By Mike Hazlip—
Longtime Citrus Heights Councilwoman Jeannie Bruins addressed a neighborhood meeting Tuesday, answering questions and outlining some history of the city and accomplishments over the years.
Speaking during the monthly meeting of the Citrus Heights Area Seven Eight and Nine (CHASEN) neighborhood association, Bruins answered questions submitted by community members prior to the meeting, along with live questions from attendees. Top concerns submitted were regarding homelessness and the future of Sunrise Mall, she said.
Sunrise Mall
Soon after majority owner Namdar Realty Group purchased the mall in late 2018, then-mayor Bruins met with the new owners, she said, noting that the mall’s owners were “worlds apart” in their vision for the future of the property at the time. Since then, The Sentinel has reported the city has worked with urban development consultant firm Gensler to develop a 20-year plan to guide redevelopment and pave the way for a new “Sunrise Tomorrow” mixed-use plan.
“It’s a very attractive project for someone to come in and help create Sunrise Tomorrow over the next several years,” said Bruins. “Whether that’s going to be with Namdar, the current owners, or a developer that buys them out remains to be seen.”
Homelessness
Addressing homelessness, Bruins said the issue is a concern for the new city manager, Ashley Feeney, who was officially sworn in earlier this month to replace former City Manager Christopher Boyd.
Bruins referred to a comment by former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness, noting that past homeless populations tended to keep clean and stay hidden, while many of the current homeless population leaves destruction in it’s wake.
“It’s safe to say that our city is committed to not ever have that happen in Citrus Heights,” Bruins said. “Ash [Ashley Feeney] today shared with me that he is going to tackle this with a vengeance, and he has plans to put together a comprehensive program to elevate the level of response to homelessness within Citrus Heights that we have.”
She added that she didn’t know “what that’s going to look like yet,” but said the city manager “knows that’s a major concern for our city, as we do on the council.”
Over the years
For Bruins, spending 20 years in public service was not something she anticipated. She said she tries to stay out of politics as much as possible, basing her decisions on what she believes will benefit the community the most.
“Is this good for me, or is this good for this community?” she said as a guiding principle. “If it’s good for the community, but I’m going to get some flak for it… I can say over there that I’m in public service. [But] If I’m more concerned about how it’s going to effect me, then I’ve just jumped the line into politics. I’ll tell you it’s easy to slip into politics.”
Despite having spent two decades on the City Council, Bruins says she did not come from a background in politics. She is originally from southern California, moving to what was then unincorporated Citrus Heights in the 1980s.
“This has been a very gratifying part of my life,” she said. “I don’t come from a political family, I come from a family of very simple people that went to work, went to church, came home and took care of their family. Those are my roots.”
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Bruins highlighted accomplishments such as getting homes in the Chapel View community of the city integrated with the Sacramento County sewer system. Two different developers built the homes, she said, with one section on a private sewer system that was failing. Through working with community leaders she said she helped upgrade the infrastructure so that the remaining homes could benefit by connecting to the county’s system.
“A lot of what we do that’s meaningful to the people we do it for, this doesn’t make headlines because there’s nothing sexy about it,” Bruins said, adding that the effort was known mostly to city staff. “That project was very gratifying for me. Nobody but staff knew about that, because again it doesn’t make headlines.”
Another project Bruins highlighted was getting the addresses of several homes changed to Citrus Heights. Due to a clerical error after the incorporation effort, Bruins said a group of addresses were listed as Sacramento. She took the matter all the way to the U.S. Postal Service in Washington D.C. before it was finally resolved and the residents got a Citrus Heights address.
“I think the greatest success is to have a hand in forming something and be able to let it go,” she said.
Bruins said her greatest accomplishment on the City Council has been the Sayonara Drive Youth Center. Bruins worked with then-City Manager Henry Tingle to reduce crime on the street, which was known for illegal activity.
After consulting with community leaders who were building youth centers in other areas of Sacramento County, Bruins and Tingle worked to develop the center on land owned by the city. She said Tingle had the idea to use block grant funds for the project in order to save money in the General Fund.
In the decades since the youth center opened, Bruins said she’s seen children who once lived in the area and received assistance from the center now attending college.
“That center is affecting lives generationally,” Bruins said. “I’ve often said if there was nothing else I’ve ever accomplished in 20 years on the City Council, getting that little youth center started in the early days is the only thing I accomplished, it was worth it.”
