I’m pleased to announce a new nickname for oft maligned Sacramento City Councilman, Ray Tretheway: Slim Shady! And man has he earned it. Will the real shady ray ray please stand up, please stand up, please stand up… looks like he finally has…
Natomas residents are hissing mad over Tretheway’s spur-of-the-election-moment proposal to bring a much needed fire station to West Natomas residents at the expense of over $60 million in already-signed, sealed and delivered infrastructural projects (including the fabled North Natomas regional park!) promised to suckered North Natomas residents.
If support for Slim’s recall was only tepid previously, it should be boiling hot now. I’m talking the kind of heat that causes the lid to jump off the pot and forces the water over the edge and on to the burner. Psssssssss!
Not only did Ray hatch this harebrained shenanigan overnight without even so much as a post-it note to residents of his intentions, he only held one extemporaneous meeting–and despite rabid community protest at that meeting–decided to present the measure to his council cronies for resolution TOMORROW NIGHT!
“But wait,” the ever-vigilant devil’s advocate cautions, “You Natomas residents pleaded for a fire station after the recent West Natomas blaze that nearly claimed the lives of multiple firefighters and gutted a residence, didn’t you? Didn’t you all implore Tretheway to get a fire station built asap? Sounds like he’s just doing what you wanted”
That rebuttal is understandable, because on the surface it would appear to be true; but in reality, it’s onl;y slippery slope reasoning and holds no water. Yes, a lot of Natomas residents rebuked Tretheway and the city for neglecting public safety (e.g., building the South Natomas Community Center and a million dollar playground on its lot before funding the fire station); and yes, we implored Tretheway to get his act together and get the fire station built. But as far as I know, NO ONE–including the head of the fire fighters union, Jaymes Butler!–gave him permission to ransack and pillage the sacred infrastructural project remains of the original North Natomas plan in the process.
So why would he do it? I have a theory. Wanna hear it? Hear it go. I suspect both Fargo and Tretheway (and/or maybe even their shared political consultant, Richie Ross?) immediately recognized community outrage over the missing fire station as an opportunity to demonstrate Fargo’s commitment to public safety by forcing a public safety measure through council for resolution….within a week of the election.
Yes, I theorize this is the equivalent of a hail mary pass on Fargo’s part. 3rd down. Seconds remaining. Down by 6. Forget the extra point. It’s all or nothing. This time Peppermint Patty Heather is holding the ball and Slim Shady has his eye on the end zone.. the Natomas defense is lined up against them.. the crowd is cheering DE-FENSE, DE-ENSE, DE-FENSE! Can Natomas residents prevent a touchdown with a few letters and words of admonishment to the council tomorrow night? Or will Slim Shady sneak ANOTHER ONE through the defense????? And if he does, will Natomas protest and sue the city as Fargo and Tretheway both did on behalf of South Natomas community association when they were South Natomas residents?
Either way, time appears to be running out on Slim Shady Ray’s council run….
Here is the letter Natomas community organizers are circulating for Natomas residents to send to everyone on God’s green government list… too bad there is no threat of legal action.. Heather Fargo knows best that lawsuits WORK! 
She successfully sued the city, then grabbed a council seat, then became mayor!
Council Member __________
Sacramento City Council
915 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re:North Natomas Financing Plan
Hearing: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 – Agenda Item #14
Dear Councilmember ____________ :
Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read my letter. I am writing you this letter to respectfully request that you delay voting on the newest revision of the North Natomas Financing Plan (NNFP). Although the issue in front of you effects only one City Council district, I believe there are ramifications for the entire City of Sacramento if there is not a thorough review of the new NNFP that was just finalized sometime last week.
First and foremost, I do not want the request for a delay to be interpreted that I do not support the building and funding of Fire Station #43 on the Westside of Natomas. Nor do I want this letter to jeopardize the funding of Fire State #43, however, I find the quick approval of the new NNFP to fund the building of the second fire station, while at the same time the defunding of critical infrastructure needed in Natomas is something that must be thoroughly vetted and not passed by the council on the fly. Let’s not let the tragedy of the house fire and injury to our local firefighters in Natomas a couple of weeks ago become a political excuse and detriment to the future growth and well-being of Natomas.
Thus, I am imploring you to approve my request to delay the vote on the NNFP, for at least 30 days so the office of City Council District 1 can conduct proper community outreach on the final details of the updated NNFP (not just the ideas and possibilities but actual outreach and public comment from as many neighborhoods within the district as possible). I understand that there has been years worth of meetings that have included some community members on the update of the NNFP and what it should contain, however the only meeting on the final details of the NNFP was held on Saturday, October 24th with only 72 hours notice of the meeting and 72 hours worth of time for the community to react prior to the Council voting on this issue.
(Add in YOUR specific dealings with the NNFP up until this point – so that each letter is slightly different)
The community deserves to fully understand why we should give up $97 million in developer fees for only the funding of $26 million in new infrastructure. There are still some serious questions that must be answered, like why should the NNFP now pay for fire station #2, when the Natomas master plan called for the station to be built from the general fund dollars? What outreach did Council district #1 do with the community? Was due diligence put forth in reviewing the defunding of infrastructure projects as in December Natomas will become a flood zone again? What happened to all the developer fees the city collected during the flush times?
From what I understand is that the infrastructure that you are voting to defund was and has always been planned and is part of the nexus of the Natomas Community Plan (NCP), the NNFP, traffic studies and the EIR’s which have been relied upon when developing North Natomas. By defunding these projects and overcrossings the City is voting on radical and substantial changes to the NCP, therefore, it triggers CEQA and requires the City to do a new study on the impact of these changes to the Community and our Flood Zoning designation.
So does the City have authority to defund the critical infrastructure and overcrosses that have been in the NNFP at this time without another CEQA study? Did the City use these potential overcrossings with planning the federally required flood evacuation plan? Will Natomas’ flood zone status and 200 year flood protection be put at jeopardy by the City defunding these critical infrastructure projects?
What is the rush to vote? The entire Sacramento community will be irreparably harmed without this minor delay to ensure that all Natomas resident are informed an have their valuable input taken into serious consideration. . Again, Station 43 is a priority for the Natomas community, but it should used as a political trade for eliminating major infrastructure projects Natomas needs.
Based on the lack of answers to the above, I respectfully request you delay a vote on this issue so that the entire Natomas community can be educated about these serious decisions. Thank you so much for considering my request.
Sincerely,
____________ ____
cc: Congresswoman Doris Matsui
Senator Darrell Steinberg
Assemblymember Dave Jones
Assemblymember Roger Niello
Supervisor Roger Dickinson
Heather Fargo, Mayor City of Sacramento
Sacramento City Council Members
Chief Rick Brazille, Sacramento City Police Department
Chief Ray Jones, Sacramento City Fire Department
Joe McGinness, Sacramento County Sheriff
Chief Don Mette, Sacramento Metro Fire Department
Brent Meyers, President Sacramento Police Officers Association
Rich Schmeidt, President Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522
Ray Kerriage, Sacramento City Manager
Sacramento Planning Commission Board Members
Steve Farrar, Superintendent Natomas Unified School District
Frank Porter, Superintendent Twin Rivers Unified School District
Sacramento Bee
Natomas Journal
EMAIL ADDRESSES
Congresswoman Doris Matsui
Cc – anne.sanger@ mail.house. gov
Senator Darrell Steinberg –
Senator.Steinberg@ senate.ca. gov
Assemblymember Dave Jones –
Assemblymember. jones@assembly. ca.gov
Assemblymember Roger Niello
Assemblymember. niello@assembly. ca.gov
Supervisor Roger Dickinson
Mayor Heather Fargo
send a letter addressed to each Council member separately
CD 1 – Ray Tretheway RTretheway@cityofsa cramento. org
CD 2 – Sandy Sheedy - ssheedy@cityofsacra mento.org
CD 3 – Steve Cohn - scohn@cityofsacrame nto.org
CD 4 – Robert King Fong – rkfong@cityofsacram ento.org
CD 5 – Lauren Hammond - lhammond@cityofsacr amento.org
CD 6 – Kevin McCarty – kmccarty@cityofsacr amento.org
CD 7 – Robbie Waters – rwaters@cityofsacra mento.org
CD 8 – Bonnie Pannell – bpannell@cityofsacr amento.org
Chief Rick Braziel, Sacramento City Police Department
rbraziel@pd. cityofsacramento .org
Chief Ray Jones, Sacramento City Fire Department
rjones@sfd.cityofsa cramento. org
John McGinness, Sacramento County Sheriff
jmcginness@sacsheri ff.com
Chief Don Mette, Sacramento Metro Fire Department
mette.don@smfd.ca.gov
Brent Meyer, President Sacramento Police Officers Association
Daniel Hahn, Capitan North Area Sacramento
dhahn@pd.cityofsacr amento.org
Rich Schmeidt, President Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522
rschmiedt@sacrament ofirefighters. com
Ray Kerriage, Sacramento City Manager
RKerridge@cityofsac ramento.org
Sacramento Planning Commission Board Members
Chair, Darrel Woo - dwoo@insurance. ca.gov
Vice-Chair Michael Notestine- mnotestine@mognot. com
Steve Farrar, Superintendent Natomas Unified School District
sfarrar@natomas. k12.ca.us
Frank Porter, Superintendent Twin Rivers Unified School District
fporter@twinrivers. k12.ca.us
Sacramento Bee
- Political Bureau – Amy Chance - achance@sacbee. com
- City Editor – Deborah Anderluh - danderluh@sacbee. com
Natomas Journal – Will Craig - editor@natomasjourn al.com
have you heard … the outreach the community did got the vote delayed…but I hear only after the developers asked for it too…Good Job Community - bad job Ray and Heather
Good thing they called it off! That Tretheway is a crook!
Don’t think for one second this is over…they will regroup and do it again when things have settled down; If they can get past court challenges that is.
I am proud of this community for getting very active and involved in this matter. The tracks were greased on this one, if it wasn’t for a few active community members the developers would have had this matter rubber stamped.
I want to thank all of those involved who sent emails and made phone calls on behalf of our community:
Joe Sacramento, Angelique Ashby, Lisa Kaplan, Ken Stevenson, Rosemarie Ruggieri, Jaymes Butler, Curtis Cook, Mike Pettis, Keith Sharward, Rob Wurgler and many others I am sure, I am sorry if I don’t know all of you yet or didn’t mention your name.
We still have quite a battle ahead of us to get the promised funding for Natomas. We need to stay vigilant active and work together as a team regardless of personal differences if we are going to succeed in making the necessary changes in our community.
It might be a delay, but not much of one. What bothers me about this is the essential nature of how it is being put forward. The NNFP is supposed to be a “Plan”, which implies … oh, I don’t know…. PLANNING. Planning has the ideas of negotiation, interaction, weighing of options. This is a plan the same way that Mike Tyson biting off Holyfield’s ear was a plan.
Amazing. I can’t believe this stuff is still going on with that group. I as a former Natomas resident am going to be happy when the city is sued for their mismanagement of funds, delinquent projects, affordable housing and all out fleecing of folks searching for a better community. I will be there clamoring with the rest of the residents seeking retribution for lost money due to poor property values due to crime and flood risk. Shame on the city of Sacramento.
Start the recall! There is nothing but grim times ahead for Natomas unless we get someone in office that cares about the people here!! Screw this letter. It is worthless. What is wrong with these people taking this little pansy approach? Like you said, do like Fargo and Tretheway did and sue the damn city!!!!