Meet the candidates running for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors District 1
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
This November, Sacramento voters will decide which candidate will fill the open District 1 seat on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors after Supervisor Phil Serna announced he would not seek re-election.
District 1 includes several neighborhoods in the heart of Sacramento, such as Downtown, Natomas, Oak Park, and Curtis Park.
In alphabetical order by last name, here are the two candidates on the ballot.
Flo Cofer is an epidemiologist with two decades of public health experience. She previously won the 2024 primary in the mayoral election in Sacramento but narrowly lost in the runoff to now Mayor Kevin McCarty.
Eric Guerra currently represents District 6 on the Sacramento City Council. He was first elected in 2015.
California state law requires Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to run and serve as nonpartisan.
KCRA 3’s Cecil Hannibal sat down with each candidate and asked each to address topics ranging from homelessness to public safety and budget priorities if elected.
Why are you running to serve on the Board of Supervisors?
Eric Guerra
“I’m a husband of an amazing wife and a father of very energetic young kids and really it’s about us who have set deep roots here, (and) want something better for the next generation. Sacramento has some serious issues. As a council member, I’ve worked a lot to address people’s housing issues, job issues, but there’s one thing that’s holding our entire area back. That’s the crisis and the tragedy we see on the street, the drug addiction and mental health of people who can’t make a decision for themselves. And that’s squarely in the county’s purview”
Flo Cofer
“We are in a moment that requires expertise. It requires courage, and it requires a belief that we can do better than we currently are, that more is possible. We have 12,000 county employees, and $9 billion a year. And yet people are watching as our homelessness crisis has grown, as our roads are crumbling. And as you know, the cost of living has gone up. And the county is the last line of defense for us right now. When we have a federal government that has been somewhat hostile to us, when we’re in unprecedented times when it comes to the real challenges facing our families” Biggest issue for residents of District 1 (Sacramento).
Flo Cofer first acknowledged homelessness in Sacramento is a concern that garners the most attention and is a legitimate problem, but she believes people need to pay closer attention to the county’s infrastructure and the number of fatal crashes each year.
Flo Cofer
“Twice as many people are killed in traffic accidents every year than are killed in homicides. So, when I think about an issue that we should take seriously, it’s the one I think that matters most to us. The number of years in our life and the quality of life in those years, and traffic accidents stand as a threat to both. I want to make sure that our county, with $1 billion in deferred maintenance on our roads, with an average road score that is failing at 41, actually has the resources needed to make sure that we can guarantee the safety of people in our region. And so that’s going to be one of my number one budget priorities.”
Guerra believes the number one issue for Sacramento residents is the current state of the economy but also pointed towards the need to address homelessness and its impact on the city’s ability to attract and retain businesses.
Eric Guerra
“You know, we’re making financial decisions about whether we have enough for a kid’s soccer fees or a new car payment…a lot of that is being held back because the economy is a challenge when we have so much affected our growth. And our growth comes from, making sure that people are excited to be Downtown. It’s sad to see some of the businesses closing and restaurants closed. These are all small business owners who live here, and a big chunk of it is because we need the county to step up and deal with the mental health and drug addiction issues that we see on the street.”
Guerra has served on the Sacramento City Council since 2015. In recent years there’s been numerous conversations over how large of a role the county should play when it comes to addressing the city of Sacramento’s ongoing need to address homelessness.
The city versus county’s role in addressing homelessness.
Eric Guerra
“I think we’re stronger together. I’ve always been an advocate, and in fact, if we remember folks who were here 3 or 4 years ago, we had tent encampments of 100, 200 people, these massive encampments. Well, I reached out to the Board of Supervisors and I said, we need to address this head on, and we created a contract between us. We cleared a lot of those encampments and got people housed. But we still have a major problem, because the issue that’s out there is the drug addiction and the mental health issues, and that is unfortunately not the strength of the city. The solutions will come when we work together, and that’s the difference between myself and my opponent, is I have a track record of bringing people together, not being divisive, but taking the issues head on and being sober about the problems and saying if we are going to make a change, it’s going to be the county and the city working together along with the other cities.”
Flo Cofer
“The answer has always been the county, right? The county has the budget. The county provides the services; the county is responsible for human assistance, and public health and all the things that are needed to be able to tackle this crisis as well. But we also are in a region where we have to partner with one another. And so, I think that lack of partnership has created a burden on many of our incorporated cities, because it means they’re trying to take on services and roles that are really designed for the county and that the county has the budget and staff for. But it doesn’t mean that those cities don’t have a role. And that’s where an open line of communication, a structure that allows us to be able to coordinate services, comes in. It would be difficult for almost anyone if they found themselves unhoused, to be able to actually know how to navigate their way, to get to the positive outcome that we all want.”
Addressing public safety at the county level.
Flo Cofer
“Road safety…that is a top priority for me. Because we have so many people moving through our region. If you told me that there’s something that is causing more people to die than homicides, that needs to be a top public safety priority.”
Cofer doubled down on the need to address the county’s roadway infrastructure and the need to lower the number of fatal crashes each year. She goes on to say it’s important to make sure emergency response services are well funded and that response times are fast, while also highlighting the need for crime prevention measures.
“From a prevention standpoint…what are the things that actually decrease crime? People having jobs, people having good transportation to get to those jobs. People being able to afford their housing. All of those things decrease our crime rate. Having youth programs during the summer. So, we don’t have bored young people who end up getting into trouble or not being able to stay on the path that’s going to lead them to having a productive adulthood.”
Eric Guerra
“We have to make sure that we have a well-funded public safety and health departments. That means our fire, our police, our sheriffs. Now, if we don’t address the homeless issue or burning through our resources, we’re never going to do that. We’re never going to have enough money for extra light improvements.”
Guerra pointed to the assault of one of his “teammates” in the Lavender Heights neighborhood. He used the example to highlight the need for better lighting and additional safety measures in parts of the county.
“Public safety is critical, and defunding the police is not the solution. That’s the contrary, that’s where my opponent lies on. Making sure that we have the safety we need because government’s responsibility is to keep people safe and also making sure that we provide opportunities for people to grow. If our Downtown is not safe, if our neighborhoods aren’t safe, our commercial corridors aren’t safe. Small business owners aren’t going to be able to invest or want to invest in them. And in fact, we’ve seen businesses close when they don’t feel safe.”How would you prioritize spending?
Eric Guerra
“The county has to focus on economic development. We have to grow the general tax dollars. But we’re only going to do that if we create more jobs, more economic opportunity. I’m a big advocate of more manufacturing. Let’s just use McClellan Air Force Base. The power in industrial area, for more economic develop, because those jobs pay above minimum wage with retirement and health care. That’s how we actually make an improvement of where we make changes. “
Flo Cofer
“I would like to actually see us be able to start at 5% and increase up from there into investing in things that are going to be needed over time. So, part of the reason we have $1 billion in deferred maintenance on our roads is because we built some of these roads but didn’t initially put money in to be able to maintain the roads. So that means that over time, when those roads need the maintenance that we know is going to happen, there’s no money available to be able to do that. So, we need to start building those things into how we are functioning.”
Voters will head to the polls on November 3rd to cast their ballots for the District 1 race for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.
You can visit the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors website to determine if you’re a resident of District 1.
Full interview with Eric Guerra below:
Full interview with Flo Cofer below:
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