Friday, June 8, 2007

Scherman to seek re-election


By Shannon Savage
Citizen Staff Writer
Posted to blog Friday, 6:05 p.m. PST By Editor Jeff Forward

With seven years of service to Elk Grove under her belt, district five City Council Member Sophia Scherman has officially announced that she plans to seek re-election.
“We built this city from the ground up,” Scherman said. “It was very exciting and very stressful. (But) now that we’re there, there are some things that I’d like to see through and be a part of. I have no reason other then that.”
Scherman has lived in Elk Grove for almost 36 years.
“I’ve been here for so long and I’ve got so much history,” Scherman said. “I can remember when something was tried and it didn’t work and then something else was tried and it didn’t work.”
Scherman remarried in 1968 and moved to Elk Grove to be closer to her husband’s family.
“His mother lived here,” Scherman said. “He was born and raised here. I just thought that my girls needed family ties.”
At the time, politics were the last thing on Scherman’s mind.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d be where I am today - in politics,” Scherman said. “(I had) no college education. That was probably my greatest fear that someone would say something.”
But Scherman pushed through those fears when she decided to run for a seat on the then Elk Grove Community Services District Board in 1997.
“I would get my tax bill and I would look at everything that was coming out and I didn’t understand some of the stuff,” Scherman said of her reason for seeking office. “I just happened to go to a meeting. I went to meetings for two years before I decided I wanted to run for election. I just thought that I wanted to be part of that decision making body and be the voice of the people.”
Although Scherman had experience running for a seat on the CSD board, she said city council elections are much more tense.
“It was a little easier in the past but because our city has grown I have to reach so many more people,” Scherman said.
Even after campaigning twice for city council there are always surprises, but dirty politics don’t scare her, Scherman said.
“I have nothing to hide,” Scherman said. “My life is an open book.”
Once someone is finally on the council it is still isn’t all gumdrops and roses though. Receiving threatening e-mails about beavers or constant criticism about certain problems in the city is also par for the course. To handle the good with the bad Scherman said she just thinks about the big picture.
“I have pride after a project is completed when I think who it is benefiting,” Scherman said. “Of course you those criticisms. There’s so many decisions to be made it’s very difficult for people to (always) be happy. It gets stressful at times but I try to think of it always in a positive way.”
To wade through the rhetoric and focus in on the pros and cons of an issue Scherman said she draws two columns on a piece of paper and notes resident’s comments.
“I see this is why they don’t want it,” Scherman said. “And then I look over here and see this is why they do want it. Whichever column comes out that is the most pessimist, I go to the pessimist side.”
But Scherman said it is in her nature to be able to make hard decisions.
“I was the oldest of four children,” Scherman said. “My mom was a single mom and then I became a single parent.”
Since Elk Grove is still a fairly new city, there are a number of different platforms a candidate could take. Scherman said she plans to focus on establishing better grounds for growth and getting the CSD and city parks agreement settled.
But just having a strong platform might not win the race. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised in the 2006 election to help secure votes. Scherman said that figure might only rise for the 2008 election.
In previous elections, the Building Industry Association has played a big role in donating money to candidates. No matter how much anyone donates to Scherman’s campaign, she said she cannot be bought.
“My record speaks for itself,” Scherman said. “I play no favorites.”
To those who say seven years on the council is too long and the city is ready for new blood, Scherman said she welcomes the competition.
“I encourage people to run for office like I did,” Scherman said.
Although Scherman encourages the competition, currently no other candidates have announced their candidacy for the district five seat.
Even with unknown opponents, Scherman said her chances of winning are outstanding.
“I will be re-elected,” Scherman said. “I’ll be re-elected if that’s the wish of the people. They are the ones that will make that (retirement) decision for me in the end.”

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Making a blog isn't easy

As we here at the Elk Grove Citizen move forward in the world of online journalism, there will undoubtedly be glitches, gaffes, and mess-ups. We will do our best to avoid them, limit them, and correct ourselves when we do make an error or something goes wrong.
Afterall, blogging and the other forms of online publishing are developing and changing at a rapid pace and we here at the Citizen are trying to not only do our daily jobs at the newspaper but also learn how to manage and utilize these new technologies. There are bound to be some bumps on the digital highway.
Today, I got onto the egcitizennews blog site and found the same obituary placed in three different locations on the Web page. I had added Mr. Wettach's obituary last night and had experienced a few "error" messages while adding that text. I thought I had fixed the problem and when I viewed the page before posting it, it looked normal.
Then came this afternoon - and Mr. Wettach's obituary was on there in three places.
So, I fiddled with the template and layout on blogger.com and quickly corrected the problem. It took a bit of time and reading, but it got done.
For me, a total Luddite, it was a frustrating situation. I am a rookie with computers - having just bought my first computer ever in February. That was at the age of 37. Yes, have never owned a computer - amazing in this day and age of technology.
Not owning a computer all these years means that I have extremely little know-how on how to use computers (aside from turning it on and off, some word processing, and a few other tasks) let alone program the html code on a blog.
So, it is a learn as I go process. I am trying to teach myself basic blogging and Web site development via books and Web tutorials, but it is slow going with my duties to the print edition, managing our small newsroom, and living a personal life outside of work.
The experience raised my respect and appreciation for the work that amateur bloggers like Jason Daniel of Eyes of Argus (www.eyesofargus.net) produce.
We have a new summer intern - Sarah Kyo - who has studied blogging and vlogging ( video blogging) at San Jose State University. Kyo - who is majoring in journalism - will be at the Citizen until early August and is interested in maintaining a blog while here on staff. We will update our readers when that happens and link to her blog from this one as well as our main Web site - www.egcitizen.com.
I hope you enjoy our blog and keep returning as we add new features and more stories and breaking news. We hope to have audio and video podcasts available within the next few months.
Jeff Forward
Editor, the Citizen

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Florin, Sheldon, and Franklin commencement ceremonies today


The students of the class of 2007 from Florin High School, Sheldon High School, and Franklin High School were honored Wednesday during commencement ceremonies held at Arco Arena. A full report on the Florin High graduation - as well as Tuesday's ceremonies at Elk Grove Charter High School and William Daylor High School - will be featured in the Friday edition of the Citizen.
The Sheldon and Franklin graduation stories and photographs will appear in the Wednesday, June 13 Citizen.

Photo: Senior class governor Tejinder Barayah gives a speech in front of her classmates and their friends and family present at Arco Arena. By Rebecca Maston, Elk Grove Citizen.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Elk Grove, Laguna Creek & Valley graduations held today


The senior classes of Elk Grove High School, Laguna Creek High School, and Valley High School graduated Monday at Arco Arena. A full report on the Elk Grove and Valley ceremonies will be in Wednesday's Citizen.