Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Henry Harry and Santiago Morales are independents. It has been updated to accurately reflect that Henry Harry is registered with the American Independent Party and Morales is an Independent with no party preference.
Three candidates are competing for Sacramento’s District 5 City Council seat in the June 2 primary: Incumbent City Councilmember Caity Maple, retired Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Henry Harry and state analyst Santiago Morales.
City council members make impactful choices on how the city spends its money, what projects get approved and advocate for specific parts of town. Each council district is designed to have an average of 66,000 residents within it.
District 5 is made up of the neighborhoods Oak Park, Hollywood Park, North and South City Farms, Golf Course Terrace, Valley Hi, and parts of Meadowview. The region includes historically Black and lower-income parts of Sacramento. It also faces concerns of gentrification and rising home prices that are displacing older residents.
Maple has held the District 5 seat since 2022.
CapRadio sat down with the candidates and asked about their priorities, how they feel about homelessness in Sacramento, the area’s potential for economic development and their thoughts on the city’s $66.2 million dollar budget deficit.
Caity Maple
Courtesy of Caity MapleAge: 34
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Notable Campaign Donations: Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber PAC ($7,300), Sacramento Central Labor Council ($5,300), State Senator Angelique Ashby ($2,200)
Outside of her present council duties, Maple works in government and public affairs, predominantly for the nonprofit California Afterschool Advocacy Alliance.
Prior to her council experience, Maple worked in and around the state Capitol as a legislative advocate for animal welfare and the cannabis industry.
Maple, who lives in Hollywood Park, said her key areas of focus in District 5 are housing, homelessness, economic development and affordability – which largely mirror her priorities citywide.
Housing and homelessness, she added, are big topics of conversation for her and constituents.
“It’s a deep area of concern for folks, especially in my district,” Maple said. “I think that they are connected, which is why I’m often advocating for solutions that combine them and the ways that we talk about them in the policy solutions.”
Maple supports Mayor Kevin McCarty’s plan to create tiny home communities to address homelessness and get people into shelter as quickly as possible.
“I support any and all efforts to think outside the box and create more spaces,” she said.
Another priority for her is the city’s $66 million budget deficit.
“We have made a lot of progress, but it’s still tough and we have a lot of hard choices in front of us,” she said. “It’s really important that we have steady leadership during this time.”
Maple said that the city has a “contract problem.”
“They’re not all bad,” Maple said of contract services. “Some of them are very good and for good reason, but I do think we don’t look back enough and assess whether or not those contracts are needed at that moment.”
In terms of economic development, Maple said she is looking at ways to activate underutilized spaces in her region – including the Sacramento Executive Airport. Maple said she could see the area as a drone testing site.
“There are these companies that are building these and need places to do research and development,” Maple explained. “My thought is, let’s partner with these companies. A lot of these companies are using old, smaller airports in parts of the state.”
Henry Harry
Courtesy of Henry HarryAge: 60
Party Affiliation: American Independent Party
Notable Campaign Donations: None Reported
Candidate Henry Harry is a retired sheriff’s deputy who spent 23 years with Sacramento County’s Sheriff’s Office. In his run for the District 5 seat, Harry has emphasized his dedication to community service. He formerly served as the vice president of the Oak Park Foundation, an organization devoted to helping children in the community.
Harry grew up in Mississippi and then spent much of his life in San Francisco. He’s lived in Oak Park since 2006.
Harry told CapRadio his top priorities in District 5 are bringing light industrial manufacturing jobs to the area, establishing a rule that District 5 residents get priority for new housing coming to the area, and increasing law enforcement’s presence.
In general, Harry said he sees the most pressing issues Sacramentans face as homelessness, public safety, government accountability and taxation.
“When I’m out campaigning, people are just exhausted with taxes,” Harry said. “They just want a government that works for them.”
When asked about homelessness, Harry said the problem is “tremendous”. While he said he won’t criticize McCarty’s tiny home plan for unhoused seniors, he does have some concerns.
“Do we become the landlord of tiny homes?” he said. “My concern is where does it stop?”
When it comes to how to balance the city’s budget for this year and create long term stability, Harry said the city must become stricter about its spending, consider reducing management pay and city councilmember salaries.
“I think management pay is excessive across the city,” Harry said. “A lot of people were outraged by a city manager making $400,000, and when they get a new city manager, they pay her just under $400,000.”
Harry cites public safety as another way to encourage development in the city’s downtown core.
“There’s clear evidence of people saying ‘I walked away from this business, I limited my business because of the crime’” he said. “So they’re closing up early, they’re walking away. That can’t happen.”
Santiago Morales
Courtesy of Santiago MoralesAge: 49
Party Affiliation: Independent with no party preference
Notable Campaign Donations: None reported
Santiago Morales is an analyst for the state of California. This is his second run for city council — he previously ran for the District 8 seat in 2020 before the city redrew council districts in 2021.
Morales was born and raised in Sacramento and chose to raise his four children in his hometown. Prior to working for the state, he spent eight years working in the education sector – from the California Student Aid Commission to the Community College Chancellor’s Office.
Morales told CapRadio his priorities include finding compassionate solutions to homelessness, creating safer neighborhoods and supporting local businesses. He noted that homelessness is a top concern for people in his district.
“I feel that our city council is almost normalizing homelessness in our city,” Morales said. “I think we can look towards cities that have done a great job of cutting their homelessness in half.”
Morales said he supports the mayor’s efforts to build micro communities, but the city should ensure they’re providing adequate social services.
“ We need to build supportive communities, supportive housing,” he said. “Where makes it easier for them to be near a bus route and be near more jobs and make it more accessible.”
As an analyst, the city’s $66 million budget deficit doesn’t make sense to Morales.
“With our city we have to be a lot more picky with what we're doing in terms of working with what we have,” he said. “If we know the county has a budget for a certain thing, why not work with the county so we're not duplicating our resources and spending double.”
Morales sees economic development and alleviating homelessness as intertwined.
“One of the main issues is can we somehow figure out a way to help our homeless out,” he said. “That’s one of the main things I hear from small businesses.”
Public safety is also something Morales said he’d like to focus on, which he believes would help bolster the economy. He noted that businesses may be more inclined to stay open later if they feel safer.
“Can we have more police officers to just be in the area, just to provide more visual safety for some people?” he said. “There’s different things we can do to help promote each other and promote what the city can offer people.”
Note: Campaign donations are accurate as of April 20.
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