Sacramento group forms to push for strong mayor
Published: Saturday, Jul. 27, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Jul. 29, 2013 - 10:25 am
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| Maybe the problem is that the Mayor doesn't know his own strength: The Rise and Fall of Kevin Johnson http://bit.ly/15WnS99 |
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's crusade to enhance his office's powers has been a defining political issue of his mayoral career, rivaled only by his fight to keep the Kings in town.
He's tried three times to advance variations of a strong-mayor plan to the ballot for a public vote. And he's failed all three times, often amid an atmosphere of warring special interests and political discord at City Hall.
Now, some of the biggest names in Sacramento politics are trying to persuade the City Council to move a strong-mayor measure to the ballot with a new approach: removing Johnson from the discussion.
A diverse group dubbed "Sacramento Tomorrow" announced this week that it will hold a series of private meetings in the coming months with neighborhood associations, business groups and labor unions. The group intends to craft a strong-mayor plan out of those meetings that it will present to the City Council by the end of this year, with the goal of persuading the council to place a measure on the ballot perhaps as early as June 2014.
Some members of the group have been vocal supporters of Johnson's previous strong-mayor attempts, including the committee's co-chairman, steel company executive Steve Ayers, and Stan