 Welcome to tonight's coverage of our local election here in Davis, California. You're watching us on Comcast, Channel 15. Maybe you're listening to us on KDRT or streaming us on the internet at davismedia.org. I am Andrea Jones and joined by Leah Rosenberg. And we are fortunate to have our first guests here already because we understand we'll be getting the first results from Yolo County elections about 8.15. So we're glad that our soon to be mayor, Rob Davis, and our fabulous counsel woman, the only counsel woman, something's wrong with the system. Rachelle Swanson, sorry, Rachelle Swanson are here. So we're glad you're here. And you guys were the lucky two that didn't have to run. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. We're just talking about on the way in. Although it wasn't contentious. I thought it was very civil, very above board. I really applaud all four of the candidates that were running. But you did work hard in this election because all five unanimously supported Measure A. And I know you were out there working for Measure A and involved with other campaigns as well. So tell us what the campaign trail has been like and what your sense is. I think we're very lucky at the local level. And we have four great candidates for three spots. All of them very dedicated to the community. We really couldn't go wrong, especially when you start comparing it to the acrimony, starting at the national level. And the interesting thing is a polypsi, you know, major and political scientist. It's fascinating, but as an American, sometimes a little disconcerting. Very disconcerting. So really, that just shifts the focus to how lucky we are that we can really move forward. And I think what's been nice about this election cycle is that we've been able to focus on what's before the city. In past years, it's been that the politics and the elections kind of start to dominate the dais. And what's been really great, except for maybe one or two things here and there, it's really pretty much been just business as usual, moving forward. The campaign's been happening about people really voting for who resonates with them. And I think that's been important. And having gone through the last couple of elections, I truly appreciate it. And I think it's been important, time-wise. Rob and I serve on the subcommittee for the innovation centers, as well as other committees that we both serve individually and with other team members. And I really feel like we haven't seen a bump in the road where we could have during this campaign season. Right. It's true. So it's a testament, I think, to the change in tenor that we've seen evolving over the last few years, which has just been a real blessing. Yeah, it's amazing, really. I mean, when you consider ten years ago, the mayor was taken out of a city council meeting on a stretcher. Yeah, it's so, I mean, times have changed. It's night and day. Those days are important. And I think the community is glad for it. I mean, I think that the community and the way the community votes definitely. I think we've done conflict well. I mean, there is conflict, right? There are any time we're making difficult decisions and trying to balance or weigh evidence, balance the needs, we can come to different places. And maybe the citizens thought that the guys were doing such a good job that there's only one other person running besides the incumbent. So it must have felt we're all doing a good job. I think the incumbents, I mean, it's been, I'll say this about Brett and Lucas. I really respect both of them a lot because they work hard. When we, they show up, they're prepared, they do their work. And I have every expectation that the two who are not incumbents, Will and Matt, would be exactly the same. These are, I mean, we're a group of people that are working hard applying ourselves to really deal with the real challenge of the city. And Rachelle made reference to it. I think a lot of people reflect and see things happening on a Tuesday night in a council meeting, but we're all participating in subcommittees to work on specific things, whether it's innovation, whether it's homelessness, affordable housing, you know, the renters ordinance, any number of issues facing our city, community choice energy. And besides just the issues that arise, the standing committees, you know, the commissions, you know, the senior commission, and they all do fabulous work. No, that's the hard part. But as city council people, you're assigned to it and you go, try to be there even when you have scheduling conflicts. Well, then there, and Rachelle, I mean, Rachelle's on the air quality management district board, you know, we've got other county, Lafkoe, we've got Saacog, and, you know, I don't, I mean, I think people do expect Davis to play their part in those things. So the point being, I think all four of the people running were confident will continue to put their best foot forward, not just in terms of making good decisions, but of really putting in the time and effort to make it work. And that's what it really takes. It takes the time and effort to participate in these discussions so that you can be informed by what our great commissions are doing and also feed into what the county and larger regional bodies are also doing. So as you step into being mayor, what do you think, are you going to, what issues do you see coming up? And are you obviously looking forward to being mayor? Well, I mean, one of the things I think it's important to say about mayor in this town is we're, you know, we're a weak mayor system, right? So we are, we are together setting priorities, right? The five of us together are going to set the priorities and we're going to set the goals for the next two years. I think the goals that we've already laid out are a great foundation. I think we need to actually continue the course on most of them, which have to do with things like sustainability, accountability and transparency. The mayor's role is really to take the wishes of the council in terms of the agenda items and to make sure we can structure a meeting to get them done in a timely way, and obviously to represent the community. But I'm going to send a signal out to Rochelle and the others right now. We need to share that representational role, because all of us represent this community, not just the mayor. But you still get the best seat in the house. And you get to kiss all the babies. It's a hot seat. It can be a hot seat though sometimes when everybody shows up. No, it can be. But I think what I think we want to do is we want to make sure that we're structuring our meetings in a way that people feel respected when they approach the microphone. Do they feel like they've had the opportunity to have their say that we're actually listening to them, that their voices are being accounted for. And I think we can do that, right? We can do that. It's a matter of setting some simple ground rules and then expecting everybody to respect them, just as we will respect them. So we can do that. And we'll do a good job at that, because we do respect the members of this community. And I think that's something that is so key. And what I've seen over the last six years in being on so many regional boards is that people are really starting to recognize and respect the collegiality. And it doesn't mean we all agree. No. But really understanding, in fact, we can be diametrically opposed on an issue. But for those that come to the chamber and don't just watch from home with their wine and popcorn, is that they'll see that we'll have a break and we'll check in with each other and be like, we're good, really appreciated the comments. That was good. And do the follow-up. And I've really seen a movement that has been incredible and truly a testament. That's what I mean by doing conflict well. Look, we have to be able to disagree. And unfortunately, we have to be able to at the national level as well. Exactly. I mean, we're going to send you on the next cap to cap to teach them how to do it. But our meeting, because of the Brown Act, we actually, the time when we're talking, the time when we're really engaging with one another fundamentally on issues is live in front of people. That's a very constrained space in which to make decisions. And so I don't know, nine times out of 10, I am not sure where all my colleagues are going to be on a given issue. I learn at that moment. And then it's a matter of reacting and doing it in a respectful way. And so being able to disagree and then come back and say, look, you know, if I said anything that offended you, I apologize. This is why I voted this way. This is why I took this position. That's the best we can offer. And that is a good thing, actually, for the community. And it's something that I think we should suggest should happen at all levels of government. Right. No, the Brown Act is a fabulous thing for transparency. It's just people don't realize that you're not all calling each other on Saturday night to talk about. We'll see how you're going to go. Despite some may accuse us of that. Well, and it's interesting because all of us have worked in teams, right? Right. And the way you work in a team typically is you get around the table and you have a conversation. You dig it into it. You disagree. And you may come back two or three or four times around an issue. Right. We can't do that. We have to have those conversations in a constrained space on a Tuesday night where we're expected to make a decision and move on to the next challenge. And so people need to, you know, I invite the community to understand that our teamwork is fundamentally constrained by that reality, which is a positive thing, as you say. I agree with it. It has to be that way. But it also means that it's a truncated and somewhat stilted conversation because we don't have the time or the luxury really to dig into things maybe the way we'd like and the way that we're used to in our teamwork and our professional lives, which is a different dynamic. What I appreciate, though, because I am sitting at home with the popcorn in the wine. I watch every Tuesday that you're on. Do I actually? Do I look fatter on TV? No. No. OK. That's fine. I know. But I'm here. But I don't try and go, you know. Anyway, you both look fatter on TV. Thank you. You actually look better tonight than you do on Tuesday night. Well, you look more relaxed now. Yes. Yes. Certainly. That's true. But what I appreciate is, you know, that you are, at times, opposed on issues. And sometimes you can even see in your faces that you're surprised that one of your colleagues has spoken against, you know, or for. But you react to that. Because I've seen compromise made. I've seen people actually change the way they said they were going to vote because they've heard something that made them think, well, maybe you're right. I hadn't looked at it that way. And I appreciate that. So you see that. That's good. Because the reality is, you get the packet. You spend a lot of time reflecting on it on your own. You have a whole weekend to really dig into it, think about it. And then, bam, you're in a space where, for the first time, you're hearing explicitly what other people are thinking about it. And there is a certain reaction to that. And there's a way that you can't fully prepare for that. And your own views do get challenged in that space. And it's not always easy. Because I thought I really knew where I stood on this. And now I'm questioning again. And I'll tell you, that is not an easy place to be. But that's healthy. And I've seen both of you react to colleagues and say, that's a different way to look at it. And I'm glad you brought it up. I'm not willing to change my vote tonight. But I'm willing to look at it further. Well, there's genuine respect for one thing, as people. And we do bridge the gap when we're not just doing city stuff. Because I think that's really been a good place for us to bridge forward. And to add on to what Rob's saying, be on the packet and working through it. And this is going to be my PSA. Do you see something in the agenda? And you want us to be able to really have a thoughtful conversation about it and address staff, please don't send us an email at 330 on Tuesday. Because, likely, we're scrambling. Do you get your packets on Friday? Thursday night. Thursday night. Friday. And some packets. I say packet. It's a binder that's, you know, we don't get binders anywhere. It's electronic. But it's many hundreds of pages. From the old school. Yeah, we don't get binders anymore. But it is a significant amount if we're going to really chew on it. I want to bring it back to this election. Our expectation is going to be, I think, that all of us will, everybody that's running, and of course, two of them have been part of it, but the two that haven't have seen that, have seen the way we've applied ourselves to learning about issues. The way we've applied ourselves to debate, to digging into the details and making sure that we're asking the right questions. And again, I just want to reiterate that my expectation is that no matter who's sitting up there, come our first meeting in July, is that they're going to participate in that same sort of level of commitment. That I have no doubt about. And that's probably one of the reasons I feel relaxed tonight. I don't have any anxiety about who I'm going to serve with in the next period. I have zero anxiety. Because I have confidence in them as people. And I've already seen their service to the community in one way or the other. Right. Right. Now, tell us about Measure A. What do you think? We may even have, I don't know if we're at 8.15 yet, but if we have, I'm sure they're interested to know what the first results are. There's very, very eager to give you an idea of the level of commitment. And clearly, we've spent a lot of time on it as the subcommittee, but I was on campus yesterday talking to leadership. They're really watching it. Today was with one of our great local, Pameroon, great innovator, Dr. Cheneur, talking about what this could mean. And I have to say, one of the greatest pieces is the level of engagement. We've had voter apathy for years. And I know at my precinct, they ran out of stickers early, which to me means we had a lot of voters. And what a great problem to have. So it'll be interesting to see where things fall. Yeah, that's really good to hear. They were there for a second. I think the people at home saw it. And of course, they have computers, so they already saw it. But now we're on to the city council. So Brett Lee is in first place, which, according to law and science, that's the way it was going to go. I didn't know that we were still doing law and science as a way of measuring things. But it's Davis. And as much as we like change, there's some things we're not willing to change. Tradition is good. Yes, tradition is good. Expensive, but good. So Brett Lee and Lucas, the two incumbents at the top, this is just a small portion. These are the votes that were already in the elections office prior to today. Absentee ballots that had been either dropped off or mailed in. And so they are allowed to open them and start the counting process today for those ballots. This does not reflect anybody that's gone to the polls today. Or a lot of absentee ballots that have been sent in that have yet to go through the process. So it's 0% of the precincts out of 34 reporting to give an idea of the small sample. But it would have Brett Lee, Lucas Frerichs, and Will Arnold being the top three. I'm just looking at the vote totals, just the number of votes. I mean, it shows it's going to be a pretty impressive turnout. Yeah, well, and I think that that's what the elections office was saying. And I think that that's. Because of the national election. Exactly, exactly. That and Measure A brought people out too. Yeah, but I do think the national and we even have some of the crew in here wearing t-shirts that they couldn't have worn to the polling station. So there was a lot more interest. And for one of the first times in a long time, California played a part in the national direction. And I'm sure we'll see that. I don't know if we're going to have Measure A or not. I just want to say one thing about it. I think what this council did, I mean, arguably, is that we put our best foot forward to negotiate what we felt was in the best interests of the city. I acknowledge that the citizens may disagree with that. I mean, that's what Measure R is all about. But I will, I mean, it's going to be close. Yeah, it's going to be close. It's going to be close, but I will say, but with a high turnout at the polls, this could change. But normally, as the absentees go, so goes the night. Yeah, true. And the long sign indication, too. Well, all I can say is that people can have confidence where they disagree or agree. They can have confidence that we negotiated it hard. Rachelle and I spent many weekends really pouring over the baseline features, the development agreement, staff did a phenomenal job positioning us. People saw it. If you watched, we spent not one, not two, not three, but four council meetings publicly negotiating them. People can say what they want about the merits of the project. What they cannot say is that the process was anything less than respectful of the community's need to participate. And I think that we, I'll go to my grave believing that we did the right thing in terms of process. And I believe we put a project that was worthy of a yes vote before the people. But our citizens will decide that ultimately. And we knew that going in. That's what measure is. Well, and it's citizen-based plan. So we've talked about, right? At some point, we had to let the citizen read the side. It could have just kept going around and around. And I think that's the challenge is, you know, sometimes you have to actually test the theory, right? And so that's, I think, what it came to, is knowing that we really did pour an incredible amount of energy into it. It really was up to everybody else. Well, Anishi has been in front of so many different councils. I mean, I think that Dave may have still been on the council at one point when it was first considered. So, Judge Dave Rosenberg now. I think we've all learned a lot about what it takes to really engage a citizenry in measure R. And it's, for me, I've enjoyed the process in the sense of learning all the aspects of a complex project and being, trying to communicate with people, the inherent trade-offs in a project like this. You know, you don't always get what you want, right? Actually, in a complex project like this, I don't think anybody gets exactly what they want. And that's the whole point. Do we mold something that is for the best, you know, thing that we can give to the community? Right. And I, arguably, I think we did. And hopefully, again, what you need. We did. Not a fucking great job, right? Welcome to my mind. You can go to bed feeling good that you really gave it all. I do. I do. And I've heard the no voices. I mean, I've heard them. You see it in the paper and you see it in the literature. I understand the concerns that people have, but I also know that we need more housing. We need the economic development. More student-oriented housing. I need to capture some of that innovation that comes off of this fabulous campus. We need to put our best foot forward to try to do those things. And that's what we were trying to do with this. It's a fairly limited project. This project's goal, but it's an important one in that respect. Especially when you look at other universities around the country and around the world, we are the home of UC Davis and we need to behave as such. Exactly. And this is what happens on all these campuses. You know, we could talk from North Carolina to Madison, Wisconsin, Michigan, and we could go on all day. They all have some sort of innovation park and we actually kind of stand out alone is not, which is surprising. Number one ag school, number one vet school in the world. Well, by midnight, that will have changed. Yeah, yeah. It looks like it looks like. You can send an email out. We did it. It looks like we're getting it. So we may be getting it and I'm thrilled because every time I drive down I-80 and see Genentech, I think, yeah. They could have been here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but we appreciate you coming in. We know you've got parties to go to. Leah's extremely envious. I've got grandchildren to hang out with. Well, I hope you're going to a party. Please go to a party. I will. I'll go to a couple. Just for Leah. Yeah. We'll raise a glass on you. There you go. She says, when we get out of here at 11, they won't still be partying? Yeah. I heard of an after-party somewhere. Okay, well, text us. There you go. Text us. All right. So we appreciate you coming and we will look at some more results and see, I think Alex is gonna pull up. Well, we've already gone over Davis City Council, but we could go over it again. I'll wait till it comes up on the screen. There it is. Still the exact same percentages, I believe. We're still looking at the same results and that'll probably be for some time while Yolo County elections works through the stacks and stacks of ballots that are coming in. But the early front runner is Brett Lee with 31% and Lucas with 27. Both are incumbents and that would be expected. Although this is a year where there's a lot of non-incumbents winning seats nationally, I think locally we're represented by good people and appreciate their work. And it looks like we may be sending two of them back to the council with a new member to join them. So, do you have any announcements, Leah? No, I don't. Can we bring up anything on any of the other races going on here, the assembly? Oh, Alex, we'll have something up there in a minute for us. I know he will. And we're just let- What I can say, I know many of us are glad today has come and it's over. Oh, what a night. We've waited a long time. Elections used to be much harder. It's kind of odd to be election night and not be involved in elections. Yeah, well. For some of us on this couch. I got no literature, so I wouldn't know. This is, we're looking at a Secretary of State site and it's not, it must be a county. And I can't see which county it is, but maybe it's Napa because Bill Dodd is way out there. But we'll hope to maybe see the Yolo County vote on close contest in the State Assembly District. Well, I'm sure people who put millions of dollars into it are, I'm sad to see that. At any rate, we are, you'll be glad to know I no longer need to ad-lib because we have our next guest here and she is- One that we all dearly love. Well, I betcha. Exactly, Mariko Yamada. Good evening. The hardest work in women in politics. Thank you. So, how many pairs of shoes? I had good bro models. Yeah. Well, how many pairs of shoes did you go through? This time three pairs. And I see you've gone to flats. I did notice that in the pictures. Yes, you know, every decade, my hair gets a little shorter, a little grayer and the heels get a little lower. But the energy remains the same because we, you know, we manage that. Yes, no, you're amazing, you're amazing. I mean, some people ask me, does she sleep? Does she, oh, you know. Occasionally. I still drink a lot of coffee, as you know. Yes. So was this whole race, was it worth it? Oh, absolutely. I'm ready, you know, of course, we don't know what the results will show until later this evening, or possibly into the next day or two. It just, it could be a close race, we'll see. Right. And you know, as you know, this is the first time that the new state law, which covers the 72 hours post-marked ballot. Right, right, right, right. So it should be interesting to watch. Right, because for those of you that weren't aware that don't vote by mail, this is the first year that you're allowed to have a post-mark. It does have to arrive by Friday in your county elections office. But the post-marker, this is the first time ever and it will allow more votes to come in and be counted. It will also slow the counting and the canvassing. Because normally by Friday, the elections office is starting to do the canvas and to do the spot recounts, randomized recounts, and that will be next week. That's right. You know, there will be a longer processing time and we all need to be patient with that. But with as many counties as you have in the Senate District. Right, Senate District 3, as you probably know, are all the parts of six counties. So it should be an interesting process. So it's six different elections offices, six different, so it will probably will not be tonight that we know for sure who the top two are. We shall see. I would love that it was tonight. Yeah, well, in some way, sure, yes. But back to that original question, was it worth it? Absolutely. In fact, we're ready to go tomorrow depending on what happens, right? Oh, of course. I can't imagine you do anything else. Did you have any interesting stories when you knocked on doors though or were people glad to see you? Yeah, you know, I will say this as you may recall back in the 2007, 2008 cycle, we had, you know, a similar tough race. Yes. Again, someone who had a lot of money and who had a lot of endorsements. Right. And we walked a significant amount. Yes, yes. There was a gentleman, you know, I was drawn out of Vacaville in 2011, so I have not run there since that time. But I got a phone call from him and he said, I'm just glad to know that you're running again to represent us in this area. And he said, I want a lawn sign, you know? And I mean, of course, there are also, you know, always sign stories to be told. But I just thought that that was kind of fascinating that five years since the time I was able to run there, that he would think enough to call. He would remember or run. Yeah. So you make quite an impression. Well, you know, I think people do say that once you knock on their door, they really never forget that you did that. Yeah. Yeah, so walking works. No, it does. It does. You've proved that before. Yes. You've proved that before. But, you know, every election is different. Yes. Well, and this one was, you're not unfamiliar with independent expenditures for people that are running against you. All right. This one was a little larger than a little more encompassing than I think any of us expected. Yeah, well, you know, I guess in a way, I would consider it an obtuse compliment to have, you know, $3 million or more in independent expenditures open, really not so much against us. I will make note that I did not see any hit pieces as we did in 2008. No, that's true. So that was interesting. It was a different kind of $3 million independent expenditure. I think we saw that happen in another local race. Yes. But nonetheless, it's a significant amount of money. It's a message that, you know, says, well, we don't really want you back in Sacramento. Right, right. You know, you're a threat to somebody. Yeah. I mean, $3 million is a lot of money. And our two local state representatives, Assembly and Senate, combined, it's gonna be in excess of $5 million. I mean, when the final reports are in for this period. But isn't that fascinating that it would be $84 and SD3 that would be, we are actually, I believe the top expenditure outside money in the state. Yeah, in the state. That's the way it was on the Secretary of State's website this afternoon. That's right. You made a lot of people nervous. Well, I wonder why, don't seem to be, I hope I don't seem to be that great. I've always known you to speak your mind and tell people honestly how you're gonna vote. And I've never seen you string anybody along with, well, if you give me some more information, maybe I might, no, you do listen, but you are very good at telling people why you're voting the way you are. Yeah, and absent any compelling information I generally don't change my mind. No, no, no. Not too much gets me to change my mind. You've normally done your homework. So, I mean, you've always done your homework. But, so I'm really, it is an obtuse compliment. It is, but it's really unusual that I'm not sure why they've decided that our region of the state is the most vulnerable to this type of action. I think since we've had the top two primary, we've seen a major shift in the Democrats in the legislature. Republicans have been sort of relegated to a certain level of anonymity almost in the legislature. So, Democrats who certainly, we understand we come from a big tent, but there has been a shift. And so, I think we here in, particularly in the Davis area and in the Fourth Assembly District and the Third Senate District are still known for our progressive values. And I think that that's what the outside forces are trying to, yeah, they're trying to quote unquote make an example of us. Yeah, yeah, we could, you know, we could save them some money. But, I need to remind people because it really is progressive. Sending a ream of slick paper every day to my mailbox is not convincing. But I need to remind people that we do have phones here at Davis Media Access. The lights are still on, the phone's still work, everything's good. The number is 530-757-2419. And I'm not sure if we have somebody on the phone or not, but we will find out. I've been told it will be like the voice of God. So, I'm hoping Morgan Freeman calls. If he's watching channel 15, it's not Morgan Freeman. Okay, well, maybe next time. But at any rate, we did want to be sure that the number's there. If anybody has a question for Mariko, she is, as I said, the hardest working woman in politics. She walks, precincts herself with volunteers. She knocks on doors. And as far as constituent services go, the best in the capital. I enjoy it. And her mailers were from her own expenditures. Right, you might. Not outside money. The only reason I know this is that Andrea brought me all her mailers. She doesn't get them anymore. I don't get any. So, I don't get any. I had no idea that their databases were that good, but she's got zero mailers. Zero mail. I found a few at the post office on the counter. And I was so happy to see them. I feel kind of bad about that. Now I should just bring you some more. Oh, I gave her a whole bag full of them. No mailers and I get no catalogs. Wow. I think candidates take note. Yeah. OK. OK. And if Alex could just make that a little bit bigger, this almost 50-year-old Andrea could see it. It looks like Bill Dodd, 44 and something percent. And Mariko Yamada, 20, if I'm reading it correctly. And the coach at 22.3, this must be Napa. It could be, or it could be statewide, I think. Oh, it is. Yeah, it's district one. Yeah, it's district one. Yeah, district one. So we'll see how the results play out the rest of the evening. We have not seen the coach here in Davis. No, I haven't. There has been some Gabe and his team have been in Davis. I've been surprised to see. As many young people. Didn't even know who he was. So for us, we're used to the names that we know and unfamiliar with those, and especially if they don't stop by and knock on doors in Davis. And in fact, actually, this election, no one knocked on my door, which I was really surprised. One door. And you're in a big neighborhood. I mean, the house. Yeah, I don't expect any, but yeah. But so I was surprised about that. There wasn't, and I don't know if that was based on the city council race or, but certainly, no, I did not see the coach. So. Well, I would just say that it's very early. And we shall see, a lot of the early results are absentee. Right, right. So, you know, we shall see how the evening and the journey continues. Yeah, and this is just 0% of precincts. I mean, this is, but I will say, and you will probably see a bump in the people who voted at the booth today, because there was a really big title wave, a tsunami of support from Mariko Yamada from the Field of Berm people. Yes. You resonated. You resonated with that same group. And I mean, I think it goes back to your speaking your mind, being upfront about how you're going to vote, being upfront about what your values are and what you're not willing to compromise on. Well, and, you know, just to clarify that, I did support Bernie today when I cast my vote. I recognize that a lot of the support that I have been privileged to have come from women's organizations. And I am mindful of the fact that I am the only woman in this Senate district race. But, you know, your primary vote is a vote of your conscience or your heart, with whom you have the greatest alignment of values. And I think that we have achieved a level of political maturation as women, that although I guess Madeleine Albright maybe thinks differently, but, you know. She has another decade on us, you know. She can get crotchety. I really believe that, you know, we should vote for the person that you ally most closely with. And of course, if Secretary Clinton becomes our nominee and it appears likely that she will be, I will certainly be supporting her. I won't be, you know, staying home and staying home. Oh, gosh, no. Oh, gosh, no. We wouldn't expect, no. And as Democrats, we don't have that same issue that there would be any reason why either one of the nominees would not be a fabulous person to support. Well, just think if we had Hillary Clinton's experience with Bernie's values. True. We would have the perfect candidate. True. So I know that you're in Davis for a function for two hours. Yes. And then where do you push on to? Well, you know, of course there are a number of campaigns that are local. Right. That certainly I might be visiting. Okay. But. You're not going in a NAP or anywhere you're not on the road. I don't know that, you know, I will be going back out. Usually in a district this large, you start from the western end and work yourself back east. So I won't send you. But there certainly will be watching the results throughout the night. And it's an exciting time. I haven't even seen what the presidential results are yet. The last I heard, Hillary won New Jersey. So that was hours ago. We've been sequestered here. It's like being on a jury. Oh, okay. But more fun. Yeah, absolutely. Well, actually, I don't know. I don't know. No, it is fun. No, this is great. We know and I want to just give a shout out to Davis Media Access as always for providing this important community service. Well, thank you for that. Thank you for that. As the board chair. Yes. As the board chair. And as a former board member when it was DCTV. That's how long ago that was. Right, before we had a radio station. That's right. But, you know, I did radio when I was in Washington DC and so have a great fondness for community media. And it's an important part of the voices that need to be heard. Well, we appreciate you coming in, not only tonight, but on important issues. You were never too busy when you were in the assembly and we know you won't be too busy when you're in the Senate to come in and talk about important issues for the district. All I need is one more vote than the other guy. That's right. Except that if it's- Or top two. Yeah, well, if it's a top two, it's going to be a very interesting journey. Yeah. So, but trust me, we're ready for it. We'll start the fundraising all over again. We're absolutely ready. And hardly wait to get started. Oh, no, I'm surprised you're not still knocking on doors. I'm glad that someone sent you the message that the polls are closed. But we're always glad to have you here. And we hope that we look forward to seeing the results come in and watching them, as you say, over the next couple of days with the new postmark legislation. It will be a different counting period. That's too bad in a way that we have to take care of those that procrastinate in voting that we've come to this. Well, you know, there has been some talk about mandatory voting, you know, like in Australia. Although someone asked me, you know, well, why would you want to do that? You would you want, you know, people voting who might not be paying attention? I said, well, what makes you think that's not happening now? Exactly. If you look at the national races, there's some argument to be made that there's people not paying attention. But we're glad you're here. We'll let you get back to your party. Thank you very much. Party for Leah. She's very disappointed that she's missing the parties. Because you are all going till 11. 11. And by then. Yeah. Everything's pretty good. Well, I'm sure there'll be some after party. We'll try. I'll text you. Text. Good, good, good. We're in the loop. Thank you. It's always a pleasure to see you both. Yeah. Always, yeah. It's a little reunion. You just get younger. I mean, campaigning suits you. You know, it is, it's a lot of fun for me. I really enjoy it. In fact, I think this campaign, I've had the most fun of almost all. That's wonderful. Isn't that a great- So we'll see what happens the rest of the evening. Good. We'll be watching. Thank you both. We'll be watching and we'll be thinking of you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. So I am sure that Alex is looking forward to pulling up some results on our magic screen of I'll just roll with the punches with whatever. Oh, we're still, it looks like we're still in the Senate district three, but maybe we'll go to the assembly, fourth assembly. Let's see what we're doing there. Okay, so there are three people with about the same number of votes, 11,000 and some change. And those three people are Cecilia Aguilar Curry, Dan Wolk and Charlie Schaup. So that looks like it's gonna be a race to watch for a while. And I imagine that some people who spent a lot of money are surprised that their candidate isn't higher up than Tide. So we are here at Davis Media Access, DCTV, Channel 15, Comcast Network. And as Mariko Yamada pointed out, we are a nonprofit organization and we do put on election night coverage here. And we would certainly appreciate your support. Go to our website, davismedia.org. And you can phone in a question too. And the number, Leah. And the number is 757-2419. Give us a call. Yeah, give us a call. Yeah, I'm not used to saying telephone numbers because we text or email all our friends. That's right, that's right. Who calls anymore? Who calls, except you're Dennis. And they call and they call. Anyway, enough about Dennis. We have new guests here. I mean, this couch just revolves. It's amazing. We should have a transient tax on this. We could solve a lot of budget problems. And we've got two guys here who know a lot about budgets. So Mr. Williams, it's great to see you. Please, Matt, Matt. It's wonderful to see you, Matt. And you have a guest here tonight. And I believe he's the chair of the finance commission. He is, Jeff Miller. Wonderful, wonderful. He's taught me all the ropes. Well, you knew a lot about budgets before you ever met him probably because I remember you when I was working for Mariko Yamada and you were in the fourth district as a constituent. And you knew a lot about budgets then. Well, you know, it really does work out that in our real lives we have to pay our bills and we have to pay our bills as a community as well. That's right, that's right, that's right. So this is your first time running for office. Is that correct? Yes. And how did you even decide to enter this race? Well, I gave my jab in the ribs. Nice. I've done a lot of part-time volunteering and I've always believed that if you're going to complain, you've got to be willing to contribute. And the Canary CFD, from my perspective, doing my calculations was a $10 million giveaway of taxpayer payer money for which we got nothing back. And I looked at Rob Davis and Brett Lee trying to get a fiscal analysis, but they were only two votes. And I said they needed a third vote up there and that was why I chose to run. Nice. We need a sustainable, resilient Davis, 2030, 20, 40, 2050. Right. That's really why I was running. That's my vision and the vision of a lot of people in Davis for where we're going. So did people, when you knocked on doors, were people, did they understand where you were coming from on this? Yes. The problem that I have, and Jeff will, is you get started on some of these things and I could be at a doorstop for half an hour. And then when they told me that they would vote for me and I said, can I put up a sign? They said, well, you know, I'm not a sign person. And it was very interesting. The reality was that I needed to come up with something that could say it in 10 seconds and give people the opportunity. So by accident at the farmer's market, I went with, I'm the only candidate with gray hair. Brett has some, but you know. It's salt and pepper. I'm the only one with a Wharton MBA, 25 years. I saw that piece of literature at the farmer's market. But the most important thing that resonated, which has nothing to do with the city council was, I'm the only one who went to Woodstock and I made it through three days on a $1.16 budget. I clearly know how to stretch a buck. Obviously. Which brought us back full to, how do we make a sustainable resilient Davis? Right, right, isn't it? Yeah, well in this community, for many of us who have been here for a long time, even though we weren't around at Woodstock, we are very familiar with who was at Woodstock because one of our community members and dear friend Barry Melton was the fish and he was at Woodstock. So you knew Barry Melton long before we did. It looks like we may have a caller. The lines are open and it's Janet with a general question. Janet, welcome. We have an echo here. We're here. I wanted to, I wanted to ask you. And she fades out. But when I heard Mr. Williams say that if you, Janet? If you want to complain to go ahead and get in the game. We couldn't quite hear that, Janet. Can you say it again? And Janet, could you turn your TV down? But my real question is, my real question is, how Mr. Williams and all the lovely people are going to be coming through tonight, feel about the first woman nominee and most likely president of the United States. I just want to hear it from some, from some Harry Lane. Well, feedback. As a Democrat who campaigned for John Kennedy when I was in eighth grade, I'm ecstatic that we have a great Democratic Party representative. Hillary has been with us so long that we almost know what her words are, but I think that she will be a spectacular candidate for the Democratic Party. And I think that she's gone. So with all the knocking on doors and hanging out at the farmer's market, were you surprised by any of the comments that came your way or did you learn anything from people's questions? Well, the two most important body parts for any public servant are these two. So Leah, if I didn't, then I don't deserve to be elected. So, absolutely, there have been things. One of the retired members of the UC Davis Housing Department came up and talked to me about some of the issues that are associated with housing. Jeff teaches me things all the time. My management style is surround myself with people who are better than I am and empower them to do great things. So always be listening. Yes, learned lots of things. And Jeff, so now next in two years, is he gonna jab you and have you run for city council? No. I don't have the temperament, I don't think. Well, but the chair of the Budget and Finance Commission is you've gotta deal with the public and hold commission meetings. It's a lot more of an exacting science what we're trying to do in looking at from the fiscal perspective. And Matt has been a big help to me and as Matt will admit, he likes to get deep into the weeds as to how all this stuff goes together. The rest of the city council has to deal with bigger issues, but what I've appreciated with Matt and his run at this was more that this is a fiscal sustainability issue that's bigger than all of those other problems. And I don't think many people understand that just yet. So as the Finance and Budget Commission, we're continuing to try to bring the transparency and accountability forward so that we can make sure we're on a sustainable path. What I thought Janet was gonna ask rather than a Hillary question was, what can we do about our situation? I mean, the staff reports that have been given to the council from December till current show that we, for the next 20 years, we'll have $32 million a year of unfunded liabilities that we have to cover. What can we do about that? Well, one of the things that we can do is we can look at deploying our assets better. Right now we have $122 million of cash that the city has because of reserve funds and we haven't invested at three quarters of a percent interest and the Canary CFD bonds that we issued were paying 6% interest. Just by managing how we're borrowing, we could save $7.1 million a year. That's a quarter of our $32 million. Those are things that Jeff and I are going to be working on with all the other members. It's just a superb finance and budget commission, a mix of private sector and public sector, kudos to the council for getting a good group, but whether or not I end up in the top three or in musical chairs, I'm the one who's left standing at the end of this. We're gonna keep on working on these issues. Well, that's always good to hear, but I understand we have someone else on the phone. I believe it's Alan and it has a question for you, Matt. Alan, are you there? Alan? Am I on the air? Yes, you are. Hi, hi. Talk is cheap, Mr. Williams. Can you give me, and you're concerned about the city's budget, can you give me two or three specific examples of how the city can save some money in the coming years? Well, I just gave one, which was to redeploy our assets and not be borrowing money at 6% and getting only three quarters of a percent. We have $69 million worth of borrowing at that, plus another 14 million that the state charges us, seven and a quarter percent. So that would save us $7.1 million. Something that Jeff has been fighting for for the six years he's been on finance and budget is to get a full staffing analysis and a business process re-engineering. Our information systems and infrastructure was made in the 90s. It is so old that we really are inefficient and ineffective in the way we're deploying things. It creates morale problems for the existing employees and what we really need to do is invest upfront in making our city much more efficient and effective. Finance and budget put forward $575,000 in this budget to get that process going. So those are steps that can be done. There are additional things as we look at the 655 million, which is the 32 million a year for 20 years. Some of it is our practices are for renewing the turf in parks are not up to date. The new parks director Dale is looking at how we can be more efficient and effective, spend our money wisely. But in the end, we really have to look at a community as what do we want Davis? What are the important things in Davis and prioritize them and make them happen? Right, right. Well, thank you. Thank you. I hope Alan listened to the answer and appreciated the thoroughness. I knew you would have a thorough answer for him. So we appreciate that. And we're really glad that you came to join us. I feel like I haven't asked Jeff enough questions, but I think he's okay with it. Absolutely. And besides that, I'm one of the 12 Republicans in this town. Ah, well, there are a few. Your November is more difficult than ours then. My condolences. Absolutely. One of the things that I would like to say before we go is that we've had a history of our budgets basically only looking forward. This is what we are going to spend. One of the things that Jeff and I and the other members of Finance and Budget have been arguing for is that we really should take a look at how we spent our money in the year that's just gone by. Not only how did we spend it compared to the amount of money we budgeted, but did we have it? Did we spend it efficiently and effectively? So working toward accountability that for the citizens is easy to read, understandable, we need to create an open and transparent government, more open and transparent than it has been. Well, I think you've made your mark on your ideas. So I know we'll see you around whether whatever happens, there's always the next time out of the chute. It's a mixed bag for me. I want him to be on the city council. But you'd like him to stay on the commission budget. He would probably be the liaison. I doubt anyone would arm wrestle him for that. I certainly wouldn't. I don't know. Rob Davis has been a truly superb liaison. I wouldn't even want to displace Rob because we have really, really good skills on the council. And we have a really outstanding mayor to come. So I'm looking forward to it. Right, right. The good years. He is taking on new tasks, so he may be ready to let go of a liaison ship or two. That's true. Because people don't realize how many commissions that each city council member is on, or the alternate four, if they find out that the person who's liaison can't go, alternates show up. We really do get a lot out of our representation here in Davis. Commission chairs and commission members probably get stopped and ask questions. It's one of the things that resonated for a lot of voters that I'm not going to be doing this as a second job. This is going to be something that I'm doing full time. And we have full time challenges. So we need to be doing everything that we can. That's not to say that the existing council aren't working their tail ends off. But the reality is, is that with a sole focus, it gives me a little more flexibility than might exist if I had children or grandchildren that were keeping my time. OK. And so what was the biggest surprise this being your first city council race, your first election? What was the biggest surprise at the farmer's market or knocking on doors or emails? I told you the three parts were the gray hair, the Wharton MBA, and wood stock. And well, here's where the surprise came. A couple, a husband and wife were walking by. And he nodded and said, yeah, yeah, yeah, to the gray hair and to the Wharton MBA. And I said, I'm losing him. I've got to connect with this guy. And I said, and I'm the only one who went to Woodstock. And he turned around. And he pointed at me and said, you just won my vote. That was the biggest surprise. Because it resonated. I kept trying it and it was amazing how well it resonated. So it may seem silly because Woodstock was 1969. But I can still hear Santana and Sly and the Family Stone in my head. Well, we heard Santana the other night at the Warriors game. I mean, not that I was there. I was watching it on TV. But still, he and his wife played the Star Spangled Banner. And like in a Bay Area fashion, showing our true California roots. But I would imagine the thing I think about with Woodstock is the mud. That's the thing. The music, I'm sure, was fabulous. But the mud, I just, you don't have nightmares about the mud. No, I mean, you could avoid it. Or you could slide in it and embrace it. I'm not that old. Well, I knew you weren't. That's why I didn't ask you. So I would like you to think about it as we depart. For me and for many of us that are downtown at 11.30 in the morning, let's think about another parking garage. I think that we can do something even faster, Leah. I think that parking first and foremost is a management issue. And if we can manage the parking, the existing parking, we can make a huge dent in the problem. But it hasn't happened as far as I can see. I think the self-pay lot at Baskin Robbins and the East Street Plaza, that's what it's called now, I think the self-pay lot there has actually been good for the citizens and good for the city. I don't know the tally on that. But people do have to move along or pay up, pay up. Well, one of the things that the city is doing shortly is they are going to be getting the newest technology of the cameras that can look at the license plates. And if we can work collaboratively with the university to understand what the license plates are of students who are just coming in and parking and staying for an hour and getting out, we can end up eliminating some of the cannibalization of the downtown parking spaces by university students. Technology can help. Right. Well, and I think it looks like we maybe have a phone call, someone on the phone. But if not, if you're thinking, jeez, I want to call in, it's 757-2419. Thank you, Leah. So I don't think we have anyone there yet. But I'm still waiting for Morgan Freeman. I don't know if you were watching that part or if you were out there getting mic'd up. But yes, I was told that the calls would come like the voice of God. We haven't had that experience yet. They've been a little low on the volume. But I was hoping that Morgan Freeman would call, because that's the voice of God, as far as I'm concerned. Morgan Freeman would be better than network. I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore. Exactly, or this new George Clooney movie, which looks really good. And it looks like it's a TV show that goes sideways. So we hopefully won't have any of those experiences tonight. I don't think we will. As I mentioned earlier, when we had Robin Rochelle here, I think this city council race was one of the most collegial, above board, non-negative, keeping things on the positive. You were not homogeneous at all, but you managed to get your point across. And make a name for yourself. I had no idea who you were, so. It's always next time. That's right, two years. Not over yet. I looked at 16%. And I think of my campaign as a Bactrian camel. It was the ones with two humps. And we got a lot of momentum at the beginning, and then it sort of fell off. And then Woodstock just put it right there. So I look at 16% on the absentees. And I say, that's better than I had any reason to expect. So I'm not giving up tonight. Oh, no. Oh, no. I wouldn't give up tonight. And a lot of people have run more than once to finally get there. So that is not an uncommon thing. People that have gone on to be mayor have done that. So we are getting the signal that we have gone past our time, but it's been wonderful having you here. And we're glad to know that we have you with the Finance Commission watching over our tax dollars. And a little scared that you're a Republican, I'll be honest. But you seem like a nice guy. Well, thank you. I don't hold as a Republican. No, obviously. If he passed your test, then he passed ours, too. So thanks for coming. Enjoy your party tonight as you watch the results come in. And it may be a day or two before we know. Very appropriately, it's at Woodstock Pizza. Come on down. And $1.16 for slices. If I made it through three days of Woodstock, around $1.16, one slice for $1.16 works. That's really cute. Well, you tell Connie we said hi and enjoy Woodstocks. Have a slice for us. We will. So we're glad you could come. So I know that Alex probably has races that he wants to put on the big screen and have me read off. Of course, if you have a smartphone, if you have a computer, you've already seen it. But it's good for us to know, because we're here till 11. It looks like we still have the same results on measure A. And that does show it passing. Measure B is passing with an enormous 69% to 31%. That was an easy one. I'm not sure who the 31% were that voted no. Taxing other people is always easy. And then once again, taxing other people is always easy. Looks like measure C is passing with even a larger vote. Maybe a few students got enticed by the title of the tax. The word marijuana got them in there. Yeah, they should have known that it meant that it was going to be more expensive. But that's OK. They're willing to pay their taxes. So that's wonderful. It looks like those two, unless something at the polls, goes terribly wrong or a tsunami of folks come out against those two measures, I believe those two are probably passing tonight. But we are here at Davis Media Access. You're watching us on DCTV, channel 15, Comcast. And I just realized this was the top of the hour that Leah was supposed to read. So I have now stepped on Leah's toes. And I won't be invited back. So I'm going to let her do the rest of it. Well, I'm sure you're all enjoying our local TV station here in Davis. Davis Media Access, channel 15. We are very proud to be part of the Davis community. We are very proud to have Autumn as the executive director of the station. That's really put us on the map. And what's really interesting is that Andrew is president of the board. Yeah, it's like nepotism, isn't it? Yes. They need to get another vote. Is that what you're saying? I hear you at that party saying that. And if you're not able to watch us on TV, you can catch us on the radio station. KDRT. Yeah. And also streaming on davismedia.org. Simulcast right there, it's on the screen. Look, you can even read it off the screen. Leah, they're giving you more help than they give me. You're right. Oh, well, anyway. You can see how often I listen to the radio. I mean, that station. Oh, we've got to change that. Well, we're lucky to have a local radio station and a local TV station. There's a lot of places, especially in the district, in the assembly district, in the senate district. As far as I know, at least in the assembly district, we are the only community media center. So we're glad we're still here. And we have new guests. And we're glad that they're here. Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe, welcome. Welcome. Look at you. Yeah, stunning couple of things. They look like they've just gotten out of here. That's all her. That's it, yeah. I wish we were coming off a cruise. Oh, yeah. Relaxed. I mean, it looks like you've been working your tail off when I see you on Facebook. He has. I mean, and the girls have been helping. Everybody's been. But you look like you literally like you just got off. I want their vacation. So how did the family hold up with all of this, you know, walking and going to different counties? Was it interesting? Yeah, you know, I think we held up pretty well second time around. Yes. So we're a little more used to it. And honestly, we're just lucky to have family here. Yes. They help out a lot. And when he's home, he's really home. And he's very, very involved and hands-on. So he knows when I need a break. But you know, the girls are also more aware. And they're very excited about it. And it's kind of neat for them. It's a good learning experience, too. The kids ask him questions at school. They do. More so about him being mayor than anything. They think that's really cool, you know. But he's also good about bringing them to events when he can. And you know, it's kind of neat for them. Yeah, the assembly like, oh, but mayor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's local. I mean, all government is local. And at that level, when you're at that height, mayor is, you can see that on the TV on Thursday night. Exactly. No, it's really true. So the assembly is just out there. And it is kind of out there sometimes. But the last results we saw were, of course, just the absentees. But you're right in there. And without $3 million. Exactly. $77,000, I think, is what was spent in support of your candidacy that you didn't know about, or that you found out about once the Secretary of State found out about at the end of the expenditures. But some other people put a lot of money. And I'm really surprising that they think that Assembly District 4 is the target, the bullseye for the state of California. I'm kind of surprised. So I think a lot of people were surprised. Yeah, and they put about 2.5, 2.6 million into this. 2.7 at the end of today. Made a big oil and big tobacco. And I think these groups are ones that know that I'm not going to be a friend of theirs in the legislature. And I know that they felt like that they have a friend in the Agar Curry. So I think that combination was tough. And they really were answering the $2.6 or $7 million question tonight, sort of how whether this legislative seat can be bought. And we knew it would be close. And we worked our tails off. And I really can't thank my team enough. We had just a wonderful team. We had a strong group of volunteers that were calling every night and walking every week. And we knocked on thousands and thousands of doors and called thousands and thousands of others. I really think that that in the end, $2.5 million is going to buy you a lot. But it really can't buy you that. And I have to just say that I love Yemima. I mean, that's an understatement. Yeah, I'm glad to hear that. She, yes. Divorce attorneys everywhere. Yes, yes. But really, it's a real team effort. And she was unbelievable. And you know what, it's very well like, yeah. Yeah, she had that. Yeah, no, it is. You know, a former mayor. Exactly. So no, and just having Yemima support, I mean, it's great. So I was just really flattered by my team and our team. They were great. Yeah. I was really. And so, you know, I'm very, it's going to be a long night. But I'm. And maybe into. Yeah, and a long few days. Well, yeah, because with the postmark thing, that means that you're not even starting the canvas of really reconciling all the votes that have come in until probably next week. In most election offices. So it's a change. And it was close last time. It was close last time. So again, we're not, but it's, this time it's really close. But I like where we're at. We're, you know, we're, we're second. You know, behind Charlie Sharp, the, the Republican. And so, you know, you just have to be in the top two. Right. You know, we want to be the top Democrat. And that's where we're at. And it's close, but we're hoping that, you know, as the night goes on, as the vote counting goes on. Right, right. Well, I think there were a lot of people that were maybe on the fence about, especially because there's two Davis candidates. I think we, you know, need to talk about that. Once again, you're in a race against, and you don't know that when you pull the papers. You don't know that someone else is going to end. And so everyone who thinks they're interested in running should. So I think it's great that more than one person ran from Davis gives us a set two chances of having someone there who's not into fracking and giving out cigarettes at playgrounds. But, but. But it also divides the votes. Right, which is our biggest concern. Yeah, maybe a few friendships, but. Yeah, and there are some marriages. The marriages are a little. And yeah, it is a concern. I mean, we're doing very well on Davis. We're doing very well on Yola, actually. Right, sure, right. And, but every vote, you know, it's a, you know, when you're fighting, especially big oil, 2.5 million like that, and you're fighting at candidate that comes outside of Davis, you really need to have every vote in Davis. So, you know, we knew we had to overcome a lot to get to. I heard that from a lot of people, especially in the last, well, once absentee ballots were in the mail and our mailboxes were taken over. I heard that from a lot of people that they were on the fence. They didn't know they liked on, they liked Dan. They, you know, I don't know what to do. What should I do? And over the days of having to take a wheelbarrow to the end of your driveway to get your mail, you know, I mean, I was like, you know, I don't need a personal trainer. I'm just gonna go get the mail every night. I think that that really pushed a lot of people off the fence towards supporting you and standing up. And that's our hope is as the later returns come in that we'll be able to do better in those. I think. Cause I don't, I mean, we're not for sale. We're not, we, years and years ago you were just a kid but your mom was on the council or involved in politics at least. I think she may have been at the county supervisor's office actually at the time, but a developer from Sacramento decided that he could do an independent expenditure in the city council race. And he put in, I think 20 something thousand. And Davis residents just went ballistic. How dare you? Who is this guy? Steve Godero or something like that. Anyway, it didn't work. It backfired on him. It wasn't a lot of money. But I think that Davis has a long tradition of we can't be bought and knocking on doors and talking to people and standing at the farmer's market even when it's hot, even when it's cold. That, that means a lot more than a bunch of slick mailers and big ones. I mean, you know, I thought I was gonna have to get a bigger mailbox. I mean, it's just a reflection of, you know, it's, this race, this isn't the only race in California where you've seen this big money come in, particularly from those groups from the energy industry, from Big Oil, from Ed Voice, other entities. And they're really, it's not the only seat where you're seeing this immense amount of money come in. But it is the top in the entire state. It is in terms of the assembly. Yeah. And you're absolutely right. And it was, you know, I wasn't, yeah, it's still mind boggling that you have that kind of money coming in. And I, you know, I'm very proud of the campaign we ran and I'm very proud that we did it without, you know, having the help of those special interests. Right. And so, you know, so I'm gratified that we're in the top two at this point. But I hope, and I hope those, Yeah. Those results bear out. But yeah, I just don't think it's very good for our democracy that you see this immense amount of money coming in. No, no. We need campaign finance or something. We really do. We really do. I know that a lot of the folks who've been feeling the burn have heard that over and over again on the national level. But I mean, I think we see it in the assembly race and in the Senate race here locally that we need it in California too. And I know that our Fair Political Practices Commission has done some incremental steps towards that. But I think that they need to push that reform more. And I think the legislature needs to hear the citizens because, and hopefully you'll go to the assembly and carry some of that like us. It'll be something I'll be working on. I'm sure it will be. Should I get in there? Sure it will be. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Well, we're glad you made it. We're glad you're here. Yeah, well thanks for the offer. And we, you've done a great job as mayor and running and a full time job and kids and a wife. I mean, it's a lot to juggle but you've really been a great public servant and I'm sure that you will continue that. Whether it's in this or in some other capacity but hopefully the results stay the same and which means that go buy another pair of shoes you're gonna be walking with the ACS. Well, that's very nice of you to say. And again, I could not have done any of this without Yamima. She's just been such a rock. But that's what solid marriages do. They support each other in those things. Absolutely. So yeah. When you see someone so passionate about it it's their dream, you have to. I'm sure all your high school friends are wondering, my gosh, what did she get into? Oh yeah, they always say that. I never would have thought you'd be a politician's wife. Why, including. So what are you guys gonna do tomorrow? Nothing? Sleep a little bit. Yeah, sleep a little bit. Sleep in. But we both have work so yeah. It's tough balancing with a full time job and I mean I've taken a lot of time off but so I only have so much time off. And it's also the last few days of work. So I'm being an attorney. Last few days of school too. Exactly. So make those cupcakes. Exactly. And my birthday's on Thursday. Oh. It's quite a week for me. Well, hopefully you'll have some final results by Thursday. I hope so too. It's something to celebrate. We're glad you could make it and we're gonna go back to results and see what Alex has for us. You guys enjoy your party. Have a little party for Leah because she's sorry that we're missing all the parties. Yeah. Thank you for doing this and thanks for the opportunity. No, we're glad to have you. Thank you. Have a good evening and we will keep looking at results. I'm sure Alex, oh my goodness, here it is. He's got the Senate back up here and it looks like Bill Dodd is at 44 and something percent. A lot of independent expenditure money was spent to get that there. And it looks like the numbers maybe are still the same. So why don't we look at still too close to call, which it'll be too close to call for probably a couple of days. The assembly race is there, close contest. And I think these numbers are still the same but now we're looking at the Yolo County Returns for Congress. No surprise there. John Garamindy is 73.5%. Well, never mind, I won't say that. Okay, so and now we're looking at Yolo County Returns and definitely Dan is in the top position and followed closely or five percentage points by Charlie Schaup. The only Republican in the race and then Cecilia Agriar Curry and Don Saylor with Dr. Krop receiving the lowest amount of votes. So I don't know that he ran much of a campaign. I didn't have any experience to meet him but now we're looking at the Yolo County results for State Senator and that's more along the lines of what I would expect for someone that represented Yolo County well in the assembly. Mariko Yamada has 44.5% of the vote and Bill Dodd is 27% with, once again, Coach Gregg is keeping his part there 21.6 as the only Republican in the race that that would be the only choice that Republicans would have on their ballots because in California any of you who went to the polls today hopefully if you're watching the show you did go to the polls because I'm not sure why you would be watching if you didn't actually vote but the Republicans hold a closed primary in the Democratic primary you can ask for if you're a no preference registrant meaning that you do not register with Republican or Democratic party or any of the other green American independent you can request a ballot if you, a Democratic ballot you cannot request a Republican ballot. So that could be some of the, and then measure A looks like this is still the same numbers that we saw before still pretty close and I think measure B and measure C are passing with a landslide and will continue I can't imagine that they're gonna make up 60 percentage points or 50 percentage points but we have some fresh faces here once again they look relaxed, they look calm I'm wondering if these people have been campaigning about it. I know familiar faces for all of us. I never looked that calm on election night when I was working on campaigns and I wasn't the candidate. So maybe I should have been the candidate maybe that's the secret there you go. So, Will Arnold and your beautiful wife Nicole and we're glad to have you. You've been out on the, once again on Facebook I've seen you've been everywhere and with the children getting them involved in the Democratic process which is wonderful and so your first run but you're almost an incumbent. I'm not my first time on the couch I think is what you're trying to say. Yes, well and not you didn't just drop by Davis. That's true too. Yes, yes, you didn't just decide oh we'll move from the Bay Area and buy a house in the cannery. You've been here a little while and as have some other, but anyway. We're glad to see it. And now chamber members. Yes, well I've been a chamber member so many times over. Well, your sister was the first. My family and we have three generations of my family. But now you have a business. But now we have a business downtown mother and baby source on Second Street between F and D. And real quickly how did that come about? Did they approach you or you approached them? We woke up in the night and said oh my god there's the perfect store for us where they're growing a family. That's not entirely not how it happened. We were looking to invest in a business in Davis and had thought of a few things and we heard that Lori was looking to sell mother and baby source. It does great business, but she's wanted to retire for a little while and we thought we're already very loyal customers. We already practically are buying the store. We may as well actually buy the store. Nice, nice. And they do, I mean she does great business but it's also such an important community resource for pregnant moms, new moms. So many folks when they heard the news about us taking over the store, talked about friends that they have, that they met in the new moms group and now their kids are graduating from high school and things like that. Yeah, yeah. No, there are a lot of friendships that have been made and mother baby sources for sure. And mothers that have been terrified of what do I do with this newborn have had some counseling and good advice. So we're glad to see that the business is in good hands and continues on. How will you handle downtown issues when, if you make the city council raise? So, have you thought about that? Sure, yeah. So it's not the first time that we've had a downtown business owner on the city council. In fact, Rachelle Swanson currently on the city council has been a part owner of multiple downtown businesses. We also had Stan Forbes on the city council's own avid reader. And so there's precedent for it. So there will be some issues where where there will be a conflict and I'll have to participate. But not on the parking garage issue. I'm hoping not. Because as you know, that is an issue that comes up a lot in the discussion and while it certainly affects all downtown businesses it would be hard to say depending on where it is, of course, that it uniquely would affect our business. Right, right. And Nicole, you're active in the Davis community already too. Yeah, a little bit. Well, you didn't have much choice. Yeah, I know. You married into a very civically active family. Yeah, but I enjoy it. It keeps me busy, you know, I'm never bored. How can you be bored with three kids? Exactly. And like you said earlier, you know, we like to involve the kids in a lot of things. I mean, they've been to all the charity stuff and the political stuff. I mean, they're getting an early taste, especially for the younger two. They're not gonna know any different. They're not gonna know any time before. No, no. Yeah, that's wonderful, that's wonderful. So your first race, you've run a lot of campaigns. You've been involved in a lot of campaigns. This is not the first election cycle for you, but the first time that you were the one that had to sit on the panel. That's true. To answer the questions. And wonder. Go to the forum. Yes, yes, so how was that? Was that a huge shift? No, it was not a huge shift. I mean, I know the deadlines and how the campaigns work and what are the important things to focus on and what are some of the pitfalls and things like that. And I take my work very seriously. So when I was working on other folks' campaigns, it was not as though it wasn't important to me. What was odd certainly was seeing my own name on the lawn signs and in the paper and being talked about in the blog and things like that. That was a little bit of something to get used to. But I'm not even 100% sure I'm used to it yet. I don't know that you ever used it. I don't know that you ever do. You just get maybe numb to it rather than used to it. And why did you decide to run this time? Because so few candidates stepped up to the plate. You figured it was a good time. Sure, maybe I looked at the odds. I've always been a good poker player. No, that didn't have so much to do with it as much as the time I felt was really right for me. We have the young kids. I mean, we have a seven-year-old, a two-year-old and a six-month-old. So a lot of folks were saying, oh my God, how are you gonna do it? Well, it's not gonna get appreciated. I'm not gonna be appreciably less busy with my family in two years or four years or anything. And when I really thought about the Davis that they will be inheriting, and that was really my focus for the entire campaign, and I said it in my first interviews was, the younger two are gonna graduate Davis High School in the years 2032 and 2034, which sounds like science fiction, right? Well, it sounds like the Jetsons. It sounds like flying cars and houses on the moon and all that thing, but that's the Davis. We're building on the city council. I mean, that's the town that they're going to inherit. So that's been the minimum time horizon through which I view these issues is how's it going to affect their lives? I mean, health-driving cars will be everywhere. I hope so. Yeah, as soon as they work a few bugs out. Google's gonna have to come study Davis and the bikes. Yeah, because all of us who drive a car in Davis know that our number one duty is to watch out for bikes because they may not be watching out for us. And then bikes at that time will automatically come with front and bike lights. Oh, I sure hope so. Well, it's funny when you're driving either around another town or you see folks who are from Davis, I mean, I can almost, and probably you feel the same way, you can almost predict what the bikes you're gonna do ahead of time because there's so many of them and we've been sharing the road with them. For me, my entire driving life. Me too. Me too. And so not everybody is used to that and not every city is certainly not built for it either. And so you have issues with sharing the road. Right, right. No, we're very fortunate, very fortunate to have the bike lane infrastructure that was set out actually before either one of us before and the intersection there at the cannery that's the cannery that's state of the art. And, you know, we're very fortunate. Well, and I think that's a prime example of one of those things that was a decision made decades ago that continues to affect our lives every day when we leave the studio today. We're gonna benefit from, that's one of a thousand decisions that was made before any of our time that still affects our day to day life. Dave was working on it, that's true. Dave's been working on it, you know. So, but Nicole, did you go door to door walking also? Yeah, yeah, we usually did it as a family, the kids and the strollers. I know, one person on one side is street and the other spouse on the other side. Sure, yeah. We'll bring the big stroller, a bunch of snacks, a wagon. Yeah, an ice chest. An ice chest, and we come prepared and we bring them in. You know, that's good, because it can carry all the literature and all the precinct stuff, we don't have, yeah, it's nice. Yeah, we had a few. Yeah, we had a few with the stroller. Now, we're getting the inside scoop now. That's what you have to do. Yeah, okay. We've had some neighbors come out and talk to the kids and the stroller. It's pretty fun. Were you guys early in showing up at the farmer's market? Yeah, I mean, a little bit. Yeah, we all sort of showed up at the same time. You know what I meant, it was like in February or something. No, I think our first farmer's market I think was in March. I kicked off the campaign in the middle of February. I think our first farmer's market was in March, a middle to end of March. And thankfully, Randy arranged a lottery system for the political folks at the farmer's market, so that we didn't end up, because by the end of the campaign, it becomes an arms race and people are showing up at four in the morning or earlier. We've been there before. The worst one was Measure I, which was a March special election, so it was ice cold at four in the morning and we're at the farmer's market. So what issues do you see coming that when you're elected, that you'll be taking a deep interest in? Or what issues do you see coming for Davis? Well, throughout the campaign and before, but definitely during the campaign, I've been a strong proponent for the city's economic development plan and implementing that. I think it's not only needed, not only good for our community, but it also is a great example of citizen-based planning. We have the citizens come together in multiple forums, but ultimately in this Innovation Park Task Force and identify some things. And moving those forward would be a large priority of mine. I was a supporter, I'm a supporter of Measure A and so I'm hopeful that the results that are in now hold because I was a supporter of that. And I was the only candidate in the campaign to indicate support for the Mace Ranch Innovation Center II, which was also identified by our Innovation Task Force as a real opportunity for our city. And these issues are not separate, but also a reinvestment in infrastructure. The city council currently has been doing an admirable job of doing that, but I would love to see that continue and increase under a city council should I be elected. Well, if the results hold, and I mean, and certainly the lawn sign poll would say that you already have a seat, but it would look like you probably are busy on June 14th. I'm very pleased by the results as they are now and obviously very, I think humbled is possibly not even the right word because I think as both of you know, I've been working and serving our community for a long time in a lot of different capacities. And so to have my fellow citizens of Davis give me this photo confidence to serve them in this capacity is really, truly one of the proudest moments of my life. Nicole, did you see this coming? No, no, no. Did he ask you before he took the papers? Okay, good, good, good. We were actually talking into it. I didn't talk him into it, but I said, you know, it's a good time. You know, it's gonna work. What are you gonna hold off for? You know, like we had the kids and you know, life is going on and life's always gonna go on. But we were out of town when we made the decision. We were visiting family in Texas and we were just like, let's just, yeah, we're gonna do it, it's gonna happen. We're doing it. Nice. Well, that's wonderful, it's wonderful. I mean, it's not an uncommon thing for someone who's been so involved in the community, but it's wonderful when you do see people step up who have been so involved and put in so much time behind the scenes rather than just someone who's, and this wasn't the case for this race, but we have seen contentious races in Davis before where people are just in it to block someone else or to, you know, and as I've said to other city council candidates who've been here tonight, it was I think a very collegial race really hats off to everyone for keeping it really on a positive note. And I think it's a good sign for the upcoming council. We'll continue on the same collegial collaborative note that they are currently working with, so. Yeah, it was a real juxtaposition to have sort of the things going on in our national politics that I think have taken an ugly turn at times. I don't think I'm going on a limb to say that. No, you're not. And then to show up to our forums and have four very serious, very friendly people talking about the issues. I mean, the most contentious thing we would say to each other is, well, I disagree with that. And that's very refreshing. And you would think maybe it would even be the other way around, right? That the folks running for president would, they've been vetted and they're all very serious people and they've come this far, so they must be very serious about this and the folks at the city council, which I'm not gonna say we've never had before, but you might get some folks that are just trying to make a splash or something, but that was not the case this time around. And I think it speaks well to our community and I was very pleased and frankly honored to be a part of this foresum that was running. And to have been sharing about with them was... You know, I've done a lot of visiting of other little cities around California and some of checking out their downtowns and I always say, oh, I'm so glad I live in Davis. We are so, I mean, the vibrant downtown on a Friday and a Saturday. Yeah, yeah. Well, as you may know, the theme of my kickoff speech was, you know, traffic, lack of parking, housing, prices that are very high. These are issues that are important and have to be dealt with, but they are themselves symptoms of something that's very good, which is that our community is a place that people really want to be. Oh, most definitely. And I will sit in traffic or loop the block trying to find parking and think, at least this beats the alternative. Yeah, where everything, it's just, everything's for rent and there's a big mall along the edge of town. We certainly have our choice of many restaurants. Yeah, no doubt. And many pizzas. Yeah, yeah. She wants to be at Woodstocks, right? Yeah, I was thinking of my other restaurant, my other business idea was a combination Thai food and frozen yogurt place. What do you think? Well, of course, of course. It's only natural, only natural. You throw some Vietnamese pho in there and you've got it covered. Exactly, exactly. And we repair bikes on the side. Oh, perfect, perfect. And maybe shots for animals. You go once a month or something. And it turns into a nightclub. Oh, there you go. Well, maybe issues with that. You're going to have to talk to City Council colleagues about that. Yeah, but we're being told that we've gone over, which I am not surprised because you're always so fabulous to talk to. And how you keep up with all of it, Nicole, I don't know. I don't know. You're a superwoman. It's more than I can say. So I just want to know where your cape is. But we're glad you could stop by. We know you've got a party to get back to if the party's still going to 11, text us because Leah really wants to go to a party. And congratulations on a wonderful run for a first time. And we'll see what the results are in the end. But it looks good so far. So we're really glad to have you here. And we look forward to seeing you at the swearing in. So we will look at some other results. I know Alex is going to show us here the city council. We're still looking at the same results. We're hoping that Yolo County elections will have an update soon. But measure A is passing, but still fairly close, just about 300 votes. And it looks like even with 0% of the precinct's reporting, I think that we did pass measure B, the increase in occupancy tax. I want to know who the 2,000 people that voted against it were because it's anyway. We won't have that debate here tonight. And then measure C is also another tax. And it looks like it's going to pass. But we will wait for the results as they come in. And here we go. For a minute there, it looked like that might have been presidential. But this is a state ballot measure. There's only one ballot measure on this ballot. But prepare yourselves for November, kids, because we got lots of ballot measures coming. This one is that the legislature can suspend members if they're being indicted. And that came up, unfortunately, in recent times. And I'm sure all of you were aware of those problems and concerns. And so we now have Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez there. And really interesting colors. A lot of, oh, Kamala Harris is winning pretty much every county, except for maybe, gosh, I don't know what's that small in that area. But I should know my counties better. I'm going to get in trouble for this. But it looks like they probably will be in the top two. And this is, oh, US Senate statewide results. And Kamala Harris has 40% of the vote. And Loretta Sanchez only has 16% of the vote. OK, it looks like. And there were, of course, 62 people running for Senate. I'm not sure why 62 people would want to try to replace Barbara Boxer. It looks like a big job. She's a dynamo. I think that probably one of the two ladies will do a good job at replacing her. But some of the others were a little unusual. We have some less exotic, more well known, down to earth, hardworking public servants here to talk to us now. And that's Don Saylor. And I believe this is Angel from your campaign. Is that correct? Yes, yes, I'm a campaigner. Wonderful. We're glad you could be here. Once again, don't they look rested? Yes. You people did not campaign hard enough. We know what hard campaigns are. And you should just barely be dragging in here. Oh, you are so confident. No, honestly. Honestly, I'm a little worried you might not have had enough SPF, though, because you've got a little bit of a tan. You're right. Yes, Julie will be upset about that. But I know you've been working hard. You've been in all-over counties, Napa County, Lake County, meeting a lot of new people and a lot of new volunteers. I've been following you on Facebook. But you've brought a picture of your first campaign. That's right, that's right. And this is when you didn't have gray hair. Yes, and this is a picture of my family. This is Julie and Aaron and Kate, myself, in 1993 when we were launching our first campaign for the Davis School Board. And I thought it would be nice to share that with folks because this has been a lifetime commitment for the whole family. Right. You've been sitting on this couch a long time. You have, too. So Kate's now in Washington, DC. She's my science policy advisor. But she's popped in from time to time. She comes back to play music. And then Aaron is our late night strategy consultant. Always good to have a young one that's willing to stay up to all hours of the night. So thank you for hosting the election night coverage once again, both of you. And thanks to this public access television station. Davis Media Access is an amazing asset in this community. And of course, we're recording it because we're going to beam this via Facebook to everybody in the whole world. There you go. Beautiful. Fabulous. And you're right about getting all over the district. I've put about a new pair of shoes. Got new shoes. You didn't wear the precinct shoes then. That's very nice. That's right. Thank you. We've put about 40,000 miles on the Prius and about six miles a day average for me over the past month. And earlier times, bits and pieces of walking all over the district. And it's amazing to learn about the different communities. Yeah, what do people tell you when you knock on a door? Do they know who you are? They have the last few weeks. There's been, of course, quite a bit of visibility of this campaign in the last few weeks. And yes, they do know. And the message that I bring and the message that we talk about is really that experience and perspective matters, that record of results is important, that you can count on what we're talking about for the future because it's the past is prologue and you can see the record of service. That's a part of the message. The other part is that California should work for everybody. Nobody should be left behind. And that's been a big part of what we've been talking about. And we've talked a lot about the importance of protecting our planet for future generations, educating our children, making sure no child goes hungry and that everybody has access to health care. A lot of work ahead. And Angel, where do you come from? Well, I'm from Monterey County. I guess you would say that. Well, it's not from Mars. I've been in Davis for two years now. But I guess two years, I'm still new to Davis. How did you two connect? Well, it's a very interesting story. It all started with me trying to figure out why I started working for a nonprofit called, now it's called Empower Yellow. And I was working with ADVC. Yes, and I was working with that. I was working in Woodland, an after-school program working with youth, and I was trying to figure out why there was a high level of truancy with students, especially the students from the rural communities like Knights Landing, Subardo, Robbins. And as my engagement became more apparent in the community, I started realizing that there was a lot of necessities that those communities lacked. And some of these necessities were just going silent. They were not being addressed. And through my proactive approach to trying to figure out what's going on here, I realized there was someone addressing those issues. The one person addressing those issues in terms of health care access, a better standard of living for farm working communities. And much more issues was Don Saber. And at the same time, I'm part of the Davis Democratic Club. I'm part of the Yolo County Democratic Party Central Committee. And I realized this is someone that's- He was your man. Oh yeah. He was your person. Well, I believe that action speaks louder than words. And when I saw Don going out to Knights Landing, I realized, well, he must be the supervisor here. No. But he was not. And I was thinking, okay, well, I've seen him come around our Davis Democratic functions, the Central Committee functions. And I'm trying to figure out Don. Like, who is this guy? I gotta look into it. How is he everywhere? And one thing I realized is Don has been serving the community for decades. And he started, I look more into it like, okay, well, he seems to know some stuff about school board. He seems to know some stuff about the city council and budget. And then I realized, well, you know, he is pretty well-rounded, you know, some stuff. And more importantly, I really got to know Don. I got to know the issues. Through multiple conversations, I realized that this is someone who's really been out there, has been helping people. As we know, Davis is a beautiful community. But reality hits once you drive north. Right. Well, there's reality here too. Oh, no, I mean that there's a lot of Davis sites that don't know that, but there's not all of, we have schools that are Title I schools. We have, and Don certainly knows that well from being on the school board. And for doing the best that he could to mitigate those and make it a level playing field for all the kids at DJUSD. And has continued that for, as you say, decades. But we have a caller on the phone that has a question for you, Don. We understand that Sandy's on the phone. So Sandy, if you're there, we'd love to talk to you. Yes. I, first of all, I want to say, Don Taylor has set the class act. And I have truly appreciated his support over the years, supporting young people, supporting multi-cultural events, supporting just things that helped make Davis and places a better place. But I would like to know from him, what is one thing that he would like to see change as far as how campaign to run in the future, as far as the kinds of things that have happened in this country? What's one thing he'd like to see change? And were you able to hear it, Don? She wants to know what would be the one thing that, or some things that you would like to see changed in the way campaigns are run. And I think that's speaking to, as I mentioned earlier, when the other Davis site who's running for the seat was here, Dan was here. I mentioned that I've been taking a wheelbarrow down to the end of my driveway to get stuff out of my mailbox because we've had a bullseye on us, apparently, here in the Fourth Assembly District and in Davis. And I think that might have been some of what she was going at that there's... Well, thank you, Sandy, for asking the question. And thanks for helping me hear it, because it was a little hard to tell. But here's the deal. We need for Californians to take back their government. And this race has demonstrated one of the real problems with Citizens United. So not only did the federal government say that corporations and large-moneyed interests can have unfettered access to spend their money on campaigns without any controls, we also have issues in how we run the things that we can control here. So for example, we have a group called Edvoice. And Edvoice is an interesting funnel because their interests are not all you might think they are. And the people who put money into that group are not all about enhancing school performance. There are many issues that they're advancing. I want to have greater clarity and I want to have limits on the amounts of money that these independent groups can expend. We saw $3 million, and frankly, they came from lots of different sources. I denounced that at the first, and then a few days after I denounced it, as if to test, did you really mean that? One of these groups put some money into a couple of flyers in support of my candidacy. I denounced it again. I don't think that that's the right thing to do. There is an industry, a cottage industry in Sacramento that involves people gossiping, drinking and eating together and figuring out how they're going to spend millions of dollars and to advance the interests of their clients. The legislature should be made up of good, reasonable people who are trying to solve the problems of the state, not people who are being very, very careful about what they do. And frankly, the role of big money is more than just what they can spend on a campaign. It's how they can silence the people in elected office, how they can take them off point. If you have a threat of big money being spent and an elected official decides not to advance a purpose because they don't want to have their future campaigns funded, opposition funded by these interests, then we've lost as a country. Our legislature now has people in one room making decisions, walking into a caucus room, telling the caucus how to vote, and then the caucus goes onto the floor and votes just as they've all agreed to do. That's a problem for California government. We need our legislature to be transparent and accountable to the people that they serve. That's one of the reasons I've been running for the legislature is I want to restore transparency. You know, I worked in the legislative analyst office for five years from 79 to 84. And we did see the iterative process of debate, of policy discussion about the major problems of our day. In those days, the legislature created the Lanterman-Petrus Short Act, the Short Doyle Act. We created mental health services. We funded infrastructure. We solved problems. At this point in time, it's very challenging for the legislature to solve problems. So I want to restrict the use of large money in these campaigns, and there's another aspect of this. And that is that we need to really carefully look at how the political parties function and how endorsements are arrived at, because there's some issues around that that involves the advantage of incumbency, even if you're not an actual incumbent. So we've got, I've learned some things about the campaigning, but I'll tell you, more important than all of that is what I've been able to learn about the communities across the six counties in this district. It's an amazing set of communities and people who are going to work every day or struggling to find a place to work. And knocking on doors, I found that many doors, the people would speak Spanish and wouldn't speak English. So as a result of my not being, I'm incompetent in not being able to speak with them. So we created a flyer that's in Spanish language, very simple concept. I had somebody tell me at his door the other day when I shared this flyer with him in a language that he could read and understand, he said, my vote counts. And I said, yes, that's the point. Every vote counts. And you know, in California and across this country, we are in a situation now where we need to remind ourselves that we're a nation made up of people from all over the world and we're a nation of people who were bold and brave and decided they would cross a river or cross an ocean and come here to make a difference in the lives of their, for the lives of their children. And we need to embrace that spirit and we need to build bridges not walls and we need for every California to have a chance and nobody to be left behind. That's the message. You could run for governor with this speech. My goodness, Gavin Newsom should be worried. I mean, but no, your passion for the people and for the district and for getting to know other counties. You know Yolo County inside and out. As Angel has said, you've gone to parts of Yolo County that you didn't have to. You weren't, they weren't gonna vote for you as county supervisor. They couldn't, no matter what redistricting happened, Gwenda probably wasn't gonna be in the second district. But you've gone there and you've engaged those communities long before you decided to make this run and that dedication and that passion definitely shows. Can I tell you, this is a small story that's like that's on this point that there's a program going on in Knights Landing. Now Davis residents know about Bridge Foundation and that program. Well, Janice Boulware has exported that to Knights Landing. So the issue is we're taking 75 UC Davis students every day, four days a week to Knights Landing to do one-on-one life coaching and academic tutoring. And it's the most beautiful thing because the students from UC Davis who are doing this come from similar economic and academic backgrounds. Well, here's the problem. Why would a county supervisor even have any interest or involvement in that? Because they couldn't get the UC Davis students there. So they came to me to ask if we could help them arrange the transportation. And all we did was bring people together. And we went around the room and somebody can't do one thing and somebody else can't do another and somebody else can't do a third. But if you say to them, if we say to each other, our job here is not to find out what we can't do. It's to take off the apostrophe T. What can we do? And you know what? We did it. We were busing those kids from Davis to Knights Landing and we held a first gathering in the multi-purpose room. And we asked how many of you who are UC Davis students are the first student in your family to go to college? They're mostly Latino students and every one of them raised their hands. And what this means in terms of life model for the kids of Knights Landing. And we, but it's more than just that. It's now that we're testing them and we know by the results that their grade level achievement is improved in the first year. Yeah, that's phenomenal. That is wonderful. And I mean, talk about Innovation Center. You know, Measure A of course is on the ballot and you know, perhaps we'll have a Innovation Center there in the Nishi property that has been much discussed for many, many years. But I mean, we've already exported some innovation. You know, you don't necessarily have to have a center. You just have to have the commitment to get the people around the table. And then Janet Boulware run the program. Oh yeah, and Janet Boulware is just, if we could clone her, we could solve a lot of problems. A lot of problems. We're being told that we've gone over time again. I'm really good at that. My mom would tell you, I'm always late. But we are so thrilled to have you. And what a wonderful, I mean, Angel, I can see you're gonna be running for something real time real soon. Angel's done a wonderful job. Yeah, you've had a great day. I do have to ask the wife for permission because she's the boss. Well, see, you're a very smart man. He has a very good future ahead of him. We hope he's about to have a baby. Oh, well congratulations, congratulations. Thank you very much. Yes, we're glad you could be here. And we really appreciate the kind words you had to say about Davis Media Access and the Community Media Center. As you know, going around the district, this is the only community media center for many, many counties. And we're proud to have it. And we're really glad that it is a thriving community media center for our community and even larger communities. The kids from Knights Landing can come down. We've got kid-vid camps coming in a couple of weeks. So we need to make some of those cross connections as well. Let me know if I can help. We will. And we're glad to have you in our community and we'll be watching the results. One last thing, thank you everybody for giving me the opportunity to serve in Davis and in Yolo County these past 21 years. And I'll keep at it. Yeah, yeah, most definitely. We're not worried that you're going to disappear. And we're glad of that. So thanks and enjoy your party tonight. And yeah, see Angel, this is 20 something years from now you could have gray hair and a picture like that. But I don't think I could grow a beard like that. Don's had the beard for as long as I've known him. There's a story there. Well, we've gone over. We'll have you back for that. We'll have you back for that. So we're glad you could be here tonight. Enjoy the festivities wherever you're headed. And congratulations for a race well run and both of you. Thank you, thank you. So we'll let them head off to their party and we'll just roll with the punches. Whatever comes up on the screen, we'll read it. How about that? So it looks like we're looking at the city council race again and measure A. And I don't believe any of those have changed, but that's okay because people tune in and out. You may have been at a party and now you're back at home and both of the tax measures look like they're gonna pass. Measure A is still too close to call. Mariko Yamada is receiving a majority of the votes here. Well, not a majority. In Yolo County. I'm not good at math, but she's receiving more votes in Yolo County than all the other three guys. But in the Senate district race, it has now been changed to close contest, which it was not listed that way before. So we're glad to see that tightening up and we'll be watching those results into the night and probably into the next few days because there will be a lot of votes to count. And it looks like in the district ride results on the assembly side, looks like we're still looking at the same. Dan Wolk and Charlie Schauper, the top two with Cecilia in the third spot. And like I say, it looks like they've spent a lot of money and at any rate, we are joined again with one candidate for the city council, but really it is a two person job. It's more than a two person job. Poppy has to get involved occasionally. But Lucas Ferriks, councilman now and probably councilman to continue if the results continue. And your wife Stacy, and we're glad that you guys could both make it. You probably had to leave a fabulous party to come here. We're having a very good time down at a hot Italian pizza mart downtown. So yeah, still happening. If you're still there at lunch, well, we're here to, you know, it's gonna go late. It's gonna go late. You hear that, Leah, hot Italian. I know where she's gonna be. So I'm just curious, you know, being and running and I would say very well liked in the Davis community. How was it knocking on doors, hearing positive comments or suggestions? Yeah, actually, it's been a very positive experience this second time going around. The first time was a good experience, but... This time you're more at ease. Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, having done it before. And also having the experience of being on the council. We've been fortunate to be able, we've been sort of taking care of business for the past four years, really taking care of a lot of major issues in the city. So it's gratifying to sort of, I'm knocking on doors or tabling at the farmer's market or even in the grocery store or wherever and having people say, you know, wow, good job, you guys are doing a great job. Keep up the good work, so it's great. Well, it was a very collegial race. It was a very, you know, there really wasn't controversy or drama or someone acting out or... So I was really glad to see that. We've commented on that during the show, but that doesn't mean that you've heard it yet, so. But it is really diametrically opposed to what's going on at the national level. Oh, absolutely. And you know, it's great that locally we're getting it right. Hopefully we can spread that innovation. Absolutely, yeah. And hopefully we'll have some folks go to the Senate and the Assembly that will help us spread that. Because I think that as we've seen some of the races, the independent expenditures have been... I mean, you have a mailbox in Davis. So this is no news to you. No, you know, flooded with mailers, you know, on a daily basis, you know, for multiple candidates. It's been, but it's good to see at the local level in terms of the council race. It's, we're really able to, you know, just have a good discourse and, you know, make sure that we're focusing on the actual issues. So, yeah. Yeah. And Stacey is, actually now both of you are working in Davis, which is new from four years ago. That's right, yes. So was that easier to be in town or did you miss the commute time just to get a little, you know, listen to the book on tape or whatever, you know, audio book? Actually, I really, I enjoyed the, you know, the commute to and from downtown Sacramento was not actually that bad. The traffic would be the issue, certainly, but I would, especially coming home, routinely, it would really take a look at the, going across the causeway and it's just such a beautiful view, see the various of gap and Mount Diablo in the distance and just see all the birds and such. And it was always really nice to be able to just sort of decompress coming back. And I would also use that time pretty regularly to call my grandparents. I would, it was like a, it was a pretty much, you know, I set time, I was in the car, you know, Monday through Friday, that I would actually be able to have a chance to give them a call back in the Northeast. So it was great, but it's nice being in town. But a mile from work and for me, six blocks from work and being able to ride our bikes around or be home at five o'clock, five thirty is really nice. Yep, I'm getting the sign from Jack, he's a great guy, that it's the top of the hour so that means we do have to read off some things or we'll be shut down and we don't want that to happen. So we want to remind you that you're watching Davis Media, you're watching election night coverage, it is live, I'm barely live, I don't know. But I think we're still live. And that's on DCTV, channel 15, if you're a Comcast subscriber, AT&T Uverse, channel 99. We are also simulcasting it on our radio station, KDRT 95.7 FM. We're lucky to have a radio station here and we have a loyal group of listeners. Leah will be one soon, she earlier said she doesn't listen to it, but we're gonna change that. So, and you can also stream this on davismedia.org from any place that the World Wide Web reaches. And we want to take this time right now. Well, actually I'll do that later. But I believe that's the top of the hour, did I cover it all? No, I just would like to add that, remember that this is a non-profit here in Davis and as you know, all non-profits are always looking for the extra dollar. So if you're pleased with what's happening here tonight for all the election, think about it and write a check to say thank you. Yeah, that's nice Leah, thank you. It's a great reminder. That's nice. No, and as I've said several times, we are the only community media center or several counties and there's a lot of other city council races that don't get covered. And you covered it, yeah, no coverage at all. They don't get covered, you have to go to the Secretary of State's website or the Yolo County Elections website and just kind of in the privacy of your own home. Sure. And remember that they offer, kids can come here to learn training, there's camps offered, we have even some wonderful Spaniards here working at the station. Well, he's cute, he can, Mikal has a permanent place in Leah's heart, but one of us on this couch is on the board and it's not her, but she should be. No, it was a good pitch. It was a really good pitch. And as a former board member, Lucas knows, so, and running a non-profit, you know how important all of that is as well. Absolutely, it's very important. So yeah, we've covered that, that's great, thanks, Leah. So what issues do you see coming up when you're going to be re-elected? So what issues will you sort of take, besides the parking garage? Sure. What else will you, So Leah, Rosenberg. Yeah, yeah, exactly. There's a lot of issues that I think both, that are both things that the Council has been working on for the past few years that we sort of need to see through the finish line, but then also some other items that I think will be some priorities for us. So first and foremost, making sure that the surface water project is totally completed. It's almost there, right? The taps were turned on the other day, but we're still doing the installation of the pipelines, the various pipelines, both the South Davis and also to West Davis. Yeah, West Davis, we're left out. So those two parts of town will not actually see the new water until roughly December of this year, 2016. But also the city's wastewater improvement plant is under construction, brand new plant being totally renovated. That's a $90 million project. It's the largest single contract that the city's ever signed. And so our current plant is 45 years old and has outlived its useful life. So we're going to have a new plant that coupled with the surface water project, those two pieces of public infrastructure will really help set our community up for many generations to come. So that's really, really two of the big items. But then also some of the smaller things are sort of just the nuts and bolts, right? The just taking care of business, fixing the roads, the potholes and paving. Absolutely, the bike paths. The Russell Bike Path is a good example all along 113, from 113 all the way out to the west part of the city. That's one of the most heavily used bike paths and it is like a roller coaster going across there with your bike. We're walking too with all the tree roots that are through there. So that is going to, that's on the agenda for being redone here in the next couple of years. So things like that. Those are the type top issues. And then also we'll see what happens with Nishi tonight. It looks, at least the initial returns are positive. So I have a question on Nishi. If that passes, so it passes, what's next? What's the first thing that will happen? So it actually, the two pieces of public infrastructure, the redoing of the Richards interchange and then also the tunnel under the railroad tracks into the campus. Those two pieces have to be done first but also there's a lot of work associated with both of those. So the actual construction and or building of the actual Nishi site and where like the housing or the research and development space probably wouldn't happen for another four or five years. I mean, it's that far sequenced out. We've got to make sure that those two pieces of infrastructure are in the, so to help fix the traffic issues on the Richards corridor especially. You know, I was thinking of this forest that's proposed. Let's have the forest also be a dog run where the dogs can go in and out of the trees. Yeah, I think it'll be, yeah. It's the air, air, the buffer. She's the only person in Davis who does not own a pet who constantly thinks about pets. Yeah, that's good. And on the SPCA board. Yeah, well actually that's an item that I think I'd like to work on as well in the coming years. You know, there's been a lot of talk about and you know, the sort of animal services here in Yolo County. It's currently running into the sheriff's department. The city of Davis, you know, and people volunteers in this community put in tons of energy and effort into that shelter. And, but a lot of our, a lot of the animal control services are, you know, a lot of those services are actually provided in other communities like West Sacramento or Woodland. So, there's some real need to address some of those issues as well. I think, yes, yes. No, otherwise I say our downtown's pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Except for the parking garage. Absolutely. No, absolutely. There's issues, no question. And you know, there's a homeless issue downtown. Sure, yeah, which is an issue that is affecting almost every community across this country. Totally, totally, yes. And it's something that we're taken quite seriously. You know, the council just a few weeks ago entitled a new affordable housing development out along Fifth Street past the police station. So, the city has a affordable housing land dedication site that we just entitled and approved a 70 unit, all one bedroom apartments. Okay, that looks great. Apartment complex that will go out there that will have a lot of social services. So like Cesar Chavez. Very similar to Cesar Chavez model and it's a partnership with the city and Davis Community Meals. Community Meals, sure. And also with the county. And that is aimed towards, it will not, no, sadly it needs to be built yesterday as opposed to it's gonna take another probably two years or so for it to actually get built. But the money we're working on the financing and such, but it basically, you know, I think at this point, it's certainly very, very needed but it also where it just shows that we're really trying to address these issues. It just, it takes a little bit of time to put everything together. Where does the art center fit in this canapé and lawn? Right, well, we're busting at the seams. But we offer almost a thousand classes a year. We have a hundred instructors and the estimates are between 40 and 60,000 people go through our doors every year. So yeah, yeah, it's still a vital part of the community. But still got some of the old popular, not old, some of the very long lasting popular and structural. Absolutely. And next year, the building turns 30. So we'll be celebrating our 30th birthday of our building in 2017. We're bringing back all the past, present, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. We have a lot of celebrating to do. The community has really put in a lot of those. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the art center is going to be, what is it? 50th. 20, what year? But in 20, the 60th anniversary. Oh, yeah, 2020 will be 60 years old. Wow. 60 years. So we have several good milestones coming up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Davis is a great community for nonprofits and especially nonprofits that give back so much to the community. The Davis-Ardfella Lodge, I think, will be 150 coming up. Absolutely. Not many things can beat that milestone. We just need to close down all of the town for one day so we can celebrate all the amazing nonprofits. Exactly. We'll just have one nonprofit parade. Well, we already have our float. We had a radio tower in there. It's all in the big day parade. Yeah, exactly. So we're ready. We're ready. We're getting news here that the LA Times has called the US Senate race, and Kamala Harris is the winner. So I guess it's not even going to go to a top two runoff. She's gotten enough of the vote to 50% plus one. So that's great. That's great. We'll hope that we're not making a CNN mistake. But if we are, I mean, I would love to meet Anderson Cooper. Anyway, I wanted to meet Anderson Cooper, and we are still waiting for God to speak to us on the phone. But that's it. We've had all kinds of things going on here tonight. Oh, has he called in? No, no, no, no. We're waiting for Morgan Freeman. Oh, right, right, OK. He's been doing all the Hillary campaign commercials, so his voice may be tired. But they have it up on the screen for me. But I hate to tell them that it's so small. I'm too old. I can't see it. So we're back to this picture of us. And so in your second term, what do you hope to take on? Oh, yeah. Well, I think, again, we continue to work on. No, I think it's really a lot of it's continuing the work that we've been working on. I think we've also most recently been working on this renters ordinance. I mean, I think that it clearly delineates the rights of renters, but also in responsibilities of landlords and also protections of neighbors as well, too. I mean, it's something with the increased pressures of growth in our community and the 0% vacancy rate. We're starting to see major issues with these mini dorms, sort of profusion of mini dorms. So anyway, we're really wanting to make sure that we sort of keep addressing those issues. And again, a lot of these sort of nuts and bolts sort of infrastructure issues. And then more than anything, too, making sure that we're being very mindful of the city's bottom line, the fiscal making sure the fiscal house is in order. Because if we don't have the fiscal house in order, we can't expect to do anything else. But we've been working very hard at that in the past few years. As a council, I think you definitely have. And I know that you have probably had a little more nudge in that direction because of one of the candidates in the race, Matt Williams, and his involvement in the Budget and Finance Commission and before that in the water. So I mean, not that you needed any schooling on that, but it's always great to have concerned community members that are willing to look things over and think outside the box. Absolutely. Bring solutions, hopefully. I think the council, firstly, has really been keeping its eye on the prize and making sure that we're the ones, ultimately, that are voting on contracts and making employee contracts and in negotiations and making sure that we're really keeping an eye on the city's bottom line. But we certainly are very appreciative of the various commissions that are the advisory commissions to the council they provide. And the Finance and Budget Commission is a good example. Years ago, it didn't have much of a purpose. But now it actually is truly advising us on the city's budget and the fiscal situation that the city finds itself in. It's a really good example is the vice chair is Dan Carson, who's a local citizen involved here in town. He used to work for many years for the legislative analyst office in Sacramento that is the nonpartisan neutral party that assists the legislature in fiscal issues. And so he's taken all of that career worth of experience. And he's now here serving on our city of Davis Finance and Budget Commission. It's very, very useful and very, very supportive and helpful to the council. Nice partnerships that we have here. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, we're thrilled to have you here. We know you've got a party at Hot Italian, if anyone didn't hear. 500 First Street, right down there, next to Whole Foods and Macuni. And might go past 11. We don't know. That's the plan. Leah wants it to go past 11. But we're actually being told that we have time, that there's perhaps a freeing up in our schedule. So we'd love to talk to you guys all night. I just wish we were in Hot Italian so I could have a drink. Actually, I've got a question for you. Oh, good. I've got a question. Yeah, I'm curious. So earlier this evening, we were not able to watch some of the live coverage. So you had two of my colleagues in Mayor Pro Tem Rob Davis and also Councilwoman Rachelle Swanson. How did that go? How was that conversation with them? They were fabulous. They were, you know, once again, it was an example of the collaborative collegial process that our council has evolved to. And when you, and in fact, I said this and I'm really probably putting my car's tires in danger now by saying it again. But when you look at 10 years ago, the mayor of our town was taken out of the City Council meeting on a stretcher because of the discord and the tenor of the discussion. And we're so far past that. I mean, and I hope that we don't go back to that. I watched the City Council meetings. You know I'm a regular viewer. Rachelle said, oh, the people who come, you know, they get to see us really work. But the people who sit at home with popcorn and wine. And I said, she's talking to me. But normally it's popcorn and beer. But anyway, so I do watch. And I normally watch until the end because they don't go as late anymore. That's wonderful. That's also very good. You're all working. Many people have kids. Many people, you know, so it's not something that can go until 2 or 3 in the morning. Decisions should not be made. No, no, not at all. I mean, people are, you know, we all have jobs, full-time jobs. You have to get up the next morning, that type of thing. But also, it's not respectful to the public. I mean, to have to, you know, to think that someone's going to show up at 6.30 p.m. after having, you know, taking their kids to school and, you know, had a long day at work and then brought their kids home or whatever. And then they're going to have to go out and try to, you know, sort of fight the traffic and everything else and come to a City Council meeting and make public comment at 11 p.m. or something. That's, yeah, we're really pretty cognizant of that. Were you surprised that there were only besides the incumbents only two others jumped in the race? Yeah, I think, I mean, I was certainly was somewhat surprised, you know, and Davis, you know, 30 people want to run for dog catcher, you know? I mean, there's always lots of people. 31 of the mayor. Right, exactly. Actually, City of 65,000 mayors, right? You know, sort of as they all added to ghost. That's an old Jewish joke. Yeah, that's right, exactly. But it's interesting because I think that part of that, I mean, first of all, it does take some money to run a city-wide campaign. Because everybody has to have a lawn sign. Right, exactly. Well, absolutely, there are a lot of orange lawn signs out there, I can tell you. Right now, they'll be getting picked up in the next, you know, 24 to 36 hours, so it'll all get picked up in mass. I'll be watching. Absolutely, but we, I think, though, that it's also a sign, frankly, that people are happy with the job the Council's doing. You know, if people felt this real urge and need, I have to go, you know, they're screwing up, so I have to, you know, go and run and try and fix it. I don't think that's the case. I think people think the Council's doing a pretty good job and the city's headed in the right direction. Well, and certainly from the first results that we saw from the absentee ballots, that definitely shows. I mean, the incumbents, you and Brad are at the top. And that may, you know, the gap may tighten, that may switch. You may end up on top in the end or whatever. But as Rob said, and I think very eloquently, it's a weak mayor position. It's a strong council. And it truly is a strong council. And I think it will continue to be. And so it's really the mayor's position is to be sure that everyone's voice on the council gets heard and all the citizens have their time for input. But really, it's not necessarily something that can veto everybody else's. Absolutely. And we've seen that model be rejected in our neighboring city of Sacramento. So, but speaking of city council and different, and making it a city-wide race, which it is a bigger city than it was, certainly when Dave Rosenberg was walking precincts and knocking on doors, our city to the north, our neighbor to the north has gone to district elections in their city council. And the Woodland will be starting that in November. Yeah, November. Lawn signs are already up in Woodland though for the race that starts in November. And so it's really, they're trying to figure out because it will be the first time they've done it. But it's been talked about in Davis. It's been bantered about. It always somehow gets shot down. I don't know why now that are, because Woodland is about 10,000, population 10,000 less than us. The primary reason that Woodland is doing it though has to deal with the Voting Rights Act and the issues of sort of homogeneity and diversity, right? So Woodland is a much more diverse, ethnically diverse community than Davis is. And so they, for a long, long time, Woodland has only had basically five white guys on the city council. And maybe once in a while, Latino is on the council and often and pretty regularly no women on the council. So what has happened is a lot of cities have been sued around the state of California for not having district elections so having a city that is very ethnically diverse but having a very homogenous leadership. And so that is why they sort of moved in that direction to avoid a potential for a lawsuit. But I do think it's something that at some point in our evolution, Davis is gonna have to consider because it makes it, it does make it more affordable for people to run. I mean, you have a much smaller slice of the pie. You don't have to cover the whole town and law and science or cover the whole town in materials. Trade materials. That's true, definitely. Something I would consider. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Leo will be running. It's definitely true. Michelle will have a companion. Yeah, exactly. I think the one problem with potentially that the district elections though is that you get then people, so right now I get elected to the city council. I live in central Davis, but I get on the city council and I represent the city, right? I work on representing every part of Davis as equal as where I live. And I worry that if we go to district elections you'll get people that are, someone gets elected from South Davis or West Davis or East or wherever and they only will want to focus on issues that affect their specific district. That's my primary concern or fear of that. But I certainly see that at some point, as we grow large enough, the potential for us to move into district elections. One specific thing I just wanted to mention, make mention of is particularly, it goes back to the issues of the council and working together and such, but is that Brett Lee and I, my colleague of course, one of the best things that's happened out of the past four years is the friendship that we've developed. And great working relationship, of course. And we sit on opposite ends of the dais. We don't always agree on everything. Often you disagree. Yeah, and more often than not we do agree. But it's interesting, and here's one example that we have, where we both have talked about this even during the course of the campaign. We had, and I'll be quick with it, during the course of the campaign and it's really been true over the past four years though, we started interviewing all of our prospective city commissioners. We have over 100 city commissioners, I mean on all these different commissions, and we have new people applying all the time. And over the past four years, Brett Lee and I have interviewed as a subcommittee of the council over 100 individuals in the community taking sort of small blocks of time, 20 minute blocks and interviewed all these people. And that has been a real help to the rest of the council to help sort of wade through all of the, all of the sort of stacks, literally stacks of paper of all these commissioners, prospective commissioners. And that's an example where we've not advertised that. People don't necessarily know about that, right? That's the type of thing that we have just sort of done. We just got put our heads together, get to work and sort of go and do it. And so that's the type of relationship that we have and I really appreciate that. What an incredible, incredible undertaking. I mean while you were talking the camera wasn't on me, so my mouth was open wide enough for bats to fly out. I mean that is a huge undertaking. And I really can't believe that you would run for reelection after that. But I know that you're dedicated, you've been dedicated to this community for a long, long time from Davis High and on and Davis Co-op, all of the good things about Davis. And we have a call that we need to take and we know you guys need to get back to your party. We're glad that you stayed with our schedule change and we appreciate the plug for Davis Media Access, Davis Art Center celebrating some good stuff too. Thank you for having us. Actually one last good thing, tonight is actually, or today is our wedding anniversary. Oh! How many years? 13 years today. Lucky number 13 years. Yeah, absolutely. June 7th, 2003 was when we got married. Wonderful. Who knew? 13 years. You were not interested in politics. Exactly. Because Dave Rosenberg would have said, keep it away from any elections. Yeah, so thank you for, we appreciate it and thank the Davis community for supporting both myself and Stacey and look forward to the work ahead. Thanks so much. Well, we're glad to have you there doing the work for us. Thank you. Appreciate it. It's easy for me to sit home and eat popcorn and drink beer. But we do understand we have a phone call that we need to go to and I believe that it's a candidate in the race for the assembly seat. Cecilia Aguilar Curry is on the line, I believe, I hope. Yes I am. Hey Cecilia, wonderful, welcome. We're glad you could call in. We know that you're probably at a party, probably in your hometown of Winters. We are. And so how is the evening going for you? It's great, I mean, you know, there's a lot of votes still to be counted so we're not resting on our laurels at all. It looks like it's a pretty tight race between Dan, Walt and myself. Nothing that's not, we're not surprised about it, but, you know, we got a long way to go so we'll see what happens in the next couple of days is my guess. Right, right. Certainly with the post-smart ballot change, I think it will change the number of days that it takes to count the ballots. But speaking of surprises, were you surprised at the independent expenditures that came out in support of you? Absolutely, yeah. I was absolutely surprised and, you know, and I'm from Winters, I've done the most I've ever spent on a campaign. Eight years ago it was $800, they used the same sign year after year and, yeah, I was very surprised. I was hoping money was coming to my campaign and so I'm being a little bit naive about how the whole system works, you know, throwing off guards and, yeah, I was very surprised and not very happy about a lot of it, but it is what it is and I just have to move forward. I just kept focused on my story and the story of the accomplishments and what we've done in Winters and what I've done recently statewide and nationally, so just kept that whole focus and didn't try to fall into the pits of all the bad things that people say that I've done, which is so untrue, but that's okay. Cecilia, I have a question, did you walk any of Davis? Were you able to knock on doors and get some feedback from any of the constituents or any good stories? Yes, we did door knocking on the city of Davis, we did El Miserro, we've done wherever we could get into, a lot of meet and greet and those were the problems and the key to what was made this a very interesting race. Many people wanted to hear the story, they called me up, they either came over to Winters, I had coffee with anyone between 15 to 20 people, told the story and asked them to share my story, so I think that was a really good piece. The forums are very, they're very planned, you know the questions, you've worked with these gentlemen nonstop and we know each other really well and that's the hardest part about the whole campaign is that I know everyone well. I worked with particularly Don Saylor for years, I respect him and it's been a tough time and we're all going through a process and what can I say, we all jumped into this and we are where we are. Yeah, well so along that line, if you should go to the assembly, be in the top two, which would put you to a November election, so you need to buy another pair of sneakers and keep walking three sinks. If you should happen to become our next assembly woman, will you work towards some kind of campaign finance reform to perhaps take the bullseye off of us? Absolutely, I had no idea when I got into this is that we all interviewed and we all need to admit that we've all been interviewed with a room full of people and we don't know all their names and all their, where their affiliations are. You're going to get a five minutes feel of what you've done and you walk out of the room, hoping it's going to your personal, and then I want to say personal campaign and not to an independent expenditure. And so when this all kind of came to fruition, it's just like I was flabbergasted, you know, it's all new, so yeah, campaign reform, absolutely. I think that we all need to be on a level playing field and I think that every candidate is out there with the same thing. Yeah, well that's wonderful to hear. I know there were a lot of Davis residents that were concerned that, you know, as I've mentioned on the show a couple of times, I started taking a wheelbarrow to my mailbox. Oh, sure. Because your family story and then other stories that they were painting about what they wanted to do were coming in by the reams. So it is good to hear that independent expenditures are an animal that you can't control. You know, it's kind of the feral cat that hangs out around your house and you really don't want it, but you can only control your campaign. And your campaign was clean and positive. I didn't see any negative pieces coming from your campaign. They'll never come from my campaign is because I respect every single person. It's risky to be in this, to put yourself out there, it's risky to run, it's tough. And each one of us does the best we could do. I'm not going to belittle any one of them because I know them all and we've had relationships for years because we've worked on different projects together. So it's like the campaign needs to be released and we really need to sit down and figure out how can we make this a level playing field? What's most frustrating to me is that I understand why women don't want to run. Yeah, exactly. And that, that's the thing that's frustrating me. I've asked women, they go, why would you stick your neck out for so long? It's because I believe what I've done, I've accomplished a lot in this little small town. I've had the support of great city council, great city manager, planning. I mean, the whole town is just blossomed because of the success that we've done. But you know, it's really frustrating when you can't have the same playing field. And I think every one of us will say the same thing, you know. Yeah, well, that's really refreshing to hear as a longtime Davisite. And I love winters. I love, you've been a great city council person and mayor in winters. And if you're doing something wrong in winters, you'll find out about it immediately. Winters has the best communication systems, you know, as far as community-based communication systems. But I love that it's a growing, but still a small enough town that pretty much everybody knows who's who and will tell you if they don't like what you're doing. But I guarantee that's a true thing. I know it's true. I helped with the library measure in winters that did finally pass. So I know that winters is a unique community here in Yolo County and it surprised me that all of a sudden these mailers were coming in just page after page. Yeah, there's nothing worse than you go, uh-oh, just toss them in the trash can. And I think that's what ended up happening at the end is that if you were to sell a farm that stood by, they got their mail out, they stood by the garbage city and look at them and they just tossed them in. Well, I saved everyone and it turned out a good thing that I saved everyone because Leah has been removed from the mailing list. So she hadn't seen any of them. So I was able to share them with Leah so she was at least up to date on what it was like to be a normal Davis citizen. You know, we've always thought of her as queen and now we know it's true. So anyway, Cecilia, we know you've got a party to get back to and so, but we thank you for clearing the air that has been a topic of discussion here tonight as far as being the most expensive race in the assembly up and down the state as far as independent expenditures go. Your campaign itself was rather normal sized and so I do appreciate you taking the time and clarifying that because if you are in the runoff in November, Davis residents need to know what the choices are and where you stand. So we appreciate you. I just wanted to reiterate, many people have called me, they ask the questions like, you know, was it the oil, the fracking, blah, blah, blah. You know, when we all jump in this race is that they do a complete background check on me and I know they couldn't find anything. And so to jump in on the oil or just jump in on the fracking or whatever, you know, if I don't know something I'm gonna say, I don't know something or I've got to learn. And it's been fabulous because, you know, people have stepped up and said, hey, you know what? I want to sit down with you and I want you to understand this absolutely because I have an open mind. So I really appreciate you guys calling me, you know, and we'll see what the outcome is of this. It's been a good race as far as I'm concerned. All my competitors are friends of mine and I have nothing bad to say about them because no matter what, we're working together. That's right, that's right. And I want to say, you know, thank you as a, for standing up and getting out there as a woman to run for an office that really takes you around the county and, you know. Several counties. Several counties and, you know, having to put up with comments that maybe, you know, weren't fair and definitely not true. So I'm sure you've learned some wonderful lessons and maybe you're even thinking, what's next? Well, it may be a race in November. Yeah, well, let's hope we get to the next step. And no matter what, I'm going to work with whoever ends up in this assembly seat. So thank you so much for your call. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Cecilia. Okay, have a good night. You too. Bye-bye. And we are joined here in the studio by the magic of the crew. And we still have to thank the crew. We're not going to turn those cameras off until we get a good chance to do that. But Brett, council member, Brett Lee has been here waiting patiently. And it looks like, well, we've only seen the returns, the absentee ballots, but normally as absentees go, so goes Davis because so many of us vote by absentee. So you could potentially be the next mayor, not right away. The good news is you get a little time to figure that out and pick out your emblem and your logo and what day you want your parade. No, none of that happens, I'm kidding. So, yeah, no, go ahead. Well, they have the results up there for a second and then they went away. Yeah, bring it back because I'm just curious, how was it running this time? Easier, more fun, people recognized you. It was a little easier in that, you know, when you're a challenger, you kind of, you're on the outside and you see some of the decisions and you know a little bit of the information and I ran because I thought I wanted to be part of the change that we've seen in the city council over the past couple's election cycles. And so I had some issues with some of the incumbents and I thought, you know, hey, that they kind of need some new blood really. But you, when you're on the council, it's 10 to 20 hours a week each week. I think you round it down. And the thing is, you know, you read your packet. So when somebody asks me about community choice energy, I know something about that. And when they ask me about the renters ordinance, all these different things, you're sort of immersed in it. So when you're talking to somebody, there's a lot more of you're actually talking from a pretty substantial base of knowledge, as opposed to, huh, that's interesting. I'll get back to you or, oh, I'm not really sure. And you kind of have maybe five things that you kind of know something about and when you're not an incumbent, but you're running as a challenger and others you're not so sure about because how would you know unless you really went through and read all the previous council packets. But being on the council, there's just so many different things you just sort of absorb. You're out in the public and everyone knows your face. I mean, four years ago, a lot of us didn't know who you were. And here you are on the couch again. Yeah. And then there's also something in that, being on the council. So when you start to run as a challenger, people try to infer what your view is based upon some of your supporters. So, you know, I had a, you know, I wasn't very well known in terms of political circles and they saw some of my supporters and they just sort of thought, oh, well, so-and-so supports you. You must be like them. And then you get these weird situations where somebody comes and they're relatively hostile towards you because they're hostile towards one of your supporters' views. And it kind of catches you off guard. One of the things, I guess it's a plus and a minus, but being on the council, there are, you make some decisions and some people like them, some people don't. And Davis being Davis, people- Let you know. Yeah, they let us know and that's not a bad thing. And so you kind of get prepared for those disagreements and it doesn't, you know, when you're a challenger and somebody says, oh, I don't really like the fact that you believe in something. And you're like, wait, but I don't believe that. Yeah. And they're really angry. And then you kind of go, you pack up your little market from the farm disabled and you go home and go, what happened? I don't really understand. And so you kind of just get a lot more experience dealing with the public and just kind of the good, the bad, and kind of just the different. But it is easier just having that base of knowledge. So what issues do you see coming before the city council then, you know, for you in the next couple of years? Yeah, so- Well, hopefully, hopefully it stays for all four. Oh, yeah. So I think downtown parking remains an issue. Thank you. He's been watching this show. He just wanted to- Oh. Oh, no, I- He's been talking about a parking garage, the whole show. Oh, okay. You could have just named it after her and you'd be able to- Sure. Yeah, maybe there we go. Leah Rosenberg, a parking complex. And then we'll add in a 50-meter pool and we'll, you know- All right, a couple of boutiques. Yeah, there we go. So I think that's definitely an issue. And so we need to do something about the scarcity of parking downtown. Fiscal responsibility, still an issue. The city's doing very well. We're paying the correct amount in terms of our long-term obligations towards our pensions. And, you know, now, when I first took office, I don't know if Lucas had mentioned this, but, you know, I think one of the things that Lucas and I are both very proud of is when we first took office, we were spending about $0 of our general fund money towards street repairs. Now we're spending about $4 million, and next year we think it's gonna be more like $6 million. We really should be spending about $8 million. So we're not there yet, but we've really come a long way. So really a lot of those infrastructure challenges and trying to find other sources of revenue rather than just saying, well, you know, we'll just add another tax. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Davis is already pretty pricey. Totally. And so, you know, anything we can do to sort of diversify the revenue stream would be helpful. Although the two taxes on the ballot look like they're gonna pass. I mean, I don't know how the poll, the voting at the polls could ever catch up with those numbers. So, however, there are taxes on other people. That's always easier than adding a tax. Yeah, so measure B, the transit and occupancy tax, the hotel tax, should raise maybe about another $500,000 a year. And then measure C would be allowing the city if the state decides to legalize recreational marijuana, it would allow the city to tax the sale of recreational marijuana up to 10%. So again, like right now we actually have the ability to authorize medical marijuana dispensaries, but the city has chosen not to. And so even if the state legalizes marijuana, there's no, we're not sure what will actually happen. And a lot of it will depend on the actual initiative that would be passed in November in terms of the level of local control. But it's nice to have that in our back pocket, like should it be legalized and should, the people of Davis really want to have some sort of sale of recreational marijuana that we would be able to impose a tax on it. A lot of, there'd be some general revenue purposes, but I think something like that would have externalities. There'd be some negative consequences, right? And so. How was the hotel associations on the proposal of this? They were neutral. Yeah, so there was no stated opposition because we're sort of in the range of the other communities in our neighborhood. So we're, everyone's kind of around 10 to 12%. So we wouldn't be an outlier. A few years ago on, I want to say measure O, not the measure O from way back when, the measure of open space, and measure O, the half percent sales tax increase. When we were contemplating raising the sales tax, we had retailers come out, and I specifically remember Ken from Ken Spike and Ski, saying, please don't make us the most expensive sales tax in the region, because when somebody comes by a bicycle, that little quarter percent or half percent can really make a difference on the sale. And we took that info in and we actually made it a half percent. So we were sort of in line, whereas I think some of the original thinking was that we might actually be kind of at the high end of the sales tax. So, but as far as the hotels go, we're kind of in that range. One of the things that Lucas did mention, and he did talk about you a lot, the friendship that you guys have formed as a parent and actually anybody that wants to learn more about the renters ordinance, you guys came in and did a fabulous segment on that here on the couch. And so he was talking about a lot of the collaborative things that you guys have done together. And the renters ordinance is another one where you were able to get some large associations that normally and in fact have even done independent expenditures in this town to stay neutral or at least to work with you. Actually, better than that, they have come out in support of what we're proposing. So the Sacramento Rental Housing Association, which is a group of about 2,000 landlords who have a, I want to say 80,000 units that they kind of represent. So for the Sacramento region, they have come out in favor of what we're proposing in terms of a renters ordinance. And that really just shows that what we're proposing is fairly reasonable. So, you know, they're willing to work with us. And one of the great things about that organization is they're really up on rental law. And part of the proposed renters ordinance involves mediation services. Right now, there's sort of this, there's this gap. There's sort of complain. And then if nothing gets resolved, sort of the next step is sort of withhold rent or go to small claims court. Mediation services can kind of be that sort of intermediate step. The Sacramento Rental Housing Association has said they will provide training for the mediators. So the mediators won't be sort of like, well, we'll just kind of split the difference and everyone should be happy. No one leaves happy. This way, they'll actually know what kind of the rental law is and can really provide some guidance. Because some of it is a renter's not really understanding what is reasonable and not reasonable. But also sometimes the landlords. We have a lot of single family homes. About a third of the single family homes in Davis are rental properties. And a lot of those folks are amateur landlords. And so they don't really know. They look on the internet and go, oh, I guess I'll download this copy of a lease and I'll fill in my name and do this. And they don't really know what the law is. And so this will be, I think, a good resource for renters and landlords. And ultimately, I think it'll provide some important safeguards for the community. I think it's a great thing that you've taken it on that the city council has taken it on and will continue to work down that path. Because as you say, it's much needed. A lot of the houses were purchased when their kids went to UCD. And then they kept it as a rental because it's good income. And so a lot of times they didn't really go into it with the thought of, well, we're gonna become the next landlord of Davis. And so there are people who, on both sides of it, that don't understand what their rights and responsibilities are. So that's... Yeah, so actually tomorrow night at 6 p.m., meeting with staff at City Hall to work on some of the details. And Lucas will be joining me, as well as a couple representatives from some property owners and then also some renters' rights advocates. Just start crafting something that will distribute for wider comment on so that we get it right. What we don't wanna do is assume that we have all the answers. I think good way to think of this as a pilot. Right. We'll kind of learn as we go along because we don't want to make it more difficult for landlords in terms of the people who are doing the right thing. We have such a shortage of apartments already. The last thing we wanna do is create this unintended consequences where... But the flip side is, with a very low vacancy rate, we have a lot of renters who feel like they have no voice. Well, they have, potentially have a voice, but they're afraid to raise their voice because... Because they don't wanna, they have to be looking for the next place. I think that's great. And the mediation services is a fabulous component. So, we know we took you away from your party and then you sat here patiently while we talked to Cecilia, but we were glad that she got a chance to kind of clear the air with... You have a mailbox in Davis, so you knew about all those issues as well. But we wanna congratulate you, number one, on definitely your reelection. I doubt that that will change, but you perhaps are headed into being mayor in a couple of years. Watch what Rob does because he's got a good head on his shoulders, but you have a good team. You really have a good team. I think no matter who is the new one person, I think it's gonna be a good council moving forward. And really glad to see the collaborative work that you guys do together. And amazed to hear about this commission interviewing process that you and Lucas went through. I can't believe either one of you is running for reelection after that. Yeah, that's an undertaking. It is, but it definitely results in a superior process for choosing commissioners. But it is, we're there sometimes on Saturdays and Sundays and extra times on Wednesdays and Mondays. And the fact that people applying to the commission are willing to come and make that effort, we really appreciate. But yeah, sometimes we're like, oh my gosh, another five commissioners interview. But the process is definitely improved. And you certainly get to know the Davis citizens. Yes, we're very fortunate in Davis. We have a lot of really qualified people willing to donate their time to help us out. And the commission system in Davis really helps kind of the community as a whole. And definitely me as a council person. Oh yeah, and it gives people a voice. It gives people who don't wanna go to the city council meeting or, and a lot of times they go to those commission meetings for a few times and before you know what they're applying. Because they're passionate enough about an issue. And it's a great, it is a onerous process, just interviewing them. But then also being a liaison to the commission and keeping up with that. But as a Davis, I'm glad you have them. And I'm glad that I didn't know that you and Lucas had done that work. It's a real undertaking, but glad that you did. So we'll let you get back to your party. We're being told that we've got stuff, we've got housekeeping issues that we need to do. And I guess we're about to wrap up. I mean, I can't believe three hours have gone by. But I have to steal from Leah because I've lost my sheet. She won't be surprised that I'm cheating off of her. Nope, I can see it here. You just went past it. Well thank you for having me on as a guest. I really appreciate it. And congratulations truly on your reelection. And the lawn signs said that you were gonna be mayor. And actually a couple of people that I know said that you were gonna be mayor. And I take their word seriously. So it looks like it may come to pass. It's still early yet. There's still a fair number of returns to come in. And knowing you as I've watched you Tuesday nights and seeing you here in the studio, you're gonna handle it just like Rob does. You're another member of the team. You're just there to be sure everybody's voice gets heard. We have a really great city council. We work well together. We're willing to disagree. And then come together on the next item. And so I think we're very fortunate. Right, well congratulations. We're glad you're willing to do it again. I don't know if I'd done that for four years if I'd wanna do it again. But thank you for your service and your hard work for our community. Okay, well I think. And enjoy staying up all night. Yeah. Well he may not have to stay up all night. No, no, it's half the fun on election night. Yeah, I guess so. Tomorrow's a regular work day for me. And we've heard that from so many candidates. I mean, people need to remember that, that these folks have kids and full-time jobs and. They're still young. Well compared to us, everybody's young. But thank you for coming Brett. And let me take care of these housekeeping issues. It looks like we're gonna take a last look at the races. I don't know if Yolo County has any new votes. It looks like it's still the same. I know they're counting as fast as they can in the basement there in Woodland. And there will be updates and check back through the night on the website. And there will be more. It's always so slow, Andrea. Well, because you know they, this is one thing where you wanna get it right. You know? And Yolo County is a fairly large geographic county. And so a lot of those poll workers are driving back from West Sacramento or winters. And then of course these are the statewide contests and they're also still too close to call. And probably will be for the next couple of days, I would say, or at least a day. But of course John Garamini's will. And then this race has already been called for Kamala Harris. Good thing, because I can't see it. And then, yeah, and then that's the list of everybody that's running to try to replace Barbara Boxer. But let me take care of a couple of housekeeping issues. I think the results are the same as we've seen all night. But I know that Leah wants to join me in this and I'll do a few and she'll do a few. But we wanna definitely think our crew, they've been here for many, many hours learning how to deal with us, which there are a lot of people in Davis can tell you is not an easy job. But to start off with nothing would happen at Davis Media Access without Autumn LeBae Renault. She's the producer of the election night coverage tonight, the executive director of our nonprofit and her heart and soul is in community media. So we are lucky to have her. She's been on it for a long time. That's right, that's right. And then another one that we're super lucky to have as our director is Dianna Doshka. She's probably yelling something at Jack right now. Hopefully she's singing to Jack because any of those of you who don't know, she has the most beautiful voice. Oh my goodness. And then Bill Lorfring was here. Oh, he's still here. My goodness, you're still with us. That's fabulous. I love that. Bryce Parker, Jack Ratliff has put up with me and all of my crazy requests and hand signals off to the side. Oh, what goes on in a live TV show? It's wonderful. Emily Merton was here we saw her, but she's been busy doing stuff. Una Chow mic'd us up tonight. So she gave us our voice and anyone who looks at our Facebook page sees pictures that Una takes. I wish she would just become a professional photographer because she has a fabulous eye. Here's your boyfriend. Oh, yes. Oh, the production assistant, Miquel, I'm not gonna say his last name because no one can pronounce it. But Miquel is from the Basque region of Spain and if she doesn't come home tonight, Dave, I think we know where she is. And then of course, Alexis was the wonderful person putting the, oh, Alex. Alex. Alex, sorry, Alex, with all your great results and our beautiful set design and lighting. That's right, Diane and Jeff worked hard on that on Monday. I keep asking them to make it purple. Maybe in November we could have purple instead of red, white and blue. We thank Jeff Shaw for that. And then our technical support is Derek. So it's quite a crew they have here. I don't get to hang around here because I'm not on this board. Well, you may be before the end of the night. It's always a pleasure when Andy and I connect in doing this. We are, as I said, Davis is very fortunate oh, to... What was the oh? Oh, wrap it up, Leah. Jack's telling Leah. Oh boy. Cut it off. So anyway, we thank you for watching. We thank you for your continued support of this local station. Yep, and we're still looking for the rest of our fundraising goal before June 30th. Yes. So for those three people who are still watching, there are still parties going on in Davis. Get out of your house and go to the party. But on your way, send a check to Davis Media Access. Or if you see me around town, just hand me a check. Yeah, or me. We've got pledge cards. Yeah. Thank you. And good night. Good night.