No Strong Mayor, Say Charter Revisers

The citizen committee tasked with studying the city’s governance has come to consensus: A strong-mayor system isn’t right for Sacramento. The group comes from a broad cross-section of the community, including a firefighter, college professor, publisher and an official from a local good-government organization – some of whom supported Kevin Johnson is his mayoral bid. Their draft report recommends: Mayor remains a member of the City council; Mayor continues to chair the City Council meetings and deliberate and vote with the City Council. Mayor has no veto power.

The City Charter Review Committee’s vote in favor was nine to one.

Here’s what committee Chair Bill Edgar told the Sacramento Bee’s Ryan Lillis: “If people are dissatisfied with how things are going, it's not about the framework, it's more about the people (in charge). The bottom line is the city charter will not guarantee you have a good, active and strong elected leader or city manager.”

Now the Charter Review Committee wants to hear from you. The draft report and the tentative findings will be discussed at nine Town Hall meetings – the aim is to get feedback from Sacramento citizens. It’s important to read the report and then head over to one of the meetings.

Let the task force know what you think before they take their final vote November.

The Town Halls will all be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Here’s the schedule:

• Wednesday, September 23rd
  Natomas High School - 3301 Fong Ranch Road


• Thursday, September 24th
  Ben Ali Shrine Temple – 3262 Marysville Blvd.


• Wednesday, September 30th
  Elks Lodge – 6446 Riverside Blvd.


• Thursday, October 1st
  Christian Brothers High School – 4315 Martin Luther King Jr.
  Blvd.


• Monday, October 5th
  Tahoe Park Elementary School – 3110 60th Street


• Wednesday, October 7th
  Sam Brannan Middle School – 5301 Elmer Way


• Thursday, October 8th
  Caleb Greenwood – 5457 Carlson Dr.


• Wednesday, October 14th
  Sam Pannell Community Center – 2450 Meadowview Rd.


• Thursday, October 15th
  Sierra II – 2791 24th Street