Kevin McCarty vows to be ‘mayor for everybody’ in Sacramento after declaring victory
Assemblyman Kevin McCarty vowed Wednesday to be a “mayor for everybody, every neighborhood” during his first news conference since declaring victory in the race for mayor over public health professional Flojaune Cofer.
McCarty outlined his immediate plans to tackle homelessness and bring more business, jobs and housing to the capital city once he takes office in December as the city’s 57th mayor, promising not to leave Sacramento residents behind.
“I don’t want to overpromise, I just want us to be a thriving city,” he said during remarks at City Hall. “What will Sacramento look like five or 10 years from now? I want to make sure people want to come to Sacramento and want to stay in Sacramento. But I also want to make sure we don’t forget about the neighborhoods throughout the city of Sacramento. We want to make sure we lift everybody at the same time.”
His “Streamline Sacramento” would “bring more jobs, more housing, more businesses to Sacramento.” The initial two-month process is expected to bring about ideas to streamline development, stimulate the economy and build more housing, he said.
McCarty enlisted Councilmember-elect Phil Pluckebaum to lead a 12-member team of small business owners, home inspectors, engineers, law firms and others to sketch out an initial plan.
McCarty will also launch an audit of the city’s homelessness response. Voters, he said, “want a more coordinated response and more efficiently and effectively spending our scarce dollars.” McCarty said he and Pluckebaum took a recent fact-finding trip to San Antonio, Texas, a city that had seen success in addressing homelessness through the city’s Haven for Hope transitional shelter campus.
McCarty said he will authorize an audit “on day one to come back and see where we are spending our money, focusing on results and services and getting people off of our streets.”
In an echo of his Tuesday evening statement, McCarty talked about the hard work ahead and the coalition that will be needed once he gets to City Hall. The Sacramento native, assemblyman and former Sacramento city councilman had made that coalition building a major theme of his bid for mayor: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
“I’m really humbled to step up and serve as the mayor of my hometown. It’s an awesome responsibility, a lot of hard work, but I’m ready to lean in and get to work to help move Sacramento forward,” McCarty said. He “thanked Sacramento for checking my name. ... I won’t let Sacramento down.”
A tight mayoral race
McCarty, who leads Cofer by some 2,600 votes, said his team was confident in calling the race. Cofer has not conceded as she waits for a final tally. The county will certify results on Dec. 3.
“We had three weeks,” McCarty said of the election tally. “We were, frankly, waiting for votes to be counted. We decided to make the call that we were successful.”
McCarty had collected endorsements from sitting Mayor Darrell Steinberg, former city council members and local business organizations including the Sacramento Asian Chamber of Commerce.
Voters “aren’t always pleased by the status quo. They want change. We heard voters loud and clear,” McCarty told reporters Wednesday.
“I want to make sure that I’m a mayor for everybody, for every neighborhood, for every individual, voters who voted for me and voters who didn’t vote for me,” he continued. “A mayor that serves everybody who brings people together and who doesn’t leave neighborhoods or people behind.”
McCarty said both he and Cofer “had a lot of commonality on so many issues.”
“I’m looking forward to sitting down with Dr. Cofer, certainly on homelessness and the issues of the day, he said.
“It was a real choice for the city of Sacramento. The voters had choices and it came down to essentially almost a coin flip,” McCarty continued, adding that Cofer “brought a lot to the table. She made the conversations at those 30 or so candidate forums meaningful. She helped bring issues to the forefront. She made me a better candidate and it’s going to help me serving Sacramento.”
McCarty said he will spend the next few weeks meeting with council members and staff getting up speed on key issues and preparing for the job ahead of the Dec. 10 swearing in.
“I’m excited about Sacramento,” McCarty said later. “I’m an optimist. We have a lot of problems, but I believe in people, I believe in neighborhoods and I believe in our community. I think about my mom, who came here as a single mom 45 years ago to Sacramento, and was given a chance, sometimes a second chance to thrive. I’m going to make sure we don’t forget people in Sacramento.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 3:58 PM.
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