Part II - Lots of Talk on Public Outreach, Little Action by Charter Commission

1/6/2009


Orrock reported that he would make presentation to the Elk Grove Youth Commission. He also reported he spoke with Susan McDonald of the Franklin Reserve and would attempt to schedule a combined meeting with other neighborhood associations.

Allen reported he attended the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce Economic Development open house and in February, 2009 and that he would provide an update to the Building Industry Association.

2/3/2009
Kristy Day with The Hoyt Company reminded commissioners to turn in sign-in sheets from group meetings they had attended. Day also recommended that March 24, 2009 be set aside for a special outreach meeting.

2/17/2009
Approved a $500 grant to the Elk Grove Community Connection to help implement and coordinate a special public outreach meeting on March 24, 2009.

Rambo reported he met with Elk Grove Police Chief Robert Lehner regarding the charter. He also reported he met with the Lions Club of Laguna Creek and heard positive feedback about the charter.

3/3/2009
Rambo reported he spoke with Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and People Advocate regarding their perspective on issues that should be addressed in the charter.

3/3/2009
No reported public outreach.

3/24/2009
Special meeting conducted solely for public outreach. Meeting coordinated by the Elk Grove Community Connection. Meetings included live polling exercise with audience.

4/7/2009
Meeting cancelled.

4/21/2009
Rambo said citizens “had expressed concern to him about the general amount of money being taken by government though Mello-Roos type fees.”

Commission discussed possible six month extension with The Hoyt Company for outreach.

Orrock reported he and Loveland would attend April 22, 2009 meeting of South County Concerned Citizens Coalition. Rambo said he would also try to attend.

5/5/2009
Orrock reported that he and Loveland attended South County Concerned Citizen Coalition meeting and said “Carpenters in Action” were the key speakers and were opposed to charter.

Sendajas-Lopez reported she attended the Elk Grove Newcomers meeting. The 25 people in attendance expressed concern over cost of charter.

5/19/2009
Allen said the next four months “could be devoted to public outreach.”

6/2/2009
No reported public outreach.

6/16/2009
Allen reported he would make power point presentation on commissions’ progress at city council meeting.

Sendajas-Lopez reported the commission would participate in Elk Grove Unified School District’s Constitution Day.

7/7, 7/21, 8/18 and 9/1/2009 meetings cancelled

9/15/2009
Commission discussed feedback from city council. City council directed commission that its focus from September to December 2009 should be for “implementation of public outreach plan on draft charter and to receive input on issues within charter.”

Kristy Day with The Hoyt Company distributed and reviewed a two page document regarding public education activities.

Rambo suggested a speaker series be arranged where experts on particular charter topics present information and answer questions. He also suggested three special meetings be scheduled each covering a specific topic and that commissioner give brief presentations to area high school students.

Allen reported he had scheduled six meetings with various groups to discuss he charter. He urged other commissioners to do the same.

Janet Toppenberg of the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce offered to host special meetings to address business concerns regarding the charter.

9/28/2009
Vicki Grenz of The Hoyt Company presented a three page document outlining proposed education and awareness plan. The document includes plans for two large events and development of “talking points.”

Allen said he had meetings scheduled with the California Chamber of Commerce, the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce, the BIA, Laguna Sunrise Rotary Club and would be guest speaker at the October 14 meeting being held by the Elk Grove Community Connection.

Orrock said he would be speaking the Cosumnes California Republican Assembly, the Elk Grove Republican Club, Elk Grove Rotary, Fallbrook Neighborhood Association, Franklin Reserve Homeowners Association, and the BIA Executive Board.

Johnson said he would be speaking at the Laguna Sunrise Rotary Club.

Sendajas-Lopez said she would speak at the Newcomers Club, Elk Grove Senior Center, Soroptimist, and the Stonelake, Laguna West, Lakeside and Heritage Lakeside Homeowners Associations.

Rambo said he would speak to the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce, Sac Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Sungrove Community Church Board of Elders.

10/6/2009
Sendajas-Lopez reported she and Loveland had not finalized meetings with homeowners associations.

Rambo reported that due to his workload he had not been able to devote as much time as he would have liked to on public outreach. He said he had communicated via phone to several community leaders.

Allen, Johnson and Rambo said they would attend October 29 meeting being sponsored by the Elk Grove Community Connection.

Allen said he would attend Laguna Sunrise Rotary and North State Building Association meetings. He also reported he and Orrock had attended meeting with local business leaders regarding the charter topic of prevailing wages.

Commission discussed public outreach to be conducted by The Hoyt Company.

10/20/2009
Vicki Grenz of the Hoyt Company distributed outreach contact report.

Rambo suggested formation of sub-committee to develop a public outreach strategy. He also said the Hoyt Company “promised to raise visibility of charter to a significantly higher level and felt it had not been accomplished.”

Allen said Rambo suggested sub-committee would be responsible “for the messaging and approval of outreach material.” Allen, Rambo and Johnson would serve on sub-committee.

Allen reported he attended BIA meeting with Mayor Pat Hume, Council Member Steve Detrick and Johnson and that a second meeting was scheduled in December. He and Johnson attended a Rotary meeting. He noted that evening Johnson and Martin were attending the Fallbrook Homeowners Association.

Sendajas-Lopez reported that she and Loveland would be meeting with Soroptomists on November 6, 2009 and the Newcomers Club on November 18.

Loveland reported he had contacted Lakeside Homeowners Association and is coordinating meetings with the associations for Laguna West and Heritage Lakeside.

11/3/2009
Rambo reported the he, Allen, Johnson and Vicki Grenz of The Hoyt Company met to discuss an outreach.

Grenz distributed documents including charter survey form, outreach proposal and meeting matrix.

Sendajas-Lopez suggested local newspapers be used more effectively.

Johnson reported he and Martin had attended Fallbrook Homeowners Association meeting and the Laguna Sunrise Rotary meeting with Allen.

11/17 and 12/1/2009 meetings cancelled

12/7/2009
Rambo reported that sub-committee had been meeting periodically with Grenz from The Hoyt Company to develop

Grenz distributed documents including a charter telephone survey questionnaire, webpage update for community meetings and charter timeline update.

Commission discussed various ways of communicating with the public.

12/15/09
Vicki Grenz of The Hoyt Company reported city council would was not supportive of another telephone survey.

Rambo said city council has shortened the timeline available to the commission by five months and that action hurt public outreach efforts.

12/30.2009
Meeting cancelled, no quorum.

After reviewing the charter commission meeting minutes there are several lingering questions that will probably go unanswered, nonetheless:

- What exactly did The Hoyt Company accomplish with taxpayers money? Were they hampered by the city council, charter commission or just incompetent?

- Why so many duplicate meetings? Sendajas-Lopez reported multiple meeting with the Elk Grove Newcomers Club; Allen reported several meeting with the BIA and the Rotary; Orrock met with several Republican groups. Were these real outreach efforts or organizations that commissioners happened to belong to?

- Why so many public outreach reporting inconsistencies? For example, Rambo reported at the March 3, 2009 meeting that he met with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation and People Advocates but they did not show up the meeting matrix developed by The Hoyt Company. Several meetings commissioners said they would attend were not properly documented on the meeting matrix.

- If the outreach efforts and the work done by the commissioners was not politically motivated, as some commissioners claim, why the focus on squelching prevailing wages? Why no outreach to Democrat organizations, labor organizations or culturally diverse organizations?

- Why so many sub-committees comprised of Allen, Johnson and Rambo? Were they pushing an agenda or were the other members uninvolved?