The Sierra Club Yolano Group 2018 Questionnaire for Davis City Council Candidates

introduction by Alan Pryor

Every 2 years the Sierra Club Yolano Group prepares questionnaires for candidates in local races we deem to be seriously contested and/or where there are clear differences between the candidates on matters of interest to the public and/or our local Sierra Club members. We use questionnaires with written responses to allow the candidates to directly express their views and opinions in their own words.

Directly following this introduction is a list of 23 questions for which we will be receiving responses from all 9 candidates. The questions asked the candidates’ views on a wide range of environmentally-related issues of importance to our local electorate and our members in the following general categories:

1. Land Use & Housing Development
2. Energy Use and Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
3. Waste Management
4. Water Management & Conservation
5. Transportation Management
6. Toxics in the Environment
7. Other Environmental Concerns
8. Financial Contributors

For each question, we then assembled all the answers from all the candidates together, which presents a somewhat side-by-side comparison of the views of all the other candidates in the race. In most races in which there are only 3 or fewer candidates and a limited number of issues, presenting this side-by-side candidate comparison is a fairly simple matter. That is never the case in Davis City Council races, however, because the wide range of environmental issues in the City means we also have lots of questions of interest to our members. This year is particularly challenging, though, because of the extraordinarily large number of candidates vying for the 2 available seats. Reporting all 9 responses for each of the 23 questions would require an extraordinarily large report.

To present the information in a more manageable format, the Vanguard has requested we report the answers of up to four questions per day in no more than two general categories per day and they will be published as space permits. The first in the series will be on Land Use & Housing Development and will be in our next publication. These will be followed by additional questions in the order of the categories given above.

The Sierra Club Yolano Group Takes “No Position” in the 2018 Davis City Council Race – Following is an email notification sent to all candidates:

“Dear Candidate – The Sierra Club Yolano Group greatly appreciates and thanks all of the candidates for the Davis City Council who spent a good deal of time responding to our lengthy questionnaire on various environmental-related issues affecting the City. We are gratified by the depth of knowledge most candidates showed on these matters of importance and we believe many of the candidates are worthy of our full, unqualified support.

Unfortunately, however, official Sierra Club policy only allows endorsements of candidates up to the number of seats being contested – or two in the case of the current Davis City Council race. Given the obviously strong environmental credentials of most of the candidates, and in all fairness, we are unable to limit our support to only two candidates from this very qualified field in this election. Thus, the Sierra Club Yolano Group must take “No Position” in this race.

That said, there are some notable differences between the candidates in general and on specific issues so we intend to provide our Davis members with the questions and the candidates’ responses via an email notification directing them to our website where all of the information will be posted. We are also submitting the questions and answers to the Davis Vanguard for publication in a series of posts over the coming weeks.

Again, thank you all for your efforts and we are confident that the City will remain in good environmental hands no matter the outcome of the June election.

The Sierra Club Yolano Group 2018 Questionnaire for Davis City Council Candidates