However, in the caption under the picture, posed in front of her campaign sign, it read, “stops downtown during a bicycle ride with her boyfriend, who declined to give his name due to a government job that prevents him from endorsing candidates for political office.”
The whole thing seemed more than a little odd. By that I mean, if the guy cannot give his name because he’s not supposed to endorse candidates for political office, that’s one thing. But why is it somehow okay to be pictured in a political picture for his girlfriend? Is he also going to work on her campaign as he seemed to the last go-round?
It seems like they are playing games here. Not allowed to mention the name, but perfectly fine to be a face campaigning on her behalf?
The Vanguard was suspicious as were a number of other people in this community.
Upon quick examination we discovered he works for the Air Resources Board as a science and technology policy advisor costing the taxpayers $119,616.
But would that preclude him from using his name? There is a whole host of Davisites who have state jobs? Why is this any different? What’s the “secret?”
Further examination found something even more interesting. Last Wednesday on January 13, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated two people to the California Energy Commission.
“Anthony Eggert, 37, of Davis, has served as science and technology policy advisor to the chair of the California Air Resources Board since 2007; earlier he was an advisor on energy and climate policy to the Office of Federal Governmental Relations for the University of California, Office of the President in 2007 and associate research director for the University of California, Davis Institute of Transportation Studies from 2002 to 2006. Eggert worked for the Ford Motor Company as manager of the California Fuel Cell Partnership from 2001 to 2002 and project engineer of Vehicle Environmental Engineering from 1996 to 1999.”
The blurb I found states that he is registered decline-to-state and if confirmed by the state Senate, he willl earn an annual salary of $128,109.
The Governor even issued forth a news release with good things to say about Mr. Eggert and the the other person he nominated to the board.
“The Energy Commission plays a vital role in helping meet the aggressive environmental goals my Administration is committed to achieving, through streamlining the permitting of renewable energy projects to help break ground quicker and create jobs while maximizing the billions of dollars in federal treasury grant funds for renewable energy projects. Both Anthony and Robert are the best, most qualified individuals to serve this purpose on the commission. They have the necessary experience and know-how to push our energy policies forward and I am confident that their service will help California take another step on the path toward meeting our goal of 33 percent renewable energy by 2020.”
Is this the big secret they were trying to hide?
Here’s the thing, Ms Vergis wants to be elected to the Davis City Council. If her boyfriend is not suppose to endorse people, then she should keep him out of her campaign pictures and off of her campaign. She should not expect that no one will notice or figure out who her boyfriend is. He is a fairly high profile and well-compensated public employee and will face nomination by the Senate. Using his picture to endorse and support her candidacy is no different than using his name. She is clearly attempting to violate the spirit of the prohibition.
This was bad judgment here. No one would have thought much about it if on the caption he was not named, but putting into the caption that he has a government job that prevents him from endorsing candidates, when in point of fact, he is endorsing her candidacy with his face and presence is playing games and that is just not the way to go, particularly in this town.
A campaign is akin to a long interview in which we only know limited information about the people who could become our public servants. If this is the way that Ms. Vergis is going to operate, attempting to skirt the law on technicalities, we need to know about it. In my opinion, and the opinion of many I talked to on this matter, Ms. Vergis owes us an explanation of her conduct here.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
So quick to judge someone , who is probably just trying to do the right thing and stay out of his girlfriends bid to run for city council .
Playing games seems to be your normal path , that really isn’t very effective or truthful .
Turn over a new leaf this year and put some effort into your job , instead of hearsay .
Games earn you no respect .
If he wants to stay out of his girlfriend’s race here are a few things he can do:
1. not be pictured on the front page of the paper
2. not give mysterious answers about not being able to be name while apparently it is okay to be photographed
3. not work on his girlfriend’s campaign.
I hope you’ll offer to interview the CC candidates at some point.
Once we know the field
I don’t give a damn about boyfriend-gate; and I doubt anyone else does. I think a fair question to ask, David, is would you have run this exact same story if, say, it was Lamar Heystek announcing his candidacy and his girlfriend was in Mr. Eggert’s position?
My belief is that you ought to be fair to everyone. If you really would write up an attack for this trivial matter against someone you saw as a politcal comrade, then you could say this attack on the Vergis campaign is fair. However, I doubt you would do that.
Of course, you are not alone in making strange partisan attacks. The other side does it as well. But I think we would all be better off focusing on the opinions, objectives, positions, funding and ambitions of the candidates than worry who they are in love with.
“I don’t give a damn about boyfriend-gate; and I doubt anyone else does.”
I spoke to multiple people who did, it’s worth noting another columnist chose to write on this as well.
The problem with your question is that I can’t conceive of Lamar doing something like that? can you?
But it really would not be “Lamar doing something like that.” It would be the position of his girlfriend. Regardless, take Lamar out of it. Would you run this story if Sydney Vergis was not being funded by Local 3494 (as she was 2 years ago and certainly will be again), but instead held the exact views Lamar holds? Or the same views most “Progressives” in Davis hold? [quote]it’s worth noting another columnist chose to write on this as well. [/quote] But Bob Dunning [i]would[/i] write it just the same no matter who the candidate in question was. Dunning wrote: [i]”… if he really is so legally muzzled, wouldn’t it be best to just stay out of the picture altogether? – or say something like ‘My name is Bill Collector, I’m Sydney’s boyfriend and I do not endorse her candidacy.’ – I mean, if he’s officially not a supporter, why would he be in the picture in the first place?”[/i]
I don’t disagree with Bob Dunning or with you that Mr. Eggert saying he “could not be named” is dumb. But I don’t see this as a valid thing to hold against Miss Vergis. [i](“A campaign is akin to a long interview in which we only know limited information about the people who could become our public servants. If this is the way that Ms. Vergis is going to operate, attempting to skirt the law on technicalities, we need to know about it.”)[/i] And as I said above, I don’t think you would hold “boyfriend gate” against a candidate who you saw as a political ally.
Rich: that may turn out to be true, I’ve been known to criticize and even alienate allies. Lamar has been almost the only exception and for one thing, he’s rarely done anything I have disagreed with policy wise and never done anything unethical from my perspective anyway.
“If this is the way that Ms. Vergis is going to operate, attempting to skirt the law on technicalities, we need to know about it.”
Yike! What an outrageous conspiracy you’ve uncovered. What law did she “skirt”? Justifying this attack by citing Dunning’s “humorous” ramblings is something I wouldn’t have expected from you. Just based on this story, I’ll guess you already determined you don’t approve of Ms Vergis and her candidacy. And I’ll bet we won’t see any evidence that she could be an ally whom you would “criticize and even alienate.”
Rather than disclosing her beau’s name, I think Davis voters care more where her main contributions will come from (i.e. developers, firefighters’ lobby, etc.)
What is her stance on the proposed Covell Village Sun City project? What about her stance on renewing Measure J, in its current language.
Troubling, that we are here on January 19th and have only two announced candidates for City Council (Krovenza, who was a listed supporter of Vergis the last go around) and Asmundson, who will likely announce her run for re-election. Do we not have any other qualified candidates out there, who can stand up to big developers and powerful union dollars?
i think the questions we should be asking are:
are you going to vote to overhaul city employee compensation?
what was your stance on covell villate?
will you work with sue greenwald on the more progressive policies with davis residents in mind?
will you take money from the various unions and vote to uphold their lucrative contracts?
etc etc.
who cares who her boyfriend is.
as long as he’s not a republican
DPD,
It’s your blog, so you get to do what you want, but until you get this type of thing out of your system, it’s hard to take it 100% seriously. Some might say that you working on your wife’s campaign while also “reporting” on it last year was more egregious and more game-playing in nature than this photo. Or that personal affiliations with Bill Ritter, et. al. played a role in the Wildhorse Ranch angles, or that it is curious you are now accepting advertising money from the new grocery store, when you were one of the main cheerleaders for getting it done, often with very caustic and negative writing about the property owner. Like I said, it’s your blog, so you are free to take it in any direction you wish. But if you really want to be known as the “investigative eye”, you’ve got to be more objective, be more cognizant of your own interest conflicts, and be less mean spirited when writing about people who you disagree with. This is said from someone who wouldn’t support Sydney Vergis if she were the last choice on earth for city council.
Not following you here George. If you “wouldn’t support Sydney Vergis if she were the last choice on earth for city council” why don’t you find her picture on the front page of the paper odd? I thought it was incredibly weird and creepy? What does that have to do with Greenwald taking advertising for the new grocery store, actually what does that have to do with anything? You think all along he was angling for advertising? I don’t get your point at all there.
Sorry, it just sounds like you have a gripe against Greenwald and thought this was a convenient place to level it. Probably were one of them no on p types or something since you bring up ritter and wildhorse. My on to something now? Just saying or something.
George: Yes, you caught me, I spent a year trying to bring a grocery store next door to where I live so I could get them to purchase ad space on the Vanguard. Last April when I photographed code violations hoping to get the city off its duff, it was really the ad revenue I was thinking of. Good work.
Before this gets buried, that looks to be a Schwinn Twinn Deluxe she’s riding. Cool bike!
Enophile: I think you may be right. Your post got me to tooling around on the Web, and I learned something about late 1960s Schwinns. I thought at first it was probably a a Schwinn Twinn (1968-71), as opposed to a Twinn Deluxe (1966-79). Here is a picture of a similar-looking Schwinn Twinn:
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3001/2873202835_3382775de9.jpg[/img]
But the Schwinn Twinn was not a 5-speed. The Twinn Deluxe was (and is). If you look at the rear hub of Vergis’s bike, it looks like it has 5 gears. And that would make it a Twinn Deluxe, which was essentially the same bike, only with the extra gears. Here is a shot of a Twinn Deluxe: [img]http://live.universal-collectibles.com/product_images02/48935-1.jpg[/img]
It is now mandatory that if you are running for Davis City Council, you must fulfill one of the following requirements:
1. Own a bike and be pictured on a bike the day you announce your run
OR
2. Be seen in town wearing some type of bike gear (helmet, pants, shoes, etc) while campaigning.
If you are unable to fulfill these “bike criteria”, you need not run!
Good point. If you can’t afford a bicycle, then an electric car might also bolster credentials.
[i]Own a bike and be pictured on a bike the day you announce your run[/i]
Hey, it persuades me!
I knew my campaign was doomed when that bus came by:
[img]http://www.tonyrogers.com/humor/images/chinese_bicyclist_01.jpg[/img]
Sadly, things did not go much better at the second photo shoot for my “Rich rides a bike” announcement:
[img]http://weonsikecsd.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/bike_crash1.jpg[/img]
perhaps the voters of Davis may write in Lance Armstrong on the June ballot as an “honorary” CC member (doesn’t he live in TX) or that might convince him to move to Davis “the bicycle capital of the USA”
Rich
You’re absolutely right. Great cyber sleuthing. The two caliper breaks, the gear shifter on the top tube just under Sydney’s left arm, and (as you correctly noted) the 5 gears on the rear hub are the dead giveaway (no pun intended, Rich – that’s a nasty tangle of car and bikes).
Thanks for the laugh, all…
I suggest debate about City Council candidates center around their plans for Davis. Someone asked why we don’t have more candidates: maybe because not only do you work your butt off for next to nothing in City Council, but also you have people angry at you for such volunteerism when they disagree with any of your views.
And this silly Enterprise caption is beyond trivial as a campaign issue.
DPD,
I was trying to make a constructive point, but see it is lost. No, I don’t think you were angling for ad revenue. I actually believe you to be a true believer, and highly ethical, and to generally do a good job with the blog. But, I also believe you have blindspots in two areas: 1) you really hate the council majority and people closely affiliated with them, particularly Saylor (with transition to Vergis who you believe to be handpicked by Saylor), and so lose all objectivity whenever you see a chance to do a hit piece; and 2) on the flip side, when dealing with issues involving your friends and/or political allies (Lamar, Ritter, etc.). My point in raising issues about you is to show how easy it is to take the hit piece/pot shot route, based on small issues, or trivial gray area.
For example, it would be easy to construct a conspiracy theory and wrie a hit piece about you taking ad revenue from the new grocer, and claim that influenced your past writings. It would be completely bogus, but easy to do. You should understand that, because that is what your favorite Enterprise columnist did to you with WHR and the Senses magazine bs. That was also bogus.
My real point is that when you write one of these types of stories about Vergis, or Saylor, or whoever, in my opinion, you are engaging in that type of behavior. I find it beneath you. And also believe it detracts from the credibility of the blog. So either take that under advisement or not, I don’t really care, just wanted to offer my observation. Or write something back sarcastic, I don’t really care. Like I said, it’s your blog.
George
Brian
No, you’re way off, but it’s not that important anyhow.
George
George: I did miss your point and I appreciate you elaborating on it. I don’t fully agree, but that’s okay.
I’ll give you two examples and I hope this doesn’t look too defensive. You mentioned my wife’s campaign. My first hope was to get someone else to cover it, but both people I tried to get to cover the council race fell through. So I was left in a bad spot, either not cover the council race or look like a conflict. I wasn’t going to ignore the council race in 2008, so I tried to mitigate the conflict by announcing my change in policy, announcing that I would be covering the campaign, and also offering space on the Vanguard to any of the other candidates who wished to submit stories or op-eds. I never got any takers.
Likewise with Measure P, I recognized early on that I would probably take one side on the issue, so I tried to get the No on P people to submit stories and op-eds, and this time, they took me up on their offer. I think I ran four or five pieces from the No on P side.
In other words, in both cases I recognized that I would be biased and tried to mitigate that by allowing other viewpoints to be published. My standing policy on here is that anyone who wants to submit a piece is welcome to do so. So Kevin Wolf a few weeks ago was able to have a response piece. If Sydney wanted to respond, she would be able to do so.
I know that doesn’t completely address your point other than to acknowledge that I know that I’m not always going to be fair and balanced, I don’t think anyone is, I come at this from a perspective and that’s why I began this site in the first place. I also recognize that as it grows, it would be helpful to get more viewpoints on here than just mine and hopefully that will happen as well.
“costing the taxpayers $119,616” is an irresponsible comment because it assumes that Anthony’s work has no value. He could be saving the taxpayers $500,000 per year or more for all you know. Are you a journalist?
Holy cow. That was a terrible attempt at a hit piece, David. I half expected that to end with “This conspiracy furthers my theory that 9/11 must have been an inside job by the United States Government.”
A lot of you have missed the missed, the problem here is that if Anthony couldn’t tell his name because of his job, then he shouldn’t have been on the front page of the paper. From there the natural question is just what is his job and why might he not want it shown up?
Unfortunately, we now have Vergis in Dunning’s column claiming that she was misquoted.
[quote]SYDNEY SPEAKS ON SILENT BEAU – ‘Hi Bob,’ begins candidate Sydney Vergis as she begins formal damage control of BicyclingBeauGate before this silliness spins completely out of control – ‘We were surprised by the inaccuracy of the caption, too.’ – aha – she’s playing the old ‘I was misquoted’ card – but since her unnamed boyfriend is not quoted as having said anything at all, he certainly couldn’t have been misquoted – adds Sydney: ‘No laws were broken, no animals were harmed and he can endorse.’ – very interesting – so, if he can endorse after all, the big question is, does he endorse? – and, if he does endorse, which candidate or candidates is he endorsing, considering there are only two of you in the race at this point? –
‘Poor guy,’ Sydney notes sympathetically, ‘as though surviving my tandem bike steering wasn’t hard enough.’ – she goes on to say ‘I am dating a gem,’ which is certainly the kind of thing parents and siblings and distant cousins like to hear, even if it doesn’t win you any votes – [/quote]
So he can endorse? So what was that all about? You’re telling me Wayne Tilcott the photographer or Crystal Lee the report just somehow invented that. It helps if you tell the truth and that’s really what this is about. I’m sorry Justin that I somehow offended your sensibilities here, but she offended mine.
This is nuts. There’s a lot of grey areas as a public figure. The guy probably didn’t want to give his name because people can take negative reactions to endorsements and such from public figures – remember how Matt Rexroad jumped on Oakley for her Certificates of Inequality?
This “investigative journalism” is seriously of the same quality as the folks who say Obama was secretly born in Kenya and he’d show his birth certificate if he had nothing to hide!
There’s no secret cover-up boyfriendgate here, only conspiracy theories and harassment.
You’re right Justin, there is no secret cover up here. We have sloppiness and then a lack of coming clean by Vergis.
I don’t understand why the guy did not give his name and claim he couldn’t.
I don’t understand why Vergis claims to have been misquoted.
The rest, hey, guy doesn’t want to give his name, it’s like waving a red flag in front of the bull. You’re right, not a huge deal, but how tough would it have been not have been in not one but two pictures in the paper either?
Don’t forget to look into this after you’re done blaming everyone else involved for setting you off on a conspiracy theory goosechase…
[img]http://kenyanbirthcertificategenerator.com/be04c09e99b20394b3b41d1f2d683b9a.jpg[/img]
Justin:
You’re missing the point, the story is now that Vergis instead of coming clean gave a dismissive, evasive, overly cutsie answer trying to deflect. This is a story about a young woman running for council, who cannot even come clean on a minor issue that should have been a hiccup.
Maybe she was misquoted. In the article she is listed as the vice chairwoman of the Business and Economic Development Commission when according to the city of Davis website the vice chairs for the commission during her tenure have been Robert Agee and now Joe Hrubin. She wasn’t even at the meeting in which the vice chair was elected, as she missed 5 of the 10 commission meetings held this year. Hopefully she will clear up this issue so it doesn’t look like she is inflating her resume.
I have no idea what’s going on with this code, but it won’t let me post on your site
My son and I are restoring his recently obtained Schwinn “Deluxe” Twin. It is a 1968 model (verified by the serial# date code {KC}. It has a “single speed coaster hub. I’m trying to ID the hub manufacturer to locate repair instructions.