Elk Grove mayor apologizes for disregarding harassment claims, calls for ethics commission

Facing a censure vote by colleagues this week, Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly issued a formal apology to women who have accused him of lacking sensitivity about sexism and harassment.

Ly, who is seeking a third term as the city’s mayor, said he did not condone the incidents experienced by women, including alleged harassment by his supporters and, in at least one case, one of his campaign employees.

“They have spoken out about being harassed, intimidated, and bullied,” Ly said in the prepared statement. “I believe them and acknowledge their pain. I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering they have endured.”

In his statement, Ly also raised the idea of creating an ethics commission that would oversee the city, as well as the Cosumnes Community Services District and the Elk Grove Unified School District. The notion of creating one has been floated in Elk Grove for years after members of the city council were accused of intimidating citizens who were critical of the government in the early 2000s, prompting a grand jury investigation.

If created, Elk Grove would follow in the footsteps of the city of Sacramento which formed an ethics commission in 2017 even though supporters of the idea now say it doesn’t have enough power to hold elected officials accountable.

Ly has been under fire since June over a range of accusations by at least four women. His former campaign manager, Linda Vue, accused him of pressuring her into removing damaging comments on Facebook.

Most recently, Jaclyn Moreno, a director for the Cosumnes Community Services District, accused one of Ly’s campaign employees of sexual harassment. Moreno said Ly failed to remove the employee after he was told about multiple incidents.

Others have also accused Ly of engaging in politically hostile acts. Bobbie Singh Allen said he tried to stop her appointment to the school board in 2012 and Nancy Chaires Espinoza said Ly recruited candidates to run against her.

Both Singh Allen, Chaires Espinoza and publisher of the Elk Grove Tribune website Jacqueline Cheung said Ly’s supporters also have attacked them online when they’ve been opposed to the mayor.

The City Council will decide Wednesday whether the claims against Ly merit a formal show of disapproval. A censure would not penalize Ly; it only demonstrates that his colleagues believe he has done something wrong.

In his statement, Ly acknowledged that Moreno’s experience “should have been centered more” when they coordinated their campaigns together in 2018 as members of “Team Elk Grove.”

Ly also wrote that he’s willing to meet with the women who have spoken out about him or his supporters.

“I continue to believe in restorative justice, and to that end, I renew my willingness to meet with the women who have spoken out and have been harmed to begin the process of healing,” he wrote.

Past ethics issues resurface

This isn’t the first time Elk Grove officials have run into ethical issues. In 2005, Councilman Michael P. Leary and other lawmakers were accused of threatening to cut city funding to groups who were critical of their decisions.

From the dais, Leary told members of the public in an open meeting that he was less likely to fund groups who spoke against the City Council’s decisions, according to a Sacramento County grand jury report published in 2006.

Leary, who was a lieutenant in the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office at the time, used the agency’s email to threatened a citizen with information about an old misdemeanor charge.

The Grand Jury found his actions to be improper and recommended he be censured by the City Council, among other things.

The episode led to the creation of a formal code of ethics for the city of Elk Grove, which was incorporated in July 2000. The city attorney at the time disputed all but one of the Grand Jury’s findings.

At the time experts wondered whether Elk Grove’s ethics issues were just a result of growing pains as the young city’s population ballooned. Some citizens called for the creation of an ethics commission but the idea never took hold.

Meanwhile, government agencies that operate in Elk Grove have been the subject of at least 9 other grand jury investigations since 2002, including a report published in 2005 about conflicts of interests on the City Council.

As an independent investigative body, ethics commissions are supposed to ensure good governance and accountability of local officials. Many large cities have them like Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.

Sacramento created one after several council members and the mayor was accused of improper behavior.

Kerri Asbury, the former chair of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County who supported creating an ethics commission in Sacramento, said it’s important that such a body have the power to carry out its duties, including adequate funding and staffing.

In Sacramento, that has not been the case, she said.

“The way the Sacramento committee is designed it has no teeth,” Asbury said, adding that they report to the city manager and council. “They can make recommendations, have forms and processes in place, but it ends there.”

This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.