Elk Grove News Podcasts

 By Dan Schmitt |   During my teaching career, I must have told my humanities and geography students a thousand times, “Travel is the best education in the world. By experiencing first-hand other cultures, you’ll come to better understand your own. And, during your travels, you will be exposed to cultural experiences that will simultaneously perplex and enlighten you.” In 1995, the oppor...

 In May there were events - some self-inflicted and some out of their control - that turned the month for the quasi-government agency tasked with transforming the community into a tourist destination,   Explore Elk Grove, into one they would rather forget. 1

 In this edition of Elk Grove News Podcast, we meet with Elk Grove Planning Commissioner George Murphey. The discussion centers on an event scheduled for Saturday, June 8 at Elk Grove City Hall that he and fellow planning commissioner Mackenzie Weiser helped organize. The event, called Tacos and Test Drives will allow participants to examine, test drive and learn about the vast array of...

 A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling could have serious implications for the business plan of the proposed Wilton Rancheria casino in Elk Grove, city coffers, and motorist.  

Elk Grove's Swimmin' Hole , known formally as the Elk Grove Aquatics Center will hold a grand opening ceremony on Memorial Day Weekend. While city leaders will be strutting around like Baywatch lifeguards next Saturday at the over-budget facility, what happens in a few years?  

 Every now and then political opponents can find common ground or at least common ground on governance practices. Such is the case for Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly, and City Council Member Pat Hume when he served his one term as mayor 10 years ago.  See companion video and story to this podcast here . 

 This week the Sacramento LAFCO approved Elk Grove’s sphere of influence application for about 600-acres along Grant Line Road. The approval paves the way for Elk Grove to annex this parcel. Alone this is not remarkable. What is noteworthy, however, is the ruse the Elk Grove City Council seemingly pulled on taxpayers.  

 After a 34-year law enforcement career, Elk Grove Police Chief Bryan Noblett recently announced his retirement. A 10-year veteran of the Elk Grove Police Department, Noblett was the EGPD's third chief serving three years in that role. In this edition, Noblett reflects on aspects of his career and what the future holds for Elk Grove Police.  Photo credit: Officer Jason Jimenez, EGPD

 In this edition, we are breaking our typical format on politics and current events and will discuss the 2019 NFL draft, specifically the Detroit Lions draft.  We will be discussing this with Logan Lamorandier, editor of Lionlowdown.com . Lamorandier gives grades on the Lions' draft, their 2019 prospects and more.  Lamorandier and also be followed on Twitter @LLamorandier and&n...

 This week, the Elk Grove City Council decided to create a new place to squirrel money away, and called it the "Opportunity Fund." What might be one implication of this new fund? 

By Dan Schmitt  |   During my teaching career, I must have told my humanities and geography students a thousand times, “Travel is the best education in the world.  By experiencing first-hand other cultures, you’ll come to better understand your own. And, during your travels, you will be exposed to cultural experiences that will simultaneously perplex and enlighten you.”   &nbsp...

Darrell Doan, Elk Grove's economic development director, as well as other personnel at Elk Grove City Hall need to stop wasting taxpayers dollars on frivolous and expensive advertising. Instead, money should be used to fix things like Elk Grove's crumbling roads.  

Ever since it was unveiled last December, the California Northstate University's proposed for-profit hospital has been a source of controversy. Both CNU and Elk Grove city executive employees and council members would be well advised to heed to the words from South Bend Indiana mayor and presidential candidate Pete Buttiegieg. 

 In this edition, smart planning advocate Lynn Wheat discusses the recent traffic jam study and the conundrum for Elk Grove’s long sought expansion of city limits.  Wheat discusses how Elk Grove taxpayer could be on the hook for cost that in normal cities are paid by developers.  We start the conversation with Wheat providing an overview of the April 10 presentation by the Elk Grove...

 In this edition of Elk Grove News Podcast, Kathy Engle of Neighbors Ensuring Stonelake Transparency, NEST, discusses the use of taxpayer money to purchase advertisements for the benefit of California Nothstate University, a for-profit educational institution headquartered in Elk Grove, Calif. Also discussed are seemingly conflicting statements from the City of Elk Grove's economic developmen...

The Wednesday, April 10 Elk Grove City Council meeting was one to remember.   At the end of the meeting with hardly no one in attendance, the city council heard an honest assessment of the city’s growing traffic congestion.

In the last several weeks California Republican Congressman Devin Nunes has made quite a splash in social media - twitter specifically - and more recently in mainstream media for a couple of lawsuits he has filed. Perhaps its a riff on the song Dog and Butterfly by Heart,  except for Nunes its more like Cow and Bee. In the case of the cow, the Fresno-area congressman filed a $250 million laws...

This week casino watchdog group Stand Up For California filed another lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Indians Affairs over the proposed Wilton Rancheria casino in Elk Grove, California. The issues raised for the plaintiff comes from documents the B I A was forced to release. 

  The last several months for the proprietors of Elk Grove's Dreaming Dog Brewery have been two tails.  The first tale was of the successful launch and establishment by David and Elizabeth Brown of their popular brewery and tasting room located at the Stonelake Landing shopping center on the west side of Elk Grove. Their efforts to build a friendly, community-based gathering spot was rec...

  In this edition of Elk Grove News Podcast, we have a discussion with Kathy Engle of Neighbors Ensuring Stonelake Transparency - NEST. Led by Engle's public information requests, the citizens' group has started examining documents they have received from the city of Elk Grove. Engles discusses some of their initial findings showing the depth of the relationship between the city and the...

 While some view California's rapidly escalating housing costs as an impediment, one company from America's Natural State is taking a contrarian view and sees a golden opportunity in the Golden State.  Mountain Home, Arkansas-based Affordable Family Development (AFD) has announced its intent to pursue a manufactured housing site on a vacant parcel in Elk Grove. The parcel AFD purchased f...

 As widely reported, Elk Grove recently updated its general plan. The plan nibbles around the edges of one of California’s most pressing socio-economic problems – affordable housing. Elk Grove’s solution is predictable – cluster some rental units in a few areas and forget about it.

   Social media is part of our life, and for all its ills, at times it can be educational. Such was the case in a recent series of tweets.   The tweets were about city council’s brushing off constituents. — Kevin Dayton (@DaytonPubPolicy) March 22, 2019 I hear Los Angeles City Council is like this. In fact, I remembered an old newspaper article about it and found it, in @latimes fro...

 By Dan Schmitt |  I cannot begin to imagine how devastating it must be to discover that a loved one has been ruthlessly murdered. I cannot imagine the pain, the depression and the suffering family members and friends of murder victims go through as they wait for the execution of the person on death row who was found guilty of the heinous crimes. 

  Based in Monterey, California, Dayton is a policy and political consultant with 22 years of experience dealing with Issues related to construction and development. The discussion centers on the intersection of the California Environmental Quality Act, and project labor agreements as it relates to the $750 million hospital proposed in Elk Grove, Calif. by California Northstate University. Da...