Post-State of the City Scoop with Mayor Singh-Allen

Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen shared Elk Grove’s progress and a glimpse into the future during her March 29 State of the City Address before a packed house at District56. In this episode of the Elk Grove CityCast, she sits down with John and Kristyn to share a post-event synopsis of the speech and some added insights into the exciting projects under way to propel Elk Grove forward into a brighter future. Whether you're a long-time resident, a business owner, or simply curious about the direction of our beloved city, this episode is a must-listen!

To view the video recording of the speech in it's entirety, visit https://www.elkgrovecity.org/city-government/state-of-the-city-address. 

Rate, review and subscribe to the Elk Grove Citycast to get more information about the people, programs, and services shaping the City. You can find the Elk Grove Citycast anywhere you get your podcasts or listen online at www.elkgrovecity.org/podcast. 

Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Elk Grove CityCast the podcast about Elk Grove. In each episode, we'll dive into hot topics, share what's happening in the city, and introduce you to some of the people making a difference in this place that we call home. 

John Hull: Hi everyone. I'm John Hull. Welcome to the Elk Grove CityCast. Joining me is the City of Elk Grove’s public affairs manager, Kristyn Laurence, and Kristyn, great to be with you once again as we talk about what's happening here in the city of Elk Grove. 

Kristyn Laurence: Always nice to connect with you and our listeners, John. 

John Hull: Yeah, and you know, this might be what we call a CityCast that stops and takes a temperature of Elk Grove where we are now, how far we've come and where we're going. Because today we will be talking with Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen just days after she delivered the state of the city address. And tell us a little about the venue, Kristyn for the state of the city address. 

Kristyn Laurence: So the Mayor delivered her fourth state of the city address and she became a mayor. We had, we had a wonderful event that the Chamber of Commerce hosted on March 29th at District56. There were about 200 people that attended the event. So even on Good Friday, there was a strong attendance. Pretty much sold-out crowd and the, the speech was also livestreamed on the city's website and people can still actually tune in and watch the speech in its entirety on the city's website if, if they want to hear all of it. Today is more of the abridged version, right? 

John Hull: Right. And we'll be joining Mayor Singh-Allen in just a moment. But before we do, let's tell those who subscribe to the CityCast about another episode we'll share this month. And so would you talk about that special episode? 

Kristyn Laurence: Sure as alluded to in some of the conversations we've had recently, we're about to embark on what could potentially be Elk Grove's largest capital project to date for consideration. It's reaching some major milestones at this point, and it is scheduled to go to the City Planning Commission on Thursday, April 4th. So as we record this, it's, it's just ahead of that. But it will be considered by the Planning Commission April 4th. We think that the project could be pretty transformative if it moves through the process for both the city and the region. It's a collaboration between the city, the Sacramento Zoological Society, and other regional partners. But the project and its financing plan are going to be presented at a public hearing with the Planning Commission. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend and participate.

As we move through that process, though if it, it moves through the Planning Commission, which regardless of how the planning commission decides, the city council is kind of the end result or final stopping point for consideration of the project so it…we do anticipate that it will be headed to city council later this spring, potentially sometime in May. And so, leading up to that there's a lot of information that has been added to the city's website and we're going to be hosting a virtual workshop To provide the community with an overview of the project and the financing plan a little later this month on Wednesday, April 17th But before we do that, we thought it would be a great opportunity to add a bonus episode of the CityCast, where we'll bring on Christopher Jordan, who's our Director of Planning, Strategic Planning and Innovation. And he's going to talk to us about the project. He's really kind of been the staff lead on this. He's working with a lot of wonderfully smart people from all different aspects of zoo design and planning. Not all city staff. These are zoological society people and designers like the folks that had created Disney's Animal Kingdom way back in 1998. So, they've all come together and, and, and put their collective heads together to come up with this plan moving forward that's going to be shared. But we'll bring Christopher Jordan on for a bonus episode this month to talk just about the zoo project. 

John Hull: I'll look forward to that very much. More questions for Kristyn later in this episode of the CityCast. So listeners, if you'd like to contribute ideas for future Elk Grove CityCast topics, email us at publicaffairs@elkgrovecity.org. Again, publicaffairs@elkgrovecity.org.

Bobbie Singh-Allen has been the Mayor of Elk Grove since 2020. She served our community prior to that as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Elk Grove Unified School District, appointed to that post in 2012 and then reelected in 2014 and 2018. On March 29th before a packed house at District56, she delivered her fourth State of the City address. And now she joins us to discuss that address and the state of our city. Mayor Singh-Allen, it's great to have you spend some time with us here on the Elk Grove CityCast. 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Great to be here. Thank you, John. 

John Hull: I know this was address number four as Elk Grove's mayor. So tell me, what's it like to deliver this speech every year? And why is it so important? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Sure. You know, I look forward to this every year and I have to tell you every year it seems like that time flies right by. But I look forward to it because there's so much that happens in the course of 12 months that sometimes you know, residents and business community may not be aware of. Whether they're reading the newspapers or following our newsletter alerts and so forth, they meant they may miss something. So this is a moment for our city to shine and share all of the great news that's taking place. 

John Hull: Well, you know, your speech drew an analogy between the Tom Cruise movie series Mission Impossible and running and managing a city such as Elk Grove. By the way, I liked the your entrance with the sunglasses on. That was cute. But in your speech, you talked about the necessity of a city like Elk Grove needing to embrace innovation. And I'm quoting from your speech “to adapt to changing demographics and technology and environmental concerns.” Could you just give us a couple of examples of where our city has excelled in these areas?

Mayor Singh-Allen: You know, we have many areas that we can highlight, but some of the snapshots that I look back on with great pride, you know, we have a very strong rainy day fund at 22 million. We have new businesses coming into Elk Grove. 400 permits with new businesses like Nordstrom Rack and Macy's. New restaurants. So we're, we're stepping up and meeting the needs of Elk Grove residents. We have a library that's getting ready to break ground. We have the ACE train coming. That list goes on and on. So there's a lot of great things and we do have to adapt because cities and the needs of residents changes every single day.

John Hull: Yeah. That one fact you just got through mentioning more than 400 new businesses issued licenses to do business here in Elk Grove. That's amazing. 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Yeah. 

John Hull: What's that say though? What's that say about our economic status I suppose in all of this region? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Sure. I mean, I love saying that Elk Grove is open for business. That is one of my favorite taglines because it truly reflects the values at City Hall. We are a city not only welcoming to all residents, but also welcoming to the business community. Elk Grove is a great place to invest your dollars and hopefully see your dreams come true. 

John Hull: Well, how big was it this for this past year that Kubota Tractor Corporation opened their doors?

Mayor Singh-Allen: Yeah. You know, having a multinational corporation invest in our city speaks volumes to the capacity here. And the talent pool that's right here, ready to work in our great city. So we hope that that sparks even more interest by multinational international companies to want to invest their dollars here in our city. We not only have a great, great talent pool, but our proximity to capital when it goes back to sort of the Silicon Valley, particularly now with the ACE train coming in. So we are well positioned to be a hub for those kinds of investments. 

John Hull: And you also mentioned in your state of the city address the importance of a vibrant, diverse economy. So what's that mean to you? Why is that so important to you as mayor? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Sure. I mean, a diverse economy is representing all of the various components, things like manufacturing, like Kubota. Innovation and startup companies like core impact that I, that I did a shout out for, but it's also embracing travel and tourism. And Sky River Casino is a prime example of that. And then our, our old town revitalization has also become a destination. Not just for Elk Grove residents, but for our great region that brings in more travel and tourism dollars to our city. And then just all of the various retail and restaurant options as well. So that's really having a robust, diverse economy. So you're not over represented in just one segment that you really are stepping up to meet the needs of Elk Grove. 

John Hull: Well, you know, the Sky River Casino, you just mentioned it has been open now about a year and a half. And definitely, we're seeing people from all over the region coming to Elk Grove.

Mayor Singh-Allen: Yeah. 

John Hull: And I call that a destination business. And how, how has that helped the overall economy? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Absolutely. So when you have a destination business like Sky River Casino, not only are they coming in to patronize Sky River and, and frequenting sort of their restaurants, but it also boosts the local economy. If they're not eating at Sky River, they'll go to options in our city. They'll spend dollars in our city and those dollars come back by way of revenue to the city of Elk Grove. So when you have any travel to a destination market, it supports other ancillary businesses. And as they continue to expand, as you know, they purchased 20 acres. As they add other additional amenities that won't be directly a part of the casino. So think about more family friendly options you know, entertainment, retail, dining and so forth. Those will bring more dollars back again into our city. And this is really becoming a destination area. And as you know, we're also looking at possibly the new zoo proposal, which would just be essentially down the street. So now you have a tourism hub in those corridors.

John Hull: We'll get to the zoo in just a second. I want to back up to something you just got through mentioning a few moments ago. Businesses coming into Elk Grove, Macy's, Whole Foods, Yard House. How does that speak to the quality of city that we have for those kind of retailers to open a location?

Mayor Singh-Allen: Sure. Like all businesses, particularly big businesses like those that you just mentioned, they look at the different demographics to see if the support would be there for these kinds of businesses. So they've obviously done their due diligence and seeing not only a growing economy, but our city is still, is still growing. And the diversity of our community really is appealing for those kinds of employers and businesses to want to come here and be a part of that dream. 

John Hull: Now you mentioned in your state of the city address. You call it the Startup Incentive Program. Now I'm going to quote you here “…nurturing a growing number of cutting edge companies whose concepts could change the future.” So could you talk about that incentive program? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Sure. So, you know, it's a great program where we provide funding just and we also have that Pitch Elk Grove event where we also provide some seed monies that go into helping to really boost and elevate these companies. So companies like Core Impact, for example, they are on the cutting edge of combining technology as well as, you know, they're focusing on athletes to really increase their capacity. And it's a game changer for athletes, for trainers, it will help reduce injuries. So it's, it's a very unique program. It's wearable technology that will really track and provide that data that is so necessary for athletes to really look in on how they can improve themselves. And so that's just one example of companies that obviously we're very excited about.

They're all, you know, they started off in in one space shared with other startups. Now they have their own site as a business, which Sam Taylor, the CEO, has already told me, they're already looking to move into a bigger site and employ even more people. So these startups are responsible for over 80 jobs right here in our city. So they're giving back to our community as well as us investing in their dreams, because what a great success story that we, we get an opportunity to shine and showcase that these dreams were embraced and welcomed right here in Elk Grove. 

John Hull: Great. You know, during your state of the city address, you also talked about and you just got through mentioning the city library a little bit. We'll get to that in a moment. But as we're now recording this CityCast, we, there's a lot of discussions going on about what will be our largest capital project Elk Grove has ever undertaken. And that is the zoo. Now, I guess you've benn at it four years. Is that right? About four years since…

Mayor Singh-Allen: Yeah, it's I mean, not quite before I started, before I was elected Mayor. It was shortly after that, but we've been at it for a couple of years, 

John Hull: right? So…

Mayor Singh-Allen: From an exclusive negotiating agreement to discussions to where we are today. 

John Hull: Wow. And so for the people who are tuned in today, and they haven't really been following the project. Can you share where we are now in the process? And of course, what it means to our city? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Sure. So, you know, the City of Elk Grove has been saving for 24 years for a project like this, a project that not only puts Elk Grove on the map, but it also played well, it's we're well positioned for that tourism that we talked about as well. And so we have a conservative city manager and previous city managers and councils who've done a great job saving for such a day. And that day we, we hope, we dream, that it might, it might be now. And so we've gone through. all of the feasibility studies, the financing plan. It's been a very transparent process, which I'm very proud of. People know this is this is how a potential new zoo would be funded. Because what we don't want is anybody to think one Measure. E dollars are going to be used for this. That's been disclosed. But I think, you know, sharing what this is is a partnership with not only the zoological society, but also the community. But those the financing plan it's, you know, we have those great infographics that are, that have been shared widely with everyone.

John Hull: I like how also you've gotten other groups kind of involved in this process. I, I heard something about a…a mock 3D model done by some Franklin high school students. I'd love to see that. That's great work. 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Yeah. We have it on our website. So please do go to the website and see some of those renderings. We have great talent here in Elk Grove and most importantly, our students. And so as a former school board trustee, I'm proud that we have partnered with students in Elk Grove high schools specifically to work with the talent pool that's out there. That are that are working with us and creating these renderings and they get to showcase not only their interest and their talent, but careers that they want to obviously go into into the future. But they get that hands on training right now, in real time, on something very significant for their city. 

John Hull: Exactly. Exactly. Well, our guest is our Elk Grove Mayor, Bobbie Singh-Allen, and we're talking about kind of doing a recap of her state of the city address that was she recently gave before the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce at District56. In that address, I'm glad you mentioned this. I call it the elephant in the room. When it comes to what cities have to deal with here in northern, all of California, really. The rise, the rise of our retail crime. Okay, it's happening. We all have to talk about it. But how is how important is it that our city supports our police department, giving them the funding and the tools they need to keep Elk Grove safe?

Mayor Singh-Allen: Absolutely. So, you know, economic vitality does not happen by accident or on its own. Having a very strong public safety support go hand in hand. And I unfortunately had to highlight some of the data coming out of the Bay area, including the In and Out burger that had to close because of the rise in retail theft and crime. And I know that there's a gas station nearby that project specifically that had over 300 incidents in one year. And that's unacceptable. That is unacceptable. And so we know that while this is a statewide issue, but it doesn't have to be. Cities can do their part. And so one of those is fully supporting and funding your police departments to give them the resources to be successful. And what I mean with with that is, you know, investing in the innovation and the technologies that our PD….we actually just voted on at the last city council meeting. including drones. Drones provide a very safe way to gather intelligence on on some of these calls. They can go out and assess without having to dispatch a live person.

So not only does that help save money but potentially can help save lives as well. But we also have mental health supports and counseling in our police department for some of those calls to deescalate situations. But when it comes to retail theft and crime, having those additional Measure E dollars has gone a long way to provide additional funding and resources for our police department. Namely, we are able to create this Community Prosecutor Program. We have a wonderful community prosecutor, Anthony Ortiz, and it's a partnership that we have with our District Attorney, Thien Ho, and it's something that I'm very proud of. The idea is not only to go after, of course, bad actors, but really to be proactive in helping to reduce crime and those partnerships that he's able to leverage and creating those again, those relationships with the community will go a long way. And, you know, these kinds of programs help foster goodwill and relationships again, with our community. What I'm proud to say is Elk Grove PD does an excellent job working with our residents. And so you see the residents step up and support them. And unfortunately, that is unique to our city, but it shouldn't be. Other cities should be working in those sort of collaborative relationships. 

John Hull: Exactly, exactly. Well said. The other thing too, Madam Mayor, that I'd like for you to talk about is something else that is the elephant in the room. It's statewide, it's homelessness. Now in your state of the city, you did make reference to homelessness here in Elk Grove because we're not exempt from that problem. In fact, this past winter, we opened an Enhanced Winter Sanctuary. How effective was that? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: It's been very effective, and the success comes in hearing those stories, the stories of not only The Gathering Inn that we're able to provide those wraparound supportive services of providing a safe place to to reside over the cold winter months, but also getting some of those folks into housing.

But in addition to that our homeless navigators have helped. I think it's like 109. individuals get into permanent housing. That's tremendous work. Our homeless population, while we're waiting for that ultimate time in count, the point in time count, those numbers when they're revealed. And that really helps to identify the kinds of funding we may get to address homelessness directly. But you know, I would say on a given day, there's I mean, there's definitely less than 100 that we know of and our homeless navigators have a relationship and often know them by name. Some are passing through town, and some have deep connections to our community. So that's where we have a responsibility to step up and do our share as a city, like all cities have to do their share on not only providing those emergency services like the gathering in. But also the bigger picture on addressing affordable housing crisis that we're all faced with in the state, region, and city. 

John Hull: You know, one other thing too Mayor Singh Allen, is that you mentioned, and I was impressed by this, that your navigators, city navigators, moved 109 people into permanent housing.

Mayor Singh-Allen: Yeah.

John Hull: That's doing a lot of work. It really is. That's doing 

Mayor Singh-Allen: a lot of work, and Measure E funding helped create one of the positions. So that's, again, that was Measure E dollars that the community voted to support. coming back and showing all of the good work that we're able to do with those, those dollars, including the firefighters. They're using the money also very well and very wisely by reducing the response time to get to those emergencies. Because not only do we have more firefighters, they're also investing in technology. 

John Hull: Measure E, I have one note that I overlooked when you were talking about the police department. I want to go back to that.

Through Measure E funding, we have hired now what, 19 police officers. Is that true? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: 19 positions. Not, I don't think, they're not all officers. It's 19 positions with the Elk Grove Police Department. 

John Hull: Okay. 

Mayor Singh-Allen: And then including of course our community prosecutor. We've also invested in technology like the drone program which is instrumental. It's one of the tools that we use during 4th of July and the days leading up and after it, for addressing some of those fires and all those illegal fireworks that we'll see around town that can cause not only a nuisance, but real life property damage and potential loss of life.

John Hull: Exactly. You summed up your state of the city as saying we are strong. So naturally…

Mayor Singh-Allen: We are strong. 

John Hull: Yeah. And so the next question is How, what does our city need to do to keep up this momentum? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Sure. I mean, you know what I, I do want to pause. And when I say our city is strong, I recognize that that is not the case for many cities, for most cities, even in our surrounding community. And so the fact that our city manager, our staff and our council have invested and spent money wisely is important to me. And so we should never just sort of rest on our laurels and think, okay, well, we know what we're doing and we're good. We should always be mindful and always do the due diligence and check in, but also recognize every investment is a huge opportunity on getting tremendous investment in return, sort of that you know, rate of return you know, or ROI, some people call it. their the return on your investment. Those are all things that I know that our staff is, is very mindful of. That every investment we do, every dollar we spent, we look at that very critically, but on our economic development opportunities, the ROR on many of these things, including, but not limited to the zoo project is quite is, is quite immeasurable, you know, when you see some of those dollars and what that means and what we get back in our city. That's something that, you know, we should take pride in, but also look at as well. 

John Hull: Okay. 

Mayor Singh-Allen: So the work continues. I, I never say you pause and say, okay, we know what we're doing a hundred percent. And you know, it's, it's that partnership with our city staff, the city council and our community. And it's just working together collaboratively, always in the best interest of the city, but also always being mindful of those tax dollars.

John Hull: Mayor Singh-Allen, is there anything else you want to share with our CityCast listeners? 

Mayor Singh-Allen: You know, all dreams are welcome in our in our great city. Our city is doing well and it is thriving. So, you know, when I…The theme of our state of the city was mission possible next year, when I come back to you, hopefully I'm invited back, I can say mission accomplished. We have a very promising and robust agenda for the next coming year, and I want to be able to check those that checklist off. But I do before we close, I do want to recognize the great work that our Public Works is also doing because as part of my city, a state of the city was also recognizing, you know, our roads and that you know, what is it called that that index that we use. I think it's called the Pavement Condition Index and our roads rank at 80, which is tremendous. Where the region is at is about 53. So that comparison is something that our community should celebrate. We are reducing the traffic time to travel across the community. Those are things that we should be excited about. But there's more great things coming. So stay tuned. 

John Hull: Excellent. Well, I'm gonna thank you, Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen for joining us today here on the Elk Grove City cast. Really appreciate your time. 

Mayor Singh-Allen: Thank you. It's been an honor and a privilege.

John Hull: In this portion of the Elk Grove City cast, it's our rapid fire segment. I put Kristyn on the spot with some questions about Elk Grove. Now, if you have any questions you'd like to hear answers for, you can always email it to us at publicaffairs@elkgrovecity.org again… publicaffairs@elkgrovecity.org. 

Now, Kristyn, a whole lot like our January CityCast when City Manager Jason Bearman joined us and talked about where Elk Grove is headed in future years, today's CityCast was a much similar focus. So, so what projects or programs are on the horizon that we should be on the lookout for? 

Kristyn Laurence: Yeah, I know with our interview with Jason and again with the mayor, we're getting the big picture, kind of the 10,000 foot level of a lot of big projects that we're expecting to see happen in the city's future, but we also have a lot of other things that are going on in the short term. And so I thought I would take this opportunity to just kind of share a little bit about what people can expect to see, you know, maybe over the next month or the next few months  And so we've talked a bit about these big capital projects and part of that is including a public art element And so we've been talking a lot about the new library and the construction that will happen in our historic area over the next year…couple years…and there's a step in that right now that is active from the Elk Grove Arts Commission. They have put out a call for artists and they're currently seeking proposals for a public art sculpture that would be prominently displayed in front of the new library. It's, an attempt by the city and the commission to infuse more public art into our historic district, and it would really serve as a piece that provides a warm welcome to all the new visitors of the library. So we're looking for artists to submit a statement of qualifications to be considered for a commissioning artwork. There's more information on the city's website at www.elkgrovecity.org but the deadline to receive proposals from interested artists is 4 p. m. on Thursday, April 18th. So that is a significant project that kind of applies a short-term lens to a long term project. So this month it would be important to respond to that if you're a creative type that could contribute to the historic area. And then there's some other activities, you know, spring and summer we start to kick into high gear with events and activities around the city. And we're kind of starting that in the month of April. The Youth Commission is going to be hosting their family fun day. Once again, they've been doing this a few years now. But it's going to be on Saturday, April 13th from noon to four at the Old Town Plaza, and it's a free family event that offers a variety of carnival games and music and activities, and then food would be available for purchase. So if people are looking for something to do this is a great opportunity to do that. There's a lot of other events. that are going to be coming online so I encourage people to follow our social media platforms to get more information about upcoming events. There's a lot of festivals and fairs that come online in the spring and summer season and the city has a couple of signature events our Salute to the Red, White, and Blue, which is our Signature July 4th event and the Elk Grove Multicultural Festival and that's going to be scheduled on September 14th. I'm mentioning those now because we're actually calling…we've got a call out for vendors So if you have a business and you're a creative maker and you're looking for those opportunities to sell or promote your business at a large scale festival in Elk Grove, we are looking for you. We're looking for fun and unique vendors specializing in food and drinks or holiday themed items. If they're a community organization, they offer some cultural crafts or kids activities. They can come online to our website at www.elkgrovecity.org/events and we have some vendor applications there. They could be part of that July 4th event or the multicultural festival. 

John Hull: This is random, but I have to ask the question. Is it true that Western festivals coming back? 

Kristyn Laurence: You know, that's produced by a separate nonprofit organization, but we have received paperwork from them and we're under the impression that that is going to be coming back the first weekend in May. I haven't seen a lot of marketing coming out just yet from that group, but you know, we're optimistic that that will make its return this year. 

John Hull: Yeah, it's been what, three years, at least four years perhaps since Western Festival's been a part of the landscape out there in in Elk Grove Regional Park. So just thought I'd throw that, that question out there again, Kristyn, could you tell our listeners about the next CityCast? We will have another one here in the month of April in what about a week or so, would you say? 

Kristyn Laurence: Yeah, you know, we're, we're calling it our bonus episode, right? For April. We don't normally record more than once a month, but this is a project that we thought was really worth spending the extra time and sharing information about it with our listeners. So, we'll be bringing Christopher Jordan, the Director of Strategic Planning and Innovation on for a bonus episode. I believe we're looking to record that on the 8th, so we'll be putting that out there in another week or so and sharing that with our listenership. But yeah, look for a bonus episode from us in the month of April that's focused on the Zoo Project.

John Hull: Great. It's been a great episode. The Elk Grove CityCast is usually a monthly production. brought to you by the City of Elk Grove. But again, be looking for that second special episode here in just a few days. If you have any questions for Kristyn, please email it to us at public affairs@elkgrovecity.org. For Kristyn Laurence, I'm John Hull. Thank you for tuning in.

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