Fear and Intrigue at Elk Grove City Hall

City Employees Dipping Toes in the Water


In the days following the posting of a letter addressed to the Elk Grove City Council accusing misconduct on part of city manager Laura Gill and city attorney Susan Cochran, EGN has served as a forum to many people identifying themselves as city employees.

While most of the comments have been posted anonymously, the details provided seem to verify they are city employees. If the accusations are meritorious, the city might be facing troubles on several fronts in the coming months.

Here are some of the unedited comments.



The following comment was posted on our story about Mayor Hume clarifying the role of Laura Gill had in the selection of the human reousrces consultant, Mary Egan.

I too was very honest with Mary. I put it all on the line. I was afraid I was the only one to do so, but nothing I told her surprised her, and it seemed like she had heard most of it from others too.

The Mayor's statement was very hurtful, and basically tells City workers that the Council does not care, is not listening, or Mary gave them a untruthful rosy picture of City Hall morale (which I don't think is the case). This is all very upsetting.

Some of my co-workers had not even been interviewed yet before the Council gave the city manager and attorney a vote of confidence.

Connie, I also thank you for giving me the courage to speak up and for standing up for staff. This issue has been swept under the rug for over a year, but at least now everyone (citizens, taxpayers, VOTERS, staff) are all watching and finally paying attention.

I agree with the above post. What more needs to happen? How much worse can it get? It's time to put politics aside and do what is right!!!!!

The following comments were on the same story.

The Council intends to "move forward and not mire and wallow in hearsay"? This is insanity! Do you know what would happen to me if I screamed insults and obscenities at my staff? Do you know what would happen to me if I didn't get my work done because I was playing computer games all day in my office? I guarantee that I would not get a "vote of confidence" and a 6-month opportunity to clean up my act and let it all blow over. How would Sophia react if someone spoke to her that way in front of her peers? Her Highness's head would explode. How would Pat Hume react if he met with the City Attorney and she played computer games the whole time he was talking? What does it take to make the Council take this seriously? The investigator was told about these things and much, MUCH more. The Council's response is to give the CM and CA an opportunity to become more visible and increase communication. What does that even mean? Is Laura going to plaster a phony smile on her face and scream the F-word only on special occasions? Is the City Attorney going to serve us milk and cookies? Give me a break! Trust me, NO ONE wants to see MORE of them. We just want leaders who earn their high salaries, stop treating people like dirt and are accountable for their unprofessional and unacceptable behavior. We want someone to just PLEASE acknowledge that this is really happening and not merely the rantings of a disgruntled employee. Yes, we DO like working for the City...AND there are some behavior issues with our CM and CA that need to be acknowledged and dealt with. It is possible for both of those situations to exist simultaneously, Mr. Hume. One doesn't cancel out the other.

Ms. Conley, you encouraged employees to speak up with assurances that there would be support. We spoke up to the investigator in spite of fearing for our jobs and this is the result. You are the only one supporting us. The Council is obviously not interested.

With regards to our story on the ties of the consultant, Mary Egan, hired by the city to investigate the allegations about Gill and Cochran has with disgraced former Sacramento Library Director Ann Marie Gold, one reader had this to say:

What happened to the "transparency" in government? Why not hire a firm with NO ties to EG? Any firm who has Ms. Gold on their board must be questioned about their ethics and common sense. Ms. Gold should have faced criminal prosecution for her role in the library scandal. But, instead, she is giving a 25,000 bonus to retire quietly? Why is Elk Grove so afraid to tackle the truth straight on? Face your demons; clean house; move on; learn from your mistakes. What is this current board thinking?

With a few exceptions, all the comments posted here in the past few weeks have been thoughtful and well written. Although a few have gotten personal in their postings, we will for the foreseeable future continue to allow anonymous postings as this will provide a format for city employees to communicate what exactly is going on in city hall.