At its November 7, 2017 meeting, the City Council voted to change its Integrated Pest Management (IPM) policy, as well as ban the use of neonicotinoids (implicated in colony collapse disorder in bees) and a phase-out of glyphosate (often sold as Roundup, listed by the State of California as a probable human carcinogen). The decision was a mixed bag, containing some good elements and some bad. This article describes some of the events that led up to that decision. I write now because, with a new Council just seated, I hope that some of the bad process chronicled here can be avoided for future decisions.
This piece will of necessity be a bit lengthy. And that is part of my point. It took far too long for this issue to come to the City Council for a vote. At every turn certain staff members[1] sought to delay and subvert the will of commissioners, of citizens, and even of City Council members. As Jon Li says, sometimes one has to ask, “who is in charge in Davis?”
Davisite 