A group dominated by Santa Rosa City Hall insiders has been selected to explore ideas for improving how city government operates. The Charter Review Committee, appointed last week, has 21 citizens charged with suggesting changes to the city’s by-laws to be put before voters next fall.

Santa Rosa’s new city manager starts work Oct. 4, but she’s already reviewing the city budget and organizational structure. Kathy Millison recently asked every department head in the city to submit a summary of their department operations, including resumes of department heads and their deputies.

Santa Rosa’s interim city manager, Wayne Goldberg, is the first city employee to take a salary cut since the City Council earlier this year asked employees for concessions to help bridge its $3.8 million budget gap. Will it spur negotiations with unions representing other city workers?

Wayne Goldberg, Santa Rosa’s interim city manager, has for months pledged that his executive staff would take a 5 percent compensation reduction requested by the City Council to help balance the budget. On Tuesday, Goldberg makes good on that pledge.

The Santa Rosa City Council is backing away from a controversial plan to charge people $5 to park at Howarth Park. The plan has been postponed until after the Nov. 2 election. Some councilmembers worried the fee might erode support for a quarter-cent sales tax on the fall ballot.

Cash-strapped Santa Rosa is losing yet another senior executive. Greg Scoles, deputy city manager, is leaving to be city manager of Belmont. He will become the third top executive to leave the city in recent months.

The Santa Rosa City Council begins two days of budget hearings today in an attempt to close a $3.8 million hole in next year’s budget. Its decisions will determine whether pools are closed, fees are hiked and how parks are maintained. What do you think the city should do to balance its budget?

Santa Rosa’s City Council will discuss a host of tax increases and other ways to raise revenues today as it ponders how to bridge a $4 million holein its $109 million general fund budget next year. Among the options on the table: A quarter-cent sales tax, a business tax, a parcel tax, a cell phone tax and higher parking fees.

You have an ideologically split City Council. A fiscal crisis. And an impending election. It’s not the easiest time to attract a new city manager. So perhaps its not surprising that the Santa Rosa City Council has yet to reach consensus about any of the candidates to replace Jeff Kolin, according to sources familiar with the secret deliberations.

Santa Rosa’s financial crisis hasn’t scared off people seeking to become the administrative leader of the state’s 30th most populous city. By Monday’s filing deadline, 64 candidates had applied for the job of city manager. Some already live in Sonoma County.