My staff and I, working with other city employees, do our best to meet the needs of our District 5 constituents. I represent more than 58,000 Sacramentans in more than 20 neighborhoods, so one can imagine the overwhelming number of requests we receive for assistance.
Whether it’s about homelessness, traffic issues, an abandoned vehicle or an illegal marijuana grow, we take all requests and concerns seriously. Since there have been some changes over time, I thought it important to reintroduce the District 5 staff.
At City Hall, Azia Cherry handles all administrative management of the office, coordinating my schedule and planning events like movie nights and community meetings. She is also a new mom of baby Sam, doing her best to get a bit of sleep between all her duties.
Jasleen Escobar leads on all constituent matters. Over the past year, she has learned the ins and outs of the city and pretty much knows where to go to get answers for most any question or complaint. She also does the bulk of our social media and outreach efforts (@ jayschenirer on Instagram and Twitter). Jasleen is recently engaged to a member of the British military, so she has a significant interest in world affairs these days.
Chief of staff Allison Joe came to the district office two years ago from the California Strategic Growth Council and state government. While she does a bit of everything, she has deep knowledge of housing and transportation issues, and our office could not survive without her.
Thanks to some philanthropic fundraising, I am lucky to have three additional staff members working with me: Claudia Jasin works on youth issues and has spent a great deal of time working on the Ryde Free RT Program – providing free transit passes for young people launching on Oct. 1; Michael Blair runs WayUp Sacramento, spending his time on all issues Oak Park; and Sommer Hayes facilitates our work with many of the schools in the district.
These are great folks without whom I simply could not meet the needs of District 5 on an ongoing basis. We get hundreds of calls, emails, tweets, messages and personal requests each week. This does not include our appointments to city boards and commissions – I’ll leave that for another day.
For now, I just wanted you to know who is working for you and make sure that the team gets the credit it deserves.