If Hume runs for Sacramento County Supervisor, on at least one issue he can say 'I told you so'

Elk Grove City Councilmember Pat Hume. | 

As reported yesterday, tomorrow night could be the date entered on the death certificate of Elk Grove's soccer dreams, or at least at its most recently proposed site. When they meet tomorrow night, the Elk Grove City Council is expected to approve plans to "repurpose" about two-thirds of the 99-acre taxpayers-owned property along Grant Line Road for a part warehouse.

While the soccer site has experienced a long, slow death, there was one event in the summer of 2014 when at least two council members tried to hasten its demise. That effort was led by District 2 Councilmember Pat Hume.

During the June 11, 2014 city council meeting, Hume led then city manager Laura Gill through a script to shelve the plans for the soccer stadium. Supporting Hume was former District 4 Councilmember Bob Trigg. 

It was just one year earlier all five city councilmembers, to the sound of great applause from soccer parents and their kids in the standing-room-only council chambers, unanimously decided to hook up with former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez in pursuit of the stadium for an expansion franchise team in Major League Soccer and ancillary athletic facilities.  

At the heart of the discussion that evening was whether or not to split with Núñez. Hume, Trigg, and initially former District 3 Councilmember Steve Detrick supported the idea. If she did not have the support of at least three council members, it is unlikely Gill would have taken that stance during a public meeting (see video below).

Supporting the $120 million soccer stadium was former Mayor Gary Davis and former District 1 City Councilmember Jim Cooper. For reasons that have never been fully explained - perhaps it was a text during the meeting from Núñez, who was in the audience that evening - Detrick flipped and joined Davis and Cooper. 

Even though Hume's effort failed, negotiations proceeded, and several weeks later, the city purchased the 99-acre site on Grant Line. Is it possible Hume knew the soccer field scheme was so far out there that any land purchased near Grant Line would eventually be "repurposed," and that since it lay outside city limits, it would present an opportunity for the annexation of several parcels owned by old-line Elk Grove families who could make a tighty profit?

Regardless, going back almost seven years now, Hume was proven correct as the soccer dream experiences an inglorious death. Although it is unlikely in a race for Sacramento County Supervisor between Hume and Davis, this topic would ever surface as a campaign issue, but if it did, Hume could say "I told you so." 

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