- [Announcer] This production is made possible by the financial support of AARP California.

(bright music) - Representing the Seventh Assembly District, Kevin McCarty has been a dedicated public servant for Sacramento since 2004.

Assembly member McCarty serves as the chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee and has been an advocate for education, housing, and public safety reforms.

He joins us today to share his personal journey, motivations for running to be the next mayor of Sacramento and his vision of the future.

Welcome assembly member Kevin McCarty.

- Thank you.

Great to be here.

- I want to ask you about growing up here in Sacramento, a son of a single mom.

What is it about your journey as a lifelong Sacramentan that inspired you in the first place to run for the office of mayor?

- Yeah, so it has been a journey to get where I'm at today.

I never would've thought growing up here in Sacramento that I would be an assembly member, a city council member, and now a candidate for mayor.

But it's exciting.

This is my hometown of Sacramento.

But you know, my journey shapes who I am and I think helps me relate to people throughout Sacramento and families.

And, you know, my family, not unlike a lot of families here in Sacramento had struggles.

Our rock and our family was our mom.

She passed away 15 years ago.

She was a single woman who came here as an immigrant and had an education up to 16 years old and all of a sudden had four kids and no future, and hustled and worked and went to school at night.

And, you know, we struggled.

But her hustle and fortitude really taught me a lot of life lessons that are with me today.

- Well, let's go there on that.

What are some of the values that living that experience kind of reinforced or grew in you that helps drive how it is that you see community service and just being part of the civic environment?

- Well, I think two things is one, our experience shows me that government can make a difference in people's lives.

- [Scott] Give me an example.

- Well, you know, my mom had subsidized childcare for us to do stuff, you know, after school while she could work and go to school at night.

She literally went to work and school at night for eight years, from the ages of five to 13, she was essentially gone.

And we, you know, had programs that helped us.

We had, you know, free lunch at school.

She had scholarships to be able to go to community college, and then Sac State and then, you know, Lincoln Law School here.

So, you know, we benefited from, I call 'em the California dream programs.

So I see these programs that I fight for as a lawmaker.

You know, I created the program for universal afterschool or preschool programs, and those are my laws that I created.

I'm super excited about that.

But I realized, hey, that literally helped my family.

That was a lifeline to us.

And so that's a reminder.

But, you know, her story and her perseverance, you know, showed to me that it's not always easy.

And sometimes you fall and you have to dust yourself up and get up and you know, her struggles, I think, parlay to my life later on.

And so, like, it's not always easy, but it's a journey.

- You know, it's interesting because your story and to use a word, your pedigree, is not necessarily the dominant theme.

You know, people who went to, had all the best opportunities and all the best schools to go to and, you know, just a complete life of privilege.

You've had to go through a series of journeys and adventures in order for you to get to the place you are.

What do you say to those folks who say, well, look at Kevin McCarty, he came up by his bootstraps.

It just shows that, you know, you can do it, and we really need to think about how much support the government and all these programs that you talk about really are necessary, 'cause wouldn't he have made it anyway just because of the fact that he had the gumption to do it?

- Maybe.

I feel I got lucky and I feel a lot of kids get lost and don't have, you know, opportunities and second chances.

So I'll just get right to it.

I became a successful elected leader, and I went to the legislature and I saw people went to Harvard and Yale and Cal, you know, Boalt Hall and my journey was very, very different.

And we all there, we're all the same writing laws and giving speeches and making a difference.

But, you know, I flunked out of high school and went to adult school.

And I think the thing that I always, when I go talk to young people, I tell them this story.

I say, my first day in the legislature, the guy sitting next to me was a guy named Rob Bonta, who's now our Attorney General.

- [Scott] You're kidding.

- No.

And we went to middle school together here, Winston Churchill Middle School, and he was a high achieving student and one of the brainiacs of the school.

And we both played sports there.

That's how we knew each other.

And I was just a neighborhood kid and went to school there and we're there as assembly members, it's my first day, getting sworn in, and I thought to myself, the year after high school, he went to Yale, and then became, I think, a Rhode Scholar, a very distinguished academic career.

And I, my year after high school, I went to Winterstein Adult School behind Arden Fair Mall.

- [Scott] Is that right?

- And then we both ended up in the state assembly 25 years later.

So, you know, it doesn't really matter.

- Well, well, well, hold on, hold on.

I have to interject and ask you this.

- Yeah.

- When you showed up and he showed up on the floor of the assembly and he saw you and you saw him, what was his reaction?

'Cause I'm sure that, you know, his experience and his journey was different than yours, but you both ended up in the same place.

- Yeah, we had kept in touch a little bit over the years when I was elected the city council and he was an elected leader in the Bay Area, so we knew of each other.

But yeah, it just shows you that people come from all walks of life.

And that goes back to my youth and my mom.

My mom had a ton of struggles.

We grew up in chaos in our house at many occasions.

- [Scott] Give us an example.

- You know, those ACEs scores where we have all the, you know, a lot of problems in people.

I don't wanna get into my family's drama, but we had a lot of challenges in our family and, you know, that provided resilience and enabled me and my brothers to have opportunities to bounce back.

And I think because of that, we've all succeeded in different ways and it's given me a level of understanding of people and community and, you know, it's given me a lot of street smarts to be, I think, a successful elected official.

- Well, at Churchill Middle School and El Camino High School, and then the adult school.

When you think about your friends and the people that you grew up with, and some of them may still be here in Sacramento, what is their reaction to where you have arrived at this moment, given the fact that they knew you way back when?

- Yeah, most think it's pretty exciting.

I see people more on social media or you see people out in the community and they're jazzed.

And, you know, some say, oh my God, I had no idea that you, knucklehead in high school, would end up here leading Sacramento and being a contender for mayor.

And having a career, 20 years as a distinguished council member and a assembly member.

Some people have been very surprised.

And I remember one story when I first got an internship at the Capitol, I was 21 or 22 years old, so I was just five years removed from flunking out of high school.

And I had never been to the Capitol before I started that job as an intern.

- [Scott] Really?

- No, I didn't go the field trips as a kid.

And so, you know, I was 22, walking the halls and my first summer there and I ran into, he was a principal at my high school and he saw me, did a double take, and he said, what are you doing here?

- [Scott] Really?

- Yeah, I'll never forget that.

And I said, I'm an intern here.

And in his head, he thought, there's no way this kid, he was in my office for, you know, bad behavior, bad grades, what have you, would end up being, you know, someone at the state Capitol working there.

So, you know, that served as a little bit of inspiration and motivation to me.

And so maybe some people were surprised at first, but now I run into people all the time, you know, Sacramento's a small city still, and they're super excited that someone they know and they knew over the years is making a difference.

And that's most importantly what it's all about is making a difference for Sacramento.

- Well, when you take all that in and hear about, you know, not only the journey, but how some people frankly didn't end up or believe you were gonna end up where you've ended up today and on this new adventure in running for Mayor of Sacramento.

How do those experiences, the tough ones and the fond memory ones inform how you bring yourself to making policy and looking at the role of government in how it provides for its people?

- Well, just a reminder that where you are in life doesn't determine who you are forever.

You know, my mom, a single mom, only had a 16-year-old education, should have been on public assistance, said, no, I'm gonna hustle.

I'm going to get a two part-time jobs.

- [Scott] And she went to law school?

- Yeah.

- [Scott] Did she finally become an attorney?

- She became a successful applicant attorney, worker's comp attorney here and loved it, loved helping, working with people.

And so, you know, I think that just shows me that, you know, you can't write people off.

And I think, and that's why I've always been about focusing on youth programs because, you know, I believe in our youth, I always say that youth are, you know, 50% of the present, a hundred percent of the future.

I believe in all that just as a belief.

But I know personally, 'cause that was me.

I benefited from all these programs that Sacramento offers.

And so I see families and communities and people left behind.

I was like, no, we can't give up on people.

- When you look at sort of the way that politicians, your colleagues and the whole political system has conversations about the least among us, it's typically not the least among us who are in the room making policy.

You must carry a lot of people invisibly on your shoulders when you're in those rooms, 'cause you've been to the White House, you've been, you know, to some, some pretty, you know, swank rooms where power and decisions are made.

How does that responsibility of those who you've encountered along the way show up in terms of what you want people to know before you leave those rooms?

- Well, it doesn't weigh on me, but it's a big reminder.

I'm reminded about, you know, my mom, who I've talked a lot here.

Also, part of my background is I'm a biracial kid.

My father is African American.

My mom was an immigrant from England.

And, you know, my great grandfather was born in slavery era in Louisiana.

And so my grandfather, you know, fled West 1906 during the Jim Crow era.

And I think about that part of my family too, and all how far we've come, but how far we need to go to bring about opportunity, equality and government's about serving everybody.

It's about helping everybody succeed, not just the people who have resources who are powerful.

So, you know, all of those things come into play when I'm in the room, you know, I was in the White House, I was thinking about last couple days, a few years ago, with Vice President Kamala Harris.

And I remember I was looking around the, you know, I think it's called the old executive office room, and just thinking about my life and like, here I am in the White House, and just, I thought that same question, like how am I here and what do all these inputs determine me here today to advocate for California, my district.

- You talk about Vice President Harris, and recently there has been a lot of discussion about her biracial heritage.

How, as a man who has a biracial heritage, particularly from two communities that have been, who have historically had the most tension in America, African American and white, how is it that you've dealt with that tension where it is that everybody's asking you to take a side or, you know, declare yourself, that sort of thing.

How have you wrestled with that?

- Well, it's not easy, and that's why I related so much to Barack Obama.

I remember I read his book "Dreams of My Father" and how he was able to navigate multiple worlds.

And that's what I've done my entire life.

A little bit different than me.

You know, my complexion isn't the same as my dad's nor my sister's.

So people don't always look at me and say, hey, you know, you're a biracial African American.

But I've always, you know, think that you're multiple things, you know, you could be brown haired and brown eyes.

You're not just one or the other.

You could be two things.

Like Kamala Harris is Asian and Black.

You know, I'm biracial.

My mom is white, was white, she passed away.

My dad's African American.

So I think that is California.

And I look at my kids now, they're tri-racial, Mexican American, and Black and Caucasian.

So that is the future.

And I think that helps me understand people and communities.

And I think I've always been able to relate to multiple people and communities because I am that, you know, I come from, you know, multiple backgrounds.

- Let's talk a little bit about your career.

When you look back on your career, both city council level, but also in the state legislature, what would you say has been the biggest high and low of the adventure so far?

- Just being able to help change people's lives.

- Like is there a particular initiative, a particular program or something?

- I'll tell you the one that people wouldn't think is the one, is when I got elected to the city council, I met some people in South Sac and they're like, McCarty, we lost Little League here a decade ago.

What are you gonna do to bring back Little League?

And I'm like, I'm gonna do it.

And I had no idea how I was gonna do it.

So I called up the San Francisco Giants and brought this program here called the Junior Giants, and it's a free baseball program in southeast Sacramento at George Sim Park that now literally 20,000 kids have played free baseball in Sacramento the last 19 years that I brought this thing.

So doing something like that, which helps families, it brings joy.

But you know, there's programs that I've written, I wrote the law for free universal preschool, which is a big deal.

It costs more to go to preschool than it does to go to UC Berkeley.

People don't always realize that.

- [Scott] Is that so?

- Yeah, the tuition monthly is more to go to preschool than it is to pay tuition to UC Berkeley and middle class families are squeezed.

And so I wrote the law that says all families get now free universal preschool in California.

So things like that, I was like, Hey, we're gonna change a family's life.

And obviously the research shows that early education is the number one thing you can do to change a kid's trajectory in life and success.

So that matters.

And you can help a family economically as well.

So those laws that I've written, I've had a hundred plus laws that I've written... - What's been the toughest loss that you've had?

The one that got away or the one that kind of breaks your heart?

- I don't know, there's probably so many, but you just have to realize that it takes time.

You can't get these things done overnight.

- [Scott] So what would you say would be the unfinished business, if you could get one more thing done that has eluded you.

- Yeah.

- What would it be?

- I would say my big marquis thing I tried to do for many years is having debt-free college in California.

That's such a huge issue for young people trying to get ahead and you know, being able, not just pay for college, but housing costs and all the other costs.

And we worked on a bill, the deficit, the budget is impacting us now.

But one day I think California will have our debt-free college in place.

And you know, I'll be a footnote in history if somebody worked on that.

- Hold, hold on.

As a guy who came up, and I'm gonna use my own word, scrappy.

- Yeah.

- Okay?

Debt-free college is great.

But what about all the kids that are not gonna go to college that are more vocational?

Did you mean to expand that?

Or... - Well debt-free college doesn't have to say you're gonna go to Berkeley.

You can go to community college and get a vocational degree to be a nurse, an LVN, to work in technology and biotech, and there's all kinds of opportunities.

But I think what I've realized in my career at the Capitol in education is that people need more than high school.

You know, back in the day, you could have a high school diploma and get a middle class job, work at McClellan or Campbell soup.

- [Scott] Go to work for the state or wherever.

- State and not have a college degree, be able to buy a home, pay for your kids to go to college, pay for your retirement.

You know, that doesn't happen anymore.

You need to have more than high school.

And so we need to make it easier for people to get higher education.

And, you know, that's what I've done the state level and now my task is how do I take all that and help bring that to the city of Sacramento?

- So when you look at the City of Sacramento and running for mayor, who are your inspirations, who are kind of like your North stars in terms of people that have inspired you and will kind of like be spirit guides for you as you think about how it is that you would take a McCarty administration forward?

- I have a lot of people that I've worked with.

I don't have one like political mentor over the years.

I have dozens, you know, from our current Mayor Steinberg to former senator Deborah Ortiz, to people that served on the council before.

You know, I look at success, you know, my political idol has always been, you know, Barack Obama, looking at his success bringing people together.

You know, I like focusing on not just people with titles, but people in the community.

You know, I was always a big believer who makes the biggest difference in the world is not people with fancy titles, but, you know, people who are community advocates, people who work for non-profits.

- Is there anyone who's made more of an impression on you from an inspiring perspective than anyone else that's from the community?

- There are dozens.

And that's what I think is so great about Sacramento.

I see people that are making a difference in, you know, helping, working on, you know, food inadequacy issues, working on community development, working on our youth programs, working on issues like homelessness and mental health.

And so I want to expand upon all of those resources and connections to help bring solutions.

Because I realize, too, in government, we can't do it alone.

We are all in this together.

So you need to be able expand your horizon.

- So when you think about Sacramento itself on day one, should you be successful in this race, what will be your top three priorities where you're going to be laser-focused, notwithstanding any issues that come along the way?

- Yeah, crystal clear.

Housing, homelessness and our youth.

And I've talked about, you know, already how some of those issues impacted my own personal life.

- [Scott] Why those three?

- Why those three?

Housing, I'm very concerned about the future of Sacramento and young people.

I have 15-year-old girls and you know, why I'm running for mayor is I want the community to be safe and sound for them today.

But I also want to think about them, you know, eight years from now.

Most mayors, going back 50 years, serve two terms.

So if I serve two terms and, you know, our girls by then would be graduating from high school, I mean from college.

And so I want them to want to come back to Sacramento, 'cause Sacramento has enough housing that can, you know, meet everyone's needs.

We don't have that right now.

I'm very concerned about that.

We're losing our talent in the future and we're losing people today.

So housing is a key, key issue.

I'm gonna be a big pro housing candidate.

My first day in office, I want to create a blue ribbon commission to lower barriers on the building permit process to make it easier to bring housing projects to Sacramento.

- Okay, homelessness.

- Homelessness.

It's the issue, the albatross, around all of our necks here in government in Sacramento.

It's unsustainable having people sleeping on the streets.

I do not support urban camping.

We need to enforce, you know, camping ordinances.

The Supreme Court just said that cities can do that.

Conversely, we need to open up low barrier places where people can go.

I think too often government focuses on the Cadillac solution, you know, the upwards a million dollars per person on an apartment, but we need to focus on how can we just get safe ground places where people can have bathroom, water, restroom facilities, services.

- Okay.

And then your final priority.

- Youth, you know, we can't be a strong city and a community unless we focus on the next generation.

And so the cities don't run the schools, but we have afterschool programs, we have summer jobs programs, we have other programs that help with our young people.

So what I wanna do is bring my, you know, resources that I've established as a lawmaker creating these laws and relationships, to bring some of those programs to Sacramento.

For example, we created this program a couple years ago I was part of, that has universal free afterschool programs all across California.

We're giving the money back left and right 'cause we don't have enough programs that run them, we don't have enough Roberts Family development centers, the fathers and families.

So I'm gonna, as mayor, bring more nonprofits ready to apply for the state grant so we can be first in line to get resources to help our youth.

- Okay.

So when you think about that agenda and what you're going to bring to it, very quickly, what is it that people need to understand about you and your style of leadership that may not be clear thus far, but you really want people to know it.

- I think most people who've been watching realize that I've been a practical, solution-driven leader who tries to find real solutions to our problems.

You know, when a young woman was gunned down in a community center in my council district, I opened up the community centers at nights, you know, like, we used to have midnight basketball in the Clinton era.

I brought that back for the city of Sacramento and it's now called the Hotspots.

And so I'm always looking for solutions to problems.

And so what I will do is work with others.

I don't always have the best ideas.

I'll work with others to make that happen.

The city of Sacramento doesn't have strong mayors and have, you can't be here.

You can't just be the one guy, the king or the queen.

You need to work with others.

And so that's been always my strength and what I will do with our council members, with our supervisor, the community partners and others to look for answers to our problems.

- And I think that we're going to leave it there.

And that's our show.

Thanks to our guest and thanks to you for watching Studio Sacramento.

I'm Scott Syphax.

See you next time right here on KVIE.

(bright music) All episodes of Studio Sacramento, along with other KVIE programs are available to watch online at kvie.org/video.

- [Announcer] This production is made possible by the financial support of AARP California.