Kevin Johnson Speaks at SAR

The Sacramento Association of REALTORS® had the pleasure of Mayor Kevin Johnson speaking at the August Main Meeting. He spoke on a variety of interesting topics, and is clearly in tune to what our city needs to succeed.

This week the City of Sacramento police department received over $9.5 million in federal stimulus money, allowing 35 officers to be hired. The Mayor has traveled to Washington DC lobbying on behalf of Sacramento nearly every month since he has been in office, and attributes this money to those efforts. He discussed the importance of good schools and safe neighborhoods, to create a city that people want to move to, and buy homes in, and the roll the police department has in that.

Kevin Johnson at the August 2009 Main Meeting

Mayor Johnson briefly touched on his strong mayor initiative that qualified for the ballot. If passed, this would create greater accountability in the City of Sacramento, allowing the Mayor to propose the budget and hire department heads among other things. Under the current system, if residents do not agree with the City’s budget or other processes, there is little they can do because those proposals come from unelected employees. As currently structured, the Mayor’s roll is little more than an additional council seat. Most cities the size of Sacramento have already implemented a strong mayor form of governance.

Finally, Mayor Johnson talked about the importance of giving back. While in the NBA he met with John Wooden, and asked him what advice he had on life. After thinking for a few moments, Mr. Wooden told him to help people. This greatly influenced Mr. Johnson, who working with Hands on Sacramento has set a goal for our City to volunteer 500,000 this year. SAR Members give so much to the community through Christmas Can Tree, Rebuilding Together, and all of our other community relations activities. Any volunteer hours you have worked can be self reported online at http://www.handsonsacto.org.

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