If Elk Grove Real Estate Development Interests are Zombies, What of Their Beneficiaries?
November 11, 2013 | With the denial of Elk Grove's sphere of influence (SOI) application, there are several losers who, while dea...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2013/11/if-elk-grove-real-estate-development.html
November 11, 2013 |
With the denial of Elk Grove's sphere of influence (SOI) application, there are several losers who, while dead for now in the city, may soon resurface as for one last round as zombies.
Some of the groups who will go into a pre-Zombie state, as it relates to Elk Grove at least, are the construction firms, real estate developers, planning consultants and anyone who had an interest in seeing the city annex the proposed 12-square-miles.
Now that this group has little land for the time being to exploit, what about the politicians who feed off them? They too might become zombies.
Let's look at political fundraising in Elk Grove so far this year. By far the most productive of our elected officials in fundrasing has been Mayor Gary Davis.
In the most recent report covering the first six months of calendar year 2013, the mayor has raised over $12,000 - not bad for the first half of a non-election year.
A closer analysis reveals something more telling - with the exception of two contributors, all of the contributors were real estate related businesses, unions or lobbyist who would have economically benefit by development in any form in the proposed SOI area. Even of those two non-SOI interested parties, one was the Elk Grove McDonald's franchisor Steve Ramirez who would have undoubtedly loved to build more Golden Arches in those 12-square-miles.
So who were these contributors. Below is a list of Davis' contributors with links to their websites.
- John Frish, $1,000, Cornish & Carey, Real Estate
- A. Teichert and Son, $390, Construction and materials
- CREPAC #890106, $390, Real estate political action committee
- Vintara Holdings, $390, real estate investments
- Ken Noack, $100, Senior Vice President, Cornish & Carey, real estate
- Ken Allred, $390, Principal, Allred Land Consulting, real estate
- Schetter Electric Inc., $1,500, construction
- Brian Cooley, $1,500, Principal, Brian Cooley & Associates, real estate
- Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 447, $390, building construction trade union
- IBEW Local Union No. 340#880039, $390, building construction trade union
- Cement Mason's Local 400, $390, building construction trade union
- Bayless Properties, $150,
- Operating Engineers, Local 3, $156, building construction trade union
- Pulte Group, home builder, $390
- Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 447, $2,5000, building construction trade union
- John Frish, Managing Partner, Cornish & Carey, $1,000, real estate
- Daniel Chow, Engineer, Willdan Engineering (Elk Grove city contractor), $1,000
- John Taylor, attorney, Taylor & Wiley, $200 - "The firm focuses on securing and defending discretionary entitlements for complex, controversial, and creative projects." according to their website.
- John Ferguson, Capital Valley Partners, $200, land owners
So with the SOI gone for now, will the funds for Davis and his fellow council members dry up once the Southeast Policy Area (SEPA) plans finalized? Of course with final SEPA plans not finalized, it might be a great bargaining chip council members can use to extract one last final round of campaign financing.
The SEPA may well bring the developers and council members from the dead for one last round of, well, zombie development. Of course we all know once transformed, there is no reasoning with or stopping a zombie so beware.
Posts
3 comments
Nancy Chaires must not be happy if this special interest group close their purse strings. Interesting that as part of the planning commission they backed the SOI, she apparently doesn't have the ear of the people in this town and wanted to go down the political pathway of Davis and Cooper and their circle of fellow politicians all trying to suck on the same tit. With the SOI gone things may be drying up and that's okay with me. When are others going to jump into the race, there we're 6 people interested in the job in January?
Anon above:
Why would any of those who stepping up in January WANT to be involved in a process that failed all of us miserable. Those folks stepped up; were vetted several times and then all were kicked to the curb for a guy who wasn't interested then and still shows absolutely NO interest now? Trigg is a real disappointment. He follows Hume lead 100% of the time...why do you think Hume went after him? He is just a lap dog to Hume. Davis (and Cooper to a degree) should never have allowed that to happen. Cooper voted against Trigg, but he should have beat some sense into Davis. Nancy Chaires is just relieved she doesn't have to answer the SOI question this election cycle. She is so much better off not having to defend or support the project. She comes out ahead all the way around.
Where is our Mayor Davis....not one photo opt that I have seen. Has he become camera shy all of a sudden? I would have thought he would have spoken to the citizens/taxpayers and "maybe" have said he heard them. He must feel like the kid in the school yard no one wants to play with.
But then again, maybe he has bigger things on his agenda. Like perhaps working with staff on some more creative accounting for SEPA, much like was done on the Aquatics Center.
As someone once said, "Trust is as slippery as a basket of eels sometimes. .....
Post a Comment