By Cameron Macdonald
Citizen Staff Writer
Elk Grove’s police and firefighter unions formally announced their local Election 2008 endorsements outside the Elk Grove City Hall on Oct. 8.
The members of the two groups are endorsing the same candidates for both the Elk Grove City Council and the Cosumnes Community Services District (CSD) Board.
For city council, the groups support incumbents Jim Cooper, District 1, and Sophia Scherman, District 5, as well as challenger Steve Detrick in District 3.
And for the Cosumnes CSD board, the groups are backing incumbent Doug McElroy and challengers Rod Brewer and Michelle Orrock.
If elected, the Cosumnes CSD candidates would govern fire and emergency medical services for Elk Grove and Galt along with the parks of Elk Grove.
The leaders for both unions said they are supporting candidates who they believe will maintain public safety during difficult economic times.
“We need council members and board members that clearly understand the priorities of public safety,” said Dan Quiggle, the director of the Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522.
The Local 522 represents the Cosumnes CSD firefighters who serve Elk Grove and Galt.
James Fuller, the president of the Elk Grove Police Officers Association, first spoke about how his organization considered their choices for the election.
“What comes to mind is just an absolute cooperation with public safety,” Fuller said of the endorsed candidates. “(They) are going to be the right team to make the right decisions to deal with those difficult issues.”
All of the endorsed candidates attended the unions’ press conference to share their appreciation.
“It’s one of the ones that I worked very hard to get,” Orrock said about the endorsement.
McElroy told the press: “This is a new chapter in regards to how local government is run here in the Elk Grove area…a chapter of cooperation, partnership and increased synergy.”
Quiggle told the Citizen that the Local 522’s endorsement process is performed every two years.
They first have seven firefighter members interview the candidates to learn about the candidates and hear their positions on subjects like public safety and the funding for it, Quiggle said.
“Much of it is an educational session for us to learn about them and for them to learn about us,” Quiggle added.
Fuller explained that the police officers’ association also conducted an interview process with the candidates. He mentioned that they made sure their interviews correlated with the Local 522’s, so that their endorsed candidates shared the same priorities for public safety.
The Local 522 chose to endorse McElroy, Brewer and Orrock for the CSD board based on their stances on issues that concern citizens and firefighters, Quiggle said.
As for the city council, the Local 522’s support of Cooper and Scherman is centered on those incumbents’ history in office; they are endorsing Detrick because they believe he will continue make the changes to the city council that were brought by the 2006 election winners, Gary Davis and Pat Hume.
Both of the union leaders said their members will now campaign for the chosen candidates.
Quiggle said that the Local 522 is making financial contributions to the candidates as well as placing campaign yard signs and making telephone calls to voters.
“All the work it takes to get the message of the candidate out to the citizens,” he said.
Fuller said that his association’s members have already started campaigning and “hitting the pavement. We’ll be in your neighborhood supporting our candidates.”
