Katie Valenzuela served with new council recall notice just after Sacramento mass shooting
An effort to recall City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela is again moving forward, but it’s unclear when the measure would reach voters if her critics gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot.
East Sacramento residents have been spearheading the effort. Valenzuela gained that neighborhood in her district earlier this year through the city’s once-a-decade redrawing of election boundaries.
City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood last week announced only residents of Valenzuela’s old district — the central city and Land Park — can recall her, not her new East Sacramento constituents.
John Morales, a McKinley Village homeowner and a leader of the effort, served Valenzuela with an initial recall notice while she was walking her dogs in March. The city deemed that notice deficient because of a technicality.
On April 3, Valenzuela, Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other city leaders held an emergency press conference where they discussed the mass shooting that killed six people downtown just hours earlier. Valenzuela cried throughout her remarks.
Afterward, the two stood in the City Hall lobby when Morales and another man walked in and handed Valenzuela a stack of papers, seen on a video obtained by The Sacramento Bee. The documents included a new recall notice.
“I just want to say on the day of one of the city’s worst tragedies in recent memory, you pick this day to serve recall papers on a sitting City Council member,” Steinberg can be heard saying on the video, pointing his finger as the men started to walk away. “I mean, where are your priorities?”
The group now must submit a sample petition, which the city must approve before recall advocates can start collecting signatures. According to state elections code, it appears the group would need to submit signatures by mid-May in order to get the recall on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The group believes it has until August to collect signatures, said Deb Sigman, an East Sacramento homeowner who is co-chair of the committee.
The City Clerk’s Office did not immediately respond to an email from The Bee regarding its interpretation of the election deadline. It’s possible the group could force a special election after November if it fails to make a deadline for the general election.
The group is also waiting on a final decision from the city attorney’s office, expected later this month, on whether it can collect signatures from East Sacramento residents. That decision will also determine how many signatures it needs.
The recall effort will move forward regardless of which neighborhoods can participate, Sigman said.
“The city has to determine its process first,” Sigman wrote in an email to The Bee. “Then we can get signatures we need. We are confident we can get the signatures in time, and anywhere we need them. We’re facing big problems and the people want action now.”
Homelessness a main issue
According to the notice, the group’s main complaints are a rise in homelessness, crime, and a potential decrease in property values.
“Katie Valenzuela has failed to carry out her responsibilities on the City Council, which includes providing Sacramento with safe and clean neighborhoods,” the notice read. “She has ignored constituents’ requests for much-needed action to address the growing problems of crime and lawlessness. She has pursued policies that actually worsen our homelessness problem, while doing nothing to keep neighborhoods safe ... local residents face an imminent threat to our personal safety, as well as the destruction of our private property, loss of our family finances, and the lowering of property values.”
In a written response Valenzuela submitted to the city last week, she called the recall “abusive.”
“It wastes time and resources, and doesn’t address the issues that supposedly motivated this action,” her response read. “Katie Valenzuela inherited a perfect storm of gun violence, economic uncertainty, and homelessness that was decades in the making. Inhumane, politically-motivated attempts to sweep the crisis under the rug — through displacement and excessive criminalization — haven’t worked and hurt our community. Genuine solutions take time. In roughly two years, Katie has worked with courage and dedication to address the root causes of systemic issues ... This recall is a cynical, cowardly assault on a newly-elected council member. Katie won’t let this distract her from her work to make Sacramento safe and livable for all.”
Along with Steinberg, the Democratic Party of Sacramento County, the Latino Economic Council, the California Nurses Association, Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522, and the Sacramento City Teachers Association oppose the recall, Valenzuela wrote in her response.
Valenzuela was elected to the council in 2020 after handily defeating incumbent Steve Hansen. She is the council’s most liberal member and a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist.
Some East Sacramento homeowners were enraged when she announced she was exploring opening a homeless safe parking lot at Sutter’s Landing Regional Park, near the border of East Sacramento. She since dropped that idea.
Valenzuela opened Safe Ground sanctioned tent encampments at Miller Park and near the W-X freeway, which is now closed. At Safe Grounds, homeless individuals receive access to bathrooms, showers, medical care, security and rehousing services, but they still live in tents or vehicles. Before it closed, the W-X Safe Ground got nearly 200 people into housing or indoor shelters — about 42% of everyone who spent time there, Valenzuela said. She also plans to open homeless housing at a downtown motel and the YMCA on W Street.
Valenzuela’s term is set to end in December 2024.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 10:55 AM.
