To Investigate Or Not – Will Elk Grove City Council Take Action? Will Whistleblower Come Forward?

In the days since the letter from an Elk Grove City employee surfaced alleging unprofessional conduct on the part of Elk Grove city manager Laura Gill and city attorney Susan Cochran, there has been a flurry of claims and counter-claims in the comment section of EGN.

On one side, several anonymous commentators claiming to be city employees have said they are working in a hostile work environment. One of the most balanced comments came yesterday from a person claiming to be an employee who admonished anonymous comments, but nonetheless said given the current state of affairs at city hall, there was little wriggle room left.

Here are the comments:

Thank you Council Member Detrick.

I am a city employee and have been watching the online discussion threads on this blog for the past several days. I feel for Ms. Gill and Ms. Cochran having to go through the attacks from anonymous bloggers. I had always been very much against anonymous blogging- and think people can be overly vicious when they are anonymous, and the blogger has little to no credibility.

With that said, I also feel for staff because we don’t have any other options to express our concerns with how business is being conducted at City Hall. If the Council Members don’t agree to an investigation, we are left with no alternatives. We are fearful of losing our jobs, so we cannot tell the City Mgr or her senior staff. We have no way of letting the council know without assurance the information will not be shared with the City Mgr—and then we would lose our jobs. I hate to say this on an online post, and contradict my philosophy on anonymous postings, but most staff thinks if you get on the City Mgr’s bad side, she finds a way to fire you.

Right now we are basically trapped and helpless with two options---- a.) be a whistleblower and risk our jobs in a horrible jobmarket, or b.) remain silent and quietly watch what we believe is flat out wrong.

Please Council Members, we are begging you to please don’t look away, and pretend you didn’t hear this. Please investigate. Otherwise you are saying you just don’t want to know the truth. There is a lot you need to know.

Through the course of this affair, several people have called on the city council to investigate the matter. So far, only council member Steve Detrick has stood up and been supportive of an investigation.

While city employees who are making these claim are certainly happy to have Detrick’s support, will they be able to count on other members?

Whether or not this matter goes forward in large part depends whether or not two other council members will take a stance along side Detrick.

Will Gary Davis, who is looking forward to bigger things, stake his future on an uncertain outcome? Will Jim Cooper, who has already been targeted and survived a recall effort and a Grand Jury investigation be more amenable to an internal investigation rather than another Grand Jury inquest? Will Pat Hume and Sophia Scherman, both part of the old time Elk Grove ‘Gang of 50’ power network be willing to rattle the cages?

If no other council member is willing to push for an investigation, it will be up to several employees to become foxhole buddies and come forward as collective whistlebowers.

If neither scenario plays out, the matter will probably die. Knowing this, the council could stonewall which would force the matter firmly into the hands of the employees.

Will emplyees come together and push to resolve the matter or just throw in their hand?

On a different note, the original letter that stirred the pot reminds us of what Upton Sinclair said about his famous book “The Jungle,” only in reverse order. Sinclair said "I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident hit its stomach."

While much focus has been rightly placed on placed employee treatment and alleged unprofessional conduct of city executives, there are other aspects of the letter that are troubling. What off the claims that the millions of dollars are being wasted on overpaid consultants and contractors?

These too needs investigation.