I had the pleasure of photographing Mayor Kevin Johnson again last week at the George Sims Community Center in South Sacramento. Mayor Johnson spent a good hour answering questions from local citizens. He had the chief of police with him, Rick Braziel, as well as some other deputies, officials from City Hall, the assistant city manager on hand, and others staff members to help tackle issues the people brought before him. One lady had documents with her and said she had been trying to get help with a local problem, and after asking her some specifics, the Mayor had her go into another room with the assistant city manager so they could work on a plan together and then come back to him with their solution. An 8th grade student stood up and asked him what could be done about Granite Skate Park, because the BMX bikers were ruining the area for skaters. Kevin said, “Well, you’re in luck – we have the Chief of police right here!” Chief Braziel said they would be patrolling the area more regularly and other ideas were discussed as well as alerting Parks and Rec. I liked his hands-on approach and how he assigned different staffers with him to help solve the problems there, not just saying the usual politician’s phrase, “we’ll look into that and get back to you” 😀
