Service Call
City’s new development chief has big plans
By Jeff Harris
July 2026
Most city residents never heard of Matt Hertel. Yet sooner or later, many will interact with the department he runs, the Community Development Department.
Want to build an addition to your home? Community Development.
Opening a restaurant or small business? Community Development.
Reporting a nuisance property? Community Development.
Looking to adopt a pet? Community Development.
Hertel and his team oversee planning, building, code enforcement and animal care—services impacting the community every day.
Recently appointed as Sacramento Community Development Director by City Manager Maraskeshia Smith, Hertel sets an ambitious goal.
“I want the Community Development Department to be the best in the state, focusing on planning, building and maintaining the great city of Sacramento,” he told me.
A bold statement. And a useful standard for measuring his success.
I worked with Hertel during my time on City Council. California was encouraging cities to remove barriers to accessory dwelling units. Sacramento went further.
Hertel and team helped create permit-ready plans homeowners could use without the cost of custom architectural drawings.
It was a practical solution. By reducing costs and simplifying approvals, the city helped expand the housing inventory.
The program succeeded and offered insight into Hertel’s management style. He’s less interested in grand pronouncements than in making government work better.
That philosophy is evident in Streamline Sacramento, an initiative to improve permitting and development reviews. Hertel sees the process as a partnership between city staff and applicants.
“Part of it is education and training,” he says. “The goal is to ensure city reviewers are consistent and well-trained while helping applicants submit complete, high-quality plans.”
The logic is straightforward. Better plans mean fewer corrections. Fewer corrections mean shorter review times. Shorter review times mean projects get built faster.
This may sound obvious, but anyone who has navigated government permitting knows it’s often easier said than done.
The business community has taken notice.
John Vignocchi, CEO of the Sacramento Regional Business Leaders Council, describes Hertel as “a thoughtful, highly organized and structured professional who gets things done.”
Noting Hertel’s leadership of Streamline Sacramento, Vignocchi says, “He consistently demonstrates a genuine commitment to continuous improvement and to supporting the city’s residents, creators and business community.”
Business owners experience City Hall through permit counters, inspections and development/design reviews. Their concerns are practical rather than ideological. They want predictability, consistency and timely decisions.
For all his optimism, Hertel faces big challenges.
Planning remains central to the city’s housing and economic development. The building department faces pressure to improve turnaround times and achieve fairness in inspections. Code enforcement must balance neighborhood quality-of-life concerns with fair, consistent application of regulations.
Then there’s animal care.
Front Street Animal Shelter is one of the city’s most visible services. Inside has reported on years of shelter mismanagement under previous leadership.
Residents care deeply about animal welfare, adoption programs and shelter operations. Managing those responsibilities requires compassion, resources and discipline.
None of these challenges will be solved with mission statements. Sacramento doesn’t lack plans. It rarely lacks good intentions. What it often lacks is execution.
That’s why Hertel’s appointment is noteworthy.
The real test isn’t whether he can articulate a vision. It’s whether residents notice permits move faster, code enforcement becomes more responsive, development reviews become more predictable and animal shelter services improve.
If those things happen, Sacramento will move closer to Hertel’s goal of having the state’s best Community Development Department.
Most residents will never know his name. But they will know City Hall works better.
Jeff Harris represented District 3 on City Council from 2014 to 2022. He can be reached at cadence5371@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
