Sacramento mayoral candidates to focus on needs of Latino community at public forum
Sacramento’s growing Latino community and the issues affecting them will take center stage this Friday night during the latest mayoral candidate forum.
The forum will host the four most well-known candidates: Flojaune “Flo” Cofer, senior director of policy at Public Health Advocates; Steve Hansen, a former City Council member; Richard Pan, a former state senator; and Kevin McCarty, a California Assemblyman who represents much of Sacramento.
Each candidate will lay out their plans for addressing issues crucial to Latinos including jobs, education, economic opportunity and cultural inclusion.
Roughly 29% of the city’s residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census data.
Jim Gonzalez, chair of the Latino Economic Council, said the forum is important to ensuring the Latino community is not overlooked by any future mayor. All issues are Latinos issues, he added.
“We want to make sure that we have a place at the table in the public policy decisions of the city and the mayor, of course, sets the pace and the agenda,” Gonzalez said.
The free event will be moderated by the League of Women Voters in a joint effort among multiple Sacramento organizations: the Latino Economic Council, United Latinos and Sacramento Latino Community Roundtable. It is scheduled to take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the La Familia Maple Center, located at 3301 37th Avenue.
Translation devices will be available in-person for monolingual Spanish speakers. In Sacramento County, Spanish is spoken at home by about 14% of the population.
Friday’s forum will be the latest opportunity for the community to engage with mayoral candidates. In November, the Sacramento NAACP hosted a forum that focused on racial justice, police reform and health care.
The Sacramento mayoral election is scheduled for March 5. A candidate would win the seat with more than 50% of the vote. If no person tops 50%, then the top two candidates advance to the general election on Nov. 5.
