Attorney Tiffany Clark at the Sacramento City Council’s December 17, 2024, 5:00 p.m. meeting, calling on the council to “take a stand for fairness and equity in the budget” by voting no on extending City Manger Chan’s contract another year.

UPDATE/CORRECTION (1/16/25): According the Sacramento Bee former City Manager Chan exercised his retreat right after all, demonstrating in full color just how problematic his contract really was. He’ll now be able to collect a year’s salary and benefits as assistant city manager and then collect a lump sum payment equivalent to a year at his highest salary as city manager plus a year of full benefits for him and his family.

So much more needs to be done to restore equity and fairness to the city of Sacramento’s budget, but I am grateful the city took one one more step in that direction last Tuesday, December 17, by refusing to extend Sacramento City Manager Chan’s contract one more year. Thanks in part to folks like me speaking out at this past Tuesday’s meeting of the Sacramento City Council, the city manager will depart on December 31, 2024.

The unusual terms of the city manager’s contract were an impediment to equity and fairness, separate and apart from his performance. I explained this to the council in person and in the following letter, emailed about five hours before last Tuesday’s council meeting and about two hours before the preceding closed session where councilmembers discussed the issue.

Even with Tuesday’s vote against another year’s extension, this hit to equity and fairness could have played out for another two years if the city manager had then opted to exercise his right to retreat to an assistant city manager position at the highest pay for one additional year, prior to collecting his severance package of a lump sum payment equivalent to a year at his highest salary as city manager plus a year of full benefits for him and his family. As it happens, he didn’t exercise that retreat right and so will “only” be collecting the lump sum. Still not an ideal situation, but preferable to the alternatives. At least that’s what we thought initially, but the Sacramento Bee reported on January 25, 2024 that the former City Manager Chan exercised his retreat right after all, demonstrating in full color just how problematic his contract really was.

For that reason and those touched upon in the following letter, I celebrate this hard fought, long awaited win for equity and fairness—let us hope it is the first of many more to come.