Commentary: Davis Residents Should Demand Accountability From City Government

Humorist P.J. O'Rourke once wrote:

"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it."

In fact, the chief problem is that people in general are complicit in the failure of government at all levels. They are willing to accept mediocrity. They fail to hold their public officials accountable and demand more from their elected leaders and their unelected civil servants.

I bring this up in part due to the response, by some, to the lack preparation and leadership from the city government during the latest emergency. And as I suggested yesterday, a low-level emergency at that.

But if we cannot properly handle a low-level emergency, how will we handle the big one?

I received a large volume of emails yesterday from residents and public officials. There were points made that I think need to be posted in public. I shall excerpt a few while protecting the identity of the guilty parties.

This one in particular gives me great pause:

"The bottom line is we all knew this was coming. Citizens made plans. Did the City? Does it have a plan? Was it executed properly? Is there a plan to review what happened and revise the plan and execution for the next emergency? This is a great opportunity to improve. I hope we don't miss it. I'd hate to see what happens to us if there were a levee break at the Yolo bypass, or a problem with the Monticello dam. (BTW, I hear there is a map at public works that shows what happens in the event of a Monticello dam failure. Davis has approximately two-four hours between the break and various levels of inundation. I'm curious to see if there is a City plan for that event.)"

If we had two hours to get people out of the city, especially elderly and disabled, would we be able to do so?

I grew up in San Luis Obispo, as I have mentioned many times before on this blog. PG&E in all of their great wisdom decided to build a nuclear power plant on an earthquake fault. Now they claim it could withstand an earthquake, but at one point in time they also built the darn thing backwards and had to start over from scratch.

San Luis Obispo in response to public outcry developed an evacuation plan that basically put everyone on the two-lane (at the time) Highway 101 North to Atascadero. This is basically a town of 44,000 where all would be evacuating into one outlet in the event of an emergency. School children first. We actually practiced these evacuations during school.

It was a lousy plan and if it ever had to go to fruition it would have been fraught with problems, but at least they had a plan. As a result, San Luis Obispo County also has a much more sophisticated emergency response plan than we do in Yolo County.

Art Shapiro posted a great comment on the Davis Enterprise site yesterday:

"People who follow the weather or even pay close attention to the news knew this was coming and could take appropriate precautions, though some thought the Weather Service was crying wolf and didn't. You can't force people to exercise good judgment. But the vast majority - alas - don't keep up, so many were caught flat-footed and didn't have the opportunity to act prudently. This, for most of us, was merely a nasty nuisance. But it was immensely valuable in that it showcased how grossly inadequate our emergency planning actually is; it is laughable to rely on radio broadcasts when the power is out and only those with battery-operated radios can get them. Major power outages take down Web sites and kill computer-based information delivery. (Those with campus connections had Web access this time, but we cannot count on that--it was luck of the draw.) Phone lines can go down too, and many people no longer have land lines at all, but reverse-911 systems may be the most effective means of communication when there are extensive power outages. We (and others nationwide--our situation should be a trigger for such review elsewhere) need to rethink these issues; the next time may be a lot more than a nasty nuisance."

The Mayor, Sue Greenwald, followed it up with:

"At our council meeting this Tuesday, I plan to ask that our winter storm and power outage procedures be reviewed. As Mayor, I talked with the City Manager numerous times before and during the storm about our procedures. Even before the storm hit, I asked if we had a process for assuring that citizens, and particularly the elderly, had access to warm shelter in the case of major power outages. As the extent of outages became apparent, I continued to press the City manager. When the shelter was belatedly set up, I suggested to the City Manager that we start a door-to-door outreach, looking especially for the elderly. When I received no reply, I drove over to the shelter and then to emergency headquarters. Temperatures were falling rapidly. I asked which areas were still out of electricity. Most of Central Davis bounded by Russell, Covell, 113 and F street were still without heat. I pointed out that this older area of Davis was home to a lot of senior citizens. I was told that we would not be doing a door to door outreach. I returned to the emergency shelter, and one of the Red Cross volunteers told me that Woodland was undertaking a house to house outreach. Again, I will ask the council to look into this on Tuesday night."

Getting back to my original point. In many ways this was a dry-run for us. For most resident this was a pain rather than a serious danger. But next time we may not be so lucky.

The key question I have is whether we are willing to accept the level of governance we have, accept mediocrity, or will we demand accountability from our elected officials. Will we demand accountability from our unelected officials who apparently run this town?

---Doug Paul Davis reporting