The Bee endorses much-needed change for Sacramento County Supervisors’ District 1 | Opinion

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors desperately needs a change agent. It does not meet regularly with the city on homelessness. It is not adequately providing care for mentally ill and addicted residents living on the streets. And unlike the city of Sacramento, the county government is not showing any interest in finding more shelter sites, as if the crisis is over.

The much-welcome departure of Supervisor Phil Serna after four unremarkable terms of representing the 1st District, which encompasses downtown and North Natomas, creates a crucial opening for a new perspective. That person will need courage, conviction and boundless energy to tackle a very difficult job.

Flojaune Cofer is the candidate on the ballot who has best demonstrated these attributes in recent years. The county isn’t heading in a promising direction. It’s going to take someone strong to make a difference.

The board has a deep-rooted cultural problem of avoiding difficult conversations that inevitably come with any government response to a problem as wicked and complex as homelessness. Current supervisors can be thin-skinned, defensive and resistant to change.

Two prime examples come to mind. Sacramento Councilmember Karina Talamantes got hit with a nasty county press release when she asked supervisors why they didn’t provide advance notice of how they would spend $25 million in state funds on homelessness. Then, last year, Serna and Supervisor Patrick Kennedy lashed back at the newest board member, Rosario Rodriguez, when she lamented the lack of a strategic plan on homelessness. Without a vision of how to address the unhoused, she worried that Sacramento County would “continue to see people fall into homelessness.”

Cofer ran a close second in 2024 to Kevin McCarty as both vied to become mayor of Sacramento. The Bee supported her for similar reasons: she saw deep and structural management problems at City Hall and shook up the establishment with a vigorous grassroots campaign that changed the art of the possible in local politics.

Cofer, frankly, is a better fit for the supervisor role. Her education and career background are in public health. Sacramento County is the provider of public health and care for our poorest residents. This board lacks a professional with a social service background, yet must oversee the county’s delivery of these services. Cofer’s resume was written for this job.

This board remains too compliant with development interests that want to build in the wrong places. Supervisors never say no to a big project, no matter how far away, approving more than 100,000 units that have never been built. Now Serna, in one last insult to his district, is championing three projects in North Natomas. Cofer opposes them and the rotten political culture behind them. She won’t cave to peer pressure to go along and get along.

This race has two other highly qualified candidates with extensive political experience in Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra and Deborah Ortiz, a former councilmember, state legislator, and now a board member of the Los Rios Community College District. Both have years of experience. Both seek this board seat for all the right reasons. Computer programmer Tim Riley is also seeking the office.

If the county were a better collaborator on homelessness and was more consistently reaching our most needy residents with the services they need, Guerra would likely have been our pick for this job. His life story — being snuck across the Mexican border as a child, living in his car as he studied in college and rising in Sacramento politics — is inspirational. After 11 years on the council, there is no doubting his knowledge of issues or his commitment to Sacramento.

But there were key moments when Guerra was too willing to go along with something he had to know was wrong.

In December 2023, for example, he approved yet another raise for then City Manager Howard Chan at a meeting that turned out to be illegal for its short notice to the public. Guerra only managed to change his mind when the issue resurfaced on the agenda because an irate public was blowing up his phone.

If Guerra’s career to date in politics is any indication, an election to the county board could become an appointment for the rest of his political lifetime. No incumbent supervisor in Sacramento County has lost in a bid for reelection in decades. The only time there is true competition for a seat is when it is open. That is why the selection is so important.

Cofer sees what Sacramento County residents have in common — a desire for a safe neighborhood, an affordable home, a job and health care. Any board member who is a true change agent can’t succeed through confrontation, but through relentless diplomacy and persistence.

Cofer would be unlike any supervisor Sacramento County has ever seen. Voters should seize the moment.