Council member Davis answers “Round Table” inquiry
UPDATE: Many thanks to Council member Gary Davis for responding to our questions regarding the purpose and topic of the Round Table Discussion with the City of Elk Grove. Please see his letter and personal comments he posted below.
We have previously posted a “save the date” for a scheduled Round Table Discussion with the City of Elk Grove City Council at the Arbour Lodge. We promised to post more information about the event but it has proven to be very difficult to get the facts.
On the Ourglenbrooke community page is the following announcement:
Round Table Discussion with the Elk Grove City Council. There will be a Round Table Discussion with the Elk Grove City Council on March 25th from 6:30 - 8pm in the Arbour Lodge Oak and Cedar Rooms. (posted by Erin Gormley).
When I asked Erin for more information, she said she hadn’t booked the room but was working on the flyer that would have more information.
While at the Lodge today, I picked up the flyer and I am even more confused. It does not say with the City Council. The title is City of Elk Grove Round Table Discussion at Glenbrooke – no mention of the Council or what department or persons from the City of Elk Grove were coming.
When I asked staff about the event, they thought it was being held at City Hall. I pointed out the flyer states the discussion will be at the Arbour Lodge. They seemed surprised and checked the registration book. Sure enough, there is a sign up sheet for the Discussion. We signed up and there are two people that had already registered.
So many unanswered questions:
Is this a Round Table Discussion with City Council members? If so, which one(s)? Why don't they know about it?
Is it with a different department of the City of Elk Grove?
What is the topic/purpose of the meeting?
Who is organizing this event?
Is this a political endorsement?
Are they paying rent for the room?
Is it about the Sphere of Influence? Wal-Mart? CSD taking over the maintenance of the promenade, Rose Garden Park, Storybook Park?
I have even heard it is not for the residents, only for "HOA Leadership." That must not be true since there is a flyer posted in the Lodge and a sign-up sheet for residents. But if it is true, who is considered "leadership” our resident board members, the entire Board of Directors, group leaders?
This is a prime example of better communication not costing a penny more- it just needs to be more efficient (see Communication Survey article). When something is posted on the Association's Website (ourglenbrooke.net) it would be very helpful to have all of the information. One can’t go wrong to include the 5 W’s; Who, What, When, Where, and Why!
When something is scheduled for the Arbour Lodge, ALL staff should know all about the event. It is my understanding that there is a weekly staff meeting. Why isn’t information shared with all staff members about every event on the calendar? I personally spoke with three different employees – including the Activities Director – none had any information about this event.
Residents should not have to make multiple phone calls and trips to the Lodge to try to get accurate information.
Can someone shed some light on what may be an important event?
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CITY OF ELK GROVE??? Gets better every day.
I see the meeting still has not been changed on the ourglenbrooke web site even though there is another flyer and sign-up sheet at the Lodge for a meeting NOW called "City of Elk Grove Round Table Discussion at Glenbrooke" as posted above. I wonder.... why is that? When does the "trust and better communication" come into play? Was the room rented to a member of the City? If so, why? IMO, I believe we should insist that all of the above questions by Darcie be addressed. Hopefully, there will be some in the community that will follow through and get this information corrected. I have back-up in my files for the first meeting and am working on this "newly" named one. I've even, if you can believe it, had emails asking if we need escorts for Friends of Madiera. IMO, this meeting should be cancelled or moved to City Hall. It's too bad that there's this miscommunication, since they have been very productive meetings in the past with HOA's and the person or persons giving them. The last being Jan. 28th.
It would seem that if a worker at the clubhouse books a room for somebody they would need a contact person and phone number. Also the person booking the meeting should sign their name in case there are questions. It does not seem reasonable that nobody at the clubhouse can tell you who booked this meeting, who the contact person is and what the meeting is for.
And as for your comment about the who, what, when, where, and why...I have been asking for that since we moved in. I would be more forgiving if it was volunteers posting these events but we are paying somebody to do this and it seems like we are missing information on almost every post. They need a check list of the 5 w's when they make their posts and when they book a room.
And they have the nerve to say if we want complete information and better communication it will cost us more.
This topic makes me crazy. If I was an employer (and we as residents are) and my employee could not get all the information correct and posted and distributed to the people who should see it I would replace them.
All that said, I do not know anything about this meeting because I do not even go to the regular Glenbrooke site which is often incorrect, incomplete, hard to find things on, and won't work well with a MAC which I have. I rely on this site to inform me. And thank you so much for that, Darcy and who ever helps her out.
AMEN! I have the information as to who would be holding the meetings, etc., but don't feel that's it is my duty to post that information. I believe Mina is absent today so any clarification will have to be asked for tomorrow. Since Mina is the Manager and Erin and Regina may only be following instruction given to them, they very possibly may not be privy to everything.
I put in a call to Mina this morning. She is not there today. I spoke with Regina, she said she didn't have any information; that Mina told Erin to put it on the calendar. She also said they were suppose to get more information today. I will post any news.
P.S. Since Norma mentioned Jan 28th above, I even tried to go back to see events happening on that day in Elk Grove. there were a number bu I couldn't pin point the topic - so much for my detective skills ;}
Det. Darcie....so funny! I don't know where to find it either...was forwarded by someone to me. Think it's maybe because they have never been meetings for the general public to attend or residents of a HOA. "Neighborhood Leaders Summit" doesn't include me.
Amen!
I don't think there is enough room to have a discussion with the City of Elk Grove.
I spoke with Mina this morning and asked her what was the topic of the meeting. She said she didn't know for sure - but thought it had something to do with HOA communities and that when they asked to book the room, she said on the condition that all residents may attend. When I asked who specifically booked the room, she said it was concil member Gary Davis. She said she thought the city wanted input from residents and it was a "PR thing."
What is the big deal? Why can’t anyone tell the residents (that are all invited) what the heck they are invited too?
Is because they should have RENTED out the room to an individual group? Is it because the ‘city’ doesn’t really want feedback? Feedback on what?
What is this meeting about, officially? There have been suggestions it is about:
1) The Sphere of Influence (plans for development/preservation to the south of us)?
2) Wal-Mart
3) Developer issues
4) Transfer of maintenance and development of our promenade and parks to CSD
5) General feedback
Really, this would have been no big deal if the flyer had simply listed the topic. If it was an oversight, surely staff could have said what it was about.
Something smells fishy. I don’t believe that a busy city council member would block out an evening to meet with residents for ‘general feedback’
without having a topic or agenda, do you?
If we don't know the topic how does anyone know if they want to come?
I have called Council member Gary Davis – left a message and also emailed him asking the purpose of this meeting.
I will post what I find out.
Are you saying the room was booked by Gary Davis and she didn't know for sure what for, but thought ,,,etc. etc., etc.? A PR thing. give me a break! Then exactly where did the "Roundtable with Elk Grove City Council" come from? Just grabbed out of thin air! Is this room rented? If memory serves me correctly, when the residents wanted the room for the "Baked Potato" night, we were asked to pay for the room and after a month of haggling finally had a legit name of Mingles and were able to use the room rent free. Could it be that calling the meeting as above was an attempt to CYA in letting the room for FREE? A flyer was sent to every licensed HOA in EG by Mr. Davis with complete information as to what this meeting was about and topics.....but, Glenbrooke (??) just did their own take on it and did erroneous notices to the residents and even changed the name once more and added a flyer and sign-up sheet. Still posted on the web site erroneously. BTW, where is this flyer and sign up sheet anyway? This sure gives Glenbrooke a #1 rating with the city and other HOA's in EG, doesn't it? And we're only half sold out! This happens to be meetings the City Fathers back and a good thing that Mr. Davis is doing. JMO, but I would imagine Mr. Davis will cancel and have the meeting at City Hall. Someone blew it!!
Here it is, the official purpose and topic of the meeting according to a letter written by Council member, Gary Davis.
March 2, 2010
Dear Homeowners and Neighborhood Association Leaders,
Happy 2010! I hope your year is kicking into full gear and all is well with you and your association.
This is an exciting year for the City of Elk Grove as we celebrate 10 years of independence as a city, while we also deal with challenging times and look to a better future. To me, a strong city must consist of strong neighborhoods.
With that in mind, I am convening a Neighborhood Leaders Summit on Thursday, March 25th at 6:30p.m. at the Glenbrook Community Clubhouse, located at 9985 Westminster Way, Elk Grove CA 95757.
You may recall in 2008, while I served as Mayor, we convened two neighborhood leader summits. The purpose of these summits were to facilitate a dialogue between the City of Elk Grove and our neighborhood leaders. And also to get neighborhood leaders working together.
The January 28th Neighborhood Leaders Summit will continue this dialogue and also focus specifically on public safety. I hope you will join us.
Please RSVP directly to me at gdavis@elkgrovecity.org or you can call me at (916) 627-3201. Thank you, in advance, for joining us!
Sincerely,
GARY DAVIS
COUNICIL MEMBER
Kenny Alvarado
Intern, Assistant to Councilmember Gary Davis
City of Elk Grove
8380 Laguna Palms Way
Elk Grove, CA 95758
916.627.3201 (office)
916.691.2001 (fax)
kalvarado@elkgrovecity.org (email) http://www.elkgrovecity.org
Very good Darcie.....just have to think a little and it's there for anyone to have access to. Of course, Mina giving you Gary Davis' name did help I bet.
I was just made aware of this discussion and as the convener of the event on March 25th, I want to apologize for this apparent confusion. To be clear, the focus of the meeting on March 25th will be public safety and code enforcement. We will have representatives of the Elk Grove Police Department, Elk Grove Code Enforcement, and Cosumnes CSD Fire Department.
In 2008, I convened two similar, “Neighborhood Leader Summits.” They were extremely well attended and productive. Participants included leaders from neighborhood groups and also interested residents.
The March 25th event is an opportunity to exchange information, have a meaningful discussion, and get neighborhood leaders and residents talking with one another around the topic of public safety.
Normally these events take place in City Hall. However, in an effort to be more informal, I asked if we could convene the discussion in your community.
I hope you can make it and I look forward to the discussion.
-Gary Davis
Thank you Council Member Davis!
Now, wouldn't this have all been so simple and straight forward if they had taken the flyer and conversation they had with Mr. Davis or his intern, Kenny and followed through with correct information instead of spinning the story to fit their agenda, whatever that is.
I signed up last night and there were only 5 people listed....I believe this will be a very informative meeting since it also includes leaders from all the other licensed HOA's in EG that are available to attend. Not sure of how the numbers are limited for attendance since that info was not available on the flyer.
(Comment moved from forums)
EG City Council Meeting last evening!
on: March 11, 2010, 10:23 Quote Remove Edit
FYI: Due to another meeting last night I was unable to attend and was just listening to the Video of the meeting. To those interested, this comment was made about 7:10 p.m. by Mr. Davis: (not exactly word for word) He would be holding a meeting at Glenbrooke on March 25th about Public Safety and Code Enforcement with some from EGPD, Code Enforcement & Fire Dept. in attendance. He would like to invite other members of the City Council and PUBLIC to attend. He also stated the meeting was at 6 p.m. - not 6:30 p.m. as stated on the web site. ???
Norma