OPINION - Time to fire the mayor’s aide: an unnecessary taxpayer expense, possible liability

By Michael Monasky |

Mayor Steve Ly is in the spotlight again.

Ly is either clueless about aide Ty Sorci’s behaviors, or he fully supports his actions. Those actions include: passing an automatic rifle as an award to former mayor Gary Davis; endorsing sister cityhood with a Nigerian prince (precisely five years ago, to the day) in whose province murderous thugs continue to operate the notorious, anti-West, Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram; and just this last weekend bodily forcing his way through a small group of Elk Grove residents in a legitimate, quiet protest outside the mayor’s election celebration party hosted by a private school of pharmacy seeking to build a controversially located hospital; oh, and let’s not forget the pictures he menacingly took of the children of the protesters. Sorci has past professional ties to Beale Air Force Base, known for maintaining unmanned, drone reconnaissance/attack planes, at which anti-war activists regularly demonstrate.

Mayor Ly is to Donald Trump as Ty Sorci is to National Security Advisor John Bolton, insofar as Ly and Trump are both chief executives; and Sorci and Bolton have executed disastrously failed public policies expounded by their bosses. One can only wonder what the future holds for this duo in pending embarrassments to the city.

Elk Grove’s Mayor Ly has been admonished by his city council colleagues regarding his overuse of taxpayer paid personal staff and intentions to pad his own wealth making the mayor’s office a paid position. It’s time for the mayor to abandon these power-grabbing pipe dreams; and it’s time for the council to strip him of these perks.

It’s an unanswered question why the police, who were present during this incident, did not arrest Mr. Sorci for bodily pushing his way against at least one of the protesters, and photographing their kids. Mr. Sorci should be in jail, not a city employee paid with taxpayer funds.

Bullying behavior is unacceptable, whether actively executed by Mr. Sorci, or passively by Mayor Ly through his employees. It is also disturbing that the police seem to have looked askance at Mr. Sorci’s assault and battery upon an otherwise peacefully protesting group. Are these the methods the city should utilize in a conversation with its residents over making space for a private, for-profit hospital? Compassionate and cooperative people want to know.