How Elk Grove City Councilman Darren Suen threw a monkey wrench into the zoo naming
As we know, that proposed name went over like a lead balloon with the Elk Grove City Council and Councilman Darren Suen in particular.
Documents released by the city of Elk Grove from a public record request laid bare the imminent collapse of the Sacramento Zoo relocation project months before the April 30 announcement of its discontinuation. They also revealed some of the actions that led to hard feelings between Elk Grove and the Sacramento Zoological Society (SZS).
One interesting aspect leading to the collapse was the naming process of the now-defunct zoo project. Correspondence between the SZS and the city showed confidence in the proposed zoo name.
The proposed name, developed in part by the public relations firm Runyon Saltzman and the SZS, was "The Greater Sacramento Zoo at Elk Grove." Before the January 22 Elk Grove City Council meeting, where the first proposed name was revealed, the city's public information officer, Kristyn Laurence, wrote the following to SZS's outreach coordinator, Andrea Haverland:
Hi Andrea. I have roughed out a press release that our team is reviewing now. This could change, but here’s the preliminary draft. There is a space for a quote from SZS about the fundraising effort. Do you want to start thinking about what you’d like that to say and who it should come from? I’ll circle back when I have the approvals on my end with the approved draft.
Haverland responded, saying:
Hi Kristyn! I’m reaching out to see when / if you had plans to put out a press release regarding New Zoo name and new renderings after tomorrow’s meeting. I am also hoping to put out a social media post sharing the news, but want to follow the City’s lead on this.
Her follow-up email said the following:
Here is a quote from Liz:“We have always known that this project will not happen without the financial support of this incredible community. While we still have significant fundraising to do, we are thrilled about the interest we have already seen, and we encourage anyone who wants to help make the Greater Sacramento Zoo at Elk Grove a reality to donate.”
Below is the memo drafted by Laurence in anticipation of the city council's January 22 adoption of the proposed name. Subsequent emails between Laurence and Haverland discussed the coordination of social media posts promoting the name.
As we know, that proposed name went over like a lead balloon with the Elk Grove City Council and Councilman Darren Suen in particular.
"This is the largest capital project that this city has ever embarked on. It is on the scale of Golden One Arena. It's in the City of Elk Grove, and we are going to name it after our sister, our beloved city of Sacramento," Suen said. "Nothing against Sacramento, but we, the city of Elk Grove, are investing in it. But we are going to give our naming rights away and call it the Sacramento Zoo at Elk Grove?"
It wasn't until the February 12 meeting that the name "Elk Grove - Sacramento Zoo" was adopted.
As we will see in other correspondence between Elk Grove and the SZS in subsequent stories, there were serious points of contention about the doomed plan. The extent to which the naming imbroglio contributed to the collapse cannot be quantified, except that it did not help the rapidly deteriorating relations.
