Supervisor MacGlashan Opposes Pay Raises.

“Like many in the community, I was shocked to learn that the Sacramento County Employee Retirement System (SCERS) Board of Trustees voted to give double-digit raises for some of its highest-paid employees. I am perplexed as to why this board Board, whose majority is elected by line-level County employees or County retirees, would elect to give double-digit increases for management employees already earning six-figure salaries.

“In recent years, the Board of Supervisors has held the line against pay increases for management employees. County Department heads have not had pay increases for over 3 years, and are not likely to see their pay increased in the coming year either. This is a reality of the fiscal times in which we find ourselves, and granting pay increases of any kind would not be appropriate when the County is cutting services. In fact, furloughs have actually resulted in pay cuts for many of these County managers in recent years.

“My own staff has had their pay frozen for the last 3 years as well, at one time enduring a 20% pay cut when their schedule was reduced to only 4 days a week. I have voluntarily cut my pay every year since 2007.

“The Board of Supervisors will be asked to approve these raises as part of a Salary Resolution Amendment on February 28. I intend to vote “no”, and hope the rest of the Board of Supervisors joins me in opposing these inappropriate pay increases.”

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With concern mounting about what higher sewer bills for home builders would mean for the local economy, the region’s sanitation district is looking to shift some of the burden from developers to homeowners.

Since a state board approved new treatment requirements last year, the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District has said big increases are needed in service rates for existing homes and hookup fees for new homes.

District officials now say the projected increase in hookup fees – from $7,450 to $39,300 per house in about eight years – is too high.

They’ve heard from area politicians and developers, who complain that the fees will block any chance of future recovery in the housing market.

“Those impact fees are so high we think it would wreak havoc and have ripple effects,” said Stan Dean, an engineer who heads the district.

Lowering hookup fees for developers, however, means that existing customers will likely be paying more.

Homeowners in Sacramento County and West Sacramento can already expect their monthly sewer bills to almost triple over the next 10 years, from $22 to $62 a month.

But under the sanitation district’s proposed shift, that same bill would run as high as $68 a month, another 10 percent increase.

A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, Reggie Jardon has heard both sides of the argument for how to handle the costs. He represents ratepayers on a district committee that’s been reviewing the rates and fees.

“As a ratepayer, I don’t want to see my rates go up another $4 a month to cover the developer fees,” he said.

He said the region’s population is aging, and many residents are on fixed incomes and have already expressed worry about the planned $40 a month rise that would occur between now and 2020.

“I don’t think it matters, though – this is pretty much a done deal,” Jardon said.

The district approved a rate increase in June that covers the next three years. But it is already revising the formulas that will be used to set future increases.

The district’s board – made up of elected officials from Sacramento and Yolo counties – received five new formulas during a presentation on rates and fees last week. All of the formulas would lead to higher homeowner rates in 2020 and lower developer impact fees. Under the alternatives, developer fees are expected to be between $8,100 and $19,700 per home.

Directors, who will be asked to pick one of the formulas next year, offered no objections to the proposed formulas at the meeting.

Sacramento County Supervisor Susan Peters, who sits on the sewer board, said she wants lower impact fees. When she told the county’s new top executive, Brad Hudson, about the expected rise in the fees, he turned white, Peters said.

According to Peters, Hudson replied, “This kind of thing is going to kill any kind of economic development in the county.”

In a written statement, Hudson confirmed that he would like the district to lower the fees.

Two other county supervisors on the district board, Roberta MacGlashan and Phil Serna, said the funding issue is very complicated and they don’t know yet where they stand. MacGlashan voted against the last rate increase, saying she wanted something more gradual.

Dean, the district engineer, said homeowners could get stuck with higher rates even if the district doesn’t change developer fees. Home construction could fall short of the district’s projections, and the district would have to find additional money from existing customers, he said.

Increases will be lower if the improvements needed to meet the state’s discharge requirements cost less than the district’s $2 billion estimate. The state board that approved the requirements pegs the cost at $1.3 billion.

Officials on the sewer board will have to weigh all these factors.

“There are going to be some huge decisions to make in the next couple of years,” Dean said.

She is not a professional backslapper.

She is, however, a hard-working, tough-minded public servant who hasn’t shied away from thorny issues in her three years as a Sacramento County supervisor.

Her road took a few turns first.

Roberta MacGlashan was a registered Democrat when she emerged on the local political scene – first pushing to incorporate Citrus Heights, then being elected as a councilwoman for the new city. 

MacGlashan switched party affiliations in 2003 before launching her supervisorial campaign for District 4, the broad expanse covering Citrus Heights, Folsom, Antelope, Fair Oaks and Orangevale.

James Shelby, a Citrus Heights council member since its incorporation and president of the Greater Sacramento Urban League, said he got along well with MacGlashan on the council. 



Shelby said MacGlashan was fair-minded and had integrity and honesty. “I don’t think she’s changed her values,” he said. “She’s a friend irrespective if you are a Democrat or Republican.”

MacGlashan said she registered as a Democrat as a teenager. “Over the years since then, my philosophies have changed and I believe the party has changed,” she explained.

Nowadays, she is at the forefront on a number of issues that resonate with conservatives. She cast the lone vote against sending the ill-fated Kings arena tax to the ballot, tried to stop the county from providing non-emergency medical care to illegal immigrants, helped make it illegal to sell sex toys near places where children congregate, and tried to stop library users from having unlimited access to the Internet.

“Where she really scored well was when she was the one who voted against the phony-baloney Kings deal,” said Tony Quinn, a Sacramento resident who edits a book handicapping state political races. “She was essentially representing her constituents who we found out later were very much against it.”

Her willingness to tackle tough – even taboo – issues sometimes doesn’t sit well with county staff members.

That was most evident as she dusted off a volatile issue that hadn’t been touched for a decade – proposing that the county stop providing non-emergency medical care to illegal immigrants. She wants the funds to benefit law enforcement: the Sheriff’s Department, the District Attorney’s Office and the Probation Department.

“When making fiscal decisions, the needs of legal residents of Sacramento County are – and should be – my top priority,” MacGlashan said at the time.

Officials estimated the county’s Medically Indigent Services Program would treat between 2,500 and 4,000 undocumented immigrants this fiscal year, costing the county between $1.4 million and $2.3 million. Health care providers said the money was well spent because delaying treatment ends up costing more as a result of longer hospital stays.

Before a vote could be taken on the proposal to shift $2 million from the Health and Human Services budget, three of the five supervisors – Roger Dickinson, Jimmie Yee and Don Nottoli – voted to sidestep the issue without debating its merits. 

”I didn’t know if I had the votes, but I thought, even if I didn’t have the votes, it was an important issue to raise,” MacGlashan said last week.

MacGlashan said the effort was – in part – about truth in budgeting.

County budget documents list programs such as the indigent care program as “mandatory” state requirements. They may be state requirements, MacGlashan said, but the state doesn’t set the level of service required. 

In most California counties, the supervisors’ role is to ensure that elections are run fairly, that the state’s mandates for social and mental health services are intact, and that the county jail and sheriff’s department are providing proper public protection.

Because most of Sacramento County’s residents live in unincorporated areas, county government also is responsible for maintaining a wide network of roads, public lighting, garbage pickup and other services. 

In Yolo County, fewer than 5 percent of its residents live in unincorporated areas, but in Sacramento County, about half its 1.2 million residents live in unincorporated areas.

Some county staff suggest MacGlashan leans too heavily toward an approach of taking funds from county safety-net programs – public assistance, for example – to boost law enforcement or neighborhood services.

Former Republican Rep. Doug Ose, who preceded MacGlashan as the chairman of the Citrus Heights cityhood campaign, said: “Roberta understands who is elected and who is not. At the end of the day, the only person whose name is on the door is the elected.”

With Roberta MacGlashan's husband Craig's election as Republican Party chief in Sacramento County this year, the two have become one of Sacramento's top conservative power couples.

When she was a student at Occidental College with her husband-to-be, Craig, MacGlashan said she didn’t think too much about politics. 

She majored in Spanish, while he studied political science with his eye on law school. As he studied law, Roberta MacGlashan went back to school, earning a master’s degree in city and regional planning. 

Craig MacGlashan, a lifelong Republican, said he was only lightly involved in politics until now. 

An attorney with Nageley Meredith & Miller, he was elected chairman of the Sacramento County Republican Party earlier this year after its former chairwoman, Donna Schalansky, stepped down amid claims that reimbursements she received were in violation of state law. 

Craig MacGlashan said the Schalansky episode is “past history” and that his focus now is registering GOP voters.

Roberta MacGlashan said her parents taught her to be involved in her community. Prior to moving to Citrus Heights, MacGlashan was involved in several community organizations and still helps on some local campaigns. 

After moving to town, she was appointed to the Citrus Heights community planning advisory council and got involved in the cityhood effort in the mid-1990s. 

With the environmental impact study being the next big obstacle, Ose said MacGlashan’s background as a planner made her a logical choice to lead the cityhood drive.

“I was intrigued with how this quiet woman could say so much” with so few words, he said. 

MacGlashan, who recently announced she’s running for re-election, said some were surprised when she wanted to make the leap from City Council to supervisor – given her role in leading Citrus Heights’ break from county government.

MacGlashan said she’s trying to make the county more responsive to what its residents want. 

”I thought, and still do think, there is so much we can do to improve county government,” she said.

-Ed Fletcher, Sacramento Bee 2007

This plan rethinks the historical planning model, putting job growth and business development at its core. Unlike the plan in place since 1993, this plan devotes an entire section to specific economic development policies. The economic development element sets the stage for work the county will be doing in the coming years to free industry of burdensome regulations so that they can focus on delivering products to market and jobs to our region.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/17/4060620/sacramento-county-general-plan.html#ixzz1dzWX6Ug7

• A story about the Sacramento County parks system on Page B1 Wednesday incorrectly reported that the Board of Supervisors agreed to support a sales tax increase to raise money for parks. The supervisors directed staff to draft language for state legislation that would allow the county to ask voters to approve a 0.1 percent sales tax increase in November 2012 to generate revenue for parks. The board will decide Aug. 9 whether to pursue that legislation, after reviewing the wording.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/21/3783492/setting-it-straight.html#ixzz1Slejv8ap

• Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

• Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce PAC
• Citrus Heights Chamber of Commerce PAC
• Folsom Chamber of Commerce BIZPAC
• Rental Housing Association
• Sacramento Region Builders
• Rancho Murieta Community Services District President Bobbi Belton

• Rancho Murieta CSD Director Steven Mobley
• SMUD Board Member Renee Taylor
• Rio Linda Elverta Recreation and Park District Board Member Lisa Morris
• Cordova Recreation and Park District Board Member Brian Danzl

• Twin Rivers School Trustee Michelle Rivas
• Twin Rivers School Trustee Bob Bastian
• San Juan Unified School District Board Member Larry Masuoka
• Center Unified School District Board Member Donald Wilson
• Center Unified School District Board Member Matthew Friedman
• Center Unified School District Board Member Nancy Anderson
• Center Unified School District Board Member Jeremy Hunt
• Folsom Cordova School District Board Member Teresa Stanley

• Congressman Dan Lungren
• Former Congressman Doug Ose
• Senator Ted Gaines
• Assemblymember Beth Gaines
• Former Assemblyman Roger Niello

• Citrus Heights Mayor Jeff Slowey
• Rancho Cordova Mayor David Sander
• Folsom Mayor Kerri Howell

• Citrus Heights City Councilmember Jeannie Bruins
• Citrus Heights City Councilmember Steve Miller
• Citrus Heights City Councilmember Mel Turner
• Citrus Heights City Councilmember Jayna Karpinski-Costa
• Folsom City Councilmember Steve Miklos
• Folsom City Councilmember Andy Morin
• Folsom City Councilmember Ernie Sheldon

• Rancho Cordova City Councilmember Linda Budge
• Rancho Cordova City Councilmember Dan Skoglund
• Former Sacramento County Supervisor Sandy Smoley
• Former Sacramento County Supervisor Muriel Johnson
• Former Sacramento County Supervisor Jim Streng

* partial list

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Honoring fallen heroes.

Memorial Day Service Includes Honored Speakers, Surprises.

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SACRAMENTO, CA – Budget talks get underway for Sacramento County. The Board of Supervisors will review the recommended budget for the 2011-12 Fiscal Year.

The recommended $3.5 billion dollar spending plan provides for all county services including Airports, Child Protective Services, Landfill Operations, Property Tax, Public Health, Regional Parks, Sheriff, Transportation, and many others.

The hearings will include presentations from Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, a representative from the Health and Human Services Department, and Region Parks Department, and other county agencies impacted by the budget.

The week-long hearings started Monday with an introduction and overview of the budget proposal. The hearings are expected to conclude June 13 with deliberations.

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Sacramento Co. sheriff: No layoffs despite cuts

SACRAMENTO COUNTY, CA – The County Board of Supervisors approved a $3.5 billion budget Thursday afternoon.

It calls for cutting $90 million in spending and that will force at least 300 positions cut, many of them layoffs.

But those numbers do not mean layoffs for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, right now.

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said he remains committed to no layoffs. The department has looked internally and absorbed millions of dollars worth of cuts.

The initial deficit was $26.7 million. But Jones reduced that budget shortfall to $9.5 million.

On Monday, he asked for $9.5 million to be reinstated by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. Thursday, the sheriff got his answer.

“In the last day or two, through some very difficult decisions, the board of supervisors restored $5.2 million to our budget,” Jones said. ”We are very grateful. However, that does leave us with a $4.3 million bridge to gap that we cannot reasonably anticipate making up over the next fiscal year.”

Again, Jones said his highest priority is not to layoff a single person. But, there’s a strong likelihood that certain programs will be cut or restructured.

The president of the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriff’s Association said the first to be hit might be the aero unit or the gang unit.

During deep budget cuts in 2009, the department’s helicopter was grounded.

Meanwhile, the gang unit was cut in half that year said Detective Danny McAuliffe.

“It all but decimated what we knew as the gang unit,” McAuliffe said.

McAuliffe was reassigned to work at the county jail. He was eventually transferred back to the gang unit.

McAuliffe said fewer gang detectives means more gang violence, I.E. the December 2010 barber shop shooting in South Sacramento that killed a single mother shielding her son from gang gunfire.

“They know that if there’s no gang task force coupled with the fact that patrol officers are already overwhelmed with calls for service and their responsibilities, these guys have free reign over the county,” McAuliffe said.

By Suzanne Phan, sphan@news10.net

Twitter:@suzanenphan