What happens in Sacramento this November may not stay in Sacramento.
Voters in our state capital will be voting on the biggest governmental restructuring facing the city in a generation. Voters will decide whether they should keep their current 'city manager' form of government or move to a 'strong mayor' construct, essentially shifting the vast majority of administrative functions to the elected Mayor.
The ramifications of the outcome of Measure L is profound, and not just for Sacramento. A success in November could spur further efforts to implement strong mayor forms of government throughout the state.
As the fifth city in California to consider a move in this direction, some might write this off as a 'big city' phenomenon.
Maybe.
But considering that Sacramento is the smallest city to consider such a move - and the first in the post-Bell era, this is not something that should be taken lightly. The campaign theme for Measure L is 'accountability', essentially suggesting that voters have far less now in their current form of government. How they decide may tell us a lot about how they feel about the accountability of the city manager's office. And while city managers organizations began efforts to educate the public on what they do shortly after the Bell scandal, they have done nothing of note in the past few years - that may come back and bite them.
It should be noted that the current city manager, John Shirey is among the most respected and well known in the state among his peers. By all estimates Measure L is not about Shirey, in fact while he's far less known than Mayor Kevin Johnson among voters in the city, those that do know him widely credit him for many, if not most of the recent successes enjoyed by the city -(most notably keeping the Sacramento Kings NBA franchise from leaving the city. Shirey's leadership, knowledge and experience were exceptional).
No, Measure L has nothing to do with John Shirey but it has everything to do with what voters know (and don't know) about what city managers do, and that's precisely why city managers throughout the state need to watch this race closely.
Recently numerous cities have faced serious attempts to reconfigure governance models in response to differing policy proposals. City charter efforts and even the California Voting Rights Act have been used by city leaders and labor unions to fight each other as proxy wars for areas of disagreement.
There is perhaps no better way to replace a city manager that is viewed as a 'problem' by some in the city than by replacing the city manager - and that's what a strong mayor form of government can do.
Pay close attention to what happens in the city of Sacramento this November. If you care about city management as a profession its a big deal.