Sacramento County’s Board of Supervisors needs new voices. These candidates offer change

In most elections, experienced candidates for the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors would have the edge over candidates who seem promising but have a lot to learn. This election season is different. It corresponds with a bleak period for the county.

Board members have been excoriated twice by the county grand jury for bungling the roll-out of federal COVID relief funds, accusations the county leadership has rejected.

Nav Gill, the former county CEO, “retired” in disgrace after being accused by several senior officials of creating a toxic workplace. The downtown jail is a disaster, and the county has been too slow to respond to a proliferation of homeless people camping on the American River Parkway. In each case, and others, elected board members were either derelict in their duties, made the wrong choice or were too slow to respond.

There needs to be a change in leadership on this board, a generational change. There is an urgent need for new ideas, fresh perspectives and different personalities. In two important supervisor races this year, voters should back Duke Cooney in District 2 and Jaclyn Moreno in District 5.

In an interview with the editorial board, incumbent Supervisor Patrick Kennedy was sometimes more polished than Cooney, his young challenger for the District 2 seat in South Sacramento. But as Kennedy spoke, the need for change on the county board became clearer. His candidacy furthers the same status-quo patterns that are failing county residents. The county’s response to increasing homelessness, the pandemic, housing development, climate change, economic insecurity and so much more.

Likewise, Pat Hume, Moreno’s opponent and an Elk Grove City Council veteran, expressed sensible views during an interview. And while Hume would also be a newcomer to the board, we think he would have too much in common with the passive leadership shown by most board members.

Moreno will bring a fresh lens to a stale group. Her experience in the Consumnes Community Services District has made her a fierce advocate for transparency, accountability and smart planning. Her work to help enact — and then actually follow — a climate action plan for the services district bodes well for Sacramento County, which has stalled its own plan for years, much to the chagrin of environmental advocates and the majority of constituents who consider global warming a priority.

Cooney promises to give a voice to the underserved and overlooked areas of District 2, where he laments the glaring differences between the polished eastern neighborhoods and the passed-over western neighborhoods of South Sacramento, Meadowview and Vineyard. If elected, he would be the first millennial supervisor in Sacramento history, and a staunch advocate for climate-minded regulations, greater investment in the community and mental health resources, and better prioritization of economic justice policies that strengthen the local workforce.

Hume’s responses to questions about the worsening homeless problems on the American River Parkway boiled down to increasing enforcement — a tactic that overlooks the importance of having shelter or treatment available when a sweep is authorized.

Sacramento County, like the city of Sacramento, needs leaders who are about more than just enforcement of the homeless issue. The county needs leaders committed to the hard work of increasing housing capacity so that there are places to put homeless people once they are moved.

We believe that Cooney and Moreno are committed to doing the hard work on homelessness and mental health.

Sacramento County’s elected officials suffer from a lack of enthusiasm and innovation, a disservice to more than 500,000 people living in the unincorporated areas. The same staid politicians retain their seats for years in the absence of meaningful public oversight, perpetuating the same tired plans while the region’s crises only get worse.

Yes, Moreno and Cooney are green in that they are new to the game and do not speak yet as politicians often do. But they abound with ideas that will bring a much-needed shift in tone to the Board of Supervisors; Moreno with her focus on mental health services and Cooney with his promised investment in economic justice. And best of all, their lack of calculation means they are not a part of the stale system that has led to the most recent county-wide scandals.

This county board needs a reset, which is why voters must back Cooney and Moreno.

This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Sacramento County’s Board of Supervisors needs new voices. These candidates offer change."