During the 2008 mayoral campaign Mayor KJ promised countless citizens and journalists he was going to manage the city’s budget a lot better than the [deposed] Queen Mayor Fargo had. When asked how he would do that, his response was always the same: A top down audit of the city’s finances to uncover government waste. What waste? Well, he wasn’t sure, but he was sure about one thing: There was waste, and he was going to find it.
Well, as most of us know, the audit never happened. One thing KJ and the press—and amazingly even Johnson’s opponent–forgot to tell the public was that without city council approval, the mayor would not be able to order up his audit like it was a menu item at In and Out burger. The council would have to approve. They didn’t. In fact they shot the idea down faster than a Blackhawk over Somalia. Mayor PS7 was naturally disappointed, and like most election season promises, the idea faded into the smoggy sunset.
So now what? Is there a Plan B Mayor Johnson? Granted I am not at the epicenter of local politics, but I’m not seeing much from your bunker other than an occasional surrender flag. What is with the official disaster zone status you want for Sacramento? What is it again, “Fiscal Meltdown Zone” or something? Sorry, but I am not seeing the kind of change you promised.. yet. Again, I’m hopeful, and I know there are still 3 quarters left in the game, but man, I thought in 8 months we would have seen some sweeping changes by now. Let me ask you: Have you and your team at least replaced all the art work at city hall yet?
Most importantly, how is the crime fight going? I know in my neighborhood alone crime is back on the rise. We’ve had multiple purse snatchings at the Raley’s over here. The other night we had a police chase after a botched robbery, and the perps running and hiding in people’s backyards with the helicopter chasing them. I understand the getaway car slammed into an innocent resident’s car in Natomas Park. Is it your fault? Of course not, but I think it underscores the reality that people CHOOSE to commit crimes in certain areas because they don’t think they’ll get caught. Why? They don’t see cops anywhere. That’s not to knock the job the PD is doing, but the brutal reality here is that we don’t have enough cops… and now, with them sharing cars, there is even LESS visibility.
Speaking of sharing cars, Chief Braziel promised back in September that after one month of the “buddy-up” experiment, he would provide a report to the public. I have not seen it. Does anyone know if he ever released the report?
While we are on the topic of crime, Sac DA Jan Scully recently announced that if her department has to weather the pending budget cuts the county is proposing, she will no longer be able to prosecute a lot of petty crimes. In response, our resident tree hugger and absentee landlord Ray Tretheway sent the Bee what might be the most asinine opinion letters EVER suggesting the city of Sacramento would gladly prosecute the cases if Scully could not. The Treth’ went on to say how important it was to keep our neighborhoods safe, and how since the city had successfully prosecuted 37 cases last year, it was more than equipped to take on Scully’s misdemeanor caseload. Doh!
Guess how many misdemeanor cases Jan Scully’s office handled last year? 20,000. Her response to Tretheway’s Alzheimer’s-induced love letter must have been a dagger through his green heart..
“But with all due respect, successfully prosecuting the 37 cases (some criminal and some civil) in one year cited by Tretheway amounts to three cases per month. Last year, my office filed more than 20,000 misdemeanor cases..” – Jan Scully, DA, Sac County
Goes to show how incredibly OUT OF TOUCH Tretheway is. We’re talking one flew over the Cuckoo’s nest goner. And you wonder why Sacramento is so messed up? Hello.
But really, the most SOBERING, RELEVANT comment in response to Ray’s letter was from The Gadlfy who wrote in the Bee’s comments:
“Tretheway is a joke, his own neighborhood has turned into a ghetto while he sat by and did NOTHING….” – The Gadfly
Nail meet head.
Wow. Truth hurts. Ray, you’re a nice guy and all and I know folks love your playgrounds and barbecues, but you should be ashamed of yourself for what has happened to South Natomas. Go interview people who live there like we did. They are living scared, Ray. YOUR neighbors. They won’t go out at night, Ray. How did this happen, Ray? You have been there since the beginning. You have no excuse. It is remarkable you have survived this long in politics. You should NOT be in the city council any longer. In fact you should be banned from city property all together.
But let me be clear lest my sadness be misinterpreted for indifference. Truly, I think it’s very sad that all of Tretheway’s good works as councilman are completely overshadowed by his colossal failures in public safety. The property that has been stolen. The lives that have been lost. The businesses that have been robbed and burglarized. That will be Tretheway’s legacy once he is voted out next year.
Back to the mayor. Hey, KJ what’s Plan B — besides declaring Sacramento a disaster area. I’ll be patiently awaiting your answer #7.
Joe I must tell you your blog is the only place on the net I read about Sac-related stuff. This is why. Loved this article.
Good one dear Joseph. Back in top form I see. Keep this up and I’ll visit a lot more often
Joe,
I read your posting religiously and you always have something to say about this and that of Sacramento politics.
When I first met you a while back you showed me that there was something to stand up and fight for. May it be my community, city, and state… But what gets me these days what can we actually do besides criticizing our elected officials. Yes I do agree with your opinionated bloggs but what now? What do we do? What do you do? I decided to run for city council to attempt to change our corrupt system. I think we need to elect everyday “joe” not a career driven Politian.
That leads me to my next question. A few months back when we actually talked, I thought I had your support for my run for city council. However, these last few months you wont even respond to and of my emails or my posts on your website. So I guess the question that most Sacramentans what to know is who does Joe Sacramento support for the D1 race in 2010 since you are a registered voter in that district.
Honestly, it would be most settling to know who you truly support.
Ray?
kaplan?
ashby?
Dahilig?
Other?
Besides that I do appreciate the effort that you put into your website to enlighten our slumber city.
Semper FI
John Dahilig
Hi John, First, I sincerely apologize for not getting back to you in a timely manner. I didn’t see any emails from you that seemed like they required action on my part. I thought you were just touching bases, making suggestions from what I had read sporadically. I apologize if I overlooked them. Unfortunately I don’t check my Joe Sac email much (as others can attest). It’s not because I don’t want to, I simply don’t have time. I have so many things going on right now. I am tending to my family, maintaining several blogs besides this one, working day and night on my business start-up, producing music and maintaining a web site that caters to musicians, and working on another website start-up with a friend of mine.. not to mention promoting two books I wrote a ways back. I am slammed. Hopefully I’ll get a few things off my plate soon.
That said..
I support you all the way! I agree a “Joe” is needed on our city council. I think it would be awesome. I have shared with you my ideas on how you might build a coalition. I stand by those comments. I’m a promoter at heart and I know how to promote things. I think you could get a very formidable following if you follow the rough path I laid out.
Then again, you may be inflating the value of my opinion a bit. I don’t think people value it as much as you think. After all, who am I? Just an opinionated smart ass with a mediocre sense of humor.
I don’t know about you, but I’m going to keep criticizing them as any wanna-be journalist would. I am not running for office. The whole point of this blog was to spout my opinion off because my wife got sick of hearing it.
If it motivates people to get out and do something great. But for me personally, my wife and I give our time and resources to the community in many ways, and we’ll keep doing what we can to make a difference.. namely raising two respectful, non delinquent, loving, intelligent people who will set out to find out how they can serve the world, not how the world can serve them.
John, I think you’re honest, stand-up, courageous guy and I think the government could use a whole lot more people like you.
Now can you click the link on the right side of this site to follow my blog? And tell all your CSUS friends to also????
Since when is Joe expected to be the group hugger for city council wanna be’s? Isn’t it enough that he entertains us for free? Leave the guy alone and go build your own momentum.
OK Kraftwerk you gave me a new outlook on how I should run for office.
I should build relationships with my fellow residents not bloggers right?
Why are you ripping on Johnson? He is not the one who shot down the idea of an audit. The council said they could evaluate things on their own didn’t they? Where is their follow-up?
Hi Sharon. I’m not “ripping” on Johnson, I’m asking him a question: What’s Plan B, Mr Mayor? When he was pining for our vote he acted like the audit was going to save the day. But now there’s no audit. So now what? I think it’s a fair question for the leader to answer. He can certainly formulate his answer with insight from his council colleagues if he wishes — with the exception of Tretheway, who is clearly in no position to rationalize
Look… y’all need to look at the audit issue in simple terms. We have a huge deficit. ANY organization with the size of deficit we have needs to conduct an audit.
The council members who voted against a FREE audit..need to be voted out of office, it’s that simple.
But if we are in the mood to audit…lets audit the Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) who hands out HUNDREDS of millions of dollars a year to insider developers that control the city council.
Few people know that SHRA has a $300 million dollar a year budget, and has MORE expendable cash than the City does, since the vast majority of City funds have mandated allocations.
SHRA hands out tens of millions yearly…to developers, who never have to pay it back…all without a public vote…or even telling the city council where the money is going.
And in return, these developers give huge sums to their campaigns….it’s called campaign finance money laundering.
Lisa Kaplan is an extremely rude, disrespectful, individual who has NO INTEREST in any subject except for those that match her views. Upon learning she was running for D1, my first thought was, ‘Oh no, not my district’. Her agenda is grander then Natomas, all her agendas have bigger agendas. Natomas deserves better then Lisa Kaplan.
Natomas Community Leader? LOL… OK let me guess…Angelique Ashby or Kieth Sharward her minion…… who voted you in as a community leader?
If you were really a Natomas “Community Leader” you would know that Ms. Kaplan is anything but rude or disrespectful to anyone…no one who knows her would say this about her.
If you have a policy issue or a real comment to make about her positions..please make them…anonymous personal attacks will only harm your campaign Ms. Ashby.
Enemy of Politicians makes a great point. If this is how the campaign is going to go, with Keith/Angelique and Kaplan’s supporters sniping at each other and John D.’s poorly communicated messages (i.e., proofread!) then I don’t think Ray T. has much to worry about.
If that’s the path they are going to continue down, then I hope no one quits their day job because they may be woefully unemployed come election time.
I knew the campaign for D1 had the potential to go negative — I just didn’t think it would happen this quickly.
As much as I would love to wade into the vitriolic attacks, I’m going to refrain. Instead, let me say something positive:
Lisa Kaplan is a true advocate for Natomas. If I have a complaint about her, it’s that I find it difficult to refute her logical arguments. I have disagreed a number of times with Ms. Kaplan. Sometimes I am able to sway her opinion. Sometimes not. When I am unsuccessful, it is usually because she is adamantly refusing to make the politically expedient choice and instead is thinking from a more global policy perspective.
Um, here is what I am wondering…where is the relevance to Lisa Kaplan in Joe’s article, Natomas Community Leader? Oh, right, there is not any. It would have been one thing to, oh, I don’t know, even make reference to poor ol’ Ray (who at least got a shout out in the article) but to just arbitrarily blast Kaplan in a completely unrelated forum? Seriously.
This proves even further that Kaplan is the logical choice for Council…she will actually make life better for D1 residents by getting things done, she works to protect children, she is fiscally responsible, she is super smart and articulate (something that our current representative has left to be desired), and she rises above the pettiness that all too often plagues this corner of Sacramento.
For the record, I did not post that “Natomas Community Leader” comment, and I know for a fact Angelique didn’t either.
I almost always post my comments with my real name. I believe it makes my comments more credible since I am willing to put my identity where my mouth is. It’s kind of ironic that my name often gets thrown around and abused by anonymous people, when it is because I have the conviction to use my name that they have it to throw around. I think the people whose opinions matter the most recognize and appreciate that.
My first comment here on Joe’s blog following the article in The Bee was quite positive in support of Angelique’s goal of being our district’s next councilperson. I will not stoop to the level of making personal attacks about her opponents behind a cloak of anonymity. That is not my style, or hers, and never will be. Besides, it’s unnecessary — we want people to vote FOR Angelique, not AGAINST anyone.
I do have my opinions on why I find Angelique the superior candidate — and, therefore, why her opponents (stated and presumed) are inferior candidates overall, and I’m sure all of that will come out as the campaign moves along. I will concede each of them has his/her pluses because I am, above all else I think, a fair-minded person.
This may come as a surprise to some, and an uncomfortable fact for the most outspoken supporters of the competition, but Angelique has an impressive number of supporters, nearly all of whom are leaders in the community in one form or another. They all have their own voices and are free to use them as they wish. I would encourage them to use them in substantive ways.
Let us all bear in mind that this is a marathon race, not a 100-yard dash. Angelique’s campaign will, I predict, be one of substance — positive when it can be and brutally honest when it must be. Angelique thought long and hard about becoming a challenger for the council seat because it really is a sacrifice — the countless hours away from her family, enduring personal attacks from political opponents and/or nameless Internet personalities, lost income due to lost opportunities in her small business, etc. Those closest to her are going to pay the price with her. It is a sacrifice nobody had the guts to make in 2006 — that should say something about how big of a deal it really is!
That all being said, she is in this to win, and that is what she will do. That’s not just “yay team!” talk, that’s a commitment. This district needs true, honest, sincere, intelligent, proven, community-based leadership, and that is precisely what Angelique Ashby will deliver in 2010. Just watch — or, better yet, get on board and be a part of making it happen.
Keith Sharward
Co-Founder and Board Member, Witter Ranch Community Alliance
Member, Natomas Crime & Safety Leadership Team
Supporter, Angelique Ashby for City Council 2010
Hi Keith. Gosh you make it sound like she is running for governor ! I don’t think personal attacks are cool; but on the other hand I am proponent of uninhibited dialog, so it’s tough for me to censor comments.
I will reiterate for the record here, if you have beef with someone, then feel free to let us know, but please refrain from profanity and/or personal attacks. You can absolutely make your point (and make a lot of people really mad) and never use a single personal attack or curse word. Ask me how
Either way I think it is great AA is running. She has definitely fought for her neighbors on many occasions, and I do believe she cares about the Natomas community. I trust she has a sizable flock of followers. Is she the right person to lead the district? I am not so sure. I have not observed in her the type of thick skin and neutral disposition *I* believe the position requires, but I’m just one man with one opinion.
In any event, it’s going to be a dandy aint it?
Once again…. who made them community leaders? Oh.. so if you proclaim yourself a community leader you are?
Ashby is the President of a Homeowners Association in Creekside…I suspect she may have been voted in with 12-15 votes. That would be easy to confirm i suspect. From what I have seen, all the Creekside crew is interested in is to exclude people they feel are less desirable from North Natomas. One of their most vocal fights and claim to fame is to prevent Goodwill from moving into North Natomas because they felt it would attract less desirable folks to North Natomas. They issued a booklet to the community that was racially charged and was full of Willie Horton type of photo’s of young black kids. I for one do not want a council person who’s only claim to fame is being an elitist who represents the concerns of a very small but vocal homeowners association in North Natomas who’s main concern in is protecting property values and excluding those they do not care for.
Ashby needs to pay her dues if she wants to work her way up to the Council. She has children, and wants to be active in the schools, she should run for the school board and/or sit on some city commissions before she thinks she is ready to be a city council person.
Wow, such drama. The post was attached in the wrong article. It was also posted it the proper place attached to the proper article….get over it.
Mystery solved.
People make themselves community leaders by their actions. Years and years of doing what is right for the community makes one a community leader.
Unless you know of some guide to becoming a community leader. I would think those standards would first be applied to politicians, which they are not.
What makes one a Enemy of Politicians? Posting on a blog anonymously?
I bet the politicians are shaking in their boots.
NCL, he’s not exactly anonymous. I think the majority of people who read here know his identity. I won’t speak out of turn and divulge his identity, but I bet he will tell you who he is without hesitation. He’s hardly one to shy away from confrontation–which is one of his many qualities. As for the relevancy of your post in this thread, it really is no big deal to me. Thanks for posting.
Hey NCL, why is it so important that people post under their own names?
Joe has offered the community a place to voice their opinions. Some of us fear retaliation for our views. Given that this City is controlled by very vindictive far lefties, we may not feel comfortable speaking up, some of us have to work side by side with these lefties. Our opinions must be kept in the closet out of fear that we will pay for our views.
Take a look at what happened to the Director of the Music Circus for supporting Prop 8. He was driven out of his job.
It’s rather ironic that people who have different opinions than the lefties need to hide in the closet isn’t it? But the Left has always had double standards.
BTW, I see you post under an anonymous name as well.
I suppose “leadership” is in the eye of the beholder… But in my opinion, true leadership is having a suite of abilities and a consistent track record of using them: listen, observe, understand, reflect, relate, empathize, envision, express, articulate, advocate, focus, activate, inspire, empower, collaborate, respect, seek consensus, excite, affect, improve, excel, and ultimately deliver to those counting on you.
Angelique is a president of a successful neighborhood association, yes, and that certainly is good practical experience for a city council job… However, having that title in and of itself does not demonstrate true community-based leadership. It is what she has done while holding that title that demonstrates leadership, like how she partnered with a neighboring association’s officer to organize and convene a roomful of dozens of representatives of neighborhood associations, homeowners’ associations, businesses, schools, churches, and agencies for a very productive leadership forum on crime and safety at a time that Natomas was experiencing a dramatic and disproportional increase in almost all types of crime — that is when and where the Natomas Crime and Safety Leadership Team was born, and tremendous progress has occurred since then as a result, including the opening of the Natomas Police & Community Resource Center, a volunteer-run stop-gap for our lack of a police substation and community center. Another example is the tremendous progress she made on the North Natomas Finance Plan that Tretheway was desperately trying to ram through before the community insisted on applying the brakes to ensure the plan was sustainable and truly prioritized the community’s expressed needs, now and in the future. (That’s a huge story — one very much worth telling, hopefully soon…) There are many more examples — too many to list here.
And though it hardly qualifies as dignifying a response, I will state for the record that Angelique is most certainly not an “elitist” — or any other ugly “ist” that some dare to imply. Those kinds of comments only go to show the ignorance a few people have about her as a person. I’m confident that such nonsense will get drowned out and/or ignored by those who know better.
Finally…
I hope at some point you elaborate on that, Joe. Maybe she has thicker skin and more of a neutral disposition (whatever that means…?) than you realize. Or, maybe the job requires a thinner skin at times — a dynamic skin, if you will — because I think thickness of skin can, if unchecked, lead to being “out of touch” — something I often hear describing our incumbent politicians. The ability to processing input deeply when necessary can be a real asset. Something to think about…
Ashby is not qualified to run for D1… She has not paid her dues. She has never had a real job. Besides building a small but rabid following in North Natomas in order to run for office, she has done nothing for the District besides promote herself.
I apologize for not being explicit.
When I say “lacking thick skin” I am referring to the perception that she gets bent out of shape when people challenge her thinking or approach.
When I say “neutral disposition” I am referring to the perception that she can be intolerant of opinions that are not delivered with the political spin it seems like she is most comfortable with.
But again, these are merely perceptions based on limited interactions. They can easily be changed. There is plenty of time. The first inning hasn’t even started yet.
Peace!