Front-line medical public servants are to be commended during the COVID19 crisis. Some administrative public employees, however, according to Elk Grove’s official spokesperson are upset with extra duties during the crisis.

On Tuesday, April 28, a joint information session was hosted by the City Elk Grove to offer information to residents on local governments' responses to the COVID19 pandemic.

Joining several representatives from Elk Grove were staff members from Sacramento county and the Cosumnes Community Services District.

In this edition, we are posting the entire session which lasted about one hour and fifteen minutes.

After brief introductory remarks by Elk Grove Mayor Steve Lee and Cosumnes Community Services District board president Orlando Fuentes, the meeting was conducted by Elk Grove City Clerk Jason Lindgren who directed real-time questions from participants. Also during the session there were questions answered on the Zoom platform where the meeting was conducted.

In 2010 Elk Grove voters approved Measures K and L which established our current directly mayor for a two-year term by a strong majority. The measure to establish a directly elected mayor won with an overwhelming 78 percent majority.

In politics, sometimes battles are waged in subtle ways that aren’t immediately visible. Such was the case in a battle waged by Elk Grove City Councilman Darren Suen and Vice Mayor Steve Detrick against Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly.

In this episode, we trace the battle which ended up with Ly outsmarting his city council colleagues Suen and Detrick.

This week NASCAR Driver and Elk Grove's favorite son Kyle Larson committed an act of career self-immolation. In 2014 Larson was Elk Grove’s first key to the city recipient at the tender age of 21.

In this expanded version of Elk Grove News Minute, our guest host and Major Leauge Baseball maven Steve Lee leads an interesting discussion on Al Kaline, the Detroit Tiger Hall of Fame member who died earlier this week. In addition, Lee and his guest discuss Kaline and the Detroit Tigers 1968 World Series championship.

If you're missing your sports or baseball fix, you might find this discussion on Kaline and the 1968 World Series right up your alley.

Our thanks to Steve Lee who directed this and was the creative force for this episode. This interview was conducted in the parameters of social distancing.

The COVID 19 pandemic has exposed several failures in the American medical delivery system. It has also exposed failures in leadership in all levels of government. Some are very obvious like Donald Trump’s grotesque failures.

Other failures are less obvious, more subtle and not directly related to how the government has reacted to the crisis from the public health aspect. Rather the COVID 19 crisis exposed how some elected officials conduct their business over a span of time.

By law, California elected and high-ranking public officials must annually disclose their economic interests. These disclosures show things like rental properties and gifts they have received.

Lost in the declaration of the COVID19 pandemic, on March 12 the Elk Grove Police Department released a video of a June 2019 use of force incident. The video evidence and an internal investigation led to the termination of one officer and the resignation of a supervising officer.

Many of my more seriously conservative family members and acquaintances are forever complaining about government overreach. They really get apoplectic when they talk about government intrusion in their lives. I even have one relative whose self-proclaimed motto is, “The damn government should stay the hell out of my life!” Usually, I just let him rant. I could argue with him, but it wouldn’t do any good.

Recently, this government intrusion issue crossed paths with the coronavirus pandemic we’re currently facing, and the two gave me food for thought.