40 Under 40 honoree: Ryan McClinton

Nov 22, 2020, 7:42pm EST

Over the next few days, we're introducing you to this year's 40 Under 40 honorees. Meet more honorees here.

Ryan McClinton

Program manager, Public Health Advocates

As a community organizer at Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Ryan McClinton helped develop policy, cultivate nonprofits and develop resources to create a more just and fair community. With a focus on communities of color, McClinton tackled issues like gun violence, homelessness and food insecurity. He pushed local government to address systemic racism through governance and budgetary practices. He also successfully pushed for legislative policy to create more police accountability and helped develop a funding mechanism to support Black communities. After some four years with the organization, McClinton started a new job in October with Public Health Advocates, a nonprofit that helps communities pass laws, reform systems and establish norms that foster justice, equity and health. As a program manager, McClinton is working on a campaign focused on building advisory teams to help inform and innovate new approaches to emergency response systems.

Age: 35

Education: High school graduate with 60 units of college credits.

What is your biggest personal accomplishment? "Receiving a Men of Honor Award from the very community I was raised in."

What is your biggest takeaway from the Covid-19 pandemic? "That we can never lose sight of the richness humanity with one another holds."

How do you foresee your industry changing as a result of Covid-19? "More innovation into how we cultivate leaders and implement equitable change not just in the immediate but for generations to come."

What is your top priority for 2021? "Dismantling the cultures of white supremacy through every system we have that connects with people, be it education, public health, public safety, financially, economically and even on a relational level."

What is your favorite movie? "'Harlem Nights.' A classic example of what is possible when you bring some of the best in their field together to collaborate on a project. Still hilarious to this day."

Have you developed any new skills during the quarantine? "I've became an adequate gardener.”

Sacramento considers tax break for UC Davis project. Some worry it will fuel gentrification

BY THERESA CLIFT

OCTOBER 27, 2020 05:00 AM

The city of Sacramento is planning to give a $30 million tax break to the developers of a controversial UC Davis project that critics say will accelerate gentrification in the city’s Oak Park and Tahoe Park neighborhoods.

The proposal, which the City Council will consider Tuesday, would also include a $37 million plan to spark more affordable housing in the neighborhoods surrounding Aggie Square, said John Dangberg, a consultant for the city on the project.

The university is planning to break ground on four buildings next year, including classroom and research space, and 285 units of student housing that will rent for about $1,900 a month per unit, according to a July report.

The $1.1 billion first phase of the project is expected to bring 3,600 new jobs to the site at Stockton Boulevard and Second Avenue, not counting construction jobs. Many community members worry the new employees will flood the rental market, driving up prices and forcing current renters out.

Council members could Tuesday take the first step toward creating what’s called an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District. Under that mechanism, about $30 million in new property tax revenue that would normally go toward city coffers would be redirected toward helping the developer fund the project – paying for infrastructure such as roadways, storm water and sewer improvements – through 2069, Dangberg said.

The tax break would provide the developer with the final funding needed to build the project, said Doug Woodruff, of Baltimore-based Wexford Science and Technology, the developer for the project.

“If we get an EIFD commitment, we can just roll right into development,” Woodruff said.

The plan would also include an additional $37 million tax break. That money, which normally would have also gone to the city coffers, would be redirected toward efforts to spark new affordable housing in the area and cash to keep renters from being displaced. Those efforts have not yet been identified, but could include grants to affordable housing developers to help them build on vacant lots along Stockton Boulevard, rental assistance to current residents in the area, and other initiatives, Dangberg said.

COMMUNITY AGREEMENT FOR JOBS, HOUSING

The project will include a community benefits agreement, which will ease community fears about displacement and ensure that a significant number of the new jobs will be attainable for current residents, said City Councilman Jay Schenirer, who represents Oak Park.

“To me, there’s four partners here,” Schenirer said. “UC Davis, the developer, the city and the community. The potential here is enormous if we do this right. And doing it right means we have to do it together.”

Community advocates worry that even with a community benefits agreement, the project will greatly damage the neighborhood.

Rachel Iskow said she was glad the city was planning to fund affordable housing efforts, but that $37 million is just “a drop in the bucket” and will not go far enough to prevent displacement of longtime residents, many of whom are low-income families of color.

“It’s simply not enough money to build housing and provide rent supports,” Iskow said. “There are thousands of people in the city waiting for affordable housing.”

The typical apartment rent in Sacramento has increased 45% in the last seven years following the Great Recession.

Iskow and several other community advocates, who formed a coalition called Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, worry they will not have a seat at the table to ensure more longtime residents are not forced out.

“City officials, UC Davis and Wexford know there’s a coalition of reputable organizations that want to see the concerns of residents addressed and they have not brought us to the table in a meaningful way,” said Gabby Trejo, executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together, a coalition member.

The group also wants contractual measures to require the developers address air pollution in the high-traffic area, provide free legal service to renters and require UC Davis Medical Center to accept more Medi-Cal patients, Iskow said. The group is concerned the community will not be included as a negotiator and signatory on the community benefits agreement – a legally-enforceable contract.

It has not been decided whether the coalition will sign the agreement, but the city is open to discussing it, Schenirer said. The agreement will address issues regarding both housing and jobs, and will be done at the same time the tax break is finalized, he said.

“One should not go in front of the other,” Schenirer said. “They should be tied at the hip.”

The project also needs University of California Board of Regents approval. The board will consider it next month. If approved, construction on Aggie Square would start in early 2021 and it would open in 2023 or 2024, officials said.

The council meeting will take place at 5 p.m Tuesday. It will be live streamed on the city’s website.

The cost of being a sanctuary city under Trump administration

BY SHARYL ATTKISSON 

Today we dive into an election issue and a political flashpoint: Sanctuary Cities. You may recall the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal taxpayer funds from hundreds of American cities, counties and states that continue to shield illegal immigrants. What ever happened? You might be surprised by what we found when we followed the money.

Sharyl: Edwin Valdez is a U.S. citizen the son of illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Edwin Valdez: So me and my sisters were born here in the U.S. And my parents came to the U.S. from Mexico about 24, 25 years ago.

Today, he runs a hotline in California for a group called Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Sacramento ACT for illegal immigrant families that need help.

Sharyl: What's a typical call you might get relating to the issue that we're talking about?

Valdez: A typical call would be a family member that calls into the hotline and says, "Hey, my loved one just got picked up within a specific timeframe. What can you do for me? What can we do?”

As a sanctuary city, Sacramento protects some illegal immigrants from being deported by limiting cooperation with federal immigration officials or ice.

Valdez says his group aims to help the many hard working and deserving people who come to the U.S. for jobs and a better life—like his parents did, without going through the immigration system.

But not all illegal immigrants are peaceful. Josh Wilkerson was murdered by a high school classmate, an illegal immigrant with an arrest record. Josh’s mom recounts the horrible attack.

Laura Wilkerson (July 2016): He hit him so hard in the stomach that it made his spleen go into the spine and it sliced it in two. Then, he tortured him by strangling him then, he put him in a field and he set his body on fire.

In 2018, illegal immigrants accounted for 64% of all federal arrests. They make up an estimated 7% of the U.S. population but 15% of federal prosecutions for non-immigration crimes, and about one out of every four (24%) federal drug arrests, property arrests like theft and burglary (25%), and arrests involving fraud (28%).

Part of President Trump’s get-tough border policy was a pledge to withhold federal money from the places that won’t notify the feds before releasing illegal immigrant criminals back into society. Criminals who may be on the list for deportation.

President Donald Trump (December 2017): And we are throwing them the hell out of our country or we are putting them in prison. I don't want to give sanctuary cities money.

Michelle Steel is on the president’s side. She’s a first generation legal immigrant from South Korea and chairman of the board of supervisors in Orange County, California

Michelle Steel: So it's very dangerous that, you know, when you cannot trace these people and they commit another crime and coming back then public safety is in danger.

Steel at county board meeting (March 2018): And I raise the issue because government's first duty is public safety.

In 2018, Orange County voted to take a position against California’s sanctuary status.

Citizen of Orange County: It is absolutely shameful I oppose this resolution.

Citizen of Orange County: Lock 'em all up, are we a nation of laws or we are not?

Citizen of Orange County: If you vote NO on 14A, you are responsible for endangering human beings.

Orange County Board Member: Thank you for your comments. Alright, any opposed? Say none, that passes will all members present.

Sharyl: Can you guess what the impact might be if the Trump administration cuts off federal funds to California and cities and counties, for reasons that they are sanctuary cities, counties, and state?

Steel: You know what? California has been always fighting Trump administration, you know, regarding the immigration issues. It seems like it was a, you know, a year or two years ago that Trump administration said that we're going to cut off, but I don't think anything's been cut off until yet. So I don't know.

Fight improper government surveillance. Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI over the government computer intrusions of Attkisson's work while she was a CBS News investigative correspondent. Visit the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund. Click here.

We set out to find: who has been cut off? And how much money is at stake?

The Department of Justice told us a lot of the public information we asked for is confidential or not being tracked.

What we do know is the biggest pot of federal money involved is called Byrne Justice Assistance grants. About $250 million dollars a year is divided among 900 cities, counties and states.

In 2017, the Trump administration imposed new conditions requiring any place that takes the money, to cooperate with ice. That forces sanctuary cities to give up the cash or change their ways. California gets the most money from the grant program, nearly $36 million dollars over the past two years. That’s on top of what its local governments get.

Sharyl (on camera): Now the big question is whether the threat of losing millions of dollars in federal taxpayer money is changing minds here on the ground in the sanctuary state of California, or its 20 sanctuary cities and counties.

Sharyl: Have you been in discussions or have you thought about the impact that could have and where we are with all of that?

Valdez: Yeah. We began to have those discussions with city and county officials because we realized that some cities and some counties do receive a good amount of money from the federal government. And so it puts them at risk of losing a lot of money. And really looking at the reality of things, we could be facing cuts to other resources that are very valuable to the community. That could be an unwanted backfire, basically.

State Senator Holly Mitchell: The state of California is going to continue to stand in the gap to protect our undocumented brothers and sisters, recognizing the role they play in contributing to our economy.

California State Senator Holly Mitchell represents mid-city Los Angeles.

Sharyl: What will be the impact if federal funds are cut off from these cities?

Mitchell: Well, we are of course going to fight that tooth and nail. Our attorney general here in California, I've lost track of the number of lawsuits he has now filed against the federal government, but it's something that we're going to continue to fight because A) we fundamentally believe in it. It reflects the values of California residents, and it's the right thing for the state government to do when the federal government turns their back on a major constituency that we all represent.

California and more than a dozen other locations sued to try to get the grant money without the strings attached. So far, most of them have won in lower courts. But earlier this year, a federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration in the one of the biggest cases: New York.

John Yoo: I think eventually it'll get settled by the Supreme Court.

Former Justice Department official John Yoo lives in the sanctuary city of San Francisco, which is also suing the Trump administration. He says he thinks he knows where all of this is headed.

John Yoo: The federal government can't commandeer or draft state governments and their police officers to carry out federal priorities. The Supreme Court has said that many times. They don't have to cooperate or help the federal government in any way. On the flip side, the federal government doesn't have to give California any money for policing or immigration either. And so that's what I think will happen in the end. And this is going to lead to some significant budget cuts for this city and for other cities in California, like San Diego and LA. But again, if my neighbors and I, we think we want to not cooperate with federal government and immigration, then we should really pay the cost for it, rather than trying to have our cake and eat it too. The last thing we should do is say, "Oh, let's symbolically have this great sanctuary policy, but we also want the federal government to give us as much money as possible."

As to the impact of President Trump’s strategy to punish sanctuary cities so far, the justice department told us “we don’t track whether individual sanctuary cities have changed their laws or practices to comply with grant conditions, but it is safe to infer that some cities and states have agreed to abandon sanctuary practices to continue participating in grant programs.”

Valdez told us the debate may be changing some minds or at least strategies here in Sacramento, California.

Sharyl: So what is the thought? That it's still worth it to keep the sanctuary city status, even if money is lost?

Valdez: We're still having those discussions. As of now, we haven't come to an answer of whether or not we should change, or how big of a threat it is. But there are cities that are considering laying back those restrictions or laying back those laws so that they could still protect and defend their community members without losing funding from the federal government.

The way things are going, it’s the Supreme Court that will have the final say on whether American cities and states have to choose between getting federal money and giving sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

While the challenges work their way through court, millions of dollars are being held in limbo.

Click on the link below to watch the video report on FullMeasure.news:

 http://fullmeasure.news/news/follow-the-money/sanctuary-payback

Supervisors reject calls to ‘defund’ Sacramento County sheriff in $6.4 billion budget

BY MICHAEL FINCH II

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 06:39 PM , UPDATED 6 HOURS 18 MINUTES AGO

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors has finalized a $6.4 billion budget that relies heavily on a one-time influx of federal money given to local governments to lessen the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In a meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, the supervisors faced a wave of skeptical residents and community groups, questioning their stewardship of federal money after many learned in recent weeks that most of the money was directed toward the Sheriff’s Office.

Sacramento County received $181 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act money from the federal government. But the county used all the money in the previous year’s budget, which is why it started out with a $161 million surplus for the fiscal year 2020-21. Some $146 million of that was because of the coronavirus funding.

The budget includes large increases to health services related to COVID-19, including $71 million for testing and other related programs; nearly $7 million to feed homebound seniors; and $11 million to aid the homeless.

It also includes an additional $38 million for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department for increased salary and benefits cost and to comply with a judge’s order to improve living conditions in local jails; and an extra $8 million toward the probation department.

Several residents took aim at the large funding bumps for agencies that support incarceration over human services, criticizing the county’s budget priorities. The budget meeting stretched into Thursday afternoon and the sheriff’s funding was not significantly changed.

“Our communities are facing five crises as we meet tonight: the pandemic, an economic crisis, an impending eviction crisis, a crisis of confidence in our current approach to law enforcement and a climate crisis that should be obvious to all of us,” said Rick Eaton, a resident of Carmichael and member of Sacramento Area Congregations Together, during the public comment period Wednesday.

“It is simply irresponsible and a failure of leadership to ignore these crises and adopt a business-as-usual without significant changes.”

THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET

The board approved the budget at a time when residents and organizers wanted more funding directed to health and social services programs and less for law enforcement and jails.

The idea grew from a similar movement in Los Angeles where organizers surveyed the community on what budget priorities should be. A similar survey is underway in Sacramento called the People’s Budget. The survey has garnered more than 2,000 responses as of Wednesday, said Katie Valenzuela, one of the organizers behind the effort.

Organizers say the survey results so far reveal that many residents favor other priorities over law enforcement, which accounts for an outside portion of county spending.

“Our mission and work are guided by this survey and what the people say they want. We’ve had 2,000 people fill out the survey in the two weeks it was out,” Valenzuela said, adding that they hope to reach 5,000 responses in a few weeks.“

What we heard overwhelmingly was that folks wanted more money to human services ... and prevention and less money going to law enforcement and criminalization.”

The city of Sacramento appears headed in the same general direction as the county. Although the city may create a new “participatory budget,” it likely won’t redirect money from public safety to the fund. The city’s two largest public safety unions sent a letter to the council on Tuesday opposing reductions to their budgets.

‘DEFUND’ EQUALS MORE CRIME?

During Wednesday night’s meeting, the “defund” effort was largely dismissed by Sheriff Scott Jones, who said he wanted to “provide a counterbalance” to the conversation around police funding. Jones’ budget presentation was intended to beat back the growing calls to redistribute his agency’s outsize share of the county money.

“We’re all familiar with the term defunding the police but it has many different names: abolition, realigning or reprioritizing police finding, reimagining police; and here locally there’s been quite a bit of traction gained on what is called the people’s budget,” Jones said in front of a podium.

“Importantly, it means taking money specifically from law enforcement as opposed to any other source and reallocating it for other purposes.”

He then rattled off a list of headlines about rising crime in Los Angeles, Austin, Baltimore, San Francisco, New York City, Washington DC and Portland. The news stories were mostly from a collection of conservative-leaning websites. And the upshot of Jones’ message was: Cut funding and crime rises.

“It’s important to note that none of these cities completely defunded their police departments.,” Jones said. “So these are the models that we have and, I think, as we go through each of these cities you will see that there is one outcome and one outcome alone. There is no alternative reality than what has occurred in each of these cities.”

Only Jones’ presentation was more simplistic than what researchers and experts say is actually happening in cities across the country. Crime in most cities actually fell during the pandemic -- and in some cases, after protests, according to data collected by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

However, homicides in some places, like New York City, have increased. William Vizzard, a professor emeritus of criminal justice at Sacramento State, said there are only theories but no solid data on why homicides have spiked.

Vizzard said the latest effort to reform police departments may be worthwhile but the messaging is still confusing.

“Although a few really militant individuals mean it literally, most mean redirect some police funding to social services and seek alternatives to (the) police for potential conflict situations,” Vizzard said in an email. “However, it is a slogan ready-made for striking fear in the middle class.”

Be Counted

BY: EDGAR SANCHEZ SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Abelardo “Abe” Ruiz believes in the power of the census.

The proud Sacramentan has participated in every decennial population count since 1980, when he was a new immigrant from Mexico.

This year the naturalized U.S. citizen completed and mailed his family’s 2020 Census form five months before the September 30 deadline.

“It’s important that all Sacramentans be counted in the census, so our communities won’t lose federal funds for new highways, schools and parks,” Ruiz, chef/owner of Anthony’s Italian Cuisine Restaurant in South Natomas, said recently. “Filling out the census form is easy.”

But, he added, time is running out.

Unfortunately, some Sacramentans are difficult to count. By conservative estimate, Sacramento County and its cities lost at least $140 million in federal funds over the past decade because the 2010 Census missed thousands of local residents.

Getting a full count in 2020 is a priority. The census determines where billions of dollars in federal monies go to help build new hospitals, bridges and other infrastructure. It also shapes the federal budget for programs such as Head Start and Meals on Wheels. Lastly, among other things, the census establishes the number of congressional seats for each state.

To increase census awareness, the county created Sacramento’s Complete Count Committee in 2018, with members selected by the county and the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.

Reflecting the county’s diversity, the members include government partners such as employees from the cities and counties, plus more than 30 community organizations, some of them supported by The California Endowment.

“We’ve been meeting for over a year” to develop integrated outreach strategies for the 2020 Census, said Gabby Trejo, the committee’s co-chair and director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together. “What’s at stake is bringing the resources … for people to live in our community.”

One new tactic: Every Sunday, the faithful attending virtual services at Sac ACT parishes are reminded by pastors to “do” the census.

Besides the SCCC, the county formed 16 subcommittees, each of which has reached out to a specific hard-to-count group, ranging from refugees to the homeless.

The community-government partnership appears to be succeeding.
Despite COVID-19, which halted one-on-one gathering of census data for months, responses in local hard-to-count communities have risen dramatically, pointing to a successful census, said Judy Robinson, Sacramento County’s 2020 Census manager.

The census is confidential. Residents who haven’t responded to census surveys are being visited by census takers. The forms can also be filled out by telephone, with assistance in 14 languages, at 1-844-330-2020, or online at my2020census.gov. PLEASE RESPOND BY/BEFORE SEPT. 30.