By David M. Greenwald
Yolo Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Elections (YCDIE) on Saturday afternoon held a candidates forum for the City Council candidates and the Supervisor candidates for the Fourth District.
The first question went to all candidates. Later questions were asked to specific groups, with all candidates running for the same office answering the same questions.
What have you done personally or professionally to address racism or inequity in our community?
Board of Supervisor – District 4 Candidates
Linda Deos said that she has been an advocate her entire personal and professional life for racial justice issues. She talked about fighting racial discrimination in employment contracts and helping people to get their jobs back.
She said, “I have found what needs to happen is change from the inside. It can’t be done from the outside. It’s our institutions that need to have systemic change.”
She mentioned that “we see it here in Yolo County where we have three percent of the population African American, Black, and 25 percent of the jail population is African American/Black—that has to change.”
She also argued, “We need to be looking at redefining what public safety means.”
Jim Provenza mentioned his long history of working with the ACLU and marching on Farm Worker issues, even before he became an attorney.
He said, “I handled some complex employment and housing discrimination cases obtaining consent decrees, meaning orders that stopped the discrimination in the future in addition to helping the individual involved.”
When he was on the school board, he said, “I advocated for issues of addressing the achievement gap between students, which is still an important issue at the schools. I made that my priority.”
On the Board of Supervisors, he said, “I sponsored several resolutions dealing with immigration issues in the separation of families. Those resolutions made it very clear that Yolo County stood in favor of immigrants.”
District 2 Candidates
Will Arnold said he has been working on issues of diversity and inclusion for a long time. As an activist he said that he had run several campaigns for women and people of color, trying to make sure that everyone has representation locally.
“As a member of the Davis City Council, I’m incredibly proud of our record of inclusivity and police reform in terms of ensuring that all voices are heard and that we have seats at the table for folks who had previously been left on the sidelines,” he said.
Dillan Horton said this has been a lifetime and long time work for him also, going back to high school. Back in high school his adviser had him serve on a committee to address disparities in education outcomes in high school between students of color and whites.
He worked in college on accessibility issues and barriers to students getting into college and being successful in college.
He said as a member of the community and Davis he worked on campaigns for people seeking to bring access to people of color, such as Dean Johansson who was running for district attorney in the last election cycle.
“I have had the opportunity to be on the police accountability commission for the last two years, really working to not just drive the commission but our whole city government in examining how we can improve our systems to make sure that everyone has a degree of safety and security in the community,” he said.
Colin Walsh said he lived in New York in 2001 and was there on 9/11 and explained that a circle of white men had gathered around an Egyptian-American’s desk. “They were making comments like the Middle East should be turned to glass and they were using racial slurs.” He spoke out and filed a complaint, he said. He believes that led to his being terminated. “I would do this today because I believe you have to be an upstander,” he said.
He explained that today he flies a rainbow flag on his porch because he feels like it’s a good example for his kids as well as the community.
“My kids have a wide range of friends that view gender in a lot of different ways, and I want them all to know that my place is a safe place for them and that I’m an ally for them,” he added.
District 3 Candidates
Lucas Frerichs noted that this is a very expensive community to live in. One big issue for him prior to being on the council was the creation of affordable housing. He was a board member of Yolo Mutual Housing and helped lead that organization.
“During that time I worked on the creation of hundreds of units of permanent affordable housing in Davis,” he said.
He also mentioned working on Dean Johansson’s DA race on the issue of criminal justice reform.
“Some additional work we’ve done on the city council has been on police reform in the creation of the Police Accountability Commission,” he said.
Larry Guenther said that while he was working on the Davis Downtown Plan, many of the members noted that various races were not well represented in the discussion, and so he reached out to people of color and the underrepresented to try to get their views and make sure they were included in the discussion.
He has also tried to be really involved in city issues like trying to reimagine public safety. He said he has personally tried to call out racism in the workplace and in the community.
“Trying explain to people why it’s racist,” he said. “People don’t really get it.” He explained that people really don’t understand where white privilege is coming from.
District 5 Candidates
Josh Chapman said the most important thing that he has done and will continue to do is to acknowledge his privilege as a straight white male. He said he will “work hard to be the best ally that I can be.
“My privilege was never more apparent to me than when I graduated college and I moved into Southeast Washington, DC, to join AmeriCorps and work in the public school system there,” he said.
He explained that he had grown up in rural Maine, one of the whitest areas of the country, and ended up in a public school system that was almost completely black.
“It was at that point that I realized that my experiences were not the same as their experiences were,” he said. “That experience led me to pursue a degree in equity and social justice.”
Kelsey Fortune said the first step when talking about diversity, race and equity is to acknowledge that there’s a need for initiatives, committees and education.
“The next step is to educate yourself and create spaces for diverse voices,” she said. “I’m hopeful that we can see increased diversity in our representative bodies so that we can create these types of spaces.”
She said for her personally this has really come in the form of gender, not race.
“I am finishing my degree in economics, probably the least diverse field that exists,” she explained. “Pretty much white men. So I have to speak up every single day to make sure that we are heard.”
Connor Gorman explained that he has worked with a lot of different organizers in our community to promote diversity and inclusion and anti-oppressive initiatives. He worked for justice for the Picnic Day 5.
Coming out of that process he worked with a number of different organizations to bring a police accountability commission to Davis. “I also helped pressure the Davis City Council when working with the indigenous community to move their banking resources away from Wells Fargo in solidarity with the opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline,” he said.
In addition, Connor said that he is working with campus organizations to promote these sorts of equity issues as well—students and campus workers are also a part of our community.
Rochelle Swanson said that she has worked with groups that focus on treating cervical cancer for women of color throughout the world to make sure they have equal access to health care. They have focused on East Africa, Nicaragua, Cambodia and India, as well as Thailand.
Professionally, she said, she works on the digital divide—that impacts, unfortunately, disproportionately children of color, she said.
She also mentioned during her time on the council she supported the Police Accountability Commission’s formation.
In part two we will have the next two questions that were addressed to portions of the panel.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Follow “Yolo Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Elections” (YCDIE) on Facebook to learn more about their future programs. To watch the full live forums – school board – and – council. YCDIE has also prepared a candidate guide that can be accessed here. Finally, ycdie is appealing to the public for donations to continue their work of ensuring diverse bodies in our local leadership as well as training the next generation into those positions of leadership in the future. To donate via paypal or credit card: To donate using a check, kindly contact ycdiedavis@gmail.com.
The video of the YCDIE Candidates Forum summarized in this article can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/YCDIEdavis/videos/2743623855956385
Yolo Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Elections Introduction — 0:00 through 5:30
Question #1 — 5:30 through 29:20 — posed to all candidates — “What have you done personally or professionally to address racism and inequity in our community?”
— Linda Deos
— Jim Provenza
— Will Arnold
— Dillan Horton
— Colin Walsh
— Lucas Frerichs
— Larry Guenther
— Josh Chapman
— Kelsey Fortune
— Connor Gorman
— Rochelle Swanson
Question #2 — 29:200 through 54:05 — posed to all candidates — “What do you see as the core challenges of people of color ine the city of Davis or Yolo County, and what would you prioritize to help overcome them?”
— Larry Guenther
— Lucas Frerichs
— Dillan Horton
— Colin Walsh
— Will Arnold
— Rochelle Swanson
— Connor Gorman
— Kelsey Fortune
— Josh Chapman
— Jim Provenza
— Linda Deos
Question #3 — 54:10 through 1:01:35 — posed to District 2 City Council candidates — “The City of Davis Social Services Commission, Police Accountability Commission and Human Relations Commission are discussing ways to reprioritize police funding. If you were a Council member, what ways would you like to see functions currently performed by the police be performed by other departments?”
— Colin Walsh
— Dillan Horton
— Will Arnold
Question #4 — 1:03:10 through 1:08:00 — posed to District 3 City Council candidates — “In your view what are the structural issues that lead to the disproportionate number of people of color unhoused? And what can we do locally to address this?”
— Lucas Frerichs
— Larry Guenther
Question #5 — 1:08:10 through 1:16:40 — posed to District 5 City Council candidates — “As a Council member what role do you see yourself playing in reducing racism and economic disparities in our community?”
— Kelsey Fortune
— Rochelle Swanson
— Josh Chapman
— Connor Gorman
Question #6 — 1:16:50 through 1:22:40 — posed to Yolo County Supervisor candidates — “What changes do you propose to better support the Public Defenders Office to address structural racism within the criminal justice system?”
— Linda Deos
— Jim Provenza
Question #7 — 1:22:50 through 1:32:40 — posed by Alan Miller — “Bretton Woods Buyers Program” question
— Colin Walsh
— Kelsey Fortune
— Lucas Frerichs
— Rochelle Swanson
— Dillan Horton
— Larry Guenther
Question #8 — 1:32:50 through 1:42:50 — posed by Jim Frame — “Access to Internet/Community Broadband, Digital Divide and Distance Learning” question
— Jim Provenza
— Dillan Horton
— Will Arnold
— Linda Deos
— Josh Chapman
— Colin Walsh
— Connor Gorman
Question #9 — 1:42:50 through 1:50:30 — posed by multiple people in the audience — “What problems do you see presently in how the City of Davis Police Department and County agencies relate to people of color? And what specific changes would you make to address this problem?
— Rochelle Swanson
— Larry Guenther
— Kelsey Fortune
— Lucas Frerichs
Candidate Closing Statements — 1:50:30 through 2:03:30
— Josh Chapman
— Connor Gorman
— Colin Walsh
— Linda Deos
— Dillan Horton
— Rochelle Swanson
— Larry Guenther
— Kelsey Fortune
— Lucas Frerichs
— Will Arnold
— Jim Provenza
Yolo Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Elections Closing Statement — 2:03:30 through 2:05:15
“Linda Deos said that she has been an advocate her entire personal and professional life for racial injustice issues. She talked about fighting racial discrimination in employment contracts and helping people to get their jobs back.”
Did she give any examples? Those lawyers can tricky. The first thing that came to my mind was wondering if she was talking about when she represented prison guards in disciplinary hearing while working for the CCPOA. I mean you could interpret that as helping people get their jobs back. Perhaps she was specific enough to relieve my doubt. Perhaps she could clarify what she actually did in this regard.
I don’t recall that she gave examples (remember she had a total of two minutes).
She did provide examples. Fighting for working families against big financial institutions, and fighting against employment discrimination. As far as the prison guards go, there’s a ton of discrimination in the prison system. It also applies to prison guards. Her opponent was literally aN assistant district attorney for years. Are you holding him to the same standards?
I found her answers to be very vague, even when asking for specific examples. An example is her response to the problem of no or poor internet access for low income people in the community. Linda said that she was a member of the City’s Utilities Commission, mentioned something about solutions being expensive, but gave no specific example of her personal, or even the Commission’s, efforts to address the problem as part of the Commission. The listener is left to make assumptions.
I don’t know what his title was, but he was a lobbyist for the LA County DA’s Office in Sacramento, not a prosecutor. He was also a Legal Services attorney and then, as a legislative staffer, was instrumental in drafting the state’s hate crime law and legislation related to criminal justice reform.
It would be nice to clarify the biographies of the candidates. Jim Provenza wasn’t a prosecutor, and I don’t know when or if Linda Deos worked for the CCPOA because it isn’t mentioned on her campaign website. I don’t know that this is a huge issue, but I think it would be good to know so people don’t inadvertently misrepresent their employment histories.
Deos worked for CCPOA as a hearing representative of officers under investigation. From the Vanguard, April 16, 2018 (https://davisvanguard.org/2018/04/council-candidate-weekly-question-police-oversight-picnic-day/) :
Maybe she could tell us who else, besides CCPOA members, whose jobs she got back?
“Fighting for working families against big financial institutions, and fighting against employment discrimination.”
That is different than “helping people to get their jobs back.”
Knowing her history of working for the Prison Guard Union from reading her 2018 campaign mailer for City Council it struck me as a little discordant. Someone I know who worked at CCPOA at the same time as Deos told me she represented prison guards in disciplinary hearings. She could easily clear this up if she wanted by clarifying her statement.
You seem to be implying that ensuring that employees under investigation receive due process is a negative. While I’m on record as supporting Jim Provenza, I believe we are fortunate to have two excellent progressive candidates running for the BOS.
I believe that everyone is entitled to representation. But if you re-read the question a vague answer about helping people get jobs back that might be related to support for prison guards in disciplinary hearings doesn’t really apply to racism or inequality in our community. That is why I asked for clarification?
Fair enough. Although, I would guess any job defending employees in disciplinary actions—even CCPOA members—would include cases where the employee asserts the action is due to discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
I know of few candidates who have been as transparent as Jim Provenza. I just re-checked the autobiography on his web page. He explains exactly what he did for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office:
“I represented the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office at the state capitol for over 20 years. I was responsible for the enactment of California’s stalking law and legislation permitting guns to be removed from the possession of domestic violence perpetrators. I worked with Darrell Steinberg to enact the strongest workplace safety law in the country. The law established a felony penalty for an employer who causes the death of a worker through willful safety violations. I also helped to enact landmark environmental legislation and laws protecting consumers from fraud.”
I also know that Jim personally lobbied against the enactment of the three strikes law and later wrote language to reform that measure. He was also responsible for legislation adding disability and LGBTQ to the protection of the hate crime law.
Before working with the legislature, Jim represented black, Latinx, and women in federal and state civil rights action in housing and employment discrimination cases. He also represented hundreds of victims of domestic violence and child abuse.
I urge you to go to jimprovenza.org (click the “Meet Jim” button for his autobiography) to read more.
I was pretty impressed with the forum overall. It was a bit of a single-focus forum, but no one billed it as anything else. As for the question “What have you done personally or professionally to address racism or inequity in our community?“. Forms of this question are becoming a national “litmus”, and not just for candidates. It implies that any candidate, or every citizen, needs to be doing something to fight racism, i.e., an anti-racist. Or . . . ?
It was bit cringe-worthy watching some of the non-people-of-color candidates declaring their privilege, and stating clearly that they were not people of color and could never have the experience of a person of color. Yes, we all know. Some handled it gracefully and seemingly sincerely, others stated it more than once and appeared awkward as they parroted politically-correct phrasing. I began to wonder if someone was going to take a knee.
I have no problem with people fighting racism – the more the better. However, there are other issues, and people have limited time, and each person has particular passions that they follow. We don’t all have to be warriors to a single cause. And not all candidates have to actively fight racism or inequity to be legitimate, just as do not all university job candidates, college applicants, job candidates . . . etc. Some people are simply not racist but have other callings, and for that, I’m good wit’cha. And if you’re a candidate who isn’t a racist and has other strengths you excel in, I’m good wit’cha.
Bringing this to my own, I don’t need everyone out there to be anti-Jew-haters (or anti-antisemites). If you simply treat Jews as fellow human beings, I’m good wit’cha. If you were a German 1930-1945 and you didn’t tell the Nazis where the Jews were, I’m good with you. God bless those that are out there today fighting against racism, even if I disagree with your politics (and I mean really fighting racism, not just posting on Instagram), and God bless those Germans that actually hid Jews and helped them escape the country (and didn’t have Instagram).
I very much support YCDIE’s goal “to support political candidates who will contribute to diverse elected bodies in Yolo County.” This is how more representative elected body’s should be achieved — support. I believe this group will have an effect for years to come.
Thanks Alan, I’m wit’cha, everything doesn’t always have to be all about race as it seems these days.
. . . and God bless John DeBerry, my personal weather vane through the riptides of the 2020’s. May he live, with a clear mind and healthy body, for another few decades. DeBerry 2020-08-12:
My family raised money and sent my dad to Washington for that march when that man [MLK] stood there and said that he wanted his children judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. And all we do in America right now is talk about color. Every issue, every issue is about race, it’s about color instead of us sitting down at the table like men and women of common sense and common justice and understanding that our enemies are looking with a greedy vigilance upon us as we tear ourselves apart internally. They have been watching us for 50 years, preparing step by step by step by step for us to kill ourselves.
Everything isn’t about race. But to ignore the issue of racism and racial inequities in questioning candidates for public office would be inexcusable—particularly when these issues have recently and appropriately gained such national, state, and local prominence.
MLK had a dream that color wouldn’t be a criteria for judging a person. But he spent his life bringing attention to the racism and inequalities that existed then and still exist. Would you say to him that “everything doesn’t always have to be all about race”?
It’s up to individual voters to decide whether and to what extent a candidate’s experience in addressing racism and racial inequities is relevant to how they vote. But, for voters to be informed, it is appropriate and important that the question be asked.
While I agree with pretty much everything that Eric said, worth noting that this forum was specifically about race and I don’t recall ever having a forum like this in Davis during my 14 years of doing this.
David, there was the Breaking the Silence of Racism forum in December 2012. Here is a LINK to the video of that forum.
It would be very interesting to see what progress has been made on the 51 recommendations for City improvements and 8 for DJUSD improvements that came from that forum.
The time index in the video of the speakers at that forum is as follows:
15:30 Sandy Holman’s first slide
19:00 Rochelle Swandon Intro
20:30 Darren Pytel Intro
23:00 Raheem Reed UCD Vice Chancellor Campus/Community Relations Intro
24:00 Jonathan Raven Intro
28:30 Kristin Stoneking Intro
30:30 Pamela Maury DJUSD Student Services and Secondary Programs Intro
36:00 Guidelines for Sharing (Sandy)
44:30 First Story (Francesca Reyes – Woodland) — Concerns about anti-Hispanic biases of DA’s Office
49:30 Second Story (Maria Casala – Woodland) — Concerns about lack of bilingual support
53:30 Third Story (Bill Calhoun – Davis) — Not enough “models” and “examples of leadership” in the community for minority children growing up … also need more minority hiring in school district
63:00 Fourth Story (Al Rojas and Desire Rojas – Labor Council for Latin Advancement) — Targeting of youth in Hispanic and Nepalese communities)
72:00 Fifth Story (Rick Gonzales) — 1987 creation of Davis Human Relations Commission — 51 recommendations for City improvements and 8 for DJUSD improvements
76:00 Sixth Story (Lawson) — Don’t think Davis has a racism problem, but rather a classism problem
78:00 Seventh Story (Jerry Garland – Davis) — Ashay Dev case anti-Nepalese bias in DA’s office
82:30 Eighth Story (Mikka Sieverson – Davis) — People of Color unseen and unheard and unconsidered — Hate toward Palestineans
86:00 Ninth Story (Brenda Amares – Mexican-American Criminal Justice student) — Stopping racism starts at home and “proper” behavior (dress normal)
90:00 Tenth Story (Mellisa Moreno – ethnic studies professor at Woodland Community College) — accused of reverse discrimination – first Latina professor – investigation cleared her
93:00 Eleventh Story (48-year old black male) — racism is more subtle … and challenging – BigNoise Radio – comment from Pamela, DJUSD has become “conversant” in the forms of micro-discrimination
99:00 Twelfth Story (Jan Murray-Garcia – Davis) — over charging and over prosecution of people of color – we need annual data reports of suspensions in schools, traffic stops, prosecutions Be accountable – comment from Rochelle/Darren will work on accomplishing this public reporting from City – comment from Rahim UCD is working on this and create accountability and trending
107:30 Question from Lawson about how Police Department trains its officer on how to exercise discretion – Responses from Darren and Jonathan
110:20 Thirteenth Story (Karen Howard UCD professor) — UCD complaint system designed to burden/punish the complainer. Hazing from peers.
114:30 Fourteenth Story (Rico Amines American River College professor) — where are the Latinos in Davis? We have Apartheid in Davis.
118:20 Fifteenth Story (Ken Bradford – Davis) — bullying in DJUSD of his grandson by white students – we are in denial about the problem of being black in Davis
123:00 Sixteenth Story (Juwan Barnes – mother works at Hyatt) — what programs exist in Davis to help people who have “messed up” in their youth?
125:30 Seventeen Story (Lourea Terry responding to Juwan) — Victims Advocate
129:00 Eighteenth Story (Rayall Daysart) — Used to being invisible – Wife is white. Children experience “being in the middle”
133:00 Nineteenth Story (Marylin Hayes – Davis) — nothing has changed in 50 years – need teachers who look like their students of color – subtleties of racism –
138:30 Jonathan Raven’s comments about Marylin’s comments)
142:00 Twentieth Story (Jack Easley – West Sacramento) — Ajay Dev’s father in law
145:00 Twenty-first Story (Gwynneth Brusch — drama teacher at Davis High School) —
148:00 Twenty-second Story (Cruz Reynoso) — civil rights issue of the next decade is education (unintentionally echos Lawson’s classism comment) – problems of Woodland Police Department, Yolo County Sheriff, and DAs offices in dealing with Hispanics
151:30 Twenty-third Story (Tia Will) — disparities in health care outcomes based on both race and income
153:20 Twenty-fourth Story (Tapua) — proud to be African American
155:00 Twenty-fifth Story (Steve Nyholm) — Native American raised white by a racistgrandmother
157:30 Twenty-sixth Story (Yvonne Clinton) — mother of five bi-racial children
159:00 Twenty-seventh Story (Steve Churomoyish – native american) — behavior won’t change until attitudes change
163:30 Twenty-eighth Story (Alice Andronijo) — Davis Universalist Unitarian Church helps build bridges between individuals and groups
165:00 Twenty-ninth Story (Jennifer) — being a white ally
169:00 Bill Calhoun follow-up question about Diversity Training in Police Academy
172:00 Jan Murray-Garcia additional stories about people over charged and over prosecuted by Yolo DAs Office
176:00 Closing Statement by Sandy Holman
178:00 Speak-out Comments for Moving Forward — Compassion / Interfaith Prayer / Listening / Multi-faith Education at early Elementary School level / Obtaining and teaching an accurate History of the United States / Intentional Collaboration with the Spiritual Community / System-level regular reporting of accountability data / Proactive diversity in schools in both staff and students / Community World Cafe / Well-attended and frequent Forums / Get to know someone of an under-represented race as well as you know people of your family members /
I’ll have to bookmark this for the next time when I reference this. You spent a lot of time on this.
One thing I would note, I don’t know how much of the tangible goals were met, but recognition following this went way up.
43 segments, and nothing about Jews?
Those were public commenters. There was a Jew on the panel.
Those were pubic commenters? I misunderstood . . . from some of the names/titles, I thought this was the meeting agenda itself. I guess I’ll have to set aside time to watch the video. It would be interesting to see what was recommended back then, and thought some goals may be hard to pinpoint as successful or not, it would be interesting to give see what’s been done in 8 years. The success or failure at previous “tries” can be instructive to current efforts.