Pannell, McCarty

Two incumbents on the Sacramento City Council—Bonnie Pannell in District 8 and Kevin McCarty in District 6—have served the city well and deserve another term.

Pannell has been a tireless advocate for her south Sacramento district, supporting economic development and neighborhood-revitalization projects galore. Over a 13-year period, she helped eliminate Danger Island at Meadowview, Amherst and Freeport, eliminated Franklin Villa (now called Phoenix Park), built nine new parks (including a dog park), built a sports complex at Luther Burbank High School—the list goes on and on.

Pannell’s challenger, former local NAACP president Betty Williams, who has the backing of Mayor Kevin Johnson, is a worthy candidate, but seems a bit too much in the mayor’s pocket. She is well funded, so this race will be close.

Pannell, who has shown herself to be independent, is currently involved in multiple development projects that we would like to see her complete. We urge voters to offer her another term.

In District 6, McCarty has been a consistent (probably too consistent) voice of opposition to the mayor. Like Pannell, he has an independent voice and opposed the strong-mayor proposal and redistricting. But his “counter” to the mayor in almost all matters has become personal, it seems, and a distraction from solving the serious issues that face Sacramento and the city’s southeast neighborhoods.

Regardless, we fully support another term for the hard-working, well-informed McCarty, who has created worthy city programs and authored local legislation—related to air quality and gun violence—that makes a difference.