Despair To Optimism

Mayor candidates discuss getting city back on track

September 2024

Inside Publisher Cecily Hastings interviewed mayoral candidates Flojaune Cofer and Kevin McCarty and recorded their responses to important questions facing the city. Interviews were separate, but both candidates responded to the same questions. More questions and answers will appear in our October editions.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg leaves behind a city that’s broke and dispirited, with a massive deficit, thousands of people living on the streets in inhuman conditions, and empty office buildings. What three initiatives can you create to return the city to its optimism and solvency of eight years ago?

Cofer: No. 1, instead of trying to force state workers back Downtown, I’d like to see us bring some of our university dormitories and campuses Downtown. That gives us a competitive advantage over any other university in the state, because if you’re majoring in political science, or city planning, you have access to the people in your state capital. It also solves the problem that a lot of offices and businesses shut down at 5 p.m. because young people often start their day in the early afternoon.

We also need to consider Downtown for more middle-income housing. This will manage us toward a more vibrant vision, instead of managing the decline we’ve seen in recent years.

The other thing is, we need to set goals. We talk a lot about homelessness, with so many people sleeping on our streets. And yet, what’s the goal for the year? How many people are we going to house in how many shelters? Nobody can answer these questions.

It’s only fair to our business improvement districts, neighborhood associations and nonprofits that we’re working effectively toward these goals to continually improve the quality of our services.

We also need to get money to turn over multiple times in our city. If we maximize this, we won’t need to just talk about budget cuts in the future, but also maximizing revenues.

These three things will allow Sacramento to really be an energetic place with top attractions that bring people to it.

McCarty: My three priorities are homelessness, housing and our youth. The top of the list is tackling homelessness and, most importantly, not making it worse.

I fully support banning camping throughout the city. I support the Supreme Court decision. Sacramento needs to act, because if we don’t other cities are going to act and those people in those cities are going to come to our city and want to camp on our streets.

We also need to do a much better job of opening low-barrier sites for people. Too much of the city’s focus has been on the Cadillac solution—everybody must have a $700,000 home.

No doubt permanent supportive housing for each homeless person is the ideal solution. But $700,000 times 5,000 homeless people in the city is $3.5 billion. It doesn’t pencil out.

I want to focus on creating new jobs here and more development so we can grow our revenues and our base. We need to reform the building and development department to be more responsive and more efficient so projects can get built faster. I’m going to create a blue-ribbon commission to improve these efforts, chaired by our new District 4 councilmember, Phil Pluckebaum.

I want to be a YIMBY—Yes In My Backyard—mayor and lead efforts to build more housing in the city at all income levels. We must be creative and responsive with adaptive reuse of state land.

I’m very concerned about creating a city of the future where young people like my teenagers will either choose to stay or want to return to after college.

Do you support Proposition 36, which allows felony charges and increased sentences for certain drug and theft crimes?
(Note: Proposition 36 allows felony charges for possession of certain drugs, including fentanyl, and for thefts under $950 (considered misdemeanors today) with two prior drug or two prior theft convictions. Defendants who plead guilty to felony drug possession and complete treatment can have charges dismissed. Proposition 36 increases sentences for other drug and theft crimes. Increased prison sentences may reduce savings that currently fund mental health and drug treatment programs, K-12 schools and crime victims. Any remaining savings may be used for new felony treatment programs.)

Cofer: I’m likely a No on Prop. 36. We have blamed a lot of things on Prop. 47 that aren’t necessarily the fault of Prop. 47. What we’re talking about is essentially putting more people in our jails and prisons, which is costly. The data that I’ve seen from Prop. 47 is that there’s a lot of good that has happened with it. And I’m concerned that Prop. 36 is moving in the opposite direction.

McCarty: I chaired the state Assembly Public Safety Committee this past year and I authored multiple bills to increase felony charges for retail theft and drug crimes. A lot of what I proposed is in Prop. 36. Voters are really upset. And we need to increase accountability for people who repeatedly break the law.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is likely to impose financial consequences on cities that don’t clear homeless camps. What specific programs do you propose to meet the governor’s mandate to enforce anti-camping laws and remove these unsafe, unhealthy and disgraceful living situations?

Cofer: I’d like to start with reaching the 150 or 200 people who are hardest to reach on our streets and work together to get them stabilized and into housing. Even people that decline services have moments where they will accept help. Most are just scared and do not trust other folks to help them.

Next, we should work to help the people who cycle in and out of homelessness. What do we do to get them stable? Then, what do we do to get the people who are sleeping in their cars and have jobs more stable? We need to solve it piece by piece, with the most difficult first.

There are models of programs like this that have been successfully implemented. I’d like to see Sacramento do the same.

McCarty: I am adamant that we must clear the homeless camps now. We shouldn’t allow urban camping, whether it’s at night or in the daytime, in city parks, under underpasses or on empty lots.

For 10 years, the Greater Sacramento Economic Council has had little success recruiting and retaining businesses in the city. Its success stories feature small companies in Davis, Rancho Cordova and McClellan Park. How will you recruit and retain businesses for the city?

Cofer: One of the roles of the mayor is as a cheerleader for the city. I have a vision for our city. And I’m excited about what we can do together.

I want to be a part of selling our city. I want to talk to (companies) about what do their employees want and need when they come here, because it’s not just about the business environment. We have a great opportunity in Sacramento economically, because there’s not a lot of competition. But we need to assure them that our city is safe and offers a good quality of life.

My background is in partnerships. It’s our greatest strength. It’s also untapped. Within 18 months, Sacramento can feel very different if we start collaborating. We’ll be able to attract some of those businesses here because we have a goal we are moving toward. People want to be a part of something when it really gets successful.

McCarty: I want to zero in on helping attract more private-sector jobs in the medicine and health care fields. Aggie Square is an amazing opportunity for Sacramento. I worked to create seed money five years ago in the state budget to jump start that project. I was in favor of locating it in the Elmhurst-Oak Park area to help revitalize this important part of our city.

(UC Davis) just started building a $3 billion hospital tower—that’s more than six arenas as far as creating jobs. Five thousand new jobs will be added in the first phases of Aggie Square.

Next month’s questions include empty state office buildings, traffic enforcement, the city’s budget deficit and strong mayor.

Cecily Hastings can be reached at publisher@insidepublications.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.