Honorable Mayor Johnson and Council
City of Sacramento
915 I Street
Sacramento,California 95814
RE: Item 12- Checks and Balances Act of 2012 – Support
Dear Mayor Johnson and Councilmembers,
Region Builders, a broad coalition of building industry associations and businesses founded by the Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange, strongly supports the City Council placing the Checks and Balances Act before the voters in the June election. We believe this measure effectively reforms and improves the City Charter to help Sacramento reach its massive potential.
As you all know, the Checks and Balances Act is a newly crafted proposal to reform the Sacramento City Charter. The plan marks the culmination of three years of civic debate on how to best reinvigorate and modernize our charter for our current era. This proposal aims to improve how government works for the people by making city officials more directly accountable to voters, establishing stronger checks and balances on the powers of key city officials, and creating higher standards for ethical and transparent behavior.
Below we highlighted the reasons why we believe the Checks and Balances Act is good public policy for the City of Sacramento:
- Creates an Enhanced, Accountable Executive: These reforms create an accountable chief executive officer (CEO) for Sacramento. Sacramento’s only city-wide elected leader will now be held responsible for the successes and failures of our City government. As is common in the business community, leaders will and should be held accountable for their performance. If expectations are not met, residents will have the power to directly change the City’s direction.
- Provides the City with a Bold, Consistent Vision: This measure will allow the Mayor to provide Sacramento with a consistent vision to boldly tackle the biggest problems confronting our City. The Mayor will now be able to emphasize his or her priorities through the submittal of a City Budget, as well as focus on the major issues of concern for City residents such as job creation, homelessness, and education.
- Establishes Needed “Checks and Balances” Between Executive and Legislative Branches: We feel this revised charter reform proposal strikes the perfect balance between providing more authority to the Mayor so that important decisions can be made more quickly and efficiently, while providing an improved level of accountability and “balance” to offset any risks that may come from that increased authority. The City Council would maintain strong “checks” on executive powers through appointments, simple veto overrides, and needed approvals on all matters of significance such as the City Budget.
- Respects the Will of the Voters of Sacramento: Placing this item on the ballot recognizes over three years of civic debate and discussion in multiple different forums, as well as to the over 50,000 residents who provided signatures for past charter reform efforts. Ultimately, the time has come for the residents of Sacramento to have their voices heard on this significant issue. If passed, the measure would also need to be re-approved by voters or sunset in the year 2020.
- Strengthens the Public With Substantial Ethics and Redistricting Reform: Not only would residents gain the opportunity to hold their City’s leader accountable, but they would be able to participate in a more transparent and ethical civic process, as well as be given the responsibility to independently draw council district boundaries. This reform package revitalizes the City’s charter with strong ethics guidelines and the needed establishment of a Citizens Redistricting Commission. These policies would make our City a model for transparent local government.
For the reasons highlighted above, Region Builders feels strongly that the City Council should move forward to place the Checks and Balances Act in front of the city voters in June. This charter reform package strengthens the public, the City Council, and the Mayor of Sacramento. After years of vigorous debate, we believe now is the time to let the voters of Sacramento decide on how we, the people, would like our City government to function.
If you have any questions, please contact our Political Director Scott Whyte at (916) 442-8991
Thank you for your time and consideration.
