I am writing to encourage a vote for Jim Provenza for Yolo County Supervisor.  There are many good reasons to support Jim, including his efforts on behalf of children, seniors, our schools, and those in need.  But I would like to focus on another important, probably less well known, achievement – his acquired expertise and knowledge of regional water policy and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  This includes Putah Creek, Cache Creek, both tributaries to the Yolo Bypass, and the Yolo Bypass itself.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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).

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

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

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

     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

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.

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.

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).

https://webstockreview.net/explore/tomatoes-clipart-cartoon/

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.

Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement for gun safety, estimates that, by early February, more people will be killed by guns in America than are killed by guns in other high-income countries during the entire year.  Yet, despite wide-spread demands for sensible gun reform, the number of deaths by firearms continues to grow.  Davis United Methodist Church is offering two programs on gun violence on Sunday mornings, February 9, and 23, from 9:45 to 10:50 at the church, which is located at 1620 Anderson Road in Davis.

Reacting to the failure of SB 50 to move out of the Senate, the groups Alliance for Community Transit-Los Angeles (ACT-LA), Public Counsel, PolicyLink, Western Center on Law and Poverty, Public Advocates, and the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation made the following statement:

It is time to reject false choices and get serious about affordable housing and community stability.

The debate around SB 50, and SB 827 before it, has too often been reduced to a false choice: protect the status quo of exclusionary zoning or embrace a trickle-down market-based model. While this simple NIMBY-YIMBY binary fuels online arguments and frames the public narrative, millions of Californians continue to suffer without appropriate solutions. We reject the status quo, but we also reject the notion that the low-income communities and communities of color most harmed by the planning and zoning decisions of the past should be forced to accept new policies that fall short of true equity and inclusion.

The Natural Resource Commission needs to look into the ARC Business Park

By Colin Walsh

A schedule of Davis Commission meetings for the ARC Business Park was posted back in November that included some tentative hearings before certain City Commissions but seemed to omit other important Commissions. Notably absent were dates before the Natural Resources Commission, the Recreation and Parks Commission, and the Tree Commission. It should also go to the Unitrans Advisory Committee.

In this article I will address examples of why the ARC Business Park must go before the Natural Resource Commission (NRC).

YOLO COUNTY FARM BUREAU ENDORSES PROVENZA

-- for immediate release --

Yolo County Farm Bureau is pleased to announce the endorsement of Yolo County Supervisor Jim Provenza for re-election to the 4th  Supervisorial District. The District encompasses portions ofthe City of Davis and nearby unincorporated areas including El Macero and Willowbank.

"Jim works very hard and pays attention to every detail on matters that come before him. He takes the initiative to assist agriculture and his door is always open," said Joe Martinez,

President, Yolo County Farm Bureau. "We appreciate his willingness to listen to us and seriously consider our perspective on matters that impact Yolo County agriculture. Never doctrinaire, he knows and appreciates that we are the on-the-ground experts."

Supervisor Provenza helped enact one of the strongest agricultural land protection ordinances in the state and helped obtain millions of dollars in outside funding for agriculture and water projects in Yolo County, among many other accomplishments.

"In order to fight climate change and assure that we have food security, it is essential to protect agricultural land and help farmers thrive. We must promote agricultural economic development and work to limit unfair government mandates. Together we can address water issues, urban growth, and other threats to our agricultural economy. Farmers are our future and I'm deeply grateful for this endorsement," said Provenza.

The election will be held in conjunction with the March 3 primary. The deadline to register to vote is February 18, 2020. For additional information, contact Yolo County Elections at yoloelections.org  or 530-666-8133

I am voting for Jim Provenza for Supervisor for the Fourth District. 

I have known Jim for over 25 years. He has dedicated his life to helping people in his district.

Some examples: he helped my neighbors who were in their 90’s get connected to city water; he helped stop PG&E from stringing lines over homes in El Macero; he has supported the Yolo County libraries, critical in these times of increasing complexity.

While we are living our daily lives, he is watching over all the people in Yolo County. Check his voting record and you will see his devotion.

This is not a job you learn overnight. This takes a life of working for the public.

Jim has that background.

Vote for Jim Provenza for Supervisor for the Fourth District. 

Holly Bishop

Davis