Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Council completes controversial redistricting

Panel votes to move UCD Med Center into City Council District 6

Published: Wednesday, Sep. 7, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
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Despite the opposition of influential pastors, neighborhood groups and dozens of residents, the Sacramento City Council stood its ground Tuesday night and voted to move the UC Davis Medical Center campus out of the City Council district representing Oak Park.

The 6-3 vote put an end to a summer's worth of tense debate and protests over the city's once-a-decade redistricting process, a subject that historically has been followed closely almost exclusively by political insiders and special interests.

Council members Sandy Sheedy, Steve Cohn, Rob Fong, Kevin McCarty, Darrell Fong and Bonnie Pannell voted for the plan. Mayor Kevin Johnson and council members Angelique Ashby and Jay Schenirer opposed the proposal.

McCarty's District 6 will absorb the hospital campus, placing it with Elmhurst, Tahoe Park and other neighborhoods on the city's southeast side.

McCarty argued that the expansive medical center creates "major issues" for the neighborhoods he represents with traffic and noise.

And with the hospital scheduled for continued expansion, McCarty said it was vital that his council district play an active role in that process.

Schenirer, who represents Oak Park and had represented the hospital area, fought the change.
He and others argued that the hospital is a symbol of prosperity to an otherwise depressed area and has been linked to Oak Park for decades.

Schenirer's office is also working on health initiatives with the hospital that are centered on challenges in Oak Park.

"We've had a neighborhood come out like never before to say we don't like what you're doing," Schenirer said. "What does a neighborhood have to do to make itself heard?"

More than 75 members of the public testified against the plan Tuesday.

No one spoke in favor of the move, although several Elmhurst residents had said they supported the change in past weeks, with more than 200 signing petitions.

"There's no compelling reason for six members to strip this asset from District 5 just because we're perceived as weak," said Michael Boyd, the president of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association. "I think we can put that myth to rest. If not now then certainly in June (when four council members and the mayor are up for re-election)."

The Oak Park Neighborhood Association apparently wasn't always against the plan. In May, the group submitted a map to a council-appointed redistricting advisory committee that also called for moving the hospital into McCarty's district.

As it has for several weeks, the debate drew several pastors to City Hall, including two of the most influential members of Sacramento's faith community.

The Rev. Ephraim Williams of Oak Park's St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church and the Rev. Rick Cole of Capital Christian Center both testified opposing the plan.

"(Proposing to move the medical center) may have been well-intentioned," Cole said. "However, the impact of this change would have a significant negative impact on the spirit of our community."

Cole and Williams were joined by more than 10 other pastors, a rare showing of political involvement for a faith community in Sacramento that generally avoids political battles.

This time, some of those pastors have vowed to help seek candidates to run against the four council members up for re-election next year: Sheedy, Rob Fong, McCarty and Pannell.

"If you exercise your vote the way you want to, we will exercise our votes the way we want to," said the Rev. Kelvin Wheldon of Oak Park's Harmony Baptist Church.

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