By Kevin Johnson
Mayor of Sacramento
If you want a lesson in why the public doesn’t trust elected officials, look no further than the tax proposal on the Sacramento City Council agenda for Tuesday night.
The council will vote whether to place a $29 property tax for the November ballot. The tax will help young people train for future employment.
I appreciate the goal of supporting youth. Young people are our community’s greatest asset. I have spent the last two decades fighting to improve opportunities for Sacramento youth. But the method used to put it on the ballot has left me mystified and, frankly, disappointed.
The tax was supposed to qualify for the November ballot with a signature drive. But the signatures failed to qualify in time.
Rather than continue the drive and prepare for the next election, supporters last week decided to have the city council place the initiative directly on the ballot – without discussion, analysis or debate.
The 11th hour decision to have the council push the tax suggests a second set of rules exists at City Hall, secret rules known only by certain people.
This is where trust begins to erode.
A second set of rules allows for a quick pivot for reasons of political convenience – but only for those know the password.
The idea of special rules is very problematic for me. I’m willing to play by any rules – just make them consistent for everyone, all the time. We ask citizens to play by the rules every day.
The decision to have council push the tax came in a councilmember’s request to the city attorney to prepare ballot language without discussion. It came in the final minutes of a six-hour council meeting.
Thanks to time limitations, the council won’t have an opportunity to debate the ballot language. There will be no opportunity for independent analysis, no objective comparisons to other approaches, no thought given to the impact this tax may have on other city priorities.The language must be presented to voters exactly as written – without public debate or input.
The disappearance of protocol leaves the city vulnerable to accusations that we are operating in secret, which is especially troubling when taxes are involved. It looks like we are trying to avoid public debate on a very important issue.
As someone who has worked to learn the city’s process for putting issues before voters, I find Tuesday’s tax proposal item mind-boggling.
This episode raises questions about how the city behaves when it comes to ballot initiatives. It raises questions about whether we follow rules consistently, or only when convenient.
And it erodes trust: If you are a favored group and you can’t get your signatures to qualify, come to city council after hours, and we’ll fix you up.
A second set of rules for political convenience damages the city’s image. I hope supporters of the tax realize they are potentially diminishing their proposal.
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1 years 49 days ago
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sahi.jee
1 years 49 days ago
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the man
1 years 293 days ago
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Mr. Johnson: The problems you just described are exactly what was wrong with the original Strong mayor proposal. It was done behind closed doors with no public input. When you were told that you could not do it, you went to the voters for signatures. However the people who signed the petition had no clue what they were signing. Some of the people who were gathering signatures lied to get people to sign. When the courts said that was you were trying to do was illegal, you still tried to ram a different proposal down the public's throat.
It is laughable that you are chastising someone for basically the same actions that you did yourself. I guess the rules are for others to follow but not you.
What you are counting on is that it is primarily your supporters who read your blog. There are also some of us who believe that you should have been charged with various criminal offenses. I believe that you would have been found guilty. Instead, you bypassed the legal system and paid people to be quiet.
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Corey McKenna
1 years 304 days ago
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Dear Mr. Mayor,
The criticism you're leveling at the method by which this tax is being put on the ballot sounds a lot like the criticism you received when you supported the Sacramento Alliance Team for K street using a special ad hoc committee that split from the rest of the council. While I supported you in that development decision, and I don't want to see any additional taxes in Sacramento (even though I won't have to pay it), I find your position on the means under which this tax is considered to be just a little two-faced. (You could always propose a substitute resolution if it's political gamesmanship that you want.)
Besides, what's to stop you if the tax suddenly becomes popular from supporting it. But it's all good. The perception is far more important than the substance. And you'll be retired as mayor in a few years any way.
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