Elk Grove Mayor, Vice Mayor exchange political jabs during council meeting
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2018/08/steve-ly-darren-suen-exchange-blows.html
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| Elk Grove Vice Mayor Darren Suen. | |
August 23, 2018 |
Although it lasted less than a minute, during last night's city council meeting the mayor and vice mayor of Elk Grove exchanged political jabs and is an indicator of coming campaign battles. The exchange between Mayor Steve Ly, and Vice Mayor Darren Suen, who along with Tracie Stafford is challenging Ly for mayor, came in the backdrop of a day where conflicting narratives swirled in local media.
The exchange came during the consent calendar hearing, which is where routine business items for the city are placed for consideration and approval by the city council. Suen highlighted item 8.10, which included the costs associated with recruitment efforts for the city's vacant city manager position.
According to a staff report for the item, the city would allocate $30,000 for recruitment for the position. The city manager position has been open since May when the city council by a 4-1 vote, with Ly in the minority, terminated the employment of Laura Gill.
Referencing comments made in a story in yesterday's Elk Grove Citizen where Ly said the city is "going to spend several hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to recruit somebody to replace that city manager,” Suen refuted Ly's figures.
"Were approving an item for $30,000 for brokering a deal for a city manager potentially," Suen said. "So I wanted to put that on the record."
In that same Elk Grove Citizen story without naming them, Ly, who does not have the support of any of his council colleagues in his reelection bid, took a swipe at Suen and Council Member Stephanie Nguyen. Ly noted both were appointed to their positions and characterized them as uncaring toward constituents saying he has "seen that people who have been appointed to political positions don’t really have the interest of the people."
Following Suen's comments during the meeting, Ly immediately replied.
"Thank you for that comment, but again, this is taken out of context, and I'll preserve that for the campaign trail," Ly said. "Thank you, sir."
While the exchange ended quickly, earlier in the day, an open letter from Nguyen sent to media outlets took Ly to task for comments he made in another story published last week by the Elk Grove Citizen. In that story, Nguyen said Ly gave the inaccurate impression he alone was responsible for the Costco store scheduled to open next month.
Nguyen said the negotiations with Costco were a team effort with substantial input from city staff and council members Steve Detrick and Pat Hume. In her letter, Nguyen, who is being challenged by Orlando Fuentes for the District 4 seat, who is supported by Ly, concluded that "these kinds of inflationary and self-promoting statements are another example of why Mayor Ly does not have the trust of the current city council."
The exchange came during the consent calendar hearing, which is where routine business items for the city are placed for consideration and approval by the city council. Suen highlighted item 8.10, which included the costs associated with recruitment efforts for the city's vacant city manager position.
According to a staff report for the item, the city would allocate $30,000 for recruitment for the position. The city manager position has been open since May when the city council by a 4-1 vote, with Ly in the minority, terminated the employment of Laura Gill.
Referencing comments made in a story in yesterday's Elk Grove Citizen where Ly said the city is "going to spend several hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to recruit somebody to replace that city manager,” Suen refuted Ly's figures.
"Were approving an item for $30,000 for brokering a deal for a city manager potentially," Suen said. "So I wanted to put that on the record."
In that same Elk Grove Citizen story without naming them, Ly, who does not have the support of any of his council colleagues in his reelection bid, took a swipe at Suen and Council Member Stephanie Nguyen. Ly noted both were appointed to their positions and characterized them as uncaring toward constituents saying he has "seen that people who have been appointed to political positions don’t really have the interest of the people."
Following Suen's comments during the meeting, Ly immediately replied.
"Thank you for that comment, but again, this is taken out of context, and I'll preserve that for the campaign trail," Ly said. "Thank you, sir."
While the exchange ended quickly, earlier in the day, an open letter from Nguyen sent to media outlets took Ly to task for comments he made in another story published last week by the Elk Grove Citizen. In that story, Nguyen said Ly gave the inaccurate impression he alone was responsible for the Costco store scheduled to open next month.
Nguyen said the negotiations with Costco were a team effort with substantial input from city staff and council members Steve Detrick and Pat Hume. In her letter, Nguyen, who is being challenged by Orlando Fuentes for the District 4 seat, who is supported by Ly, concluded that "these kinds of inflationary and self-promoting statements are another example of why Mayor Ly does not have the trust of the current city council."
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3 comments
This is all well and good, but will the candidates step up and expose the mayor for what he is and who he is?
If they don't, they will find themselves trailing far behind the incumbent come election day.
Much of our citizenry is uninformed and sadly apathetic to local politics.
Unless, the lies and missteps are exposed in mailers, it will be more of the same.
Good evening folks and welcome to the Ghost Mall Sports Arena. The main event for tonight is a 3-round, winner take all pee-wee weight championship featuring the disputed champion Mayor Ly, versus Vice-Mayor Suen the challenger.
Ly, wearing the leafy green satin shorts and weighing in at a buck-five is fiercely competitive and hungry to retain his pee-wee belt. Suen wearing the asphalt grey cotton shorts with the P.E. logo has been waiting a long time for this title shot.
They're off and Ly lands a sharp left jab that rocks Suen back against the ropes. Ly moves in for the knockout, but Suen stings Ly with a counterpunch right hook that backs Ly into the center of the ring. They clinch and the referee breaks them apart. They dance the dance and the crowd goes wild. End of Round 1.
Round 2 and Suen races from his bench and wallops Ly with a well-engineered flurry of blows, followed with a rabbit-punch to the back of the head. The referee warns Suen's corner about dirty fighting. Suen nods in agreement but Ly has another agenda. Ly circles around and lands a pair of combinations that has Suen stunned. Down he goes. Ly's corner erupts in pandemonium, but Suen's corner has crunched the numbers and determined that Suen will come to by the count of 8. Sure enough Suen jumps up at the 8 count and shakes off the butterflies. End of Round 2.
Final round tonight folks. Between rounds, some local dignitaries were introduced. Fresh Eyes and The Innovator presented Region Builders with a Key to the City. Economic Development offered a $500,000 incentive check as a door prize to a lucky raffle winner, and Republic trash services gave an oversized recycle bin to the winner of tonight's bout.
Round 3, Ly and Suen bolt out of their respective corners and in a flurry of wild punching, they both go down!! Oh no! The referee is standing over both men and they are out cold! Wait....what's this? The referee counts to 10 and pulls off a halloween mask of his....face...wait it's a woman!!! It's Traci Stafford! She walks over to Ly's stunned corner, grabs the championship belt and the box full of Keys to the City and strolls out into the crowd....the crowd goes wild!!
Funny DJ, however if you really have been watching Ly has aligned himself with those locally running for offices associated with the far left of the Democratic Party running in a number of contests. These are folks having associates in Sacramento Democratic Party so really Ly has positioned himself for them to choose between Ly an Stafford. So you see Suen being on the outside of the noise of local Democratic politics is the one behind the mask as Ly an Stafford fight it out for the Progressive Democratic votes. My guess Ly sees his chance for a higher position he needs to be the one carrying their message from the dias. It is very clear since Suen has announced his candidacy. The real fight will be between Ly an Stafford over the Progressive Democratic votes. This will give Suen the win!
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