Mayoral candidate says Sacramento can’t use Golden 1 Center in emergencies. Is she right?

Sacramento mayoral candidates Flo Cofer and Steve Hansen got into a heated exchange during a debate Wednesday over a seemingly simple question about Golden 1 Center.

During a debate hosted Wednesday by The Sacramento Bee and KVIE, Cofer claimed the city is unable to use the downtown arena it subsidized as an emergency shelter during storms, floods and fires.

“I also wanna make sure we maintain right that in an emergency we don’t need to ask permission from the Kings to use the arena,” Cofer said. “If there’s a flood, if there’s a fire, if there’s a storm, we should be able to use buildings we pay for.”

Hansen said Cofer was incorrect.

“The city absolutely has the right to use it in emergencies,” Hansen said. “And what you just heard is not true based on the legal agreements between the city and the Kings.”

When The Bee asked city spokesman Tim Swanson the question, he provided the 136-page lease agreement. Asked again Friday, he again directed The Bee to the legal document and wrote “The City Attorney’s Office does not provide legal interpretation or advice to third-party entities outside of the city of Sacramento.”

The agreement is unclear on that question. Each of their campaigns interpret it differently.

The 2014 lease agreement states: “For clarification, nothing contained in this Section 4.8 or in any other provision of this Agreement shall be deemed to infringe on or limit the power or duty of the City (including the police and emergency service powers of the City) to act to provide for the health, safety, or welfare of the municipality in an emergency situation.”

This passage emphasizes the city’s power to take action, which aligns with Hansen’s reasoning.

But there’s the definitions section, which defines “emergencies” as only those that impact “the users of the arena or to the structural integrity of the arena.”

This narrow definition limits the city’s ability to use the arena as a shelter for people who are affected by emergencies elsewhere.

Asked about that, Sam Garrett, a Hansen spokesman, said that since in the document, the E is lower-cased in “emergencies,” the above definition does not legally apply. Under Hansen’s interpretation, the city could use the arena for weather emergencies such as fires or floods.

“Although the City would likely find alternatives to the G1C for less critical emergencies like a severe storm, it could absolutely choose to utilize it in the event of a significant emergency like a flood or earthquake,” Hansen’s campaign spokeswoman, Sarah Robinson of J&Z Strategies, said in an email.

Jon Ivy, an attorney working for the Cofer campaign, called the capitalization claim “grasping at straws.”

“I appreciate Mr. Hansen’s reading of the lease agreement in that way,” wrote Jon Ivy, a former attorney for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. “It would certainly be good news for the city if that were how to read this contract. But generally, if the contract provided for use of the stadium in an emergency or disaster, it would say so. It doesn’t. It doesn’t say the City can infringe on the occupancy in that way. It doesn’t say how it would do so or under what conditions. The contract simply doesn’t state anything like that. To me, this feels like grasping at straws trying to find a way to ‘be right’ despite being wrong.”

The topic came up during a massive rain and wind storm in January 2021, causing trees to fall on tents and putting the thousands of unhoused residents in danger. During that meeting, Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela asked if the city could use the arena as emergency shelter.

“I did speak to the Kings, and, you know, they have a regular schedule here, they’re in the midst of their season so that does not work,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said during the Jan. 27, 2021, council meeting.

The city went on to open a handful of smaller buildings as homeless warming centers instead, which did not fit thousands, like the arena building would have. At last count in 2022, there were more than 5,000 homeless people sleeping in the city limits.

Can city hold free events at arena?

The two also disagreed about another arena fact — whether the city is allowed to host events that are free and open to the public.

Cofer claimed it was not.

“I’m never gonna put in money for a public project and not retain something to make sure that everybody who pays taxes in this city is able to enjoy it,” Cofer said “The city has no option to be able to do a free event a few times a year so that people, everybody here, who pays, in their tax revenue, can go to Golden 1.”

Hansen again said she was wrong.

“That is incorrect,” Hansen said. “The city owns the arena we have the right to use it several times a year for free. We have a suite there I thought we should sell and get millions back, we bring community groups there all the time, and it’s used for public events all the time.”

On this point, Hansen was correct that events are allowed.

The agreement states the city actually can use the arena for “up to nine-civic oriented events each operating year.”

Swanson, the city spokesman, said the most recent city-sponsored event at the arena was a swearing-in ceremony for new police officers in March 2022.

On Friday, Cofer said she was unaware of the clause in the contract because in her opinion the city does not hold enough arena events.

“It is good to know that the city has retained more authority than I was aware to make the arena available for public events to people across the city,” Cofer said in a statement Friday. “Given their infrequency, I think a lot of Sacramento residents shared my understanding. As your next mayor, I look forward to expanding those events beyond Kings watch parties and graduations to ensure that everyone in the region can fully and meaningfully enjoy the arena that we are all paying for.”

The city pays at least $6.5 million a year for its suite in the arena, according to the agreement.

Representatives from the Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps Foundation, Girls on the Run of Greater Sacramento, and California Automotive Museum last month used the suite, which requires an invite by a city official, according to a city web page.

Kevin McCarty, who is also running for mayor, voted against the city subsidy to build the arena in 2014, when he was on council, while Hansen voted in favor.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city parking revenue tanked, causing the city to pull at least $5.7 million out of its general fund — which pays for most city services — to pay for the arena construction bonds. The city is now facing a $50 million deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

During the debate McCarty said he stands by that decision to vote down the subsidy. Hansen and Dr. Richard Pan, who’s also running for mayor, both said they supported the 2014 subsidy.

Hansen said he disagreed with the council’s choice to spend millions in federal COVID grant money on what he called “pet projects” instead of putting it toward the arena debt.

The council, led by Steinberg, in 2020 and 2021 spent nearly $200 million in federal COVID money on the arts, housing, and small businesses.

The primary will be held March 1, and the general election will be Nov. 5.