By admin 
Yearning to do something to address the affordable housing crisis, the Sacramento City Council thought it had found a way. Yearning to do something to address the affordable housing crisis, the Sacramento City Council thought it had found a way: repurpose, with voter approval, about $20 million in surplus from an obscure pension fund for loans to new developments serving low-income residents
Read more 17 arrests in Sutter County undercover enforcement of online child exploitation
Yet after mere days after placing Measure F on the November ballot, the Council at a special meeting on Friday voted to remove the measure from consideration.
“We heard from some folks from various unions, not just one, that there were concerns,” Council Member Caity Maple said Friday. “I think we probably moved too fast.”
Mayor Kevin McCarty characterized the setback as temporary, saying the idea remains alive and well. Despite the mayor’s stated optimism, the politics were always working against a left-leaning city council seeking to do more good things for the community. City public employee unions are always going to be reluctant when money they feel is theirs is proposed for other uses.
Some conflicts defy compromise. This could be one of them.
The Sacramento City Employees’ Retirement System hasn’t enrolled a new employee since 1977 and has only one member still working. Ever since, employees have received pensions managed through the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The city charter seems to offer no way for the council to spend this money on something else without voter approval. Only voters can rewrite the city charter.
Councilmembers gravitated to the idea of using this money for a “revolving fund” of loans for new affordable housing projects. Revolving funds, as the name suggests, require the lender to pay the money back, which then provides new money to loan years later.
This, frankly, is a clever way idea for the council to create a durable funding source for projects it typically can’t afford.
“I love this,” Mayor Kevin McCarty said Thursday. “The council really loved this idea.”
Read more Developers turning old Sacramento Coca-Cola bottling plant into hotel
The public employee unions, not so much.
Sacramento Police Officers Association President Dustin Smith told The Bee’s Cathie Anderson that the union would oppose the measure. This money, from Smith’s perspective, was being taken from his members.
I may disagree with Smith on a technical basis, but I appreciate the bedrock principle here from the public employees’ perspective after being one for 16 years. This is money that an agency set aside for the retirement of its employees.
The last thing this city council wants is a nasty fight with its unions debating the priorities of affordable housing versus public employees. Although there was nary a peep of opposition when the council placed this on the ballot at its July 21 meeting, it didn’t take long for the unions to discover what the council was up to.
Normally disputes like this never see the light of day because they are killed before a public meeting ever is scheduled. Not this time. The rise and sudden fall of Measure F reflects a lack of private vetting by the mayor and council members before the public vote, and Maple is happy to admit it.
“I’m humble enough to be honest,” said Maple, who remains one of the biggest fans of this idea..
I’m not so sure this idea of using this surplus money towards affordable housing ever returns to the council chambers. But it was a really great idea, until it wasn’t.
Read more California DACA recipient waited months for renewal. It cost her a career | Opinion