It’s been a while since we checked into the Sacramento Kings’ arena situation, which almost faced another crucial moment on Tuesday when the Sac City Council meeting was set to turn into a shootout at the Cowbell Corral.
On one side, arena opponent and council member Sandy Sheedy was ready to force debate on whether or not the city should hold a public vote on the issue in June. On the other side sits a city council that I’ve profiled in the past as being receptive toward approving the approximate $400 million Entertainment and Sports Complex. Only one other council member, Darrell Fong, has joined Sheedy in voting against a handful of critical procedural issues so far. If a new arena deal is not finalized by March 1, the NBA and Maloofs are going to move the Kings to Anaheim.
By the way the city charter in Sacramento is set up, the elected representatives of the city council are supposed to vote on matters like these. Sheedy wants to depart from that history and bring the vote to the public, knowing full well that a vote in June would be pointless because the Kings would already be gone.
Why is she anti-arena? It’s certainly not to save money for the city or to stand for economic principals. Sheedy is widely believed to be seeking political revenge against Kevin Johnson after she supported his run for mayor, but did not get a seat in his inner circle. Her seat is also up for grabs in the next council election, and with her district in economic chaos many of the city insiders I have spoken with don’t like her chances to repeat. This is her Hail Mary attempt at taking a position that is different from the pro-arena stance of her challengers, while trying to capitalize on an anti-arena sentiment that may or may not exist. It’s a gamble, but it’s also Sacramento politics at its finest.
More importantly to the reporting of whether or not it will be the Sacramento Kings or Anaheim Royals, Tuesday was going to force city council members to speak on the record about the arena once again. Specifically, they would have to either support or defend Sheedy’s obstructionist play. And just like the past meetings where council members were mostly transparent about their goals, we were going to get a real good read on where folks stood.
That is, until Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee reported that Sheedy called a timeout.
Apparently known arena proponent and councilman Rob Fong couldn’t make Tuesday’s meeting and Sheedy wanted the entire council to be present. Maybe this is a simple coincidence, but with the clock ticking it also wouldn’t be surprising if the absence is related to her opposition. If we’re going down that road, it won’t be surprising to see her gain something in relation to the arena issue as well as her campaign, with the delay setting the stage for her to gracefully back off.
Then again, maybe Fong had business to attend to and Sheedy is going to both reschedule and show up dressed as a purple Grinch.
Either way, we’ll find out soon if Sacramento has the money and votes to pull off one of the bigger saves in modern civic history.
