Sacramento residents will vote for a new mayor in the March 2024 primary election.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg is not running for election, so voters will choose a new leader to hold the top elected office in city government.
The mayor of Sacramento runs City Council meetings and appoints members to boards, commissions and advisory agencies. The representative for the entire city is also responsible for interpreting the city’s policies and needs, according to the city charter.
Four people have announced campaigns for mayor: Epidemiologist Flo Cofer, former City Council member Steve Hansen, state Assembly member Kevin McCarty, and former state lawmaker Dr. Richard Pan.
The deadline to submit paperwork to run for mayor is Dec. 8, so it’s possible more candidates could announce campaigns before then. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the March 5 primary election, the leading two candidates will face off in November 2024.
CapRadio interviewed the current candidates in late September. Here are their responses to questions on a variety of issues. Click each question to jump to their responses.
These interviews have been edited for length, clarity and flow.
What do you think is the No. 1 biggest issue in the city of Sacramento right now?
Cofer: The biggest issue in Sacramento is affordable housing and homelessness. Every door I've knocked on for the last 13 weeks has identified that as the No. 1 issue.
I think we're all in agreement throughout the city that this is something that we absolutely have to address because what we're doing isn't working for our unhoused neighbors. It's not working for our housed neighbors. It's not working for our business community. It's not working for anyone.
Hansen: There's no doubt about it. The No. 1 issue facing Sacramento as a city right now is the challenges around homelessness. And homelessness really is one word for a thousand different problems.
The city has to play a positive role in helping people move off the streets, into housing, into services, working with our county partners. But everyone I talk to, that’s the thing they want to talk about and everyone has a different perspective on it.
McCarty: Housing and homelessness … it impacts quality of life in our neighborhoods. It impacts the ability for people to stay here in Sacramento after college. In order to be a world-class city, we need to address housing affordability.
But homelessness is the key issue no matter where I go from neighbors to neighborhood associations to businesses. They want us to tackle homelessness. And it's going to take all of us. It's going to take city government, state government and federal government. We are all in this together.
Pan: The biggest issue in the city of Sacramento is actually public safety, which is related to homelessness. So I know many people say homelessness is the biggest issue. But really what most people are frustrated about is the lack of order in public spaces, the blight, trash, other types of things.
Of course, people are very concerned about people who are unhoused and being sure they get helped. So, those are the biggest issues that I'm hearing from the people of Sacramento and my priorities.
If elected mayor, what would your top three priorities be?
Cofer: My top priority would be addressing housing and homelessness in particular. My second priority would certainly be public safety and really making sure that we're thinking about how to keep our community safe.
My third priority would be a combination. It would really be thinking about climate change and also how we can make sure that we have inclusive economic development throughout our city. And how we can marry those two together to be able to make Sacramento a green jobs hub.
Hansen: My top three priorities are making meaningful progress on getting our unsheltered folks off the streets, into housing and services, making sure neighborhood safety and response times are appropriate for a city of our size and then really helping our small businesses create jobs.
The pandemic took such a toll on them that we really have to circle back to building our small business economy back and turning the city into the future economically. Because a lot of state workers and others aren't coming back downtown. So, we need a new plan and I want to pivot us that way.
McCarty: Housing and homelessness are the key issues. I lump them as one. We need to have real solutions to tackle homelessness today, get people off the streets into emergency housing and shelter to improve their lives, but also improve the lives of our neighborhoods.
Housing affordability. The supply of housing has an impact on homelessness, but also has an impact on our region and our economy. We need to attract more people to want to live here in Sacramento, and we need to be able to build more housing at all levels.
Lastly, overall quality of life issues in our neighborhoods, making sure that neighborhoods are not forgotten.
Pan: My top three priorities will be public safety, addressing the homeless issue and economic development — particularly creating good jobs for the people of Sacramento.
How might you approach the city’s homelessness crisis?
Cofer: First, we need to address where people are allowed to be. Because every day, we have people who are asking, “Where can I go?” For every one person we get rehoused, three more are becoming unhoused.
We need to make sure we have dedicated spaces across our city to be able to triage people who find themselves newly unhoused. They need a place to go. The best way to do that is to be able to make sure we have safe ground available where people can go and where services can be located. Then we need to get people actually into housing.
One of the best ways to do that is a plan that was developed by our Department of Community Response, and that's executing long-term leases with some of our hotels and motels so that people have a place to stay. They're already set up for housing and we should be converting them because housing is a human right and it is a need. And we are in a crisis. We should be using all available resources to meet the need.
Hansen: Having been homeless as a kid and had a cousin who was murdered where he slept, I have a very thoughtful approach to homelessness. But I also know there's a lot of frustration from our neighborhoods.
The city's job, in the grand scheme of things, is to help get housing built and use our fire department, our police department and Department of Community Response effectively as partners. Right now, there is so much frustration with camps in neighborhoods, camps near schools, and that's bubbling over into feelings of the city leaving folks behind.
I really want to double down on making sure that the investments we make actually produce outcomes for people. That we do, if we offer services, make sure that people take them. We will offer [services] sometimes 20, 30, 40, 50 times and somebody won't take them. I think that's not acceptable to the general public who wants our city to be safe, clean, and to also provide the wraparound services — social services and mental health support services — that we need to do.
McCarty: I think there's two things that we need to do. One, we need to say clearly, we can't have people living on the streets and encampments in parks, under bridges or along the river. We need to clearly say that we can't have urban camping in Sacramento.
Conversely, we need to and we ought to tell people where they can go. I don't think it's efficient just moving people around saying, “Hey, you can't camp here in the park, on the Parkway, under this bridge, or by an overpass or underpass.” We need to show people where they can go. We need multiple locations to house people and send people for emergency shelter.
We need to triage this as an emergency now. That's why I wrote the bill a couple of years ago, designating Cal Expo as a site for tiny homes. Our governor and the current mayor and I, along with our delegation, just announced funds and plans to use Cal Expo as an emergency site. But we need to have places throughout Sacramento where people can legally camp.
Pan: We need to make it a priority and it should be a very clear priority. This is something that people are concerned about throughout the city. Oftentimes, people talk about downtown, but even in other communities, people are concerned that there are people who are unhoused and who need help.
We need more housing. That's a fundamental problem. But we also need to figure out how we help people who are unhoused and not just having them, frankly, die on the streets or get very sick on the streets. We need to be sure that we can get them help. This is where the city and the county have to work together because we know many people who are chronically unhoused have substance use and mental health issues.
At the same time, we need to keep people from becoming unhoused. We know that most unhoused people actually become unhoused because of some economic stressor. They're often at the brink. People who either are at risk or are recently unhoused, we should try to help right away before things get worse.
What’s your stance on the city’s practice of sweeping homeless encampments?
Cofer: I don't think we should be sweeping homeless encampments, especially when we don't have anywhere to go. When I asked on the record some of our city leaders, “Where can somebody go if they have a tent and a tarp right now?” They said, “I can't tell you that.” I don't think we should be telling people where they can't be until we can tell them where they can be.
Safe ground [sites] would allow us to be able to, in a very compassionate way, transport people to a safe ground where they're allowed to be. Humans don't have an option to [not] exist and to [not] take up space. We should not be engaging in really dangerous sweeps if we don't have places for people to be and be able to be safely.
Hansen: Encampments cause a lot of problems. We have encampments where people are drug dealing, they're stealing from the neighbors and it's not a way to live. I don't think it's a humane practice to let people live on our streets in the conditions that we see.
I think it is appropriate, if services have been offered, to sweep a camp. Because those folks came from somewhere. If we're offering them services to go somewhere then it's not fair to the rest of the neighbors, the schools and other places where these are to continue to let them be there.
McCarty: I think that we need to have a policy that we can't have urban camping. It's unlawful to block sidewalks and to be on the public right of way. I realize people don't always have a place to call home, but we have to have some normalcy in our neighborhoods.
I have two teenage girls that walk home from school. Last year walking home on a regular basis, they had to avoid a camp to get home. And granted, those campers weren't harassing them, but nonetheless, it impacted their ability to walk home.
So, I think that we need to be clear that we cannot have urban camping. But conversely, I think we need to tell people where they can go.
Pan: We need to be sure that public spaces are accessible to everyone. This is about making sure we maintain order in our public spaces. Otherwise, people do not feel safe. So it's not a matter of sweeping encampments as much as first of all, we have to have rules for public spaces and everyone needs to follow them.
At the same time, we need to provide support and help for people who are unhoused. Oftentimes people say, well, a lot of people who are unhoused “don't want help.” I don't think that's true. They actually do want help. But we have to help them in a way that makes sense to them.
So, you can't take someone and put them into a transitional site and then take them back on the street again. Now they've lost all their belongings because of that.
What do you think of the city’s new Incident Management Team for homelessness, which is led by the fire department?
Cofer: I think it's a move in a better direction because previously we were kind of relying on law enforcement to do this. That can be incredibly traumatizing, especially when the threat of arrest exists and it's not being treated as a public health challenge. But is instead being treated as a crime because surviving is not a crime.
I think people who are better trained in public health, medicine and health care are in a better position to be able to address some of the challenges that are being faced. But ultimately, if we had invested in our Department of Community Response, they would be in the best position to be able to help us with this.
Hansen: I think whenever we can, we should put clinical experts at the front of this using evidence-based interventions. I think this is another effort to try to use the city’s skill set to partner with the county, our social service providers and our nonprofit community to make a meaningful difference.
A lot of the people who you encounter on the streets do have medical ailments, drug addiction and mental health challenges. We need trained professionals out there with them. I think this is hopefully another step in the right direction.
McCarty: I think it's a very promising idea. I think too often homeless individuals don't always take the opportunity for a better option. A lot of times it's about trust. Unfortunately, people sometimes don't like change.
But one thing we need to have is some order in the city of Sacramento saying no camping. We can't have people camping throughout Sacramento and we need to tell people where they can go. We've had the Department of Community Response doing some of this. We've also had our police department going out there on occasions and mixed results.
The fire department, they're the ones who generally respond to public health and in emergency situations on the [American River] Parkway, on encampments. I think that they are trusted ambassadors through city government and I think it's worth a shot.
Pan: I appreciate that the City Council has identified this as a crisis because it has been a crisis for many years. We want to see how that operationalizes. But I would also make note, in the last City Council meeting [on Sept. 19], they mentioned 311 gets 120 calls on average per day related homelessness. And they're saying that it takes them over two weeks to respond to them. That is not acceptable.
We've got to figure out what kind of staff we need in order to be sure we can be much more responsive. So when someone in the city of Sacramento is calling in to say there's a problem in my neighborhood near my business, they're not wondering when is anyone going to show up to help.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s back and forth with District Attorney Thien Ho on homelessness has been in the spotlight lately. If elected, how would you approach conflict with county officials?
Cofer: It's disappointing that rather than sitting down and collaborating, the county and the city are instead threatening to take one to court. That's not the way a productive relationship should start. Thien Ho has only been in office for less than a year.
… One of the things that I'm deeply committed to is having the county leadership and the city leadership sit down together. Not in a [joint powers authority], where there's only a few members of each. But actually a joint meeting where all 14 members sit down, have a joint agenda and decide on what policies and what resources we're dedicating to things so that there's coordinated efforts.
Because the county has a $7 billion budget and they have a responsibility for providing housing to a third of the county's population, which is in the city, and also providing mental health services.
Hansen: I believe in working with people. The district attorney and mayor situation is really unfortunate. But it's because there is this stalemate where it doesn't feel to the community like there's progress on some of these issues.
I personally know people who have been assaulted by folks coming in and out of camps. Things have been stolen in our neighborhood. We've had incidents around our daycare that have gone unresolved.
The city is not doing its job to reach out, to stop bad things and to help support all of our community. While it's unfortunate this lawsuit has come to pass, I would work very aggressively with the county, social service providers and nonprofits to see how we move the city forward together.
McCarty: I have a great relationship with our county supervisors and City Council members over the years as an Assembly member. We are all in this together. We work in partnership.
I've worked in partnership with the county on the Parkway, delivering monies for the county to expand homeless response for people who are living on the Parkway today. Last budget, I was able to get $25 million for the county. The county said, “Hey, McCarty, can you help us get $10 million?” And I said, “How about 25?” So I more than doubled the award to the county to build a facility to get people off the Parkway.
So, I have that trust and those relationships. But, we are all in this together again. We can't do this by ourselves … Plus, we don't have nearly the budget that the county has on these issues. But the city can find more sites for emergency shelter today.
Pan: I know that there's been a lot of conflict, but we've got to work with the county. The county does have to be held accountable for being sure they deliver county services in the city of Sacramento. We're part of the county of Sacramento and the county has responsibility for things like behavioral health services, substance use treatment, mental health, but also other social services as well.
We need them to deliver that in the city of Sacramento. So that's going to be very important. Frankly, Ho has over 3,000 people filing complaints about what's going on in the city. The fact that he has 3,000 people means that he's calling attention to a major problem in the city.
He's using the tools he has to call attention to it. It's important that the City Council and the city of Sacramento respond to that.
What are your thoughts on the police department’s military equipment use policy and are there any aspects of the policy or approval process that you would like to see changed?
Cofer: When it comes to military equipment, we should certainly not have much of any of it in our police departments. We are not municipal military forces. These are police departments that are supposed to be protecting and serving the communities that they are in.
One of the things that I am concerned about is the frequency with which these are deployed, especially in communities that have been institutionally harmed. I'm not in favor of us gathering more equipment when it seems from having attended meetings and reading some of the reports, some of the major challenges are actually in operations. We also shouldn't be acquiring equipment when we don't already have a use policy in place.
… I would like for us to be really thinking about what we should be investing in. Before buying equipment, I want to see community-oriented policing happen. I want to see us invest in prevention. I want to see some of the things that we know work — that we're not seeing happening — before we start gearing up for war.
Hansen: The public safety atmosphere in the community right now [includes] so many guns on the streets. So many issues related to crime, organized retail theft and gangs. I think that the conversation around the militarization of and use of equipment has kind of lost sight of what's actually going on.
… Having been in the military myself, I know a Rook is not a tank. But there's also not enough trust in the community. We're understaffed in our law enforcement and we're burning people out. We don't have enough officers right now to restore a community-oriented policing where officers are based in communities and you can build trust.
I think we have to get back to some of the things that really work at restoring the bridge between our disadvantaged communities and our police officers. But also so that we're not burning folks out because that's when people make mistakes.
McCarty: I'm very familiar with this because I voted for the bill and the law, which says that any time law enforcement — whether it's a city or the county — receives military equipment, there has to be a public process. I don't think the people of Sacramento and other communities want to see Bradley-type military tanks roaming down the streets of Sacramento.
But I think there is a lot of military equipment that can be useful to the police department to keep our neighborhoods and law enforcement safe, such as hostage situations. I don't think that there is a policy that, no, we can't have any military-type equipment given to the city of Sacramento or purchased with city funds or grant funds.
But I like the policy where the public gets to understand that they don't just see this one day roaming down their neighborhood. But they understand what's happening and have a public process and have the City Council vote up or down.
Pan: The officers who work for the city of Sacramento deserve to be safe. Their families need to know that they can come home. We need to be sure we keep our police officers safe.
At the same time, we also need to be sure that any sort of equipment that the police department uses is used in an appropriate way. We do not want to create situations where the police are using that equipment in a way that causes intimidation, fear or danger to the communities which they're serving. So those policies are really important.
That doesn't mean that we don't have any equipment at all because our police need it. But we should have very clear discussions and policy about how that equipment is used. It needs to be used to protect the police officers, but should not be used in a manner that would endanger people in the community or be viewed as threatening.
What do you think of the county-wide sales tax measure Steinberg proposed in August for the November 2024 ballot?
Cofer: I am appreciative of the fact that additional revenues can be spent in good ways. I think where I am challenged is that we broke a promise to the voters with Measure U. I'm reluctant to go back and ask them to do anything if we're asking them to trust us once again to do right with money.
The last time we asked them to trust us to do right with money [through Measure U], we didn't spend it on the arts community, affordable housing and inclusive economic development like we promised. Part of leadership is building trust and so that's part of what I'm going to do.
I'm going to say what I mean and mean what I say. Because our community has been traumatized by not having heard the things that are actually going to happen and feeling betrayed by it.
Hansen: I've often advocated for more money for transit, safe streets, biking and walking to make sure our roads are safe. And I've advocated for a housing bond at the city before the pandemic. We had eyed a proposal for a $100 million affordable housing bond that kind of died because of the pandemic. So I think it's laudable.
I think right now the atmosphere around taxes, especially a regressive tax, is going to be very difficult. My biggest concern is that to pass anything countywide, we have to work with the other cities and the county Board of Supervisors to put together a plan that can really pass.
On next November's ballot will be a measure to potentially lower the threshold on those types of taxes from two-thirds to 55%. So we may be premature in talking about this particular tax … I hope as this plan develops, we continue to bring in partners and we continue to make it more robust.
McCarty: I really like the idea. In the city of Sacramento, the mayor only controls the city, of course. So the county is going to have some opinions there as well. I'm not sure the county Board of Supervisors has a position yet on that.
But if you look at our transportation issues, yeah, we are a regional transportation network. So it doesn't make sense to just focus on transportation by ourselves. But the bigger question the mayor poses is an important one, which I concur with. Transportation and housing are linked.
You want to address climate issues, gridlock, air quality. We need to focus on smart growth and housing near our existing transit and transportation corridors. So I like the link there. Plus, we clearly need more resources to focus on homelessness and affordable housing.
Pan: Certainly, we need infrastructure like transportation in the county and the city. I admit that I want to be sure we're first tapping into whatever funds are out there that we get through the county and the federal government.
I used to chair the Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services for the California State Senate. So I'm aware of various streams of funds to our local governments, our county and the city. We need to be sure we're maximizing those opportunities to bring that funding here to the city of Sacramento and to the Sacramento region. So that's the first place I would go before raising any taxes.
However, it could be that in order to stimulate our economy and to address our basic housing problem, that we need more revenue, then certainly that is an option. But I want to be sure that we are first tapping into the various funding pots.
As it’s been presented so far, do you support the Sacramento Forward package proposed by Council members Caity Maple, Katie Valenzuela and Mai Vang?
Cofer: Yes, I do. And I was one of the earliest to sign on in support of that package of proposals.
Hansen: The Sacramento Forward package, unfortunately, will stop our housing production. Because right now, our only thing going for us is we're continuing to produce enough supply to keep up with in-migration. From what I can tell, it looks like this would shut down housing production in the city of Sacramento and I can't support that.
I think that it's good to have these conversations. What we really need is to lower the barriers for building housing at all levels of affordability throughout the city and have a very concrete plan to help get that economic investment. On the other side, we do have a very successful Tenant Protection Relief Act. I think that we have to continue to work with the programs we have and draw down those federal and state monies to build affordable housing. I don't think this is the right answer right now for Sacramento.
McCarty: I haven't fully evaluated it, heard analysis and seen some of the specific details yet. But I think the premise is an important one. That is, if you're going to address homelessness and tackle our most pressing issues in Sacramento, like affordable housing, we need to look forward and frankly, sometimes upstream to fix the problems up there before we see the impact on homelessness down here.
A lot of times cities like Sacramento get somebody off of the streets and bring them to a solution and address homelessness for an individual. And you may have another one or two coming right in. I think the biggest piece of that — which I am very, very bullish on and we need to zero in on — is money. Because at the end of the day, we need more money to help pay to build more housing, especially affordable housing.
Pan: I'd like to see what the final proposal is because I understand it's still up in the air a bit … We got to work with folks to be sure things pencil out. I'm a small business owner. If it doesn't pencil out, people are not going to invest in that.
And we need to be sure that we actually are constructing housing that's affordable housing and market rate housing. We want to maximize housing construction, including maximizing affordable housing. That's going to be really important.
So let's look at it. Let's analyze the proposals, this proposal, other proposals and see what we can do to maximize the amount of permanent housing we can get available as soon as possible so we can address the unhoused and get them into housing.
The city released its first-ever report on the local music economy in August. Out of all its recommendations, is there one or two that you would consider a top priority?
Cofer: I think our arts community is incredibly important and obviously music is an important part of that as well. I would definitely like to see us be able to have more live music because it's one of the things that I think makes Sacramento really unique. We have this new convention center, and I think some of the ways that we could take advantage of that are with smaller-form conventions and things like that.
I've heard the idea of an international DJ festival [be] floated. I would love for us to really begin to think about how we can take advantage of making Sacramento and all of its uniqueness, taking it to a larger stage. The promise of the Measure U tax investment was to invest in the arts community. I'd like to see us do that through music and also through visual and performing arts as well.
Hansen: I think that the music census was a very smart thing. Sacramento has produced many really incredible artists that have gone on to national fame. In the last few years, we've seen a lot of our small venues die. That theater ecosystem of small and middle of venues has gone away. I think we need to work with those venues because the visitor economy and the creative economy is our lifeblood.
As much as we're a government town, those other things produce so much more revenue and have the potential to help pivot our economy. So, I think anything we can do to help support small venues — reducing the barriers for entertainment permits, increasing the ability of people to perform all over the city, grants, reducing red tape — it's all very important to move us forward.
McCarty: That's a fabulous idea the mayor is focusing on because there's a lot of things that are outside of government's control. We don't control our labor costs all the time. We don't control interest rates from borrowing money. But we do control our regulatory process, whether it's the food industry in restaurants or building more housing in Sacramento or having more music.
… Look, I have two teenage girls. They're in high school; they're going to go away to college one day, hopefully. I want them to come back to Sacramento because it excites them. It's a place where they can afford to live with adequate, affordable housing, but a place that interests them with music and arts and culture. Whether they're big festivals out of Discovery Park like we're having this fall or smaller ones in neighborhoods or parks.
Pan: Certainly this is an opportunity to attract more business and economic development … And certainly I want to support creating more opportunities for cultural events and festivals here in Sacramento.
But I also point out that if we don't address our public safety and homeless issue, oftentimes our business efforts start to stall. Because people aren't willing to go and attend if they're concerned about their safety. I know that [in the music census], we're not just talking just simply a few big events. We want lots of small events.
People need to know that when they go to an event and they go home at the end of the event, they're going to be safe. Otherwise they're not gonna go and then the event's not gonna be successful.
This summer the city started a racial equity effort called the SCORE Initiative, which stands for Sacramento Centered on Race and Equity. If elected, how would you work to support a citywide racial equity work plan?
Cofer: I am incredibly supportive of this. I know several members of the Racial Equity Alliance and Racial Equity Council. This is actually something that we were pushing several years ago, for there to be a racial equity analysis of all of the proposals that come through the city.
Because if we're going to think about not only moving forward in a way that is racially equitable, but also healing past harms, we need to be thinking about how the work we're doing achieves that. I'm definitely in support of having a plan and also putting in place some analysis that happens as we are going through and making legislative decisions.
Because that is how you move forward and transform systems. Systems are perfectly designed to get the outcomes that they do. And so we need to shift the systems if we want different outcomes.
Hansen: While I was on the City Council, we hired someone in the city staff at the senior level to do diversity, equity and inclusion work and she has led us through a variety of processes. This is the latest one.
But we started that work a while ago and I’m really looking at moving forward language accessibility inclusion. And that's multiple languages. We have some populations that don't feel connected to city government because our materials aren't often available to them contemporaneously in their own language.
I also think making sure that we are investing in the communities that folks from diverse backgrounds come from [is important]. Whether that's in South Sacramento … Gardenland, Northgate, but also Del Paso Heights, Old North Sacramento and Robla. These are places that have been left behind for generations and the city needs to invest in those communities as part of this effort around racial equity.
McCarty: I think the most important issue when you look at race and equity is acknowledging it's an issue and it's one of your values. It's been a value for me as a public official, a council member and Assembly member to support policies that improve access for education, employment and economic development for all areas of Sacramento.
It's in my DNA. I come from a biracial family. My kids are triracial. So it's really in our values to make sure we respect and invest in everybody in Sacramento, including those who have historically been left behind … whether it's in employment or housing.
You know, we have these impacts of redlining going back generations. And how do we deal with that today? I think first and foremost, the city government must acknowledge it and look for policies [on] how we could address that.
Pan: In the Legislature, I worked on and we established a racial equity commission in the state of California. It took a lot of work and a lot of negotiation because that actually holds the state accountable. I will do the same in the city of Sacramento.
Being sure we address structural racism and racial equity is extremely important. We're one of the most diverse cities and metropolitan areas in the whole country. We need to set the standard in addressing racial equity.
… This is a very important issue to me personally. I have worked on it in the Legislature and I'm going to continue that work in the city. Sacramento should be the city where people have an opportunity to be successful and to be successful in growing the wealth for their families, no matter what your race is.
Both Steinberg and former Mayor Kevin Johnson tried to pass strong mayor measures in 2014 and 2020. Do you think the city should change the city government structure so the mayor has more power?
Cofer: This framing is really interesting because we talk about it as strong versus weak, and I actually think it's executive versus collaborative. I'm a public health professional. In public health, we have a lot of responsibility and very limited authority.
From early on in our careers, we're taught to collaborate. We have to work with water and air and health care and transportation and all of these entities that we don't have authority over to be able to move forward goals. We have to think about health in all policies. In order to do that, we learned to collaborate.
I think we have a collaborative mayor system. I've seen Sacramentans reject a strong or an executive mayor proposal three times. We should let sleeping dogs lie and we should move on, because what I would like to see us do is set some city-wide priorities.
Hansen: I think that in this structure it works really well if you’ve got competent professional staff, a council that works together and a common vision that the community is behind. The shifting of power through a strong mayor I don't believe in.
I led the campaign against the Strong Mayor initiative in 2014. And I still believe that if we work together, which is sometimes harder than people would like it to be, that we have the potential to be a great American city in the way that we rise together. Or when we don't work together, we fall. Right now, there are a lot of people who feel like the city doesn't care about them. So, we need to show them that we care, we're trying and we're going to move forward together.
McCarty: I don't support that. I like community based-power where you don't have powerful interests putting their thumb on the scale and people buy influence … A lot of times you see East Coast and older cities have [a strong mayor system] and have corruption issues.
I don't support the strong mayor approach. I've campaigned against it twice. More importantly, the voters have spoken up twice, convincingly. They don't support the strong mayor. And I like having the mayor at the City Council meeting so they can be in the flesh and hear the tone of the people of Sacramento. I will note that I will not stand for the chaos at City Council meetings right now with people disrupting. That certainly has to change. People can show up and articulate their views and perspectives, but we can't have the disruptive profanity-laced testimony.
Pan: I supported both of those measures. However, I will also say the voters have spoken. The voters rejected both of them. I am running for mayor as the job is now. I am not running to then seek to change it to a strong mayor.
I will serve as the mayor as is now. The mayor is the chair of the City Council. The mayor sets the agenda. Those are very important and powerful powers that the mayor has. I will use the authority the mayor currently has to make the changes we need. So I am not going to seek to create another strong mayor initiative.
What are your thoughts on establishment politicians who work in government for more than a decade?
Cofer: I don't have a time frame on it, but I can tell you I am not an establishment politician and I don't intend to be one. I love public health. And I've chosen to run for mayor because I am really interested in rolling up my sleeves and seeing the many things that the city of Sacramento seems to want to see happen and have not happened because leadership has not gotten on board with it.
I want to see those things come to fruition. Then, I'm ready to pass the baton, because one of the things I understand about leadership is that there are times and seasons and everyone has strengths and weaknesses in their leadership.
You want to maximize your strengths, minimize your weaknesses and then pass the baton on to someone else. Because a distributed leadership model allows for us to be able to work better together and get better outcomes.
Hansen: I was a poor kid who was on public assistance and when I won in 2012, it was kind of against all odds. I was young, gay and nobody really knew who I was. I was there for a transformational purpose because all my friends were leaving. I wanted the city to be about the creative economy and focus on climate and infill. I got to do a lot of that work.
I think, though, this city is often seen by state-level elected officials as a place not worthy of spending their time and to really cultivate the kind of community we need. … Sometimes people who have been in office have experience and they've got the fortitude to see things through. But sometimes they're more worried about their next race. This is the only race I care about because I want to fix the city so we have a great place to live and I can raise my kids here knowing that it's going to be a terrific city.
McCarty: That, I guess, by definition includes myself. I've been in the Legislature for nine years and I was a City Council member for a decade. So that determines me. What does that mean? I think that the people of Sacramento really appreciate experience.
What I have to offer to the city of Sacramento — and why I'm giving up my final few years in the Legislature to go back to City Hall — is to make a difference and to bring about results. I've been a proven problem solver bringing about solutions to local and state issues whether they're public safety, housing affordability, redevelopment or health issues.
I think the people of Sacramento appreciate experience and leadership. And I think they value somebody who knows how to get things done. That's why I'm putting my name on the ballot again in running for mayor of Sacramento.
Pan: I'm a pediatrician. I actually just came from a clinic. I've been seeing patients since I came here to Sacramento. I continued to see patients when I was in the Legislature because it was so important to know what was going on in the front lines.
In the beginning of the week, as an elected official, I shaped the rules. At the end of the week, I lived by them. And also worked with families who had to live by those same rules. I think that's really important.
I'm a small business owner, so I know what it's like to have to meet all those requirements that get passed down to small business. I'm a parent and our family has to follow those rules as well. So I think it is important that we have people who are serving in leadership positions in our government, who understand what it's like to be on the front lines, who don't lose touch with that.
Mayor is a non-partisan office. But for those who may be unfamiliar with your background, please explain how you identify politically.
Cofer: I am a member of the Democratic Party. I identify as someone who uses data, science and social science to be able to make decisions. Who incorporates new information into my body politic and considering how I approach things. Who values people over profits and is really deeply committed to making sure that human interest is at the heart.
… Ultimately I am guided by a real sense of purpose, a sense of community, and a desire to to make things better and to innovate. So that each day we make new mistakes and have new challenges as opposed to repeating the things that haven't worked.
Hansen: I was born a poor kid. I've been homeless. And so especially being LGBT, I identify as a Democrat. I've always been a Democrat, but I work with people from all walks of life because that's how we end up creating transformational change.
McCarty: I'm a Democrat. I've been a lifelong Democrat. I support our Democratic values in equal opportunity, making sure everybody has a voice. Justice and equity for everybody, regardless of their race, sexual orientation, gender.
That's been part of my mantra. But I also think I'm practical. I bring about proven ideas that can be addressed. For example, this year, I'm working on some really innovative ideas on addiction and the criminal justice system and putting people to treatment as opposed to incarceration. That has opposition from some groups that I've been aligned with over the years.
Even though I’m a Democrat, sometimes you have to think outside of the box. If you look at the issues of the day with housing and homelessness and addiction and mental illness, we can't just always focus on the status quo. But do things differently to bring about solutions.
Pan: I've been a registered Democrat throughout my life, but I also point out that I work to solve problems. For example, when I established a children's health initiative here in the Sacramento region, it was five counties and it was a bipartisan effort. We had counties that lean toward Republicans — like Placer County, El Dorado County — and then Sacramento County — which tends to lean more Democratic — who all agreed that what we should try to do is get health care coverage for children.
When I was in the Legislature, I worked closely with my colleagues who were on the other side of the party to do what was best for the region. So, yes, we have our differences. Yes, we have different perspectives on things. Mayor is a nonpartisan position because we want people leading our local government to solve the problems facing the people, not to take ideological stances.
Editor's notes: Steve Hansen joined CapRadio's governing board in 2021, after he left the city council. He resigned from the board late May 2023, prior to launching his mayoral campaign.
In 2021, as a state senator, Dr. Richard Pan steered $1 million in state budget funding to CapRadio to help pay for construction of CapRadio's downtown studios.
Assembly member McCarty placed $2 million in the 2022 state budget to help pay for construction of CapRadio's studios.
