On Tuesday, July 24th, 2026, a hot microphone caught a candid exchange between Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty and Vice Mayor Karina Talamantes discussing whether disruptive protesters could be banned from future city council meetings. The discussion occurred after the council chambers were cleared due to repeated disruptions during a heated debate over the city's participation in the Central California Intelligence Center (CCIC).

Vice Mayor Talamantes suggested reviewing the city's rules on disruptions, saying, "We should go over this disruptions thing, because if we want to ban somebody in the future, like to take them out, we have to point out specifically…" Mayor McCarty responded, "I know, but the city attorney said we can't do that."

Talamantes appeared to realize the microphone was still live and quickly switched it off before continuing the conversation, as verified by the publicly available city council livestream reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The disruptions followed a contentious debate in which Talamantes defended accepting federal funding for the CCIC, arguing that Sacramento's sanctuary city policies and immigrant protections made it better suited to oversee the grant than other jurisdictions. Police officials disputed some claims during the meeting, stating that Sacramento does not share personal identifying information for civil immigration enforcement and complies with California's sanctuary law, SB 54.

The City of Sacramento is officially a sanctuary city. Meeting rules limit public comments to two minutes per agenda item and no more than four items per meeting to help conduct city business effectively.

Sources