Sacramento Strong Mayor Initiative, June 2010

From Ballotpedia

A Sacramento Strong Mayor Initiative will be on the June 8, 2010 ballot in Sacramento County for voters in the City of Sacramento.^[1],^[2]

52,062 signatures were collected by supporters of the initiative in order to qualify it for the ballot.^[3]

In a "strong mayor" city, the elected mayor has the powers and authorities that otherwise be handed over to a hired city manager. Sacramento's mayor, Kevin Johnson, strongly supports the initiative. When the signatures were turned in, Johnson said, ""This is an overwhelming show of support to change Sacramento's business-as-usual government. I cannot imagine that the council will deny the will of more than 50,000 voters to decide whether we should modernize our city's government like nearly every other major city in our state has."^[3]

Possible legal flaw

City Attorney Eileen Teichert has said that the proposal is legally flawed because it does not spell out a mechanism for electing a ninth city council member to replace the mayor on the council. She said that Sacramento's City Council might respond to this flaw by voting to put a companion measure on the same ballot that does spell out the procedure for electing the new member.

If the Sacramento City Council declines to put the companion measure on the ballot, those supporting the Strong Mayor Initiative could pay to collect signatures to qualify such a measure for the ballot, but it may be too late for that measure to qualify it for the ballot on which the Strong Mayor Initiative will appear. If the Strong Mayor Initiative alone is on the June 2010 ballot and is approved, a judge could conceivably nullify it because of its failure to address the issue of the ninth city council member.

Controversy over loan

Mayor Kevin Johnson made a $25,000 loan to Sacramentans for Accountable Government, the official campaign committee promoting the "Strong Mayor" initiative.^[4] He later said he was converting the loan to a gift to avoid a possible conflict-of-interest in his votes on the city council regarding a companion ballot measures to fix the measure's legal flaw.

External links

• Sacramentans for Accountable Government, official group supporting the initiative

References

1. ↑ Sacramento Bee, "Sacramento strong-mayor initiative qualifies for ballot", July 29, 2009
2. ↑ Sacramento Bee, "Johnson's 'inside game' won key vote on charter", August 8, 2009
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} KCRA-3, "Strong-Mayor Initiative Qualifies In Sacramento", July 28, 2009
4. ↑ Sacramento News & Revew, "Mayor Johnson sidesteps showdown with City Attorney"

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