Opposing Measure B cost three sitting Commissioners a reappointment recommendation
By Alan Pryor
This Tuesday, December 1, the City Council will consider recommendations made by a subcommittee of Mayor Gloria Partida and Councilmember Dan Carson for seats on various City Citizen Advisory Commissions. Their formal recommendations to the Council can be found here. This article discusses bias by that subcommittee in their recommendations made for reappointments to these Commissions.
Mayor Gloria Partida and Councilmember Dan Carson were also both on the Council subcommittee who negotiated the deal with the Davis Innovation and Sustainability Campus (DISC) to put it on the November ballot as Measure B. Both then also signed the Argument for the Measure on the ballot and both strongly promoted Measure B itself during the campaign.
The City’s website notes that its supposedly-independent citizen advisory commissions “have a critical role in the City of Davis” by providing an “important avenue for determining the community’s feelings about an issue.”
But three sitting commissioners who applied for reappointment to 3 different commissions were all denied a reappointment recommendation: Alan Pryor (Natural Resource Commission), Matt Williams (Utilities Commission), and Todd Edelman (Bicycling, Transportation, and Street Safety Commission). What do all of us have in common? All three were active opponents of the recently-defeated Measure B on the November ballot in Davis.
But all other Commissioners, save one, who requested reappointment received favorable recommendations including some of whom had termed out. None of these recommended commissioners had publicly opposed Measure B and many were ardent supporters of Measure B as evidenced by Letters to the Editor in the Davis Enterprise or other means, including:
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