Can Kevin McCarty become Mayor of Sacramento by making voters scared of Flo Cofer? | Opinion
In a polite and sometimes tense Sacramento mayoral election debate, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and public health activist Flojaune Cofer offered different paths for addressing the challenges of the homeless, public safety and City Hall. Behind the issues, however, emerged the issue of trust - which candidate deserves it - that may very well shape the outcome.
In repeated instances, it was McCarty who sought to portray Cofer as shifting her position on police and the homeless. It was Cofer who sought to stand her ground and portray her vision in her words, not those of her experienced opponent.
In an event co-hosted by The Sacramento Bee and KVIE Public Television, the debate depicted a race hanging in the balance, as so many residents have yet to settle on who they believe can best lead the city. Usually a candidate prefers to be the center of the debate’s attention. McCarty seemed to choose otherwise in the hopes of scaring the public about his opponent.
The question of “Underutilized Parks”
On homelessness, Cofer has sought an advantage by touting her public health experience. She is against sweeping homeless people from the streets in a repeat cycle. “We need to have places to go,” she said. And one idea she has suggested is to establish “safe villages” for homeless residents in “underutilized” city parkland.
“That’s a terrible idea,” McCarty said, portraying the proposal as converting existing active parklands into homeless sites. “Parks are cherished by a neighborhood,” he said. “Tell those 10 families they cannot utilize their city parks.”
That, said Cofer, is not her idea.
“He has completely mischaracterized my idea,” she said. “He knows it. It’s a lie.” As previously examined in Bee news stories, Cofer describes her own managed homeless encampment proposal for vacant parklands that are “empty lots.”
But McCarty wouldn’t stand down.
“Truth hurts,” he said.
McCarty “should be able to have plans of his own rather than to lie to try to win an election,” Cofer said.
The debate moved on.
“I want to go back to the parks,” McCarty said.
Don’t be surprised if your mailboxes are filled with fliers depicting Flojaune Cofer’s views on managed homeless encampments on certain city park parcels, and be prepared to decide whether the message is a revealing truth about a candidate or a distortion of a nuanced position.
Frankly, neither candidate had shelter ideas that seemed to match the scale of the problem. Besides, it is out of their control anyway, at least now. The Sacramento City Council has delegated all decisions on future managed homeless sites to City Manager Howard Chan. That McCarty was so interested in dwelling on this subject began to feel like overkill.
Public safety and police
“I think defunding and abolishing the police department is a bridge way, way too far,” McCarty said at the debate. It was perhaps the most startling statement of the debate. I have reviewed previous comments by Cofer suggesting reduced police funding and increased public safety efforts through prevention and economic development. But abolishing the department entirely?
Four years ago, on a local podcast, Cofer said she thought it was important to talk about defunding and abolishing, but she didn’t explicitly advocate for either. Rather, she supported the idea that police are sometimes dispatched on calls to deal with issues better served by health professionals. Cofer still likes that idea and her comments on the substance of public safety have been largely consistent over the years.
Lost in this rhetoric is a basic difference in how McCarty would like to increase the ranks of police while Cofer would like to use that increment of new spending in different ways. Neither came close to explaining where this money would come from in a budget facing structural deficits.
It will take five votes on the next City Council to pass a very difficult budget. The next mayor’s vote carries no greater weight than the other eight council members. McCarty’s view on public safety spending seems fairly traditional and undoubtedly has many Sacramentans on his side. Cofer is ready to “reimagine” how to achieve public safety. Neither of them said anything close to scary. As with his comments on parks, McCarty seemed intent to create fear about Cofer than to engage in what is a truly complex subject on how best to protect Sacramentans.
City Manager Howard Chan’s contract
In the broken record that is Chan’s quest for greater pay and a longer contract, despite being the highest-paid city manager in the state for two years running, the outgoing mayor and council are paralyzed on what to do about Chan. His contract expires at the end of the year. And the next mayor and the new city council, at its very first meeting in December, are required to discuss it, the outgoing council placing the matter on the agenda like an unsavory sausage.
A clear contrast emerged and without any fear-mongering.
Cofer has no interest in taking any action on Chan’s contract in a matter of weeks. She would want time to review his performance and how he has been evaluated in the past. “We shouldn’t put an albatross around the neck of the next council,” she said.
McCarty, meanwhile, was supportive of granting Chan’s request to extend his contract for another year. “I can work with him in the first year,” he said. “I think it is important to have continuity in the early days.”
On style and substance
In the television studio, I noticed how McCarty generally answered questions by looking at the moderators, not the camera aimed to make direct eye contact with the viewing public back in living rooms. Cofer did not make that mistake, as if she was the one with 20 years of political experience and accustomed to the setting. Whether a small stylistic error made McCarty less persuasive will be in the eye of the beholder.
It can be a risk for a candidate seeking higher office to challenge an opponent as having ideas that sound unsettling. McCarty chose to take that risk, repeatedly. Cofer took a few swings herself, particularly when challenging his lack of success in preventing any of today’s Sacramento problems. But largely she stuck to her message, save for the times she felt McCarty was lying and distorting her views.
McCarty seems to want this election to be about whether the voters can trust Flo Cofer. Whether her positions are truly her weakness or her advantage will be revealed come November by voters who need to pay very close attention.
This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM.