To find out more, I called up Vallejo City Council member Marti Brown. Brown has a strong Sacramento connection, she worked as a redevelopment planner here for several years, and recently took a job a director of the North Franklin District Business Association.

Brown highly recommends PB, and I think Sacramento ought to consider a similar project. Earlier this month, we voted to tax ourselves to improve our city, why not let us have more input in deciding how that money is spent? I don’t know if the idea would ever catch on here. We’ve seen a certain anti-democratic impulse among certain council members recently. Measure M comes to mind. But who knows?

(I’m out of town posting this with limited broadband and unable to use the usual WordPress podcast widget. So I’m using Soundcloud instead. This podcast will be added to iTunes later.)

I’m going to introduce this week’s podcast with a little bit of a bitch session.

I just finished listening to Isaac Gonzalez and company’s latest ransackedmedia.com podcast. It’s good, basically one long interview with Steve Hansen, District 4 City Council candidate. If you haven’t heard it, you should download it. Not now, though.

Toward the end of the interview Hansen is asked about the Sacramento Charter Commission. Like a lot of people in politics, he’s pretty dismissive. He even compares the candidates to the cast of Real World/Road Rules. I’m not sure if I’m saying that right. But it is/was a reality show on MTV.  I’m really not sure, I haven’t watched MTV since 120 Minutes.

I think I get Hansen’s point though. The candidates are a sideshow, a distraction. Their ideas are not to be taken seriously.

But we’re supposed to take City Council candidates seriously, I suppose. After all, you can take all of the criticisms of the charter commission and make them about every other elected body and every other field of candidates in local politics.

So you believe that the best the voters can do is elect a bunch of Charter Commisioners who are just proxies for different interest groups that fight for power and get nothing done? Well, show me a legislative body that is different. If you’ve got a better system, let’s hear it. Maybe you should try to get it into the City Charter.

In fact, I sat down with four charter commission candidates this week for this podcast, and found them to be well-informed and reasonable people.

Phyllis Newton, Sondra Betancourt, and Derek Cressman all came by the studio for a wide ranging discussion. Isaac of course sat in too, this time as a candidate and a guest.  The episode serves as a pretty solid primer on charter commission background and basics, and an introduction to some of the the people who may be working together to help perfect our City’s constitution. I’m hoping that interviews with other candidates will follow soon.

I’m proud of this podcast. I thought it went remarkably smoothly, for a reality show.  I think there’s been a lot of cynicism about the charter commission idea.  Even my old employer, the Sacramento News and Review–which normally has a zest for small “d” democracy–seems to be falling into the cynicism trap. I may be wrong, but my guess is that they’ll soon urge readers to vote “no” on the charter commission, and not consider endorsing any candidates. I can’t really tell if it’s because they’ve really done their homework and have concluded that it’s a bad idea, or if they just looked at the number of candidates (54) and threw up their hands, figuring they don’t have the time or the energy–or the curiosity–to get engaged.

It’s not that hard, really. Just talk to people. If nothing else, we’ve got a couple of months before November 6 to have a thoughtful discussion about the charter and what changes, if any, could make the city work better.

And there’s no reason, out of 54 candidates, that we can’t come up with 15 commissioners with enough integrity and smarts to lead the public through a productive and transparent review of the charter. Seriously, just figure out who those people are, and vote for them. If we can’t do that, I’ve got to think it’s only because of a lack of imagination, curiosity and energy. Maybe a little less MTV would help

Local music this week is from Th’ Losin Streaks. The track is Fine Line.

Other than the gun thing, I’d say that’s pretty much the editorial position taken by most of the local media in this town. The Bee in particular, of course. My guess is that since their union is so powerless to protect its members from routine reamings by their bosses at McClatchy, they sort of resent anybody with more effective representation. I’ve never been in any union, except the Wobblies, so fuck all y’all.

I do live with a union teacher, I have some biases. I try to be transparent about them. I’m pretty aware of how much some people don’t like teacher unions, or teachers, for that matter. I hope not too many of them are armed.

Where was I? Right, schools. It doesn’t get any more complicated and politically charged than schools. In the Sac City schools, you’ve got fights over brutal budget cuts, fights over teacher seniority, fights over charter schools, and that’s just the obvious stuff.

We had the crazy idea to invite a teacher to give us a rundown on some of the more political issues. And there’s no one better for that than Lori Jablonski. She teaches government at McClatchy High School, and is a union rep there too.

We talked about the current budget mess the district finds itself in, and how the double bond measures being pushed in the district may not help all that much.  (Yes, in fact they are titled Measures Q & R. Why? You superstitious?)

We talked about the fights over seniority rules related to Superintendent Jonathan Raymond’s special Priority Schools–and how that program has sparked a class action lawsuit by dozens of pink-slipped teachers. We even got a little bit into Proposition 32 and Citizens United, and a whole host of broader political developments that affect the classroom.

It’s a pretty detailed look, but you’re getting a lot of the teacher’s perspective. I happen to think the local media doesn’t really get the teacher’s perspective across that well or that often. You may disagree. Please don’t shoot.

Local music this week is “Here We Go Again,” by Art Lessing. Thanks Art Lessing!

PS…

The image below is taken from an email sent by Hiram Johnson High School principal Felisberto Cedros–well, by his secretary– to his teachers. It basically let them know that if they wanted to keep their jobs, they’d come to the Sac City board of education meeting and support the Superintendent’s “skipping” policy at Raymond’s Priority Schools. Note that Cedros seems to let the cat out of the bag, saying that Raymond wanted this lawsuit. Kind of a crazy email, if you think about it, a principal lobbying his his teachers to try and influence the board…

These groups allow the mayor to raise unlimited amounts of money from big donors–much of it secretly. See below for documents showing all of the donations to the mayor and council member via “behested” payments for the last 7 years. Most council members raise money in this way for established charities. The mayor is different, raising more than a million dollars for his own organization–which is controlled by him.

The mayor has also managed to leverage a certain amount of free labor and office space for his non-profits, courtesy of the taxpayer. Despite the gift of public resources, some of the people who run the mayor’s operation–like Chris Tapio and Kunal Merchant–don’t feel obliged to answer any questions about what they do.

And it’s all legal.

I hope you’ll read the story, it’s not short. And listen to the podcast, it is short. And I hope the City Manager, John Shirey, will soon decide one way or the other whether he thinks it’s ok for the mayor to use City Hall to support his own private organizations in this way.

Thanks Isaac, for sitting down and talking with me about the story, and for all the other stuff you do.

CC Form803 CurrentFilings

He won’t show me the watch in person, so I cannot confirm that it truly exists.

I squeezed the ever-humble Cosmo Garvin into an uncomfortable spot for the latest episode of the Sacramento Current Podcast, forcing him to reflect on his 13-year run at the Sacramento News & Review now that it’s come to a close. Not that you won’t be seeing his name in the weekly rag anymore; he’ll be freelancing and the Bites column ain’t going away any time soon. But just before our boy heads back to school to get his master’s degree, I thought it would be fun to take a look back and share some of the tales surrounding the stories he’s worked on during his time at SN&R. I think you’ll like it, too.

Not that there isn’t other things going on to talk about as well. The uber-sexy Charter Commission is the talk of the town, and now that the cutoff for wannabe candidates to file has come and gone, we’re sizing up some of the familiar names you’ll see on the ballot come November. That brings me to my own uncomfortable admission; my name is among those you’re going to see. How do I navigate the waters of fair reporting podcasting and remain unbiased while I embark on my first political campaign? And how about those in the running who also think the whole ideal of charter commission is a fool’s errand? So many questions!

We also hit on the newest Disneygate rumors, and what happened to the Mayor’s opposition argument against the city’s proposed sales tax? They don’t have computers in Hawaii? All that and more in this week’s pod.

The opening and closing track this week is appropriately called “Forward” as performed by the group “Northbound”. You can download the song for free by clicking here.

Obviously, we lead this week’s podcast with the mini-embezzlement scandal brewing on I Street. Who knew what, when? And also, WTF Lisa Serna-Mayorga? Disneyland?

As embezzlement scandals go, this one isn’t remotely world-class.  Still, it’s the best we’ve got. And it’s brought to us by the same folks who did the Americorps fiasco, and this fiasco, and, you know, the other one.  So perhaps it’s not surprising that folks get a little carried away with the speculation.

Luckily, we’ve got a bona fide law enforcement professional on board for this episode, to rein us in a bit. Bill Motmans, a retired investigator who did stints with the state Fair Political Practices Commission, and the Sacramento County District Attorney, helps us sift through the rumors and the political wreckage.  Bill’s also a Tahoe Park guy, involved in the neighborhood association, and was on that ill-fated Sacramento Redistricting Citizens Advisory Committee. Never forget.

But really he came to talk about the most recent Sacramento County Grand Jury report, which he helped write–because he was a Grand Juror.  The Grand Jury’s tale of a wildly dysfunctional Twin Rivers school district was the obvious star of the report. But Motmans thinks other parts of the Grand Jury’s effort–like the detailed account of the city’s bad garbage deal--deserved more and better media attention.

We also talk Bee layoffs, and get an update on the campaign for a Sacramento Charter Commission.  A lot of Kevin Johnson’s allies have pulled papers to run for charter commission. But so have a lot of his critics, include some guys named Isaac Gonzalez and Phil Pluckebaum.

Music this week is from Sacramento’s original Star Trek band, The No Kill I, who have graciously put their songs up for free download and use via Creative Commons. What’s a Sacramento Star Trek band? I’m glad you asked…

It also means we put a high value on all things local. The small restaurant over the chain, the local rock band over the corporate radio station. We’re firm believers in the mantra, “Sacramento ought to be more like Sacramento.”

That’s why we invited Mr Brian Guido (Mr Guido Guido to his friends), into the studio this week.

Guido is one of the founders of Sacramento Bacon Fest. He launched the event back in January–along with my co-worker, SN&R editor Nick Miller–in order to help showcase Sacramento’s great and unique restaurants.

It was more successful than anyone first guessed, and has spawned follow-up events, like this BLT week, happening right now, and the BLT bike crawl this Saturday. The proceeds of which will go to help fund the Center for Land Based Learning, in Winters, which is a whole other cool story we should get into one day.

Guido is a local music guy as well as a local food guy. He was guitarist for locally famous Grub Dog, and later his own band The Regulars, and more recently has been playing drums in a group called 50-Watt Heavy.

This is probably the least political episode we’ve done so far. And yet, it seems to fit right in.  The intro and outro music is “Driving down J Street,” by the Regulars.

In other non-arena based business, the City of Sacramento is tired of people shitting on the lawn at City Hall, so they’re banning balloons on the property, or something like that. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t make much sense to me either. Plus, it’s the buzz of the town; CHARTER COMMISSIONS! You’re probably burnt out from the wall-to-wall coverage by all the local media outlets, but we still think there’s a few more things to say about the upcoming ballot measure. By the way, all of the above text should have been written in the yet-to-be-invented heavy sarcasm font, just in case you couldn’t tell.

Stay tuned to the very end for an important show-related announcement that you’re not going to want to miss. Enjoy!

Our music track this week is “Night Owl” by the band “Broke for Free”. You can download it for free by clicking here.

Allen Warren

In the latest episode of the Sacramento Current podcast, your hosts welcome the remaining candidates running for City Council in District 2, Allen Warren and Rob Kerth, to sit down at the Sacramento Temporary Contemporary Art Gallery on Del Paso Boulevard. It’s our first “live” recording on location, and we’d like to thank the people at “The Temp” for allowing us to take up so much room in their stylish facility.

Prepare yourself for an off-the-cuff discussion between our guests and your hosts, as the candidates describe the current challenges facing North Sacramento and District 2 in particular. How does Mr. Warren feel about Charter Reform? Who did Mr. Kerth admit to wanting to “reach out and choke” during a business meeting? Find out all this and more by listening to the show right now.

Rob Kerth

The Sacramento Current podcast grows its audience by word-of-mouth only. If you like our show, tell a friend who you think would enjoy our banter. Better yet, post “I’m listening to the Sacramento Current podcast, why aren’t you?” on Facebook while you play us on your desktop or mobile device. We appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.

But Laurence isn’t just about Funk Art.  In this lively conversation, he also shares his insights into Sacramento’s wild west past, and a secret about the airport’s Red Rabbit that you will only hear here.  And if you ever wanted to experience Hamlet in less than five minutes, check out his production here - but be warned, you may get that damned song stuck in your head.

The guys also discuss the recently approved City Charter Commission and what that will mean in the November Election.

This weeks opening music track is “Baby” by The Ventilaters, Th’ Losin’ Streaks take us out with their song “Leaving here”.

The two newsmen talked about battling trolls on the comment boards, and the trolls on McClatchy board of directors.  Ok, Goyette engages his trolls. Whatever. We talked about paywalls and citizen journalism, and how today’s local media landscape shortchanges Sacramento’s poor and minority neighborhoods. We talked about Josh Fernandez and William Burg. There was drinking. Throughout the hour our guests had thoughtful, candid things to say about the strengths and shortcomings of their own organizations. And they didn’t even seem all that drunk. So yeah, pretty classy.

Our hyperlocal music picks this week include Lil’ Rocker by Jimmy Bean and the Playground Revolution, and Psychedelic Kama Sutra Man, by Hell Bent for Heaven.

PS. We didn’t talk all that much about Josh Fernandez. I just put that in there to drive web hits. It’s called traffic whoring. I learned that from Goyette.

PPS: Hey Goyette, I see now what you mean about the “adolescent voice” of the alt-media. Fucker.

Towards the end of the show, we mention our upcoming live event at The Temp Gallery. You can find out more about this show on our Facebook event page. More info to follow soon…

This week’s opening music is “Beg, steal, or borrow” by Th’ Losin’ Streaks, the closing track is Agent Ribbons’ “Wood, Lead, Rubber”.

I was hoping to have this up yesterday, but c’est la vie. For now here’s an interview I did June 7th with Noah Wilkinson. Noah is a former Sacramentan who moved to Portland in 2008. He shares his perspective on the pros and cons of these twin cities and gives us some ideas as to how we can make Sacramento better.

Listen in and see what they have to say about the Mayor’s “mandate”, the turn out, campaign money influence, how ugly one council race got, the “social media candidate” vs. the “thoughtful candidate”, and so much more.  And, as if that wasn’t enough, as an added bonus, you’ll hear more about the Sacramento County Board of Education (the what?) than you ever wanted to.

Folks, this show is rated “WI” for Wonkishly Informative. . . consider yourself warned.

We began the night at the home of Jonathan Rewers, then ran into Leonard Padilla. From there, we visited Joe Yee and Kevin McCarty, only to drive all the way to Bonnie Pannell’s event in South Sacramento and then to Rob Kerth’s in North Sacramento.

It was a wild night, and we hope you’ll enjoy the ride.

You can find out more about Hilbert-Garcia by visiting his website. The election is June 5th.

This is the last episode before the big election June 5, I like to think of it as the season finale. But sorry, no long summer break , we’ll be back next week with vote results and God knows what all.

We’ve been super-focused on the City, obviously, perhaps too much to the exclusion of everything else.  The County Board of Supervisors controls a much bigger budget (and has much deeper deficits to deal with). The board oversees, sort of, the Sheriff, and District Attorney. And the county is where most of the social services come from–like public health, and mental health. Well, they used to provide that.

This week we talked to Gary Blenner and Jeff Kravitz, both running for County Supervisor–in District 4 (Folsom, Antelope, Bumfuck) and District 3 (Arden Arcade, Fair Oaks, Carmichael).

They are progressive democrats running against entrenched republicans, in conservative districts. But they’re fun to talk to, and they’re running real campaigns, as best they can.

I did a write up on their race here. And you can check out a couple of their campaign commercials below.

As always, we love (civil) feedback and ideas for future segments. Our local music this week is from a band called, The Who and the What Now, we used their track Death to the Boogaloos in the opening. The closing music is I can’t help it if I’m sexy, by local artist Rich Varone.

I know just how Rich feels. Thanks for listening.

Listen in as this political upstart talks about what he sees is wrong with the city, how he can fix it and why a Republican can be elected mayor in a Democratic town (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know: it’s a nonpartisan race).

This week’s music track is “We All Fall Down” by Lorenzo’s Music. You can download it for free by clicking here.

Our opening track this week is “Wood, lead, rubber” by Agent Ribbons, and the closing track is “Take a look at me” by The Troublemakers.

Wes Shermantine endorsed Leonard Padilla for mayor, (which doesn’t matter, because he can’t f$%#^@&@ vote.),

AND

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson decided there was “no reason for him to attend” a long- announced debate with his election challengers in public.

One of those stories is more important than the other. Guess which one didn’t make the major news outlets this afternoon?

I riff about it for just three minutes. Your comments are encouraged and welcomed

This week found us back at 3rd Bedroom Studios with Jimmy Bell at the controls and Sacramento Renaissance Man Tim Foster in the guest chair. From Tim, we learn about life after Midtown Monthly, more about the amazing Sacramento Living Library series, and dive into the Sacramento music scene. Tim is a veteran musician and journalist from Sacramento and shares a lot of unique insights.

We also get into some City Council races, most notably District 8, where incumbent Bonnie Pannell is facing challenger and Kevin Johnson ally (at least that what the signs say), Betty Williams.  Look for more in-depth City Council race coverage in an upcoming episode.

Finally, in addition to somehow managing to again talk about the dead dead dead arena, we muse about our seemingly shutter-happy Mayor, and heap praise on a well deserved, though terribly modest, Cosmo Garvin for the recent honors bestowed on him by the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

We hope you enjoy the show.  Please don’t hesitate to let us know if there is a particular subject or guest you would like us to feature in the future.  And your comments are always welcome.

Music this week:

“Fine Line,” by Th’ Losin Streaks

“I’m Alright,” by Agent Ribbons

For more information:

Get your wonk on at Capitol Weekly

Read “The Oxycontin Kid,” if you want to. It’s kind of wild.

You can find out more about Padilla by visiting his website.