Scherman Calls Out Davis On Prison Health Deal in EG Mayoral Debate

Scherman implies Davis taking credit for work by publisher of Elk Grove Citizen During yesterday's Elk Grove mayoral debate Elk Grove...

Scherman implies Davis taking credit for work by publisher of Elk Grove Citizen

During yesterday's Elk Grove mayoral debate Elk Grove City Council Member and mayoral candidate Sophia Scherman blasted her council colleague and electoral opponent Gary Davis saying the original idea for seeking the California State Prison Health Authority to locate in Elk Grove was someone other than Davis.

The debate was held at the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors chambers in downtown Sacramento and was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Sacramento County. Five of the six candidates participated with Jerry Braxmeyer not in attendance.

Scherman, an original member of the city council whose district has been drawn out of existence following reapportionment and the establishment of the city's directly elected mayor hammered Davis implying he is taking credit for attracting the 1,500 jobs when she states it was Roy Herburger of Herburger Publications who originally sought the authority to locate in Elk Grove. Herburger publishes the Elk Grove Citizen and one of the panelist on this debate was their reporter, Bryan Gold.

"Regarding the cold call to get the state agency to come to Elk Grove, that cold call was made by our publisher of the Elk Grove Citizen longer than four years ago," Scherman said without specifically naming Roy Herburger. "He put it into the newspaper that he was talking to to the corrections department. So it not something that just came up all of a sudden."

Scherman went on to say that "He [Herburger] was working on it very diligently because I know because I was part of that plan and so was Mr. Pappas."

The comment came following a question regarding the city's budget where Davis cited the city's balanced budget and proceeded cite his recent sole dissenting vote that approved a pay raise for council members and claimed that he started working four years ago to bring the prison health jobs to Elk Grove.

"When I cold called the director of that department I began a long term relationship with him in order to urge them to consider Elk Grove as a location," Davis said. Davis did not have an opportunity to respond to Scherman's assertion during the debate.

Scherman along with candidate Lynn Wheat both questioned the wisdom of using city funds to offer $3.2 million in incentives to the prison health authority and developer Louie Pappas.

Not long after the city formally announced the location of the prison authority jobs to Elk Grove, Scherman noted Herburger's importance in the bringing the department to Elk Grove during a city council meeting. (See video of Scherman's comments here.)

Davis, the presumed front runner who has amassed over $100,000 in contributions as of June 30, primarily from residential building interests and labor unions, has been targeted by both Scherman and Wheat on a variety of issues including their collective opposition to Davis' stance on the sphere of influence (SOI) application that seeks to annex 8,000 acres of farmland.

Wheat, a longtime smart growth advocate has repeatedly criticized Davis and the city council's position on the city's SOI application and his contributions from residential real estate developers. Davis has continually asserted that the 8,000-acres are needed to attract employers to correct the city's widely acknowledged homes to job imbalance.

Following Wheat's entrance into the race, Davis recently told the Sacramento Bee editorial board that he is now willing to scale back the SOI. Davis received the Bee's endorsement characterizing Davis the best of a "so-so" field and has been recently criticized as a flip-flopper.

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13 comments

Amused in Paradise said...

Seems like Gray...I mean Gary... Davis is our local flim flam man full of half-truths. Twice tried to scale back the SOI?? You mean in the beginning when it went practically went to Galt and had a snowball's chance in summer of surviving, or when the Wilton Action Group practically rode horseback and threatened a revolution on the front steps of City Hall with the local TV stations filming if the floodplain was not removed? Naw, this one doesn't pass the smell test either. I didn't see anyone on the Council try to scale back the checks written for almost a million tax dollars to the high paid consultants. Help me, I'm confused....

And what are we to think of the voter's pamphlet that list his occupation as "civic entrepreneur". HUH??? I thought it was "paid lobbyist to promote education reform, i.e. charter schools for the elite using taxpayers dollars.

I'm not one of Wheat's followers or any other Council candidate (yet). Just an amused spectator is all...

Paul Harvey said...

These posts need to start going through the political propaganda lie detector test.

Herburger wrote a column about the need for the Department of Corrections to come to Elk Grove. Davis reached out to the Federal Receiver's Office, which resulted in CA Prison Healthcare locating in Elk Grove. These are different entities. Scherman is giving Herburger credit for wanting something - which still hasn't happened. The Department of Corrections is still not in Elk Grove. CA Prison Healthcare is.

Want to talk flip flops, Scherman voted for the larger SOI area and is now opposed to it.

Davis worked with Wilton residents to scale back the SOI - ask them. Scherman voted against this. This is the second time he led the charge to actually revise the SOI area - successfully.

Davis is not a lobbyist. He does work for an education reform nonprofit advocacy organization and is working to close the achievement gap in CA public schools for poor and minority students.

Anonymous said...

My problem is not in regards to this article in particular, but that Mr. Davis speaks as if he was the sole party to accomplish every little "good" thing that happens in EG. He has been our councilperson for the last six years and it would be my hope that he would have been at least a 1/5th party to those achievements.

What I don't agree with and this has nothing to do with my like/dislike of Mr. Davis...is why would any citizen of EG think it would be in our best interest to spend $400,000 for a special election for his replacement... our hard earned tax monies, to have the title "Mayor" behind his name for two years. He still has two years remaining as our council person and adding a little new blood to that mix at NO cost to the city would seem to be the smart way to go. However, maybe your tax dollars come easier than mine and you have no problem how they are spent. I have seen $900,000 spent on the SOI with Mr. Davis' support and close to $1 Million on the backs of the residents of Madeira on their tax bills...money I consider thrown to the wind.

Mr. Davis as Mayor serves no purpose except maybe on his resume for higher office in two years, but it does come at a high cost to EG.

Council Not Equal said...

Seriously, if you want to do a report card on the Elk Grove City Council, all five have not been equal in what they have accomplished.

Sophia has been on the council for 12 years and she cannot even remember what she voted on half the time, such as her diatribe the night flood plain was removed from the SOI. Now Sophia recounts because she thinks it will draw votes away from Lynn Wheat and to her.

And yes, Gary Davis did that. If Gary hadn't stepped up, the flood plain would still be in the SOI. The Wilton Action Group supported those efforts and now they seem to be very content. Gary’s deliberation that night was stellar and he took on Pat Hume who was fighting tooth and nail to keep the floodplain in the SOI.

Can you state specifically any singular accomplishments which originated from Hume, Steve Detrick, Jim Cooper or Sophia for that matter which resulted in a major change in our city for the better?

I have one for Detrick: He brought up the sign ordinance issue for the Detrick family benefactor of $22,500, Gil Moore, which has now cost us taxpayers at least $10,000 in contracted services. NOT!

Anonymous said...

Paul Harvey quote: "Davis is not a lobbyist. He does work for an education reform nonprofit advocacy organization and is working to close the achievement gap in CA public schools for poor and minority students."

That's interesting...take a look at this little article.

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/05/is-edvoice-behi.html

Paul Harvey said...

Exactly.

Will Be. Goode said...

To the anon who posted the link to the Bee story, thank you.

Mr. Davis may say "he loves Elk Grove," but this story demonstrates his love of politics more. This is nothing more than verification that not only is he career politician, which is fine, but worse he looks to more like a bare knuckled political operative looking to win at any costs.

All of a sudden the other candidates for mayor are starting to look better.

Paul Harvey said...

This article isn't about Davis. It is about the battle between education status quo and education reformers. I, for one, do not find it acceptable that poor and minority kids are doomed to fail in California's public school system and am glad someone is standing up for them.

Anonymous said...

LMAO Paul Harvey....I'm perfectly capable of understanding what this is all about. It is about Gary Davis & EdVoice and every employee of the EGUSD should be concerned about where he trying to take you. Now you want to present this as if it is the "poor and minority kids who are doomed to fail" and those elite Charter Schools will make their day. The only fallacy is...they can't afford to go!

Sarah Johnson said...

Talk about thread drift!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Paul,

Correct. The Bee story is not about Davis and this discussion is not about the well documented needs of California schools. We can leave discussion to another time.

The Bee story does however convey a reference point of the type of political operation he is involved in. In a job like Davis's, the methods of he and his employer can be a fair gauge his political life. It is not like Davis is working as a grocery store clerk or some small cog in a large corporation. This is an advocacy group of a hlaf dozen or so people that pushes a particular agenda.

He is an elected official whose day job is advocating a particular point of view. That is his right, but I am not sure people in Elk Grove have been able to connect those dots. It is kind of like a chapter president of the Women's Temperance Movement running a blind pig.

Paul Harvey said...

There is some confusion here. Charter schools are public schools and, by law, accept every child who wants to attend by a randomized lottery admission. There was a reason a lottery had to be put in place. Parents want their kids to attend public charter schools and there is a waiting list at most of them. There is no tuition.

Charter schools aren't elite - but liberal elite's oppose them - until it is time for their kids to get a quality education.

Ask the kids in downtown Oakland, Los Angeles, Stockton, San Jose, New York..... etc how their public charter school is benefitting them?

Kids who otherwise were doomed to a path of destructions now have a chance to make it in life.

Anonymous said...

Many of the posts here are written supposedly by different people but they seem to have a common thread - visible to an expert like myself. They are written by the same poster. Troubled in my opinion. Different personas - sometimes masculine, many times feminine, sometimes both.

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