City Approves Spending $555,000 On Arena Consultants

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- The Sacramento City Council voted in favor Tuesday night of spending $555,000 on consultants for the new downtown arena and also voted to partner with developer David Taylor and ICON Venue Group on construction.

Some wonder, though, if that money would be better spent on saving jobs or restoring city services.

"I feel real real upset, no doubt about it," said city employee Saul Gonzalez.

After three decades with the city, Gonzalez will lose his job at Bing Maloney Golf Course at the end of this year as Sacramento leaders try to cut costs at city-owned courses by turning maintenance work over to a private company.

"I have to put food on the table," Gonzalez said. "It's tough. I'm 57 now, so it's not easy to find another job."

Close to 40 employees will be let go from the city's golf courses, and many of them are questioning why the City Council is cutting jobs as it plans to spend more than half a million taxpayer dollars on a new arena.

Mayor Kevin Johnson defends the spending, saying he's still upholding his promise not to raise taxes to pay for a new arena. He also says the money will go towards a critical consulting contract to get the massive project off the ground and eventually bring more jobs to Sacramento.

"Are we gonna get all the parking that we need there? Is the practice court going to go there? We need to dive deeper on that analysis," Johnson said of same of the issues consultants need to explore.

But using existing taxpayer funds to pay for consultants won't be an easy sell to those who are about to get laid off.

"Instead of vote for the arena, they can save a lot of jobs," Gonzalez said.