SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento is starting to rake in more sales tax starting this month through the Measure U tax increase voters approved in the fall, and a new group of people will help advise city council members on how to spend those taxpayer dollars.
Stevante Clark is one of those new advisers. Clark is the brother of Stephon Clark, the unarmed, black 22-year-old man who was fatally shot by two Sacramento Police officers in March 2018, when they were pursuing him as a suspect in reported car vandalism. The officers said they thought the cell phone Clark pulled out of his pocket was a gun.
“I think a lot of people see me jumping on the mayor’s desk, and I don’t think they pay attention to the exact words that I said after that," Clark told ABC10. "Three things that I pointed out was the rent is too high, the gang banging has to stop and the poverty is uncontrollable.”
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In the resulting protests and outpouring of anger in the wake of Stephon Clark’s death, Stevante took a visible lead role. In the weeks after his brother was shot and killed, Clark disrupted a Sacramento City Council meeting, calling out Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
But Clark says he was having a hard time then coping with the recent loss of his brother. Since that time, he has emerged as a community activist, calling for peace alongside with change and championing his brother’s legacy.
Asked about Clark after a city council meeting this week, Steinberg acknowledged, "we had a very well-documented incident after the tragedy involving his brother," but then added that he and Clark "have since become friends. He’s a good young man, and he wants to contribute to the community.”
That's why Steinberg and Sacramento City Council Member Larry Carr nominated Clark to serve on the city's new Measure U Community Advisory Committee.
In November, Sacramento voters approved Measure U, which raised the city’s sales tax one half of a percent, from 8.25 percent to 8.75 percent. The increase went into effect in this month.
The new Measure U Community Advisory Committee is tasked with ensuring “that the expenditures of City resources reflect Council and community priorities,” according to the city’s website.
The committee’s responsibilities include reviewing, reporting and making recommendations to the city council about how to spend that Measure U money.
On Tuesday, the city council voted to approve the 15 people appointed to the new committee, a slate that includes Clark.
“I am the voice of my brother Stephon Clark. He has no voice, he is voiceless now," Clark said. "But also, through this, I get to be a voice for my community and the people that I live around and are affected by the same things my brother and I was affected by.”
So how much money are we talking about?
Well, Measure U is not new. Voters approved a half-percent tax back in 2012, but this new increase doubled that, bringing Measure U revenue to a full one percent. The city is therefore expecting to double what it's been taking in from that, for a new total of about $94 million per year.
How will it be used?
Steinberg made some big promises in selling the Measure U increase to voters last year. He stood by them this week in an interview with ABC10.
He wants the Measure U Community Advisory Committee to help ensure that "from north to south, that we are investing in our young people, that we’re investing in career pathways, that we’re investing in high-wage jobs, helping small businesses start revitalizing those commercial corridors. All the things that we’ve wanted to do for a long time but have never had the ability to do, we now do.”
The city specifically sought candidates for this Measure U Community Advisory Committee from diverse backgrounds, including one person between 16 and 24 years old; one member with experience in affordable housing, homelessness or rental housing issues; and one with experience in community trauma, mental health or community-based crime reduction, among other requirements.
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“It’s a very diverse and broad group," Steinberg told ABC10. "We expect the Measure U Advisory Committee to help guide the city in making sure that we spend those dollars, which the city taxpayers have granted us, on building a modern, inclusive economy."
Clark, who is from Sacramento's Meadowview community, said his spot on the committee is a step in the right direction.
“A lot of people that I talk to really didn't support Measure U because they don't trust City Hall with the money that'll be raised," Clark said. "People in these under-resourced, undeveloped parts of Sacramento, such as Del Paso Heights and the Meadowview community, they feel like they're left out of a lot of these deals and a lot of these decisions that are being made at city hall.”
His goal is to be a representative on that advisory committee.
"I get to be a voice for my community and the people that I live around and who are affected by the same things my brother and I was affected by," Clark said. “I will be having focus groups in the near future to talk about these needs.”
The advisory committee won't be the only group offering City Council guidance on how to spend Measure U funds.
“That’s on top of the investment committee that we’re also going to appoint in the next week," Steinberg said, "We’re going to have a lot of eyes on what we’re doing, which is totally appropriate, because I want to make sure that we follow through on the promise I laid out, that if we ask for this extra money, we’re going to invest it largely in growing a modern, inclusive economy.”
The Measure U Community Advisory Committee can only provide non-binding recommendations on how to spend Measure U money, meaning council members can still decide whether or not to take those suggestions.
Steinberg plans on using a large amount of Measure U funds to help create jobs, pursue homelessness solutions, increase affordable housing and improve low-income communities within the city, which includes supporting youth initiatives.
Even though we're paying the increased tax now, the city won't start seeing that extra revenue until June, once the money makes its way from the store to the state, and back to the city - a process that takes about two months.
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