After an acrimonious discussion, the Sacramento City Council voted 7-2 to spend $650,000 to count and assess the health of all the city's trees.
Money for the project comes from general fund money set aside in 2005, citywide lighting and landscape fees, and a state grant that provides matching funds.
Supporters argued that the allocation was crucial to manage and maintain the vitality of the city's much-lauded urban canopy.
Mayor Heather Fargo reminded the council how a limb fell on a few of her supporters gathered for an election night party during the June mayoral primary.
"Trees that are not maintained can fall on people and on things and cost the city quite a bit of money," Fargo said.
Critics of the contract, including police and fire union representatives, said the issue was poorly timed, coming as the city faces several years of large deficits.
Council members Sandy Sheedy and Robbie Waters agreed with those critics, and voted against the inventory contract. Sheedy said public safety was the city's No. 1 priority and any extra cash ought to go for those purposes.
City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond said she believed that most of the criticism came because "this is an election year and everything is going to be questioned."
Sheedy and Waters are supporting Fargo's challenger, Kevin Johnson.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.