‘Where Do I Sign?’
SIGNATURE DRIVE UNDERWAY TO RECALL VALENZUELA
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ore than 300 strong, they knock on doors and talk about the trouble with Katie Valenzuela. They describe Valenzuela’s support of squatters in a vacant Land Park home. They dissect her refusal to help clear homeless camps near Sutter Middle School. They want Valenzuela gone from the City Council. And they don’t want to wait until 2024, when the rookie councilwoman’s term expires. For the first time in 30 years, a City Council member faces an organized, well-funded recall threat. Each day, volunteers with recall petitions fan out under the banner of “For a Better Sacramento.”
RG By R.E. Graswich
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They visit Land Park and Little Pocket, Downtown, Midtown and west Natomas. They need 8,000 signatures to qualify for a special election next March to remove Valenzuela from her District 4 seat. The group has until Sept. 7 to reach the 8,000-signature threshold. Organizers expected to hit 4,000 by late June. After that, “For a Better Sacramento” is ready to hire professional crews to speed the recall effort. The group has enough money to cover signaturegathering expenses. Three realities brought Valenzuela to this point: homelessness, crime and redistricting. In her eagerness to create citysanctioned homeless camps in neighborhoods around Land Park, Downtown, Midtown and East Sacramento, Valenzuela infuriated residents who believe she’s more concerned about unsheltered people than taxpayers whose lives are disrupted by camps, violence, crime and public drug use. “She thinks she’s helping, but she’s really harming the community,” says John Frias Morales, who helps organize
Dan Tibbitts “For a Better Sacramento.” “She has a completely different set of values. Many of her constituents are poor, and by making our neighborhoods less safe, by wanting to defund police, she’s not helping them.” Dan Tibbitts, brother of murdered Land Park resident Kate Tibbitts, is among the volunteers ready to remove Valeneuzla. A homeless parolee is charged with Kate’s murder and rape. Speaking about Valenzuela, Tibbits says, “She clearly values the homeless and drug user’s well-being more so than our well-being, the hardworking, law-abiding citizens and her
constituents. And she refuses to hold these drug users and homeless people accountable when they commit crimes.” When Valenzuela emerged from anonymity to defeat two-term incumbent Steve Hansen in 2020, she campaigned against high housing costs. The housing issue won support in Midtown, where Valenzuela lives. In Land Park and Little Pocket, she promised to fight for access to the Sacramento River Parkway levee area, where illegal private fences blocked the public for nearly 50 years. Skyrocketing rents and river access resonated with many voters in 2020.
