Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "kim mack"

Sheedy won't run for re-election in council district 2

2012-01-24T01:29:29Z

On the eve of discussion about her goal of putting arena financing to a public vote, City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy announced that she will not be running for re-election to her District 2 council seat in June.

“After careful consideration, I have decided not to seek another term on the Sacramento City Council,” Sheedy said in a prepared statement Monday.

Sheedy cited 28 years of public service between herself and her husband, Ted, a former county supervisor, adding, “We feel it’s time to call it a day so we can spend more time with our family.”

Sheedy would have faced at least four other candidates for her council seat in the upcoming election, including former Obama campaign organizer Kim Mack, former human resources manager Sondra Betancourt, developer Allen Wayne Warren and former Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob Kerth.

“I think anyone who serves the public deserves a thumbs up,” Mack said Monday after hearing the announcement, “but it doesn’t change my campaign at all.”

Betancourt said she understands Sheedy’s desire to spend time with her family, and that it is time for a change in the way District 2 is being managed.

“I see a serious need for the type of leadership that I will bring (to the district),” Betancourt said Monday.

"It’s 'full steam ahead' to the election," she added.

Sheedy thanked city staff and the community in her statement, saying they have made her job easier and more rewarding.

“Now it’s time for someone else to take a turn at the wheel,” Sheedy said.

At the Jan. 3 council meeting, Sheedy asked staff to prepare information about a potential public vote on arena financing. The City Council will take up the item Tuesday.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter with The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Betancourt runs for District 2 seat on City Council

2011-12-21T02:09:04Z

Community leader and former human resources manager Sondra Betancourt joined the race for City Council District 2 this week, ready to face a growing field of competitors including business leader and former City Councilman Rob Kerth and incumbent Sandy Sheedy.

Betancourt, a second-generation Sacramentan, said she remembers when the north area of the city was vibrant with many active businesses, churches, schools and neighborhood associations. It is something Betancourt said she would like to see revived not just in her district but throughout the city.

“I see the big picture for the city,” Betancourt, 59, said Monday. “We need to grow and be inviting to businesses, but it has to be smart growth. It has to be done in a way that benefits the whole city.”

Betancourt said that, in addition to encouraging smart growth for the city, her priorities on the City Council would include a focus on public safety and education.

“If we asked anyone in the city, ‘Do you feel safe to go for a walk outside your door?’ I don’t think people would unanimously say, “Oh yeah, I could do that,’ ” she said. “If people don’t feel safe in their city, why would they want to be here?”

Education opportunities for the city’s youth – especially raising literacy levels – is a vital component of a strong city, she added.

“There is so much talent in our community, and we should be encouraging that from an early age and developing it,” Betancourt said. “It starts with elevating the level of literacy in our schools.”

She commends the mayor for his Stand Up initiative, and said she hopes to support the effort and expand it – along with similar programs that benefit youth in the city – if she is elected to the City Council.

“I would never say (Sheedy) hasn’t had some accomplishments during her tenure,” Betancourt said, “but I think it serves the city to have fresh eyes on issues. I think it’s time to ask, ‘How can we make things better?’ ”

Betancourt brings to the race 38 years of experience with the State Personnel Board and the Department of Transportation – positions that required extensive knowledge of government organization and an eye for finding the right “fit” for any position, Betancourt said.

“I think I am a good judge of character,” Betancourt said, “and I know what it means to develop and implement policy.”

“She has the community in mind in everything she does,” Judy Kovanda, former Sacramento Community Service Officer, said Tuesday. “She has basically been a public servant her whole life, and she has fought hard to get things done in her neighborhood when elected officials have ignored the community.”

Kovanda a 16-year veteran of the Sacramento Police Department, has known Betancourt through her community work as president of the Ben Ali Neighborhood Association.

“The businesses in the area love her, and the residents love her,” Kovanda said. “She is dialed in to what is going on in the city, and what is important to her is simply what is important to the city in general, not just her community.”

Sheedy could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Betancourt will make her official candidacy announcement Wednesday and said she plans to begin fundraising immediately.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Pres. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Old questions resurface for City Council candidate Kim Mack

2011-12-03T02:02:33Z

Kim Mack’s announcement to run for City Council District 2 was met with some fallout related to an incident in 2009 that is still on the minds of many in the Sacramento area – an incident that could come back to haunt her in the race to unseat incumbent City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy.

Mack officially joined the election race in October. Her previous campaign experience included managing a grassroots support effort for the Obama presidential campaign. In 2009 she was involved with the Sacramentans for Accountable Government effort to put a Strong Mayor Initiative on the ballot.

In January 2009, emails in support of the strong mayor initiative were sent to people on an email list that originated from an Obama campaign list. Recipients of the Strong Mayor Initiative emails claimed their personal email addresses were used without permission – and used for a purpose other than what was originally intended.

As that situation unfolded, Mack came under fire for allegedly providing the Obama campaign email list to the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group for their use – a claim Mack denies.

According to Mack, she was asked for access to the list by some members of the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group and she “flat out refused” to provide it.

“I said ‘absolutely not. Respecting people’s privacy is incredibly important to me,” Mack said.

The list of unsolicited emails, she said, could have come from donations records collected as part of the Sacramentans for Obama work – a list accessible to many within the Sacramentans for Obama network.

“Every time someone came into the office they filed out a form,” Mack said. “If they bought a button they filled out a form. A yard sign? They filled out a form – they were all listed as donations.”

The only other person who had the same access that Mack did to the Sacramentans for Obama email list was the data manager she worked with on the campaign, Mack said.

Mack declined to name the person – “not without his permission” – but said she does not believe he or anyone else in the Sacramentans for Obama group had anything to do with sharing the Obama email list.

As evidence that she did not participate in the email sharing scheme, Mack points to the fact that the unsolicited email addresses came from “Friends of Obama” – a name her organization was never called – and that not everyone on the Sacramentans for Obama email list received the Strong Mayor Initiative emails.

“Somebody made an assumption that I gave out the email list,” Mack said. “No one asked me if I did, they just made assumptions.”

Reaction to the unsolicited emails was immediately negative. Some recipients commented on news sites and community forums that they felt their emails had been stolen and that Mack and the Sacramentans for Obama group had acted unethically – if not illegally.

According to Lynda Cassady, division chief of the Advice Unit for the Fair Political Practices Commission, however, email list sharing does not violate any part of the Political Reform Act.

“(The Political Reform Act) has no provisions with respect to how campaigns get email addresses or share them,” Cassady said Friday. “We wouldn’t have any jurisdiction over any complaints about the practice.”

Cassaday said that so-called “robo-calls” are governed by the Public Utilities Commission because they occur over telephone lines. However, she said there isn’t anything in the elections codes to prevent political email spam.

Unsolicited emails – political spam – is not covered in the 2003 federal CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing), either.

The CAN-SPAM Act – which preempts any state anti-spam laws – was designed to control unwanted electronic mail and applies to “commercial electronic mail messages.” Violations of the CAN-SPAM Act can result in fines up to $16,000 per email violation.

No other federal legislation directly addresses the issue of unsolicited email, according to a January 2003 article in the Duke University Law Review.

“Congress does not address political spam because a law that regulates political speech on the Internet likely would not pass judicial scrutiny,” the article states.

Political emails are considered a form of political speech – something well-protected under the First Amendment. Although courts have approved regulation of similar types of speech, such as commercial spam and prerecorded telephone messages (“robo-calls”), these are distinct from political spam and not considered as setting a precedent for regulation of political email.

The use of email communication in any campaign or political effort is not uncommon. It is a cost-effective means of reaching large audiences, according to Amir Zamanian, regional sales manager for Silverpop, a digital marketing platform that handles email marketing, marketing automations and lead management.

“Generally, if you’re sending email to anyone, they need to have opted-in in some way,” Zamanian said. “The best email marketing results come from sending to a small list of interested people.”

Anytime an individual or organization sends unsolicited emails, Zamanian said, they run the risk of those emails being marked as spam – and an abundance of spam complaints can create problems for the sender.

“Email service providers have thresholds for how many spam alerts a sender can receive,” Zamanian said. “(Organizations) need to keep the spam complaints low and a part of that is keeping the number of unsolicited emails low.”

Zamanian said that, if a sender exceeds those thresholds, service providers may permanently block the sender from sending emails.

Using an email list from one political campaign to support another political issue is not illegal, but could raise questions of ethics.

As the City Council races heat up in the coming months, Sacramento may see more of this.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Kim Mack jumps into City Council race with both feet

2011-10-27T01:11:41Z

Kim Mack said she decided to run for City Council District 2 because she saw a need that hasn’t been filled in her North Sacramento community: responsive leadership.

That isn’t necessarily a dig at the current council member for the district, Mack said Tuesday – it’s a statement of purpose.

Mack, 49, has a long career in government service under her belt, including campaign experience as a field organizer for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign where she was responsible for campaign activities from Bakersfield to the Oregon border.

Mack also worked on local campaigns including Ami Bera's recent run for the 3rd Congressional District and Richard Pan’s successful run for Assembly.

“I believe deeply in grassroots organizing and grassroots activism,” Mack said. “Working on those campaigns proved to me that I was right to believe in that. It showed me that with a little bit of leadership, we can achieve a lot.”

Now, Mack said, it’s her turn to jump into the political arena with both feet.

Although Mack was born in Sacramento, she moved with her parents to Redding as a teen. Mack moved back to Sacramento in 1992 and has lived in District 2 for 13 of the last 19 years.

Vince Mack, Kim’s husband of six years, is a middle school science teacher at Norwood Junior High school who has been teaching in the district for 23 years.

Incumbent Sandy Sheedy will face off against Mack and former Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob Kerth in the coming City Council election – and more candidates may still enter the field.

“There’s a lot of people that see a vulnerability on Sheedy’s part,” Mack said. “She has not done a lot for the whole of the district. The majority of the district feels neglected, and now there is a resurgence in city activism.”

Mack said grassroots activism is her specialty, and she intends to engage fully in the district to bring people together to discuss community problems and deal with them.

“I am giving full-time focus to my campaign,” Mack said, “and I will be a full-time council person.”

Mack said she thinks it’s important to not be distracted as a council member, so she doesn’t plan to hold another job or serve on other boards or commissions during her time in office, if she wins the election.

“She really knows her community,” said Kimberly Durson, a legal clerk in Grass Valley and a former co-worker during the Obama campaign. “She is emotionally invested in Sacramento and in her neighbors.”

District 2 has large populations of Russian, Laotian, Hmong and African-American families, among others, Mack said.

With so much diversity in a single district, Mack said she feels it is “the responsibility of a leader to create understanding between people in all parts of the community.”

Mack said she wants to go into the community, connect with community leaders and get their input on how they see diverse cultures coming together.

“I want to have an understanding of each culture myself to become a pathway for bringing people together,” Mack said. “I’m not going to presume to know everything about everything.”

Mack said she has strong feelings about some of the policy issues that Sacramento has struggled with recently, including regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, redevelopment, and the recent Occupy Sacramento movement that has been active in Cesar Chavez Plaza for more than three weeks.

“I support the Occupy Sacramento movement,” Mack said. “General citizens need to be given the same consideration as banks have been given.”

However, Mack said she would like to see the movement have “a little more direction,” and for protesters to articulate exactly what they want to accomplish.

“The momentum (the movement) has gained warms my heart,” Mack said, “but now let’s use this strength to make something happen – let’s have a clearer end goal.”

Durson said setting goals and meeting them are Mack’s specialty.

“She is a really good organizer,” Durso said. “She runs a clean campaign – never disorganized or hard to understand what she’s trying to convey.”

Durson said Mack’s ability to work well under pressure will be an asset to her during the upcoming election.

“(Mack) digs in and works through challenges,” Durson said. “She’s been through hard times – her son in the military was deployed to Afghanistan, and she struggled with that. Some things are mind over heart, and she puts her head down and works hard to get through tough situations.”

When it comes to medical marijuana, Mack said she supports the voters’ decision to make it legal in California – as long as decisions about locations of dispensaries are well thought out.

“I support the law, but let’s be smart about it, and let’s be safe about it,” Mack said. “Industrial areas? Fine. Near schools and homes? No. We can be smart about how we approach it.”

Samantha Corbin, a friend who worked with Mack on local campaigns for Ami Bera for Congress and Dr. Richard Pan for Assembly, said Mack is “unique” in her commitment to finding “real solutions to real community problems.”

“She has a skill for helping voters find and tell their stories that makes her a perfect candidate for local office,” Corbin said. “She is a true community advocate.”

Mack said her fundamental priority – outside of restoring pride and empowering the community – is restoring city police and fire departments.

“Public safety is the top priority of municipalities,” Mack said. “I can tell you with 99.9 percent accuracy that I will never vote to lay off police officers and fire personnel.”

“Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” Mack said that’s her favorite Obama quote – and it is exactly what she sees as the future of District 2.

“It might take more than four years; it might take more than eight years,” Mack said, “but you will see noticeable difference with me in office because there will be someone in the community, working for the community. Good or bad, I‘m not afraid to walk on those streets.”

Melissa Corker is a staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Strong Mayor, Weak Ethics?

2009-01-12T22:39:09Z

Lately, many people who signed up to be on the "Sacramentans for Obama" email lists have received emails inviting them to come to events and sign petitions in favor of Sacramento's "Strong Mayor" petition. Kim Mack, one of the principal organizers of the "Strong Mayor" petition, is also involved with "Sacramentans for Obama." The directors of "Sacramentans for Obama" were apparently unaware of this misuse of their mailing list, and are investigating the matter. If Mack made unauthorized use of the "Sacramentans for Obama" mailing list to promote this Kevin Johnson-backed initiative, what other liberties will the parties pushing the "Strong Mayor" initiative take with personal information gathered for an entirely separate cause?

In an age when email use is commonplace but many of us find ourselves deluged by unwanted spam, people do sign up to receive information about political or social causes that concern them. Using an email list gathered for one purpose to promote an unrelated cause is considered, at the very least, a breach of etiquette, and definitely a breach of trust. Perhaps the organizers simply assume that everyone who signed up for "Sacramentans for Obama" is a Kevin Johnson supporter, or that people simply could not tell the difference between Barack Obama and Kevin Johnson, but in either case this sort of misuse of an email list is inappropriate.

Even more troubling is that a December 15 event, billed as a Sacramentans for Obama event, turned out to be an announcement and recruiting event for the "Strong Mayor" initiative drive. Will this misuse of an email list be followed by attemts to manipulate people who supported Obama for president, but did not support Kevin Johnson for Mayor, or the "Strong Mayor" initiative?

Cities like Sacramento revised their charters in the early 20th century in order to avoid the historic corruption of city "machine" politics. Mayors elected by powerful political "bosses" handed out government contracts and jobs as favors to the men who elected them, not on the basis of fairness, fiscal prudence or ethics. The council-manager system was introduced to professionalize city government and restore public trust in city officials. If the backers of the "Strong Mayor" initiative wish to prove that Mayor Johnson is worthy of much greater power, and the trust of the public, antics like misuse of the "Sacramentans for Obama" mailing list, and deceptive public events for Obama supporters, sets a very poor example.