Despite penning guest essays in publications outside San Jose, growing his national profile, and occasionally gracing the halls of the State Capitol, Mayor Matt Mahan insists he is laser-focused on solving the problems of the nation’s 12th-largest city and not actively seeking a higher office — at least not now.

But as he pushes his “Back to Basics” agenda — centered around pillars like ending unsheltered homelessness, building more housing and improving public safety — he’s become frustrated with leadership in Sacramento and some of its dysfunction and asserts they have not yielded satisfactory outcomes, even when voters have sent clear mandates of what is most important.

This week, Mahan announced he would spearhead the formation of a new coalition of elected officials, particularly mayors, across the state in hopes of better articulating what type of partnership they expect from Sacramento to deliver results locally.

“We have to define it very clearly and hold the governor, legislature, as well as the gubernatorial candidates aspiring to lead our state, accountable for committing to policy and budget actions that will enable us to do our jobs,” Mahan said in an interview with The Mercury News. “So much of what we do at the city level is bound up in state funding and legislative action and the existing state policies and budget decisions that they make.”

San Jose and its elected leaders already use a multitude of avenues to lobby for or oppose legislation or policy initiatives, including the city’s intergovernmental relations team, government organizations like the California League of Cities, and preexisting relationships with statewide leaders, including a few who previously sat on the City Council dais.

For example, the city sponsored a bill introduced by State Sen. Dave Cortese this year and recently signed into law that allows governments to return abandoned shopping carts directly to retailers and recover the costs of retrieval.

Mahan is also a member of the California Big City Mayors coalition, a bipartisan collection of leaders from the state’s 13 largest cities, and personally advocated for the passing of Prop 36, bucking a large portion of his own party and Gov. Gavin Newsom in the process.

Mahan said that in the more than two-and-a-half-years he has served as mayor, he has honed in on specific focus areas that residents have identified as their top priorities and has learned that the state can help facilitate or act as the most significant impediment to achieving those outcomes.

Over the past year, Mahan has clashed with Newsom and legislators on public safety and homelessness issues on numerous occasions.

Mahan, along with the Big City Mayors coalition, was highly critical of them after unsuccessfully lobbying to restore the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) program. The state previously allocated $1 billion per year to the program before zeroing it out, leaving open the possibility — not a guarantee — of funding $500 million in 2026-2027. Mahan credited the program for successes not only in San Jose but also in other large cities that have seen reductions in unsheltered homelessness. He also criticized the state for delays in disbursing previously allocated funds.

Newsom’s Oct. 1 veto of Assemblymember Matt Haney’s drug-free housing bill, which would have allowed local governments to use up to 10% of state homelessness housing funds to support sober living programs, also drew disapproval from Mahan, who has advocated for more solutions to untreated addiction on the streets.

Before the bill was vetoed, Haney argued that the state should support recovery, not stand in the way of it.

“People who want recovery shouldn’t have to live next to active drug use,” Haney said. “Sober housing works because it builds a community of accountability, compassion and shared commitment to staying clean.”

A few months ago, the legislature gut a bill he helped craft with State Sen. Catherine Blakespear that required cities and counties to assume some state-designated responsibilities and to share costs related to the unsheltered homelessness crisis. Mahan had proposed that cities take the lead in building shelter, while counties focus on building treatment capacity and on their obligations to provide behavioral services. He added that the shelter burden needed to be borne by all localities, not just large cities.

But even when San Jose and the state have worked together, squabbles have emerged.

Following Thursday’s announcement that San Jose and Caltrans had entered into an agreement that would allow the city to remove encampments from pieces of state-owned land, Newsom’s office framed the news as the state helping to lower unsheltered homelessness, while also noting how it has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the city and county for solutions.

“I’m glad to see San Jose stepping up with the state to reduce unsheltered homelessness and address encampments in the city,” Newsom said in a statement. “As a former mayor myself, I get how tough local management can be — but this is what partnership looks like — the city and state rolling up their sleeves to support this community together.”

Mahan, meanwhile, took to social media to call the announcement misleading, again noting how bureaucracy has slowed progress and that the city was “literally taking over the maintenance of state land because they can’t do it.” The governor’s press office retorted: “There’s no drama here, as much as the mayor seems to want to create one.”

Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Mahan’s coalition or the group’s intent.

While the city has many tools it can use to lobby the legislature, Mahan said the new coalition is not looking to replace any of them but to create a new vehicle for like-minded leaders to present a unified front. He noted that the Big City Mayors coalition will endorse or advocate only for items unanimously supported by all 13 representatives.

“If you want to change the status quo, you’ve got to go organize a coalition of people who see the possibility for a better future and who are willing to hold elected officials accountable for doing things differently,” Mahan said.

A new coalition could also influence the platforms of gubernatorial candidates, who, he said, would likely reach out to the mayors of the largest cities. Mahan indicated he has already spoken to five candidates in the heavily crowded field.

“This is our moment of leverage as mayors and we need to use it,” Mahan said.