The four candidates for Sacramento County\u2019s 1st Supervisorial District gathered at the Coloma Community Center on Thursday evening for a forum that that was long on both info and civility.<\/p>\n
Former Sacramento mayoral candidate Flojaune Cofer, Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra, former state legislator Deborah Ortiz and computer programmer Tim Riley offered a clear and generally polite look at how they would govern.<\/p>\n
About 150 people attended the forum, co-hosted by eight community and neighborhood associations and moderated by the League of Women Voters at the former Elmhurst elementary school in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
How the candidates introduced themselves<\/p>\n
Ortiz, 69, who was elected to the Sacramento City Council in the mid-1990s, served in the Legislature for ten years and is a current member of the Los Rios Community College District Board, explained why she was running for office again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not sit back and watch the Trump administration destroy everything that I and so many others built,\u201d Ortiz said.<\/p>\n
![\"Candidate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SAC_0695_260904_JV_Supervisor_Dist_1.JPG\" "\\"SAC_0695_260904_JV_Supervisor_Dist_1.JPG\\"")
Candidate Deborah Ortiz smiles following the Sacramento County Supervisors District 1 forum on Thursday at the Coloma Center in Sacramento. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
Riley, 65, hasn\u2019t previously run for office and explained during the forum that he was self-funding his campaign from his retirement account. He opened with core tenets of his campaign, such as building a 5,000-room dormitory to house the homeless.<\/p>\n
Cofer, a 43-year-old epidemiologist, opened by explaining that she got into public health work because her father died when he was 47 of heart disease. Then she began to explain why she was running in the race, which comes less than a year-and-a-half after Cofer lost an extraordinarily close mayoral race to Kevin McCarty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t blame all of the county\u2019s issues on Trump, because we\u2019ve watched as the county mismanaged the jail, homelessness, COVID-19 and land use,\u201d Cofer said.<\/p>\n
Guerra, 47, who has served on the City Council since 2015, introduced himself by saying he\u2019d been a migrant farmworker as a child and later experienced homelessness before he found success in life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy strength has always been listening and listening with people who don\u2019t agree with me for the purpose of finding outcome and results for our neighbors,\u201d Guerra said.<\/p>\n
Highlights of the questions<\/p>\n
The candidates sat on stage with moderator Paula Lee from the League of Women Voters of Sacramento County, who asked a dozen preselected questions over the course of about 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
Views among the candidates were mixed on some topics. To a question about a half-cent sales tax initiative to support transportation projects, Guerra signalled his support.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ortiz said she would \u201cwant to look at what else is on the ballot before I commit to this.\u201d Cofer said she was in support but \u201creally angry about it\u201d because sales taxes were regressive and transportation was a regional issue, not just a county one.<\/p>\n
![\"Candidate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SAC_0764_260904_JV_Supervisor_Dist_1.JPG\" "\\"SAC_0764_260904_JV_Supervisor_Dist_1.JPG\\"")
Candidate Flo Cofer meets with attendees before the Sacramento County Supervisors District 1 forum on Thursday at the Coloma Center in Sacramento. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
Ortiz and Cofer also differed on the question of allowing safe ground camping. While Cofer said it was appropriate, since society needed to have places for people to go, Ortiz said a better option was to build additional shelters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an obligation to find shelter that is safe, that has bathrooms, that has showers, and I don\u2019t care if that costs us a hell of a lot more money than we\u2019re spending now,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cWe put them into hotels. We do not leave them outside in the elements. That is absolutely inhumane.\u201d<\/p>\n
On other questions there was broad agreement, such as when all four candidates lambasted the proposed Delta Tunnel project. \u201cThis is an area that we\u2019re all going to agree, because this is a really, really terrible plan,\u201d Cofer said.<\/p>\n
The four candidates also largely favored the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cutting down hundreds of American River Parkway trees to bolster levees.<\/p>\n
Attendees were encouraged to snap their fingers rather than clap in response to answers. Cofer, an enthusiastic supporter of public financing for political campaigns, snapped her fingers at one point when Ortiz mentioned that she supported the idea.<\/p>\n
Reactions from the candidates<\/p>\n
Cofer, Ortiz and Guerra shared positive takeaways after the event concluded. Riley couldn\u2019t be interviewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we got a vision out there, and people got to see some of the candidates together,\u201d Cofer said. \u201cI think it\u2019s always nice for people to be able to compare and contrast us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guerra said that the evening \u201cwas a huge boost for my campaign\u201d and that engaging with community leaders allowed him to reflect on his successes.<\/p>\n
![\"Candidate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SAC_0331_260904_JV_Supervisor_Dist_1.JPG\" "\\"SAC_0331_260904_JV_Supervisor_Dist_1.JPG\\"")
Candidate Eric Guerra responds to a question at the Sacramento County Supervisors District 1 forum on Thursday at the Coloma Center in Sacramento. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
The candidates were struck by the evening\u2019s decorum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the right to be petty,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cWe have an obligation to the voters to be the best selves. So I think everybody strives for that. And I think it was evident tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guerra credited the League of Women Voters with encouraging civility. \u201cI\u2019ve been at different forums and debates over the last few years where it hasn\u2019t been that way,\u201d Guerra said. \u201cThey do set a standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The evening was co-hosted by neighborhood associations representing Elmhurst, Boulevard Park, Newton Booth, Oak Park, Sierra Curtis, Southside Park, Tahoe Park and East Sacramento, according to the event organizers.<\/p>\n
Cofer noted that the evening was a forum, rather than a debate and that name-calling wasn\u2019t allowed. She said everyone on the stage was her neighbor and that Riley had knocked on her door in recent months.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is how local elections should be,\u201d Cofer said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 7:00 AM.<\/p>\n
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