Former Elk Grove PD employee criticizes Mayor Singh-Allen, city council over secret approval process for homeless shelter

During the September 25, 2024, Elk Grove City Council meeting, one speaker criticized the secrecy of the city's year-round homeless shelter approval process.

Kristina Albright spoke during the hearing against the shelter. At this meeting, Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen approved a $4.5 million contract with The Gathering Inn, based in Roseville, Calif., to operate the facility for three years starting November 1.

Along with the $4.5 million operating contract, the city will spend about $450,000 for leasehold improvements. Much of homeless shelter funding comes from the voter-approved Measure E sales tax increase.  

As a lifelong Elk Grove resident, Albright said the year-round shelter at the Calvary Christian Center on East Stockton Boulevard was approved in secrecy.  

Albright expressed displeasure that the Mayor and city council did not seek public input before the lease was signed in September. She also criticized the mayor and city council for avoiding the two meetings about the shelter's operations. Albright said the meetings were not informative and did not provide a forum for meaningful public input. 

"My husband and I are both retired from the city of Elk Grove as employees, we are both quite aware of what it looks like to try to circumvent the system and have people not really have a chance to have a voice and to rally up and speak in opposition to something like this," she said. "It was done in secrecy. It was obviously done in secrecy because a day after the lease was signed, all of a sudden, there were community meetings and a 227-page report that came out a few days later."

Ms. Albirght is a former background investigator for the Elk Grove Police Department and was a sworn officer with Elk Grove Police and the Sacramento Sheriff's Department. Her husband is former Elk Grove Police Chief Timothy Albright.

The entire commentary from Ms. Albright can be seen in the video.