West Sacramento, why won’t you appoint this qualified Black woman to your city council?
In the 30 years since it was incorporated, the City of West Sacramento has transformed from a backwater punchline to national recognition as one of the most livable small communities in America. In that time, committed residents of West Sacramento supported major changes to the look and feel of their city.
A notable exception is electing a Black person to the West Sacramento City Council. It’s never happened before.
That’s one of the reasons why Dawnté Early’s 2020 candidacy for the West Sacramento council was viewed with excitement.
She is young, only 38. Early is a mom, coaches soccer and is involved in Girl Scouts. She has a doctorate in Human Development and a Masters in Child Development from UC Davis. She is the chief of research and evaluation for California’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.
“I believe in equity and representation,” Early said. “I believe in having a working local mom with kids in our local school district. I am a data scientist. We’re in the middle of a pandemic and it seems to me that you need that lens. “
Opinion
She is also personable, committed, engaging.
Are you kidding? A young, dynamic Black woman with a doctorate who, despite the demands on her time, wants to serve her community by running for elective office in a city that has never elected a Black person before?
It sounds like the kind of inspirational story that could speak to a new chapter in local politics. The kind of story that represents barriers tumbling down for people seeking positions of power once off-limits to them. And the kind of story that could inspire young people, young girls, young Black girls to dream big.
It could be all those things but, at least for now, Early’s bid to achieve local election history is mired in politics and acrimony. It comes to a head this week.
Council needs to appoint
The West Sacramento City Council has an open seat and two current council members – Quirina Orozco and Chris Ledesma – are pushing really hard to appoint Early to it. Early barely lost in the November election, coming in third.
But two other council members – newly elected Mayor Martha Guerrero and newly elected council member Norma Alcala – are pushing just as hard in another direction. Guerrero and Alcala want to fill the empty spot on the council through an application process with a two-person committee, which would include Guerrero, vetting candidates and picking a winner.
The empty seat on the council was Guerrero’s. It opened when Guerrero beat incumbent Mayor Christopher Cabaldon in November. She ended Cabaldon’s run of nearly 20 consecutive years as the mayor of a city with a little more than 50,000 residents.
In a real way, the long shadow cast in West Sacramento by Cabaldon plays a central role in Early’s situation. Early, like her council supporters Orozco and Ledesma, had been endorsed by Cabaldon.
But the three have not received the endorsements of the Sacramento Central Labor Council and the Sacramento-Sierra’s Building and Construction Trades Council. Those two unions endorsed Guerrero and Alcala, who ran on a labor slate together in November.
Obviously, Guerrero unseated Cabaldon.
Cabaldon’s legacy, changing times
Cabaldon played a key part in West Sacramento’s renaissance of smart development since the 1990s, seeing Sutter Health Park, the Bridge District, IKEA, the riverfront development, parks and new homes rise on the cityscape. But Cabaldon was viewed in some circles as being anti-union. A decade ago, Cabaldon told me that West Sacramento was more nimble than Sacramento because its politics weren’t as entrenched.
Cabaldon’s defeat in November and the standoff over Early demonstrate times have changed.
On the one hand, this is Sacramento Politics 101. You have two groups of people supported by different factions who are disagreeing on what to do.
For her part, Guerrero has an inspirational personal story as a single mom from a humble Mexican American family. Like Early, she is self-made and committed to her community. At 55, she just unseated arguably the most consequential citizen in the short history of the City of West Sacramento.
Guerrero did it with the help of interests, such as labor, that had tired of Cabaldon. Others, despite respecting Cabaldon and his contributions, saw the value in new voices leading West Sacramento into its next chapter.
“I love Martha,” said Ryan Harrison, a West Sacramento resident. He is also Black, a lawyer and has an interest in applying for Guerrero’s empty council seat if the council settles on a selection process.
“Martha cares about the vitality of the people in our city...” Harrison said. “Sacramento is going to be the gem of the region in the next 10 years. Chris Cabaldon kicked that off and Martha is going to finish it up.”
There is a flip side to our Politics 101, however. People could intellectually understand that Guerrero and Alcala might be reluctant simply to appoint Early. Such a move could potentially put Guerrero and Alcala in a voting minority more times than they would like.
The heated council discussion over this standoff at the Jan. 6 council meeting was a case in point.
Play politics, face consequences
People playing politics must accept the consequences of politics.
In this case, Guerrero, Alcala and their labor partners are in the position – however complex and nuanced it might be – of being perceived as standing in the way of an accomplished person being the first Black woman to serve on the council where no Black person has ever served.
People have noticed, including members of Build. Black. Build. Black. is a coalition of Black community leaders in the Sacramento region that includes Pastor Les Simmons, Cassandra Jennings of the Sacramento Urban League, Chet Hewitt of the Sierra Health Foundation and Larry Lee, publisher of the Sacramento Observer, the region’s venerable Black owned newspaper.
“West Sacramento has never had an African American member,” wrote Build. Black. members in a letter to the West Sacramento City Council. “You have the opportunity to issue a strong statement as a City Council about your commitment to meeting the needs of all your residents by appointing the first African American member.”
The California Democratic Black Caucus is also pushing for Early’s appointment as is the Black Women Organized for Political Action.
Labor partners of West Sacramento did not want to speak to me on the record. But some know they have a problem here. The phrase these days is “the optics” and in this case, “the optics” look bad. And you know what? That’s not me saying it, that’s the political reality. So, if you’re going to play the politics of opposing Early’s appointment, you will have to live the political fallout.
The matter comes before the council Jan. 20. If the divided council can’t reach a compromise, it looks like West Sacramento will have to stage a special election later this year to fill Guerrero’s vacant council spot. According to a city staff report, a special election (in August or November of this year) could cost between $50,000 and $250,000.
“I’m not saying Dawnté can’t apply, her credentials are really good,” Guerrero said. “But the interests of working people, the employees of our community is to have a selection process and that’s what I’m trying to express.”
Guerrero said that past open spots on the council have been filled via an application process and they worked out just great. She and Alcala believe that an application process opened to all comers and vetted by members of the council would be the most “transparent.”
Orozco and Ledesma say that Early has already been vetted. In the recent November election, in her first try for public office, she just missed getting elected by voters, missing by 89 votes. Orozco finished first with 11,616 and Alcala finished second with 8,212. Early finished a close third with 8,123. But only the top two won council seats.
“We’re trying very hard to make our mark and here is a highly accomplished woman of color,” Orozco said. “She really impressed me and has a public health background. I want her to represent me.”
Orozco said Early received almost 3,000 votes more than the next highest vote getter. The council would be tossing all those voters aside by refusing to appoint Early.
No one I spoke with comes out and says they oppose Early. But at the Jan. 6 meeting, Guerrero said that “labor” wanted a vetting process. Alcala wanted one, too, and said she had prevailed in the last election and that Early had run on a different “slate.”
The quiet part that needs to be said loudly is that West Sacramento is trying to find its footing after the departure of Cabaldon and Early’s association with him may cause the city to spend between thousands on a special election because of the council standoff over her.
At one time, Guerrero campaigned for Cabaldon. The council was a model of cooperation compared to past dysfunctional councils in neighboring Sacramento.
And if a special election does happen and labor goes strong against Early, the rumbles about those standing in the way of West Sacramento’s first Black councilwoman will grow louder and more pointed.
Does West Sacramento really want that? And how about this question: Does anyone know how Early would vote if she were appointed to the council? That option has not been discussed publicly so far.
