There are no ulterior motives behind staff reductions...

I hope I can set the record straight here: our current lay-offs at the Elk Grove Citizen have absolutely nothing to do with the John Danielson executive pay and compensation piece published in the Wednesday, March 18th issue of the Citizen.
Our newspaper and our parent company, Herburger Publications, Inc., are just like every other news organization across the nation - we're facing tough times. I am not here to fool you. It's true and thankfully, our cuts have been limited. In the past several months, our company has had to make some lay-offs in a few different departments.
I was informed by Publisher David Herburger several weeks ago that he had to adjust to the current economic climate and the loss of advertising revenue and assess our staffing levels; that was if he possibly had to make any lay-offs. We all hoped for the best, but did not know what to expect.
Unfortunately, at the end of that assessment, a lay-off in the Citizen editorial staff was made. It is a very unfortunate situation to be in; and I can firmly say that when these types of moves are made, it is done with the utmost responsibility and care and concern for any employee who may be laid-off or let go due to the poor economic climate.
Nobody wants to be in these positions and another unfortunate aspect of this lay-off was that it was timed to coincide with the publication of what has become a controversial story in the community - the amount of compensation received by former Elk Grove city manager John Danielson.
I would like to stress one thing: our staff reductions had absolutely nothing to do with this article or any reaction or response to it. It is purely unlucky coincidence that these two incidents happened in the same week.
I hope that this post - and an opinion piece to be published in the March 25 edition of the Citizen - will put an end to the untrue, false rumors spreading around the online community and Elk Grove.

Jeff Forward
Editor, the Citizen

"City Beat" blog removed from web

The blog "City Beat" that was formerly maintained by Citizen Staff Writer Gamaliel Ortiz has been removed from the web. Ortiz authored the blog - covering the Elk Grove political scene - under supervision of the Citizen editorial staff/management and Publisher David Herburger. Ortiz eventually stopped using the blog and switched his blog coverage to another site - still linked on left - which is available online at this time.
J. Forward
Editor, The Citizen

Staff reductions at Elk Grove Citizen

March 20, 2009
Elk Grove, Calif.

Herburger Publications, Inc., owner of the Elk Grove Citizen, has announced staff reductions at the Citizen to adjust to the current economy.
The Elk Grove Citizen - like all newspapers and news organizations across the United States - is facing difficult times due to the poor economy.
In light of those challenges, the Citizen and HPI have made a variety of lay-offs in different areas of production over the past few months, including the loss of a news reporter at the Elk Grove Citizen.
The reporter - Bobby Wilson, hired in mid-December, 2008 - covered city government and politics.
Despite having to reduce staff at the Citizen, the management of HPI firmly believes in the value of reporting local city government news and coverage of the politics beat is still a high priority.
The city government and local politics beats will be jointly covered by the remaining Citizen staff writers - Cameron Macdonald and Katie Freeman, with supplemental reporting by Writer Fran Soto from sister newspaper The River Valley Times.
The Citizen will also be joining forces on a more regular basis with sister newspapers The River Valley Times, based in Wilton, as well as the Galt Herald, to bring South Sacramento regional news to readers of each publication and also share resources and reporting on common issues.
Citizen Editor Jeff Forward said false rumors circulating in online forums theorizing about the reason for staffing changes were untrue.
"The publication of a story about John Danielson's pay had absolutely no bearing in any decision to reduce staffing levels at the Elk Grove Citizen," Forward said in a press release. "The management has been assessing staffing levels for several months; and when the need to make changes became more pressing, appropriate reductions were made."
"Despite these unfortunate, but necessary changes, the Citizen reporting team will still be doggedly covering the story of executive pay at the city of Elk Grove, the Cosumnes Community Services District, and the Elk Grove Unified School District," Forward added.

Newsletter reveals details on Danielson pay

Elk Grove Citizen Reporter Bobby Wilson has written an article to be published in the Wednesday, March 18, edition of the Elk Grove Citizen about the compensation package given to former Elk Grove city manager John Danielson. The article, in a niche newsletter that focuses on public employee pay issues, was written by former Capitol Weekly reporter and publisher Ken Mandler and details how Danielson was compensated the equivalent of more than $746,000 per year when all was said and done.