Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo said Wednesday the city is too reliant on development as a revenue source and a change is in order.
In a meeting with The Bee's editorial board, Fargo said dealing with Sacramento's budget is a top priority for her now, and will remain a chief issue if she is re-elected to a third term.
"We built the budget around too much need for construction and we need to analyze that," Fargo said.
In the next fiscal year, Sacramento faces a $55 million budget deficit, a situation caused in part by a marked slowdown in property, utility users and sales tax revenues. At the same time, the city's expenses will be increasing as new contractual pay raises are enacted.
In a broad-ranging interview, Fargo said she now expects to face a serious opponent in the June mayoral race, and believes she will be able to carry out a third four-year term even though she has a form of multiple sclerosis in which her condition worsens with time.
"I've thought a lot about the anatomy of a mayor," Fargo said. "You need brains, heart and a backbone. That's what I have – it's just my legs that aren't as good as they used to be."
Fargo said she'd read that her mayoral challenger will be Kevin Johnson, but so far, she's heard nothing from him. Johnson's spokesman Wednesday said the former NBA star has not yet made a decision on entering the race.
If she is re-elected, Fargo said her top priorities are public safety, including law enforcement and flood control; determining how to design and build an alive and active city; working on reducing Sacramento's energy use and contribution to global warming; and the budget crisis.
"Except for the current budget situation, the city is in good shape," Fargo said.
When asked how she would lessen the city's reliance on development as a revenue stream, Fargo said she thought that development service employees should be contract workers, rather than full-time employees.
Recently, the city announced it would be forced to lay off 16 workers in development services, and more pink slips were likely in other departments.
Also, Fargo said she was considering the merits of a public safety assessment, perhaps as a parcel tax, that would help pay for more police officers and other emergency costs.
Fargo wasn't prepared to say she supported the assessment, and she acknowledged that the economic downturn might make it difficult to get voter support for a new tax.
"We'll start the conversation and see how it goes," she said.
Fargo had difficulty coming up with performance measures for herself in her new term, saying it's hard to put benchmarks on what she does.
When pressed for some specifics about progress on struggling K Street, Fargo said streetscape improvements in the 700 block would be completed and more stores opened by 2009 and the Greyhound bus station would be moved in the next 18 months.
For the 800 block of K Street, Fargo said "it was too soon to tell" what movement could occur.
Fargo said she wasn't relishing spending time on a tough campaign that would require a great deal of fundraising. Fargo has an anemic campaign fund balance of $74,656.
"I'd rather do the work of a mayor rather than do a campaign," Fargo said. "I'd rather not be on the phone for excessive amounts of time dialing for dollars."
Call The Bee's Terri Hardy, (916) 321-1073.
