I contacted Sacramento Councilman Kevin McCarty via Facebook and asked for his thoughts about the strong mayor referendum KJ is proposing. He replied with his initial thoughts rather quickly, even though he is out of country right now. I’ve referred to Kevin McCarty as the “Big Ooze” in the past for his slowness in endorsing a mayoral candidate, but I have to give him some props for being so responsive. Thanks, Kevin!
“I’ve been out of the country and still am for another 5 days, but want to give some thoughts on the Kevin Johnson strong mayor proposal.
I support the idea to have a thoughtful and inclusive community dialogue about amending our city charter and governance structure. However, such changes should not be made wily-nily nor in a vacuum, but rather by engaging our community, and mayor/council.
It would seem a better approach would create a “Charter Reform Commission” to explore ideas and proposals to be considered by the council for voter consideration. Such a citizen body (appointed by the Mayor and Council) could include folks like the League of Women Voters, former City Managers, neighborhood and business representatives, employee organizations, and other stakeholders, etc.
Such an effort was proven successful in cities like Los Angeles in the mid 1990’s when the new Mayor (Riordan) and City Council created a body to explore ideas for their subsequent and successful charter reforms.
In addition, in the late 1990’s this model (of a blue ribbon commission) proved to be successful when then Mayor Joe Serna created a “Campaign Finance Reform Commission”, which met for several months before making recommendations to the City Council for action.
In sum, rather than have a Mayor or a City Council member collect 30,000+ signatures to put his or her top ideas on Charter Reform on the ballot…..a more thoughtful and likely more effective approach would be to engage others through a Mayor/Council appointed Charter Reform Commission. There are plenty was ways to skin this cat…..and ramroding two or three ideas does not seem like an open approach or in the lines of the Sacramento tradition of inclusive government.
Such a Commission could delve into a broad and long need dialogue on issues to be considered including, but not limited to: Mayor/Council Governance, the establishment of a City Ethics Commission, terms limits, a LAO-like independent city budget analyst (which fyi was discussed at council a length a year or so back) etc.”
I like Kevin’s idea of creating a commission to EXPLORE the strong mayor referendum as Mayor Serna did for his Campaign Finance Commission.
Great ideas and commentary, Kevin. Judging from the poll we have conducted here where only 8% of respondents agree with KJ, it appears as though the public is in agreement with you.
Bonus section: From one of my favorite bloggers, Tracy: http://blog-sacramento.blogspot.com. She put together a list of five things the mayor should do right away. This is my favorite:
#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 publicly embarrassed because the City Council can’t take the heat of their own decisions.
I like Councilmember McCarthy. I recall seeing him at the MLK march. I didn’t immediately recognize him…I had my son go get the Obama button from “the guy” in the coat and hat holding a bag of Obama buttons–smile) But I have much respect for the councilmember after seeing him addressing youth violence with many different organizations…
I gotta admit he’s growing on me too. Now if we can get that council meeting decorum in order.
I heard a blogger call this guy Doogy Howser MD – how old is this guy? Mr. McCarthy I mean?
Doogy Howser LOL. That was NOT me! Was it?
i did call him Forest Gump in the heat of the election season battle though 
I think this is great! Would love to read more of these
Joe PLEASE do not fall for anything the Big Ooze has to offer… don’t let him sucker you in Joe… He is an ULTRA liberal nut job….he is a tax and spend whack job who would rather spend money on $10K cat cages and counting trees instead of our public safety. He also spearheaded the ammo grab in the City…
McCarty is exactly right about this. I support Sacramento moving to a strong mayor system, but the Johnson team’s handling of this has been ham handed. Why did they not get the support of the council first before taking this to the voters? Even Johnson stalwart, Sandy Sheedy, has questioned their tactics. I can only guess that when Johnson campaigns for the measure he is going to make the City Council’s unpopularity an issue. Not a smart move on his part, and not a good way to get business done in the next four years.
Could someone please explain to me what the “ammo grab” was? Someone else on this blog site mentioned that we have an ammo ordinance in Sacto. I missed the news on that & am just wondering what that’s all about. Is that why the gun store downtown closed? Or did they just move somewhere else because of rent gouging? Thanks.
Gadfly, thanks. I am keeping big picture in mind. One small agreement does not a stalwart make.
D6, agree with you all the way
Lawless, yep you must go “on record” when you buy ammo in Sac city limits. Twas legislation the good McCarty, Kevin sponsored; Fargo and friends backed.
Latest sacbee article about it:
http://www.sacbee.com/292/story/1152631.html
My reaction to article:
http://www.joesacramento.com/2008/08/12/56-gun-salute-at-sacramento-pd-warehouse-today-to-trumpet-success-of-city-ammo-ordinance/
Happy reading
If Kevin McCarty is behind the “ammo grab”, he’s my new favorite council person. Should be enacted by the County, if it hasn’t already. My suggestion to any change in the city charter regarding the “strong mayor” issue, is that it cannot benefit the sitting mayor. Much like the reason Hilary Clinton will have to take a pay cut is she becomes the Secretary of State.
I have some basic criticisms for Councilman McCarty. First off at the end of what he says he talks about a commission that will examine extraneous issues like term limits along with making the position of mayor an executive one. The councilman is essentially asking us to deal with comprehensive reform. I think the problem with resolving many issues at once is that voters are likely to be too confused to pass any proposal. Also I think it would be more fair for voters to instead be presented with the strait forward proposal Johnson is providing.
Also the councilman characterizes Mayor Johnson as ramrodding his proposal. I don’t know much about the tone that Johnson in conveying to council members, but simply making a proposal and bringing it to voters is what mayors are suppose to do. Naturally as citizens we assume that our mayor has executive power like our president does. Mayor Johnson simply wants the citizens perceptions to match the reality of government. I think this would be great for our city. We should be able to elect our chief administrator.
Ed, you make some very good points. Thanks for commenting
After thinking about Councilman McCarty’s proposal some more I do think there are some good aspects to his perspective. My problem with it is that I don’t think it will lead to change. And I don’t think the McCarty proposal is politically strategic.
For me the basic principle of the issue is that those making political decisions for the government need to be directly elected by voters. I think we should make exceptions for judges since judges need to have an unbiased perspective (not that anyone does completely). But legislators and the executive branch are suppose to be biased in favor of the voters.
My second point is that every government ought to have this system. School districts and cities all require that policy and leadership are accountable to voters. One positive effect is that when voters notice corruption from their city government they can fire their mayor.
I definitely don’t see this as a solution to all the problems we face. What I am talking about is a poor model of government being replaced with a good type of government.