MV Transit Donates $13,500 To Three Elk Grove City Council Members
Detrick leads fundraising; Scherman has no activity MV Transit, the operator of Elk Grove’s e-Tran bus system, gave cash contributions t...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2009/08/mv-transit-donates-13500-to-three-elk.html
Detrick leads fundraising; Scherman has no activity
MV Transit, the operator of Elk Grove’s e-Tran bus system, gave cash contributions totaling $13,500 to three city council members during the first half of 2009.
MV contributed $5,000 each to Mayor Pat Hume and council member Jim Cooper and $3,500to council member Steve Detrick; council members Gary Davis and Sophia Scherman did not receive any cash from MV.
As the operator of the city’s bus system, MV had been criticized by riders for a variety of reasons ranging from equipment breakdowns to broken air conditioning systems during summer months.
In May the city council unanimously voted to reward a five year contract to MV over Veolia Transportation Service. City transit manager Tiffani Fink had recommended Veolia over MV even though their bid was $1 million more than MV’s..
Fink said that even though the bid was higher, the analysis showed it to be a better value of the course of the contract. Leading the charge to retain MV was council member Cooper.
Other council member filing showed that Steve Detrick lead all council members by raising $33,480. Detrick’s largest contribution was from the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 447 for $10,000.
Council member Gary Davis raised the second most bringing in $18,800 with the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 447 contributing $5,000.
Mayor Pat Hume raised $12,950 with the largest contribution coming from MV. Council member Cooper raised $9,700 with $5,000 coming from MV.
Council member Scherman, a normally prolific fundraiser, did not receive any cash contributions during the filing period.
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It is kind of a shame because perception is everything, but in my opinion, I do believe the council made the right decision on the MV Transporation vote.
If you read the staff report and staff recommendations, along with presentation itself, and then listened to council deliberation an argument could be made the report was skewed very much favor of Veoila and that seemed to weigh heavy on the council's decision.
As a reminder, the ten million dollars in dead buses in the E-Tran graveyard is "our" fault.
MV advised us not to buy them. The city is suing but don't look for us to get any of that money back.
And with the next year's budget now down another 1.5 million, we sure could use could it.
Sophia Scherman got hers before the election, $5,000 as well.
Actually MV gave Gary Davis' Congressional Campaign Account in the amount of $5,000.
Gary also received $2400 for Leary BFF Gyan Kalwani. Interestingly, Craig Nagler and William Niemi each gave Gary Davis $2,000 each. These are the South of Kammerer developers. I guess they are hedging their bets that Gary loses Congressional primary and want to remain on his good side when he returns to City Council. There is no other reason for MV and the developers to donate in a Congressional race that has no impact on their business.
MV certainly has a lot of money to spend.
Detrick received $500 from Michelle Smira, the political consultant that worked on Leary's Re-election Campaign. Is this her attempt to make nice? Nice to know there is a price tag on everything.
I think it is inappropriate for MV to be spending so much money. What are they hoping to buy? Why isn't the Davis contribution reflected on the Grandtotal from this topic. It should read
"MV Donates Nearly $20,000 to City Council members- WHY?
Cooper is running for Sheriff officially per today's Sacbee- let his war chest grow. Wonder if this group will contribute to his Sheriff's account.
Maybe Smira can run Cooper's campaign. Just read it on SacBee. That race will be dirty and we all know it.
How about Mrs. Citizen of the Year... they made a mint off of the sale of the land for the Mall....
It sure is too bad those hybrid buses didn't work out. Keep in mind as we migrate towards a smart grid, towards all electric vehicles, there will be hundreds of similar "green" experiments that will have to fail until we arrive at solutions that work. And they will all cost dearly.
Detrick if I remember had to raise $150,000 to get installed as a city council member. Someone opposed to a Super WalMart near his home, but willing to site two elsewheres...truthfully, he has no other choice. He wants to bring jobs to Elk Grove, but all he's bringing are $11/hour big box retail associates, and two <120,000 sq ft WalMarts miles away are clearly better than one >200,000 sq ft outlet near his home.
Raising that sort of money to stay installed requires external contributions and those have to be paid back...through contract decisions, through pro-development votes, what have you...I fully expect all future council members to bankroll contributions from pro-South Kammerer developers; otherwise, they couldn't afford to be council members.
We can be assured that Elk Grove will remain and will continue to develop as nothing more than strip retail and suburban sprawl for the next five decades because of this.
Money talks.
I agree with Connie. They say perception is reality and somebody is really trying to stir the pot here.
I perceive the one in the chef hat and apron is Tiffani Fink since she was blasted by the council at the meeting when they chose MV over Veolia.
Awww, the poor baby lost the war she tried to wage and now she's having tantrums and throwing dirt.
And these my friends are the types of immature people running our City.
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