Before we get to that point however, we have to learn more about the candidates. The Vanguard ran an early series of questions for the candidates – most recently this one which has backlinks to the previous interviews. The Davis Enterprise ran a profile piece on all ten of the candidates.
According to a release from the City Manager’s Office last week, “The League has developed a structure to allow each candidate equal opportunity to share their views and to answer questions both from community groups and from the general public. After each candidate has a chance to introduce him/herself, the League moderator will ask the candidates questions submitted by the Davis Chamber of Commerce, the Yolano Group Sierra Club, the Yolo Taxpayers Association and the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD).”
Given the number of candidates, the format is rather limited. Each candidate will have only 1-2 minutes to respond to the questions. The second half of the Forum will enable community members in attendance to submit questions for the candidates.
“The Public Forum is intended to inform the community about the Council candidates in an objective and fair manner,” said Jean Canary, the League’s moderator for the event. “It is our hope that people will come out to learn more about the Council candidates and share their thoughts with the City Council, who will be making the final selection.”
While it is true that the public does not have a vote in this process, the council is overtly asking for public input.
Writes the city in their press release, “Because this is not a regular election, the Council has developed a public input process for individuals to use.”
People who want to comment on any or all of the candidates, or who want to share their general thoughts on filling the vacancy, can fill out a public input form at the Forum.
The form can be filled out online by going to the City of Davis Website (cityofdavis.org) or by going to City Hall or the Davis Senior Center.
Each of the candidates has also given a brief statement to the Davis Media Access. You can watch the full video here. All of the statements are less than four minutes in length, and Paul Boylan set a land speed record with a statement less than two minutes in length.
As a non-profit, the Vanguard does not endorse candidates. However, we do weigh in on the public process.
Without singling out any one candidate, I am a bit concerned about the entire field. While a number of individuals bring interesting skills and experiences to the mix, most lack the kind of particularized knowledge of Davis government that are needed to run the city.
The process is so truncated that there is almost no time to really learn. I respectfully hearken back to my first meeting with Joe Krovoza, back in November 2009. He was obviously a bright guy, as most of the current applicants are, but he lacked working knowledge of the Davis political system and city government.
However, he then ran a seven-month campaign, in which he learned a ton and met with numerous people in the community and wasn’t seated for another month. These candidates do not have that eight-month period to learn before taking office.
In a week one will be selected to the council and a week after that will have his/her first council meeting. That is about six weeks after most of them decided to throw their hat into the ring.
In eight months it will be October, and the selected member will have been on the council for most of that time. It took people like Joe Krovoza and Rochelle Swanson, again two bright people, several months to get their feet wet on the council.
Given what this council is going to have to face with budget changes, setting up the next round of MOUs, and dealing with unfunded liabilities and pensions, the new member is going to have to hit the ground in a dead sprint.
The process is what it is. The council has certainly functioned all right to this point with four members, perhaps more so than when they had five.
It is incumbent upon the current members of council to really think about what they want to accomplish in the next 16 months and then figure out who the best person is for that job.
Everything that I have heard suggests that there is no frontrunner, there is no favorite. That may run against some conventional wisdom, but without naming names, I can state those who may think this is an open and shut case, but are going to be in for a surprise. That does not include or preclude anyone, but this is an open process.
Finally, in retrospect the council should have had a better winnowing period. Woodland has reduced their choices down to two. It would seem like former Supervisor Tom Stallard would be the prohibitive favorite, but then again we might make assumptions about Davis without insight as well.
The Davis City Council lacks an obvious and established choice. They also lack a true mechanism to knock the numbers down prior to the last meeting.
How this all plays out is anyone’s guess.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Paul Boylan set a land speed record with a statement less than two minutes in length.
You say that like it is a bad thing…