Tying Money to Elk Grove's Expansion

October 7, 2013 |

Earlier today the Sacramento Bee posted a story on Elk Grove's sphere of influence (SOI) application with the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo).

While the story in-part discussed last week's LAFCo meeting, the most interesting aspect of the story were the scores of comments posted. Some were thoughtful but many missed what we view as the bigger point of the SOI story and that is how the process is being influenced by monied interest who contribute to Elk Grove City Council Members to push their expansion agenda.

Of no small coincidence, today we received an Email from Maplight.org with a good video showing just how money influenced one piece of legislation in California.

Oakland-based Maplight "is a nonpartisan research organization that reveals money’s influence on politics in the U.S. Congress and in the California and Wisconsin state legislatures."

The same principle in the video is what is happening with Elk Grove's SOI.  Contrary to what our city council claims, the SOI is and always has been about money.

Closer to home, if you are interested in who is giving money to our council members, simply peruse their Form 460 disclosures filed on the Elk Grove City Clerk's webpage and this will show who the SOI is really for.