City budget part 1: The Audacity of Howard Chan

Updated: Jul 12

TL;DR: Bruh, how you have the audacity to try and give yourself another raise when you're already the highest paid city manager in the state AND your city is facing a $66M budget deficit? The audacity of Howard Chan is astounding! 

Highlights from this article:

• Howard Chan wins the Worst Sacramento City Manager Award!

• As City Manager, Chan is responsible for managing the City's budget

• Howard Chan is a staff member of the City, he is not elected, and only the Sacramento City Council has the power to remove him from office

• In December of 2023 - with full knowledge of the City's budget deficit - Howard Chan illegally placed an item requesting a raise for himself on a City Council meeting agenda

• Howard Chan earns the highest total wages of any city manager in the state of California. In 2023 Chan’s total pay and benefits amounted to $710,036.24.

• Howard Chan know betters, he just doesn’t care, and is not being held accountable by the Council of people Sacramentans elected.

• Upcoming: Learn more about Howard Chan and his attempt to end Sacramento's RydeFreeRT program in our next budget piece!

Sacramento City Manager, Howard Chan

Howard Chan, Worst City Manager

By now a significant portion of folks living in Sacramento know who Howard Chan is. Howard Chan is Sacramento’s City Manager, and resident egotist. As City Manager, Howard Chan is a staff member of the City, and therefore not elected. As we talk more about Chan and the City budget, keep in mind that the residents of Sacramento did not elect Chan, and have no power or influence over the decisions he makes. 

Aaaaaand the award for Worst Sacramento City Manager goes to:

Howard Chan!

-Howard Chan received this award and trophy from Organize Sacramento in 2023!

Howard Chan has been Sacramento City Manager since 2017, and oversees around 5,000 employees as well as the City’s operating budget of more than $1.4 billion. In short, he has a lot of power. 

This is the full description of Howard Chan’s role as City Manager: 

“The City Manager is the chief executive officer of the City and is responsible for the leadership and direction of all operations, programs, and services, per City Charter. The City Manager facilitates the implementation of Council’s policies and priorities, provides policy recommendations to the Council concerning the annual budget, future needs of the City, and oversight of all City departments.”

What’s especially relevant to this write-up is the fact that the City Manager is in charge of managing the City’s budget.

The exact language regarding the City Manager's duty to manage the budget is as follows:

“As required by the City Charter, the City Manager each spring must submit a proposed budget to the City Council for review and discussion”

We’ll come back to Chan’s role in regard to the City budget, but first, let’s not let the City Council off the hook. The Sacramento City Council is the only body that has the power to remove Chan from office. Howard Chan works for them. Unfortunately, having Chan as a scapegoat is too convenient for members of the City Council to want to take action against him. Unpopular decisions can be given to Howard Chan, thereby removing the blame for missteps from the City Councilmembers. Don’t believe it if you’re being told that there’s nothing the City Council can do, that’s a lie. They can fire Chan, and in fact are the only ones that can. 

Sacramento City’s  2024/25 final budget of  $1.6B was approved on Tuesday, June 11th. The City is facing a $66 million deficit.

Howard Chan, out for himself

In December of 2023 - with full knowledge of the City's budget deficit - Howard Chan requested what would have been his sixth raise in 7 years. His request was for a 5% raise, and would have brought his total base pay to $420K, with another $48,000 in leave time.

Howard Chan earns the highest total wages of any city manager in the state of California. In 2023 Chan’s total pay and benefits amounted to $710,036.24.

Data pulled from transparentcalifornia.com

By comparison, in 2022 (most recent data available) Governor Gavin Newsom’s total pay and benefits were $290,119.64. So, here we have a city manager making an obscene amount of money, asking for yet another raise to his already bloated salary, when the City is facing a deficit. Which, again, is a budget deficit that was, and continues to be, his explicit duty to manage.

Fortunately, Chan was ultimately not given this raise. The initial vote to grant the raise took place in December 2023, during a special meeting (meaning there was not 72 hours notice given and there was no opportunity for public comment) of the City Council. Chan unilaterally placed his raise on the meeting agenda, a decision that was in violation of the Brown Act, a state law that is meant to ensure public access to local government meetings. 

As reported in the Sac Bee article covering the violation, the Brown Act states: 

“A legislative body shall not call a special meeting regarding the salaries, salary schedules, or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits, of a local agency executive”

The vote on Chan's raise was not redone until after the Sacramento Bee contacted the City with questions regarding the legality of holding the vote in a special meeting. The decision of whether or not to grant Chan the raise was subsequently tabled on January 9th of this year, and has yet to be reconsidered. It’s understandable that members of the Sacramento City Council might not have been aware that this decision was made in violation of the Brown act. However, as City Manager, Howard Chan is well aware of the requirements of the Brown Act.

One more reminder regarding this saga, Chan illegally placing his raise on the agenda in December 2023 took place after a vote on the same raise was placed on a City Council agenda in August of 2023. The August item was removed after public backlash.

If budgets are moral documents, and the person who’s supposed to be managing the City’s budget is willing to violate state law in an attempt to secure yet another raise for himself while facing a budget deficit, what does that say about the priorities of the City?

Does this give us any reason at all to believe that Howard Chan has the best interests of anyone but himself - and his consolidation of power - in mind? Howard Chan has shown us with his actions what he cares about and prioritizes.

“The city manager has had some critical failures. How is it he is given the task to find 10+ safe ground spots, and the best he can do is one. A colossal failure to the thing this city needs most”

- Teddy Georgeoff, III, Measure U Community Advisory Committee member

And yet, Howard Chan wants to give himself a raise? Based on what performance standards?

Howard Chan should know better. He DOES know better. He just doesn’t care, and is not being held accountable by the Council of people Sacramentans elected.

Learn more about Howard Chan and his attempt to end Sacramento's RydeFreeRT program in our next budget piece!