Q&A: New Sacramento city manager outlines homelessness, safety as priorities
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- Maraskeshia Smith began as Sacramento city manager, overseeing 6,000 staff.
- City faces $1.6B operating budget and looming shortfall that risks cuts.
- Smith prioritizes public safety, economic growth and homelessness solutions.
Sacramento began a new era this week with the official start of City Manager Maraskeshia Smith.
Smith, who began working on Monday, is the first Black woman to ever hold the position. Her job is perhaps City Hall’s most influential role, overseeing nearly 6,000 city employees, managing an operating budget of $1.6 billion and working directly with the City Council.
Smith enters the position at a time when the city is dealing with an ongoing budget shortfall that could require reductions in department services or employee layoffs. Sacramento also continues to deal with a homelessness crisis.
On Friday, in an interview with The Sacramento Bee, Smith cited resident “quality of life” as a priority across her career. Smith said she plans to emphasize public safety, economic development and homelessness in the coming months.
“Making certain that our residents and our businesses are safe, making certain that we’re addressing quality of life, the aesthetics of the city, the infrastructure, the cleanliness and that dovetails into our homeless population… We will provide the services. We will be compassionate about it, but we’re going to address the safety aspect of it,” Smith said.
She added that “we can’t tolerate the lawlessness” that comes with homelessness and expressed support for policies that would ban people from sleeping outside certain properties, similar to one enacted at City Hall last year. Such a decision would require City Council approval.
“We have to set the standard of stating what we’re going to tolerate and what we’re not going to tolerate,” Smith said. “And it’s unfair for businesses to come in and continue to have to clean feces up.”
Like other city leaders have stated, Smith said that the upcoming budget discussions will require “tough decisions.” She did not rule out employee layoffs and planned to explore eliminating more vacancies — a strategy the city used last year to balance the budget.
“I will tell you nothing is off the table,” Smith said.
Smith comes to the capital region from Santa Rosa, where she was the city manager for nearly four years. Sacramento hired Smith to replace its former City Manager Howard Chan who ended his tenure with criticism over his salary and decision-making.
The following interview with Smith, which covered her early priorities, the city’s budget and homelessness, has been edited for length and clarity.
How does it feel to be the first Black individual and woman to permanently hold this position?
“I always hope that I place myself in a situation where others can see that this is possible and that this is a career. It becomes the good, with the bad. I always want the community not to see the first Black female city manager, but I want them to see someone who is actually going to serve the entire community.”
Last year, Sacramento balanced its $62 million budget mostly by eliminating vacancies and raising some fees. What strategies do you see the city potentially using this budget cycle and in the coming years to ensure fiscal sustainability?
“We’re going to make some hard decisions. They’re going to have to be some tough decisions that need to be made with this budget. We can’t cut our way out of this. We have to grow the economic pie. We have to bring in businesses.”
Do you foresee any city employee layoffs this year?
“We’re working through that. I will tell you nothing is off the table. But I will also say that’s the hardest thing anyone could ever do. So if there are efficiencies, if there are vacancies, that we can actually move off the table, I say we start there first. Departments are going to really have to justify why they need — and I’m just using this number, for example — (a) $237 million budget.”
In your opening remarks (last September), you promised to break down silos and build bridges between departments. What disconnects do you see right now? And how do you plan on building those bridges?
“Sometimes we only look inside our jurisdiction, and we tend to protect our resources. We tend to only look at ourselves, and I think we have to look and work with the county. And then we have to look at our neighboring jurisdictions. And what I mean by that is we have to look at where we’re duplicating services, especially when we talk about the unsheltered population, are we duplicating services? Can we combine services so we can get greater economies of scale?”
Last year, as you might know, the mayor spearheaded a proposal that banned people from sleeping outside City Hall. Would you support other similar proposals across the city?
“Yes, because we have to have, we have to draw the line, right? Are we going to be compassionate about it 100%, but we have to set the standard of stating what we’re going to tolerate and what we’re not going to tolerate… It’s not okay, and it doesn’t make our residents feel safe. It doesn’t make our employees feel sorry. It doesn’t make our businesses feel safe.”
The city manager has the authority to select new sites for homeless people based on a council decision a few years ago. Last year, the city announced plans to pursue eight new sites. Since you are city manager, and none of these sites have begun construction, you could potentially change the locations of them. Do you support all the locations of these sites?
“Yeah, I support the direction that the city has determined they’re going to move in to this point.”
Do you plan on proposing any new locations for homeless sites this year?
“There are a few districts that the staff, they’ve been working with some of the council members to find additional locations, so there could be possibly more.”
What other strategies would you like to implement to help address the city’s homelessness population?
“Before I come in and make all kinds of recommendations and changes, I really want to get the landscape and understand exactly what we’re doing. I think the staff and this administration has done an amazing job. So some of it is just probably tightening up some ordinances, working with our community, I really want to hear from our community and understand where they are, how they feel that we’ve done.”
How will your leadership prioritize equity, both in city services and how employees are treated?
“Equity is who we are and what we should be doing. When we talk about equity for city services, and I’m a big proponent about looking at all the districts and saying, are we providing equitable services in and throughout the city?
You’re stepping in after what some people would say was a tumultuous end for the last city manager with criticism over his pay and decision-making. How do you plan to rebuild trust with the public and city employees?
“Communication. I’m here to serve the residents and the businesses of this city and of this community. We just need to remember that these jobs are tough, they’re hard. And the landscape that we have across the country, it’s very vitriolic. So we just need to remember some human kindness. Sometimes things happen. I will say the last city manager served with honor and dignity, and he moved this city forward, and that’s how we need to remember City Manager Chan. But for me, it’s just about community input, community feedback. I want to hear the good, I want to hear the bad, and I want to be able to move that message forward.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2026 at 2:39 PM.
