Board of Supervisors pay raise issue draws a lot of heat
The board of supervisors on Tuesday voted to table the motion. Dudley Holman of the Yolo County Taxpayer's Association accused the board of being arrogant and devisive.
The Board of Supervisors is in a difficult position of voting upon their own payraise, something that Supervisor Thomson acknowledged, however, it remains our opinion that this is a much needed pay raise. Hopefully this issue can be revisited and cooler heads will prevail.
Dunning attack on Heystek draws more heat
In a letter to the editor of Davis Enterprise, Bill Ritter writes:
Well said Mr. Ritter, I certainly cannot add anything to his eloquent letter. To date, Dunning has not responded to our concerns and request for an apology on this issue. It will be interesting to see if Dunning will respond to Mr. Ritter.
"Making everyone heard"
Some may have caught the piece in the Davis Enterprise the other night by Claire St. John, a feature article on Alexandra Courtis, the high school student who serves as the high school representative on the Davis Human Relations Commission.
The story was fairly routine, but I did notice a little insertion:
Community Event Announcement: 911 and American Empire
Tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Davis Branch of the Yolo County Library, 315 E. 14th Street, called "911 and the American Empire". Discussion will follow.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
The board of supervisors on Tuesday voted to table the motion. Dudley Holman of the Yolo County Taxpayer's Association accused the board of being arrogant and devisive.
Mariko Yamada, perhaps the board's most vocal proponent of the pay raise, took particular issue with Holman's criticisms.Anyone who knows Yamada with any degree of familiarity knows two things. She is the last person in the world that you would call arrogant. If anything, as I have said before, she is too modest. Second, she along with Councilmember Heystek are the hardest working people I know. Yamada defintely works at least an 80 hour week.
"To call me arrogant is the height of reverse arrogance," she said, adding the amount of hours she spends working to serve the county is sometimes double what most people work in a day. (source: Josh Fernandez, Woodland Daily Democrat)
The Board of Supervisors is in a difficult position of voting upon their own payraise, something that Supervisor Thomson acknowledged, however, it remains our opinion that this is a much needed pay raise. Hopefully this issue can be revisited and cooler heads will prevail.
Dunning attack on Heystek draws more heat
In a letter to the editor of Davis Enterprise, Bill Ritter writes:
Commendation, not ridicule
In Bob Dunning's Nov. 28 column, he quoted Noreen Mazelis and together they ridiculed Lamar Heystek for being on an International House invited panel on "struggle" — a discussion about overcoming adversity. Mazelis attacked the panel's makeup as privileged men. Both she and Dunning trivialized Lamar's efforts to improve his life as not being a credible struggle.
Dunning wrote: "Writes my friend Noreen: '… Lamar Heystek will be on a panel with three other privileged men to discuss 'struggle.' " Dunning then adds: "... wow, nobody knows the trouble he's seen, overcoming his college education and teaching position at UC Davis to become one of the youngest City Council members in Davis city history ... struggle? ... Lamar? ... heck, he's not old enough to have even struggled with a razor ..."
Dunning intentionally put Mazelis' quote in his column. He did not dispute, and indeed highlighted her assertion that Lamar is privileged. He then added his own sarcastic put-down of Lamar's efforts to be successful, become a credit to his family and serve his community. Dunning and Mazelis (through ignorance and carelessness) show a lack of respect for the obstacles Lamar faced as a young man and his efforts to make his way in the world.
Lamar does not come from a privileged background. He has overcome much hardship through genuine struggle in his life. Lamar grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Oakland where violent crime was frequent. His family life is filled with adversity and tragedy. For Dunning and Mazelis to make belittling comments about Lamar's life (which evidently they know little or nothing about) was appalling, careless and just plain mean.
It is one thing to criticize Lamar if you disagree with his politics, positions on issues or public conduct, but quite another to ridicule him personally, as Dunning has, and belittle or ignore the life challenges he has faced.
Lamar has overcome them by getting an education while working full time, qualifying for university employment, volunteering to help others, and earning election to the City Council. Such strong effort to overcome adversity should be commended, not ridiculed.
Bill Ritter
Davis
Well said Mr. Ritter, I certainly cannot add anything to his eloquent letter. To date, Dunning has not responded to our concerns and request for an apology on this issue. It will be interesting to see if Dunning will respond to Mr. Ritter.
"Making everyone heard"
Some may have caught the piece in the Davis Enterprise the other night by Claire St. John, a feature article on Alexandra Courtis, the high school student who serves as the high school representative on the Davis Human Relations Commission.
The story was fairly routine, but I did notice a little insertion:
"Shortly after she was appointed as alternate, however, the City Council put the commission on hiatus, saying the commission was making problems of alleged racial profiling by police more inflammatory rather than elevating the conversation... Courtis made sure to emphasize she was not speaking as a representative of the Human Relations Commission, something that got previous members in trouble with the City Council."I suppose it will be a long time before there can be a newspaper article relating to the Human Relations Commission without some reference to things past.
Community Event Announcement: 911 and American Empire
Tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Davis Branch of the Yolo County Library, 315 E. 14th Street, called "911 and the American Empire". Discussion will follow.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
