This is the worst possible time to be an elected official in Sacramento because the economy has stripped politicians of the ability to kick the can down the road any more.

The city has no money.

Now you have to tell people in Oak Park that their neighborhood center may have to be shuttered. You have to listen to anguished residents accuse you of favoring affluent neighborhoods over poor ones.

You have to face the prospect of giving pink slips to cops and telling a powerful police union that it must make even more salary concessions.

All of this happens for the next several weeks with the city facing a $39 million budget deficit it needs to fill by July 1, when the new fiscal year begins.

Some council members making these decisions are longtime officeholders who are up for re-election next year (more on that in future columns). Most of the others were school board members, legislative staffers and union stalwarts, or they were connected to city power in some way when they were elected. Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star, was rich and famous when he crashed the party in 2008.

The lone exception – the only grass-roots politician – on the City Council today is Angelique Ashby.

She also is the youngest council member and is known to walk a tightrope between her desire to work with everyone and the reality that it is often impossible with this crew.

City Hall veterans say she is known to ask: "Is it always like this?"

Only months into her first term, the 36-year-old is being forced to balance what got her elected with what the city needs.

"I can't afford to have houses catching on fire in my district," Ashby said over coffee Friday. "My job is to stand for what my community needs, and my community needs public safety."

Ashby campaigned on representing Natomas, and Natomas wants cops to keep a clamp on burglaries and large apartment complexes run by absentee landlords.

In other neighborhoods, residents who have lost a home to fire can rebuild. But Natomas is subject to a building moratorium imposed by FEMA until Natomas levees are fortified. If your house burns down in Natomas, there is no rebuilding, for now.

So how is Ashby – whose election victory party was held at a police union hall – going to keep her promise to maintain police patrols and improve fire response times while public safety agencies face dire cuts?

It's hard to say until the councilwoman establishes a longer track record. But her moves on another important issue – redistricting – might provide a clue.

When it came time to pick representatives for the task force that will redraw council districts, council veteran Sandy Sheedy chose labor boss Bill Camp. Seriously? Why not just cut the pretense and let the union guys vote for you on all issues?

Ashby chose Roman Porter, executive director of the state's Fair Political Practices Commission.

She was less worried about getting a favorable new council district and more worried about the city redrawing political boundaries fairly.

When she beat Ray Tretheway in June last year, Ashby became the first candidate to knock off an incumbent in a Sacramento council election in nearly 20 years.

At her victory party, friends and neighbors crowded around Ashby as if she were their sister or daughter. They had tears in their eyes and felt their voices would now be heard.

A petite brunette in heels and a pants suit that evening, Ashby had crafted quite the trajectory from her days as a 24-year-old single mom putting herself through UC Davis and, later, McGeorge School of Law.

Every week now, her office fields calls from young women – mostly high school and college students – who want to shadow Ashby for a day or learn more about her life and career.

What these young woman see is someone who still seems like them. They see someone smart enough to remake Sacramento one agonizing decision at a time, while retaining the idealism that got her there in the first place.

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Call The Bee's Marcos Breton, (916) 321-1096.

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