Sacramento mayoral candidates civilly debate the contentious issues that face the city
With six weeks to go in the race for Sacramento mayor, a debate between Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and Flojaune “Flo” Cofer held at the Congregation B’nai Israel in Land Park, was most notable for its civility.
At one point Sunday, amid a debate on policy — ranging from bike lanes, to slavery reparations, to how to deal with the city’s homelessness crisis — McCarty poured a glass of water for Cofer.
Even an attempt by someone to smear Cofer as a politician too cozy with Palestinian protesters backfired.
Outside the temple, someone pretending to be part of the event handed out a document to attendees. The document had the look of something official.
“Mayoral Forum Information Packet,” the handout said, with all the event’s sponsors listed on the first page.
The next two pages, however, attacked Cofer.
“Flo smiles with our enemies while Jews mourn,” it said, in part.
It took a while for event organizers to realize what had happened.
Judy Heiman from B’nai Israel’s Racial Justice Committee, one of the sponsors, interrupted the forum to make clear the packet had violated the forum’s rules against promotional or outside materials being handed out, and was inappropriate.
“The information in it is misleading and inflammatory, with half-truths and plenty of omissions to paint a biased picture of one of the candidates positions on an incredibly important issue to many of us here,” she said. “It’s very disrespectful of the spirit of this forum.”
An audience member asked the candidates to weigh in on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and what kind of stand, if any, the city should take.
“What I would like to see is a ceasefire, and that’s why in our primary, I was the only candidate running for mayor that called for a cease fire and the safe return of the people who had been kidnapped,” Cofer said. “Because I’m a public health professional, and I know that that is the right thing to do.”
Cofer said she saw a role for the city to take symbolic stands.
McCarty responded that he would not “agendize foreign policy” for the city.
“It tugs out our hearts, but I don’t think that Prime Minister Benjamin, Bibi, Netanyahu is looking for a city of Sacramento resolution to tell them what to do,” he said. “I think we have really important stuff to do in the city of Sacramento, balancing our $40 million deficit, making sure our streets are safe.”
Focus on issues
For the most part, the audience was more interested in the issues directly facing the city.
Jim Shoch, a retired Sacramento State professor who came with his wife to the debate, said he was impressed by both candidates.
“It was respectful, and the respectful thing is good, especially given the level of national debate is so appalling,” he said. “Well, at least on one side, we’re both confirmed Democrats, and Trump terrifies us. They both had substantive takes on the homeless issue. Whether we should put homeless sites at Cal Expo, or on yet-to-be-established public parks, that’s something I haven’t thought much about.”
Shoch said he is still undecided on which of the candidates he’ll choose in November.
“McCarty, he’s impressive because of experience and legislation that he’s introduced and passed,” he said. “Dr. Flo, she seems knowledgeable, has executive experience and an inspirational persona. I’m sort of thinking either one of them could be a fine mayor.”
The forum ran a little over an hour. Both candidates identified the issues of homelessness and blight as important, and each personalized the issue.
“Just a few weeks ago, I woke up with somebody sleeping in my backyard,” said Cofer, an epidemiologist. “Now, I’m trained in behavioral health. So I know what to do, but I don’t expect that of the 540,000 people who live in Sacramento. We need to be able to call for help and get help immediately and have a place for people to go, because ‘not here’ is not an answer.”
McCarty, a former city councilman, noted the issue of homelessness was one his inspirations for running.
He referenced the experience of his two teenage daughters, currently at C.K. McClatchy High School, when they were at Miwok Middle School.
“When they were walking home from middle school, they were having to dodge encampments to get home from school,” he said. “And I didn’t feel our response was adequate enough, so I decided I wanted to run for mayor to make Sacramento safe for them today, and for all of you, and for all neighborhoods.”
More cops versus shifting resources
One substantial policy difference that emerged was staffing for police.
McCarty maintained that the number of police officers in the city has not increased enough to keep pace with a 67,000 increase in population. Cofer said that police do too much of the work that is more appropriate for city staff equipped to take on social problems.
“I don’t believe in cutting money from our police budget,” McCarty said. “I support adequately funding our police department.”
He added that, with the population growth and only 49 more police officers, fewer people respond to more calls, more protests downtown and more concerts and related security matters.
Cofer countered that 32% of Sacramento police officers’ time is spent is on non-police tasks.
“And it’s especially expensive if we have 115 vacancies, and we’re using those vacancies to pay them time and a half to do things that we could have had other professionals do,” Cofer said.
She added that money could be shifted to the city’s Department of Community Response, which is tasked with homeless outreach.
McCarty said that areas of the city which are more economically challenged should look more like Land Park, where the debate was held, when it comes to safe streets. Cofer continued the public safety discussion with talk about pedestrian safety, which has come to the fore at city council after several recent high-profile roadway deaths.
“My very first City Commission was the Active Transportation Commission, and during that time, we worked on the bicycle master plan ...” she said. “And we also mapped out something called the ‘high injury network,’ and that network shows us that 17% of our roadways are responsible for 84% of the places where people are killed or severely injured.
This year, 21 people have been killed on city streets, including 14 pedestrians and cyclists and two young women on scooters.
“So when I was talking earlier today about public safety being more than just an emergency response. That’s part of it, because public safety is also, ‘did you leave from point A and go to point B, C and D and make it back to point A safely?’”
Both candidates expressed strong support for bike lanes.
Put homeless in pre-parks
Most of the questions came from the audience and were read by a moderator. The candidates could ask one question of each other. McCarty tried to put Cofer on the defensive by raising a stance she had taken previously proposing that the city build homeless camps in some of the city’s 240-plus parks.
But Cofer said her idea is not about giving active parks over to the homeless.
“There are 244 parks listed on our city’s website, and among them, some of them don’t exist yet,” she said. “Our housing crisis is a crisis, and so we need to be willing to look at any available parcels that exist, including some that are pre-parks.”
McCarty, meanwhile, called the use of some of the fairgrounds at Cal Expo “a no-brainer,” and said other solutions were available that do not include parks.
“We just recently bought 100 acres in south Sacramento that we’re going to have one day a sports complex there,” he said. “We can utilize some of that now for emergency housing.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2024 at 10:45 AM.
