Video - Davis Backtracks From His and Ly's Campaign Promise of Elk Grove Jobs

December 15, 2014 | If there was one promise made over and again in Steve Ly's successful campaign for the Elk Grove City Council...

December 15, 2014 |

If there was one promise made over and again in Steve Ly's successful campaign for the Elk Grove City Council's District 4 seat, it was to bring quality jobs to Elk Grove.

In numerous mailers, Ly frequently featured his political Godfather, Mayor Gary Davis, who said Ly was needed on the council to help the Mayor bring jobs to Elk Grove.

In one mailer, Davis was quoted saying "Throughout his sixteen years in Elk Grove, Steve Ly  has proven he is the type of partner I need at City Hall. Steve will word hard to help me recruit new businesses to Elk Grove."

Another mailer-letter quoted the Mayor, in slightly less strident tones, saying "Throughout his sixteen years in Elk Grove, Steve Ly has proven his ability to get results. His dedication is what we need at City Hall to help recruit new jobs to our city." [bold their emphasis.]

And finally, in a baseball trading card-type promotional piece featuring teacher Davis, and pupil Ly, yet again quotes the Mayor saying "Steve Ly is the partner we need to strengthen neighborhoods and bring new jobs to Elk Grove."

Clearly, Davis and Ly were conjoined during the campaign making the job-development promise a keystone of their platforms. In all sincerity, we hope the mentor and his protege are successful in fulfilling their promise.

To that end, readers may have noticed a clock installed on the site showing the approximate elapsed time since Davis and Ly were sworn-in last Wednesday. Since the duo made the jobs promise, we thought what better way to monitor their progress in this lofty goal that to see how long it will take them.

The clock will stop when Davis and Ly can verify their efforts alone brought a major employer (at least 50, private sector, non-retail, living-wage jobs) that were recruited free of economic incentives such as those given to the California Prison Health Authority. Of course, we will gladly announce Ly and Davis' conquest should it materialize and make a modest contribution in their names to a charity of their choice. 

Interestingly, from the time this clock was conceived and installed over two weeks ago and last Wednesday's city council swearing-in ceremony, the Mayor has seemingly backtracked on this promise.       

After he and Ly had been sworn-in, Davis said his priorities for 2015 would be infrastructure improvement and bringing in Regional Transit Light Rail to Elk Grove. 

"As I look to 2015, it's the year of infrastructure," he said. See video below. 

While both are worthy endeavors, why the sudden shift for the Mayor away from recruiting jobs? Could the Mayor have found Jesus and taken to heart concerns expressed by Elk Grove Public Works Director Richard Shepard about the city's poorly maintained roads?

Or could it be, now that the campaign is over, and Davis has his protege on the council, he is backtracking on a promise that he knows is damn hard for he and Ly to accomplish? 

Whatever the case might be, we will keep the clock ticking and see if and when Davis and Ly fulfill their lofty goal. We wish them well in this endeavor.

As for Ly, the novice council member would be wise to break immediately free of the Mayor, be his own man, or risk being perceived as nothing but a kowtowing Davis servant.  


Post a Comment Default Comments

20 comments

Laguna Pete said...

We need to start holding our electeds accountable for their performance (or lack thereof). They've had free reign for too long with almost no one watching and trying to keep them "laser focused" on our real issues.

Good idea Dan.

Ok Mr. Ly, Mr. Mayor; show us the jobs!!

Tick Tock said...

Gary Davis made some critical mistakes in the last election that will come back to haunt him in 2016. He put all of his political eggs in Steve Ly’s basket with his “partner I need” comment. I venture to guess that people will soon see that Ly is not the answer and Davis will be held responsible in 2016. Two years is not a long time until the next mayoral election and campaigning begins in mid 2015.

Keep that clock ticking EGN; it may also count down the downfall of Mayor Gary Davis’ political career!

Fool us once, fool us twice and it's time to go said...

Davis needs to go back to school and learn how to count. It takes 3 votes Mr. Mayor. Not smart on your part in excluding the other 3 gentlemen sitting on the dias. Not sure about Suen, but we all know that Detrick and Hume have pretty robust egos. I wonder how they feel about Davis' "partner I need" campaign comments. But what the heck, we all know Davis will say and do whatever he needs in order to get what he wants.....and what Mr. Mayor wants is anything that will benefit him.

Warren Buffett said...

I noticed when Obama met with business leaders a couple weeks ago, he said infrastructure was going to be his priority for the next two years--no surprise then that Davis probably believes federal money may come flowing down the "pipeline" to the local level.

When Davis first ran for Council, climate change and global warming was the big issue for Obama and EG cashed in on a climate action plan.

No brainer here--follow the free money, or should I say taxpayers money, then get some bragging rights and sound bites in when you bring home the bacon!

Infrastructure is the new buzzword--also watch for a new sales tax push for infrastructure, county-wide or locally. Watch you wallets!!!!

Anonymous said...

I define Mayor Davis as a weak and indecisive leader. He wakes up in a new world every morning and our councilmembers should put him on notice that Elk Grove is just not about HIM.

I believe you're right
Mr. Buffett..."watch your wallets" should be the taxpayers buzzword.

Anonymous said...

We need a Mayor to do more than stand tall behind a shield of smokes and mirrors and easy-to-remember catchphrases, they need to have an impact that’s quantifiable and broad-based. That should also apply to our other councilpersons as well. We are a small suburb with limited resources and they should be used with fiscal responsibility at the forefront. No more Texas big talk...put your money where your mouth is. We had to do the kids Christmas movie Saturday evening in a parking lot on some million dollar property the city purchased. Something just seems wrong with that....

Lynn said...

I hope that Mayor Davis really does push to bring light rail to town! Former Councilmember Cooper once commented he would be dead before light rail came into our city and beyond Cosumnes College. Cooper kept saying it was too expensive...I kept responding it is too expensive not to, and this came to be when many state workers packed the chambers because they were losing their bus route downtown. Mayor Davis may be unaware of this; leaders push here in town has been "rapid bus". Elk Grove has not been a regional player politically in transportation.
We as a city have not been business friendly; lowering developer fees accomplished nothing but the promise of more homes and no money to pay for infrastructure....who will pay for this?

Connie said...

Vice Mayor Pat Hume is our city's representative on RT. He should be the one to ask about the specifics on light rail coming to Elk Grove.

Anonymous said...

Now why would we ask Hume anything about light rail. Several years ago it was brought forward that Sac RT owed EG several $100,000. $600,000 is the figure that comes to mind. Hume said he would continue to follow up with Sac RT and make sure EG received the money owed. That was the last heard.

Where's the money Hume?

Just more ineffective leadership and empty promises on the part of the council.

Connie said...

Anon at 21:44

You are correct, Pat Hume said he would keep on it to ensure "we" got our money back. And I also believe that the amount was $600,000. That is a a significant amount of money and "we" should know if "we" got it back. And if not, why not.

My point being, all matters relating to RT should be address to Hume, and he, in turn, should report out during Council Comments/Reports.

Accountability isn't reserved for just a few, all five need to be held, as Hume is famous for saying, "Their feet to the fire!"

SteveB6509 said...

I agree about holding our elected folks accountable for their words. However, EGN's definition of bringing jobs to town is rather infantile. Nobody in modern society (well, since Willie Brown) can bring jobs to town on his own and I would be scared if a politician claimed that. However, they can be part of a team to bring jobs to town. The clock feels like more of an ego boost for EGN - let's end it.

Lynn said...

SteveB6509....

Politicians have claimed that...think Correctional jobs with a hefty incentive....think former Councilmember Leary with his political ad bragging about bringing some 5,000 jobs....

EGN is holding the politicians accountable....hmmm what a concept.

Elk Grove leaders can not bring jobs even as a "team". The jobs that have arrived came with incentives from within our region....not new jobs!

Elk Grove leaders do not seem to be able to work with other leaders in the region to bring jobs.
Elk Grove leaders have hired paper pushers for developers...Yep I am saying it....more often than not at council meetings....Staff reports offer no firm suggestions or recommendations; instead "Looking for direction from council". Where does this direction come from; Our council's good friend the developers. Blast me for my opinion...I am ready! If my comments have no basis than most certainly you will let me know.

Here is one of my impossible ideas;
Leatherby Ice Cream is well known. Our old town needs some help. For our family friendly city and newly purchased old town property....Leatherby would have been great as an addition to old town in the former brewery. Yes, with the brewing equipment removed....space, some out door seating, the city leased parking lot...the 25,000 offered in advertising money....I think leaders could have sold the Leatherby family on this idea. Instead it is located in another area with an old town mural painted inside. I know there are a million reasons this could not have been successful....I heard the excuses!

EGN keep the clock!

SteveB6509 said...

I'm the last person to say the Council knows what they are doing. And yes, developers (interested in short-term profits) have screwed our city over BECAUSE the City Council has allowed them to. I am not mad at Developers, I am mad at the Cirty.

Darren Suen's "build more houses for jobs" line is just like all the screw-ups from the past so hopefully he can get some brains and realize that is not how to bring jobs here (sorry for the frank language but we've heard that line before). Geez - I never thought I would want Dan Briggs back.

My only complaint was with EGN's definition on the clock.

Capt. Benjamin Willard said...

Mr. Steve B6509, While the clock might be self-absorbed on the part of Mr. Gougherty, he has nonetheless devised a valid monitoring device. Mr. Davis and Mr. Ly promised to bring jobs to Elk Grove, so let's monitor how long it takes them to accomplish the task. Any leader worth his or her salt will gladly accept the challenge and be held to account. Unless of course, they are not true leaders.

Eastside Betty said...

Let the clock run. This town has gone to hell with poor planning and our council members allowing developers who don't live here to rule on what gets built here. Rezones, overlays, and general plan amendments changing constantly any assemblance of well thought out future planning.

Ly ran almost exclusively on the promise to bring new jobs to EG. Davis supports and also believes they can do this.

Time to put up or shut up.

Davis, you got your guy, let's see what you and Ly can do other than approve strip malls, minimum wage jobs and tons of more housing, requiring more low-low income housing which leads to higher crime rates.

Please prove the naysayers wrong. Prove me wrong. I truly hope you can, but your track record leaves me skeptical.

SteveB6509 said...

Don't get me wrong - I agree that those days, the Council is not good for much more than having a mutual masturbation session (forgive my crudity but it's the only phrase that came to mind). However, I want to see these criteria applied to all the Council members, not just these two. If you apply this to these two, they will claim they wanted to and the rest of the council was the problem. Apply it to the entire Council and make them show some results without the froth of fake projects that are planned and either will not happen or are worthless.

My apologies - too much work and not enough sleep means I don't care about the phrasing I am using these days.

Anonymous said...

Build a better community and the jobs will follow. Why would a business owner want to live in a 4,000sq/ft home on a 8,000sq/ft lot? These are sold as "Executive Housing" and zoned "Estate Residential". These are more like "mid-level manager for the state residential." Go see the high end homes in Folsom, Granite Bay, or EDH if you want to see where business owners live (and the city of Elk Grove’s executive staff).

Anonymous said...

SteveB6509...phrasing maybe not the best, but I get the point. That being said, it was Mr. Ly's with the heavy endorsement of our Mayor that pushed those job buttons. So keep the clock.

We have so many projects in the works that even I have lost track of what they are. It seems once a month we come up with another one...think the Animal Shelter is next, plus finishing the "swimming pool" project. Of course we still have that $6M dollar land to deal with, but have to wait until they harvest the $1,000. hay crop first. Darn, we have some financial wizards on our council. Easy to spend other peoples monies though and have a smile on your face all the way home.

Ed Sullivan said...

Republicans with their politico-economic philosophy advocate for the avoidance of deficit spending, the reduction of overall government spending and debt, and ensuring balanced budgets. Fiscal conservatives also support pay-as-you-go financial policies and are staunch fiscal conservatives about spending government money, or do they?

Hume and Detrick are Republicans but they are promising to spend money the city doesn't have. It sounds like they are getting in line with Davis to turn our city into a highly indebted one with all this future spending mentioned above. Why is that?

It is Government 101 that a city with a large amount of debt damages its growth. Unless, of course, the council is buying into the notion that with high levels of debt that could be on the horizon, they are counting on robust growth to ensure sustainability; meaning more rooftops in the SEPA and the SOI. Therefore establishing the rationale as to the why.

It was also very disingenuous to play to the large emotional-charged crowd at the last council meeting voting to approve the Veterans’ Hall knowing full well that there isn’t 2.3 million dollars in the bank.

And don’t think for one minute that wasn't orchestrated, to have the Veterans’ Hall and the Senior Center agenda items the same night as the swearing in right before the holidays so that Davis and the rest could put on a really big show!

Let’s see what the city council does when the agenda items come back and they have to tell these same people, “Sorry we got your hopes up, but there isn’t any money to build either project; unless of course, we pass revenue bonds.” Here comes the debt and here comes the rooftops!

And SteveB, you hit the nail on the head about what this council’s overall mentality is. Sad but true!

Anonymous said...

I always think of the Mayors "State of the City Speech" in March, 2014 when he said...........

"This rope here, I use this rope with my children on our farm in Sheldon. This rope is really simple actually, but useful and strong. Some might say that, after the Great Recession, we were close to being at the end of our rope as a nation. But a simple piece of rope is also kind of amazing: none of the individual strands that make up the rope could do what the whole rope does—the strands would be too weak, and they would break under the strain. But when you weave them together, the different strands in the rope don’t only fail to break, they make each other stronger. The city of Elk Grove is like this piece of rope in that the accomplishments we have made over the last few years have come from working together, and in working together, we are stronger than working alone."

Well, how's that rope looking now? Stronger or strands blowing in the wind?

Follow Us

Popular

Archives

Elk Grove News Minute






All previous Elk Grove News Minutes, interviews, and Dan Schmitt's Ya' Gotta be Schmittin' Me podcasts are now available on iTunes

Elk Grove News Podcast




item