 Welcome to Election Night coverage here on DCTV, Channel 15, live on the Comcast system. You're watching the live coverage of the November 4th, 2014 election. It's going to be a lot of fun. We hope it's informative. We hope you join us by calling in and talking to all the guests that we have tonight. It's going to be a great time. And this program is also a simulcast on Kader, 95.7 FM here in Davis. My name is Richard Harris. I used to be on the school board years ago and my gorgeous, beautiful, wonky, brilliant co-host, Anna Ferrara, lobbyist extraordinaire and education expert is with us tonight too. So we're really going to have a lot of fun talking to the school board candidates and a few other people who come on. We want to give a shout out to our partners, the City Government Channel 16, the Davis Community Network, Omsoft Technologies, Yolo County Elections Office, and also, of course, thanks to all the great crew here that do this just for fun at DCTV. The director switcher is Diane Dodosca, the coach who's back behind the wall here, the floor managers, Una Cho and Tyler Schaffo, the cameras, Bill Lorfene, Peter Peterson and Emily Merton. Audio, Peter Baum, Lighting Jeff Shaw, the results, Alex Silva-Satter is putting a lot of this together for us. We'll have that on the computer later. That should be pretty neat. And the executive producer that kind of keeps it all running is Autumn Lab, I know, I've just messed it up just to mess with her. Listen, the number to call tonight is 757-2419. And DMA's Twitter feed is at DMA Feed, makes sense. And on Facebook, check us out at Davis Media Access. Like I said, it's going to be informative, but we're also going to have fun, and we're going to be here for a while, so please join us by phone. I want to turn it over to Ana, who's going to introduce our first guest. Well, we're really pleased to have you here with us, you know, don't worry. This person is not the guinea pig in this situation. It'll be easy for us. So we're pleased to have Chuck Reardon here with us today. And he is one of the wonderful people who have put forward their names for your consideration for school board at this November 4, 2014 election. So Chuck. Yes. Does it feel good? It's all over with. It feels great, no matter how it's going to turn out. I think all the candidates would agree, especially the last three months have just been really intense. I think you've seen several candidates that have just given it, you know, 110 percent. You all did. You all did then. That was great. Yeah. And there are some that really shined, I would say, but yeah, I mean, no matter how you approach it. It is a very intense three months. So yeah, I think it's fair to say that everyone is much relieved. And we kept it clean and all of that. Yes. I feel like you were unique. Each candidate has some unique qualities. But you know, I thought that your story about being the first person in your extended family to be, to finish college was, you know, very interesting. I have a similar background and I just think that's, you know, you're kind of a pioneer out there. And you know, you know, that resonated with me. Tell us more about your perspective and what that brings to you as a candidate. Well, I think, you know, just having to, you know, kind of come to that realization at a young age that, you know, if I really want to change my situation, I had a wonderful upbringing, loving parents, nothing wrong in that regard. It was, you know, it was a great situation, but it was just something that I for myself realized that I wanted something more and I wanted to have a lot of different options available to me as I came of age and started looking towards a career. So, you know, certainly public education, regardless of what situation you're born into, is kind of to me like the great leveler. If you really want to apply yourself and you want to give it your all, I think it's fair to say the sky's the limit. So, I think it's just a wonderful avenue for those that want to better themselves and build a better future. Did you get a fair shake with the voters? Did you feel like you had an opportunity to interact with people, people listen to you and then you feel like you had, you know, a fair shake, you know? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. It's got a lot of ideas and issues out there that really resonate and then also you learn a lot of things that you either hadn't thought of or you just think about from a different angle that they see it from, you know, just a slightly different perspective, you know, by talking to all those different folks, it really better informs the whole picture. One thing I feel like I learned, you know, in the years that I've been here as, you know, with my kids and school board and all of that is, you know, it really is a team kind of process that you're working under. You kind of have to come to consensus and all of that. But I think the expectation is that you're also going to do your homework and have your own opinions as well. So, do you see those things as adversarial or do you, if you were on school board, you know, what were the issues that you would bring as your own? Well, I think to address the first part of your question, I mean, I think everyone comes at it with their own certain interests and things that they would like to emphasize. And I think the, you know, the good part about a healthy debate is that you really give every question or issue or challenge before the district, you know, it's full hearing, you know. And so you need to air these questions completely. Everyone needs to provide their input. And then I think ideally what happens is that the board has at least a unified direction forward. There may be different, you know, opinions and where things are going to fall one way or another, but at least there's a cohesive direction forward and that everyone feels that they got their say. For me, I think certainly with Common Core Command online, it's, you know, it's still got a lot of road testing to do, a lot of controversy, you know, just endless questions. People are just not comfortable with it yet. So I think in terms of, even at the national level, how it's rolled out, I don't think people really got the warm and fuzzy. And so we're even dealing with that locally that what is this really about? I think for me, I see it as the inherent flexibility of that approach, that it provides tremendous opportunity for what I think of as inquiry-based learning. And that's more of a, it's a back and forth between the teacher and the students. And, you know, the teacher kind of gets the conversation going, but then the students, it kind of fuels and builds upon itself. And then the questions are coming from the students. And so the teacher becomes more of a facilitator. And, you know, obviously there's some that's still wrote and, you know, basic literacy that you have to address. But I think in terms of higher order thinking and more collaborative, you know, style learning and creative problem solving, I think that's really a good vehicle for that. Do you agree that it was, you know, kind of teaching to the test for a while there and at this point, something else might be a welcome kind of situation? I mean, it feels like, you know, from what you're saying, and I've heard that too, that, you know, that it might be a welcome change for all of us. Are there particular things you like about Common Core? Well, I think the one aspect that I like in particular is that it's not just what are the kind of mechanistic steps for getting to a answer. And in some cases, there are multiple answers and in other cases, there is a single answer. But for those where it's a little more wide open, you know, there's more emphasis on the process for, you know, and it takes into account different learning styles, just even, you know, different factors weighing in differently. So it's really, again, it's not really a formulaic or static approach. It's something that is much more participatory, I guess you could say, and it's emphasis on how you get to the answer. You know, that's, you know, and I think ultimately what needs to happen is you find balance. Because right now, if you go too far that direction, well, you know, things start feeling a little bit untethered. Right. But I think that's a welcome change to see that aspect starting to feed into the curriculum. So let's talk the election and all that and the process. People like to know, you know, the candidates have been through all that. What was the most fun you had during all this? There must have been that one moment, the aha or something, you know, farmer's market door to door. What was it? Yeah, and I think sometimes just even the chuckles, you know, if you're just standing around with the fellow candidates before you go into some form and just kind of sharing little tidbits, not exactly war stories, but, you know, you just have some, you kind of let down and have a few chuckles along the way. And then also, yeah, at the farmer's market, you know, this is Davis and he meets some really interesting characters and, you know, it just kind of, it just kind of feels out the whole experience. So if nothing else. What was the biggest surprise, maybe? I would say the amount of effort. And it's one of those things going in, you know, it's going to be huge. My particular work situation, you know, I had concerns about that going in. I mean, basically my work day is 13 hours door to door. So I knew that, and then also I work in downtown San Francisco. So I have some serious practical and logistical constraints and I knew that going in, but it really became obvious, you know, early on in the campaign season that that was a huge challenge and presented some, some pretty clear disadvantages. I mean, again, you know, I was my reasons for joining the race. I mean, it was, I had a driving interest and passion to be part of this. I think the districts had a very important crossroads. I feel like I could bring something to the table. Well, and it certainly seems like you've managed to, to spend a lot of time volunteering in addition to your work. Yeah, yeah. And that was part of the strategic planning process. Yes. And I think that was really kind of a little bit of icing in terms of deciding whether or not this was something I wanted to pursue because it was, it was an incredible experience. You know, you have these people from different walks of life and you had, you know, people within the school district. You had members of the community and it was amazing. It was truly amazing how, you know, again, you could see their clear differences of opinion, but there was a, everyone came there deciding that they were going to work together. It was a choice and it was actually beautiful to see it unfold and the outcome. I mean, I think some really good paths ahead with the strategic plan were identified. And I mean, it really is, a lot of it is somewhat abstract and far reaching, but as you go, you can add tangible goals and objectives that it just kind of provides a roadmap. And it was a wonderful experience. So that certainly played into my decision. And then it got you onto that other road, which was being a candidate. We've got just a little bit of time left. I want you to give us the, what's the last thing we should know about you and maybe what's your future, your job situation going to change a little bit so that in two years you might be able to give it another run with more time. I mean, that's maybe a little too personal, but maybe it, will you think about running again? I think. In 20 seconds or less? I think actually my work situation is looking to get potentially more intense because the workload is looking to increase. So I think from a practical standpoint, it's not likely. I think that again, that was one of the really key issues that came home to me personally in this campaign as much as I wanted to pursue this. It was a challenge. Yeah, yeah. And I didn't mean to say that in a way like you weren't going to win. I'm going to ask every person that exact thing tonight. I manage my expectations. If you don't make it, you know, are we going to see you again? So then I think that was a fair answer on your part. And timing is everything. I admire anyone who wants to get into public service right now. It's a tough time. We have a lot of issues ahead, but we really appreciate your willingness to do that. Well, thank you very much. And thanks for joining us. Thank you. It's a pleasure. All right. Well, this has been fun so far, huh? Pretty good. So later on, we're going to be looking at some of the other statewide races that are going on. And we're also going to talk with assembly member candidates. They're going to be calling in. So stay tuned. At this point, I know we've got other people that are going to come in as the night goes, too. Now, we've got websites we're going to go to, which will also show us some of the races. So if somebody out there has a race statewide that they want information about, maybe you know somebody is running or know something about a race down the state, call us. And if you're not by your computer, and we can pull it up on the famous DCTV computers, the DMA computers. It's hard at this early hour to get anything of usefulness, I guess, because they're still calculating those numbers. So probably later on in the show, we'll be sharing what we know. Well, let's welcome our next guest, Mr. Grada. Nice to see you. How are you doing? Oh, just fine. Thank you. I think it's election night, and the election is now officially over. So everybody gets to come in here and breathe a little sigh of relief and maybe just relax a bit here on our couch and talk to us. Yes, we'll ask a little bit of that. Just that pillow if you want. There you go. We appreciate your stopping by Jose Grande, obviously, for the folks at home. One of the candidates who ran this time. Well, what was the experience like? Did you get your message out there? Was it everything you thought it was going to be going into it? You've run before. How did it compare? I know I'm kind of thrown it all out to you, but just the election's over now. So what do you really think? I think for me it has been a natural set of events because I live in Davis 36 years. So going to the farmers market, talking to people there, was nothing new for me. I know a lot of folks in town, and it was a great experience in that regards. I think it was a bit taxing on the time because you had to get out really early. If you don't get there by 7, I think you'll get to the last stall. You're the last one again. Yes, yes. So I think I was able to get the message across. As you know, I knew that going into the race, I will have an uphill battle because we have six candidates and me that is different than the others. I think I have taken a stance. Why do you think you're different? Because I have taken a stance on several issues that are not similar to their candidates. And the main one is the parcel taxes that has been a battle that I believe the time has come to reflect on that. It's not that I'm opposed to taxes, but the idea is that paying 30, I think 34 years of taxes when the school district tells the voters that this is a temporary tax and then they keep extending it, then I don't feel that it's treating the voters and the taxpayers very well, especially when the money is not causing an effect for everybody. It may cause for some special groups. But very little impact. We have a budget that is over $76 million, but out of those 70 of those comes from our income tax, federal sources, and so on. So I think people reflect on this. I think there's another issue that I've been thinking as the day close today. And that was that when you make a decision about this taxes, you are only taxing people who live in homes while the decision is being made by people who don't live in homes. And I think there is some issue of unfairness there. Because if the ones who decide where the homeowners, then it really doesn't matter which way they decide. That's their money. But you have homeowners paying taxes that other people decide for them. And that was a message that I wanted to get across. So that's one issue. I think I also had a bit of a campaign. There were a couple of controversies, mainly the issue of the conflict of interest that I brought up about Madabi Sander and Arobar Brasher, both of them. Because I believe that a trustee should not come into the school board to put their own personal agenda. No matter what it is, and we had Nancy Peters on the case. And Madabi Sander wrote an article on the Vanguard about homosexuality in the schools, and this needs to be celebrated, and all the stuff. So I took issue with that. And I wrote that against that that was another conflict of interest. And of course, because a big uproar. But I think it's a good discussion. I think that you're correct. It's a good discussion. I remember seeing something about diversity and wanting to be accepting of all types of students. And I do think that it's been some interesting perspective that you're bringing to the table. I think it's the parcel tax issue is another one, I agree. Have you reached out to, what groups do you think you reached out to more? That's an excellent question. Because if I were to win this race, which I hope I do, it would be because of the Hispanic vote. I'm the only one out of the seven candidates that can communicate with 18% of the parents and the kids in the district. And I really have a genuine interest in seeing them successful. I've been doing STEM careers for all my life. I am a professor in the mechanical engineering department at CSUS. And my whole career has been to bring these Hispanic students, the underrepresented, into the engineering and math and science. So that's one group. The other group is the, I am sensitive to the disabled because of my daughter, Sarah, who is very well known in the community. And I think that I would champion that cause for them. Also, the group for languages. I speak for languages. I speak German, French, English, and Spanish. I believe that this should be an integral part of education. So when you think about math, science, and STEM, and languages, and special kids, those are my constituents. During the campaign, I was asked a question whether I would cater to special interest groups. Six candidates answered no, and I answered yes. Because I said my special interest groups are the taxpayers, the students, and the teachers, basically, because those are the ones who are in the trenches like me every day in the classroom, making a difference for our kids. So when you talk about, I know you had the three T's with the teacher, and technology was one. Are you talking about STEM when you're talking about that? That's right. Are you talking about actual technology bringing into the classroom? I was talking about both of those. Because what I do is I teach STEM, but I do it with technology. I use, for example, right now I am in the process of replacing the blackboard by the screen, by the computer. So I have a system where, from an iPad, I could control another computer, and each student is looking at the same screen while they also have the big screen. So I could write on my iPad and explain if somebody has a question, and everybody is seeing what I'm explaining to that student. So the explanation that I would take the time to talk to a student is benefiting everybody. And the only way to do it is with this technology. So that was the one T, the taxpayers. Obviously, we talked about that. And teaching is because that's my passion in life. And the word that you mentioned about diversity is being a Hispanic person, I feel strongly about that, that we need to have a representative on the board. And diversity means everybody. And when I got into the controversy about the homosexual issue, I wanted to say that I respect and I agree that nobody, for any reason, should be bullied or being disrespectful. But that includes also kids that have religious beliefs and everybody should be treated equally. And that was the point. So we have to wrap up here in about a minute or so and the time constraints we have. So if you don't win, well, you run again. This question I'm going to ask everybody. If you don't win, do you see yourself running again? And what do you see your role being in the next parcel tax election, which it's presumed that since it is a major part of the funding for the district that there will be a push to go back to the voters and once again ask them to reaffirm their support for parcel tax. Okay. And we don't have much time, but fair question. I think that is a very fair question. I think regarding the first question, I would have to think about this issue when the time comes. So I cannot give you an answer whether I will run again. Regarding the parcel tax, and if I were to be elected obviously I would not be the chair of the committee that opposed the taxes. And that's obviously a conflict of interest that I want. Or board to support the problem. Yeah, all right. So what do they do? And the other thing is that when it comes to the parcel taxes, if I don't win, most certainly I will be involved in the campaign to oppose the tax. Based on what I told you, I think we need to reflect and look for another avenue rather than treating only the homeowners putting the bill. Not everybody else. If it would be taxing everybody, then I let it be. But this is only for those people who own homes, so let's say. But everybody sends their kids to school whether you own a home or not though. But questions for another day and maybe next time we can discuss. Well, I hope you had some fun while you were campaigning as well. Oh, you was. I think there's very good people. I'm very thankful to the support in the community. And of course, once in a while you're getting into our debate, the heated debate with somebody with us. That's how it goes. Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Good luck to you. We're gonna now look at some absentee votes, right? As I think maybe the next thing, and we can call that up on your little computer maybe or maybe they can put it on the screen. Let's look and see. You guys have any absentee votes that we could bring up? It's after eight o'clock. Let's see how we're doing. Here we go. This is our first update. We're gonna try and see how this works. Can you see it on there? I'll read it off the screen. Looks like Madhavi Sundar is in first place with 25.4%. What am I having trouble with my microphone? Can you read the rest of them there, Anna? Yes. Barbara Archer is second with 44. No, 20.7%. And Tom Adams was 17.6%. What is that 44? I think on the other side it says ballot percentage. Right. Anybody know? Somebody call us from the elections department and let us know what in the heck that, what they're talking about there. And then third is. I think that's the amount of, that's the number of ballots that they're actually on. Vote percentage, right. And third is Tom Adams. So, so far that's what we've got. Fourth is Bob Papenge. Right. Mr. Granda, Mr. Nolan, and Mr. Raerden is the way I read it there. So, and I've got glasses, it's not helping. You can probably see it on your screen. Everybody at home can see that a lot better than you and I. Oh, they put my glasses on. Well, we're having a lot of fun here tonight. We wanna thank everybody for joining us. And we also wanna thank our new guest who has just arrived. And it looks like she's probably pretty happy because it looks like she's in first place Well, thank you for joining us. And now, you know, we've been talking with the wonderful candidates for School Board. It's nice to be able to breathe. It's over. Yes. And, you know, we were talking with them about their different, their unique perspectives that they bring. It seemed like everybody had something different that they were coming to the table with. Many of them were volunteer, you know, had strong, strong volunteer experience. One of the things I see, you know, of course, you started out leading that charge on Korematsu Elementary, which, you know, got so much, you know, wonderful, warm, you know, support. But beyond that, you know, you started right away with that campaign. Was that the point where you decided I want to be involved with the school district and continue this sort of work within the schools at Davis? And what did you learn from that that made you want to do that? Sure. Wait, the one thing that's different of Madhavi Sundar is that she's brought a guest that she shouldn't have. Oh, I am so sorry. These are my guests. Yes, please. Welcome guest, and your guest is? This is my husband, Anupam Chander, the partner with whom we can't do anything. Yes, so. You need a good partner. Thank you for coming as well. Thank you. Thanks. Oh, no, no, you're absolutely right. Go on. Oh, well, yeah, I had the privilege nine years ago to first get involved with our Davis schools in a hands-on way. The then school board members with Marty West and Jones-Sully, Kelty Jones, Jim Provenza, B.J. Klein, they put together a committee to name the newest elementary school here in Davis. And so I got named to that committee. I only had a two-year-old and I was pregnant with my second son. So my son. So very admirable. It was an early start on really learning about our schools and the school board. And that year, Fred Korematsu, the civil rights hero who challenged the Japanese internment, he died. And that's the one rule. So Richard will remember this, right, in terms of the naming of our schools in Davis. You have to name it after somebody who's deceased. And so I proposed the name Fred Korematsu and it was an incredible experience. It was my first campaign because I really met communities across Davis, the Sikh community, the Muslim community, the Japanese-American community, the civil rights groups, all of whom came together to tell the story about Japanese-Americans and Davis. And what we saw in Fred Korematsu's story, an amazing teachable moment for kids. He was an ordinary person. Many think of him as the Rosa Parks of the Asian-American community. And he was an ordinary person who just said this is wrong and he had the courage to speak up. And today Korematsu Elementary is a social justice school. There's 500 plus kids there and their school song is what can one little person do? What can one little me or you do? And it's just been great. So I'm a professor of law. I travel around the country speaking about access to knowledge and intellectual property and the promotion of learning. But I always tell friends and colleagues that one of the most meaningful things that I've ever had the privilege to be involved in was the naming of that school. And so that was kind of when my interest in the school board began to grow. But honestly it goes way back. I was the student representative to my school board when I was in high school. I knew it. I was, I was. I have a list of all those that were on when I was on the school board. Okay, I'm following that. So this isn't really anything new at all. In fact, all my today and over the campaign I've been getting emails and Facebook messages and donations from kids who grew up with me from elementary school, high school, college, law school and people who I've worked with on faculties across the country because they see this as part of all of the work I've been doing on access to knowledge. I think that's, you know, being a student representative probably gives you a leg up on, you know, learning a little bit more about school board. I'm not sure people really know what they're getting into when they jump in just the reality that, you know, you are part of a board that makes decisions together. And so I think that that's something that is important to learn sooner, I guess, rather than later, but that's wonderful that you participate in that way. I also, you know, I know that you work for your law professor at UC Davis. Why do you think, or do you think that that we've had good relationships with the university in terms of sharing information to the benefit of our students? I know that one of the things you've been saying is, you know, let's have more of a partnership there. How do you propose that that happen? And do you think it's been a good one up until now? Oh, I think that we definitely have a good relationship. And I think though that there's more that we can do to strengthen that relationship, to be partners, to talk about STEM education, for example. And we have faculty at UC Davis who are developing STEM programs for high schools in the state, but not necessarily talking to our own district. And that would go with a variety of programs too. We could talk about laboratory opportunities. We could talk about foreign language opportunities. And one of the things that I think is most important is we need to bring that adult to child ratio down in our schools. We need more adults. And while we have all these college students at UC Davis, they're already mentoring in homework, after-school homework programs like the bridge program and at the academic center at the high school. So I really wanna see how we can strengthen these relationships with the campus even further. And as you know, one of the things we found out years ago was the university views itself as a regional entity. And it's not just the Davis University. And so they have to spread their net wider. And of course they worked in the charter school and started the charter school in West Sacramento as part of what they do. So, but there should be a strong relationship. I certainly, you're right on track with that. The best, it is a heck of a resource that we need. We're running out of time. This is not long. I know, we're down to two minutes. But I also wanted to engage your spouse and guest. Was it fun? Were there things about the campaign that were unexpected or what were some of the highlights for you? So we've put together a video. And just seeing this, which is available on YouTube. If you go to Sundar for school board on YouTube, you'll see this video. And it's full of really fun moments on the campaign. Just Madhavi and her team made t-shirts very early on. And those t-shirts, people wore them all over. They wore them to Disneyland. And so there's a picture of two children wearing those t-shirts next to Mickey Mouse. That's awesome. So there were lots of fun moments. You can put it in the grocery bags that I handed out years ago with the t-shirts. This is awful. They have to leave now. And you're winning. No, we could talk all night. We're going to give you 20 seconds to say, hey, because it looks like you're winning. So say something about that. Well, it's still the night is young. But we're encouraged. And we feel happy and optimistic. So we hope for more good news as the night goes on. Good. Well done, soundbite. Thank you. Take care. Thank you for coming in. Thank you. Appreciate your time. This has been a lot of fun. So far, so good. So far, so good, I think. I shouldn't say that. I should not. A few school board candidates. And now I think what we get to do is talk to Charlie Schopp, who I think is on the line. He is the assembly candidate. So now we're moving to the state level, our representative candidate. Charlie Schopp, are you on the line? Yeah, can you hear me? No, I can't. But just barely, because the door's open, Charlie. But we'll pretend. No, maybe somebody can crank that up a little bit in here so we can hear Charlie in here, too. That'd be great. And so you know Charlie Schopp is the Republican running for the assembly district in the state legislature that includes Davis. Now maybe I can hear Charlie. Charlie, has it been a, was it everything you thought it was going to be running for the assembly this time? Oh, yeah, sure. And it's a heavily Democratic district, but we tried to make a difference, and we'll see how the vote comes out. I'm actually in Clearlake right now, taking down my campaign signs. We're grabbed through at the finish loop and now I'm in Clearlake. So you're in Clearlake. It's good to know that somebody actually goes around and takes down some of those signs, especially if they're taking down ones that belong to them. So that's good. Thank you, Charlie. I understand. Yeah. How did it go when you were out there? It's a big assembly district. Up Lake County, as you say, Yolo County, Napa. What sort of reception did you get from the voters and did you think that you had a fairer opportunity to get your message across? Oh, sure. I had a fair opportunity to get the message across. The biggest thing is that we're rebuilding the Republican Party across the state. And getting to work in this district, I've got to work with the Napa County, the Sonoma County which has a fantastic Central Committee. And we're rebuilding the Yolo County Republican Party. And we're rebuilding Link County, too. So it's all about the future. Yeah. So do you see the Republican Party making inroads and coming back in this district? Oh, sure. The Republican Party has had a problem for the past decade, but it's changing. And we have some solid Republicans that want to make it what it used to be a party of ethics and honor and integrity. And that's what I'm going to continue to work for. All right. Now, you know, here in Davis tonight, we're speaking with a lot of the school board candidates that are coming into the studio. You were on the school board in Esparto, wasn't it? Yeah, two terms. I believe right when the, right just before the global war in tears, I started because I got called to Okinawa. I'm sorry, you got, because you got called? Okinawa, the military reserve officer. I got called to Okinawa. And then 9-11 happened and I was on active duty for the next six years. Oh, wow. Well, we appreciate your service. We thank you for that, for sure. Was the, was that school board experience something that helped you in your run for the assembly, you think? Oh, most definitely. You know, it felt about leadership and getting things done. In the Esparto school board, we actually got a bond pass with 75% of the vote in a rural conservative district. So it shows what can be done. It's just a matter to getting that up to the state level now. So I don't know how the West is gonna come out tonight, but I do know I was the underdog and we'll go forward and I'll head to the convention. Win or lose, come this next spring and we'll start the work to make Republican Party stronger. Well, I'm sure this will not be the last that we've heard of you. And again, we appreciate your service to our country and everything you've done along those lines. Absolutely. And we will let you go, Charlie. All right. You've got a lot of other folks to talk to, I'm sure. So thank you very much and thank you for calling in here to DCTV. Bye-bye. All right, what else, what should we do now? Let's talk to our next guest. I don't know, I think we should. Our next guest is Mr. Allen Fernandez who got himself appointed to the school board and then weaseled his way into a seat and then doesn't have to run again. I know, I mean, this guy's a power, huh? I don't know what to make, Allen Fernandez. Well, thanks for having me. Well, thanks for coming by. We appreciate it. My pleasure, my pleasure. You were in a bit of a unique situation there, with the appointments and then running for the two-year seat and no one else ran, but you still participated, right? Still get out there, talked to people and mixed it up, went to the forums and all that, right? I thought it was important. I mean, you know, you know better than most the job of being a school board member and a good one at that. And, you know, certainly I applied for the appointment as did many and was fortunate enough to be appointed and serve for a period of time and then decided to run for the remainder of that position, mostly because I felt it was really what, one, the law provides when you look at the law and two, it was a matter of openness and transparency to the public that there's a vacancy, it's appointed and really your, quote, provisional appointee to fill the remainder of the term. So I, you know, filed for the remaining two years and was fortunate enough, as someone has said, it's a blessing, but I treated it like a campaign at times and participated in forums and thought that was an important public aspect of being a member of the board. Well, and you paid your dues because you campaigned before that, you know? Sure, right. And so, it's not like you never campaigned. No, that's true. You know, I think that was a wonderful campaign you ran the first time around. And so, you know, it's kind of, it is a blessing that, you know, you don't have to go through that again, but... But now he has to do it in two years. Well, true. If you decide to run again. True, true. Which is one of our questions. Is it? That's at the end. All right, all right. We'll get to that. But Anna's got a lot of questions. All right, yeah. So, I guess you're the one that we can actually talk to, besides Richard, about the actual job of being a school board member. And, you know, once the campaign's done we've been talking with folks here about, you know, they look relieved and, you know, that's all over with. But what do you think is different about the actual job? Did you have notions about what it was going to be that are different now that you're doing the actual job? What's different that you thought you were going to be able to do? Or better, worse, better, worse about doing the actual job? Well, I think, you know, it was something I feel like I was prepared for. I feel like I understood the role of a school board member just given my professional background. Tell us more about that. Yeah, I am in public service and I work for local government. And when you look at it, a school district is one arm of local government. And so there's a lot to governance, local government that I felt like going into the job and certainly the election I was prepared for. Having said that, you know, I think everyone will tell you, you know, you always learn new things and are surprised by some and are reminded of others even if you didn't, you know, really fully ponder those issues once you get into a role. And there's been some of that. I would say for the most part, though, it's been all positive. I really have enjoyed, you know, the short term that I've been on the board so far. One of the most sort of striking differences between running a campaign and obviously serving as a board member is that a campaign is really sort of centered around one person and you're convincing the public that you are qualified for the job and trying to earn the public support. But once you get on the board, as Richard knows very well, you know, it's part of a governance team of five. You're only one vote of five. And really, I think to do good work as a public servant and to govern, you really have to not only be aware of that difference from the campaign, but you really should embrace it and seek to earn the support of your colleagues on a particular issue that maybe, you know, is you're passionate about, but also really have open ears and eyes to things that your colleagues and the administration and most importantly, the public want to see happen. And so that's one thing about the job that, you know, I knew about from a sort of cerebral academic sense, but when you're in the job, you have to live it and practice it. And, you know, I enjoy it. So being that you also, you know, have a career and, you know, lobbying and other things going on. Do those skills come into play? I see, you know, I see these, maybe the ability to caucus or the ability to convince someone else, you know, about your point of view. Does a lot of it happen in front of everyone or does it happen behind the scenes? How does that really work? Tell us. Yeah, I'm glad that was a fun question. Is this why I get to phone a friend and ask a co-host here? Yeah, phone a friend on that one. Behind the scenes, called the Brown Act. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, Richard's referencing the Brown Act, which is our, you know, open meetings law that local governments and school boards are required to. So, you know, there's something that some, I wouldn't call insiders, but some people who work in and around local government know there's these Brown Act buddies that you can talk with one other board member, but you really can't talk with another, you know, one more, you know, three, a majority of the board because they're very frustrating, isn't it? Yeah, I found that to be the most frustrating thing. Coming from the world that all three of us work in where you talk to people and try to figure out where everybody is and what they want and then you can only talk to one person about it. Yeah. And you can't talk to the other three until you get out there. Yeah, you know, frustrating, you know, maybe one word. I also, I understand the reason for the Brown Act. I mean, it's obviously for the purposes of having the decisions made in public and I support that. And it's just one of those things about the job that you have to really understand and work with. And, you know, I think you'd be surprised. I think most, in fact, all of the decisions on the public calendar are made in public and then you have closed session items, of course. Right. You know, those dealing with litigation or personnel matters that. Because I think you hear a lot about people saying, oh, they came in like they were already, they'd already made a decision. They don't. And people don't really understand that, you know, you really can't, it's a lot of work. You're gonna have to go to each one. That's right, you know. But I think that, you know, that is how people don't understand that, you know, you can't really just grab three people and say, hey, come over here, we're gonna figure this out. No, you work it out when you're there. Right, you do. I'm gonna ask Gina Delighting about the time that she was my buddy on the Brown Act thing and then we all get it started talking about it and I went the other way on it was. She still doesn't let me forget that. Well, and it's true. And you know what? It actually speaks to the professionalism of our current board and our predecessors as well. The decisions folks do actually happen in public view. And you know, like I said before, one of the critical jobs, I think, of a good board member is having an open mind and open ears when you're in the hearing, in public, and when you're about to make the decision because you might get some information that you hadn't contemplated prior to when you were reading and reviewing the agenda. I'd say you always do. Yeah, I mean. That's probably true. Right, in this town, there's always somebody that comes up with a different angle on whatever the discussion is. Yeah, absolutely interesting. Leading into the school board. What is it, you know, what it's. We were discussing about that. So, but just to back up a little bit more about your personal, you know, what are some of the things you care about as a school board member and want to see accomplished during your tenure? Well, you know, I've always been in, you know, I have public service as my profession, really. And it's more than a profession. It's almost a vocation for me. And I had always been involved in the community when I had children like many of us do and they enter the school system. I really looked long and hard and wanted to refocus all of my community activities around the schools. And once I did that, I really, you know, began to see that of the importance of having diverse representation on a board. And by that, I mean diverse representation from parents, community members that have a range of experiences in our community. And what I thought and what I sought to achieve is really being a voice for younger parents. And, you know, you just had Madavi before me. And, you know, I was really happy to see her candidacy because, you know, we talked a lot, she and I, about, you know, we are parents of younger children. We're gonna be in this district a long time. And anyone who knows anything about government, it takes a long time to achieve, you know, your objectives. And so what I, you know, getting to the answer to your question, what I sought out to do was really be a voice for parents with younger children who are gonna be in the system, our educational system for a while and making sure that the system that we have, that we love now stays, you know, we maintain what's great about it. We change what can be improved about it over the course of the years that my children will be here. So, I mean, you know, I- Are there particular concerns for the younger kids? Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, one of the things I was struck to learn really in the course of just my involvement in campaigning is really that our elementary schools are great, but there's wide disparities between them and, you know, some educational offerings at one school are different than another. And I sort of began to look at our district from an equity standpoint and thought, you know, we'll look at, we should focus on what we do very well in the elementary schools and see where we can replicate those things and where, you know, we need room for improvement. See what we can do to sort of make sure that a child that goes to school at Marguerite is, you know, is having the same educational experiences as a child that is going to school at Willett. And I just felt that there were, you know, some differences in that regard. And it's one of the things that I think will be important for me to continue to look at and question as we make our policy decisions, so. And then the other thing that happens to you is your children grow up and so then you start getting perspectives on, you know, the junior high and then all of a sudden you realize the high school really is the crown jewel of the district. When I got on the board as an elementary school parent and was told by, you know, maybe other board members and other people, the high school is the crown jewel of the district. I went to the high school. I don't care about the high school. I'm worried about this, but, you know, you do. And then you end up growing up through it. I agree. And I've already kind of feel myself going in that direction already. You know, someone said once that, you know, we all end up at the high school or the, you know, a few high school offerings that we have in our district. So we're all going to get to the same place. And so it's not too early to start really paying, not only paying attention, but working on some of those issues. It also makes it a much broader experience, I think, for you personally and for the school board when you realize everything, all of that and all the other schools that we have, the DaVinci program, the DSIS, I mean, it's an amazing king, you know, king. Everything that's going on. It's just, it's pretty fun to work on. It really was. If I could just add one thing, one of the, and I'm so lucky to have you and to draw on your experiences because I'm able to really appreciate some of the things. When I got appointed, one of the first things I got to do was go to all these graduations. Right. And I was really exposed to really what you're talking about. And, you know, it was perfect. It gave me a sort of a new energy with, you know, the way in which I'm approaching my work on the board. But you're absolutely right. You know, I hope to one day, maybe sit in that chair and come on and wax eloquent about, you know. We might let him. I also do appreciate the differences between our schools as well. You know, I mean, I have two kids, they're 17 months apart. And I'm telling you, they're like night and day, you know, one of them went to Davis High and the other one went to Da Vinci. And I really appreciated the ability to have that difference. One is, you know, one is a social justice, a political, I can't talk them out of it. And the other one is a head engineer, you know? I mean, you know, she loves how things get put together. She's on the robotics team. And so, you know, I mean, I do, I, your kids aren't cookie cutter, your school shouldn't be cookie cutter, but I hear what you say. There shouldn't be, you know, a lapse. We should be, we should have standards, you know, that everyone gets a good experience. And the beauty of the board, back to your original point. The beauty of the board. Bring it around. Is having people with different perspectives to then come together and work as a unit on the board. So you, maybe you and Mottovy, whoever else gets on there with a younger child perspective and the people that have kids going through or have already gone through. Or have gone through. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you have it all there and you go, oh, okay, I understand. You're spot on, yeah. On the graduations, going to the graduations was a big eye-opener for me and a wonderful experience to sit through the DSIS and the King graduations. And then Da Vinci, and I was fortunate to be on the board when Da Vinci was just getting cranked up and I went to remember sitting in Matt Best's office in the little portable on the high school one. Now, what are you guys talking about? How's that funded? What are you gonna do? Wow, that sounds like a great idea. I'm glad you're doing it, you know. Pam Murray was doing that before she's over here. Okay, I get it, you know. And it's, we're fortunate. So don't screw it up. We got a lot going on there. I have a big, we have a bigger chance. And no caucusing behind the scenes. You can do that, just with your body. You know, I think, I'm really excited about the colleagues that will add to the board, just the diversity of their experience. Talk about that for a second. This is a watershed sort of a moment. We have a three and a two, but this is a three, really, plus, you know, the fourth. I mean, this board is gonna be completely different. Yeah. You know, you now are still new, and then Susan. Yeah. I mean, I think actually- And we'll ask Susan that later. Yeah. And I think it happens at a great time. I respect all of the work that you did and of my current colleagues on the board. But I also know, you know, there's been major changes as Anna knows better than most in education, policy, and funding that it, and our curriculum. And it's almost sort of an appropriate time for a transition like this. Really, the rules in which we play are changing. And so it's a good opportunity for a board to change. And it's coming at a perfect time because they're all, as am I, full of energy and excitement, ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work. So it is unique, I think, to have this much of a change at a time. But I guess I would say if at any time in our recent history, it's a good time for it, now is it. So that's what makes it even great. I agree. I think it's a good time for that. I also, one of the other things with School Boards too, there's a little bit, you know, one of the things I read and many things I was reading this week about School Boards is, you know- Back to my, my wonk things. Right, right. She did a lot of homework for this show. School districts are often like the biggest employer in a city, you know, or an area. You know, there's that, the employment type things that are going on. The facilities, as you know, which is, you know, near and dear to my heart. You know, being able to track all of those things as well that become, you know, a big part of what you do. I, what do you, I guess what was disappointing this last year was the School Bond and not seeing a statewide facilities bond, which I know in, in this district has been kind of an issue with facilities. Are you, are you seeing more of that? Do you think that we'll do local bonds in the future? Well, I definitely think that our community needs to have the conversation first and foremost, if for no other reason that I'm not so sure we're going to be able to count on state bonds like we used to. This governor has pretty much made it part of his administration that, you know, locals do what locals do. Let's let locals do that, but let's really focus on what the state does. And so there's a lot of doubt that there will be a state bond anytime soon. And so what does that mean? It means that districts like ours really need to have a sobering conversation, I think, with our community to say, well, folks, you know, it's been, since I believe 2000, since our district has had a bond, we were able to do some things this year to refinance some of our obligations and for the purposes of making money available for facility improvements and taking care of some of the deferred maintenance. But, you know, the facts are, we have an aging infrastructure here in our school district and it's something that we need to really come to terms with soon. So, yeah, I wanna have that conversation. In addition, all of the great work that you've done, you know, just when you served and just keeping our district together with all those cuts and then renewing our parcel tax. And, you know, that's a conversation that's not too early to start talking about as well. So these things are really gonna come together really soon in the next couple of years. And, you know, it's one of, I think, my priorities, but I think my colleagues are sharing that priority with starting that conversation soon. But, yeah, I do think that we need to talk about school bond and what our needs are. And I'll be very curious to see what happens in Woodland. The properties. Oh, yeah. Because Woodland has a- We'll check on that on the bond. They are running a bond, a local bond for school facilities. One's on safety and one's on facilities. Yeah, that'd be nice if we can get those results in a few minutes. And we'll bring those up, the Woodland ones, just to see how they're doing as well. I think I've got it. You've got it too. You're the high tech, I'm my piece of paper. The results haven't shown up, you know? That would be the last thing people would say. She's my best. I have best. She is, yeah. Well, we do very much. She knows who's already, who's won. She already knows. Right, right. Yeah, she's not just absentees. It's awesome. It's all up here. Thank you so much, Alan. We really appreciate your willingness. I appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you both for doing this tonight and all that you do for our community. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Thanks so much. Thanks for coming by. Thank you. All right. Let's see if we can pull up some absentees and maybe you can give us the top of the hour, the top of the hour, the eagle. Give us a shot of that. Okay, so thank you for tuning in to DCTV, Channel 15 in the Comcast System. You are watching live coverage of the November 4th, 2014 election. This program is simulcast live on KDRT, also affectionately known as K-Dirt, 95.7 FM and Davis. You know, Davis Media Access has been serving the community for more than 25 years. I highly encourage you to support this community treasure that we have here. Other key projects include support for youth media and community media. It takes community support to make this happen and we hope that you'll consider donating to Davis Media Access. After tonight, their contributions are probably gonna go through the floor. Just because I'm asking. They're gonna tank. What sort of absentee do we have here? This is the local school board and then maybe we can look at those woodland results as well, that would be pretty fun. So you can see that Maudavy Sunder has 25.4% followed by Barbara Archer at 20.7, Tom Adams at 17.6, Bob Poppengay there, then Jose Grande, Mike Nolan, and Chuck Rarden. And that's pretty close. You know, there's so little up there, it's hard to make any sort of conjecture, so we won't. But instead, let's look at the woodland area and we'd love to see the bonds. This is, in fact, two folks that are running against each other, it looks like here. And here's the woodland classroom repair and upgrade measure S. This is the school facility bond repair and upgrades of classrooms. You know, more and more as we were talking with Alan about earlier, the state has basically said they're going to leave it to the locals to do a lot of their school construction bonding. We already did believe that we put in more than the 50% that was needed in that matching program. But now it's, we weren't able to put a bond on a ballot this last year. I think the governor was not willing for the statewide school bond, correct, for facilities. And so that's unfortunate, but I think there's a sense that locals are going to have to take on more of that and I think he's absolutely right that we're going to be having that conversation in this community really soon. Do you think that, how many, do you have any idea how many bond, local bonds are on the ballot right now, statewide, I mean, is it a big number? There are a lot of people out there doing that. It's a fairly big number. This last time, I think there was over, there was $13 billion worth of local bonding in the last round. I didn't really check on statewide how many were running this year, but it's increasing. I mean, I really feel like locals are starting to see that it's up to them to get these bonds done. And they're gonna have to. But it looks like in Woodland that that effort's going down, unfortunately. Well, we'll see. Well, we'll see. It's early. Well, we have another guest, I think, who's joined us in the Power Central here, Mike Nolan. Mike, good to see you. It's good to see you both. Good to see you. Has it been everything that you thought it was gonna be? You've run before. I've run before, so I understand. And looking at the results right now, it looks like I won't be on the board next year or in December. And I wanna, first off, congratulate, I think Madavi and Barbara. And I think Tom will be, is leading in third place. Tom's leading, yeah. But Bob, too. They've all done a very good campaign. But that's generally a, my experience, this is a broad section of the city and it very rarely does the precinct change. So. Yeah, never know. So we'll see how it all goes there. Yogi-dera here. We don't know. But it's over. But it is over. Wait, it's not over till it's over. It is over. No, but the campaigning part is, you know, it's pretty much over. And, you know, I know that we all appreciate anyone who's willing to go out there and serve the public in this way. And it's a privilege to be out there talking to people about what they care about. Tell us a little bit about what you heard from parents and students as you were campaigning. Well, the best thing is the other campaign is meeting all the different people from different schools and different communities. You know that, Richard, being on the board. And you find a richness in the city of Davis that is a lot of people forget about. But there's a wide range of income difference and there's a wide range of racial differences here that Davis gets the bad rap sometimes from outside of the area saying, oh, it's too affluent and it's too monochrome. And that's never been my experience. They don't know. It always gets to the same, to see a, we have a vibrant community here. And you can see that also with our school district. And in this election where you had seven candidates and I think all, the other six candidates were all well qualified, I think, to be on the board. And I think the voters made the right choice. We're not, it's not over, it's not completely over yet. I'm not saying I've lost the night. I agree with you. I feel like, you know, we had such a stellar group. And I know you brought some unique perspectives to the campaign. I know you were basically the person who gave up, not gave up your career, but you were the one that stayed home? Stay at home, dad. Right? And that's a huge sacrifice. And you've done a lot of volunteers, like the PTAs at all levels. So you got involved there and we all know that's like a job working hard to make sure that those types of organizations run well. The most, the proudest moment of my life in getting elected to anything was getting elected president of the PTA at Lillet Elementary. And that was a fun experience because all of a sudden, as the president, you had to make everybody work together as a team. And it was really nice to end the meetings on time. And Richard, I saw many meetings at the school board where Richard at about 1130 at night, you would start to worm in your seat. That was all because of my mentor, Mr. Tim Taylor. And there is a board policy that says all meetings at 11. Yeah, because of Tim. Unless the board decides otherwise. And if I got elected to the board, I'd say, but that should be included in the agenda to give public notice that the board would say, we're gonna go beyond the board. We're gonna go beyond, yeah. Well, Tim and I, I think, had a pact that we would never vote to go beyond, unless of course it was something that either one of us wanted to talk about and then you had to vote for. But you never won, it always went on and on and on. Well, that's a talent to be able to run a very efficient meeting and get it done on time. I mean, I know we've all been in those situations where you wish the meeting had been over half an hour ago, you're thinking about dinner and how that all gets done. But, and I think that's a real talent to do to make sure meetings get done on time. And you have a long history of working on a number of fronts in terms of the volunteer piece. I'm just, you know, tell me a little bit. She did her homework, minding her. Oh my God, I'm terrible. Yeah, you got a lot of to throw it out there. I just, I appreciate, you know, not only, I appreciate site council and all of that, parent advisory committee, but the climate, the climate committees are also very, a very much interest. What, you know, do you see things getting better in the district? And the thing that we have to remember about the climate committees is that the schools are like a river. There's a continually, a continuous of people moving through it. Not just students, but parents. And so you can have a great climate committee and you can address all the issues of bullying and harassment and discrimination. And then in a couple of years, they've all left. And you have to bring in new people and hope that they continue to have the same commitment. But, but things change. You have a different, different people, different needs. So it's a constant problem. That's all I'm saying is that the, the climate committees are very important because it's the, it's a continuing issue in, in this school and in all schools, in society as a whole. Yeah, I love that. That's a good quote though, that this school districts like a river it is and it's everybody moving through. I always felt that about testing too, when we'd compare the fourth grade test this year to the fourth grade test last year or the fourth grade test two or three years before. Whole different set of students, probably a lot of different teachers, supposedly the same curriculum, but then we're comparing that fourth grade to the fourth grade. It's a weird thing, right? It's also, it's- Oh, they did better. Well, it's not the same people. It doesn't matter. And so, yeah, so it's like a prism or a kaleidoscope. It's constantly changing. And that is, there's good parts and bad parts with that. The good parts is it keeps the school system fresh. The bad parts, as we just said, is that once you think you've got a problem solved, once you make that decision, you don't because there's gonna be- There's something else. It's coming down the road. There's gonna be other issues of that. Same issue will pop up. My dad taught government at Cal Poly and he did a lot of education, teaching about education. And he saved some of his books. I mean, I saved them. I've got them. And my favorite is this title that says, Our Schools in Crisis about the terrible state of the public school system and how it's gonna lead to complete disaster. And it was published in 1959. Yeah, exactly. And if you read the table of contents, it's the same issues we're talking about now. What are we gonna do with the gifted students? How we're short changing these students. What about the Brown versus Board of Education and integrating schools? How are we gonna deal with all these different communities and schools? And that was, you know- As you say, it's the river, it moves on. As does this show. Yes. Okay. My segue. So, will we definitely appreciate, you know, your time and energy? I'm assuming that you'll continue if you don't- I have a ninth grader. I've got four years left of- To serve. Of high school work. We need you to. You get to go through high school again. Okay, that's good. Yeah, yes. I was trying to tell Alan is that, you know, he's in elementary school and he's going to graduate to junior high and then he gets to go to high school. And you go along with them. Your perspective changes. Yes, you don't under the standard school district until you get the high school graduation. Right. You hear the graduation speeches. That puts the cap on the whole process. The magnitude of it too. Exactly, right, yes. Thanks a lot, Mike. Thank you for coming in. All right, thank you very much. Well, Anna, what are we going to do now? I think maybe talk about some of the statewide races and statewide propositions and hear your analysis- Oh, my analysis of the state. Of all of them. I think that would be a good idea. Well, let's look at the results. So far, we have Proposition One, which is the water bond. This was the bond, basically, you know, we had one done earlier and now there was a lot of discussion this year about getting and passing this bond and making sure that it was tightened up in a way that we needed it to be. A lot of people in Davis kind of active on this- A lot of people. On this water bond. A lot of people in Davis worked for a variety of interests on Proposition One. I think it became very bipartisan, bicameral. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. So it looks like it's doing very well. That one looks good. Proposition Two, the governor tied the two of those together that they call a budget stabilization or the rainy day fund. Right, not to be confused with water. Water, right, but it was coupled with it to show that we needed a rainy day fund to take care of those times when it wasn't raining, if you will, money or water. School district concerns about what was in there. There are some tweaks to it that in one person's view probably should have happened, but that looks like that's passing randomly too. That essentially was the governor's campaign. Proposition 45, this is the one that gives the politician all of the power to set your health care rates. If you listen to some of the ads or as it has been characterized, this will allow the insurance commissioner to protect consumers and set health care insurance rates, and it looks like it is going down to defeat. We don't know how many, if this is all absentees or where they're from, and as we found out in the June primary, some of these things will come right down to it. The wire asks Speaker Perez about that. Proposition 46 is the testing of doctors, which has really had nothing to do with any of that. It raises the cap on micro, which is negligent lawsuits. This is put on the ballot by the trial bar. We maybe ought to do drug testing of the trial bar for putting on something that is going down to so much defeat. But of course, I think the official term was gazillions of dollars spent in this race on both sides, but it looks like it's going down to defeat a lot. Proposition 47, interesting on the criminal sentences and reducing time people are gonna spend in jail, and with all of the decentralization and overcrowding and the cost, and who do we put in jail and why? Looks like people are concerned about that. Yeah, I think they are, and interesting that that's passing by so much, I think. This one, yes for no, no for yes, yes for yes. I mean, this is very interesting. The people that put this on the ballot did not want the casino, but they write it in a way to make sure that if you vote yes, that casino gets built out there off of Highway 99. And if you vote no, it doesn't. So the opponents of the casino, who happen to be people that have their own casinos, it looks like they're winning that one. I'm glad you knew so much about that. I just know it was supported by the governor and other folks too. That's all I know about it is what I just, the way I disparaged it right then. Yeah, it's the best I could do. Proposition 49, there is no such thing, but there will be in the future. You know, this has been a lot of fun here tonight talking about the school board races and of course talking about some of those other statewide. There are a lot of other assembly district races going on up and down the state, Senate races. Sacramento County's got a couple of very highly charged races. Dr. Pan, who's in the assembly now is running against Roger Dickinson, who's also in the assembly. They're running for that Senate seat. It'll be interesting to see shortly. Can we see the SPI race? And here we can look at our own assembly district, which is Mr. Dodd looks like he's winning that handily. Bill Dodd is the Napa County supervisor. We should be talking to him later. And we're gonna have him on the telephone later on and that'll be great. I think people will enjoy Mr. Dodd and his representation of Davis. There's another race in Sacramento County as well, the race between Jim Cooper and Darryl Fong. I think that's a highly contested race and we'll get some results on that one too and see how they're doing in that. And SPI, you mentioned the superintendent of public construction. I don't know if this is current, but it looks very close. What do you have there in the number? 52.7% for Tom Torlickson 47.3% for Marshall Tuck. About how many precincts do we have on that? I doesn't, it's the- Not that many probably. 11% of precincts reporting. Pretty much absentee. So it looks like the sitting superintendent, Mr. Torlickson, it was just in Davis the other day. It looks like Tom's ahead on that one, huh? Oh, there it is. And I think there it is up on the screen. Lots of, lots of- And then you can also see the governor there, Edmund G. Jerry Brown Jr. is beating Mr. Kashkari. I can't read the numbers. That's, I have on my computer, 54.7% to 45.3%, which is closer than I thought it would be. They were hoping that Kashkari could get to 40%, if he stayed at 45%, that probably would be seen as a bit of a moral victory for him if there is such a thing. That said, the governor didn't try. So, you know, the governor was doing other things. And I just going back to that SPI race, I think there's just been some interesting, you know, opposition, I guess the adversarial parties. The IES, independent expenditure campaigns. It's been an interesting, to see who's been putting money in each of those races. And we'll see, it's coming, you know, they were expecting it to go down to the wire. It's Tom Torlickson's right now, but it looks, it could go. It could be very, very close. On the statewide races, like we saw on June, it was very interesting where the race for controller came down literally to a recount, because it was so close. So talk about your every vote counts, you know. That was the case there. And that may happen by the end of the night. It's still really early. But it's not too early to introduce and to talk to another one of our school board candidates. And I think we have Bob Poppingay here. Right. And a special guest. And he brought a special guest who I think, maybe Bob, you could introduce for us. This is my youngest daughter, Zoe Poppingay. Hi, Zoe. Hi. You ever been on television before? No, this is my first time. Really? You're doing great. So, you know, we're kind of important because we're on TV. So for some on TV? Yes, we're very important. Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming with your dad and this and thank you for coming by. My pleasure. It's a lot of fun, we get to do this. You've been, this is, you know, we're very informal here. So, you know, and let's face it, you've done your job, campaign's done. Now we just wait and see, you know, what comes in. So how do you feel at this point about the campaign and how it went for you? Well, I actually feel very good. You know, it's been a lot of work. It's been a lot of time. You know, it's interesting that you think back, you just amazed that this evening actually arrives because you start, you know, maybe eight, nine, 10 months ago. Right. So I think it's gone well and I'm proud of the campaign that we were able to put together. That's good. I know, I've been saying this to almost every person, candidate who's come in, you know, it just seems like we had such a stellar group who were, you know, willing to serve, each bringing a little bit of a different perspective. And yours really different, you know, you're a veterinary medicine professor at UC Davis. And I don't want to talk about, you know, treating kids like, you know, like veterinary, like we need to, but what do you think that we're having fun at this? We're getting punchy. But what do you think, you know, what I see with UC Davis has been, you know, opportunities that we can have for collaboration with the university. But I just love to hear your perspective on whether that's feasible and how it might happen. I mean, it seems like we know that we have various programs that we, you know, work with them and volunteers and other things, but is there more we could be doing? Well, I think there's actually quite a bit more that we could be doing. You know, we've got a world-class university right in our backyard, 35,000 undergraduate, graduate students, so it's a big university, tremendous faculty resources and even staff resources. And, you know, I think the school district is very important to the university. It's why a lot of faculty actually wind up in Davis because of the reputation of the schools. So, you know, I think it's going, there are some partnerships that have been, you know, established, but I sort of look at it more strategically. And a lot of the partnerships, I think are dependent upon individuals. So, when those individuals retire or move on, those partnerships tend to fall apart. So, I'd like to have a more sustainable interaction. And I think it could help really all of our students. You know, one of my thoughts is that they have very comprehensive summer programs for public education kids, you know, K through 12, not K, but at least the younger kids and junior high and high school. They have a great summer program. They have things like robotics and theater and Zoe has taken advantage of some of those. But there are a lot of kids that either don't know about the programs or can't afford the programs. And I think it'd be great to get those at-risk kids more involved and come up with some ways that they could participate over the summer. And I think that would serve a couple of purposes. It would get them on campus and so they could maybe experience something they've not experienced before and maybe look at some possibilities. But it also would allow them to maybe not fall as far behind during the summer as a lot of those kids actually wind up falling behind. Because they just haven't had those added enrichment experiences. And those university camps are very important. Can be a lot of fun. Zoe, what was the most fun you had helping your dad run for office? I think I kind of enjoyed walking through the neighborhood sometimes. Door to door with the asking people, yeah. Normally I just stuck the papers on the door knobs but sometimes I went with my dad and he knocked on the doors. Yeah, I think that was kind of interesting and a little exciting sometimes. Yeah, it's good. You never know what you're gonna get. So we've, you got a new precinct walker. There you go. That's right, right. I think it was great to have her walk with me because it really sort of opened up the conversation with the people that you're knocking on the door with. I made my kids walk. It's good exercise. It's good exercise. We're such a student oriented town. One of the things that struck me while you were talking was just, I remember with UCD is just, as the kids get older, having those things, the summer programs as well because it seems like there's a lot going on when they're younger during the summer camps and things but then you hit kind of a point where it's harder to find those summer programs that work for the older kids. And so that'd be an interesting place to go as well, I think, with the university. But you know. I think there's a lot of opportunities in a lot of different areas. Some of the kids that are a little bit further advanced, there might be some opportunities to take computer science or robotics. They do have some of those classes available. So I think really the sky's the limit and I think it's trying to establish a good dialogue between the district and the university and just to keep up the conversation, see where we could collaborate. So it looks like it's pretty close but you're certainly right up there and into it. So any sort of thoughts on kind of the horse race of it or the political part of that, I know, any other thoughts as you said here, now it's all over and it's, I mean, you're hoping for the best, obviously, but. Well, you know, I sort of approach it a little bit philosophically as well. I mean, I think the important thing for me was to really put in the effort and to get out there and talk to folks and run a good campaign and I'm very proud about what we were able to accomplish in a relatively short period of time. So obviously I would like to win, but I am proud of what we were able to do. Yeah, you ran a good campaign. It seemed like you got your messaging out and you ran hard, that was good. And it wasn't easy, huh? Well, there's a lot of, Neophyte getting into a campaign, there's a lot of things you learn on the fly. And I think you don't realize how many moving parts there are to a campaign. So trying to coordinate that and keep everything going is a challenge. What did you hear from the people, from parents about what they'd like to see going forward? Well, it's interesting, I mean, being a veterinarian and thinking of the animal approach. It's sort of like herding cats. I mean, we talk to parents and they have so many different... It's a perfect analogy for you, I love that. That's right, yeah. They all have issues that they're passionate about and it's rare to find sort of a congruence of those issues. No, very true. And so it was very fascinating to find out all the different issues that people are interested in and it ranged all the way from very important things like teacher retention and trying to close the achievement gap to having the football field lights on at 1 a.m. and affecting the neighborhood or having school lunch or breakfast that are still too high in sugar. So, I mean, it just was the whole gamut of different issues that were brought up but that was part of the fun, too. And not everybody realizes that school board may not have the ability to influence all those things but it's always interesting to hear people's perspectives on all of it. Well, I think the thing of a school board member too is you have a lot of really issues that you need to deal with immediately that require attention but you also have to be thinking 10, 15, 20 years out because some of the decisions that you're making have that impact for that length of time, potential impact. So I think you've gotta be a multi-tasker to be a school board member. And the other, if I just can interject a little bit, a thing that I did not think about that much when I was running but which really came home and really hit me was the responsibility you have dealing with suspensions and expulsions. And if you get on the board, you'll see what I mean. I mean, it's a very, it's pretty incredible, sort of changing and affecting these students' lives on a one by one basis. And it's a pretty heavy responsibility. You find that it really weighs on you. It did on me. And I think on everybody, it really does. And it's not a lot of what you talk about when you're out on the campaign trail. Right. Well, one thing that I'm a very strong proponent of is restorative justice. And I think we hopefully will be moving beyond just merely suspensions because I don't think that does anybody any good. I think the whole idea of restorative justice has the potential for maybe helping to mitigate some of the issues that school boards have had to deal with in the past in terms of suspensions. So I think there's a lot of promise in that. Yeah, that's good. What's the overall overarching thing that you've taken away from this campaign when you mentioned some of it, but just we gotta wrap up a bit. What do you wanna leave with? Well, you're still in their hunt here, so. Well, you know, I mean, Davis. Oh, we've asked everybody to, if you don't win, are you gonna run again? We've asked everybody that. I would needle, I'd have to think long and hard about that. It's hard to say right now. Yeah, you know, this is probably not the time to ask. Right, right. You know, it's been a great experience. And you know, this is a community that has so many resources and you know, it really is an education community. And I think if we could somehow, you know, approach our schools more as a community, I think that we could, you know, deal with some of the problems or challenges that we're facing. So I think that's it. It's just a, you know, a tremendously involved community. And I think that we can get it right in public education. That's a good ending to hand by right there. That's great. Sounds good to me. Thanks a lot for coming in. Thank you. Not all television is just crazy and disorganized and informal. You're willingness to serve. But thank you for helping your dad. That's really what it's all about, too. Thanks, Paul. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Anna, why don't we turn to some more results? Maybe the Secretary of State, Secretary of State Race, there we go, we have it up here. This is interesting. 59, well, Alex Padilla seems to be doing quite well, for 59 to 40.9, so basically 60, 60, 40. I think there were some people that thought that might be a lot closer. But this is Yolo County returns only. So that's interesting. So Alex is doing pretty well here in Yolo County. Better remember that that's just what we're looking at. And I think they were gonna give us, there we go, the Third District Congressional Race. That is not a surprise in Yolo County at all. And Mr. Garamendi, and that's sort of a, I'm not gonna call it a toss up district because it really isn't. This is, he's done a great job and this is the Democratic District. Looks like Yolo County understands that and agrees with that analysis, I guess, at 65% almost. So congratulations there so far to John Garamendi on that. We have other results that you wanna throw up onto the screen that we can look at if you do feel free. Let's see, what else do we have here? Well, in a few minutes we'll talk to some, to some other candidates, that's for sure. I wonder if, do you have any of those Sacramento races on your screen? Wonder if they have any back there and be interesting. There's a lot of people that work in Sacramento and have been working on those campaigns and maybe we'll get to those in a few minutes after we talk to our next guest. Who, by the way, is here. I almost had it. Well good, hang on to it. Barbara Archer's here. Good evening, how are you? Well, we're good, we're here. Helps to talk to people you know. We're having fun, yeah, we know. Actually, this has been great, it's been a lot of fun. We're just trying to keep it going and trying to keep to our script and do what we need to do, but it's good to see you. It looks like you're in second place, you must be feeling good about it. Yeah, yeah, for now I'm so pleased that it's looking good. The last time I looked before my drive over here was only six precincts reporting. So, not sure if we have new news. I think we're 11, yeah. I think we saw 11 this last time. No, no, no, it was 11 precincts or if it was 11. 100%, right. I feel great about the campaign we ran. I thought it was 100% positive. We executed on everything we intended to do. We talked with a lot of voters and so I couldn't be more proud of my campaign team and I just, I love the process. It had such a great time. And you still look like you have so much energy Naps are important. Naps are important, thank you. I agree with that, I'm a big nap guy. Yeah, no, I have a lot of energy and I really thought, boy, with this process I might have met my match because it is pretty intense. But no, I feel great and it's a good sign that I'm happy and ready to go. So, you've been involved in the issue campaigns and never been a candidate before. That's correct, yeah. Somebody said to me the other day, how come Barbara Archer never ran for anything before? Well, I guess I was busy raising my kids and working. Richard can relate. I was blessed with twins and had an older child too. So three under three and that took a long time to work that out. Now the kids are older. My older son is a sophomore in high school now. He's 15 and the twins are 12. And I have... That's a busy time too. It's a busy time too and I'm really happy that my job allows me to be flexible and be there for them when I need to and I'm home a lot of afternoons. Yeah, that's good. To have a little chat with the kids. And you were volunteering as well, so there's all of that. Well, she's always been a big time volunteer. Yeah, well, it's funny because my family will probably not see too much difference. I mean, obviously the school board is a pretty big deal. But if I'm elected, I've been out to meetings for years. It's just another one of mom's things. So my family really supports my volunteer work. I hope it's setting a really great example for my children and I love doing it. I mean, I'm compelled to do it. What I get out of it is really the service is a gift to me because it makes me feel great to help. We all know that story. I think we were talking with each of the candidates about their unique skill sets that they're bringing in their campaigns. And talking about volunteering versus campaigning. I mean, your background in public relations, I think, helps because you're able to focus your messages and be able to say, this is what I'm about. Figuring that out and being able to do that is a talent. And I think that that's part of what makes someone who campaigns well. And your first time, pretty amazing that you were able to get out there and talk about issues that you honed in on. And what did you hear back from parents about what they cared about? Boy, I heard quite a lot. I heard from parents on many, many issues. I heard from them on the sleep issue which came up this year. Right. I heard from them on- That's the issue where we start school later so that kids can sleep because of the study about brain. The circadian rhythm changes in teenagers and so they need more sleep anyway but then they have to, the melatonin levels don't allow them to fall asleep as earlier as they did when they were younger. So a lot of people are talking about that. Of course, my dad would say, really? You know, you need to get, really we need to let you sleep in. Yeah, I'm sure. I think this has been an interesting issue. It's an issue that we will look at and see if it works for DJUSD. It was brought up before. It has been brought up many times before and wait for the pushback from athletics. That's just all I'm gonna- Sure, of course. Of course. Because that's it. There's not enough time in the day for all of us to have our kids do everything we want them to do or they want to do. Especially about now where the time changing and you're going later. Athletics all of a sudden got squeezed. Right, yeah. The parcel tax is a big issue. Yep. I think- Which you played a role in in the one in- Right, I co-chaired the 2012 Measure C campaign. Right. And that was a great experience for me. I really got to know our budget. I really, you know, I talked with hundreds of voters. I wrote a lot of op-eds for the paper so I had to do a lot of research on school finance. And, you know, parents are, you know, really wondering, well, you know, do we still need this? Absolutely, we do. And, you know, we need to really message, as you know, talk about messaging, we really need to message our community appropriately. Starting now, really, you know, if, you know, everyone, you know, who goes to a concert at, you know, the Brunel concert hall, grandparents, you know, parents, imagine that stage empty or everyone who goes to a sixth grade science fair or everyone who goes to a library night, you know, imagine those places empty and that's why the parcel tax is important. And I think, you know, people do understand that. I mean, this is an education town. People put a huge value on what we're able to provide to our students. And, you know, I think that, you know, the economy and how many taxes we had to run. You know, we had, we were having a little fatigue, but I think we can message it appropriately and really, you know, re-educate the community on what we're able to do with their help. Well, and I think the property issue was interesting. You know, the questions about whether or not, you know, we're looking for funding wherever we can get it, you know, and at the same time, you know, you have valuable properties that, you know, people can make good arguments for keeping or selling. You know, we also see facilities as an issue and that's a separate pot of money that may require local bonding. I mean, it's a lot of different things that I think the school board's going to be dealing with. Good luck. School finance is so complex. You really have to know your stuff and we're going to have to ask a lot of questions in this process. And, you know, what I have seen over this campaign is I think whoever gets elected, you know, accountability is going to be a big issue and everyone is going to ask the questions that need to be asked. So we're informed and the community is informed. I think, you know, we're going to see a lot of, you know, in-depth discussion about these issues. So we know exactly the choices we're making because, you know, the current school board, I mean, they had to do such a difficult job. And, you know, and Richard was part of this, you know, keeping us afloat during incredibly difficult times. And so now we're in better times and we have a little bit of money, but we have to be cautious and we have to really examine, you know, what our priorities are going to be. And it really behooves us to ask a lot of questions and really make the best choices we can, you know, for the entire school district. Yeah. We had the conversation about how school boards really are, you know, they work together to make decisions. It's more of a valuable skill to be able to convince your fellow school board members about one thing or another because you really are kind of a team going forward when you make these decisions, which, you know, I think is on issues like that is very important because people are watching to see that you've taken the time to examine all of these things and that everyone has had their say so that once the decision is made, you know, you can go forward and say, yes, this is, you know, we deliberated and it's done. So yeah, I'm really confident that the board will be able to build consensus and will be respectful of one another and will be able, you know, to really talk together. And, you know, we might not always agree with each other on everything, but you know, to come to consensus and make good decisions, we already, I think, you know, have a leg up. We were all present at a Yolo County Board of Education, the Yolo County Office of Education. So you want to be a school board member. We talked about ethics, we talked about governance teams, what it takes to be a good governance team. That's so critical. And I know that the new board plans to have a retreat as well to talk about priorities and issues. And so I think, you know, we really want to be a functional body for a functional school district. Yeah, that's great. It's important. Well, Madavi knows how to make those t-shirt, team t-shirts, put them all together and be, be team Davis school board. There you go. No, I think it's, I think that's what people, you know, that that is, that is it. You're going to have to work together to make really tough decisions in the next few years. So we look forward to seeing how you do that, but I think you're off to a great start. Oh, thank you so much. Hey, we still have a little bit of time. I want to know what was the biggest surprise to you, because you have done the other campaigns and, you know, we work together on parcel taxes on that. But as a candidate, what was just kind of the overall biggest surprise to you? Well, I guess two things. I was just so energized and happy throughout this campaign. I mean, I just thought, boy, I guess you're doing the right thing because I really, really loved talking to people and hearing their stories. And the other side of that was, I was a little bit surprised how, you know, a lot of folks out there really were yearning for a culture shift within the district. They really want it to be more customer service oriented. You know, they don't want, you know, a culture where, you know, we have to pitch a fit or file a lawsuit, you know, to hear people. And so I think that's something that, you know, we'll want to work on too is, what are the things that we can put in place? So our community really feels that their concerns are heard. Yeah. And that you have their trust, the transparency piece, I think is just huge. Yep. I agree. And I know that, I think folks are looking forward to seeing a new set of folks, not that, you know, that it wasn't terrific. I think that, you know, they really did lead us through some, some tough times with collecting money and boots and all the things that we did. And I think that, you know, moving forward, we need visionaries and moving forward and transparency and accountability. I agree with you. Good. Well, thank you, Barbara. Oh, thank you for having me. Yeah, it's been a good long time. I can't believe how rare and to go she's still. I know I'm pretty awake tonight. I want to hear it. She's walking out there and taking a nap. Yeah, yeah. No, I took it already today. Yeah. No, no. Very energized. Good. All right. Thank you so much. All right, thank you. Well, what are we going to do now on it? I don't know. We've got some other races. You have that race you were going to pull out there. Well, I don't know. Keep having trouble with this. I think we've got Secretary of State ready to come up maybe and then take another look at the congressional. This is Secretary of State. Is this just our county or this is all counties? It looks like it is, oh, good. This is statewide. And you'll see here, it's on the screen. I can't read that. Somebody will see it. There we go. I can't actually read that to tell you the truth. It's two. But the people at home can see that Pete Peterson is now leading in this race. Oh, there we go. Look, 50.3% for Pete Peterson and 49.7%. For Alex Padilla. So that's tight, tight, tight. And then the other one is- And that's statewide. Yes, that is statewide. There you go. What about this congressional race here? All right. The John Garamendi race. And well, all that we had of Dave Jones, okay, we'll go to that. Oh, this is the Doris Mansui. There's John Garamendi, still just Yolo County and with the same one that we had. It'd be interesting to see how he's doing in those other counties- Which one do you want to look at? SPI? Just looking at what they're looking at on the screen, which is the Dave Jones, winning that one pretty handily. That's not a surprise. It's not a surprise that all the Democrats should be leading and probably will win most of the races on the battle. That's county results, right? Yeah, that's all the counties though. That's more than just Yolo County. And there you've got the governor, Jerry Brown, beating Neil Kashkari again, 57% to 43. So statewide, if we look, maybe if you go to the SOS, the Secretary of State website, but what I've got here is Dave Jones, 51.9, Ted gains 48.1 on the insurance commission. I think she just threw that, they just had that one up there. Maybe you've got another one, why don't you? This is statewide, I don't know. Right, she, that was statewide too. Okay, well, why don't you give us treasurer? Let's see, treasurer, no, attorney general. All of those will be, I think, probably not very close. 55.7 for John Chang and 44.3 for Greg Conlon. There you go. It's statewide. And then pretty soon we're gonna have Bill Dodd actually on the telephone with us. I wonder how the Bill Dodd race is going. Can we have that? No. We had that a little while ago, but we just have the Yolo County race results. Lieutenant Governor, should we look at that? Yeah, that'll be pretty funny. Gavin Newsom, 53.9%. That's all? Ron Naring, 46.1, with 18.7% of proceeds. It might be interesting that by the end of the night, it might be interesting that this low, low turnout that they're talking about, the lowest turnout in a generation, that might have an impact, huh? I mean, in a race like that, Gavin Newsom with all the name ID and money and running against someone who's really just a political party person for that Lieutenant Governor, or maybe people don't care about the Lieutenant Governor and regardless of who it is, could be that too. What are the other ones that you have here in the statewide? It's still pretty much the same with Jerry Brown and Neal Kashkari Brown with 56.8%. This is with 18% of the precincts. What about that one? Let's look at SPI. SPI? Which is 18.7% of precincts. Tom Torlickson, 54.2%. Marshall Tuck, 45.8%. And that statewide, so. Well, why don't we see if we have Bill Dodd on the telephone and we can talk to him. Bill, are you on the telephone with us? I'm right here with you. Thank you very much for calling. Well, there you go. And we can hear you, so we like that. Welcome to Davis, at least that way. It's Richard Harris and Anna Ferrara here. So. Fantastic, good to hear your voice. Yeah, nice to hear yours too. Well, the campaign is over and let the governing begin, huh? Oh, that's for sure. I, you know, this has been a long 15 months. And you know, I can tell you, I learned more in the primary running against Dan and Joe than I did this last three or four months. But I'm just glad to have this over with and get up there and get the work and represent the entire district. So I'll tell you, I'm really appreciate how, you know, Davis has come out for me during this campaign. What were you hearing from our folks here in Davis? Are they, are the issues different from the ones in Napa? Or do you see them being similar? No, I really see them being similar. I mean, you know, one of the things about Davis is I really, out of all the things that I represent, it's not to be critical of any of the other cities that I represent. Politically, there's no more engaged community that the city of Davis than I've ever witnessed. And it's really been a pleasure to, you know, the issues are the same, but there's more people interested and engaged in those issues. Well, it is certainly an engaged community and I'm glad you appreciate it now. Maybe we'll check back with you in about six months and see how much you appreciate it. He's not being sarcastic. Sorry. I would like to do that. I've lived here a long time, Bill. I get to take shots at ourselves, you know? Well, and we certainly appreciate, you know, it's been, it was, you know, a wild and crazy race. And, you know, we're- Primary, especially, you know? Exactly. We're, you know, we're used to being on top here in Davis. And so it's good to have to hear that you have listened to our concerns and will continue to do so because you'll hear from us for sure. I know you- Yeah, go ahead. Oh, I was gonna say, I know you spent some time on the Transportation Commission and, you know, you bring a wealth of experience on water as well. And I know that's some issues that we're struggling with locally, you know, water rates and things. So we look forward to you bringing those issues and your experience and those issues here and looking at our concerns as well. Well, you know, I look forward to that. And, you know, I'm gonna just take a plug in this maybe, I don't know. I just have really felt like the guys that I really ran into the campaign against, this is nothing against Charlie Schall, but I do kind of want to do a shout-out for Dan Wolk and Joe Cravoza. You know, we had a great primary campaign on really significant issues. I learned a lot from those guys on a myriad of issues. And I really am intent on being, not on being, on having the city of Davis and the county of Yolo saying, hey, you know what? This guy from NAMM can represent us. You know, equally and that's my goal. Well, it's a good, it's a good goal. And knowing both the mayor and the former mayor, I'm sure you're gonna hear from both of them regularly. And just because that June primary has passed, those guys are still both pretty engaged. And, you know, you can- Oh yeah. They're a good resource for sure. Yeah, a good resource. Oh, they're great resources and if you look at, for them to come out and support me and engage in my campaign here. I think that's a lot. They're both classy guys and I've enjoyed working with them and I'll enjoy, continue to work with them. Now, Bill, you were a Napa County supervisor for a long time. And you're gonna bring that local government perspective into the legislature. And it's gonna be a legislature that has a lot of turnover. What, how do you see all that coming out and what do you see your role in the new legislature? If I look at the new legislators coming in, a lot of them are younger. You know, people have been on a school board, which is, you know, admirable. But I look at myself as somebody that comes in with a little bit, not a little bit, substantially more experience. And, you know, hopefully I can, I kinda look at Jerry Brown and look at him being an adult supervision in the world for the last term that he's been on. I've really admired, I don't admire the bullets rain. I don't admire the, you know, the tunnels but many other things that he has done there. I think he's been really good for the state of California. I hope I can bring that and also the ability to work together with others to get things done. I guess the earthquake has just been a little bit more on the minds of the folks in Napa. I know, you know, I don't know if that's something that you're looking at going forward. But I know when you look at infrastructure and all of those things, something like that hits and you realize, you know, things like the Bay Bridge and other things that, you know, related to infrastructure. You know, I'm sure you know more than others right now how impactful that is. And I think those kinds of things along with the fact that we have a university right here in Davis, I think there's things that you'll, I'm sure, will come to the forefront as you work through what your agenda's going to be in the next few years. Well, I appreciate you bringing up the earthquake. That's been something that's been heavily on our minds. We've been really working overtime and, you know, our congressman here, I know Congressman Jeremy is your congressman there, but over here on this side it's Thompson and Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein have, you know, both been here and we finally got individual assistance for our low income. You know, people that have had houses fall off the foundation that have had, you know, fireplaces and chimneys collapse. And, you know, these people are living paycheck to paycheck and, you know, it was something that really took a long time to get, so we're really pleased that they're gonna get the assistance they need. So that's been something that, you know, we've had that, I've had that experience in floods. I've had that experience in devastating fires, but never in the earthquake. I think there's some things that we can do to shore up our, you know, the service that we can provide citizens in that area. Well, you know, leadership is defined by crisis a lot of times, Bill, and you've shown a lot of it here in the response to the earthquake and I know of your work in the flood control, so we appreciate all that. Let's hope we don't have the major crisis going forward, but just as one Davis resident, I will thank you for whatever you would do in the future if that should happen, because I know you'll be right out front and doing the good work. We're gonna let you go, Bill. We know you got a lot of other people to talk to and places to be for the people of Davis and the Yolo County folks watching us. We wanna congratulate you on what looks like a victory and look forward to working with you in the future. Thanks a lot. Thanks so much. I wanna give a shout out about the many names but there's quite a few people from Davis that came over here for this pick result, which I very much appreciate. Thank you both very, very much. Yeah, you do realize, Bill, that they came over there because you're in Napa and there were some other reasons that they might have wanted to go there instead of being here tonight with us, but that's okay. You're gonna have your time too, okay? Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna- We like one. Anna and I like mine. We'll put you on the calendar. All right, well, I look forward to seeing both of you over here. Take care. Thanks a lot, Bill. Thanks, Bill. Good luck. Yeah, yeah, that's so, yeah, you wonder why everybody, that's where they all are, right? Support them in Napa. Okay. Is it top of the hour? It's top of the hour, so I get to tell you again, thank you for tuning in. DCTV, channel 15 on the Comcast system. You are watching live coverage of the November 4th, 2014 election. This program is simulcast live on KDRT, affectionately known as K-Dirt. K-Dirt. K-Dirt. 95.7 FM in Davis. K-Dirt. The number to call if you have a question is 757-2419 and we haven't gotten any calls yet, but we'd love to hear from you. The Davis Media Access's Twitter feed, we're into Twitter now, is at DMA Feed, one word. Is somebody tweeting all of this out? I think. It could be. I think they were tweeting. They made me turn off my phone, so I have no idea. And Davis Media Access, if you didn't know, it also has a Facebook page, so if you are interested in hearing more about what's going on here, this wonderful community treasure, please like that on Facebook. There you go. Ann, don't forget to contribute. Don't forget. That was the Anna Ferrera. There you go. Don't forget to contribute. Don't forget to. We have another guest in our studio today and another school board candidate. Candidate. One of thousands. Welcome. Mr. Tom Adams. Hi, Tom. Hi, how are you tonight? We're doing good. We're having a lot of fun. It's maybe, you know, it's community television. We're doing what we can do. Hey, it looks like you're in third place or it was the last time we checked. I don't know if anything's changed. Have you seen anything different out there? No, not since the initial results, but I feel pretty good about that. All right. I just feel I need my own Madison Bum Gartner to come and close down the show for me. There you go. I think. Right, that it? Go giant. You didn't have any mad bum underwear that you're going to throw out like Jimmy Fallon or something, right? No, no. I don't have that type of campaign. Tom Adams mad bum. Nevermind. These two are, can you throw a rock and head his house, sir? My dog breaks through the fence into his yard periodically. And we finally figured out why, and it's because another neighbor's cat hangs out in his yard during the day when we're all gone, which is why my dog's trying to get over there. I don't know. That's what he says. I don't know. But I'm also the canine friendly candidate. There you go. That's right. I saw that you were walking at the dog park handing out flyers to dogs. I don't know. I hope that works out. It was usually on the trails. Well, tell us about the campaign. What did you enjoy most about it? I think what is amazing about the Davis campaign is just how engaged the electorate is. When you go out there and meet people, they actually know the issues and all sorts of ways. And so it really required you to be on your toes and really read a lot to understand the issues, to listen, to have a lot of background. Even though my field is education, studying Davis was just a rich growing experience for me just because the schools are great, the teachers are great, there's good leaders, but also amazingly, Davis' parents really know about education. It's interesting because I think there's a wide range of issues. We were just talking about sleep deprivation and looking at the schedules and it's very interesting. But I think you're right. I mean, I think depending on where your child is and what you know about your different interests, you can hear quite a bit from our parents. I know you have a background with the Department of Ed and so you come, I've been saying this to every one of the candidates, everyone's got a different skill set and some very unique strengths. And I see that you've been working with the Department of Education on Common Core and other areas curriculum, which is near and dear to many of our parents. Did you find that that made it easier for you or were there issues that you learned about on the campaign that you hadn't really thought about before or that you learned more about as you talked with people? So the interesting thing about Davis for me is that I was expecting a lot of controversy over Common Core. If you look through other school board elections throughout the country, it's a hot issue. It's a divisive issue, but it really wasn't there. What people wanted from me was more background on how do the math standards really work and how does it compare, say, with the previous math standards we had before or what's the real change in language arts and are Davis schools, from my opinion, prepared for the change? And so it was very thoughtful discussions. It was, and I think this is remarkable again about Davis is there is a basic consensus here about good education and that when people look at the issues they actually study it, they don't listen to the sound bites, they actually go to the documents themselves, they wanna hear informed opinions about things. And so that made my campaign a lot easier and just in terms of, I was expecting some contentious points on it, but it was actually more of a sharing of ideas in exchange about, okay, so how do we move forward in the best way? So that's what I really liked about it. I think that was, I call that a very pleasant surprise. Yeah, what, go ahead. No, go ahead. I know you, Tom, obviously we made a joke about that and when I was on the board you were very helpful to me in terms of just trying to talk through issues, what would parents think? You have children or you have a child that was actually going to school on the other side of town, which always gave a whole other perspective too because this town does have perspectives based on geography in some way and of course the magnet schools and immersion and all that. But what was the one thing that you woke up one morning and said, this is why I'm gonna run? What was there one thing and what was it that really made you want to do this? Well, this is, in terms of where I am in my career and my knowledge and where the district is in terms of its needs, for me it was the perfect intersection. I have been leading a lot of efforts on common core implementation and now we're just starting the, implementing the new science standards called the next generation science standards and the district is about to begin that and has already started that and I've seen some good work already being done by district leaders. I thought, you know, if I don't run now, win. And it comes down to that famous scene in Harry Potter where Dumbledore says to Harry, you know, you can either do the right thing or the easy thing and I decided to do the right thing. Dumbledore was played by a guy named Richard DeHarris. I just thought I'd point that out to you. Oh. I'm not making that up on it. Dumbledore got passed away though. Let's don't go there. Yeah, let's not go there. Definitely, we need you too. That's a great answer though. That's just a great answer. It is a great answer. And true, but you know. And so this nexus brought you here, if not now, when and so, you know, we do so much appreciate your willingness to serve. I see, you know, people talking about curriculum and, you know, class size reduction and other things that school boards may or may not be responsible for actually making any further changes to, but implementation is also a very important part of what you do and that. And so, and also, you know, there's other things we were talking about, you know, their school districts are often biggest employers in areas, you know, do you see other areas besides curriculum that you're interested in? Like I always think about facilities with Davis right now when I was reading on the newspaper about people talking about high school, you know, whether or not it should be three year or four year. And then at the very end it said, well, you know, it would probably cost, you know, a ton of money to make sure that we had the facilities that went along with that. I'm not sure everyone always thinks about those things, but are there other issues? Is it facilities or other things that you're interested in that you see need doing in the next few years? Well, I think job one is to one, make sure everyone's very comfortable with the current board mix. We're gonna have a parcel tax up in two years and we wanna make sure everyone has confidence in the school district from top to bottom. And I think really that's gonna be incumbent upon this next board to reach out to the community to make sure it's decision making is rooted in the concerns of everyone that all voices are heard. I think the other important thing though is my, there's a couple of issues I really wanna work on. One, I really would like to see us work more on some of the work we've done well in terms of, say, solar energy. So why haven't we expanded that to other? Who came up with that? Yeah, yeah. I don't know, it's just part of the osmosis. Yeah, exactly. But also maybe helping creating more extensive help in terms of volunteerism. I know there's a lot of people who wanna volunteer for the schools, but they don't know how. And maybe we can create a process where people can apply for that and then teachers can actually decide who they want in their classroom. And especially in communities that may not be represented so much in the volunteer arena. Reaching out to those folks too, I think is probably important. You're right, because I mean, this is again, one thing that's truly wonderful about Davis is that a lot of people wanna help the schools. And even when they don't have kids in the schools, they wanna volunteer. And we gotta harness that energy in an easy manner so someone can actually go online and say, here are my skill sets. This is what I wanna do. We can do a quick background check on them and then have them find the teacher that they can help. That's good, good. We've gotta do some wrapping up here. We're just gonna keep moving. What was Mike Nolan's quote earlier about the school district being like a river? Like a river. That's like our show, we're like a river. Moving them in and out. We wanna thank you for putting yourself out there. Congratulations so far on where it stands, on the absentees, I guess we'll see. And I appreciate it. I think it's also been a very calming presence in all of this. I think we've been through a lot with, as a community, I think it's been, your message is well taken. Thank you. Can I say one thing just to thank my lovely wife, Jan and my beautiful daughter, Michiko, they were so great throughout this whole process. It really is demanding on families and they were very supportive throughout the whole time. And your mother-in-law. My mother-in-law, what a gem. Yeah, absolutely. All right, thank you a lot, Tom. This is a family affair. Thank you. Thank you. Well Anna, what are we gonna get on to next? I don't know, like a river. Huh? Like a river. We've got a few more candidates coming through or at least one more. We have the wrap up. The wrap, but the one thing I wanted to mention is, Autumn is actually tweeting. So the question was, who's tweeting? Autumn's tweeting. Autumn is tweeting. So you can go to DMA's Twitter feed, which is at DMA feed, one word, and get live results or live thoughts that Autumn is going to put out there. She's probably tweeting that my tie, didn't match my shirt. Who knows? And what is Autumn's last name? You can read it right there. Labay Renault. That's exactly right. And she is our fearless leader here at DMA Executive Producer and we're happy to have her doing that. I know it's a lot of work to put this show on and then to be tweeting while all of it is happening is beyond the pale. And then to be standing back there youngling those idiots that are on the couch that can't keep everything together. I know, I know, I know. You think they might have state propositions for us? That'd be kind of cool to look at. County results, what do we have? About 24%, and this is... Number one. Number one, still winning by a lot. And this is not just our county, this is all counties. So that's a good deal there. One and two, both winning handily, it looks like. Number two is that rainy day fund budget balancing type proposition. Number proposition 45, given all the power to that one politician, looks like it's not going well for the insurance commissioner. But that one will probably get a lot closer. The same on 46, it's going down to the doctor drug testing, the medical negligence. It's the one that raised the cap. It's the micro cap. It's the... On negligent lawsuits, right? Yeah, all right, criminal sentences. And that one looks like it's passing or leading, I should say, and maybe not as I'm passed yet. And that's 47. And Prop 48, the Indian gaming one group of gamers is winning over the other group of gamers is that 48 looks like it's going down in flames. And I think that's all the propositions that we have. Maybe we can show the school board numbers one more time. Nothing's really changed as far as I can see. Do you see anything different? Nope, we've got Madavi number one and followed by Barbara Archer and then Tom Adams, Bob Papenge, Jose Grande. And then Mike Nolan and Chuck Raredan. See, for you at home, you don't know that Anna and I both have a little bit of sight challenges and this is always like being at Dr. Schrader's office, looking at it and seeing if you can see with this eye or that one, I don't know. But I'll tell you one thing that's even stranger is that we have not one, but two school board members in our studio right now. They magically appear through television. And they didn't even have to campaign. Susan Levenberg and Sheila Allen, isn't that something? And Susan will still be on the school board when loser draw the knife for anybody else. You don't get off yet, your sentence continues. And Sheila, you're out of here. I'm out of here, you're out of here. You're already out of here. Not quite yet, I have weeks. I have a couple weeks into it. You do, and before we get started on any of that, I would just thank you on a personal level for your service and all the time that we spend together and everything. And if I start crying, Anna will then just pick up. I will come over and give you a hug. It's okay, I'm here for your return. I'm ashamed to have my microphone box back here with duct tape. You wonder why I'm sitting upstairs? I can't move. But your posture's improved, Richard. Well, it's the duct tape, okay? So that's just how it is. I really do appreciate everything that you've done. You've been on the school board for nine years. Nine years, yeah. Oh my gosh. My kids were in elementary school when I started, and now they're two in college and one senior in high school, so. Congratulations. Yeah, I know. And you're still married. I'm still married, same guy. Mitch. He said for the first time he would watch. Yeah, Mitch is finally watching. That's why I said that. Oh, that's great, that's great. One of the things we were talking to the candidates about they're such a stellar group, I mean it's just a wonderful thing to see the variety of talent and skill sets that they're bringing. But you know that there's the campaign and then there's what you actually do. We got into a little bit of that discussion with Alan Fernandez about some of the things that consensus-building and why that talent is very important. Share with us a little bit about kind of what you see as the real strengths in a school board member as they move forward, the kinds of things that they should be aware of going in. You want me to start? You may, go ahead. Either round both, please. Yes, well I'll give you my perspective and then Sheila will give you sort of the closer. You know, campaigns really force you into having an individual voice, expressing what it is that you want to make happen. People are looking for leadership and vision, which are important qualities, but when you get on a board and you're one of five, I think it's often a little bit of a surprise that that leadership and vision has to be melded and merged with four other perspectives on the board. And so that's where the ability, not just to be able to articulate a vision and know what you want to achieve, but be able to listen to other people and try and really develop a shared vision for the district is really important. And so, I don't think campaigns prepare you for governing. Absolutely, I love that. And so there's- Just kind of governing, right? Yeah, so there's gonna be a transition phase for all of the new board members. And I think that it's a good thing that we have a number of new board members together. And I'm really looking forward to taking some time to really do some retreats, do some opportunity really meld as a board so that we've got a sense of who we are and where we want to go together. Yeah, well said. Well, and you're gonna be the continuity, right? Well, yeah, but Alan has been there for three months, which has given him a little bit of a head start. Yeah, he's got a sense. It's a little bit of an inside joke here, but for you to say that now you get to do a lot of retreats, okay? Yeah, I know it's like- Well, I tried not- Tim Taylor is rolling over. Tim Taylor is rolling over in his right hand side. Richard and Tim Relipe, we're treats. Okay, no, we were okay with retreats. No, we weren't. What do you think about it? Well, I'd just like to expand on what you started with, about the difference between a campaign and governing, and I was reading some of the statements from some of the board members, and I thought- Ha! No! Ha! And I pulled my very first campaign. I was like, yeah, and this is what needs to be done, and this is what I'm gonna do, and that's not really how it is. Right, right, right. So it's really about building, getting the right people at the table and making sure that not only the people that sit up on the dais agree with you are at least two of them, so that you can get something passed, but it's really about being a community leader and a community listener, so you have, they're really the bosses, is the community, and then if we make a decision to be able to articulate that to not only the superintendent that we directly work with, but his staff, but then all the way through the teachers and the playground people and everyone. That's always been my worry is, while we could have a really great discussion and all in favor say aye, and then what? So making sure that what we're working towards is something that the community also is interested in, that the staff can be beyond board with and that we can all move together, so it's even more of building a team than just the five people that are sitting up on the dais, but it's really a community. What are you most proud of in your, now that you're on the way out? Nine years is a long time. And it doesn't have to be one. Well, yeah, well, there's a couple of things. It's the fact that really, I used to joke about it, but we as not just, we as a governing team, but we as a whole district and community kept the district together through one of the worst financial times. When Gina Tim and I ran 10 years ago, because we started running before the actual election, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. None, zero. And for us to all come together and really, for the most part, maintain most of the programs. And there were some things that had to give and it was really, really difficult that we were able to, as a community, to move through that and come out the other side, mostly whole, and in some ways better. I'm very proud of that to be part. It was difficult, but I'm very proud to have been a part of that. And Richard was a big part of that too. Yeah, you were part of that. You were in that. A sense of just, you know, even as things felt like they were going to hell in a handbasket, I think the community really rallied. And it was inspiring to be part of that. Well, if you think about it too, you and I got on in November of 2007 and took office in December of, and then all that. Then it was hell in a handbasket. And I've always blamed you for that financial, it was your fault Richard. The economic crisis. The economic crisis was Susan Leverberg's fault, which I single-handedly kept us on. Now, you know, it really, you think about it, and you say you had no clue when you ran, then that was, because things weren't really that bad when you guys first ran a couple years ago. Well, there were some major financial issues when we first came in. There were issues with the district, yes, that's right. But not the whole. But there weren't the overall, and. The state one. I think that, I mean, we never saw that train coming, and there's no way we would be where we are if it wasn't for the community. I mean, I always just felt like we're just up there making decisions, but like you said, it was everybody there. And then everybody stepped up on these parcel taxes. If we had not passed parcel taxes through those years, you would. Five parcel taxes. Think of that. Five years. On my list of things that I either was the chair or helped to run all five of them, that's something that I'm, you know, and sometimes I get just a little cranky, like, okay, you Mr. making mean things. Well, you were having dinner with your family. I was out making phone calls and running a parcel tax because it was that important that it had to be done. And then it felt very strong. Did what we had to do, and the community stepped up. It was pretty amazing. But Davis Schools Foundation, I mean, it was just all those things rose up during that time. Yes, yeah. All the parts together. Yeah. And then to, you know, be able to build that beautiful stadium, our largest classroom during the time. And we had MLK built during my time. It was, yeah. Yeah, there was a lot of good things. I'm proud of it. There's a few solar panels. A few solar, I think every time that I park underneath them. And we hope that in the future, that the district will have some facility money to be able to buy out the contract and own those things outright and have even more savings and maybe build some more. Yeah. Well, there's some really interesting facilities things coming up right now. We're sort of in the middle of the properties. We talked to Alan a little bit about that, Susan, just about what is going to be facing. Obviously, we've got to talk about facilities and a parcel tax all at the same time. Talk about a community conversation. Yeah. No, it's true. It's true. I mean, as we were running parcel taxes to hold together the program, our facilities were going wanting. And so the state really is not interested in stepping up and providing even matching funds at this point for facilities. So it's really gonna be a community responsibility. And they're looking to the locals to do that. So, I mean, I'm sure, you know, throughout the state, there'll be a statewide discussion about that. But yes, I mean, we've been good about that. I think our parents know what the situation is, and we'll see what they do in the future. So it's cool board into the future. We'll see. We're getting the high sign about wrapping up. I just want to give you both. I want to give you both the opportunity to say some final words about what you see for the future and your own experiences. Well, I'll start, because I think you should have the final word. But, you know, I've really enjoyed my, so I've only been on the school board for seven years, but I really, it felt like a while. And I've enjoyed all of the relationships that I've had with the school board. And so there's a sense of loss with some good friends who are moving on. But I'm also excited about the opportunity for some new people who are coming on board who really seem to bring in some fresh perspective and some new energy to the school board. And I'm excited to be there for the next two years and help that group move forward. And when Gina, Tim, and I came on together nine years ago, there was a lot of concern that it was three new people, the majority of the board were gonna be brand new. And I think we did just fine. And I think that this new group will do just fine. I'm really excited about the mixture of personalities and experiences, and they'll do great. Well, and you're not going anywhere, right? They're gonna be able to talk with you about, yeah, exactly, hotlines. Yeah. All right, we have to wrap up. Okay, well, we appreciate you coming in the time that you've given to the community already. We really do. Thank you. Absolutely, my friend. Thank you. Well, Anna, it's been a lot of fun. I guess that means we're, that means it's time for us to, yeah, they all wanna go home. We're gonna be here when the lights go out. All right. I think we should just keep going to your little computer, and we'll just, they won't be. We'll keep going, the lights will be over. There are no updates. I think we still have to do one last. Do we do one last? I wanna thank everybody for tuning in to DCTV channel 15 on the Comcast system. It was live coverage tonight of the November 4th election. It was simulcast on K-Dirt. I wanna give out a shout out to our partners, the city government, channel 16, Davis Community Network, OnSoft Technologies, Yellow County's elections officer office. You can see on your screen all of the folks behind the scenes that have been working all night, and we really wanna appreciate their effort, and I guess really that is about all we can say. But consider supporting all of us.