Month: February 2020

Letter: Re-elect Jim Provenza for Yolo County Supervisor!

I have known Jim Provenza for over 25 years. Jim is a dedicated advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves. For most of his life, he has worked tirelessly for equality, social justice, and civil rights.

In his first jobs after law school, he represented victims of domestic violence, child abuse, civil rights violations, and housing and job discrimination. As legislative counsel, he was instrumental in the enactment of California’s current hate crimes law. As legislative advocate, he sponsored legislation that made sexual orientation and disability protected classes.

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February 8, 2020
So many reasons to vote for Provenza

I am writing in strong support of Jim Provenza to be re-elected to County Supervisor for many reasons. Jim has been an extremely dedicated and effective Yolo County Supervisor since he was first elected, and we need him to continue his work.

Jim has had a long history of public service. Early on, as an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation, Jim worked as an attorney to help protect women and children against domestic violence. Later, when he worked at the State Capital, he successfully created legislation to help enforce protection from stalking and against hate crimes as well.

Jim has been an advocate for children, families, seniors and the disadvantaged for decades. He has stepped up to be a leader on committees such as chairing First 5 Yolo for at-risk children under 5. Jim prevented Yolo County Crisis Nursery from being shut down by successfully securing emergency funding.

Jim is also chair of the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance Non-profit and the Yolo Aging Commission. He is working on getting a new County Adult Day Care Center to help families with aging family members, particularly with dementia.

Jim has been great on land use and environmental issues, including addressing climate change and protecting ag land and habitat. I was impressed to see that Yolo Farm Bureau (who rarely endorse candidates) was happy to endorse Jim.

As an animal lover, I especially have appreciated Jim working on helping to get our County a much needed new animal shelter. Jim currently represents the county on a city-county task force that is working to form a new agency to govern shelter operations and to consider construction of a new state-of-the art shelter. Jim is a strong advocate of a new shelter and is also participating in fundraising efforts to make this goal a reality.

Finally, while I am a feminist, I always base my vote on who I see as the most qualified and effective candidate, not on their gender. After watching the LWV forum of the supervisorial candidates, I knew I would be voting for Jim Provenza, and encourage others to also.

Eileen Samitz

February 7, 2020
Livingston: A vote for Jim is a vote for a positive voice on the Board of Supervisors

I am writing in support of Jim Provenza's reelection. As a Supervisor Jim has been a consistent supporter of human rights. He has stood in support of minorities especially recent immigrants; He has worked to help disadvantaged and Seniors where and when needed. As a past member of the Davis Board of Education he knows the important educational needs of our community. His consistency in backing many who may often be ignored is an important value and an important reason that he is needed and why I support him. A vote for Jim is a vote for a positive voice on the Board of Supervisors.

Richard and Rachel Livingston

February 7, 2020
Letter: Deos Leading for Yolo County

I want a leader on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, someone who has fresh ideas and solutions for the new decade. I want someone who will not only question the need for a new county jail but will look at ways to reduce the incarceration rate that we have. Eliminating the cash bail system that keeps poor people in jail while awaiting their hearings is one way to accomplish this goal. Because 65% of our jail residents cannot post bail, they must stay there until his or her trial. They are in jail, often for months at a time, despite not having been proven guilty of any crime. It's a modern-day debtor's prison.

It costs as much to house a prisoner in California for a year as it does to send a student to Stanford for the same amount of time. That’s a lot of money that could be used to provide more robust social services programs that lift up our county residents.

I want a leader who will return our foster care program back to one that works for families that are in distress. We need to stop shipping hundreds of Yolo County children to foster homes far from their families.

I want a leader who understands climate change as the existential threat that it is. Someone who is able to work with other committed supervisors and residents to do the hard work of making significant and urgent changes to our county’s operations model.

You have a choice of leadership for the 4th district Yolo County supervisor race for the first time in many years. The leader that I want for Yolo County Board of Supervisors is Linda Deos. She is the future.

Elizabeth Lasensky

Davis

February 7, 2020
Strong turnout for Davis’s “Reject the Coverup” Impeachment Rally

Blue efforts are ongoing

On Wednesday evening, nearly 100 people showed up (on short notice!) at 5th and B to protest the failure of the U.S. Senate to call witnesses, much less convict, Trump for Abuse of Power or Obstruction of Justice.

People driving by enthusiastically honked in support.

Photos of the Davis crowd made Rachel Maddow show….along with photos of the other 270 rallies across the U.S.

Later that evening, IndivisibleYolo and Sister District CA-3 previewed their new volunteer HQ on Olive Drive near Rocknasium, the first step of Blue Wave 2 campaign to flip the Senate and Presidency red to blue in November 2020. Arizona races are the target Red to Blue area for Davis. Over 60 people showed, celebrating that the two groups have together raised over $14,000 to fund this office space.

Last week there was also a Davis House party run by the group “The Verbs” to raise money for Democratic Senate Candidate for Arizona, Mark Kelly. It reportedly netted over $70,000.

– Submitted by a Davisite reader.

February 6, 2020
usefulness-local-news-sources

February 6, 2020
Vanguard Publishes Demonstrably False Information

Misinformation persists even after the author and board members are notified

By Colin Walsh

On Monday February 3^rd the Davis Vanguard published a story titled “Monday Morning Thoughts: Strange Decision on Commissioner Punctuates a Strange Night for Council” by David Greenwald (link). This is not a big groundbreaking story; it mostly focuses on the Council’s decision to suspend a Commissioner for two meetings and takes the opportunity to make fun of people who spoke at public comment. Sadly, it also had the effect of again dragging a hard-working City of Davis volunteer Commissioner’s name through the mud. What is most notable about the Vanguard article is that it has specific false information that distorts what actually happened.

The third paragraph of Greenwald’s article about the January 28^th City Council meeting states,

The council then attempted to split the baby so to speak – instead of ousting Mr. Edelman, they suspended him for two meetings, February and March, with some sort of conflict resolution process. That was not enough for the three commissioners who all resigned, leaving the commission short of a quorum.

The second sentence is demonstrably false. This sentence clearly states that three commissioners resigned after the January 28^th Council meeting, but the January 9, 2020, BTSSC agenda had already announced the departure of Commissioners Andrews and Gudz (link). If it was on the January 9 agenda, then the announcement was made at least several days before, possibly as far back as the December BTSSC meeting (link).

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February 6, 2020
Letter: County Supervisors Need Diversity

Please join me in voting for Linda Deos to represent District 4 on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. We can use her lawyerly skills and her demonstrated commitment to children’s issues, social justice and healthcare.

For nearly a decade, we have been represented by five male supervisors. It’s time for diversity on our board and Linda is the energetic, informed person to start that happening and restore some balance.

Because Linda cares about children, she will question and review new policies supervisors created in 2016. Yolo County out-of-home placements for foster children increased by 68% from 2015 to 2019 while those rates elsewhere in Ca have declined. Since 2008, Yolo’s rate of out of home placements is higher than 2/3rds of CA Counties and our neighboring counties. This happened after actions the Board took in 2016 in response to tragic home deaths, but perhaps they have gone too far with their actions. Only 40% of Yolo Count foster care placements are within Yolo County.

When there is severe and significant adversity, removal from the home is justified but removal too soon or without significant adversity can, in fact, cause more trauma for the child and result in more adverse impacts than keeping the child with their family. Early adversity has been shown to affect a child's brain development and can result in significantly increased health impacts later in life.

I also respect Linda’s stand on creating compassionate justice, emphasizing rehabilitation, education as opposed to locking people up for long periods and then releasing them with no support.

She has acquired the skills as an attorney specializing in consumer protection law, bankruptcy, student loans and debt collection defense and understands the real pressures of so many underserved people with the fewest resources. Please support positive, diverse change for our county supervisors.

Jean Jackman

Davis

February 5, 2020
Letter: Deos for change

I'm voting for Linda Deos for real change.

I strongly support term limits in California politics and agree with those imposed on our state legislators. I think the longer an elected office-holder is in the same job the more entrenched they become with their same ideology and their same old ways of doing things. That's no longer enough given the huge challenges facing our planet, our country, and our county.

For instance, on a local level, Yolo Co. still has an extremely regressive criminal justice system that disproportionately hammers even non-violent low-income defendants of color and minority youth.

We still have an exploding homeless population that shows no signs of abating. Yet our Supervisors are only using short-term band-aids to try to alleviate this glaring problem and have yet to enact a long-term comprehensive plan to address our homeless and housing crisis.

Yolo Co. is still increasing its carbon footprint every year while the world is burning and the Supervisors have yet to declare a climate emergency or implement policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that have already been adopted by the City of Davis and more progressive communities.

Enough is enough. Jim Provenza is a very nice man and truly believes in what he is doing. But he has had 12 years to make his mark on Yolo Co. and there has barely been a dent in improving the lives of the most vulnerable people in our midst.

It's time we changed the make-up of our staid, male-dominated Board of Supervisors and their same old ways. Endorsed by one of my favorite local progressive heroes, Public Defender and 2018 Yolo Co. District Attorney candidate, Dean Johannson, Linda Deos will work for the little and forgotten people in our county.

Linda Deos gets my vote.

Alan Pryor

Davis

February 5, 2020
Letter: Provenza for preservation of open space and farmland

Support Jim Provenza

I am delighted to write in support of Supervisor Jim Provenza. I have known Jim for a long time. He is very accessible to the residents of the county. In several incidents, I reached out to him to solve issues with the county. He contacted the right persons and resolved the issues in no time.

Jim's priorities at Yolo County include the preservation of open space and farmland in Yolo County, the protection of our water supply, and the promotion of services for children, crime victims and senior citizens. He is committed to ensuring that Yolo County delivers essential health care and effective public safety protection.

Supervisor Provenza has 30 years of county and state government experience, and a long career in public interest law. For the 23 years, he has worked as a special assistant district attorney. He is also a past member of our school board. We are fortunate to have him as our supervisor.

Hamza El-Nakhal,

Davis

February 4, 2020