Poll Shows Little Confidence in Mayor Gary Davis' Elk Grove SEPA Jobs Claim

August 24, 2015 | A poll conducted last week showed almost zero confidence in a claim made by Elk Grove Mayor Gary Davis regarding f...


August 24, 2015 |

A poll conducted last week showed almost zero confidence in a claim made by Elk Grove Mayor Gary Davis regarding future job development in the city.

The unscientific poll conducted over a five-day period ending on Friday, August 21 showed an overwhelming 94-percent of respondents did not find the Mayor's recent claim that Elk Grove's planned development of the South East Policy Area (SEPA) will bring 25,000 new high-paying jobs to the city. Davis made the claim during a special city council meeting on August 12 where the city council approved the first development within the SEPA that will bring up to 1,100 new homes to Elk Grove.

As the city's last large undeveloped area within current city limits, the 1,200-acre SEPA area has been billed as a remedy to the city's well-documented homes to jobs imbalance. During that meeting Davis claimed the jobs to housing ratio in the entire SEPA area is one-to-one and that there would be 25,000 new high-paying jobs. 

See Davis' comments below. 


   

Post a Comment Default Comments

12 comments

Anonymous said...

I have listened to this 3-4 times and none of it makes any sense. So I'll just take the 25,000 high-paying jobs. What does Mayor Davis consider a high-paying job? I heard no definition of what high-paying jobs meant. Could that be $40,000 jobs or $125,000 jobs? I also heard nothing about how we draw those jobs to EG...are incentives attached?

This is nothing more than cheap talk at the taxpayers expense. By the time SEPA is built out he'll be down the road leaving us hanging with some fantasy Mayor Davis promises. It takes more than roof tops to bring high-paying jobs to EG...our history will tell us that.

Proud to be led said...

I trust Gary Davis, because he ran unopposed last election, so he must be something right. I just read that Chipotle is on a hiring binge, so I know that eventually Elk Grove and SEPA will get their share of jobs. These jobs may not pay much, but remember that employees get a discount, so their clothes and food will be cheaper. Keep up the good work Mayor Davis!

Forks and Spoons said...

If you look at this graphic from a certain perspective, it looks like the people of Elk Grove are raising the middle finger to the mayor!

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the big "Royal Hawaiian Center" on Sheldon Road at Hwy. 99. Some big time paying jobs will soon be available there.

Anonymous said...

.


12 acres = 1,700 to 2,000 jobs at a 4 to a 1,000 square feet, 80% net land ratio.

(12 acres x 43,560 square feet per acre x 80% land use efficiency divided by 1,000 times 4)

Where are the 25,000 jobs coming from?

Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus?

The job / housing imbalance is so out of kilter even with the token number of jobs that MIGHT be created at the project site.

Elk Grove will become a crime ridden dump because the vast majority of the parents have to drive out of town to get decent paying jobs, leaving their "precious little snowflakes" an opportunity to wreak havoc during their absence.




.

Anonymous said...

I'm having a very hard time understanding that our Mayor and Council are more interested in pleasing the developers who are writing checks to them than taking care of the taxpayers who want hope and a ray of opportunity for the future. We want open and above reproach discussions at city hall, to feel welcome at our house and that our comments are being heard even though you may not agree with them. Somewhere along the way that has been lost, Mr. Burness being the latest example. He was not allowed to finish his comments even though he was the only speaker this night. An allowance for extra time could possibly serve the city well and we all might just learn something that the developer maybe missed in their many speakers we listened to for as lengthy time.

Anonymous said...

Poll Shows Little Confidence in Mayor. There, fixed the headline for you.

Lynn said...

By the time that a project has gone to "public" hearing the decision by our leaders has been made. Occasionally a council member may flip as I heard with my own ears from a developer leaving council chambers: Angrily he said to the gentleman walking with him "He flipped on me." Then, I realized the game is rigged!
In any decision it is about money, greed and egos! Our city leaders legacy!

Anonymous said...

Here's your chance Mayor Davis, now lets see where you go with all that BIG talk. Probably need to get Gov. Brown in on this one though as they're going to want bigger incentives than we usually give.

A secretive electric car developer recently announced that it's scouting several locations for a new factory. That's only going to use up approx. 300 of those 25,000 job numbers though. Still more work to do Mayor....does give us an idea of just how many businesses it takes to get to those numbers. Heck to get that many jobs in SEPA you'll have to build 10 stories high buildings. I'm taking bets, any takers?

Connie said...

Lynn,

I remember exactly to what you are referring as it was a dark moment for those of us who had a drop of hope in the fairness in the system.

I was out in the council foyer as well and heard the developer yelling those words, using the Council member’s name and profanity. Everyone in ear shot heard him as it was over a controversial project.

To this day, and maybe this is my naiveté, I still cannot believe this particular council member could as was said, “XX flipped on me.” The developer said much more about the council member in question, but profanity and personal attacks cannot be stated on this website.

But I will add this: I told the late Sarah Johnson and she immediately went up to the dais and pulled the council member aside and told him. – the Council had taken break because the agenda item had gotten that heated as you will recall.

That was at that second that a lot of faith was lost because of who was involved.

And to the poster above, I too, was very disappointed in Gary cutting off Rob Burness the way he did. In my opinion, it was rude. What Rob was saying was intelligent and his comments had merit. Gary, to my recollection, has never cut off a developer in such a discourteous manner, even those who go on and on and saying absolutely nothing.

Gary keeps telling us Council chambers is the “People’s House.” He needs to listen to his own words!

Anonymous said...

As an informed citizen I too don't see these planned jobs ever coming to Elk Grove. Some? Maybe, but we'll always be a bedroom community to Sacramento.

Our elected leaders are completely out of touch. Yesterday they were hamming it up over at CRC celebrating the opening of Light Rail as an alternative to congested Highway 99 for Elk Grove commuters. Today I took Light Rail and it was an hour and 15 minutes from my door to my desk. It takes me 35-40 to drive the same distance in heavy traffic on highway 99. Will this reality get "choice" commuters off the freeway? I love mass transit but won't give up an hour+ of my day to use it.

Will jobs come to Elk Grove simply because land is zoned for offices? Will the connector reduce congestion on Laguna Blvd when the connector will have 12-15 stop lights? Quit living in fantasy land on all these issues.

Anonymous said...

The whole intent of the Council is to put employment designations on maps so LAFCo will trust the City to not only build rooftops and retai and grant them their SOI expansions.Then once the land is in the City's control, watch out cuz rooftops and retail are gonna go flying everywhere in the name of Region Builders!

Follow Us

Popular

Archives

Elk Grove News Minute

Elk Grove News Podcast




item