New Sacramento mayor, council to decide city manager’s fate in December
The same month three new Sacramento City Council members are sworn in, they’ll be faced with a massive decision — whether to extend City Manager Howard Chan’s contract.
The council Tuesday voted 7-2 to place an item on the Dec. 10 council agenda, just moments after the swearing-in ceremony. The council will be able to delay the item until Dec. 17 so they don’t have to vote on it during that celebratory meeting, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Steinberg criticized the so-called weak mayor form of government the city operates under, which gives the city manager more power than under the strong mayor form, but urged his colleagues to approve the item.
“So the question is: Is it the right thing for this City Council to simply ask the next group of leaders to consider whether they wanna extend the city manager’s contract?” Steinberg said before the vote. “I’ll listen to everyone, but I believe it’s absolutely the right thing.”
The contract between the city and Chan is set to expire Dec. 31, Steinberg said. Chan has requested an extension until Dec. 31, 2025. Chan could work without a contract, Steinberg said.
The leaders of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, Midtown Association and Visit Sacramento spoke ahead of the vote praising Chan and urging members to extend his contract. Those groups also sent a letter to council members last week, along with the leaders of the city police officers and firefighters unions urging the extension.
Council also removed a clause from Chan’s contract that says if he is going to quit, he has to give a 60-day notice or he loses the ability to effectively stay on city payroll for the next year.
Councilwomen Katie Valenzuela and Mai Vang both voted against setting the agenda item.
“We’ve lost control of our city manager,” said Valenzuela, whose term ends Dec. 10. “There’s at least one ordinance, the mixed income housing ordinance, that the majority of this council said we supported, that the city manager’s team has announced to business groups is postponed indefinitely ... We voted on the dais to include our staff and the city manager to take a mandatory (diversity equity and inclusion) course and according to the instructor for that course, the city manager refused to do that as well.”
Chan did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Councilman Rick Jennings defended Chan.
“I’m a strong proponent of treating a 22-year employee with dignity and respect and professionalism and not tearing that person down but lifting that person up to their full potential,” Jennings said.
Although she voted yes, Councilwoman Karina Talamantes said she was “unhappy.”
“We’ve spent months and months and hours and days and so much time trying to negotiate a deal with the city manager,” Talamantes said, referring to closed session meetings. “We have so many critical problems in this city and we are so focused on this and it takes up so much time and energy.”
The contract extension does not include a salary raise, though other aspects of compensation are impacted. Chan earned $593,240 in total wages last year — more than Gov. Gavin Newsom and any other city manager in the state.
The council in December awarded Chan a raise, then rescinded it in January after The Sacramento Bee reported the council had violated the Brown Act, the state’s transparency law. The council has not granted Chan a raise since, but has discussed his “performance” during three private meetings since.
In addition to a new mayor, there will be two new members of council come Dec. 10 — Phil Pluckebaum, supported by Chan, replacing Valenzuela, and either Stephen Walton or Roger Dickinson replacing interim Councilman Shoun Thao.
Chan has been city manager since 2016, for the entirety of Steinberg’s term. A new city manager would be hired by the council, likely following a nationwide search or by promoting a current assistant city manager.
This story was originally published October 15, 2024 at 4:12 PM.
