Eight is Enough: Why I Support Kevin Johnson for Mayor

By Cecily Hastings, insidepublications.com

There’s no doubt that change is in the air. As our nation gets ready to elect a new president, here in Sacramento we have another important choice to make. We have a two-term incumbent mayor challenged by a former NBA basketball star who returned to his hometown to make it a better place.

After much consideration, I join many other civic leaders in supporting Kevin Johnson for mayor. Since I’ve rarely endorsed a candidate for local public office, I’d like to share with you some of my reasons.

Four years ago, Mayor Heather Fargo rolled to re-election without much trouble or competition. Without Johnson’s entry into the race this spring, she might have had that same experience this year.

Thankfully, Johnson joined the race, because eight years in office is enough for our political leaders. Eight is enough for our presidents and our governors and also our mayors, including Rudy Giuliani, the über-successful mayor of New York City. And Mayor Fargo is no different. It seems that the longer any administration is in office, the less transparent and more self-serving it becomes.

One thing my many years of community involvement has taught me is that only a tiny percentage of our citizens actually gets involved in any meaningful way with their city government. I count those who attend City Council or commission meetings, join neighborhood associations or attend town hall or community interest meetings. The rest stay fairly disengaged.
   
This past year has been a wakeup call for Sacramentans. First, a $58 million budget deficit was announced after years of growing budgets and rising city spending. As a result, city staff is being laid off—including painful cuts in public safety employee levels—and city services are getting axed.
   
Then we found out that our utilities department is in such disarray that thousands of city-owned water meters valued at $1.3 million are unaccounted for.
   
Earlier this year, it was announced that violent crime is up and the mayor went from being somewhat surprised and defensive to recently supporting a hastily crafted anti-gang tax measure for the November ballot that couldn’t even gain City Council support.
   
The latest was the announcement that Mayor Fargo supported raises for the city’s top managers. But after cries of public outrage, she abruptly yanked the item from the council’s agenda.
   
But it took these types of events—and there are many more—for many of our citizens to wake up and cry foul.
   
Realistically, the mayor cannot be solely blamed for many of these events. Given our city’s political structure, the mayor can be held responsible only for the items that get on the council meeting agenda, and even then she’s only one vote. But it is also important to consider the unscripted leadership and communication charge that goes above and beyond the mayor’s defined duties.
   
This is precisely where Kevin Johnson has been a breath of fresh air and energy in this campaign. A new leader—one with a successful background in tackling challenging civic problems in education and redevelopment—has the perfect opportunity to engage the citizens of our city. A spirited campaign involving a respected alternate to the incumbent has brought out the issues we should have been talking about all along. And for the first time in many years, we’re having a discussion of the current mayor’s role defined in our city charter and how it differs from other major cities.
   
My initial meetings with Johnson were exciting and inspiring as he shared his great sense of possibility. His track record of success is impressive given the great challenges he faced: reinventing a large, failing urban high school and beautifully restoring key parts of the crumbling historic neighborhood of Oak Park. And he is clearly free of the ties to the entrenched political interests that come with a mayor in office for eight years.
   
On the campaign trail in the past six months, he has come into his own as a public speaker. At a town hall meeting Johnson held in my neighborhood, there were about 120 in attendance. Thankfully, only recognizable were a couple of dozen from other civic meetings and interest groups. And that’s what energetic leadership does: It inspires people to show up to a crowded school auditorium on a hot summer night.
   
Johnson managed the one-hour session with leadership ease, efficiency and good humor. He did his best answering the more pointed questions challenging him on his positions.
   
Another town hall meeting in North Sacramento brought out many citizens from our immigrant communities. Johnson took the time to listen to their concerns.
   
But there was something else that ran through his responses at these events. You could sense his energy and enthusiasm for what lies ahead in our city, and even some impatience that so many civic challenges have remain unsolved for so many years. That is precisely what is so compelling about Kevin Johnson.
   
Johnson would be the first to point out that no one person can solve all our city’s challenges. But given his background and success—and seemingly endless energy—he definitely is our best hope of engaging many more of our citizens in the process of creating a better Sacramento for the future.
     
Hastings publishes three monthly community news publications; Inside The City, Inside East Sacramento and Inside Arden. Visit insidepublications.com to read an article on Johnson’s background that appeared in Sactown Magazine’s May/June edition.