Days after Sacramento’s runner-up in the mayor’s race made a startling and very public allegation about an attempted campaign bribe, City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood told CapRadio she completed a review of the matter and found no reason to open a formal probe into any city officials.
Even so, questions remain about whether the still-unverified incident will be investigated further and what it means for the public’s trust in local elections.
Here’s a recap of the allegation:
Epidemiologist Dr. Flojaune Cofer claimed at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that she was offered a $4,050 campaign contribution last September to extend City Manager Howard Chan’s contract, if elected mayor.
Cofer narrowly lost the race for mayor to Kevin McCarty.
She made the bribery allegation as the council was discussing a proposed contract extension for Chan. It later voted 6-3 to reject the extension, citing a desire for new leadership.
City Manager Howard Chan (right) sits at the dais next to Mayor Kevin McCarty Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, at Sacramento City hall.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
There’s much that’s still unknown about the alleged bribe: Cofer has declined to publicly name who made the offer or provide documentation to verify it. She has said her family advised her not to name who made the offer.
Three city leaders confirmed this week that Cofer reported the incident to them.
Wood, the city attorney, said Cofer did not tell her the names of the individuals who made the alleged offer. But she told CapRadio in an email on Thursday she completed “a review” of Cofer’s bribery allegation and found no reason to open a formal investigation.
Wood added that her goal was to learn whether any city employees or officials were involved.
“Had that been the case, then the matter would have been referred to the police department and the District Attorney in addition to opening an internal investigation,” Wood wrote in the email. “Since Dr. Cofer repeatedly said — including in response to my questions — that NO city officials were involved, the matter was concluded and no further action by the city was warranted.”
Did the new mayor receive a similar offer?
McCarty told CapRadio in a statement on Thursday that “supporters and opponents of the city manager did offer their political support if [he] made a commitment to either support or oppose his contract.”
“Consistent with my record as a 20-year elected official, I rejected all of them,” he said.
During his campaign for mayor, McCarty said he hoped for continuity in city management. But after speaking with his new council colleagues, he said he realized that wasn’t the best plan.
“After the three-hour closed session with the full council, it was clear that it was time for a change,” McCarty added. “I voted with the majority to reject [Chan’s] contract and move forward.”
CapRadio asked current and former city council members whether they received campaign offers like the one Cofer described. None said they had received such an offer, though several called Cofer’s allegations serious.
“People often ask you what you think about certain things when they’re making endorsement decisions,” former Councilmember Katie Valenzuela said on CapRadio’s Insight show this week. “But to say you’re going to vote ‘X way’ or ‘I want you to vote X way’ and money is going to be exchanged in that moment is egregious. I definitely think there should be an investigation and potentially a criminal investigation into this incident.”
What does alleged bribe mean for public trust?
Kim Nalder, a Sacramento State political science professor, said Cofer’s bribery allegations “couldn’t come at a worse time” as public institutions and government work on rebuilding public trust.
“What we’ve known for a long time in political science is that trust in local government is the one beacon of hope,” the professor said. “It’s the one place that we have trust so any kind of story that undermines that sense of trust in the institutions, or trust in the elections is especially damaging because that’s the last place that we still have some of that sense of propriety.”
Cofer said she decided not go public earlier about the September incident because she did not want it to distract from her mayoral campaign.
Nalder said Cofer did not have a legal obligation to do so, but said the public deserved to know months ago.
“The public really needs to understand if there’s some potential corruption or misuse of the campaign finance system in order to achieve very personalized political goals,” she added.
Councilmember Lisa Kaplan criticized Cofer’s delay and argued that public officials should immediately report these incidents.
“If [Cofer] had called me in September when this happened, I would have urged her to immediately contact the FBI and other law [enforcement] agencies to file a complaint,” Kaplan said. “I’m a firm believer [that] we gotta be transparent and uphold the law when individuals try to do things to inappropriately influence public officials. I have no comment on the nature of her complaint because I do find it very disturbing that she made no attempt to file any complaints.”
Councilmember Lisa Kaplan Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, at Sacramento City Hall.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
Does Cofer’s claim warrant more investigation?
In an interview on Thursday, Cofer told CapRadio she did not report the incident to local law enforcement because she was worried about a conflict of interest. She noted the city manager oversees the police department.
Chan had no knowledge of the alleged bribe, said his chief-of-staff Amy Williams, in a statement. “In addition, if Ms. Cofer feels that something illegal occurred during the campaign, she should contact the FPPC,” Williams said, referring to the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
Cofer said she considered reporting the matter to FPPC, which investigates allegations of campaign finance violations. But, she said, her attorney told her “there wasn’t necessarily anything that we had a duty to report.”
“I didn’t pursue it any further because we were in the middle of an election at the time,” Cofer said. “I am fine with reporting what happened to the [commission] if that seems necessary.”
“I wanted to make sure that this was known to the people making the decision [on Chan’s contract] because I was worried that other people may have been approached in similar ways.”
CapRadio journalists Tony Rodriguez and Allen Young contributed reporting.
Contact CapRadio Politics Editor Chris Nichols at [email protected]
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