Editor’s Endorsement

It’s my soap box & I’ll shout from it if I want to.

CA Senate - Lois Wolk

CA Assembly – Christopher Cabaldon

Yolo County Supervisor – John Ferrera

Davis City Council
Stephen Souza, Sydney Vergis, Don Saylor

I have spent many years of my life advocating for increased civic engagement by younger voters.  From middle school thru college, I was an active force in student government.  When I turned 18, I began registering my fellow students.  In my 20’s, I helped start and lead a non-profit whose mission was to bring young voters become regular voters by engaging them on public policy matters in a non-judgmental and rational monthly forum.  Then, I worked for two years as a national staff member of the non-partisan, young voter registration group “Rock the Vote“.

For the past four years, I have gladly given many of my nights to our City and School District by serving on the Open Space & Habitat Commission, the Grande Site 7/11 Committee, and the Climate Action Team.  To this day, I still encourage people to register and vote.  I started this blog because I think that our community needs to do a better job of engaging the citizenry about the facts, difficult decisions, and realistic consequences and benefits of our public policy choices.

So, my frame of reference for choosing candidates is focused on their ability to promote: positive civic engagement, open space protection, innovative measures to preserve our natural resources, a more diverse tax base, and affordable housing for young families, civil servants and seniors.

After the jump, find all of the reasons that I encourage you to vote for some candidates and also (gasp!) reasons to NOT vote for candidates.

I’m voting for these candidates because…

Lois Wolk has served our community faithfully for years.  I have no doubt that she will continue to be an effective voice in the State Senate.

Christopher Cabaldon has done an amazing job taking West Sacramento from a blighted industrial landscape into a thriving community that most of its citizens are now proud to call home.  He is an approachable, rational, and consensus building leader who is ready to fill the very large shoes left behind by Lois Wolk and Helen Thomson.  Cabaldon’s commitment to open space preservation and education are just two of the many issues that tip the scales in his favor.

John Ferrera will bring a unique set of skills to Yolo County that we desperately need.  We need people who understand the difficult financial decisions that must be made in the coming years regarding land use, agricultural protection and water rights.  As Chief of Staff to the Senate Budget Chair, John will bring experience, good judgment skills and a vast set of contacts to ensure that our county gets the best possible deal on state funding.

Stephen Souza has dedicated his entire life to improving our planet and community.  He organized, rallied and marched thru the ‘70s and ‘80s for causes that we all have come to embrace: anti-apartheid, nuclear disarmament, and indigenous peoples’ rights.  For the past 25 years, Souza has given countless hours of his time to us by volunteering on numerous local commissions, boards, and the Davis City Council.  Stephen is a selfless public servant who deserves to be re-elected.

Councilman Souza actively encourages civic participation with an encouraging smile.  Recently, when his colleague Lamar Heystek was having difficulty with tele-conferencing during a Council meeting, Stephen took it upon himself to solve the problem by calling Lamar on his personal speaker phone.

Although all of the candidates claim to be “greener” than the next, Stephen walks the walk.  Over a decade ago, Stephen helped launch the effort that ultimately saved 600 acres at the Quail Ridge Conservancy at Lake Berryessa.  He has been a constant force of support behind the efforts to work with local land agencies to leverage our local Measure O monies to protect open space.  I do not always agree with Councilman Souza on the issues, but I know that Stephen always does his homework, asks the difficult questions, seeks advice from experts and makes rational decisions.

Sydney Vergis is a relative newcomer to the Davis political scene.  But, she is not new to public service.  A graduate of UC Davis and a Senior Land Use Planner for Sutter County, I think that Sydney is just the breath of fresh air that our Community Chambers needs to make it a more welcoming and rational place to conduct our city’s business.  Vergis has proven over the past 6 months that she is a quick study on the many complicated issues that she will be deliberating over as a Councilmember.  Also, she has proven that she has the ability to commit to the grueling hours of work that face our nearly unpaid Councilmembers.  I also believe that she has the intelligence and tenacity to push through changes in town that will lead to higher bike ridership and better land-use decisions.

Don Saylor is a moderate voice on the Davis City Council who is always available to his constituents.  As a retiree from many years as a civil servant, Councilman Saylor gives his free time generously to the people of Davis.  His “office hours” at neighborhood coffee shops have proven an effective way for citizens to air their grievances, suggest changes and simply become more involved in their local government.  Saylor is a little too cautious in regulatory matters for my taste, but as I get older I realize that there is some small amount of value in proceeding with caution.

I’m NOT voting for these candidates because…

I respect the work that Mariko Yamada has done to ensure that Yolo County’s most vulnerable citizens can continue to lead productive and fulfilling lives.  I think that she is a wonderful public servant, but I believe that her opponent (Cabaldon) has a higher likelihood of actually creating the coalitions and compromises to ensure that our Assembly District retains it’s place as a leader in progressive public policy.

Jim Provenza is a highly respected member of our community after faithfully serving on the DJUSD School Board.  But once again, I believe that his opponent (Ferrera) is more qualified to do the peoples’ work in ensuring that Yolo County remains the vibrant agricultural center of our state.

Sue Greenwald has served for 8 years on Davis City Council.  I will not be voting for Sue Greenwald for several reasons.  Firstly, and most importantly to me, Sue discourages civic engagement by her actions and words.  This would only be apparent to you if you were sitting in Community Chambers during Public Comment at City Council Meetings.  On many occasions, I have witnessed Sue treat our fellow citizens with utter disdain if they don’t happen to agree with her opinion on the matter at hand.  If you only watch Council proceedings on television, you wouldn’t know that Sue often acts like a petulant child while members of the public speak.  Her over-the-top facial expressions (never shown on TV because the camera is focused on the speaker) telegraph her belief that YOU must be stupid or crazy if you don’t agree with her.  She grimaces, shakes her head, rolls her eyes and writes little notes to her colleagues while the citizen is talking.  Sue could not be more condescending if she tried and any behavior that discourages civic engagement is simply not acceptable to me.

Also, Sue focuses on pipe dreams while ignoring real opportunities for meaningful and progressive change in our city.  For the last decade, she has touted re-development of the PG&E service yard at 5th & J.  However, she has never brought forth any evidence that PG&E is interested or that such a project is economically feasible.  In fact, my sources tell me that PG&E representatives have expressed in the clearest terms that unless the City facilitates a nearly $75 million dollar land swap/clean-up/redevelopment package, they will not consider a move.

On a personal note, I have tried on many occasions to have meaningful conversations with Sue about local matters (including those that came under my jurisdiction as Chair of the Open Space & Habitat Commission).  But every attempt ended in frustration: Sue talked AT me and focused only on the potential negative outcomes of any action.  Her paranoia is debilitating to herself, the Council and our community.

Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald developed a reputation for impolite public behavior during her tenure as Chairperson of the Human Relations Commission.  According to a former Commissioner and other sources, she regularly belittled her colleagues and members of the public during meetings.  I have never experienced this behavior personally, but I trust the sources. Again, this active disdain for the civic process is not a trait that we should be rewarding.  I admire Cecilia’s campaign platform plank that focuses on open space preservation, but I have never seen her actually do anything to forward that goal.  In the past four years, she has never once attended an Open Space & Habitat Commission meeting.

Also, I have serious concerns about the hypocrisy of stating that she does not take “developer” money when it is a well known fact that her husband’s website is financed largely by a local developer couple.  Thus, her family’s income (and over $15,000 of election self-financing) comes partly from a source that she publicly, and proudly, denounces.

Rob Roy brought a lot of great ideas to the Council election two years ago.  At the time of his electoral loss, I hoped that he would dive into local policy, give his time, and do the work necessary to create worthwhile credentials.  He has not done that.  Instead, he disappeared from the local political scene and then reappeared minutes before the deadline to file for office this time around.  Roy’s appearances at the Candidates’ Forums have been lackluster, devoid of content and exhibit his lack of basic knowledge about the issues.  He is not ready to be an elected city leader, but perhaps in the future he’ll do the necessary hard work to gain our confidence and trust.

Those are some of the many reasons that I am voting for and not voting for these candidates.  Nothing in this town (or life) is black and white.  Public policy issues are never simple or easy.  But, we must be able to trust that we are electing fellow citizens that will do their best to protect a fair, civil, honest, and rational public decision process.

These endorsements do not reflect the various authors on this blog nor should they dissuade future authors from contributing.  For a full editor’s disclosure, please click here.  For this blog’s full election coverage, click here.