 Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Whatever you're listening. This is Davisville on KDRT LP 95.7 FM in Davis, California We live at KDRT.org online I'm Bill Buchanan, and I thank you for listening to our latest remotely recorded program. We'll get back to the studio eventually My guest today is Gloria Pardina. She will become the next mayor of Davis in July and with that data approaching I asked her to visit with us today to talk about coming mayor and about some issues of the day Ones that involve just Davis and ones that involve much more than Davis Gloria. Thank you for appearing on Davisville today Thank you for having me So well before we start I'd like to list some of your experiences It's it's a full list Some of this I think you're known for in town and some maybe not so much First you've been on the city council for two years. You've been mayor pro tem Which means you have stood in for the current mayor Brett Lee when he's absent You also helped start the Davis Phoenix coalition Which works against intolerance particularly in LGBTQ areas and promotes a diverse community You'll be the first Latina mayor in Davis You're an Aggie both as a student as an employee Well, you're retired now But you were a lab manager in the Department of Neurobiology physiology and behavior and you have a bachelor's degree in zoology from UC Davis and You're a parent and you've lived in Davis since moving here from Los Angeles in 1989. So that's quite a list We'll get to some topics in a minute, but I wanted to start with a broad question and that is how do all these experiences and interests? Shape your approach to the decisions that you make for Davis as a member of the council So I think that the most important way that they shape my approach is that I've had a very wide Range of experiences and I've interacted with a wide range of communities So everything from the campus community to I did a lot of disability advocacy did a lot of advocacy in the school district with children and families and and of course saw a lot of young people when I was on campus and growing up in a very underrepresented part of Los Angeles and then You know navigating the community and Davis Really provided me the opportunity to move between a lot of different worlds and to Understand that every community has a different need and that in order to be successful in meeting those needs You have to really understand the places that you are in Okay Another general question I wanted to start with is What's the job of mayor? I mean, what are the most important aspects you you don't manage things as mayor We have a city manager for that you do represent the community so I I see it as As just that as representing the community because we've gone to districts now. I think that the role of mayor has been actually Become a little more important because you know, we Will you know while we see each council person as representing a district? We're all concerned with the entire community, but I think that The position of mayor will act as the kind of liaison between all of the districts including the district that the mayor is in and but yes, I do see it as sort of the The front face of the city council and of course, you know, you run the run the Meeting Run the city council meetings, right and we should explain your reference about districts Davis had Until recently had at large elections for city council So everybody in town voted for every seat But that has converted now to district elections where candidates will have to come from different parts of town And and I think I understand your point to be that mayor is perhaps still a Citywide position in a way, maybe that some of these district seats won't quite be Yes, so the I mean the person who is mayor Does have a district is is representative of a district. So the mayor is not at large but because You know, the mayor does share the meeting And so I think that that person has to also You know, try to make sure that all the voices of the different council members are Equally represented in the in the meeting in that, you know Any any one person's concerns are not lost and that You know, we make sure that everyone is satisfied in in being heard that they have been heard Okay, let's um Let's advance now to a couple of topics There's two that I think are on most people's minds these days One of course is the pandemic that we've been living with for a few months. The other is is The death of yet another African-American man George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody in May this has led to protests in Violence in some cases in cities across the United States The officer who held him down has been arrested for murder. I should say we're talking on June 3rd That's a few days before this interview airs and so events might continue to evolve between when we talk and when this Broadcast airs. I know of course Davis City Hall and UC Davis have condemned mr. Floyd's death as tragic and horrifying abuse of power You wrote a blog post about his death for the Phoenix Coalition website in late May I do encourage people to look it up But I'd like to read parts of it here and then and then ask you to elaborate on part of it So now I'm quoting your post and you say We must sit in the discomfort of the knowing that the darker a person is the more we are threatened and uncomfortable The knowing that we are willing to dehumanize our neighbors and our need to be comfortable The knowing that our goodness is complicit in black America's death when we volunteered food kitchens But refuse to live next door to them. So knowing that just saying we are all in this together does not make it so Yes, policing is difficult. Yes poverty and trauma produce people that are at odds with society Yes, it is complicated and no it is not After these instances, there are many articles and what white America can do to be good allies All good and the number one thing we can all do to change our culture is to be honest and to teach that honesty to children But as I say, there's more to the essay than that and there's a lot just in that part though These words particularly jumped out at me. I think the contradiction sort of catches the times you he wrote Yes, it is complicated. No, it is not and I wondered if you could elaborate on why it's complicated and why it isn't I think it's complicated because as I said We we understand we understand a lot about what produces poverty and what produces violence and the understanding in itself is Is not is not enough so You know, there there is You know, we we can say that you know We are not prejudiced or we're not racist but the fact is that we all are that everyone has prejudiced and everyone has things that they are uncomfortable with and To not acknowledge that and to not acknowledge that it it does play a part in you know, what keeps things the same is is very problematic and You know, everything has a duality to it. So policing is is got a duality to it the way that we live in relationship with each other has a duality to it and so You know, all of that is complicated but you know, if you want to you know, get to the heart of the matter you have to be honest and that I think is the uncomplicated part is to You know come forward and to say, you know Yes, sometimes Everyone makes decisions that are not based on you know complete altruism or that are not Based on our best in humanness So you're saying in a way we all need to be honest with ourselves We need to be honest with ourselves absolutely For instance, we do a lot of work around bullying around anti-bullying and You know parents come forward to we have like a carnival that we do for children and they'll bring their children you know to learn about anti-bullying and One of the questions that we ask the parents is what are you doing to? make sure that your children are Not bullying others or that they're learning kindness and empathy and things like that and so they'll you know rattle off a lot of You know things that they're doing that they're teaching their children, but What we want to get at is that we are modeling behavior that we don't see as That our children see and that contributes to bullying in the schools when we when parents gossip About other people when they you know make judgments about other children or you know We don't want to invite that child because you know, maybe they've got impulse control problems or or you know, they're Not a nice kid. We're already instilling otherness in in our children and and teaching them that That we are that we're judging when we're when we're talking about each other in in a community We're judging and we're teaching that judgment to our children and I'm not saying that you know as adults we don't process What we you know our frustrations with each other as people I'm just saying that You have to be careful in How you do that in front of children because they don't have the ability to you know tease out the nuances of that yet and Or most children don't some children are very sophisticated So so that's that's the point that I'm that we try to that we try to get across to to parents Do you think people are afraid to be honest with each other about race? Oh Yes, yes, I think it's a very difficult conversation to have for most adults and for and for most People in a community especially across races. I think it's it's very difficult to you know To have those conversations. I grew up in Houston and And and there was a lot of racism even amongst the Hispanic community against people who were African-American and then you know between the whites and the and the Latinos in in Houston and so it It just it happens across all cultures It's a human failing. It is a human failing and even when I was growing up in Los Angeles at one point there was a large influx of people from El Salvador and There was a lot of tension between the people from El Salvador and the people from Mexico so it Definitely is as I said something that We struggle with and that we have to identify one of the reasons you helped start the Phoenix Coalition in Davis is because one of your sons was beaten here in Davis because of his Sexual orientation. This is your son Mikey. Everybody calls him. This is in 2013 the man who assaulted him was sentenced to five years in prison You acted I guess is part of what I'm being a point here And I'm listening to you talk about honesty and and from your own actions You then acted on something you saw to try to prevent it. I Wanted to ask how's Mikey doing today? He's doing very well. He's living in Sacramento kind of in the heart of the protest right now So it's a little it's a little anxiety inducing but he has You know recovered I think very well, I know that it's still difficult some things are still difficult for him You know from where we started. I Feel pretty lucky All right We are talking with Gloria Perdita who is currently mayor pro tem of Davis She will become mayor of Davis in July. I'm bill Buchanan and this is Davisville on KD RT I wanted to ask you also about the pandemic. That's Another big issue these days You know, it won't be over when you become mayor Davis has seemed fairly fortunate in terms of health. You know as we speak today I don't believe there's been deaths in town But the financial fallout is intense with unemployment is above 10. Many people are distressed It has certainly whacked the city's budget. I don't need to tell you that I know no one has a crystal ball But based on everything all the different roles you play in Davis and now on the council and the incoming mayor What do you think is ahead for this summer for Davis with regards to the pandemic? So I um definitely a lot of challenges. There are um, you know, a lot of concerns still I think, you know, we talked about the budget last night for a very long time and Um, I think that we are in a surprisingly good Shape we came into it in a good place financially and Made some really good decisions that have positioned us in the place to come through not without You know challenge, but definitely not in complete dire straits so From that, uh respect I I'm pleased Of course, you know, there is no crystal ball and we don't know how long it's going to last and You know, how many businesses are going to recover and how many businesses are not going to be able to open up again All of that will make a big difference And we don't yet have a handle on the actual virus We don't know if if we're going to get a vaccine if that how effective that vaccine is going to be and when it'll come So there's a lot of unknowns, but I do think that the leadership we have right now in the city is is very good and and that we are very proactive and very Prudent in the decisions that are made and so from that respect, I think That the things are going to be um, as I said not easy, but they will be You know manageable Any change or or one or two in particular that the city's doing that people ought to know about at this stage as far as Well, I mean, maybe the the effect on on city hall on the budgets I know you were discussing it last night and I haven't followed the meeting. I don't know what decisions Yeah, so we've made a lot of decisions to not feel positions that are vacant or People we have some people that are retiring and we're not going to fill those positions We have a lot of c.i.p. Projects that will Be defunded which means that if we were getting ready to fix bike path or You know those types of big projects that they're going to be put on hold. They're going to be deferred for now to Have that money come back into the general fund. Okay, and c.i.t. These are capital Improvement projects got it. Okay. So like you were saying a road repair or something like that. Yeah, right something like that and So we we asked every department to come up with a list of places that money could be cut If we were thinking of doing like a big infrastructure Project with that has been deferred. So we've deferred a lot of things that we can And as much as we can and also we are going back to the labor units and asking of or furloughs or for deferment on their cost of living increases and things like that There was some some we had some commenters talk about how the state is asking for people to take a 10% cut but You can't do that without negotiating with the with the labor units and so we are going to ask people if you know to please consider Taking either furloughs or a cost of living increased deferment so that we don't have to lay people off I would prefer that we don't lay people off and and I think that as much as we can do to keep people From becoming unemployed. I think that that's a really important thing not just for our City and for our area But in general, I mean that this is worldwide this problem is worldwide and and the economy is is going to really have a hard time recovering and I think that it's important to do our part in in making sure that we You know are helping people get through this and so I hope that the bargaining mean units See that as well I guess people can of course they can follow this in the Davis enterprise or the svangar Various ways people can follow the story. We have Oh, I think about eight or nine minutes left. Um Oh one last thing I guess So recreational programs like the pools things like that. I mean that's no decision on that yet Depends on the pandemic, I suppose right it depends on the order from the state. So The state health office Yes, so the there are different phases and we take A direction from from the state Okay, there's a couple of Davis issues. I wanted to talk about or get your thoughts on just Life goes on. Yes Uh growth is one of those recurring issues in Davis. There's there's Two projects fairly major ones that are before the city in one form or another One is the Davis innovation sustainability campus. That's the new name for the Research and housing project that's proposed in I'd call it northeast Davis along the mace curve It's up to two and a half million square feet of business uses eight hundred and fifty residential units of varied sizes and affordability Just quickly. What do you think of this project overall? Is this something you like don't like? So I think that overall it is something that is needed and in Davis it will Of course, you know, give us a place to Have innovation Grow in Davis and it's a great stream of revenue, which we are going to sorely need It also has the housing component which it Mitigates a little bit, you know people who are going to be driving in to work at this location but you know, mostly I think that it Provides a great opportunity for some of that transfer of innovation that's happening at the campus to You know to stay in Davis We have uh, you know a lot of We have a lot of young people who are coming out of the university and have got great ideas and It would be nice to be able to keep That in town So the uh, this will go on the ballot eventually because of Davis rules, right? It'd be an annexation of the city. So it takes a vote The project as it's proposed right now. Are you happy with it anything you'd want to change before it might go on the ballot someday Um, I'm concerned about the traffic and the transportation and the impacts that Obviously would would happen with this and so I'm You know, we are we are having some conversations around that The other project that I wanted to ask about is uh, the university mall redevelopment This would mean tearing down the existing mall there at Russell and Anderson Except for Trader Joe's which is over there by sycamore And replacing that current building with mixed use development Up to 264 apartments And I guess about 135,000 square feet of stores and offices. There'd be seven story buildings This is right across the street from the campus from some of the dorms there Uh, just recently the city planning commission voted seven to zero to advise against it I understand the developers still plan to bring it to the city What are your thoughts on the proposal as it is? So first of all, I keep hearing seven stories, but in fact, it's five um, okay And I don't know where that seven story Information is coming from and I hear it quite often but it is it is five stories Maybe the height is very close to what a seven story building would be I'm not really sure what the confusion is but I have to go back and check I was looking at city documents. I don't want to say that I read it there though because I'm not confident You know things like this also can change You know in force of a proposal great So I I think that that Development it surprised me that it was so unanimously Disliked by the planning commission and I'm not sure if it is kind of an old member of you know Displeasure with the university not providing Housing and the feeling that the university should be providing this housing because it is geared towards students because it's right across the street from the university and But I do think that this is what we're asking for we're asking for infill. So on the one hand you have the innovation center, which is You know pushing the boundary and so people say no, we don't want that We want infill and then you do infill and people say no, that's too big We don't want that type of infill. Well, that's human nature, isn't it? You know, it's We want the best of everything right and so I think but I do think that we have a Obligation to build housing. I mean not just from a Human standpoint not just from a social standpoint that we need to house people and we need to alleviate the You know the pressure on housing But there are You know certain numbers of housing that we have to build that we're obligated to build as a And and so this is a great opportunity to You know get to some of those numbers that that we need to hit And people talk about like the four bedrooms and we don't need four bedrooms. You know, that's just geared towards students Well, there are students who are living in two bedroom apartments elsewhere in town you could empty two two bedroom apartments And of students that would be closer to campus and have those two bedroom apartments now opened up for families or workers So it makes really good sense. I think to have this In this location and I know that again people are worried about traffic But I keep saying that the traffic is there already there are already that many students who are going You know that are living in you know wealth to a house and That are traveling down the same roads So they're already there as your point. Well, so I can imagine these might be some questions That I could hear you asking when it does come before the council or some of these points perhaps Couple minutes left. I'm wondering. What have you learned about davis from your first two years on the council any surprises? Um, there are a lot of surprises actually Uh, we may not have time to get to all of them then but no, you know, we definitely will not But I think that what the number one thing that I've learned is that you have to be very patient That things move very very slowly Uh, that a process is very important to our community And that as I said earlier, uh, the thing that I've learned in working in different communities is that you have to Make sure that you bring everyone along that you get to you get to where people are you go to where people are and um Not everyone is going to ever be happy that and as a matter of fact if you if you have Something where everyone is a little bit unhappy then that's probably the best place to be Anything as a mayor that you particularly want to stand for Well, I definitely want to stand for listening to people and being equitable in all of the decisions that I that I make. I mean before the you know, covid a situation definitely had Some ideas that that I wanted to you know push forward, but it feel it seems that now all we're going to be working on is uh recovery and um, you know keeping just keeping the lights on Do you think you're going to want more of this in two years another term? It's hard to say right at this moment. It's uh, there are some days where I'm I feel like there's no way But I have to say that most of the time I am enjoying this a lot more than I thought that I would be Well, gloria, thank you very much for taking time to talk with us today Oh, thank you. We've been talking with gloria partita who is a member of the council currently mayor pro tem She will become mayor of davis in less than a month I'm bill b canon. This is davis phil and k d r t. Thank you for listening