Who’s running Sacramento’s District 3? Karina Talamantes, Michael Lynch compete for council seat
Two first-time candidates are running to represent South Natomas on the Sacramento City Council this fall. Sacramento County Board of Education member Karina Talamantes and nonprofit leader Michael Lynch are competing for District 3.
Karina Talamantes
Party: Democrat
Age: 33
Birthplace: Paradise, Calif.
Residence: South Natomas
Occupation: Chief of staff to Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby
Education: University of California, Davis, bachelor of science in community regional development
Offices held: Trustee of Sacramento County Board of Education, director at Sacramento Public Library Authority
Website: karinatalamantes.org
The city is in a severe homelessness crisis. What types of solutions are you in favor of? Safe Grounds? Large congregate shelters? Tiny homes? Something else? Where would you propose these be built in your district?
I support tiny homes, safe grounds, hotel conversions, housing vouchers, and am open to innovative ideas that will come across my desk. All these housing solutions must be tied to wrap-around services. District 3 will be home to two projects: Joshua’s House, a homeless hospice which is across the street from Garden Valley Elementary School and the Staybridge Hotel conversion in North Natomas. I will be focused on these two projects as a council member to ensure we have good communication with the community and that they are successful in their mission to serve our unhoused population. I will not move forward with projects in my district without the proper input from my community.
What would you do to improve housing affordability in Sacramento?
The single most constructive thing we can do to battle the astronomical rise of housing costs in our city is increasing supply across all income levels. Sacramento needs more homes available in the marketplace and we need to lead the way on building more affordable housing. As your council member, I will: streamline residential development, reduce costs and barriers to new housing development, press for the state government to find a new, creative, and fiscally accountable model to finally replace local government redevelopment funding. The city of Sacramento should build public housing and put more dollars into the Housing Trust Fund.
The Sacramento Police Department often asks the council for more funding, saying their staffing levels have not kept up with the city’s growth over the last decade. Activists say we need to reduce police funding and reallocate it to mental health and youth programs. Would you vote to substantially increase the police budget to add more police officers?
Yes, our police department was cut by two hundred officers just a few years ago during the recession and we have now built back to within ninety officers. Right now, our officers are working overtime because there aren’t enough officers to cover all the shifts during a regular work day. I also support community oriented policing so that officers become part of the community. I support preventative measures for our youth which means investment in our Sacramento libraries, increasing programming with our Sacramento Youth & Parks division, and supporting more after school programs like 4th R where we partner with our local school districts.
Michael Lynch
Party: Democrat
Age: 33
Birthplace: San Jose
Residence: South Natomas
Occupation: Youth Nonprofit Co-founder/CEO, Improve Your Tomorrow
Education: Sacramento State, master’s degree in public policy and administration; Humboldt State University, bachelor’s degree in business administration
Offices held: Governor’s appointee to California Volunteers Commission
Website: MichaelforSacramento.com
The city is in a severe homelessness crisis. What types of solutions are you in favor of? Safe Grounds? Large congregate shelters? Tiny homes? Something else? Where would you propose these be built in your district?
The finger pointing, lack of accountability and the complexity of this system is maddening. Addressing homelessness in Sacramento requires an all-of-the- above approach where we urgently pursue every possibility of housing, shelter, and safe-camping that will get people off the streets and into safer settings with the services they need to reclaim their lives. We also need to be sure our existing laws are being enforced – especially for violent crime, retail and property theft, and drug dealing. Everyone in our society must follow the laws that protect us all, regardless of their housing status. We have all seen the tragic scenes of untreated mental illness on our streets. I believe the city must establish a legally binding partnership with Sacramento County to expand access to supportive services like mental health and substance abuse treatment, with clear benchmarks and accountability. We also must ensure our community is prepared to fully utilize new Care Courts to help people who suffer from severe mental illness get services, including residential treatment facilities for individuals who need the highest level of care. With regards to locations, I support utilizing city property or the leasing of county or private property in appropriate locations that are not near schools, playgrounds, neighborhood parks, or daycare centers.
What would you do to improve housing affordability in Sacramento?
The City Council needs to be an active partner in a community-wide effort to increase housing supply and improve housing affordability in our city. When voters passed Measure U in 2018, we were promised a portion of those funds would be used to catalyze the creation of more housing that we desperately need. On the City Council, I will be a fierce advocate for investing substantial resources into the building of housing that is affordable for people to rent or own. Additionally, I believe that if the city of Sacramento Tenant Protection Program, negotiated in 2019, coupled with the actions the State of California took with AB 1482 in that same year, are not meeting the needs of our community, then we must swiftly reengage all of the stakeholders to develop solutions that ensure Sacramentans have access to quality housing that is affordable for our residents.
The Sacramento Police Department often asks the council for more funding, saying their staffing levels have not kept up with the city’s growth over the last decade. Activists say we need to reduce police funding and reallocate it to mental health and youth programs. Would you vote to substantially increase the police budget to add more police officers?
Keeping our communities safe does not require an either/or decision to be made. We need to invest more in community-based violence prevention programs, while at the same time ensuring we are attracting, training and retaining quality police officers who reflect the communities they are policing. As the CEO of an organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of young people, I am intimately familiar with the importance that safe communities play in establishing an environment where our families can thrive. Hiring more officers will allow us to bring 9-1-1 response times down and ensure our neighborhoods have the resources they need to be safe.