Sacramento City Councilwoman Caity Maple made a big mistake. Will she ever admit it? | Opinion
Less than two months after taking office as the youngest member of the Sacramento City Council, Caity Maple has a problem that won’t go away: Her most passionate supporters feel betrayed.
They fell in love with her progressive persona, which included a pledge to reject the militarization of Sacramento’s police department. That stance set her apart from her opponent, Tamiko Heim, whom she defeated at the polls last November to earn a spot on the council dais at the young age of 31.
But since Jan. 31, when Maple voted with the majority to approve an armored vehicle called a “Rook” for city cops, she has been hearing it from constituents. That was certainly evident right after her armored vehicle vote, and that was the prevailing theme last Tuesday during her first “Town Hall” with constituents.
Maple heard from the very people who stumped, donated, vouched for and believed in her. She was a candidate they thought would promote their closely-held principles of progressive politics. They hoped she would bring a needed level of skepticism to the city police budget, which totals more than $224 million — 16% of the city’s total budget.
Absent any signal from Maple beforehand, her vote stunned her District 5 constituents and friends alike, especially as Maple had taken no police donations to her campaign.
From a purely political standpoint, Maple broke simple rules of Politics 101: If you present yourself one way and then behave in another (especially without talking first to your supporters) you’re going to hear about it.
In short, don’t lie to your constituents.
The other basic political rule Maple broke was failing to count. The armored vehicle would have been approved with or without her vote, so from a practical standpoint, she’s been getting pilloried for taking a vote she didn’t even need to stick her neck out for.
Frustrated Maple supporters in District 5, however, are less concerned about Maple’s ability to quickly learn the warped ways of politics than they are at themselves for believing in her. Her vote for the Rook was a complete about-face from what she told us when she was selling herself as a candidate.
We thought she was different from most politicians; now we feel played. And, ultimately, we have no one to blame but ourselves for believing Maple might be different.
Accountable to the district
Maple’s reasoning for the vote, finally presented at Tuesday’s meeting, was mostly that she is young and new to the job. She admitted that she did not do the necessary research or proper outreach beforehand, and that she was swayed by the Sacramento Police Department’s assertions that the Rook could be used in armed domestic violence situations, a subject she cares deeply about.
But these excuses rang hollow and felt cold for many assembled in the Town Hall Zoom call. Youth and inexperience are hardly justification for a serious decision that will harm, perhaps fatally, people in the very communities she represents.
As the elected official of these historically over-policed communities and as a white woman who has the profound responsibility to represent people of color and represent them well, Maple has no excuse for not giving this vote more thought.
District 5, which encompasses large swaths of Oak Park and South Sacramento, is full of Black and brown neighborhoods that are home to Sacramentans who have first-hand experience with the police. They have lived with the militarization of police for years and suffered under their elected officials’ unquestioning support of law enforcement in the name of “public safety.”
The backlash Maple has faced since Jan. 31 was exacerbated by her initial lack of communication. That night, she said little. Then there was a belated, insincere statement.
This town hall was announced shortly after the public outcry. It wasn’t much of a town hall though. It was held solely online, with a limited number of speakers for the more than 100 attendees, and the evening’s discussion would be limited to three pre-approved topics: What are your concerns around the Rook vote? What would accountability look like to you and the community regarding policing policies? And what are suggestions for how best to engage with the community in defining or making decisions about policing policies?
From the start, an overwhelming number of participants went after Maple herself, calling the evening “a pathetic excuse” and “the opposite of accountability,” and asking her to “acknowledge that (she) broke a promise and apologize.”
There seems to be a generational split over how Maple’s supporters have so vehemently criticized her. Some argue that Maple showed the ability to change her mind — a useful tool for a politician. But younger voters, her primary base, found inspiration in the beliefs she presented on the campaign trail and expected her to hold fast to them.
Our generation is tired of politics as usual, and if we express ourselves in ways that more moderate and older voters don’t like… well, all I can say is that’s democracy.
Perhaps the strongest testimonies were from audience members who claimed to be Maple’s friends and supporters. Their feelings of betrayal were acute and devastating.
“I hope this is a crossroads and you have a chance to become the leader that I think we were all hoping you were going to be,” said Evan Minton, who said he donated to the Maple campaign.
“The people who know you don’t recognize you,” said Zoe Kipping, another person present on the Zoom call who said she considered herself a friend of Maple’s and supported her campaign.
Maple, meanwhile, remained mostly stoic on-camera, occasionally nodding and taking notes. She spoke only a few times, once at the start of the meeting and again at the end to discuss what she’d heard and to publish her notes on-screen. She never addressed any speakers directly.
A statement from Kim Carter Martinez, Maple’s own appointee to the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission, was particularly impactful. Carter Martinez was invited to attend the town hall by Maple and her staff, and was appointed to the council just a few weeks before the Rook vote was made.
“I felt like Caity voted against the values that I thought that she had,” Carter Martinez told me later. “And that was disappointing…. I don’t think Caity is an inherently bad person. I quite like her, and I do think she has some good values, and that’s why I supported her when she was running for office. I think she made a really big mistake on this vote, and I think she made a big mistake on how the lack of outreach to the community on something that’s so polarizing.”
Maple moving forward
Ultimately, the meeting went about as well as the councilwoman could have possibly hoped, though perhaps not as well as her constituents deserved.
While some audience members spoke in support of Maple, others say she needs to acknowledge her error and use her position to promote the suggestions of the Police Review Commission.
“But in the meantime,” Maple said, “we’re going to be moving forward.”
Maple may yet be able to overcome this early stumble with time and the natural forgetfulness of a world that moves on rather too quickly these days. But it will take a lot more accountability and a lot more communication than she’s currently demonstrating.
Maple is fully capable of that. She can still throw her voice and fledgling political weight behind the progressive policies she stood behind during her campaign.
Or, perhaps, this slap on the wrist will prove too much for the councilwoman, and Maple will retreat again. I hope not. We need brave people on the city council.
Whether this will be a blip in the budding politician’s career — or a defining incident — remains to be seen. But what is obvious is this: Maple has a lot of work to do, and it will be a long time before the voters of District 5 forget what happened.
This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
