This week Elk Grove city councilman Darren Suen held what was billed as a community meeting on California Northstate University’s controversial proposed hospital project. One of the people on hand to help Suen out of the difficult situation was Elk Grove city manager Jason Behrmann.

In a session that lasted just under three hours, Elk Grove District 1 City Councilmember Darren Suen heard many pointed comments and questions from about 60 participants at a community meeting he conducted last night at the Dreaming Dog Brewery in Elk Grove's Stonelake neighborhood.

Although Suen heard comments on topics ranging from traffic to homelessness, the primary focus was on California Northstate University's (CNU) proposed $900 million 400-bed hospital. Plans for the hospital, which Suen participated in during the much-publicized formal announcement last December, has generated substantial controversy.

With the switch to by-district elections in 2020, Elk Grove is in the midst of a subtle political change. With councilmembers elected by-district voters only, Mayor Steve Lee remains the only councilmember elected citywide.

A few years ago, a documentary was released about the Enron scandal called The Smartest Guys in the room. It told the story of the hubris of people like Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. The title was apt because the Enron criminals thought they were smarter than everybody.

And for a while they were. Then things collapsed.

Although not criminally motivated like the Enron crew, the Elk Grove city council has a member who consistently reminds people – by waving his education credentials around, especially compared to his city council colleagues, that He is the smartest guy on the council, maybe all of the city hall too.

With the Elk Grove City council’s recently adopted by-district voting, Mayor Steve Ly scored a big political victory.

With victory, there has to be a loser.

One of California’s many pressing challenges – affordable housing – made an appearance at the Rancho Cordova City Council meeting.

During public comment, several residents from the Mobil Country Club community in Rancho Cordova spoke about rapidly escalating rents for their residences at their 479 space senior mobile home park. The speakers, all seniors on fixed incomes, made their appearance and asked the city council for assistance.

In this edition, we’ll hear all the comments made by the concerned residents. For reference, the meeting was conducted by Mayor Robert McGarvey whose voice will be heard intermittingly through the audio.

The comments were made during the Monday, October 21st Rancho Cordova City Council meeting.

Last year Elk Grove city manager Jason Behrmann announced with great pride a new city hall department, The Office of Strategic Planning and Innovation. The new department was to be headed by a member of the city’s planning department, Christopher Jordan.

In this edition, we’ll take a look at one simple attempt to innovate that failed that we call an Innovation Nightmare – Christopher Jordan’s Folly.

Recently the Latin term Quid pro quo has been thrust into the national lexicon by Trump. Loosely translated it means something for something.

This practice has been around Elk Grove since the city’s founding.

On Friday, October 11, the City of Elk Grove issued a statement regarding litigation over construction delays and cost overruns on the recently open District56 aquatics center. Given the reluctance of governmental bodies to comment on pending litigation, issuing the statement was an unusual development.

In this edition, we have another conversation with Brian Erickson who as co-owner of Big B Construction is one of the defendants in the lawsuit.

The next time you hear the Elk Grove City Council or member of the city's executive team make claims, you would be well-served to view them with a healthy measure of skepticism.

One such example of this is a recently released video by the city on the budget process.