Latest news with #MaiVang
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Some people think Sacramento is liberal. The city budget says otherwise
Sacramento's city council is debating what city resources should be cut to have a balanced budget. What has emerged from the past two meetings is a conversation about public safety and how each council member defines it. Take Council member Mai Vang, for instance. During Tuesday's council meeting, she implored the council to cut funding for police to reach the budget goal. 'I encourage my colleagues to make budget decisions driven by real people who need our help in this critical moment, and not based on fear,' Vang said. Council member Rick Jennings expressed support for a $254 million allocation for the police department, the biggest line item in Sacramento's proposed $1.65 billion spending plan for the coming fiscal year. 'I believe a city that's not safe is not a city that people want to live in,' Jennings said. Jennings and Vang reflect the two sides of public safety that clash in Sacramento. For some, public safety is about dialing 911 when they see a suspicious person. Their idea of safety is centered on an individualistic perspective of protecting themselves, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. And with others, public safety is seen as a collective effort that just doesn't begin with a phone call to police. It's about supporting resources like youth event programs and non-violence initiatives that can set our young adults and members of vulnerable communities on a path that steers them away from confrontations with police. The budget deficit pits supporting police and alternative safety initiatives against each other because, to Vang's point, some people in the community have an aggressively negative view about public safety measures that seek to prevent crime and violence so that a 911 call is unnecessary. I recently wrote a piece about Measure L, which funnels cannabis tax money into youth programs, and why it's so important that its funding doesn't get decreased. I was flabbergasted by the emails I received from people calling this type of initiative racist and even corrupt. Both policing and youth initiatives are important investments to Sacramento and any other city, for that matter. Wanting more funding for youth services or figuring out a way for those funds not to be touched should not be met with a fear-mongering mentality. We're dealing with two sensitive subjects, police and kids. The rational way of thinking, at least from my perspective, is to look at what is given for both. The police budget is currently at $246.5 million, and it's set to increase by just under $8 million to $254 million in the next fiscal year. Meanwhile, the city Cutting some funds from the police department will not prevent the city or the department from devising strategies to protect people. Sacramento should look beyond just one means of public safety to improve the livelihood of our community. The council has its work cut out for it in trying to find the best way forward with the budget. Mayor Kevin McCarty said this week that he sees a 'Venn diagram with lots of commonality' regarding the council's budget desires. The challenge will be getting to that common ground and by the looks of this past council meeting, there might be some tough conversations and some losers. Policing is not the only way to look at public safety. Helping kids see college as a viable option can help save lives. Having summer programs where they have places to go can prevent bad decisions. What's missing in Sacramento right now is rational thinking about what a safe community means and where city resources should be invested to realize it.
CBS News
21-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Here are the Sacramento police cuts the city is considering amid $44 million budget hole
SACRAMENTO — The City of Sacramento is considering making cuts to vacant police department positions to help make up for its $44 million budget deficit. The proposed budget has the city council cutting close to 25 vacant Sacramento Police Department positions, which could impact law enforcement response time. "It's not an easy decision," said Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty. McCarty said that the police department uses the money from the vacancies to pay officers overtime so that there are people to respond to calls. A spokesperson for the department said that often these officers come in on a day off or backfill a patrol shift. "There's some in the community and some in city council who have advocated for sweeping the 100-plus vacancies on the police department and using that money elsewhere, and I am saying that would be a terrible idea," McCarty said. Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang told CBS13 that she plans to present that new idea to the city council in its Tuesday meeting. She gave us this statement: "Before we eliminate critical funding for youth and family programs and lay off city staff who rely on their paychecks to provide food and housing for their loved ones - city council must have the courage to reallocate some of the 190+ vacant positions in the police department to protect services that directly support our working families. Choosing to keep these unfilled positions while cutting real people and taking away resources from children cannot be how our city leans into our values. Let's make budget decisions driven by real people who need our help in this critical moment." "You can be putting some people in danger by doing that," Dean said. Nothing is set in stone for the budget just yet. The Sacramento City Council will continue to discuss the proposed budget before formally adopting it by the end of June. Jason Dean, manager at Take Care Barbershop on J Street, said his business has been vandalized in the past, and it concerns him to think that police services could be impacted with a cut. "Within minutes' difference, that could make all the difference," said Jason Dean, manager at Take Care Barbershop on J Street.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
South Sacramento declares: We don't want to take brunt of solving homelessness
Homelessness remains the number one issue the Sacramento community wants its leaders to address, but how the city addresses it can leave a lasting impact in one neighborhood. A 102-acre plot of city land in South Sacramento symbolizes the tension between what the community wants and the desires of the Sacramento Council to find more land to shelter homeless people. Opinion That tension was on full display at the March 11 city council meeting where Mai Vang, who represents south Sacramento's council District 8, voiced what her community wants. 'For far too long the development of South Sacramento has happened to us, when vital and significant decisions were made without our input. This project is an opportunity to interrupt that cycle and to do things with transparency and integrity,' South Sacramento resident Danny Williams said at public comment on Tuesday. Purchased by the city in 2022 for $12.3 million, the 102 acres has been coveted for different purposes. Vang wanted the land for a potential sports complex and affordable housing. 'I saw that property as an opportunity to really transform south Sacramento, given the conversation that council was having at the time about inclusive economic development.' Later, former Mayor Darrell Steinberg included it in their Comprehensive Siting Plan to Address Homelessness. Since then, Vang hasn't given up on ensuring the land will be used to uplift her district. This reflects her experience of growing up in poverty in her district as the daughter of Hmong refugees from Laos. District 8, whose most prominent neighborhood is Meadowview, lacks the investment of other city council districts. Vang has focused her time on the council on such issues as violence prevention, guaranteed income and improving community gathering places, libraries and community centers. The development of the 102-acre site on Meadowview Road is an extension of Vang's priorities for her district. But as discussions about what to do with the land heighten, other priorities come into play. The Sacramento Bee's opinion team is hard at work sifting through the chaos so you don't have to. Get our weekly Bee Opinionated newsletter straight to your inbox and we'll help you cut through the drone of the news cycle. For Vang, she sees the land best used for affordable housing and a sports complex. The goal in mind is to uplift communities in places like Detroit Boulevard and Meadowview by giving more housing options to them and making the area a more desirable place to live. Mayor Kevin McCarty says he wants what's best for Sacramento as a whole. For a city that faced a budget deficit and is currently broke, the priority is money. To get funds to update the existing homeless shelter system, he wants to sell the land. 'We have multiple (homeless) sites in the city right now that are occupied with tiny homes and we're looking to expand but we need resources.' McCarty finds keeping the land and building housing for the homeless insufficient given how much money it would cost to create and upkeep another site. 'We just need more money to open up more tiny homes on the sites,' McCarty said. How the mayor's idea squares with Councilwoman Vang's desire for community benefits to come from this land remains to be seen. The 102-acre site is landlocked, without a road to enter it. Ten acres of it is wetlands. Needless to say, it would be a huge undertaking for the city to take on by itself. Selling the land puts money in the pockets of the city for other needs now, as the 102-acre land will take years before anything can break ground. Moreover, choosing to have a big homeless presence on this site would further hurt South Sac. 'If the council so choose that path, it would be devastating. That policy idea is literally redlining homelessness and concentrating poverty,' Vang said. Everyone has to play their part in solving homelessness, as equally as possible. The debate over this 102 acres of Sacramento land may be on its way to a positive ending.
