Sacramento City Council Meeting - August 12, 2025
Sacramento City Council Meeting - August 12, 2025
The Sacramento City Council met on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at 5:45 PM in the City Hall Council Chamber. The meeting began with a land acknowledgement led by Vice Mayor Talamantes, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a special presentation honoring Community Development Department Employee of the Year, Building Inspector IV Dan Lowther, for his life-saving actions during a building collapse. The council considered a consent calendar of 14 items (with Item 8 withdrawn), five public hearings, two discussion items, and heard public comments. The meeting adjourned at 7:51 PM. Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum was absent for all votes.
Consent Calendar
- Items 1–14 were approved in one motion except where noted, with a vote of 8-0 (Pluckebaum absent).
- Item 3 (Ordinance amending cardroom regulations) was adopted 6-0, with Mayor McCarty and Councilmember Dickinson recused and Pluckebaum absent.
- Item 8 (Hazardous Waste Management supplemental) was withdrawn.
- Several councilmembers made comments on specific items: Councilmember Vang directed the City Treasurer to return with a socially responsible investment policy update (Item 2); Councilmembers praised the Early Childhood Education apprenticeship program (Item 5); Councilmember Maple highlighted the honorary street sign topper for Pastor Itasker Hollins Sr. (Item 4); Councilmember Vang noted progress on the MLK Library renovation (Item 9); and Councilmember Maple thanked staff for keeping the area around the X Street shelter clean (Item 12).
- All consent items passed as recommended, including resolutions for investment policies, the cardroom ordinance, the sign topper, the Los Rios contract, the 16th Street PBID renewal, the MLK Library contract, the Crocker Art Museum sublease, the learning management system, emergency bridge housing supplemental (with two-thirds vote), the RFP for performance review services, and fire equipment cooperative purchases.
Public Hearings
- Item 15 (Historic Landmarks & New Helvetia Historic District): Continued to August 26, 2025 by unanimous motion (8-0).
- Item 16 (Housing & Dangerous Buildings Case Fees): Public hearing held; resolution adopted as amended, with 11 properties removed from Exhibit A. Vote: 8-0.
- Item 17 (Code Compliance Case Fees & Penalties): Public hearing held; resolution adopted as amended, with 14 properties removed. Vote: 8-0.
- Item 18 (2025 Refunding Revenue Bonds): Two-thirds vote waived 10-day posting; public hearing held; both City Council and Financing Authority resolutions adopted authorizing up to $67 million in bonds to refinance 2015 bonds, generating an estimated $3.67 million in cash flow savings. Vote: 8-0.
- Item 19 (Appeal: Crocker Village Residential Development): Continued to September 2, 2025 without discussion or vote (the continuance was granted by right).
Discussion Items
- Item 20 (Military Equipment Use Policy): After a presentation by Captain Clayton Buchanan and testimony from police commissioners and the public, the council debated separating new equipment purchases from the policy. Councilmember Vang initially moved to approve the policy without new equipment requests, but later withdrew her motion. Councilmember Guerra moved to approve the staff recommendation as presented, with direction to work on decoupling purchases from the policy for future years. The motion passed 8-0. The ordinance rescinding the previous policy and adopting a renewed Military Equipment Use Policy, along with the Annual Military Equipment Use Report, were approved. Key statistics: Police responded to ~200,000 incidents; military equipment was used in 398 incidents; the drone (UAS) was the most used piece (557 uses); there were 12 reportable use-of-force incidents; the youngest subject was 27 years old.
- Item 21 (HHAP-6 Application & All In Sacramento Plan): The city approved an updated regional homelessness action plan and a $16,120,619.10 HHAP-6 funding budget, with 70% allocated to interim housing. The region's allocation is a 40% reduction from HHAP-5. The council discussed the need for prevention and comprehensive regional coordination. A report back on street homelessness strategies is scheduled for September 16, 2025. The resolution passed 8-0.
Public Comments & Testimony
- On Consent Calendar Item 2: Three speakers (Justine Kansler of 350 Sacramento, Amira El Mala of Reinvest in Sacramento, and Keon Bliss) urged the council to implement a socially responsible investment policy, divesting from fossil fuels, tobacco, weapons manufacturers, and mass surveillance companies.
- On Item 20 (Military Equipment): Four speakers spoke: Keon Bliss opposed new equipment purchases citing costs and transparency; Matt King and Christina Rogers supported the equipment for officer and public safety; John Morales supported it, citing drug arrests and officer safety.
- On Non-Agenda Matters: Five speakers addressed issues including a National Night Out event (Ed Perez), code enforcement fines (Juan Gutierrez), food deserts and private security (Yana), criticism of police department attitude (Keon Bliss), and elder health and poverty (John Ju, Mar Baya Sala).
Key Outcomes
- Consent Calendar approved (8-0) except Item 3 (6-0 with recusals) and Item 8 withdrawn.
- Items 15 and 19 continued to later dates.
- Items 16 and 17 passed with amendments (8-0).
- Item 18 (bond refinancing) approved (8-0) with two-thirds vote waiver.
- Item 20 (Military Equipment Use Policy) adopted (8-0) with direction to decouple future equipment purchases.
- Item 21 (HHAP-6 and homelessness plan) approved (8-0) with a report back on prevention and street homelessness by September 16, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, please call this meeting to order the Sacramento City Council. Clerk, please call the roll. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Kaplan is expected momentarily. Councilmember Dickinson is expected momentarily. Momentarily is here. Councilmember Dickinson is present. Vice Mayor Talamantes. Councilmember Plucky Baum is expected momentarily. Councilmember Maple. I am here. Mayor Pro Temgata. Councilmember Jennings. Councilmember Vang. And Mayor McCarty. Here. You have a quorum. Okay. Vice Mayor, we lease in the pledge and the land acknowledgement. Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands to the original people of this land. The Nissan people, the Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains Miwok, Pat Winwintoon peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria. Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe. May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the act of practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous people, history, history contributions and lives. Thank you. So the pledge. Thank you. So we move to special presentations. Um presented by Mayor Kevin McCarty, Community Development Department Employee of the Year, Dan Lowther, Building Inspector. Thank you. I'm gonna have our director, Mr. Pace, present this item. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. I'm Tom Pace, Director of Community Development, and it's my pleasure to uh honor our employee of the year uh this year for 2025, uh Dan Louther, who is the building inspector for in the housing and dangerous building uh section of the code enforcement division in our department. Uh each year we acknowledge employees of the month that are nominated by their co-workers, and then we select one of them to be our employee of the year. And I think that um the best way there are a lot of really good things that have been said about Dan uh in the nomination by his co-workers. Um, but I think there's a story that I'd like to tell that we talked about recently uh that maybe exemplifies why he's our employee of the year this year. Um not too long ago, uh the fire department uh called out uh Dan to come to a building where there was uh concern that there may be damage to the roof. And uh as a result, Dan uh came to the site and met with uh employees of the organization that that own the facility there in the building. And uh while they were in the building, he observed that uh, and you could actually hear apparently the sound of the beam cracking and making you know sounds that uh were pretty alarming. And so uh a number of the employees of the organization that were that were there were standing underneath this beam looking at it as they were talking about it. And so Dan determined that uh there was a dangerous situation immediately and evacuated the building, got everyone out of the building, and uh within moments the beam collapsed and a portion of the roof caved in and fell to the floor, and there was a very heavy air conditioning unit, I think, situated on top of that beam. So if people had been underneath there, um they probably would have been killed or at least seriously injured. And so the work that you know Dan does, I mean it's just one example, but the work that he does and the work that his colleagues do in housing in dangerous buildings is about saving lives and protecting public health and safety, and I think that's our highest purpose as a as a as public servants, and so I'm really uh pleased to um to have him here today to acknowledge him. And uh would you like to say anything? Um, I just want to say thank you for this opportunity to represent Sacramento and that's what I do. That's what the city of Sacramento expects of us to go out and do our jobs, and that's all I know. So thank you. Well, thank you, Dan, on behalf of the Mayor and City Council, more importantly, on behalf of the city of Sacramento. You are our face to 500,000 plus people in our city, and thank you for your service. Thank you.
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