Some on the Sacramento City Council may be cheering the abrupt resignation of City Manager Ray Kerridge, who announced his exit Wednesday.
They shouldn’t be. His exit – especially the timing of it – can’t be interpreted as anything but a setback for the city. It widens the leadership vacuum in Sacramento and reinforces the impression of a City Hall in disarray.
Kerridge had his shortcomings. We’ve noted them in previous editorials. His priority on “getting the customer to success” put an emphasis on helping big developers, not necessarily ordinary citizens. He championed a dubious plasma arc incinerator project for the city’s trash that went nowhere.
As city manager, he also bears some responsibility for diversions of funds from the Utilities Department, uncollected building fees and other serious problems in the city’s building department.
Yet did Kerridge resign because of those troubles? No. He left because of an atmosphere within the City Council that was growing increasingly toxic.
There’s no polite way of putting this: Certain City Council members – Rob Fong, Sandy Sheedy and Kevin McCarty – are at war with Mayor Kevin Johnson. It’s a war that is now being played out in discussions over a sports and entertainment arena, Johnson’s strong-mayor proposal and the ongoing probe of the city building department.
If Kerridge wanted to keep his job, he would have needed to choose sides. Instead, he decided to do something else.
Kerridge had his strengths, and in searching for a replacement, the City Council would be wise to acknowledge what they have lost. Kerridge brought a progressive vision of Sacramento. He wanted it to shed its sleepy image and resistance to change. We recall him, at a State of the City meeting in 2008, talking with real passion about revamping the city’s riverfront, its transit system and its downtown alleys.
Kerridge was also a bulldog on confronting the city’s budget troubles, but on this score, he didn’t get enough support from the council. In particular, Kerridge couldn’t extract wage concessions from Local 39, resulting in layoffs for 150 employees.
Will the council be able to quickly find a new city manager? It is unlikely. Any candidate for the job will want to know the outcome of Johnson’s strong-mayor proposal, which, if enacted, would reduce the powers of the city manager.
So Sacramento may need a caretaker for a while. What it really needs is a mayor and City Council that can get along, and put the city’s interests first.