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usefulness-local-news-sources
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Vanguard Publishes Demonstrably False Information
Misinformation persists even after the author and board members are notified
By Colin WalshOn Monday February 3rd 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 28th 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 28th 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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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
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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
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Letter: Provenza for preservation of open space and farmland
Support Jim ProvenzaI 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
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Poppenga Letter: Provenza strong advocate for educational excellence
Jim Provenza is an outstanding public servant who has represented District 4 on the Yolo County Board of Supervisor with distinction. His list of accomplishments is long, but his commitment to providing support for our youngest citizens has earned my endorsement for his re-election. As a current Trustee of the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD), I am acutely aware of the importance of helping every child enter public school with the best chance for long-term success. Jim serves as Chair of Yolo First 5 and is past Chair of the Yolo County Children’s Alliance (YCCA). First 5 Yolo’s mission is to assist our community to raise children who are healthy, safe and ready to learn from day one. YCCA helps to empower our young children, especially our non-English speaking children, by providing their parents access to essential services and helping to develop their parenting skills.
Jim previously served two successful terms on the DJUSD Board of Trustees and was a strong advocate for educational excellence and children with special needs. As a lawyer, he has represented women and children in domestic violence and child abuse cases. Jim understands that helping children succeed is hands down the best long-term investment that a community can make. Jim has many other interests as well (e.g., environmental sustainability and protection and programs to support our elderly) but his demonstrated commitment to our children and their families deserves continued support as Yolo County Supervisor.
Robert H. Poppenga
Davis
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Commissioner receives poor treatment from City Council
City Council needs to stop shooting from the hip
The Council in deliberation. Note that the caption is incorrect; "bicycle" should be "bicycling"By Roberta Millstein
The City Council has a disturbing pattern of making shoot-from-the-hip decisions on the dais without proper deliberation and analysis. This past Tuesday one commissioner, and commissions more generally, were caught in the crossfire. (There was also a poor decision on pesticides on the same night).
To understand what happened, you’ll need a bit of the backstory, starting with the November meeting of the Bicycling, Transportation, and Street Safety Commission (BTSSC) – whose members also behaved improperly, as will become clear.
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Letter: Delighted to endorse Deos
I am delighted to endorse Linda Deos for the Yolo County Board of Supervisors! The election will be held on March 3, 2020. Linda is running in District 4 for the seat currently held by Jim Provenza, who is seeking his 4th term. District 4 includes all of Davis north of Covell Blvd, most of Davis east of the railroad tracks, and all of South Davis. We support a change to the representation and perspective of the Fourth County Supervisorial District.Linda is interested in issues that have been ignored or mishandled for many years. Of note is the huge increase in the number of children in foster care in Yolo County. Due to Board of Supervisor directed changes, the number has increased from 388 in 2014 to over 670 in 2019. 55% of those children are placed outside of Yolo County.
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Abramson: Davis Vote to Spray More Pesticides is Disappointing
The Davis City Council voted to increase the City of Davis's use of pesticides, with only Will Arnold voting no, on Tuesday January 28th at almost 11pm. This rolls back the Councils previous decision on November 7, 2017 to move the city away from using a range of pesticides. No City Commissions were consulted before the item came to council, despite extensive involvement from Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Commissions prior to the 2017 decision.County Supervisor Candidate David Abramson provided Davisite a letter he wrote to the City Council following the decision. Abramson is a Candidate for Yolo County Supervisor for the 4th district.
Hi City Council Members Brett, Gloria, Dan, Lucas, and Will.
I am quite disappointed in the 4-1 decision of council to green-light the pre-emergent pesticide. Had I known this was going to be an action item instead of an "informational item" as highlighted in the agenda, I and likely many others would have been there to speak out against it.
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Commissions and Quorum-Buffers
By Todd Edelman
The high wheeler bike share bikes are rusting, the tomatoes are hibernating, the persimmons are throbbing, the Creek’s not so full, I-80 is roaring and stinky, the sun’s shining perhaps a bit more than it should… it’s mid-winter in Davis and I was just temporarily suspended from the Bicycling, Transportation and Street Safety Commission (BTSSC).
Any situation like this is Davis is subjectively-analytical, and dynamically-objective, but there’s several factors at play dealing more with facts (with spin, if only because none of us have infinite context.).
For now I am going to give what I hope to be an accurate accounting of the quorum piece of the matter at hand, and some suggestions… and then later on (today, tomorrow etc.) will provide some details on activity of the current membership of the BTSSC, including myself:
Quorum: My position is that this didn’t have to be an issue at all, or at the very least less of one.Did you enjoy reading this article? Then subscribe to the Davisite for free and never miss a post again.
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