Bee Opinionated: Sacramento squabbles on homelessness + Troublesome supervisor steps down
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Robin Epley with The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, back with the best of the state’s opinion journalism over the last week.
“Sacramento’s response to the worsening homeless crisis is at a crossroads,” wrote the Editorial Board last week.
“The frustration among city residents, business owners and homeowners is understandable. But the people elected to solve community problems can’t simply exploit that frustration and call it leadership. That’s where we are in Sacramento today; we lack unified government leadership willing to come together in a new and broader partnership to expand the response to the homeless crisis. Right now, some silos are blaming others, and the problem simply gets worse.”
Civic leaders have separately expressed growing frustrations with city officials as unhoused people have congregated in large numbers around court facilities. A greater police response to homeless individuals who are violating a law or an ordinance will dramatically increase the caseload of the district attorney, but will those officials commit the necessary resources?
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho and his staff would have to coordinate closely with the very Sacramento city officials they are now investigating to identify and focus on the most troublesome street behavior.
A higher caseload for the district attorney would mean a higher one for Judge Michael Bowman at the county’s Superior Court who requested, via a June 29 letter, that “the Sacramento Police Department increase its presence near our downtown court locations, jury and employee parking lots.”
“What we are learning as this crisis deepens is how some governments working together is not enough,” wrote the editorial board. “All of our officials must make good-faith efforts to work together. No more letters, no more investigations, no more complaining about the city on talk radio. It is time to pick up the phone.”
So Long, Sue
Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost announced last week that she will not seek reelection in District 4, a seat she has held for some eight years. So I took some time to remember Frost’s greatest hits. Here’s just a few of them:
Refused to wear a mask in chambers
Showed up at anti-vaccine protests
Held an in-person, indoors, anti-COVID rally at the height of restrictions
Opposed a county resolution declaring racism a public health crisis
Allowed a disgraced doctor to promote ivermectin to the board
Called for the county to break off from state oversight during the pandemic
Was caught offering to help the would-be organizers of a California “People’s Convoy,” one of several rumored U.S. trucker protests in early 2022
Forced by her colleagues to sit inside a plexiglass box
Censured by those same colleagues for misusing her board chair position to promote wild conspiracy theories
I can only hope that District 4 will finally get a supervisor who represents their values and views, not someone who will repeat talking points they found in insurrectionist chatrooms.
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“What this vastly variable, mostly middle-class and mostly unincorporated area deserves is what District 3 found in County Supervisor Rich Desmond,” I wrote. “A moderate, conservative leader willing to work with colleagues. The residents don’t need — and never needed — another wannabe FOX News pundit embarrassing them from the dais.”
Op-ed roundup
How can anyone trust U.S. Supreme Court justices who won’t abide by an ethics code? by UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
“It is inexplicable and just plain wrong that the only judges in the United States who do not have to abide by an ethics code are the most important and powerful ones: Supreme Court justices.”
This is the water question that California politicians keep refusing to answer by Thomas Birmingham, former general manager of Westlands Water District
“The extreme, variable weather patterns caused by climate change demand California manage its water resources efficiently. Assertions that there is insufficient runoff to fill an enlarged reservoir ignore recent hydrology.”
Opinion of the Week
“ First, pivot. Then deflect. Lastly, confuse.” — Fresno Bee Opinion Editor Tad Weber, writing last week about House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s roundabout response to an amended indictment for former President Donald Trump, who allegedly mishandled classified documents after his time in office.
Got thoughts? What would you like to see in this newsletter every week? Got a story tip or an opinion to tell the world? Let us know what you think about this email and our work in general by emailing us at any time via opinion@sacbee.com.
Stay fresh,
Robin (with assistance this week from Hannah Holzer!)
