Sacramento County’s Board of Supervisors needs new voices. This candidate offers change

In most elections, experienced candidates for the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors would have the edge over candidates who seem promising but have a lot to learn. This election season is different. It corresponds with a bleak period for the county.

Board members have been excoriated twice by the county grand jury for bungling the roll-out of federal COVID relief funds, accusations the county leadership has rejected.

Nav Gill, the former county CEO, “retired” in disgrace after being accused by several senior officials of creating a toxic workplace. The downtown jail is a disaster, and the county has been too slow to respond to a proliferation of homeless people camping on the American River Parkway. In each case, and others, elected board members were either derelict in their duties, made the wrong choice or were too slow to respond.

There needs to be a change in leadership on this board, a generational change. There is an urgent need for new ideas, fresh perspectives and different personalities. Though they lost the chance to move forward a new candidate in District 2, voters should back Jaclyn Moreno in District 5.

In an interview with the editorial board, we must admit that Pat Hume, Moreno’s opponent and an Elk Grove City Council veteran, expressed some sensible views. But while Hume would also be a newcomer to the board, we think he would have far too much in common with the passive leadership shown by the current board members.

Moreno will bring a fresh lens to this stale group. Her experience in the Cosumnes Community Services District has made her a fierce advocate for transparency, accountability and smart planning. Her work to help enact — and then actually follow — a climate action plan for the services district bodes well for Sacramento County, which has stalled its own plan for years, much to the chagrin of environmental advocates and the majority of constituents who consider climate change to be among the highest of priorities for local governments.

Hume’s responses to questions about the worsening homeless problems on the American River Parkway disappointingly boiled down to increasing enforcement — a tactic that overlooks the importance of having shelter or treatment available when a sweep is authorized, and is the same solution the current Board of Supervisors has been pushing with little success.

Sacramento County, like the city of Sacramento, needs leaders who are about more than just enforcement of the homeless issue. The county needs leaders committed to the hard work of increasing housing capacity so that there are places to put homeless people once they are moved.

We believe that Moreno is committed to doing the hard work on homelessness and mental health.

Sacramento County’s elected officials suffer from a lack of enthusiasm and innovation, a disservice to more than 500,000 people living in the unincorporated areas. The same staid politicians retain their seats for years in the absence of meaningful public oversight, perpetuating the same tired plans while the region’s crises only get worse.

Yes, Moreno is green in that she is new to the game and does not speak yet as politicians often do. But she is abound with ideas that will bring a much-needed shift in tone to the Board of Supervisors, such as a focus on mental health services.

And best of all, Moreno is not a part of the stale system that has led to the most recent county-wide scandals. Hume only represents a continuation of the same frustrations we are currently stuck with.

This county board needs a reset, which is why voters must back Moreno for District 5.

This story was originally published September 10, 2022 at 5:00 AM.