Tag: local news

Categories
policy

Panic button catch-up

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Published in the Sacramento News & Review and on newsreview.com on December 20, 2018

The Me Too movement shed light on pervasive misconduct in America, but hotel employees continue to face harassment and assault at alarming rates. The city of Sacramento just took a step toward changing that.

On December 11, the City Council’s Law and Legislative Committee considered additional safety measures for hotel workers. The most notable proposal would require hotels to provide employees with panic buttons: portable emergency contact devices that immediately summon help.

Consuelo Hernandez, Sacramento’s director of government affairs, suggested that hotel operators also be required to establish and distribute written sexual harassment policies.

Councilman Eric Guerra noted it was time for the city to catch up to Sacramento County on the worker safety front. The county passed its own panic button policy in February. “It makes no sense if you cross Stockton Boulevard, or if you cross one of these areas, and you have one ordinance and then another ordinance,” Guerra said.

The push to bring added safeguards to city hotels was fueled by conversations with members of the Unite Here labor union and the Sacramento Hotel Association. Shelly Moranville, incoming president of the hotel association and vice chairwoman of Visit Sacramento, told the committee her industry is supportive of the panic button proposal, but added local operators don’t want to be mandated to blacklist guests who violate the hotels’ policies. She said hotels also don’t want to be required to conduct additional sexual harassment training.

California has seen at least two notable panic button proposals face rejection—in the city of Long Beach and at the state level. In both cases, additional provisions were tacked on and deemed too costly by critics. Hernandez is working to see that Sacramento’s proposal meets a different fate.

“I anticipate working with stakeholders, trying to address any concerns that they may have,” she said, “and to develop a meaningful program that would benefit both workers and the hotel and motel owners.”

The Law and Legislative Committee advanced the proposal to the full City Council as staff continues to work on it.

Categories
environment

Mitigation litigation

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Published in the Sacramento News & Review and on newsreview.com in August 2018.

Years before thumb drives, Sacramentans knew “USB” as an acronym for the “urban services boundary.” In the county’s 1993 general plan, the USB was established as “the ultimate boundary of the urban area.” Now, it’s at the root of the latest clash between local developers and environmentalists.

Earlier this year, the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCo, approved a project that would add 1,156 acres of farmland to the city of Elk Grove’s sphere of influence. The commission’s 4-3 decision brings Elk Grove one step closer to potentially annexing the area just east of State Route 99 for development. According to the project application, Elk Grove “has no remaining large unplanned blocks of land available for long-term planning and future growth within its boundaries.”

Jim Pachl, legal chair for the Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter, doesn’t accept that rationale. He claims that there are over 4,000 acres of vacant city land already zoned for urban development. With unfinished projects scattered across town, Pachl charges that the 99 expansion is an unnecessary case of urban sprawl—one that puts the county and its residents at a crossroads.

“Are we going to confine the development to the USB,” Pachl asked, “or are we going to bust the boundary?”

LAFCo’s February approval favored the latter, causing several community members to call for reconsideration. Letters to LAFCo staff cited a range of concerns pertaining to water supply, traffic congestion, air quality, loss of agriculture, harm to wildlife and insufficient mitigation options. In May, LAFCo denied reconsidering its decision. A month later, five groups—Environmental Council of Sacramento, Sierra Club, Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk, Habitat 2020 and Friends of the Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge—filed a petition for the Sacramento Superior Court to issue a writ of mandate and overrule LAFCo’s findings.

The petition contends that LAFCo commissioners made a few major errors in their consideration of the project. First, LAFCo certified an environmental impact report that fails to account for water supply and loss of habitat. Second, LAFCo acted against its governing legislation by failing to discourage sprawl and preserve prime agricultural lands. Third, LAFCo has not yet adopted policies that make them eligible to review the sphere of influence application.

Groups backing the petition are running out of options to preserve the land in question and keep the USB intact. If the court deems LAFCo’s approval valid, regional planning efforts could be disrupted.

“The purpose of the USB was to provide some tool for planning regional infrastructure,” Pachl said. “It’s a little hard to plan if anyone can plop a subdivision out there.”

LAFCo’s executive officer declined to comment about the commission’s findings, citing the litigation.

Categories
nonprofit

United for momentum

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Published in the Sacramento News & Review and on newsreview.com in August 2018.

For many, ZIP codes are little more than a jumble of numbers. But for some Sacramento County children, they can be the difference between life and death.

In several areas of the region, African-American infants and children experience mortality rates that are twice that of their peers. A team of community advocates continues trying to change that grim dynamic. After securing nearly $2 million to expand their Black Mothers United program, it just might.

Her Health First, formerly the Center for Community Health & Well Being, is one of more than 20 nonprofits working out of former classrooms at the Fruit Ridge Community Collaborative. In a neighborhood fraught with violence, malnutrition and housing insecurity, Her Health First follows its name as a guide, subscribing to the mantra that “strong and healthy communities begin with strong and healthy women.” Executive director Shannon Read explains the organization’s goal as one that seeks to build health equity—not equality—for women throughout the community.

“We have to start with the population that’s experiencing the disproportionality,” Read said. “We have to help women of color first.”

In 2013, Her Health First pilot-launched the Black Mothers United program, designed to address the region’s disproportionate infant mortality rates in a holistic manner. Black Mothers United partners expectant African-American women with pregnancy coaches who help them get proper pre- and perinatal care.

The First 5 Sacramento Commission has been a vital funding source for Black Mothers United since the beginning. Following an 18-month trial period that saw zero infant deaths, First 5 Sacramento awarded Her Health First a three-year, $1.27 million contract to fully establish the program. In the nonprofit arena, Read explained, funding often disappears the moment an issue shows signs of improvement.

“We’re starting to see the needle move,” she said.

But First 5 Sacramento—whose goal is to support healthy infant development—seems to recognize that the job isn’t over. On July 1, the commission renewed its contract with Her Health First for another three years, this time upping the ante to $1.9 million.

“The power of programs like Black Mothers United is that they meet mothers where they are at, within each of their own unique circumstances, to provide individualized care,” said Julie Gallelo, executive director of First 5 Sacramento.

That tactic makes the program feasible for a range of women. If clients don’t have a house, pregnancy coaches visit them wherever they sleep. If clients don’t have a car, coaches can transport them to meetings and appointments.

The newest contract from First 5 Sacramento means HHF has the resources to form new partnerships and provide more services to Black Mothers United. The expansion includes offering free childbirth education courses, as well as partnering with organizations to connect mothers with additional training and medical care. HHF has also increased its role in the Black Child Legacy Campaign.

Advocates like Read stress that every woman has potential to birth a healthy child and change her community from within—they just need the right tools. With new momentum, Black Mothers United anticipates serving 630 new women across seven neighborhoods between 2018 and 2021.