How messed up are things at Sacramento City Hall? Try guessing who is in charge | Opinion

Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan may have bullied his Sacramento City Council one time too many by ignoring one of its committee recommendations and substituting it with his own. He may have also violated Sacramento’s City Charter along the way.

Tuesday night’s city council meeting started with two hours of testimonials celebrating the tenure of two-time Mayor Darrell Steinberg and two departing council members. But then it turned decidedly somber and tense. Chan had thrown a monkey wrench into the council’s years-long effort to embed racial equity values into how the city does business. And it was left to Steinberg and the city council to undo the damage.

City councils in California are supposed to set policies, not the manager. Chan, who is accustomed to being California’s highest-paid city manager and having things his way, crossed a line when he re-wrote the wording of a policy recommendation coming up for a vote that had been agreed upon by four council members.

At issue was whether to approve a resolution recommended by the council’s Racial Equity Committee to formalize how racial equity is assessed and evaluated in city financing and planning. The resolution was the work of Steinberg and Council members Mai Vang, Lisa Kaplan and Rick Jennings. It had the support needed to succeed as a result of collaborative efforts with community groups, such as the Sacramento Racial Equity Alliance.

“This gives us some hope and some promise,” said Jesse Villalobos of Race Forward, who had worked with the council in crafting the resolution. “It will take us sharing power in ways that haven’t been shared in structures like government in the past.”

As unanimously approved by the council’s Racial Equity Committee in October, the resolution directed Chan to evaluate budgets, policies, planning documents, procedures and practices with an eye toward racial equity. He was to also provide annual updates to the committee and the full city council.

The council’s official Rules of Procedure are crystal clear about what the city manager is to do when a committee unanimously approves a recommendation: “The proposal advances to the city council with a committee recommendation.”

But that’s not what happened. Instead, when the full council first reviewed the matter on Nov. 12, the committee recommendation was nowhere to be found. All the council had to review was an alternate version written by Chan.

Conspicuously missing from Chan’s substitute proposal was any direct responsibility for himself. All explicit directions to the city manager were carefully eliminated. Instead, Chan had inserted broad, bland platitudes such as: “The council commits to prioritize comprehensive and sustained transformation of all the institutions, systems, policies, practices and contracts obstructed by structural or systemic racism in the City of Sacramento.”

By Tuesday night at City Hall, community members turned out in support of the committee’s original approach to racial equity and were lined up to speak. They also turned out to hold the unelected Chan accountable for behaving as if the elected council members reported to him instead of the other way around.

Suddenly, Chan had a change of heart. Vang announced that the city manager had withdrawn his substitute resolution and predicted unanimous council support for its own approach.

No matter. Chan heard from the community, anyway.

His “unilateral decision perpetuates the same level of institutional racism,” said Lee Lo, a member of the Racial Equity Alliance.

“The harm you did is going to take some time to repair,” said fellow alliance member Dawn Bascaino.

Chan said it was a “mishap” on Nov. 12 when the council was not allowed to deliberate a resolution by one of its own committees. “You do have my commitment (that) we will work together on this,” he said.

There are plenty of reasons to doubt the sincerity of Chan’s sudden charm offensive. His repeated actions speak for themselves. Worst of all, he was the lone top city officer to defy a city council mandate to complete diversity training earlier this year.

In her last city council meeting after having lost her re-election bid for her District 4 seat, Councilmember Katie Valenzuela remained the body’s only member with sufficient spine to publicly challenge Chan.

“I believe a really dangerous precedent is being set,” Valenzuela said. “The original resolution was approved by a committee of this body. But editing a resolution after it was voted on … is a violation of our charter and our rules on how we govern.”

Asked by The Bee if Chan had violated the Sacramento City Charter in this matter, City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood so far has not responded.

The underlying issues here go far beyond this one matter of racial equity and this one meeting. This goes to the heart of how Sacramento is run as a city.

When a city manager omits a council committee recommendation, he is saying that he doesn’t care about city rules or the authority vested in council members who are elected by the public. It is a signal that the manager’s power over the council nullifies the authority council members are supposed to have to set city policy that is then implemented by the manager and his staff.

When the city attorney refuses to say anything in that public meeting about a potential City Charter violation when a council member raises the issue, she is shirking from a fundamental duty of the office.

When the city council barely says a peep about its own recommendation being ignored by the manager it hires, it is a reflection of the body’s political impotency and its inability to lead the city in any meaningful way. Chan’s imperiousness is steadily gutting the standing of this council in the eyes of the community, especially those on hand Tuesday night.

Next, Chan will have his hand out asking for yet more power through extending his contract. That decision awaits newly elected Mayor Kevin McCarty and the new city council at its first meeting next Tuesday. The timing couldn’t be worse. But Chan has made it clear that he wants an answer.

Sacramento desperately needs a rebalancing of power between the city manager and the city council.

This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 5:00 AM.