Public Eye

The Bee reported this month that John Mendes, the former Placer Superior Court executive, received total compensation of about $304,000 in calendar year 2008.

Someone tried to restrict press access to Sacramento City Hall. It didn't work.

Con artists are adding an aggressive touch to lottery schemes, threatening potential victims now with legal action and arrests if they do not pay "taxes" on their purported winnings.

With personnel costs rising significantly in Sacramento County in recent years, The Bee submitted a Public Records Act request for a database of employee salaries.

Before the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department lays off any deputies, it will have to pare its large force of retirees who work "on call" – collecting a pension and a paycheck.

Some unemployed residents would be happy just to have one salary these days.

If you're a supervisor in the city of Sacramento's newly formed Community Development Department, chances are you're not going to have a hard time remembering the names of the people who work under you.

If you're a manager in Sacramento County, it pays a lot - when you retire. The county paid out $1.9 million for unused sick time to retiring managers from January 2008 through March of this year.

Public corruption will go unchecked, sex offenders unmonitored and most misdemeanors unprosecuted. That's part of a "Doomsday" scenario outlined by Sacramento County DA Jan Scully.

With no auditors, who will watch the city's books?

As Sacramento's budget woes reached historic levels late last year, departments were told to slash expenses, including overtime.

Ever wonder what a school crossing guard makes?

Lock up your windows and doors, folks: Burglars – a lot of them – are on the prowl in south Sacramento.

Take-home cars aren't the only transportation-related perk in Sacramento County.

Is Sacramento Regional Transit illegally financing its upcoming light-rail extension toward Sacramento airport? RT officials say no. One local activist claims yes. You be the judge.

The Sacramento City Council last week voted to tack on a $24 processing fee to all new or changed utility accounts in the city partly on the premise that other cities in the state charge a similar fee.

It turns out "use it or lose it" is the wrong saying when talking about some county workers' vacation time. "Use it or cash it in for big bucks," might be more fitting.

If the state holds any of your assets, you're more likely to get an IOU these days than what's yours.

They said it would be a state-of-the-art database.

Facing deep funding cuts, California's public universities can look to an obvious reserve for a little extra change: unclaimed assets.

Two years ago, when times were better, the city gave Thomas Enterprises a financial assist to help the developer close on its purchase of the downtown railyard from Union Pacific.

Sacramento County's Probation Department might be facing draconian budget cuts, but that didn't stop the county from hiring a celebrity psychologist to train officers at a cost of $105,950.

Working for a charity doesn't necessarily make you charitable – as two local charities apparently found out.

The Problem: Monte Blair, an avid cyclist, asks if Regional Transit adds oil on the tracks at turns: "I had an accident at 8th and O streets. I was riding my bike and going over the tracks at 90 degrees when my front wheel slipped. I have spoken to others who have had similar experience."