Two Down, One to Go for Moore?
February 23, 2014 | The Gil Moore development saga has been nothing if not interesting, and maybe not yet over. Since Moore fir...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2014/02/two-down-one-to-go-for-moore.html
February 23, 2014 |
The Gil Moore development saga has been nothing if not interesting, and maybe not yet over.
Since Moore first burst on the scene about two years ago with his gas station, liquor store and fast food outlet, he has acted to remind local voters just how money can be used to get what you want. For Moore, his money bought the Elk Grove City Council votes needed to change the city's highway billboard ordinance he claimed that were desperately needed to get McDonald's to locate at his Sheldon Road and East Stockton Boulevard.
After the city council went through the motions recently and gave his project a rubber-stamp approval, Moore and his cabal are once again back on the scene. This time Moore and Bruce Bishop from Monument Partners, Inc. are in negotiations with the city to purchase some surplus property along the east side of Highway 99 just north and south of Sheldon Road to place billboards.
Bishop of Monument Partners has appeared before the city council on behalf of Moore and develops large monument signs along highways.
One must wonder if Moore and Bishop are successful in their real property negotiations and purchase the parcels, will they be satisfied with a small monument sign? After purchasing the property don't you suppose they would rather have the huge sign like the one at the Cordelia Junction along I-80 in Fairfield, Calf. they continuously cooed about during public testimony?
It is really not that far fetched. The template for this request is spelled out on Monument's website noting "The Cordelia Junction pylon revitalized an entire community of businesses that had lost their visibility from Interstate 80. These retailers were willing to remove outdated, on-site signs in order to reach over 150,000 daily commuters in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our unique design includes a classic train engine that pays tribute to Cordelia's historic beginnings as a rail station."
So if Moore and Bishop succeed in purchasing the parcels, don't be surprised to see Moore, and perhaps Bishop, cough up some more donations, get the city to enlist economic development director Randy Starbuck to sing the praises a new massive sign will have as an economic development tool as voila, we'll have a couple massive monument signs letting drivers know, yes, they are in Elk Grove.
Keep your eyes on the 460's and remember, for Moore two down, only one to go.
4 comments
By looking at the closed session agenda item, it looks like Winn Properties is also bidding on one of the pieces of land and Tsakopoulos Investments on the other, giving Gil Moore some competition here. But can they and we be assured that the closed session will be fair to them in the bidding process; or is the fix in with Moore waiting at the side door to hand over his checks to the council?
This is "transparency" at its best. What More could residents ask for? Yet how many will see how visible the game has become. Sad very sad....
I requested the bidding process from Elk Grove City Manager Laura Gill.
One interesting item that I find troublesome is #7: "Bids will be examined based on which proposal best meets the needs of the City, which may not necessarily be the highest priced proposal."
And so I asked Gill the following question: That is really a subjective statement here and who decides which proposal meets the needs of the city? This appears to be a Catch 22 in that the bidding process could be manipulated to serve one particular bidder, could it not?
Elk Grove is becoming a combination of Stockton, Modesto and South Sac.
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