Several months ago all hell broke loose in these parts when Slim Shady Ray Tretheway composed and communicated what many called an appalling proposal to fund a much-needed fire station, community center, and a new Denny’s, Burger King few traffic projects with funds already earmarked for area traffic projects.
When Ray’s proposal first hit the email circuit, I observed multiple email threads where community activists swore they would foil ol’ Ray’s plans. The fun culminated at a city hall meeting where Natomas School Board Trustee Lisa Kaplan and others read long statements essentially dissing Ray’s proposal. It worked–at least for a minute or two.
But you can’t keep a good tree planter down, and before long Ray’s quil pen was dippin’ and scribblin’ again and one day, viola: A new plan, and a green light from the council to proceed. One fire house, one community center and some road projects coming right up? Want a good Mexican restaurant with that? Hey don’t get cocky.
I’m sure folks will correct me on the sequence of events, but really they aren’t important. What’s important is that Ray got his (tweaked) proposal passed tonight, and you can rest assured he’s going to hammer that point home ad nauseam when election season rolls around next year. But lest we forget, all the stuff that Ray is suddenly interested in doing should have been done a loooong time ago. The firestation should already be built.. same with the community center… and the road projects.. and hell, the regional park.
A newcomer to the city might think Ray’s got his stuff together; but those of us who bought homes in the Natomas bathtub back in 2000 know better. Ray is reactive. He only gets off his butt and does something after something happens, or the noise floor becomes so loud he can’t tolerate it any longer. Make no mistake about it: If Ray had his druthers, he would be planting trees and building tree forts.. in South Natomas.
I know, I know. Some of you will write me and say, “Joe, Ray is a nice old man and you suck for dissing him on your gay web site.” And who am I to argue? Maybe Ray’s really shaking things up! I heard he recently staged some sort of auction-contest at city hall where the highest bidder won a lunch with Ray. Kevin Johnson won. Lucky! :\
Got Jolt? Can you even imagine? Why not just take an hour nap and save some money? Apparently Ray says he will take KJ to Bella Bru in North Natomas. I can’t help but wonder how he will pull that off; Ray doesn’t even know where North Natomas is… and we know he doesn’t know how to use a computer to look it up so…. plan on picking him up at Sac Tree headquarters KJ.. and if he’s not there just cruise South Natomas for a bit until you see an old guy in a white gown wandering around aimlessly babbling about “the good old days when Heather was running the show!!”
Anyways, what was I saying? Oh yeah. So Ray got his whole plan passed tonight. Apparently within two years the fire station will be operational. No word whatsoever on whether it will be shared with the police–something Ray haphazardly proposed during a crime meeting with residents last year when the Natomas area was under criminal siege. (Yes, this was the same meeting in which ol’ Tree Fort Ray tried to empathize with home invasion victims by saying he too was once a victim of home invasion when a 13 year old boy broke into his garage and stole some household items. Ray said he felt so….. violated… )
But what do I care? I’ve got my popcorn and I’m watching a much more exicting flick. It’s a real nail-biter. It’s called “grand-jury-says-Natomas-school-district-should-be-investigated-for-shady-land-deal.” It stars Superintendent Steve Farrar, the Natomas School District Board, and a guy we will call “Developer Don” (who happens to be a good buddy of Mayor Johnson). We are talking early Oscar nod on this one.
Oh I know, I know: Don is a philanthropist who I should be thanking, not berating. I know, I know Don has given more to charity than I will make in my lifetime. Blah blah blah. So what. The bottom line is that the district bought 41 acres of useless farmland (land that will probably never be annexed), for $13.5 MILLION DOLLARS of OUR (low life taxpayers) money and Mr. Money Bags Developer Don and his homeys shoveled every dollar into their coffers and giggled and grinned all the way to the bank.
At a time when teachers are being laid off and the Natomas School District is running out of money, and given the “bridge in New Jersey” nature of this snake oil land deal that will penalize students and teachers of the school district for years to come, I find it appalling no one has called on these millionaires to void the deal completely and return any money that has been transferred. I find it even more appalling that the ones who took the loot haven’t called it off themselves. What about you KJ? Maybe make a few phone calls to get that money back? What do you say? Put Natomas kids on the map dude!
Then again, what do I know? I just write here.
:munching on popcorn:
Source: http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1893291.html?mi_rss=Top%20Stories
http://www.sacbee.com/education/story/1893840.html?storylink=lingospot_related_articles
As noted in a subsequent Bee article, NUSD has hired a malpractice attorney to help remedy the injustice that benefited mega-developer Tsakopoulos at the expense of the district and its students.
Kudos to Lisa Kaplan for objecting to this turd of a finance plan, which, among other things, now has waterfowl nesting in the designated permanent greenspace next to the Sacramento River responsible for financing future road projects at a rate four times greater than North Natomas developers.
So let’s see, one candidate is pursuing compensation from the region’s largest developer on behalf of Natomas schools, while the other two are trumpeting a finance plan that catered to the whims of developers.
Interesting contrast.
Nice topic Joe, the Super. should be fired along with any other board member supporting corruption-this pathetic story comes after a high level official (Harding) stole thousands of dollars from the district and little or nothing was done. I doubt the DA will take on the case, it will end as another case where taxpayers get f*****, a measure was approved a few years ago and our yearly school tax went up several hundred dollars. For what purpose, so some dickhead lawyer and AKT could profit. There really needs to be a better remedy, I have talked to a few teachers at NUSD, they appear to not think greatly of Farrar, maybe an effort can start to get rid of him, If I were him I would resign in disgrace for permitting so many low acheiving schools. The middle school pays parents to send kids to tutors because the schools can’t meet basic standards, who pays for that??
Yep, all this happened on Farrar’s watch. You would THINK there’d be consequences….
I have a mixed reaction to all of this…
That’s not what happened at all! Well, the first part is right — the version of the North Natomas Finance Plan (NNFP) update that Ray tried to hastily put on the council agenda for a vote (before smoke from the October Stilt Court fire had cleared) is one that community leaders had participated on but that was indeed still extremely flawed. But it certainly was NOT Ray’s work on the subsequent modifications — in fact, Tretheway completely disappeared from the process after we succeeded in our appeal to Mayor Johnson to pull the item off the agenda until it could have community support — three times, I might add!
No, Ray Tretheway had NOTHING to do with what I’ll call “version 3″ of the NNFP update that just passed council. Not only were there no dissenting votes on council (which I concede doesn’t say much), but there were no dissenting voices at all on record.
I’d be willing to bet it sickened Tretheway a little bit to vote in favor of the proposal because the joint effort of community leaders and top city management (who had previously only oversaw the NNFP process from a distance but later got heavily involved at the urging of community leaders via the mayor’s office) resulted in a plan update that HARDLY resembles Tretheway’s fatally flawed October plan.
I’m not trying to exaggerate our accomplishments or downplay Tretheway’s involvement for political purposes. Really. “It is what it is.”
Yes, that’s true, in the short term but there’s so much more to it than that — not just in terms of “stuff we’ll get that we’ve been promised for years,” but in how it is so much more honest and fiscally responsible. Ray’s NNFP budget wasn’t balanced. Ours is.
First, the dollar amounts of already collected and spendable dollars in Ray’s horrible October version was totally wrong (way too low) so all he could deliver was a fire station and nothing else right away. City Managers worked for weeks to get “the real deal” on how much money there was actually available — our “Don’t just say it, prove it” attitude paid off in spades on that!
Also, the “joint use” idea concept for the fire station just didn’t pencil out, for a number of reasons, including the fact that the police substation really needs to be a dedicated facility more central to the area. (That’s not just our opinion — top brass at the city and fire departments agree.) Plus, it would have required architectural work that would have delayed the station being move-in ready by at least a year — going forward with an “off-the-shelf” design saves money and time (and perhaps lives).
In addition, the budget for the community center under Ray’s fanciful October document was about three times the amount of the one in the update for which the community advocated. The phrase “Ray’s Taj Mahal” was often used to describe the over-the-top one Ray had pushed for. The consensus was that it was more prudent to move forward with a more modest community center using funds available today, with the possibility of expansion later — if that’s what the community wants and there is money available to fund it.
But perhaps the greatest achievement is not in “what we get” but how we completely changed the mental model of development in Natomas. I often described it as “development Ponzi” — taking money from a new area to fulfill promises made to an existing area. (I’ll never forget using that term in a conversation City Manager Ray Kerridge at a community meeting in 2007, to which he responded, “It’s true!”) Under our insistence, we were able to end this horrible unsustainable pyramid scheme by insisting future build-outs of Panhandle and Greenbriar be a NET GAIN for Natomas. We also succeeded in getting many of our projects on the transportation department’s master citywide priority matrix so that it can compete for funding opportunities like any other part of the city, whereas it had been previously purposefully omitted under the assumption that such projects would never need to be infused with general fund dollars, Measure “A” revenues, state funds, etc.
All of this (and much more) is covered in much detail on http://www.AngeliqueAshby.com/?p=159 — I encourage everyone to learn more about it.
I appreciate the skepticism and even outright cynicism because, I agree — for far too long, Tretheway and city staff have not been held accountable for the mistreatment Natomas has suffered. But this time, it really is different! It’s not perfect and probably never will be, but at least one high ranking city staff member who had broad influence over the handling of the NNFP since its inception is — how shall I say this? — “no longer involved.”
Bottom line: Mayor Johnson and his chief of staff were instrumental in getting us access to the city managers’ offices over the course of three months, where the sleeves got rolled up and Angelique Ashby was able to successfully advance the community’s stated objectives of fiscal responsibiliy, integrity, priorities, and balanced books using REAL dollars — not vague promises of unidentified or highly speculative “future funding sources” (“no Monopoly money” as she often said). The going was tough at times, but the players involved were committed to making it work, and in the end, it did!
We are not above criticism — if you or anyone else has thoughts about what was actually achieved after learning the facts, then by all means, please share them. But please, don’t jump to conclusions about what was done, why it was done, or who did what. There is no doubt in my mind that the NNFP we championed is many orders of magnitude better for Natomas — and, just as much, to the taxpayers of the entire City of Sacramento — than the horrific “business as usual with a fire station on top” piece of rubbish Tretheway tried to ram down our throats late last year. This really is worth celebrating!
Peace…
Keith Sharward
Co-Founder and Board Member, Witter Ranch Community Alliance (http://www.WitterRanchCommunity.org)
Member, Natomas Crime & Safety Leadership Team
Supporter, Angelique Ashby for City Council 2010 (http://www.AngeliqueAshbycom)
Wow, keith thanks for the inside story. I also got the idea that Ray had nothing to do with the new NNFP, but that the media allowed him to take the credit. I am sad to hear that that the community and soon to be district one representative Ashby did not get credit for standing up to incompatence and reclaiming dollars to be spent on needed projects in Natomas. I am also sad to hear that the Natomas Unified School District has been shown to carry some of the blame for a 13 million dollar mistake. Joe, who do you think is going to get blamed for this, not just the super, but also the board of directors, which includes a lawyer from McGoerge School of Law (Lisa Kaplin)?
Hey don’t slay the messenger, I’m only relaying what I read. From your commentary it sounds as if the Bee got their story completely wrong in giving credit to Ray for the proposal. Are you saying Ray is falsely being given credit for the proposal, but in fact Angelique is the one who should be getting the credit? If that is true, you should be writing the Bee and demanding a retraction. Sounds pretty serious.
As I stated in this article though, the point was not to inform about the proposal. The point was to say regardless of Ray’s proposal passing, he is not the great leader the Bee made him out to be.
Either way, please don’t turn my site into a promo for Angelique. I welcome all comments, but the last time I checked, I sent you multiple emails and you never responded to a single one. Now Angelique is running for council and you are responding to everything I write. It’s kinda weird. But anyways…
Peace and happy Friday
Steve Farrar should get blamed. Just like Bush. Bush didn’t go and look for WMD’s himself, right? But he’s to blame because he was in charge. Same can be said for Farrar. He should step down in my opinion. This is an incredibly serious matter that has been treated very casually up until now. I’m confounded by the whole thing. I’m amazed residents have not been screaming for Farrar’s job. Nothing against Farrar, I don’t know him, and I’m sure he’s a fine human being, but it sure SEEMS like this could not have happened under more vigilant leadership.
And it’s “Kaplan” and I think it’s a stretch to blame her. Last I read she has been the one decrying it. Let me know if you have proof otherwise.
Fist off…until the full story comes out…don’t assume the Board was given ANY details of the purchase. Staff, in almost all municipal forms of government, have their own agenda. They always write a staff report to meet as little resistance by the elected body they supposedly serve. I for one will look at the actual staff reports, before I make any judgments. The Board may have been intentionally misled..this happens VERY often..i know this for a fact….one case I am researching is related to SHRA giving away $10- million in cash and considerations that will eventually be worth $50+ million for the developer. ALL HIDDEN in a staff report…the Council did not even know what they were voting on because they were INTENTIONALLY misled by SHRA Staff. These kinds of backroom deals go on EVERY week in this corrupt little city…most never see the light of day because very few people can read and understand staff reports…or the scam IS NOT even in the staff report…only insider know whats really going on. Should I blame council members for not knowing whats going on? NO…they were misled…I blame SHRA staff…this story will be in the press soon …
Now back to the self serving Sharwards comments. Nothing he says can be trusted, he is working hard to get Ashby elected. Contrary to his claims that it was him and Ashby spearheading the opposition to the NNFP…there were many others involved in fighting the original plan… Kaplan was very active in the meetings..and was fiercely opposed to the proposed NNFP…but she was snubbed and ostracized from the group..because Ashby felt threatened by her and wanted to take all of the credit for opposing the NNFP to bolster her council bid….big surprise there. To say that Ray was not involved is simply absurd and an intentional lie. And I have no love lost for Ray Ray… he was involved…it would not have gotten passed without his involvement and approval.
Now that being said…whoever keeps saying that the NNFP deal was a good deal for Natomas… (Sharward and Ashby et. al…) are morons. The fire station and community center and other things they claim they got out of the new NNFP WAS ALREADY PLANNED MANY YEARS AGO! Also the new NNFP defunds tens of million of dollars (Last time I checked it was over $100-200 Million.) of public infrastructure in Natomas which was supposed to have been paid by the developers. Since when is giving into pressure by developers to defund public projects they had already agreed to pay for a good deal for the public?
The NNFP also re-organizes how the cost for future infrastructure projects are projected…the new matrix for determining developer fees drastically lowers the fees developers will have to pay in the future. How is this a win for taxpayers? We need to now pay much more for public infrastructure which allows developers to build for much less…making them even wealthier.
The NNFP plan was not passed because of anything that the self proclaimed community organizers did, it was passed only because the developers, who own our council, put pressure on them to defund $100-200 million in public projects in exchange for a fire station ($5-10 mil) and a community center…($10-25 Mill??? ) Developers now will pay penny’s on the dollar from the original NNFP which they had ALREADY approved and agreed to.
Please tell us Ashby & Sharward how losing is a win? Typical BS from candidates camps.
I’m saying credit goes to numerous people — from the mayor’s office to the city manager’s office to the director of the department of transportation, even to the developers, believe it or not — and most especially to a plethora of community leaders who refused to go away on this issue — and, yes, credit is due Angelique for her role in the last three months as the designated representative of the community leaders in the smaller group meetings with top officials at the city. She made the critical game-winning three-pointers in the last quarter of the game, but were there not the “assists” from so many others on the team, there wouldn’t have been a ball to throw at all. (Unfortunately, the West El Camino Avenue overpass funding ended up on the injured list…)
Yes, it is disappointing that The Bee did not turn all the stones necessary to call into question the credit Tretheway is claiming to take on this.
I think they were pretty fixated on just covering “the fire station is coming” aspect…
I hope you don’t feel as though I’m spamming your site with pro-Angelique commentary. Yes, I do advocate for her candidacy, and I do wear that on my sleeve… obviously… but there were some points of fact I definitely needed to cover, and I thank you for allowing me the privilege of doing so.
Finally, honestly, I didn’t have a record of any e-mails to me from you prior to today that I thought would have warranted a reply. I hope you don’t feel slighted……
“Peace and happy Friday” back at ya.
Just who designated Ashby to represent our community? Not me. She only represents a small group of home owners and rental investors…
I am sick of her small but rabid group of supporters saying that she represents Natomas… The fact is, like it or not, Ray Tretheway does, he was elected…the rest of us just give him our views..we do not represent anyone else in the community…
This mantra that Ashby is a “community leader” is all her own doing, and she only holds her own titles…. this is exactly why she should never be on the council..her ego is out of control.
Please take notice that Sharward did not dispute what CDO said… Ashby is taking credit for, and cheering the new North Natomas Finance Plan which basically gives developers over a one hundred million dollars and sells out our community to developers in exchange for a fire station and community center which we already had approved.
Voters…please take note that both Tretheway and Ashby supported this scam…
Community Dis…. raises some pointed arguments, I happend to sit in a few of the early NNFP meetings, the city and Tretheway from the very begining two years ago were advocating significant changes in the plan, whether due to a down economy, higher construction costs, or developer resistance to fulfill their obligations. The fact remains, millions of dollars left our community to fund other city expenditures, and hence some projects are not being funded or are behind in proper completion. Tretheway clearly should be blamed for some of this. Add the fact that the city is millions under budget, problems surfaced in allocation of limited resources. The fire station and community center were in the Natomas 1994 plan, a bitter fight to claim who is responsible for finally allowing its completion is political. The real issue is the concept of the NNFP, it sucks, it is determined by abstract forces that lead to poor decision making. Other cities don’t have such a stupid plan. An example is our regional park, it will take 30-40 years to complete, and I’ll be dead before I can enjoy it.
Test – OK to delete
(Somehow my posts are not coming through. Too long?)
Here — let me state it very clearly: “Neither Angelique nor I spearheaded the opposition to the NNFP.” I have been crystal clear that I have been a participant from about the halfway point and Angelique was successful in advancing the progress from the community’s perspective since October, in coordination with all of the community leaders who were actively participating in the process. The list of players evolved over time, but those who stuck with it to the end are all on display on her site (apparently this site won’t allow me to link directly to the page).
Not true. She did attend a few meetings, and her participation was always welcomed. She agreed to set up a meeting with Mayor Johnson, but she was unsuccessful in getting him to return her call. Once Lisa informed us she wasn’t getting her call returned, the group asked Angelique to give it a shot, and fortunately, she was able to get the meeting we needed in short order.
Angelique got involved because those who originally spearheaded the effort asked her to get involved, and she encouraged her network of Natomas community leaders to join.
The group decided Angelique would represent Natomas community leaders in the core city manager group meetings at city hall over the past three months.
It was never about taking credit. Angelique has always been gracious about sharing the credit with all of the committed folks who were involved.
Besides — if Angelique really was only interested in looking for an issue to ride for the sake of publicity, she sure as hell would have picked one that would have been easier and with a more certain outcome than the NNFP!
Again — my words are being twisted. I clarify: Ray was completely absent from all of the meetings from October through the very end. Ray’s office was involved prior to that point — and, again, the fire station was included in the October plan, which Tretheway did help to advocate for (I’m being fair here — I always am). And I concede that it’s doubtful the plan would have passed if Tretheway had officially objected to it in the end. But all of the rest of the accomplishments — those are all thanks to many players, Angelique being a key one when it arguably mattered the most.
So if I don’t post back within a couple of hours, that’s evidence of me “not disputing” what someone says?
Even when I’m having technical problems posting comments to the site…? Wow. Tough crowd.
Bottom line..Natomas got screwed…Tretheway provided the KY jelly…. [Joe censored -- nothing personal, just please keep it clean because I want a wide audience to debate here.. thank you]
A couple of comments on previous posts:
Harding was convicted and not only was ‘little or nothing done’, the NUSD Board decided not to seek financial restitution, which I understand was an option. I hope the DA pursues this new case of mismanaged money for land, because I don’t trust the Board to do the right thing, whatever that turns out to be. I agree that Farrar should be fired. He was in charge and that’s where the buck stops.
As for this comment, “The middle school pays parents to send kids to tutors because the schools can’t meet basic standards, who pays for that??”, the money comes from the Feds from Title 1 sources (so it comes from you and me), and making paid-for tutoring available for parents is mandated by NCLB rules for schools in Program Improvement. Also, the schools meet NCLB stds and teach California standards. They also provide (for free) books, paper, pencils, breakfast, lunch, after school programs with snacks, and tutoring, at a minimum. The large number of students who fail the State standards tests drives our schools into Program Improvement.
When kids don’t go to school prepared to learn, don’t do homework or projects or classwork, don’t take advantage of the tutoring available, don’t have parents at home helping them to achieve educational goals, don’t have homes to go to at all, have unstable home situations when they do, are in their 12th foster home in 12 years, are cutting themselves, have just been evicted or parents have just lost jobs, I think the last thing on their minds is doing well on exhausting tedious multiple choice 4 days tests.
Just saying, the problems in our Natomas schools are a reflection of the problems in our Natomas community, land deals aside. Thanks for letting me express my opinion here.
lol…
Not under my watch!
Enemy of Pols – Dude, what’s with the KY/reach around references? Way to up the level of discourse here.
Please keep it clean. I don’t want to play moderator and start screening everything. Pretty please?
The dirty little secret you won’t hear from either Ashby or Tretheway is there is already enough money to build the fire station.
It was the cost of another community center that necessitated them going in and raiding the funding from all the infrastructure projects.
Hopefully, they are able to put up a nice building. Perhaps when the next child or teen is killed trying to cross one of our decrepit freeway bridges, they can hold the memorial service there.