Bee Opinionated: Sacramento’s dictator DA + City pays up millions + ‘Forward’ on housing

We send Bee Opinionated to newsletter subscribers first. Get it in your inbox before it publishes online: Sign up here.

Happy Sunday, Robin Epley here again from The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, with the best of California’s opinion journalism.

Who elected Sacramento DA Thien Ho to be the dictator of homeless enforcement?

That was the question California Opinion Editor Marcos Breton asked this week in a new column, taking to task the county district attorney’s ill-advised foray into the issue of homelessness.

Opinion

“Ho was elected to prosecute criminals. He was not elected to threaten other elected leaders because he doesn’t like how they are dealing with homelessness,” Breton wrote. “Ho is going after Steinberg and elected city council members who have been trying to avoid policy decisions that Ho is demanding they implement. He wants them to hand out citations to homeless people who violate anti-camping ordinances and who block city streets with their tents or bodies.”

In recent weeks, Ho has threatened the city of Sacramento to police homelessness his way, or else. He has targeted Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other elected city leaders for failing to enforce city code violations and demanded the city provide shelters with 24-hour security for thousands of homeless and established within 30 days.

“People can reasonably disagree with the city’s strategy, but the strategy was formulated by a duly elected body of people empowered by the voters of Sacramento. And it’s up to Sacramento voters to decide if they disagree with their leaders on how they are policing the homeless,” Breton wrote.

“What Ho doesn’t seem to appreciate is that Sacramento is in the shape it’s in now because the anger that makes his message so popular is the same anger that’s shot down numerous proposals to build shelter capacity for the homeless within the city limits by established encampments in certain council districts. Nobody wants homeless encampments near them, but nobody can come up with a better idea to house homeless people quickly so that they can be moved off city streets.”

All This Over A Gas Station

“A spectacularly unfortunate chapter for the Sacramento City Council does not end because the city is paying a $26 million settlement to developer Paul Petrovich, who soundly beat the city in court for its handling of his Curtis Park development project. The headache only continues due to the city’s decision to buy from Petrovich a near-empty office building on one of the most distressed blocks on K Street in downtown Sacramento.”

The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board opined last week on the ongoing saga of Crocker Village. A court found the city council had acted in a biased manner when it denied a gas station as part of Petrovich’s Crocker Village retail complex in the Curtis Park of Sacramento.

“There is a broader lesson to be learned here. It is for city council members to recuse themselves when they have become so biased as to be unable to be fair. Or a city attorney can advise that the council member step down from voting out of the same concern because voting could expose the city to legal liability. Neither happened. And now Sacramento will pay dearly.”

Sacramento Must Move ‘Forward’

A proposal to create more affordable housing in Sacramento must succeed if the city ever hopes to solve the pervasive issues of homelessness that daily affects every resident — yet it may be two votes short of passing at the full city council.

The Sacramento Forward proposal would put a fundraising measure on the 2024 ballot, extend the Tenant Protection Program, implement support programs such as emergency rent assistance and increase developer fees. Among other housing and tenant protection goals, it would also adopt the Sacramento Opportunity to Purchase Act, which would require any tenant building listed for sale to be sold to the tenant or eligible community group if they can meet the initial listing price.

“Councilmembers Lisa Kaplan and Eric Guerra, however, raised concerns regarding the proposal. Guerra said it would disincentivize developers from choosing to build in Sacramento and Kaplan agreed. Developers and real estate agents argued with the committee, saying that if developer fees go up, they will stop building affordable housing in Sacramento and move their business to the suburbs,” I wrote last week in a column.

I say if Elk Grove and Roseville want predatory development, let them have it.

“Per usual, the fight comes down to how much money local developers can bilk out of a project: Developers in Sacramento only pay $3 per square foot into the city’s affordable housing fund, while developers in San Jose pay $43; in Portland, it’s $27; and in San Diego, it’s $25. What Sacramento’s new developer fee might be is yet to be decided, but at the current charge of $3 per square foot, it’s a small wonder there’s thousands of homeless people and not enough affordable housing in this city.”

Op-Ed Roundup

“Jobs build safe communities. Why won’t employers hire Californians trying to fly right?” by Ken Oliver, the vice president of Checkr.org, which connects people and businesses through fair chance employment initiatives.

“Other states should also pay close attention to California’s implementation progress, and ensure that their efforts are also adequately resourced and responsibly rolled out. With one-third of working-age Americans — almost 80 million people — facing restrictions stemming from their arrest or conviction histories, we urgently need to expand clean slate and fair chance policies across the nation.”

“The forced return to the office is the definition of insanity. Why are employers still requiring it?” by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of “Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams.”

“A Gallup study found that employees who could work remotely but are mandated to go to the office suffer from a lack of autonomy, leading to lower engagement. The research shows that employee engagement is lowest for those who could work remotely but are forced to show up in person full-time. And we know from extensive research that employee engagement leads to improved productivity, as well as improved retention and employee well-being.”

“Native Americans are still associated with unfair stigmas. Here’s how I’m breaking them” by Tj Talamoni-Marcks, a member of Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake.

“Growing up, I was athletically talented, which helped me fit in. Outside of my tribe, however, it was apparent that because of stigmas around my heritage, I was not expected to compete beyond the local level. While participating in sports benefited me in several ways, there were instances when I was perceived as an ‘Indian’ stealing a position from another player.”

Opinion of the Week

“People have lived their whole lives here, and they grew up thinking Sacramento was a cow town and there’s nothing to do, but now there’s so much.” — Sacramento social media influencer Maddy Eccles whose videos on Instagram and TikTok highlight the city and region for a new generation of Sacramentans.

Got thoughts? What would you like to see in this newsletter every week? Got a story tip or an opinion to tell the world? Let us know what you think about this email and our work in general by emailing us at any time via opinion@sacbee.com.

Stay cool,

Robin