On Tuesday, September 29, the Elk Grove Chamber of commerce, in association with the Elk Grove Citizen held a 2020 Elk Grove mayoral forum at the Wackford Center.

The event was mired with background noise from protestors outside the venue, and according to one person inside the forum, a deficient technological set up by the sponsors.

On this edition of Elk Grove News Podcast is an audio recording from that Zoom meeting.

The forum was originally scheduled for one hour but was cut short to about 48 minutes because of the poor audio quality.

Our recording is slightly less as several long pauses where there was no audio were cut. None of the comments have been removed for the recording.

The opening comments were from Waldo Herrera of the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce.

Below is a guide to time marks in the audio, and responses from Mayor Steve Ly, Brian Pastor, and Bobbie Singh-Allen.

1:00 Opening remarks Waldo Herrera

2:20 Moderator introduction, David Herburger

1:36 Forum format

4:41 Opening statement - Bobbie Singh-Allen

7:36 Opening statement - Brian Pastor

9:43 Opening statement - Steve Ly

12:55 First question; Elk Grove's most pressing challenge

13:06 Singh-Allen response

16:23 Pastor response

17:54 Ly response

20:06 Second question; California Northstate Univiersity's proposed project

20:41 Pastor response

22:36 Ly response

24:17 Sing-Allen response

26:21 Third questions; Law enforcement and race relations

26:50 Ly response

30:02 Singh-Allen response

31:40 Pastor response

34:08 Fourth question; Jobs to homes imbalance

34:37 Singh-Allen response

36:49 Discussion of stopping forum because of protest background noise

37:31 Fourth question repeated

38:35 Pastor response

40:25 Ly response

42:53 Herrera comments on poor audio, interference from outside

43:41 Singh-Allen's closing remarks

45:25 Pastor closing remarks

46:05 Ly closing remarks

Two years in politics is an eternity