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In a pair of concurrent editorials, the Contra Costa Times praised Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus while at the same time calling Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay “irresponsible” and the Richmond City Council majority “fiscally inept.”
Magnus has been widely recognized for playing a pivotal role in Richmond’s dramatic drop in crime, particularly homicides, and he deserves it. But it didn’t happen without the support of the City Council throughout the recession to keep the Richmond Police force at full strength despite serious fiscal challenges. Nor did it happen without Lindsay’s sometimes creative and sometimes even risky use of unconventional revenue to make it happen.
The result was that crime in Richmond plummeted. Magnus became a hero and was hired away by a city six times the size of Richmond with a police force more than four times the size off Richmond.
Just the opposite happened during the same period in Oakland, where the city lost 24% of its police force to fiscal pressures, and crime skyrocketed. Is that what Richmond should have done? I think not, but it’s apparently what the Contra Costa Times would have foisted on Richmond. Good thing for Richmond that the Times is the media business and not the city management business.
Don’t’ forget that Lindsay hired Magnus, a bit of a bold move at the time, and stood by him, as did the City Council majority, during years of state and federal court challenges by seven senior officers. In the end, Magnus was vindicated, and Lindsay and the City Council were found to have made the right decision.
Just like football, it takes a team to run a city, and sometimes you have to take chances to come out a winner. You have to make decisions like going for 2-point conversions, trying out a new quarterback or an on-sides kick. There is more to winning in the city game than simply squirreling away as much money as possible no matter what the consequences and never taking chances.
Richmond has come out of the recession with record low unemployment, record high commercial real estate values, record low commercial vacancy rates, a surplus in the 2014-15 budget and a balanced 2015-16 budget with revenues trending upward. Residential real estate rose 15.4% last year and is projected at another 5.4% next year. 1,000 units of housing have been approved in the last few months. All this has happened while Richmond has downsized overall staffing by 27% since 2008.
The Contra Costa Times is mainly upset because of $3.4 million of swaption proceeds was used to balance the 2015-16 budget. This is only about 2% of the total revenues and may not even be needed if current revenue trends from other sources continue trending upward.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/editorial/ci_29144689/contra-costa-times-editorial-richmond-city-managers-new
Contra Costa Times editorial: Richmond city manager's new contract irresponsible
Contra Costa Times editorial © 2015 Bay Area News Group
Posted: 11/21/2015 05:00:00 PM PST
Updated: 11/21/2015 07:55:00 PM PST
City Manager Bill Lindsay listens to speakers during a council meeting, which started late, at the City Council Chambers in Richmond, Calif., on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
One bad move doesn't justify another.
Start with the Richmond City Council's irresponsible approval last week of a four-year contract extension for its city manager despite his failure to provide basic budget forecasts as municipal finances deteriorated to currently unacceptable levels.
Next, there's a citizens' initiative that just qualified for the city ballot. It would unreasonably limit a city manager's compensation, eliminating hope of attracting a top-quality administrator in the future.
Richmond's problems stem from a fiscally inept City Council majority that continues to pile on debt because it's unwilling to acknowledge the city's financial plight and make tough decisions.
Residents should recruit and help elect competent council members, and demand that they hire an excellent manager. Voters shouldn't pass measures making that impossible.
For years after Bill Lindsay was hired in 2005, he admirably navigated Richmond's politically treacherous waters as it emerged from near bankruptcy.
But city managers must not only try to keep peace on the ship, they must ensure it doesn't run aground, sounding warnings that council members and the public might not want to hear. At that, Lindsay has failed.
Two major rating agencies have sharply criticized Richmond's weak fiscal management. Standard & Poor's dropped the city's credit rating to just above junk-bond level. Moody's lowered it to junk-bond status, making Richmond the only one of 68 California cities it rates to receive that ignominious distinction.
It's appalling that, with the city in such horrible financial condition, the council would extend the city manager's contract for four years. Amazingly, the extension abandons the previous requirement for annual council review of Lindsay's performance. And it provides for annual 2 percent raises tied to fulfilling any one of four "triggers," one of which is submitting "a structurally balanced budget with no layoffs."
Lindsay, the mayor and some council members insist, falsely, that the budget is structurally balanced. Both rating agencies and the city's own financial consultant refute that because the "balance" depends on one-time money.
The "no layoffs" provision is the sort of avoidance mentality that exacerbates the problem.
Under the deal, Lindsay's salary begins at $270,576, plus benefits that bring total compensation to more than $385,000. The initiative would limit a city manager's total compensation to five times Richmond's median household income, roughly $273,000.
While that might feel good to angry voters, it's not realistic. Richmond would be unable to find the top-quality manager it desperately needs. Voters should not micromanage through the ballot. They should instead elect fiscally savvy leaders.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/richmond/ci_29140866/contra-costa-times-editorial-chris-magnus-has-been
Contra Costa Times editorial: Chris Magnus has been a great police chief for Richmond
Contra Costa Times editorial © 2015 Bay Area News Group
Posted: 11/20/2015 08:53:29 AM PST2 Comments | Updated: 2 days ago
Richmond Chief of Police Chris Magnus stands with demonstrators along Macdonald Ave. to protest the Michael Brown and Eric Garner deaths during a peaceful demonstration in Richmond, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)
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Few officials will affect their communities as positively and significantly as Chris Magnus has in Richmond.
The police chief arrived from Fargo, North Dakota, at the start of 2006. He now departs for the top-cop job in Tucson, Arizona. He will be greatly missed. Thanks to his leadership, the city he leaves is much safer than the one that greeted him 10 years ago. Homicides declined from 70 the year he arrived to 12 last year.
He didn't do it by banging heads. He did it by reaching out. Magnus has engaged residents, not just talking about putting cops in the community, as some police leaders have, but actually doing it, establishing a critical rapport between officers and residents.
Magnus was an unusual hire. White and openly gay, he was chosen to lead the police force of a city in which Latinos and African-Americans make up the majority of the population. He came from what was then the 12th safest city to the 11th most dangerous in the nation, and the worst in California.
From the start, he contended with crime on the streets and dissent in the ranks. Within the first year on the job, Magnus faced accusations of racism from six black high-ranking officers who had resisted change and seemed determined to publicly smear their chief.
Five years later, a Superior Court jury, after a three-month trial, took just two days to unanimously reject all 28 causes of action against the chief and the city.
The case was especially appalling because those who know Magnus know he's no bigot. Quite the contrary. About two-thirds of all promotions he made in his first four years on the job went to people of color. Racial minorities dominate his command staff.
Magnus cleaned the department of rogue cops and drastically reduced the use of force, yet he steadfastly defended his officers who were forced to make tough decisions under dangerous conditions.
Magnus has never been a typical chief. He challenged the county sheriff and other local police chiefs to focus on rehabilitation rather than new jail construction. In full uniform, with members of his command staff, he held a #BlackLivesMatter sign as he joined about 200 demonstrators in Richmond protesting police violence in other cities.
As the image went viral, he took heat for it, including from his own officers. But he sent a powerful message, especially to people of color in the city he serves. Thoughtful, calm, fair and approachable, Magnus has developed a deep understanding of, and respect from, the Richmond community.
We thank him for a decade of tremendous service. We wish him well in Tuscon. But, to tell you the truth, we wish he wasn't going at all. |
