East bound but not downtown: A look at Sacramento’s District 3 city council race

Thanks to the arcane art of political redistricting,Sacramento City Council District 3 looks something like a bat with two mismatched wings.

The eastern wing is affluent East Sacramento, along with Cal Expo and Sacramento State University. The broad western wing includes the more working-class neighborhoods of south Natomas and Gardenland. The district narrows to hug the American River around Sutter’s Landing Regional Park, and also includes Sacramento Loaves & Fishes and the surrounding complex of social services for the poor, as well as the developer’s dreamscape of the Sacramento rail yards, where roads are now being built to accommodate new retail and housing.

As this story was going to print, six candidates had drawn papers for a possible run in District 3: Deane Dana, Efren Gutierrez, Jeff Harris, Adam Sartain, Cyril Shah and Rosalyn Van Buren.

They will compete to replace Councilman Steve Cohn, who, unless he changes his mind at the last minute, is giving up his seat after 20 years to run for state Assembly. Of the six candidates, four are from East Sacramento, with only Gutierrez and Sartain coming out of south Natomas.

Gutierrez says he’s running to expose the raw deal that his side of the district has received. “We’re the lost stepchild. They don’t do anything for us out here,” he said.

He brings up the lack of hospitals or other medical facilities in the area, and notes that Northgate Boulevard, the main corridor for the community, has few crosswalks. The local police substation closed long ago. “Why can’t we get a skating rink or a bowling alley? We want the same benefits as the people of East Sacramento.”

Gutierrez is critical of a proposed Sacramento Kings arena subsidy. If a new arena needs to be built, he wants it built in Natomas. “All the infrastructure is here. We should keep them here.”

He is a fixture of the local progressive movement, and has the endorsement of the Latino Democratic Club and the Green Democratic Club of Sacramento County and former California Supreme Court Judge Cruz Reynoso.

But Gutierrez has raised little money so far, and his unapologetic lefty politics have led some to dismiss him. “It’s going to be an uphill battle,” he acknowledged. “But I want to bring up some of the inequalities in this district. We need a true Latino representative who’s homegrown and who can speak for this community.”

On a recent rainy Wednesday evening, fellow District 3 candidate Rosalyn Van Buren stood on a doorstep in south Natomas explaining in Spanish that she is the only Latina in the race.

She was born and raised in East Sacramento, but as a “half-black, half-Mexican” single mom, she hopes she can connect with voters in this part of town.

Unfortunately, on this night, there weren’t many voters to connect with, as registered households were few and far between. She and 8-year-old son Michael and paid campaign consultant Damion Osborne hustled from street to street, trying to keep precinct maps and umbrellas from blowing away.

By day, Van Buren runs a nonprofit providing breakfast and summer programs for low-income kids. She served on the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force, and her endorsements include Councilwoman Bonnie Pannell.

Van Buren and Osborne were excited on this evening about earlier news that a superior court judge tossed out a ballot measure requiring voter approval for a Sacramento Kings arena subsidy. She’s an arena supporter, and says the project will bring 4,000 jobs. “It’s going to help the neighborhoods that I work in.”

Maybe not, says candidate Jeff Harris. “I like to build stuff. But I think the arena finance plan is just awful,” he explained, standing on a doorstep across from McKinley Park, a few days earlier.

Harris was president of the River Park Neighborhood Association, and chairman of the Sacramento Parks and Recreation Commission. He’s a general contractor by trade and was one of main organizers leading the rebuilding of McKinley Park playground. During a tour of the playground, he stops frequently to say hello to parents and grandparents he met while working on the project.

Voters in this part of town want to talk about the proposed McKinley Village development nearby. Or “McVillage,” as one woman described it, saying she’s concerned the 360 houses will generate additional traffic on her already busy street. Harris offers that he thinks much of the concern about the project would be eased by the construction of an additional entrance point connecting the development to Alhambra Boulevard. “If they did the Alhambra entrance, I’d be all in,” he said. That’s another difference between Harris and Van Buren, who is for the McKinley Village project as it is proposed now.

Harris said he is running to “restore city services to the level they were before the recession.” He did early work on Measure U, the half-cent sales tax voters passed in 2012 to restore parks and public-safety funding. In a few years, when the city starts paying the arena bonds, he said, “You are going to hear a big sucking sound. And we’re going to have to pass another Measure U.”

At some doors, voters were strongly opposed to the arena deal. When Harris encountered a high-school teacher who was strongly in favor of having “a world-class arena down the street,” Harris pushed on, saying he wants the city to get written guarantees for the development the Kings have promised around the arena site.

“I think we need to get them to sign contracts and make sure they bring that whole area around there up at the same time,” he said.

Harris and Van Buren are both opposed to the strong-mayor proposal that will be on the ballot in November, as is Gutierrez. Harris was also against the repeal of the city’s big-box ordinance last year, which the city council pushed through to ease construction of a Wal-Mart in south Sacramento.

According to the latest campaign reports, Harris has raised about $10,000, about twice as much as Van Buren. Both grumble about the fundraising of opponent Cyril Shah, who has raised more than $100,000 and spent more than $30,000 already.

Shah is a financial planner with Raymond James and emphasizes economic development and jobs. He serves on the American River Flood Control District, the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and was president of the East Sacramento Improvement Association.

He has thousands in small contributions, including many from friends and family outside the city. He also has the only large PAC money in the race: The California Real Estate PAC gave $5,000, and real estate is heavily represented among his donors. The Region Builders PAC kicked in $2,500 as of the beginning of the year.

Asked if the money meant Shah would advance the agenda of developers and real-estate interests, he said no. “There’s no back room with guys with cigars saying, ’Let’s get Cyril in, and he’ll do our bidding.’”

Shah is in favor of the arena plan, which he says can transform downtown. He said he wants to make sure the arena plan “keeps the general fund whole.” Asked if he thinks the current plan would have a negative effect on the general fund, he said he’s “still looking at it.”

He said he would have “revised rather than reversed” the city’s big-box ordinance. “My family shops at Target and at Compton’s [Market]. I appreciate having both options.”

On the strong-mayor proposal, he said he “will let the people decide in November,” adding that he looks “forward to putting charter reform behind us and tackling the important issues that we face as a community.”

Shah also didn’t offer a strong opinion on the McKinley Village project, saying the issue would likely be decided before he gets on the council. He did say that he felt an entrance at Alhambra Boulevard would lessen neighbor concerns.

At the other end of the fundraising spectrum is Adam Sartain, a housing inspector for the state. He lives in south Natomas and, like Gutierrez, says residents in his area feel underrepresented. He draws a parallel with the McKinley Village fight. In both parts of town, he said, “People don’t feel like their voice is being heard.”

Sartain says his top issue is protecting small business—he cited repeal of the big-box ordinance as an example of policies that hurt small businesses.

He’s strongly opposed to McKinley Village, saying he thinks the strip of land would be better off with fruit trees, a restaurant and a farmers market.

Sartain is in favor of the strong-mayor plan. And he also favors subsidizing the Kings arena downtown, but says he wants to make sure the public gets more benefits for its money. He proposes free public concerts at the venue, discounted tickets for low-income groups, and first dibs for small business to occupy storefronts around the new arena.

Also, Sartain may or may not be the only candidate in the race who can play tuba.

Deane Dana is the only registered Republican in the race. He’s lived in East Sacramento for 30 years and is president of the McKinley East Sacramento Neighborhood Association.

He said the McKinley Village project is the “best project we’ve seen proposed for that site in 30 years,” but he’s likely to oppose it because he says the developer has not addressed the neighbors’ concerns.

Dana says he thinks the strong-mayor bid is “premature,” adding, “I’d like to see who the candidate is first.” He says the downtown arena is not the city’s highest priority, but he counts himself as a cautious proponent.

Dana puts heavy emphasis on public-employee pensions and the city’s debt load. “We have to get pensions under control,” he said, singling out the city police union as the one bargaining unit which has thus far refused to agree to less generous pensions.

Dana is a late entry in the race, and so far, hasn’t reported any campaign donations. But he said he would refuse to take any “special interest” money from unions or developers.

With so many candidates in the race, and with Shah’s big fundraising lead, it’s not clear there would be any special-interest money available, even if Dana wanted it.