Elk Grove To Extend PMC Contract, Gag Consultant's Employees
November 12, 2013 | As The City of Elk Grove moves to extend its contract with its planning contractor at tomorrow night's City C...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2013/11/elk-grove-to-extend-pmc-contract-gag.html
November 12, 2013 |
As The City of Elk Grove moves to extend its contract with its planning contractor at tomorrow night's City Council meeting, a few provisions have been added to the agreement.
The contract with Pacific Municipal Consultants, which is the contractor for planning services, will be extended for one year with provision that will limit the ability of employees to speak with the media.
According to the contract:
"The consultant shall not publicly comment to the press or any other media regarding the Contract or the City's action on the same, except to the city staff, Consultants own personnel involved in the performance of this Contract at public hearing or in response to questions from a Legislative body."
The extension also adds a conflict of interest clause that the contractor will disclose any potential conflicts of interests it may encounter in execution of its contract of the city. These conflicts would have to be disclosed in an annual economic interest statement.
PMC's principal, Phil Carter, has made frequent campaign contributions to Elk Grove Council Members. The item has been placed on the consent calendar.
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Why EXACTLY do we need to extend the contract of the planning dept when our "planning" will be substantially reduced now that the SOI has been denied. What exactly are we paying Phil Carter to do?? Carter is the reason the SOI failed to materialize. His lack of leadership and piece meal planning has come home to roost.
My thoughts EXACTLY! It's time for PMC to go......
It looks like City Manager Laura Gill wants to extend her web and now she is demanding that contractors keep their mouths shut. That is too much! What are you afraid they are going to say Laura?
I wonder how Phil Carter and Company feel about the Elk Grove's mediocre city manager putting a gag order in their contract. PMC has contracts all around the region and this bit of PR isn’t going to fair them well.
Both Carter and Gill are to blame for how they orchestrated the failure of the SOI, and the council puppets didn’t have enough sense to see they were being lead down a road blindfolded. And aren’t we glad they did?
Phil Carter got very rich off the city of Elk Grove in the John Danielson years, and yes, he needs to go.
Looks like our council never learns. PMC again! This firm has sold our city down the road years ago and continues to do so and our city leaders keep allowing this. Thanks to LAFCo, at least now, we're running out of land for them to destroy.
Gill, council....wake up!
Poor planning is all around you and you approved it and allowed it.- This is your legacy, at our expense.
- Shame on all of you!
Our city leaders approved a general plan and then continued to approve the rezones and amendments. Was this all at the direction of the contracted planning dept? Was this at the direction of the city manager? Politics and money has controlled and influenced the decisions. The council is to set policy and the city manager and staff are to implement the policy. Who brought forth the recent sign changes? Did this come from the staff or council? Who approves the spending of the monies? Who takes the lead here? I had one council member tell me that he voted yes on a project because he knew it was going to pass; to vote no would not of been in his political best interest. Another said to vote no on this project would be political suicide. Another council member told me that the city would continue to offer business incentives until the money is gone...So who do our council members represent? There are very real systemic problems here; until the motivation behind decisions is exposed and people decide for themselves to actively participate at the local level real change will be difficult. For all those that had given up "hope"...I believe that hope has been renewed with LAFCo's denial of the SOI application. Now is the opportunity for better! Elk Grove can become the "destination spot" for all who live here. Real change can happen to benefit all, it can happen should all the residents of Elk Grove decide Yes I am going to actively participate...my community is worth it, my children are worth it and the future of Elk Grove is worth it. We all received an opportunity here to get it built better; 1200 acres can be better! 300 acres is available to the business that needed that much to be here; Hume could sell them on that....
"Gray Man: Gray Man is an espionage term describing the "perfect" covert operator. Former CIA Director William Colby may have expressed it best when he said that a 'gray man' was a person "so inconspicuous that he could never catch the waiter's eye in a restaurant"
W. Thomas Smith
Lynn,
Most of us know how it works and I will answer your question on the sign ordinance; but you already lived the answer.
The “best thing since sliced bread” developer wanted the change first and second his rezone. He goes to a council member, dumps money in his campaign account, plans a ski trip and throws in some wine, even funds his family member’s event for $10,000 out of the kindest of his heart – yeah right --and that council member champions the change. And then that council member, through the city manager, most likely sent the command to the planning director to make it happen. Ergo that bogus meeting with that bogus survey!
It was only with strong citizen input did the council even take notice and even then, it was to no avail. The sign ordinance would have been much worse if the other landowners didn’t speak up as well so we had some strong allies there. Council message: Which developer is the most powerful and which developer don’t we want to pi** off the most because we are going need that money honey!
But you are right; we cannot give up because we can never have another Bell South. When citizens united, they have prevailed such as with the SOI application. But make no mistake about it that was a major blow throughout the region and we have yet to see the ramifications from the Elk Grove City Council.
Additionally, projects would have been much different as well, such as the Rite Aid in Old Town, if there wasn’t strong sustainable public outcry even when bullied and maligned. That shows the caliber of our citizens who are not willing to give up no matter the ill treatment.
I know I don't have to remind you of Bell South and citizens were right about that project. How many people even know what project was; but the ill effects of it will be with us forever!
And we went with “real change is about to happen,” and that didn’t work. So we desperately need something else to motivate the voters in 2014!
If you read further into the contract, you'll see that PMC CEO Phil Carter's fees have increased to $288/hour.
That's not all. The rubber-stamp consent calendar tonight includes a shoe-horned report from the economic development director, Maxwell House. Or is it Starbuck? Whatever. The report is an embarrassment to the city council, so it's hidden in the consent calendar. Economic Development Director Randy Maxwell House should be fired, too.
Here's more to chew on...Sacramento County is the lead agency on the South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan. Guess who they hired to do the environmental impact study? PMC!
The notice of preparation is available online at the Sacramento County Planning Department page.
The SOI battle, albeit a decade long now, continues.
WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!!! $288 PER HOUR! That's highway robbery. And to boot, the public is limited to information regarding said contract??????????? Who the hell devised this plan?? Absoluately criminal behavior. This sounds like the bullshit those basards in Bell did...stole all the city's money and lived like hogs...until they were caught. Time to call AG's office. This is just criminal conduct!
After listening to the city council meeting tonight and to the citizens who spoke before the people we have vested power in, to represent us, I found speakers typically were treated with arrogance and as mischief makers rather than the Elk Grove patriots they are. This was especially true of Mr. Detrick, even saying something to the effect of "you don't like what we do..vote us out." Obviously we will never all agree on everything, but we do expect to be treated with respect and that was lacking tonight. How hard is it to thank speakers, let them know you heard them? Leave your arrogance in the parking lot before you enter city hall...remember, we must have transparency and accountability in city hall.
I couldn’t agree more with the above poster. The way Nikki Carpenter and Mike Monaksy were treated was deplorable. Mike just asked for public discussion on the PMC contract. Ignored. Yet two minutes later, Laura Gill was going on and on about meetings whereby citizen input was needed. What a crock of BS!
And the worse; yes, was Steve Detrick. We had to listen again to his honesty and integrity speech. Quit using the dais as your pulpit Detrick; no one believes what you are preaching. Or maybe you are trying to convince yourself speaking while tripping over your own arrogance along with your words.
But hopefully your self-professing prophesy you spoke of tonight will come true and you will get voted out!
What council fails to "get" is that when Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Monasky were speaking they represented many in this community. So in effect you shined us all! That is unacceptable and a failure of the council to not have the ability to recognise/know that and treat each speaker with respect. This has become an ongoing problem at council meetings and it's time for it to change. Perhaps investing in a class on how better to communicate with the people would help.
Exactly where was our fearless leader last night??? LOLOLLOL..Davis is becoming a fool and Detrick is no better. Detrick needs to consult Ms. Manners regarding "respect and professionalism". He lacks on both fronts. Why do you think citizens come to the podium? They come to share with you their concerns and viewpoints. HEY DETRICK..YOU DON'T HAVE TO AGREE WITH THE CITIZENS...BUT YOU DO HAVE TO LISTEN...THAT'S YOUR JOB...THAT'S WHAT YOU RAN ON...Detick has really disappointed many people.
I stand proudly as one of Detrick's naysayers!
I too wonder what meeting our Mayor had that took precedence over the cities/peoples business. It seems to me that when you sign on as Mayor that is your number one position except maybe for your families welfare. Whatever was the case, it doesn't seem to me that was an issue and was something that he didn't want mentioned at the meeting which gives me pause.
Again, Detrick showed his lack of professionalism and integrity last night with his diatribe about voting those disliked out of office every two years. This was after he stated that the city "encourages" the citizens to come forward and engage the council.
He has become who he replaced, Mike Leary. It was Leary who commonly insulted the citizens, and spoke down to them, constantly showing a lack of respect. We put Detrick on the dais, as he preached respect and giving a voice to the citizens. That person is long gone, replaced by the Leary clone. Detrick has forgotten from where he came. He is as full of himself as Leary ever was.
Is anyone ready for a recall?
Sadly, I just finished watching the council meeting. I am very disappointed for many reasons.
Mainly, Ms. Gill laments about "public surveys; citizen participation" while Detrick tell us to vote them out if we don't like them. I walked precincts for Detrick; however he has forgotten all we worked for. I can only describe it as "ego" but really that word does not encompass the total breathe of my sadness. He used the dais against the people and throws down the "vote me out" line. Why do we need to challenge him? Why isn't he working for us? Why does he find it necessary to make snide comments to the citizens? His tired line of “integrity, honesty and morality” is now just laughable adjectives. How I think his dad would be very disappointed in how his son "fulfilled" his duties. Just simply sad...I guess I am just one of those "naysayers." To think I had hopes of a better council when Steve took that council chair nearly six years ago. How times and attitudes have changed. Both mine and his.
Interestingly, the comments made at Public Comment and read by Marie from GRASP, were the words of Lynn Wheat, who was unable to attend due to another engagement. Lynn asked Marie to read her comments.
What makes it interesting is that after the comments, Detrick thanked her for the "positive comments."
He would have NEVER said that had Lynn been there and read her comments.
Just goes to show the shallowness and preconceived attitudes towards those who do attend the meetings and speak for the citizens points of view.
This is why so many who used to attend and speak, no longer do. - Those are the facts! No way around them.
...and yes, Detrick did say how the city "welcomes comments for the public" just minutes before he said if you don't like us, vote us out.
- Where was Mayor Davis? Scared to face the LAFCo fallout? What a wuss!
To Anon at 16:30:
Interesting that Detrick thanked Maria for her positive comments..when those comments were actually Lynn Wheat's. The council rarely "thanks" Lynn...more or less they tolerate her. It just goes to show they hold grudges and "tune out" certain people...they don't "apprecaite" Lynn like they did Maria. Too funny...they got caught again with thier pants down! If they only were more transparent and citizen friendly.
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