Field Notes from Sacramento’s City Management Academy

Last week was graduation for City Management Academy 2024, which I missed because I was directing an elementary school play that evening about evil skeleton armies with slow-motion action sequences. Although I missed the chance to appear in front of City Council at our culminating night for the Academy, I was there *in spirit* with my classmates as we celebrated 10-weeks of collaborating and learning about how to better serve Sacramento in our various advocate roles. (The evil skeleton army performed excellently to an audience of about 150 people that evening! Lots of pre-show stage fright wiggles and post-show sweaty hugs were shared).

City Management Academy (CMA) is a 10-week program run through Sacramento’s Community Engagement Department. Each week featured multiple department staff and elected officials who spoke in detail on their operations, goals, and new projects. CMA serves several purposes for different audiences – some of the participants were new City employees who were seeking a primer on inner-departmental workings, other participants were planning to run for elected office or serve on a commission, and the rest of us were largely advocates for our communities who wanted to learn how to leverage City services to have a deeper (and more sustainable) impact. I had applied to join CMA’s 2024 cohort from an arts education and youth advocacy perspective, and walked away with much more than I anticipated learning.

I took notes – no one is surprised – and I compiled interesting finds below! A big takeaway from this experience is that the City of Sacramento, like many cities, has a noticeable gap of effective communication between itself and its citizens. There are sooooo many free programs that are offered for various populations throughout the city that simply don’t have the budget to market themselves effectively. Part of this effort to share my notes from CMA is to not remain of silo of information. No one likes silos. Silos are so last season.

In no particular order… voilà, a list:

Community Engagement Department

“Resources are only good if you know about them.”
– Lynette Hall, Community Engagement Manager

“Every week at City Council, decisions are being made about you, without you”
– Hall, on encouraging people to attend or submit comment to Sacramento City Council meetings

  • I learned that Sacramento’s governing system is “council-manager,” as opposed to “mayor-council” or “strong mayor” which many large cities use. (About 40% of American cities use the council-manager style.) This council-manager system means the mayor is just one vote out of nine, including district councilmembers and the City Manager.
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    • AND – Mayor Darrell Steinberg spoke at one of our later meetings and shared that he viewed the council-manager system as an inhibiting factor to seeing big, impactful changes in Sacramento. Hmm!
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  • Monthly communication toolkits feature updated information about City services, resources, and other public events. If you have a public event you’d like marketed (or a survey that needs responses from Sacramentans, or another type of community outreach), send the information to the Community Engagement team to be included. (Staff emails are on the bottom of their home page).
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  • If you know about online or print media that serves underrepresented groups in Sacramento, the Community Engagement team wants to hear about them. They already have contracts with several radio stations and print magazines around Sac to share services/resources with marginalized groups, but are looking for more ways to access these communities.
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  • City Management Academy On Demand – A recorded library of videos from 2023’s CMA sessions. A helpful resource for civic-minded folks.
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  • Linktree – An organized and updated list of links and resources from the Community Engagement Department.
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  • City Connect – Monthly free mixers (food and music at local small businesses) to meet and network with staff. Each mixer is themed and typically correlates with a topic set for discussion at the next council meeting.
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  • Zines – Started by artist Ember de Boer who served for 9-months in this department through a Creative Corps placement. They created monthly zines with current, actionable information for the department – Lynette Hall said the zines would continue being created… but I’m unfortunately not seeing any movement on the webpage since July 2024.
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  • Sac Vibes Vlog – 20-30 minute video and podcast summaries of the latest information from City Council.
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Community Development Department

  • While the City has plenty of money for planning, they often do not have funds for implementation. This means that departments like this can serve as incubators for great ideas in neighborhoods or districts, but projects will often only get started once they have acquired outside private funding.
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  • Sacramento is one of the few cities in California with a nighttime code enforcement team – they walk downtown, Old Sac, and midtown nightly Thurs-Sun.
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  • Sacramento crushed 625 RVs in 2023, something they are apparently proud of judging by their demeanor in sharing this information. These RVs were in violation of California parking code and were issued warnings, then fines, then ultimately impounded and crushed. No mention of the impact that this had on folks who relied on those vehicles as their shelter.
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  • In 2023, 93% of graffiti was removed within 21 days on public property in Sacramento.
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  • Front Street Animal Shelter, which is oddly under this department’s purview, has a live release rate of 84%. This means that 84% of animals that enter the shelter leave alive. In 2008, this number was 33%. Sheesh!
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  • Agency Counter – New and updated resource to track developments in Sacramento.
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  • Rental Housing Inspection Program – Renters can call 311 to file a complaint about their rental unit, which may then lead to a Code Enforcement Officer conducting an in-person inspection.
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Convention & Cultural Services Department

  • There are over 650 existing public art projects in the city 🎨
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  • The Center for Sacramento History has California’s most complete city archival record.
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  • Creative Edge Plan – Adopted in 2018, this is Sacramento’s guiding document for the arts and creative economy. This document can (and should!) be used to hold Council accountable for their impact in the arts.
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  • Art Look Map – An online arts education map used by the City of Sacramento to track arts education in schools. The downside is there doesn’t seem to be effective outreach from the City asking arts ed partners to report their data, so the current map is scant. Their only school district partner with the map is Twin Rivers Unified which has a 70% school participation rate, meaning 70% of their district’s schools are reporting arts ed programs at their sites. So is this map the full scope of arts ed in the city? Absolutely not, but it’s… something!
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  • 2023 Sacramento Music Census – A summary report used by the Convention and Cultural Services Department to shape their policies.
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  • Sprout to Growth – A report used by the Office of Arts and Culture to identify pathways for Sacramento’s creative economy.
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  • Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 – A economic and social impact study by the Americans for the Arts, used by the Convention and Cultural Services Department to guide their policies.
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Sacramento Police Department

  • Sacramento Police Department has a 2.5 year “probation” period before an officer is allowed to be in the field on their own. The last 6-8 months of this period is field work with a training officer – however, the officers in training do not wear any insignia on their uniforms informing the public that they’re in training. Sac PD officers are at-will employees in this 2.5 year probation period and if they do not pass training requirements for each phase, their employment is terminated. So this is to say – If an officer acts out of line, file a report with the police department AND with the Office of Public Safety Accountability (more on that below).
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  • When asked about officers’ training in cultural sensitivity, the department responded that officers have a 10-hour training that helps them learn about peer support resources and coping strategies for the trauma they encounter while on the job. So… the answer is unknown!
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Sacramento Fire Department

“We do everything that the other departments don’t do“
– Chris Costamanga, Sacramento Fire Chief, when asked to describe a typical day as a firefighter. (In addition to fires, Sac Fire also responds to toxic substances, drownings, search & rescues, and EMS needs.)

  • Sacramento Fire Department was the first professional fire department formed west of the Mississippi.
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  • Sac Fire is part of FEMA Task Force 7, one of 28 Urban Search & Rescue teams in the country. They get deployed for emergencies in the state and around the country, including in response to 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and other disasters.
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  • A 2020 City audit revealed that Sac Fire has 29% BIPOC firefighters and only 4% women firefighters. With a $2.2 million budget to address this, the department has taken substantial steps towards rectifying this but admits it’s like “turning a steamship,” thus results will be demonstrated in years to come. Right now they say their recruits and trainees are more diverse (no quantifiable data given) but they admit there’s room to grow. A consultant group Behavior Leader is doing a top-down analysis this year of the department to evaluate biases in the hiring processes.
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Office of Public Safety Accountability

  • This is maybe the most important piece of information I learned while in City Management Academy. Sacramento’s Office of Public Safety Accountability (OPSA) handles public safety employee misconduct investigations within the police and fire departments, which occur concurrently and separately from Sac PD and Sac FD.
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    • The department was formerly titled “Office of Police Accountability” and since been renamed considering it also provides oversight on the Fire Department. Sacramento is apparently the only city that provides oversight on both the police and fire departments.
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  • When asked how a City employee can equitably perform critical oversight on other City employees, Dr. LaTesha Watson (OPSA Director) noted that she and the City Manager are colleagues who have the same bosses (City Councilmembers) whereas the Police Chief and Fire Chief report to the City Manager. This organization of personnel is critical for the accountability of these investigations.
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  • BIG TAKEAWAY – If you report misconduct to Sac PD or Sac FD, they are required to inform OPSA as well. And if you report misconduct to OPSA about Sac PD or Sac FD, they are required to inform the respective departments. And – AND! – you can file a report with both OPSA and the offending department directly, which is suggested.
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  • OPSA has received additional funding to add to their full-time employee pool, which will positively impact their turnaround time in investigating reports. In the meantime, they regularly release stats and audits about both the Police and Fire departments.
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Department of Youth, Parks, & Community Enrichment

  • Formerly known as Parks & Rec, this department manages community centers, parks, aquatic centers, and has a plethora of youth development resources.
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  • 3,500+ children annually participate with their Extended Learning programs, which by and large are after-school programs at ~20 schools.
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  • As for their resources for youth, check out their Sacramento Youth Commission, Summer @ City Hall, and several Youth Workforce Development programs.
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Department of Utilities

Office of Climate Adaption and Sustainability

  • This is a small office of two full-time employees and an AmeriCorps fellow tasked with an enormous challenge and insufficient funding to get there. For Sacramento to be carbon neutral by 2045 (see 2018 California Executive Order B-55-18), the City needs an additional $3 BILLION in funding. The City gave the Office of Climate Action & Sustainability around $4 million recently which the office turned into $100+ million with grants, but we’re still a loooooong ways away.
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    • On this note of inadequate funding: Sacramento recently launched their first electric garbage truck, which is 3x more expensive that a gas-powered garbage truck but is carbon neutral. A goal was set for Sacramento to get ~100 more electric garbage trucks… but a proper budget allocation was not provided with this goal. Woof.
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  • Due to climate change, Sacramentans should expect and prepare for more severe storms (more rain, wind, damage) and more extreme heat (100+ degree days). Several vulnerability and mitigation studies are featured on their site.
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  • 56% of Sacramento’s greenhouse gas transmissions are from transportation.
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  • Purple Air – Sacramento recently installed more air monitoring devices across the region to have a wider map of air quality. You can see your neighborhood’s air health at this site.
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  • XeroHome – Sacramento participates in this home energy upgrade platform that helps you locate rebates and upgrade plans for your home.
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Office of Emergency Management

  • Sacramento Alerts – Sign up for text alerts! The site is a little (lot) clunky, but once you’re signed up you’ll be alerted of hazards and other urgent alerts.
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Department of Public Works

  • For those unfamiliar (like I was), Public Works manages essentially everything you can see that’s operated by the City. This means the roads (and their pot holes), stop signs, trees, street lights, etc. This department has 769 full time employees… which is a ratio of about one employee to 710 Sacramento residents 😬
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  • Like most City departments, they are underfunded. For example, they have 3,100 miles of roads under their management but only enough funding to maintain 300 miles of roads.
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  • Waste Wizard – An easy to navigate, gamified system to show proper removal of unwanted items.
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Human Resources Department

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Still reeling from this 2024 election, I find myself narrowing my sights on local civic action and remaining curious about how to better serve my communities. I am a more informed Sacramentan because of City Management Academy, and am excited to become more of a menace for causes that I care about. While I did learn about the many areas that the City can improve and grow in (like reprioritizing departmental/project budgeting, outreach to our unhoused neighbors, and general communication with the public), I also came to appreciate the amount of intentional work and positive results that are happening here. As always, there’s more to do! To more City Council and commission meetings here I come 💃

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Published by Jenny Winstead-Rodriguez

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