Fatima Malik
Fatima Malik ran for election to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District to represent District 5 in California. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
Malik earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Davis in 2008. She earned a master's degree from San Jose State University in 2016. Malik's career experience includes working as a program and policy analyst with the Community and Local Equity Grants Unit in the Governor of California's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), and with nonprofit organizations dedicated to climate change.[1][2]
Elections
2024
See also: Municipal elections in Sacramento County, California (2024)
General election
General election for Sacramento Municipal Utility District Board District 5
Incumbent Rob Kerth defeated Fatima Malik and Nkiruka Ohaegbu in the general election for Sacramento Municipal Utility District Board District 5 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Rob Kerth (Nonpartisan)  | 55.1 | 40,123 |
 | Fatima Malik (Nonpartisan) | 28.1 | 20,447 | |
 | Nkiruka Ohaegbu (Nonpartisan) | 16.8 | 12,255 | |
| Total votes: 72,825 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Malik in this election.
2020
See also: Municipal elections in Sacramento County, California (2020)
General election
General election for Sacramento Municipal Utility District Board District 5
Incumbent Rob Kerth defeated Fatima Malik in the general election for Sacramento Municipal Utility District Board District 5 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Rob Kerth (Nonpartisan) | 52.9 | 45,046 |
| Fatima Malik (Nonpartisan) | 47.1 | 40,117 | |
| Total votes: 85,163 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Malik's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Fatima Malik did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Fatima Malik completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Malik's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am running for the SMUD Board of Directors, for Ward 5. I am a public health professional and lifelong Sacramento resident. I believe SMUD must do more to give you control over your energy bill and to fight climate change. I want to empower people to live better lives, not just give them Band-Aids.
My objective is to create healthy and thriving communities. As a member of the community I have worked to grow food and plant trees. In doing so these efforts have addressed food insecurities. Similarly, I believe communities can produce and meet their own energy needs.
I am committed to advancing equity and justice through facilitating collaborations by engaging with community. I seek trans-formative change, sustainable economics, and the sharing of power. These are strategies that create equal partnership between community leaders and residents.
I have a Masters Degree in Public Health from San Jose State and currently work for the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development as a program and policy analyst. I grew up in Gardenland, North Sacramento, graduated from Grant High School, and have lived in Del Paso Heights since 2000.
I'm promoting equity and justice in disadvantaged communities.
Learn more at www.Malik4SMUD.org- Reduce the cost of our energy bills; lower our monthly fixed surcharge fees and time-of-day rates in the changing times.
- Address climate-change induced heat waves, wildfires, and power outages - all while getting us to 100% clean energy supply as quickly as possible.
- Create a more sustainable and equitable future for all of us and to protect our most vulnerable residents from the economic fallout of the pandemic.
As a nonprofit community utility, SMUD needs to keep a balanced budget. But in a warming world, with amazing new technologies that can help people make their own energy and supply extra to their neighbors, SMUD needs to change its attitude from being a monopoly to an enabler of neighborhood self-sufficiency. That means getting serious about setting rates that encourage people to rely less on SMUD and more on themselves. This in turn lowers SMUD's long-term overhead costs, which keeps rates stable for everyone. We know how to do this and remain financially sustainable. The only obstacle is SMUD's monopoly mentality.
SMUD is our community-owned utility, but has acted like a PG&E-like corporate monopoly for too long. The SMUD Board works for you. That means we should share leadership with you. Ask you what you want. Listen to what you say. Not just through faceless surveys, but through regular community forums, located in your neighborhood, during times that are scheduled around YOUR busy life, not mine.
For budget year 2020, SMUD's budget for operations and maintenance is $1.158 billion. SMUD has a professional workforce of approximately 2,300 employees. Their salaries and benefits account for $244 million in annual expenditures, just under 25% of SMUD's annual budget. The largest portion of SMUD's budget is for the purchase of wholesale electricity from the federal government and other utilities and the purchase of natural gas for its power plants. These commodities account for $598 million (over half) of SMUD's annual operating expenditures. SMUD has budgeted $146 million for contracting for outside services. This contracting has been an important contributor to Sacramento's economy.
SMUD has outstanding debt of $1.978 billion. Service on that debt in 2020 will be $192 million. SMUD has a 2020 capital budget of $457 million. Approximately 65% of SMUD's capital budget will be spent on power lines and substations. SMUD owns and maintains 10,473 miles of power lines.
I care about the health, well-being, and resiliency of vulnerable populations in the face of climate change and its devastating environmental impacts. In the pursuit of cleaner air, I envision a more sustainable plan for SMUD that prioritizes the Green New Deal along with clean, renewable energy and solar accessibility in the greater Sacramento region for a healthier tomorrow and the next seven generations to come. The old ways of doing business (as usual) are no longer sustainable, affordable, or relevant to the task of meeting the energy demands ahead of us. We must take every active effort we can to create the path for more community self-reliance and a roadmap for resiliency. A path that includes economic resiliency for disadvantaged communities.
SMUD has the power and a golden opportunity to pave the way to a brighter future for all. SMUD must prepare itself to be ready for a new era of energy production. This is necessary to transition neighborhoods, like Del Paso Heights, to simultaneously deal with climate change, COVID-19, and poverty. The impacts of climate change are real. Climate change poses an imminent danger to all of us and it is urgent that we make drastic shifts in how we generate and consume energy. We need to make neighborhoods more energy resilient to face climate change. We must focus on alternative ways of doing business at SMUD; one that shares resources with the community, especially disadvantaged communities. Disadvantaged communities can benefit economically by participating in the generation of energy. SMUD should provide targeted incentives to these communities. We need the cost of energy to go down for families facing economic hardships. Energy impacts everything in our lives and from an environmental justice perspective, we are not going to thrive unless SMUD works effectively with community to find new ways of doing business.
We can help SMUD transition us into this new era of creating a variety of renewable energy products that meet the economic and weather conditions ahead of us. There will come a time when the legacy systems of producing energy will no longer be a viable option for a sustainable future.
My vision is to develop an energy plan that focuses on the next 10 years; an upgraded energy system that prioritizes local energy production and distribution that is cleaner.
If elected, I'll provide direction at SMUD to develop comprehensive, neighborhood-level, green energy plans that preserve our quality of life, reduce costs, and produce locally-sourced energy.
I have a Masters Degree in Public Health from San Jose State and currently work for the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development as a program and policy analyst. I grew up in Gardenland, North Sacramento, graduated from Grant High School, and have lived in Del Paso Heights since 2000. I have a Bachelor's Degree from UC Davis in International Agricultural Development.
My mother immigrated to the United States from South Asia when I was very young. She came with just a suitcase and five children. I witnessed my mother struggle to provide as a single parent. I'm the fifth of six children and believe that everyone deserves to have the widest array of opportunities to thrive.
As a youth, I enjoyed reading this novel as my favorite past time. I would read it over and over again, the story is one about the struggles of family that I can relate to and was inspired by to one day run for public office.
Over the years, I was able to escape poverty and find my calling in life, which is to promote equity and justice in disadvantaged communities.
50,000 people can't pay their SMUD bill because of the COVID recession. And yet, under my opponent's leadership, SMUD charges the highest monthly utility fee in the state ($22), and just raised rates by 11.25% over the next two years, even though the pandemic has upended our daily lives.
I will push to lower SMUD's fixed costs so you don't get charged so much, and also give you more control over your SMUD bill by helping you make changes to your home so you don't have to pay for as much energy, whether you rent or own.
We need to fight climate change with as much clean energy as possible. And yet, under my opponent's leadership, SMUD is trying to block both renters and homeowners from making and storing their own solar energy at home.
We can help SMUD transition us into this new era of creating a variety of renewable energy products that meet the economic and weather conditions ahead of us. There will come a time when the legacy systems of producing energy will no longer be a viable option for a sustainable future.
My vision is to develop an energy plan that focuses on the next 10 years; an upgraded energy system that prioritizes local energy production and distribution that is cleaner.
If elected, I'll provide direction at SMUD to develop comprehensive, neighborhood-level, green energy plans that preserve our quality of life, reduce costs, and produce locally-sourced energy. With 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, I'm dedicated to empowering communities and addressing climate change.
It's time for the next generation to step up and lead. It's time to get the greed and corruption out of politics and that begins by electing new candidates.
I am a public health professional trained in community engagement and research with energy that represents an important rising demographic group (young, professional, urban resident of a disadvantaged community as defined by CalEnviroScreen).
And many people are hungry for change, seeking the advancement of social, racial, and environmental justice. I have over 10 years of experience in non-profit management and serving on boards and commissions. I am a community leader with deep roots in the North Sacramento community and a strong local network in the region. The unique traits, skills, and talents that I possess will be beneficial as serving as the new leadership that is needed at the SMUD board for District 5.
I bring 15 years of experience in organizing community-engaged research opportunities, education, and training activities. I am committed to promoting equity and justice through a new way of engaging with communities to facilitate collaborations that lead to transformative changes, sustained inclusivity, and reengineer the sharing of power in meaningful ways that treat community leaders and residents as equal partners from the start of all efforts to create healthy communities.
My leadership skills include group facilitation, policy advocacy, program planning and evaluation. I appreciate working with diverse communities and fostering multiculturalism. I am a motivational and emerging leader vested in empowering limited-income populations, disadvantaged communities, and communities of color to foster positivity, health, and well-being.
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See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
