Our most disappointing Sacramento politician: Kennedy is a guy who loses important keys
If there is one local politician who is an abject disappointment, it’s Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy.
It’s not that Kennedy is a bad guy, because he’s not. I’ve sat with him on more than one occasion and he can be very kind and considerate. But there has always been something about Kennedy that doesn’t compute, doesn’t make sense, despite outward qualities that are attractive until you get to know the guy and watch him in action – or inaction.
Right now, Kennedy is at the forefront of a decision before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to provide some oversight of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. The public has been clamoring for this for more than a year. A year ago, the public packed county chambers demanding that the board rein in Sheriff Scott Jones.
Finally, a year later, a measure is coming before the board – maybe. Key information that should have been provided to the public days ago only became available late Monday. What’s going to happen on Tuesday? Who knows?
But I know this after years of experience – this kind of silliness has been a pattern with our friend Kennedy for as long as he’s been on the political scene.
Back in the late 1980s, Kennedy was a student of the late Joe Serna Jr., the former Sacramento Mayor and Sacramento State government professor.
The late Mayor Joe thought enough of Kennedy to endorse him when he ran for city council back in 1993. Kennedy was 25 then and something weird happened in that race. Kennedy told The Bee that he had graduated from Sacramento State. But within days, a Sac State official told The Bee that Kennedy’s graduation could not be confirmed.
“I wish they would have told me this. I didn’t know,” Kennedy told Deb Kollars, then a Bee reporter. After some hemming and hawing by our guy, Kollars quoted Kennedy saying this: “I lose my keys a lot, too.”
Capitulated to teachers union
I didn’t pay much mind to this at that time, but in retrospect, that little comment from Kennedy about his keys was emblematic of who he was and still is. It would not be the last time Kennedy tried to cover a pratfall with a smarmy joke or excuse. He was losing keys in the 90s, losing his way today.
Kennedy lost that 1993 race to the far more qualified Deborah Ortiz. Kennedy’s path and mine would then intersect a little more than 20 years later when Kennedy was a member of the Sacramento Unified School District Board.
It was April of 2014 and Kennedy was the school board president running for the supervisors seat he eventually won. There is a picture of him from that time frame that I’ll never forget. It ran in EdSource, the education publication, and it showed Kennedy with his little hands in pockets, looking completely forlorn while standing next to leaders of the local teachers union.
They were announcing district policy – yes, district policy – at the union hall. The school board, led by Kennedy, had capitulated to the Sacramento City Teachers Association. The district pulled out of a consortium of school districts seeking to make reforms and improve school performance.
The Obama White House was pushing school accountability and one way was linking teacher performance to test scores. The goal was to lift the performances of low-income students but SCTA blocked it and Kennedy went along. The image of him at the union hall was the picture of capitulation and foreshadowed the continued labor strife in the district today.
Reasonable people can debate whether linking test scores to teacher performance is the way to go but here is the thing: Kennedy wouldn’t talk to me about it. He texted me that he had a sore throat.
Yeah, first lost keys and now a sore throat. He led a critical decision with big implications for the school district and ducked talking about it.
Sheriff oversight
In 2016, I cracked Kennedy and other supervisors for appealing a judgment that went against the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. The department had been sued by four female deputies and a county jury sided with women, awarding them more than $3 million in damages.
I read the court transcripts and the women clearly were on solid ground. I tried to point out relevant passages to Kennedy and others and my point was that by appealing, the supervisors were just costing taxpayers more money. Kennedy took umbrage:
“As an attorney, I am sickened by the many frivolous lawsuits filed every day against government agencies,” he wrote in a rebuttal of my column to The Bee. “It is often in the agency’s best interest to settle rather than fight, regardless of who is right or wrong. Deciding how to proceed in litigation is difficult, and rarely black and white.”
By phrasing it the way he did, a reasonable person could deduce that Kennedy was intimating the lawsuit by the female deputies was frivolous.
Ever the wordsmith, Kennedy also wrote this: “I understand Bretón’s failure to comprehend the nuances of handling litigation as an elected official. He is neither an attorney nor an elected official privy to the conversations that take place in closed session, where litigation is discussed and is, by law, confidential...His journalistic skills appear to be AWOL on this one.”
That was in September of 2016.
In May of 2017, the county settled the lawsuit. I wrote: “And it’s costing plenty. How much? Try more than $10 million.” There was $3.6 million the jury order, $5.3 million in legal fees and $1.15 million to try the case and file appeals.
Kennedy had written of his intention to “introduce a proposal creating a citizen oversight committee to provide independent community involvement when looking into activities of the department.” Does such a committee – one with real teeth – exist three years later? Nope.
When Kennedy took over as the chair of the board in January, the hope was that he would deliver real oversight for a department that needs it. Last year, Kennedy seemed upset when Sheriff Scott Jones grew angry that the county inspector general raised questions about a fatal shooting involving county deputies.
Jones locked the IG – former Sacramento Police Chief, Rick Braziel – out of his buildings. Kennedy was upset. I talked to him about it.
But in meetings late last year, he seemed to be wavering and wobbling. Supervisors Don Nottoli and Phil Serna made strong comments in support of Braziel. But Kennedy worried me then, though I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
We had talked, I held no grudges about his op-ed in the Bee and local justice advocates were looking forward to him being the chair of the board. Well, what happened? Almost an entire year has gone by and the inspector general issue went dormant. For much of Monday, Kennedy seemed ready to rush a vote on a new IG, even though hardly anyone knew who was being recommended. By the end of the day, he had recommended it be discussed only, with a vote on Dec. 10.
Acting like a Republican
And all year long, Kennedy has acted more like a Republican than anything. He joined with the two Republicans on the board – Sue Frost and Susan Peters – to extend the contract of County CEO Nav Gill. Why is this significant? Because Gill allowed Jones to lock Braziel out while basically acting like he was subordinate to Jones.
Even worse, Kennedy joined Frost and Peters in voting down a measure that would have moved some board meetings to evenings so more people could attend. You have working people who can’t camp out all day at board meetings. Having some meetings at night is about transparency. It’s about representative government.
Kennedy voted “no.”
And most galling of all, he didn’t say a word. He just punched his button. Actually, maybe it would have been worse if he had said something because it likely would have been as annoying as lost keys or a sore throat.
If Frost and Peters have influence over Kennedy, it certainly didn’t work the other way around in a key vote that would have provided county residents with a temporary ban on no-fault evictions. Frost and Peters shot the measure down with their two votes with Kennedy sitting right there.
Maybe Mayor Joe was wrong about Kennedy all along? Maybe all of us who thought Kennedy would be a progressive voice on the board were wrong as well. He’s up for re-election in 2022 and we have a lot to think about between then and now.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 5:30 AM.
