Published: 1 years 337 days ago
Sacramento Bee: Sacramento's most powerful unions should just end the charade that they're truly interested in reforming city government.
While City Hall may not work well for most Sacramentans, it works for labor. Unions are among the biggest benefactors for most council candidates, who then often do their bidding in office.
Instead of being honest that they prefer the status quo, labor bosses are grasping for increasingly convoluted reasons to fight proposals to let voters decide whether to give the mayor more power – a cynical strategy on full display leading up to a key City Council vote expected Tuesday.
Labor leaders have been pressing for a detailed proposal to be put in writing on Mayor Kevin Johnson's latest "executive mayor" plan. Yet the Sacramento Central Labor Council opposes the City Council directing the city attorney to draft the language that would appear on the Nov. 2 ballot. (The council wouldn't decide until July 13 whether to put the plan on the ballot.)
Instead, the labor council wants still more delay. Bill Camp, its executive secretary, argues that the newly elected council members, who don't take office until Nov. 23, should be allowed to vote on such an important matter. By that dubious logic, any elected body – Congress, the Legislature – shouldn't take up major issues between an election and the swearing-in of new officials, a recipe for even more government gridlock.
Council members ought to tune out labor leaders and let everyone see what the executive mayor charter change would look like.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/19/2833827/why-wont-labor-let-voters-decide.html
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