Stonewall Democrats Say No To Strong Mayor

The new year has begun in earnest, and along with it the civic debate over the “strong-mayor” initiative in Sacramento.

Case in point: Monday evening at the Radisson Hotel, where 120 people attended a forum sponsored by the Sacramento Stonewall Democratic Club. Four panel members argued both sides of the issue, which will go before the voters in June.

At the forum’s end, the Stonewall membership quickly voted to go on record opposing Mayor Kevin Johnson’s initiative that, as one panelist described it, would give him “more power than any mayor in California.” Only one vote in favor of endorsing the initiative was cast, that by panelist Chris Tapio, a Sacramento political consultant and Johnson’s hand-picked appointee to the city review committee that studied the strong-mayor proposal and ultimately recommended against it.

Maybe the Stonewall group was unimpressed when the initiative’s boosters attempted to rewrite history with claims that the boss mayor measure sprang from community input and an “inclusive process.”

In reality, the initiative was the brainchild of a small group of Johnson’s backers, including Tom Hiltachk, a right-wing Sacramento attorney who has managed to have a hand in almost every conservative ballot measure proposed in recent California history.

The boss mayor measure, “was drafted behind closed doors – and any government document drafted behind closed doors is scary,” according to panelist Anna Molander, the chairwoman for the Democratic Party of Sacramento County. She said that she was a member of Johnson’s Facebook club and attended many meetings and forums during the campaign, and she doesn’t remember ever being asked if the city wanted a strong mayor form of government.

“We were told we needed it,” she said.

Preview:

One Wednesday we will be running a can't miss profile of Strong Mayor Initiative author, Tom Hiltachk.