Sacramento’s City Manager may say he’s apolitical, but his actions say otherwise | Opinion
City managers get hired and fired by the council members whom voters elect. Normally, managers keep a considerable distance from the politics of their bosses.
Then there’s Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan.
After the March 5 election, he attended a small event celebrating City Council candidate Phil Pluckebaum, who appears to be headed toward unseating current Councilmember Katie Valenzuela., one of Chan’s current bosses.
Chan also attended celebrations of mayoral candidates who will not make the November runoff: former City Councilman Steve Hansen and former state Sen. Richard Pan. Pluckebaum and Hansen are politically moderate candidates who enjoy varying degrees of support from Sacramento’s business community. So does Chan, who made the political rounds on election night, just like Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
But Chan is not the mayor, nor do voters elect him.
“Howard has relationships with groups and coalitions throughout all parts of the city, and these watch parties and other events provide an opportunity to see people in person and network with attendees, including many other elected officials,” said city spokesman Tim Swanson.
There’s a fine line for city staff attempting to engage in public life without appearing partisan. But in the current election cycle, Chan’s socializing with those in power and those seeking it did not include all factions in town. Chan stayed squarely in one camp: that of establishment candidates backed by businesses. On the evening of March 6, Chan appeared in several photos with Pluckebaum supporters that were posted on Facebook. In one, used to illustrate this column, Pluckebaum happily mugged for the camera with Chan in the background.
Pluckebaum, Pan and Hansen share the belief that the city of Sacramento is doing a horrible job managing the homeless crisis. They are sympathetic in varying degrees to District Attorney Thien Ho’s lawsuit against the city, which he hopes will result in courts forcing the city to somehow do more.
The irony here is that nearly the entire responsibility of homeless management falls to Chan himself — not the City Council. It is Chan who has the authority to manage the police department, the fire department and the city’s Department of Community Response.
Yet, in Sacramento’s world of politics, Chan receives none of the blame. The establishment has blamed it all, unfairly, on Mayor Steinberg (and so has the district attorney in his lawsuit). Defying the city’s actual organizational chart that has the city manager in charge of all management, Ho — in court — is blaming homeless management on “Darrell’s directives.” Ho’s lawsuit is an inappropriately personal and derisive jab at Steinberg himself for allegedly exercising powers that he does not have.
Chan’s socializing with the establishment sends a clear signal that he is personally immune while his city gets sued and his mayor wrongly gets blamed.
Chan’s schmoozing with Pluckebaum underscores the reality that the city manager doesn’t care and sees nothing wrong with being out in public with those celebrating Valenzuela’s political demise.
“Howard did not attend Katie Valenzuela’s watch party this year,” Swanson said. “I do not believe she invited him to attend.”
It’s no secret that Valenzuela and Chan got off on the wrong foot and, at times, have struggled in council meetings to maintain civility. Chan believed that podcast comments made by Valenzuela’s initial chief of staff put his family in jeopardy, prompting the city to unsuccessfully seek a restraining order to prevent his presence in City Hall. Valenzuela has voted against every budget proposed by Chan.
“As you know, the city manager serves the city council, and they are his supervisors,” Swanson said. ”The city manager has not endorsed any candidates, and his personal preferences for various elected offices are exactly that — his personal preferences. Like all voters in Sacramento, he has a right to participate in democracy.”
Chan’s establishment had a bad election cycle. The establishment’s two preferred candidates for mayor, Hansen and Pan, fell just short of making the runoff. Chan did not socialize at an election event with either of the two mayoral candidates who advanced to the November runoff, activist Flo Cofer and state Assemblyman Kevin McCarty.
The issue isn’t whether Chan should have the right to vote; it’s whether Chan has shown appropriate judgment for his position by associating himself so blatantly and exclusively with a single political faction in town that has been so hostile to his own city and mayor.
Don’t blame Chan for having nothing to fear as he has evolved into the town’s most powerful politico. It is because he controls a majority of the council (not the other way around).
Cofer and McCarty, meanwhile, should take note of who didn’t show up to support them and who so visibly preferred the company of the losing candidates. In my three decades in Sacramento, Chan is a unique brand of city manager in a left-of-center city who hangs with the center-right interests. A little coalition building would be good for the city, as well as his job security.
This story was originally published March 27, 2024 at 5:00 AM.