More Than 3 Minutes & Elk Grove News Podcast - Recap of Elk Grove City Council's scantly publicized biennial retreat meeting
On Friday, March 10, the Elk Grove City Council held its biennial retreat meeting. Several city staff members, Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen, and...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2023/03/more-than-3-minutes-elk-grove-news.html
On Friday, March 10, the Elk Grove City Council held its biennial retreat meeting. Several city staff members, Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen, and her four councilmen had an all-day meeting.
Even though the city complied with meeting notification requirements, it was not well publicized.
They did the bare minimum.
On this joint edition of Elk Grove News podcasts and Lynn Wheat’s More Than Three Minutes, we chat with Lynn about her observations of that meeting.
Listen Time 14 Minutes
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2 comments
Lynn's comments were telling of this mayor's distain for public input. Having the staff set up the room so that the public is at the back of the council is completely juvenile and petty. The mayor is acting like a fourth grader. Really,? You can't face the public during your meeting?
Secondarily, according to Lynn's comments EVERY SINGLE council member believes the zoo park is a more important issue than homelessness, housing affordability and public safety? Those were the three issues the PUBLIC wanted these Measure E funds to address. This confirms that those public meetings were just for show, the council totally ignored what the citizens considered as most important to improve the city.
Instead the zoo park was the main concern of EVERY MEMEBER? This zoo park will bankrupt this city and the Mello Roos taxpayers will get stung every single election cycle with increased taxes to fund it. It's just not right. There needs to be private funding for the zoo to move forward.
Thirdly, and what I find most troubling is the mayor believes the entire council needs to vote in agreement over all issues before the council, to show a unified front. How is that a democracy? Every member of the that council needs to be able to freely state their concerns or issues to every project, to vote as their education, wisdom and heart dictate, not fall in line with the mayor's point of view. We elected these persons to use their minds, to think freely, independently and without threat or perception of fear or bias, implied or express. How dare the mayor ask these elected members to fall into place behind her. It's a total afront to American governmental principles. (Yeah, I know it's all going to hell, anyway).
Lastly, let me add that I'm not really surprised but greatly disappointed that the mayor did not put any applicant on the Measure E oversite committee that had any auditing, bookkeeping, or accounting background which several applicants had and which the applicaction sought as a preferred qualification. It tells me she's planning on subverting these tax dollars for HER need, HER pet projects and hiding the expenditures under vague labels of "public benefit." It seems like it's time to clear out city hall and find a new group of committed citizens who really will look out for the best interests of our city, starting with a new mayor.
Thanks to Lynn Wheat for staring at the back of their heads for 6 hours so we could gain some insight into "transparent" City Hall. If you search the city web site long and hard, you can find a garbled audio recording of the retreat meeting.
I thought I was going to need some kind of sophisticated voice decoder to decipher the recording, but I understand the City Manager said that staffing will need to increase 30% over the next 10 years! Why is that?
According to the City's population projections in the General Plan update EIR of 2019, the annual population growth rate over the next 15 years will only be 0.9%. What is the reason for a 30% staffing increase?
Could it be that the "zoological park" will be incorporated into the City/CSD's park program and all the zoo employees will be City employees? If I were a resident living in the Laguna Ridge/SEPA park maintenance tax assessment district, I'd be concerned about the long-term cost of this bottomless pit!
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