems are trying to find voters in several key state, which is now being investigated, hopefully if it is a close election, McCain will contest it like Gore did in 2000, and the Supreme Court will give it to McCain. Don’t all good democrats want a fair election. The polls are showing Dems. and Indep. arn’t bothered by bad Obama connections,so maybe if he has a 7 point lead by election day Obama could win. Lauren would be wise to listen too and stop her nagging. We have a finance plan in N. Natomas, every two years it gets reviewed, in what is called the “Nexus Study”. The funding priorities are made by the working group and then get approved by city council. If you want to “influence” the process, get involved with this group or learn about it. Developers want to pay less than they agreed to earlier, and with city budget problems, the likely result will be less services and infrastructure improvements, regardless of what people think Ray can do.
Insider…Moscone is only an example, could just as easily been George Christopher or Newsome…incidentally was at City Hall on Civil Grand Jury when Moscone and Harvey were killed…but what you have now in Sacramento is one screwed up situation…where no one is in charge and everything is running amok….
These observations are from the Sierras after 20 years of watching the Bee go to hell and go from a fine newspaper to something resembling fish wrap…and having beers and getting thrown out of the Rubicon and having fun and great food at the River City Brewery when it first opened…your city and you have to live with the crap….
It was me Charlie and I do not know Joe.
Charlie, for the record, no, that was not me. I only post under “Joe.” You might be surprised to know thousands of people visit this site.
Actually, I thought your post made sense… at least to some extent….
One part of it I totally disagree with is the suggestion that citizens get involved in the Nexus or Finance Plan committees or whatever you’re suggesting. No… I don’t want to…and I shouldn’t have to. Nor should I have to sit in board meetings at my company to ensure my health care benefits are paid every month. I’m a constituent. I pay for other people to do that stuff.
Ray Tretheway needs to be sitting in those meetings and fighting for us. That’s what he gets paid for: To represent me. To represent my community. When citizens are being asked to go do our elected officials’ jobs for them, we have a serious problem.
Screw Ray Tretheway. Screw the Sacramento City Council. Screw all of them. What have they done for any of you? Filled your neighborhoods up with big box stores? Natomas sucks like every other concrete paved over slice of sprawl in this country. The city of Sacramento sold Natomas to fat cat developers who live in the lap of luxury because of you tax dollars. You allowed it to happen. You all get what you deserve.
Joe whats Charlies IP? I bet its coming from the City of Sacramento…