Ain’t no sunshine: the final Bites column
On good government—and a goodbye
This is the last Bites column.
Mayor Kevin Johnson’s “ad hoc committee on good governance” is wrapping up its work. And, would you believe it, the committee has concluded that Sacramento city governance is pretty much fine as it is.
The committee—made up of Johnson’s staunch supporters on the city council, Angelique Ashby, Jay Schenirer and Allen Warren—has met privately for nine months. It held three poorly attended public meetings—the last of them in the lobby of City Hall last Thursday. And the committee has come up with or more or less nothing to improve ethics and transparency in city government.
Schenirer told the dozen people assembled—double the turnout at previous public forums, he explained—that the ad hoc favors the idea of creating an independent election redistricting commission, but that, “We have not spent a lot of time really talking about it.” In any case, the committee recommendstaking no action on redistricting until after the next election (after 2016).
Similarly, Schenirer told the group that the city’s current rules on ethics and transparency are “pretty strong” as they are. And the ad hoc committee does not favor the creation of an independent ethics commission with enforcement power—something most other large California cities have.
The discussion inevitably turned to Sacramento’s policies on city emails and public records. Schenirer and City Clerk Shirley Concolino spent time defending the city’s decision to begin destroying emails it deems “unimportant.”
This was not in any way a discussion about what sort of public-records policy citizens want to have. It was city officials telling people what the policy is going to be. No pretense of public input.
Last Friday, a superior court judge agreed to block destruction of about 15 million city emails. City Attorney James Sanchez complained that citizens are “trying to dictate” the city’s email policies. Sanchez has got it exactly backward. He doesn’t get to decide what kind of public-records policy is good enough. Neither does the city clerk. That decision belongs to the public.
Schenirer said that the ad hoc committee is willing to meet in August with outside groups like Eye on Sacramento, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause, who have been pushing for a package of ethics and transparency reforms as part of a bigger “Sacramento Integrity Project.”
“We’re listening,” Schenirer told representatives of the group.
They’re not really listening. The ad hoc committee’s efforts have been half-hearted at best. By contrast, the Sacramento Integrity Project has held 10 community meetings, some very well-attended, and is moving forward withSacramento News & Review - Ain’t no sunshine: the final Bites column - Bites - Opinions - July 30, 2015: