I am always hearing about how business struggles in Davis, but perhaps the business community ought to look inward rather than outward for culprits.
On Tuesday, Mayor Joe Krovoza will be delivering the State of the City Address at the Davis Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon. In order to promote the most media coverage possible for an upbeat meeting like this one is expected to be, typically organizations will provide reporters with complementary tickets, because they want the publicity and reporters are going sit down at a table taking notes and in the process not eat the food.
For this Chamber event, knowing that the Holidays just ended, the recent departure of two key Chamber staff, and interviews for staff replacements were keeping things hopping, I waited until a few days before Tuesday’s State of the City event to follow up on the status of Press tickets. So, yesterday I sent Chamber Executive Director, Kemble Pope, a simple text message question in the middle of the day.
“Will Media be able to attend the chamber state of the city to cover the event, free of charge?” I asked.
He quickly responded, “No, David, the community luncheons operate at a loss for the Chamber. Everyone buys a ticket, including The Enterprise.”
I wanted to clarify that I was not asking for a free meal, rather just access to cover the event, “Even if I’m not eating?” I asked. I was appalled at the response I received.
He said, “We can’t make a distinction and we have to pay for the venue.”
Then he continued, “Please play by the rules and please stop texting me on non-business days. I don’t find that being “on” 24/7 is healthy and I prefer to constrict Chamber work to M-F, 9am-5pm.”
I was completely taken aback by this terse reply from what is, in effect, a public relations organization. It was easy to question whether “relations” with the public wasn’t wanted, the press wasn’t wanted, or I wasn’t wanted, or possibly all three weren’t wanted. However, respecting Kemble’s request to honor his personal time, I didn’t respond to his text, so I don’t know the answer to that question, and can only go with my best guess.
At the heart of this personal interchange is a core issue. Media provides free coverage for many, many events a year. Unfortunately, news media everywhere is operating under financial circumstances that are significantly constrained. The Davis Enterprise is a for profit business. They have dozens of employees, and they have a budget that presumably goes seven or eight digits, but that staff and that budget are both significantly smaller than they were just a few years ago, and suffering continued financial pressure to get smaller. The Vanguard is a small non-profit, we operate on zero margin.
It is easy to make the argument that none of the three Davis Media organizations (DMA with its restricted budget being the third) can afford to pay out $20 to $30 apiece for hundreds of these kinds of events a year. That’s why organizations like the Chamber that want media coverage typically will give media members a media pass to cover the event. We are not there to eat or socialize. We are there to write about what the Mayor says. So, based on my Saturday exchange with Kemble, it seems reasonable to wonder about the Chamber’s policy with regards to media coverage.
I understand the need for days off or personal time. To deal with that Kemble Pope had at his disposal a very simple time management solution — on your days off don’t answer business-related text messages, emails, or voice calls. I get emails and texts and even calls all of the time on my day off. If there is no urgency, I will wait to respond until I “am back on the clock” again. If Mr. Pope defines himself as a 9-5 M-F employee, then respond to any Saturday texts received on Monday morning.
But, based on my observations over the years, Kemble Pope is not a 9-to-5 employee. He is the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. He is expected to attend meetings at night, meetings and workshops on the weekend and attend all sorts of events. If he cannot answer media questions for two minutes on a weekend, then maybe he needs to find a job that is less intrusive than Chamber Director.
It is hard to imagine that the employers of the Chamber Executive Director, the people in the business community, work from 9-5 M-F. Some of them would probably be appalled to hear that the Director of the Davis Chamber has that view of the position. Some probably will wonder if that is truly his business practice and if so, will wonder if he is really all in to the idea of economic development.
On the other hand, if Mr. Pope is on vacation or having personal time, the simple solution is to set an auto reply message that he is presently unavailable or wait until a convenient time to respond to a text, or turn off his phone.
The bottom-line on all this is that if Mr. Pope thinks that as a matter of policy he can simply dismiss members of the media, and in the process send the message that the public in general isn’t wanted at Chamber events, and that no one will say anything about the appearance of such a policy, then perhaps he is again in the wrong profession.
In closing, I thought about waiting until after 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning to publish this piece of news, but the nature of the media business is that news happens when it happens. As noted earlier, Mr. Pope has the option of coming to the news on his own time, or having the news come to him. The choice is his.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Why not ask the mayor for a copy of his speech?
I thought you were going to write about how much earlier Target opened on the day before Christmas than a store selling the same kind of a certain product downtown. Instead you rant that you got dissed by the executive director of the Chamber. Of course to my recollection you haven’t historically been nice to that guy so it shouldn’t surprise you when he doesn’t want to be nice to you. Anyway its good to hear you are up to zero margin it sure beats a negative one.
“Of course to my recollection you haven’t historically been nice to that guy so it shouldn’t surprise you when he doesn’t want to be nice to you.”
there’s something called professionalism here that is missing from kemble. there’s also the strange comment about 9 to 5 that doesn’t seem to gibe with his job description. isn’t the executive director of the chamber a pr guy? pr isn’t a 9 to 5 job.
Toad and DP, the questions and acute humor contained in your collective commnts crystalize one of the key issues for me. Toad illuminates the power of personal antipathy in our daily lives and DP illuminates how some job descriptions call for squeezing all that antipathy out of the things that we do to successfully complete the short term and long term expectations of the job.
I should make the disclaimer at this point that Kemble and I have had our differences here on the Vanguard, but I offered him an olive branch and we scheduled a glass of wine together to mend fences. At the last minute he cancelled that wine sharing, and we have yet to reschedule, but bygones appear to be bygones on that score.
With that said, both PT Barnum and Mae West vie for the old saw about there never being too much publicity. If those two titans of publicity are right, then the Chamber’s policy regarding the media seems a bit strange.
I get the financial burden thing, but this seems like more of a personal beef between you and Kemble than one of citywide import. My advice: pull the article — it’s not worthy of the Vanguard imprimatur.
i think david (and others) have gotten tired of the abusive conduct of the chamber’s executive director.
Jim, I am not sure I understand your use of the term “worthy.” Can you help me understand why you feel that way?
DP, one thing that I have learned in my tenure on the Editorial Board of the Vanguard is that David is very good at checking his personal feelings at the door. Jeff Reisig may not feel that way and Bobby Weist may not feel that way, but after that the list gets pretty short. Some of the most active posters on the Vanguard excoroated David for his coverage of the 2011-2013 Water issues. To his credit they are still here on the Vanguard and in the end, the fact that both sides of the issue criticized David for favoring the other side says that he walked the line down the middle pretty successfully.
Questioning the wisdom of the Chamber’s policy of charging press reps to attend its events, and questioning whether or not that policy is uniformly applied, is reasonable fodder for editorial discussion given the Chamber’s standing in the community. But all the stuff about testy text messages comes across as personal animosity, bilateral or otherwise, and it unfavorably colors the editorial content. That would more appropriately be dealt with via private communication with Kemble’s supervisor (presumably the Chamber board or subcommittee thereof).
Not to dis David — I know that his job is hard and financially challenging. But any content that feeds the notion that the Vanguard is a one-man soapbox works against its overall value in the community.
Thanks for the response Jim. It is interesting, I’ve become so accustomed to David’s writing style where he regularly tries to quote the statements verbatim (easy in this case because they were text messages), that I didn’t see his recitation of those statements as “testy” just Joe Friday “facts.” Now that you have pointed out the testiness, I do see it a bit. Mostly I just see David being David and kemble being Kemble as they conduct a dialogue.
i just think david tried a number of times, and finally gave up.
P.S. Unrelated, but I note that comments on the Bill Dodd article seem to be disabled. Not sure how the existing comments got there, but I can’t see a comment box or Reply button on the page.
Fixed
I don’t like the term, but I believe his reaction would fit what some call “a douche.”
Are you talking about David’s or Kemble Pope’s reaction?
Sounds like there is some personal friction between David and Kemble. I suspect as a Chamber member he would respond to me after hours.
But I think there is a reasoonable point to be made to exect the Chamber President to be nice to members of the media. And in turn, I would expect members of the media to fairly and respectfully report on the Chambeer.
Last point is that I think the headline for this article is missleading. I don’t think the friction between David and Kemble has anything to do with why Davis business struggles.
I wholeheartedly agree with your final paragraph Frankly. The question is, is this article about Kemble’s behavior, or is it about the Chamber’s policy with respect to embracing the media?
i think the title refers to kemble’s consideration of his position as a 9 to 5 position.
Interesting . . . and I read the title as referring to the Chamber’s policy of viewing the media as a revenue source and keeping the media at arm’s length where possible. Chocolate and vanilla.
hadn’t considered that angle. either way, not an effective business strategy.
Maybe the title should “one of the reasons why business’ struggle in Davis”.
Speaking in general, effective Chamber Executive Director’s should be able to keep personal feelings about issues and people separate from professional ones.
So does DMA have to pay $20 to $30 per staff if they were interested in videoing the mayor’s speech?
Do you know if DMA will be there?
Good question wdf. Very good question.
Because I’m hoping so. And if DMA hadn’t planned to be there, then the Davis CoC should go out of its way to make it happen, including waiving any entry fee, if necessary. It seems like a state of the city speech is a standard point of public duty that all Davis citizens might like to reference if they wanted, and having the raw footage of the speech available for broadcast or online in a timely manner is a matter of transparency and accountability in the spirit of C-SPAN.
Otherwise it might be more like the President giving the State of the Union address only to paying members at a luncheon of the National Business Club.
I would think it would compromise a legitimate journalist to take a gift from an organization that is being covered. No?
I don’t see how allowing members of the press, if they are not taking a paid seat, eating, or drinking can be construed as a gift.
Jack, what “gift” would that be? Just as is done at each Council meeting where the Media sits at it’s own table and takes notes on their computers, I would expect any Media in attendance will be doing the same at the Chamber event. Do you think the Media is given a “gift” by the City at every Council meeting?
It seems to me it might benefit the Chamber to have their significant meetings publicized, that it might increase their membership. Seems like this is penny-wise and pound foolish.
In thinking more about this piece and the point about “why Davis business struggles”, I do agree that there is a certain bit of smug business elitism that radiates from some Davis merchants. It is subtle. I think it is what happens when a business is protected from competition like our downtown merchants enjoy.
Really? Which Davis merchants radiate smug elitism?
Some of the art stores. Some of the boutique stores. Hibbert at times feels like you don’t belong unless you are a contractor… hours of business included. Some of the book stores… which by the way got a lot more friendly when Borders moved to town.
I’ve had nothing but great service from Hibbert over the years (and I’m not a contractor) and they have also been very helpful to my wife (who is defiantly not a contractor) .
I recently had a $5 off any purchase over $20 from another local hardware store that expired at the end of the year and I bought some roof patch for the shed and some silicon caulk. The other store didn’t have the wall mounted shovel holder I was looking for so I drove over to Hibbert and noticed that I would have saved money if I bought the roof patch and caulk at their “regular price” vs. using my coupon at the other store.
Ok, I just bought two tickets for the Davis Vanguard to attend the Chamber luncheon. My contribution to community comity.
a very nice and generous gesture.
Kudos Don. Well done.
Thank you, Don, we need more of that comity stuff. Is your business a chamber member? Is The Vanguard? Or the Enterprise?
I haven’t been a member for several years; i don’t know if the Vanguard is. Davis Enterprise has been a member of the Chamber for many, many years.
So if I start a blog in Davis I can expect to be allowed for free into meetings and other events?
If you grow it to the level and quality of the Vanguard, maybe.
Well maybe Kemble Pope doesn’t feel the Vanguard has reached that quality level either.
When I read the headline I thought this was going to be about why businesses are struggling in Davis, to me it came off as more of a sour grapes attack on Mr. Pope.
you obviously believe it has. you have praised david and the vanguard for their work on a number of occasions even as you disagree with him on the issues. i think i saw that this site is getting 5000 to 9000 unique visitors a day and has topped 30,000 page views. that would seem to legitimize it.
Interesting point G.I. Do you think that is indeed Kemble’s assessment of the Vanguard, and if it is, is it an opinion that is broadly shared in the Davis community?
A low bar.
David:
From your own reporting above I would have to say that the person who has acted unprofessionally is you. I don’t understand why you would not have made this request a couple of weeks ago with a call or email to the Chamber office when the event was announced. You chose to leave it to the last minute, and then chose to send your non-urgent request to the Executive Director’s personal cell phone during non-business hours. The fact that his job responsibilities sometimes requires him to attend events after hours is not a justification for your acting as if he should be available to you whenever you desire. Besides, just because you know someone’s cell phone number does not mean you should use that number for business purposes during their personal time.
Kemble would have been completely justified if he had ignored you, but instead it sounds like he answered your questions, and then ask you not to contact him again via his cell phone after hours. That sounds like a perfectly reasonable response to your unprofessional behavior.
As to your belief that you should have free access to the meeting. The Chamber is a private membership organization and the meeting is intended for the benefit of the organization’s members. As such they get to decide if they want to invite the media or not, and as long as they respond to all media requests with the same standard, then you really have nothing to complain about.
“I don’t understand why you would not have made this request a couple of weeks ago with a call or email to the Chamber office when the event was announced.”
you didn’t think maybe it was a little chaotic with the website issues and the holidays? when was the last time the chamber offices were even open? i think we’re talking about a two minute exchange that kemble could have ignored or politely declined.
“That sounds like a perfectly reasonable response to your unprofessional behavior.”
which behavior are we talking about.
“As to your belief that you should have free access to the meeting. ”
it’s not clear that he has that belief, though it does seem to be standard question for media access purposes. the chamber wants the attention but is not willing to give the attention makers access, that’s a bit odd to me. our press person at the ag’s office is on call 24-7, that’s effecitvely what kemble is, the chamber’s mouthpiece.
Mark West said . . .
“As to your belief that you should have free access to the meeting. The Chamber is a private membership organization and the meeting is intended for the benefit of the organization’s members. As such they get to decide if they want to invite the media or not, and as long as they respond to all media requests with the same standard, then you really have nothing to complain about.
Regarding your bolded point Mark, I think that is the point of the whole article. It begs the question, “Why would a public relations organization not want publicity of one of its community celebration events?” P.T. Barnum and Mae West can’t figure that one out.
Matt:
If that was the point of the article, then he would have left out all of the whining. The point of the article was to attack Kemble.
I fully agree Mark.
You and I often agree, but this is one of those times where we don’t. You see premeditated malice. I don’t. Neer the twain shall meet in this case. No biggie.
I didn’t read any whining, what are you referring to?
And I would add Matt, that attack pieces like this, and the inherent feeling of entitlement involved, do indeed add to the difficulty of doing business in Davis, so David’s chosen title is appropriate.
There’s way too much over-thinking going on here. So, here goes some more…
Why wouldn’t the media reps just show up to cover the mayor’s “state of the city” talk? Is this the first time that David has tried to attend? How has this been handled in past years?
This episode has all the appearances of a bitchy little personal spat rather than some example of “why business struggles in Davis”–starting with the easy-to-misunderstand request for free attendance to the luncheon and the concluding snotty kiss-off email.
Is it possible that there’s some history here to generate such emails and to justify a lengthy column rather than trying to work things out Monday? Why would either party be so knee-jerk testy?
Reporters sometimes pay even when sponsors don’t require it (to avoid potential conflict), but waiving a small meal or cover charge is very common when organizations want to encourage press coverage.
I’m not convinced that there are opportunities “to pay out $20 to $30 apiece for hundreds of these kinds of events a year.”
But, if it’s traditional for media to pay for this one annual event, the Vanguard should do it without announcing that the chamber director “needs to find a job that is less intrusive” than one dealing with David’s emails.
That said, it’s difficult to see how the chamber benefits by charging media for access without food. And, one wonders whether the mayor might end up wanting to find another venue for his “official state of the city” address, one that offers a wider audience for his remarks by welcoming media to the event.
” And, one wonders whether the mayor might end up wanting to find another venue for his “official state of the city” address, one that offers a wider audience for his remarks by welcoming media to the event.”
I’m with you on this. When I first read about this event in the paper I was puzzled that the mayor was giving a speech about the state of the city at venue where people had to pay to hear it. My feelings, a speech on this subject should be given at city chambers where it can be open (and free) to the public.
Good post IPadGuy.
Let me just say there is a LOT more going on here than has been posted so far.
Someone emailed me this yesterday in response to the notion that this wasn’t an appropriate subject for the Vanguard. “It’s also the job of the Vanguard to throw a yellow flag when a foul happens…”
What we have here is a pattern of behavior by a person in a position of import, the Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce. He has been treating people in an abusive fashion for some time. He has bullied people who are not in a position to respond and this was the final straw. More may well come out here, I made the decision that I was in a position where I could speak out and others are in a much more vulnerable position for a variety of reasons and decided that they couldn’t.
“Let me just say there is a LOT more going on here than has been posted so far.”
Just belatedly read this after having engaged in today’s column in which you said you wouldn’t revisit Sunday’s “core issues.”
Little did I imagine how correct I was when I wondered whether there was there was something behind this outrage other than what you were reporting.
It turns out that NOTHING in Sunday’s report was worth anyone’s reaction since Pope’s email attitude was just a vehicle for you to use to make him pay for some real or imagined sins he’s committed in the past.
—-
“What we have here is a pattern of behavior by a person in a position of import….He has bullied people who are not in a position to respond and this was the final straw. More may well come out here, I made the decision that I was in a position where I could speak out and others are in a much more vulnerable position for a variety of reasons and decided that they couldn’t.”
Wow, what a justification for what you wrote! David, this is a bad habit for you to get into. If you want to expose a person “of import,” you should do the reporting first.
The publisher of The Vanguard always is “in a position where I could speak out (on behalf of others who) are in a much more vulnerable position for a variety of reasons….” If you do the work to make a case that benefits those less fortunate, what a contribution you can make.
In this case, you promise there’s “a LOT more (that) may well come out….” Maybe your earlier stories involving Kemble Pope foreshadowed this “last straw” diatribe, but I hadn’t picked it up. Still, that leaves you with a manufactured 9-5 issue to try and beat him up with.
Two emails do not “a pattern of behavior” make. Using them to punish Pope with a column that makes no sense standing alone (until the point that you explain that it really was a place-holder for his actual crimes) isn’t good journalism.
The ref who throws the yellow flag doesn’t get to call a penalty for some secret sin that he thinks might have happened a quarter ago. An expose’ should have facts to document a supposed firing offense.
Innuendo and hedged promises of some facts in the future isn’t good journalism. I can’t see that you really helped the less fortunate with this approach. And, I don’t think this technique advances The Vanguard and its credibility.
iPad Guy wrote:
> This episode has all the appearances of a bitchy little personal spat
> rather than some example of “why business struggles in Davis
My advice to David is don’t send business related texts to a personal call phone number.
My advice to Kemble is follow up on those texts you do get on your personal cell phone via e-mail on the next business day.
> He has been treating people in an abusive fashion for some time.
It is a push to call his rational response to your unprofessional behavior “abusive”.
If I sent you a text at 2:00am tomorrow asking about the site would it be “abusive” if you told me to follow up in a post or via e-mail?
Why does the Mayor give a “state of the city” address at the Chamber lunch anyway. Why doesn’t he give it in the City Council chambers where it can be broadcast on Community T.V.? Why do we or should we depend on reporters who will be selective anyway? Why not report directly to the people and to the community?
Hasn’t that drum of Biddlin’s Butthurt Balm I sent arrived for David yet? Maybe now that he’s vanquished the FFs, Kemble is his next target. It really does diminish the stature of The Vanguard that David appears to use the bully pulpit to settle old grudges and then deflect his motivation toward his victim.
” He has bullied people who are not in a position to respond… More may well come out here, I made the decision that I was in a position where I could speak out and others are in a much more vulnerable position… and decided that they couldn’t.”
So with a threat of more mudslinging, he paints himself as Davis’ champion, fearlessly taking on evil and injustice, and Kemble Pope is his new dragon.
Biddlin ;>)/
Interesting perspective Biddlin. So you think this is all about David’s thin skin. Interesting.
I have always found David to have remarkably thick skin, he is often attacked here and has his motivations impugned, biddlin in fact is one of them who questions his motives regularly. Yet, he rarely responds in kind and never censors dissenting opinions. That would not seem to be the characteristics of someone with thin skin — in fact just the opposite.
DP to the rescue, always quicker than Underdog.
i find it odd given your like of sue greenwald that you have taken the position of defending kemble pope who was publicly seen last year screaming at sue and who posted the screen shot of the wicked witch under the house from oz when sue was defeated.
Everyone has a thin patch here and there. You will never read my opinions on certain topics, because I am predisposed to a belief or prejudiced by personal experience and make no pretense of objectivity. On others, I may make my prejudices or loyalties clear before offering a thought. I believe David thinks himself above petty human emotions like resentment and jealousy or thinks he can rise above them in his commentaries. I see little evidence of that and much to the contrary.
Biddlin ;>)/
i don’t think david believes he’s above resentment or jealousy. i’m certainly not willing to state that he is either. at the same time, on the list of criticisms we might heap on him, being thin skinned will be extremely low on the list.
Agreed. And, in this case of suspected thin-skinness, it turns out it was only feigned thin-skinness. There’s nothing more challenging than trying to understand and to respond to faux offended feelings.
This is a re-post from my comments on today’s (Jan 6th) article:
One thing is for sure, there are as many ways to deliver a city’s “state of” address as there are cities. Last year (2013), the City of Sacramento departed with its historical approach of delivering the message through the Sacramento Metro Chamber and produced the event and made it completely free. In promoting the event, the Sacramento Downtown Partnership noted “for the first time the State of the City will be open for free to the general public with the knowledge that this is a community wide event for a city that works for everyone.” http://downtownsac.org/events/state-of-the-city-2013/
And Sacramento is doing it again this year: http://sacsotc.com/
Our neighbors to the east, West Sacramento, co-hosted their address in association with the West Sacramento Chamber and held it at the City Hall Galleria (an incredible public venue). It is an evening affair and costs double what our Davis event costs: http://www.westsacramentochamber.com/wcevents/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=1174
And though Davis has made the state of the city address an annual event, hosted and produced by the Davis Chamber, the speech has varied between the mayor and city manager for the last few years.
What is important in each of these examples is that this should be a celebration of the last year of success and a visioning (at least from a select individual’s perspective) of how the future might look for a city. We should want the media (local and regional) to be involved and to tell our story. Davis has some milestones it needs to be very proud and vocal about from 2013. It also has some issues that need to be addressed and opportunities that need to be discussed for the coming years.
We should celebrate that we have a business community that wants to be engaged and host the public policy discussions and hear a view from one of our community leaders (mayor or city manager). And we should be delighted that we have a local media that wants to be involved and tell our story.
With an average of over 30,000 daily page loads, the Vanguard can hardly be seen as just an ‘online blog’. It has become a rich source of information that is different than the other media opportunities. And I hope many of us are helping the publisher and editorial board with comments and suggestions to make the website overhaul a technological success and the content more engaging and valuable than ever before.
As a public servant, and an emerging Davis community leader (at least that is what I am told), I think we all need to have boundaries that help separate our personal life from our work life. But as many of you know, my cell phone is mostly on 24/7 and my email box is certainly always open. I chose to take this role and the responsibility that comes with it and I do not get an option to define hours of service to our community. When you get to a certain level as a community leader, your life is no longer as separated as one might like.
It is the world we live in with media constantly on and the need to communicate instantly about a variety of things. And this point is compounded if you have chosen to be a primary spokesperson for an organization. Public relations is a full-time, full-contact activity that requires constant decorum and meeting unrealistic demands by the public and the media. But if you chose to live that life, you have to embrace that part of the spectrum. Though maybe not as elegant as he had wished it to be, I think that is the point that David was trying to make.
I get calls from bloggers, online media, newspapers, and TV at all hours and all days of the week. And I am often up until midnight or later each Wednesday night finishing a weekly article for the Vanguard to publish the next morning. These are the deadlines I agreed to when I signed up to be a PR person for the City of Davis.
Bottom line, if I want to get the good news story of Davis out there, I have to be prepared to meet the media on their ground and at their whim. David is not unusual in his requests, after hours or otherwise. And we might also be best served if we took a play out of Mayor Kevin Johnson’s book and think deeply about how to make this event free and with a broader community access, since we in Davis have clearly stated our desire for transparency and community engagement.
Call him a little defensive sometimes. But, he’s chosen the wrong profession if he’s at all thin-skinned. In this case, he’s pointed out in his comment that he doesn’t always “leave his feelings at the door.”
It would have been better for him not to have seen this episode as an opportunity to act on his personal feelings (about Kemble Pope). It confused and conflated issues that really were only loosely connected.
Actually, I’m a little ticked off at having spent any time reacting to Sunday’s story calling for Pope to be fired because he wasn’t nice enough to David in a couple emails. The write-up didn’t make sense, so I felt compelled to point that out.
Then, along comes Monday’s story that says, “I’m not discussing Sunday’s diatribe even though I stand by it.” And, we all spend some more time trying to figure out how Davis got so worked up about such a tiny (albeit irritating) email encounter.
Finally, David lets us in on the secret–KP is a sonofabitch and needed his comeuppance from the bowels of The Vanguard because the emails provided some tiny, supposedly logical, “last straw” opening to call for KP to be fired.
I guess Davis Progressive is enough on the inside to know of KP’s inexcusable SOB-ness. But, the rest of us seemed to be taking the column for what was presented and apparent and on the surface.
And, today’s column doesn’t even mention Kemble Pope—focusing instead on the dramatic realization that the mayor/city manager/chamber somehow are depriving the citizens of Davis by getting together for lunch once a year. Whew.
As David indicated earlier, he felt compelled to be a voice for others. Good or bad idea, it all seems to be a matter of opinion at this point. I think an earlier post discussed leaving this topic alone unless evidence could be produced. Probably a great idea at this point.
in my experience, the vast majority on this board have never found “evidence” as compelling as belief or as comforting as plausible deniability!
Biddlin ;>)/
No truer words have been spoken!
“As David indicated earlier, he felt compelled to be a voice for others. Good or bad idea, it all seems to be a matter of opinion at this point….”
Bad idea, in my opinion. Compulsion rarely generates anything productive.
You’re the only one who offers the possibility that he might have been operating on a good idea. I’m willing to listen to your opinion that might justification this kind of personal attack. I do hope The Vanguard keeps its compulsions in check in the future.
I can’t say whether it was a good or bad idea… But i do know David and he seems to rarely act without having consulted many sources, and only then with strong convictions. I will let him speak about his compulsion.
Regarding personal attacks… these are unfortunate when they occur (having been on the blunt end of that object several times in my tenure here). They have occurred too regularly and with too much collateral damage. Your strong caution should be heeded by all in Davis… Good words to live by.
Just catching up post-vacation, but since people asked about Davis Media Access: we are a Chamber member, and yes, when I attend such events, DMA pays for me to do so. I do limit my attendance to a few times per year, though, because the cost adds up and our unrestricted funds for outreach work are not large. But I believe the need to stay connected, so I go when I can.
DMA has not recorded the State of the City address in past, but the Chamber has initiated a conversation about us doing so in the future, so we’ll be happy to explore that. Requests about projects like this can always be directed to our me or our Production Manager, Jeff Shaw, via info@davismedia.org. Thanks.