Sacramento councilwoman calls for censure of colleague over Indigenous Peoples’ Day exchange
Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela at Tuesday’s City Council meeting called for a disciplinary censure against Councilman Jeff Harris over an exchange they had regarding Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Her request, which the council did not vote on, reflected growing tension between she and Harris, council members who could face each other in the 2024 election based on changes to City Council districts that followed the 2020 Census.
Harris recently sought to block one of Valenzuela’s appointees to the city’s Police Community Review Commission after the appointee called Harris “racist” at a recent City Council meeting. Dozens of people spoke up for the appointee, Keyan Bliss, at this week’s meeting.
The new dispute stems from text messages between Harris and Valenzuela over a resolution recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a day that recognizes Native Americans and in some cases supplants Columbus Day as a holiday.
During a text message exchange last week, Harris said he would go along with Valenzuela’s resolution recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but only if she pledged not to accept campaign funds from the Wilton Rancheria, which operates Sky River Casino in Elk Grove.
“This resolution is very similar to the one we passed last year,” Valenzuela wrote in a text message to Harris on Oct. 5, obtained by The Sacramento Bee. “We’ve already made some edits based on your conversation with (the mayor’s racial equity adviser) Kelly (Fong Rivas) last week. Please let us know if we can proceed with this on the agenda next Tuesday ASAP.”
“If you text me that you have no intention of accepting campaign funds from the Wilton Rancheria casino enterprise, then I’ll go with it,” Harris wrote.
Valenzuela responded: “I won’t take money from Sky River. I don’t take corporate donations.”
Harris then said he would not block the resolution.
“No worries, I’ll be off the council soon, perhaps you as well,” wrote Harris, whose term ends in December. “You have my consent to move your resolution forward.”
She interpreted his message as a reference to a group that wants to recall her from office. The group on Friday served Valenzuela with recall paperwork in its second attempt to force a special spring election.
“I’m not going anywhere, Jeff,” Valenzuela replied. “Enjoy your retirement.
Valenzuela, an Indigenous woman, said that it is racist to imply that Indigenous people only do things for money. It is the notion behind the racial slur “Indian giver,” she said.
“People don’t understand the history behind the idea that Native people are just doing things for money and why that is so inappropriate,” Valenzuela said ahead of a press conference she held with tribal leaders and Councilwoman Mai Vang. “I think education is important.”
Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Columbus Day
Valenzuela said she believes Indigenous Peoples’ Day should replace Columbus Day at the city.
Harris said he supports the compromise from several years ago, which created Indigenous People’s Day in a way that does not fully replace Columbus Day.
“When I spoke to KV I voiced concern that she brought up Columbus Day again after we adopted Indigenous Peoples’ Day a couple of years ago,” Harris said in a text message to The Bee. “I expressed that we had a painful debate about that and came up with a (compromise) and voted for that. I did ask if she intended to take campaign money from the casino. She said no. She did not object to the question, nor did she say she didn’t care to answer it. She had ample opportunity to talk it through, but chose instead to cast the aspersion of racism.”
Valenzuela’s request for a censure will likely go to the city’s Ethics Commission.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he supports her request for mandatory council and staff social competency training, and said he would place it on an agenda for a future vote. Councilwoman Vang said she also supports the training, which would start with the tribes, and move on to other groups.
A censure is a formal disciplinary action that city councils can take against members, but they have not occurred on the council in the last several years.
Sacramento police commission vote
An earlier dispute between Harris and Valenzuela also surfaced at this week’s meeting when Bliss’s supporters spoke against Harris’ attempt to block his appointment to the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission.
During a council meeting on Sept. 13, Bliss, Valenzuela’s appointee to the commission, called Harris a racist.
“Frankly I’m here after one and a half years on this commission as a volunteer for this city frustrated because I don’t believe a majority of you actually care about police accountability, much less the well being and rights of your residents,” Bliss told the council. “You passed literally one recommendation and you ignored everything else.”
Bliss then named several members who have accepted campaign donations from the Sacramento Police Officers Association, including Steinberg and Councilwoman Angelique Ashby, and said they were “on the take.” Ashby, running the meeting in Steinberg’s absence, told Bliss not to call out individual members. Bliss continued.
“Jeff Harris, you’re as racist as Jim Crow, frankly,” said Bliss, who is Black, comparing the councilman to the 19th and 20th century laws that legalized segregation in southern states. “I’m done with that.”
Harris on Sept. 20 asked for an item to be placed on the agenda for council to take an “up or down vote” to consider removing Bliss from the commission.
“We regularly get people who come into chambers or on Zoom and hurl F-bombs at us and of course that kind of speech is protected speech,” Harris said Sept. 30. “However it’s not protected speech when you serve on one of our commissions ... Our rules of conduct apply to commission members as well as council members. Keyan Bliss last week called me as racist as Jim Crow.”
Harris continued, Bliss “has flipped off (Deputy Police Chief) Norm Leong more times than I can count. He’s used F-bombs on the mayor, myself and actually most of the members of this council. I consider that to be conduct unbecoming of a commission member and reason for removal from his stance on his commission. I actually believe that reprehensible behavior all but negates the credibility of the police review commission.”
The city handbook reads: “As an appointed representative of the City, commission members are expected to maintain an impeccable level of personal integrity and responsible conduct.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Harris called Bliss’s comments “slander.”
Roughly 30 people, including members of the Anti Police-Terror Project and the American Civil Liberties Union, gave public comments Tuesday urging the council to leave Bliss on the commission. The police commission Monday unanimously voted to urge the council to do the same.
Steinberg, Valenzuela, Vang, Ashby along with council members Rick Jennings and Eric Guerra said they did not want to consider removing Bliss from the commission.
After five council members said they would vote against agendizing that item, the number needed to pass it, Harris removed the request to remove Bliss.
Comments from police review commission members swayed Harris, he said.
“Since they believe Keyan Bliss should stay on the commission, I withdraw my request to remove him,” Harris said.
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 2:03 PM.
