The retirement of Roberta MacGlashan as Sacramento County District 4 Supervisor caused a flood of people to seek the office. All five listed homelessness as a top concern.
Sue Frost is on the Citrus Heights city council. According to her, all areas of the county have a homeless problem.
'A big part of our problem is that our police and sheriff in the outlying areas are so far away from resources," she says. "So, when they have someone who needs resources, they need to take time off of their beat to go downtown, 45 or 55 minutes away.'
Sue Frost is a candidate for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. Bob Moffitt / Capital Public Radio
Frost is of the opinion that government can be more efficient and effective.
"My goal is to represent the people in a way that will be responsible and transparent, protect their liberties, fight for local control," she says. "And at the same time help support business owners because that's over 80 percent of our local regional economy."
Gary Blenner is a teacher at Rio Americano High School. He proposes that the county save money by getting rid of the homeless services coordinator and by building housing following a model introduced to Salt Lake City.
"The first thing is to get the homeless into the homes and then when the situation is stabilized thanks to restored county services you can take care of some of the other issues such as mental health, addiction, and some other areas as well," he says. "It will actually save the county money to get rid of this useless homeless coordinator and use existing funds to build homes for the homeless."
Gary Blenner is a candidate for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. Bob Moffitt / Capital Public Radio
Blenner says his lack of endorsements by groups associated with developers is proof of his independent thinking.
"I am going out there and raising funds among the working class, the middle class [and] it includes minority people," he says. "It includes students. It includes the elderly. It includes the homeless. It includes the people who are forgotten -- the people who don't have a Super PAC behind them."
Mike Kozlowski supervises the creation of alternative energy projects in California school districts. He gives general approval of the county's plan to help the homeless. But, he would spend more on services.
"The county budget lacks enough funding for addressing the homeless issue right now," he says. "Some funding needs to be moved into the area of mental health services, primarily."
Mike Kozlowski -candidate for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Bob Moffitt / Capital Public Radio
Kozlowski also says streamlining the process for developers and mass transit is one of his top priorities.
"The ongoing issues with Regional Transit and it's needing to be right-sized to the ridership or get a better a customer service relationship with the community so it has more riders," he says.
Teresa Stanley is an attorney, brewery owner and trustee with the Folsom Unified School District. According to her, city and county agencies must communicate more effectively.
"When you have a transient population or homeless population it's difficult to provide the ongoing treatment and services on an outpatient basis because the outpatient might move around here and there," she says. "So, it's a more difficult issue than just providing the mental health beds."
Teresa Stanley is a candidate for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Bob Moffitt / Capital Public Radio
Stanley proposes the county do more to attract businesses and policing business areas to make people feel safe.
"Make neighborhoods safe. We can put all the tax dollars we want to into arenas, bike trails, parks and other amenities," she says. "And if people don't feel safe using them, they won't come out and use them."
Kerri Howell chairs the Sacramento Transportation Agency. She says she would work with people from across the county to tackle homelessness.
"It exists throughout, not just in district four and not just downtown, and not in specific supervisorial districts, it's a much larger problem," she says. "And I think there needs to be a lot more people sitting at the table finding reasonable solutions."
Kerri Howell is a candidate for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. Bob Moffitt / Capital Public Radio
She supports restoring funding to pre-recession levels.
"Public safety is number one -- making sure we have the staffing levels, the budget, and the tools and technology for the sheriff's department, DA's office and probation to do their jobs and keep us safe," she says.
District 4 covers the northeast part of the county including Elverta Road, Old Auburn Road, Folsom Lake and part of the Cosumnes River.
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