SAG -- New Name, Same Hidden Intentions

Bossmayor.com has always loved the name of the group pushing the strong-mayor initiative, because it was fun to refer to Sacramentans for Accountable Government as SAG.

Now it looks like the SAGgers are responding to the visceral reaction against its strong-armed strong-mayor campaign by cloaking itself in a new name. Even more tellingly, SAG is squirming away as quickly as SAG can from the words “strong mayor.”

On Wednesday, Shawn Callahan, the campaign manager for the Group Formerly Known as SAG (that’s kind of catchy too) sent out a disingenuous email proclaiming themselves as “Open Sacramento: A Coalition for Accountable, Efficient and Transparent Government” or OSCAETG.

Well OK…ironic and a bit of a mouthful -- but at least no embarrassing acronym. The email asks for cash and coyly says, “Open Sacramento has brought forth a set of reforms and we need your support to get our message out.” No mention of strong-ness or power grabbing from this open and transparent group.

Much less accountable and transparent is what you find when you look at the group’s campaign committee statement. Tom Hiltachk, the author of the strong mayor initiative is listed as treasurer – no surprise. What took us aback was the mention of Kim Mack as another principal officer.

Mack led the local Sacramento for Obama campaign and was involved in the nascent strong-mayor effort. She left when someone began using the Obama mailing list for pro-strong mayor emails without her knowledge. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=896279

When contacted about her role in the newly-named group, Mack said she is not involved and her name was used without permission. Hmmm. Seems like a little “transparency” is in order.