Governing reported that "Cabaldon’s approach to leadership has meant that West Sacramento is often at the surprising forefront of municipal policy and experimentation. When he speaks, his big-city peers usually do pay attention. 'When you see his hand go up,' says Tom Cochran, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 'you get off your device, you quit your Googling and you listen.'” His initiatives for "repairing roads and trails, reducing homelessness, creating new educational and career paths for residents, and — ultimately — building a place where people can and want to live" were, according to StateScoop, "already are making West Sacramento’s suite of projects uncommonly well-rounded, innovative and ambitious for a city government — particularly for a municipality of just 50,000 people."