The Lois Wolk Interview: California Assemblymember and Democratic Candidate for State Senate Shows Why She is a Winner and a Keeper

When it comes to the reform of the educational finance mechanism, I happen to think it would be a good idea to do that, and one of the reasons that we need to do it is that our demographics are changing—not only Davis’ but the state of California. Over 50 percent of the districts have declining enrollment. Part of Davis’ situation is directly related to the fact that we have declining enrollment. I would say that’s probably half of the four million. What that means is that for each and every student who does not show up in a seat, they lose money and they lose it fairly quickly. So you can’t reduce the overhead, I mean you are not going to immediately get rid of teachers, employees, buildings, etc. You instead have a deficit that you have to deal with—an educational deficit, a program deficit.

I would like to see some basic reform of the education finance system. The problem with that is that that’s not easy to do. It’s a big state, with a lot of different needs, and different interests. Suburban districts, urban districts, and rural districts all have different needs. I have introduced bills that have related to finance, home to schools transportation, declining enrollment, and because there is no money available, it is very difficult to make any kind of structural change in the way schools are financed. But more and more people are talking about it, because more and more districts are suffering from this structural change in the demographics of California. It will start to effect higher education in a few years.

I’ve spent most of my political life trying to get more schools, trying to get communities to pass bonds, trying to reduce the two-thirds requirement to 55 percent, to make it easier for school districts to build. We’re now moving into a very different era. It’s an era of demographic change. There will be fewer students eventually at the University of California, fewer students at CSU, and we’re starting to see the beginning of that in Davis. And it’s not only Davis, it’s communities like Vacaville, communities like Benicia, it’s throughout the district—my district, you will see, flat or declining enrollment. There are very few schools where there’s an increase. Elk Grove which has been the poster child for growth in so many areas is having the opposite effect. It’s a daunting challenge but it’s one that we have to confront.

Delta Protection has become your hallmark issue, those of us who went to Congressman Thompson’s fundraiser last weekend, learned a lot about efforts underway to protect the delta—how did you get involved in this issue, what are you looking for the state to do on this effort, and finally what can we as citizens do?

District 8 represents the northern part of the Delta. I have been very much involved in water issues and environmental issues from the time that I entered the Davis City Council. As chair of Water, Parks, and Wildlife, I know that the Delta is the heart and soul of the California water system. It is the core and it is in terrible crisis. That has not only a major environmental impact, but a potentially disastrous economic impact of the entire state.

We’ve asked the Delta to do many things and many of them are incompatible with each other. We want it to supply an unending or increasing supply of water to Southern California and to the Bay Area. We want it to be an extraordinary estuary to breed and facilitate fisheries. We want it to be the repository of agricultural and urban runoff. We want it to, I don’t, but it has become an area of increasing urbanization. We’ve asked it to do far too many things and it is dying, it is absolutely dying. Of course it is surrounded by levies that are basically 19th century piles of dirt, and they are failing. And it is seismically at risk. You can’t imagine an area that is of more significance and at risk.

What can we do? We can do a number of things. The people of the state of California voted for a bond in 2006 to repair the levies and to begin the process of improving the water quality in the Delta, and the fisheries, the habitat, and the agriculture. What we can do is to try to raise the profile of the delta. Most people know where the coast is and know why it’s important to protect it. Most people know about the Sierra Nevada, and they will protect it. They know about Yosemite and they will protect it. They know about their local parks and they want to protect those. But the Delta has very few people in it and very little political clout. So we need to be able to raise the profile of the Delta so that it takes its place as the key water and environmental issue for California.

Then we need to put in place structures that will protect it. It needs are steward. There is no steward—no body, no agency—whose sole purpose is to protect the delta. And if I’m elected to the Senate, that’s what I’ll spend many years trying to accomplish. It won’t be easy, but there has to be a body like the Coastal Commission that focuses exclusively on the Delta and has responsibility for all water decisions and all environmental decisions that affect it. That won’t be easy to do, but I am convinced that has to occur.

The average person needs to educate themselves and speak to their representatives. Here we are very blessed with a delegation that understands all of that—both in the surrounding Assembly Districts and the Senate Districts. And at the Congressional level—Mike Thompson and Doris Matsui have been strong supporters of the Delta—they know where it is, they know how important it is to our region. But we don’t have the same recognition other places. That’s very hard for citizens here to accomplish. We have to educate those in the Bay Area, further in the southern part of the Central Valley, in San Diego, in Los Angeles, to the importance of the Delta to them but to California as a whole. And we’re trying to do that. We’ve been working very carefully with members of my committee who represent those areas, in educating them about the Delta.

Hurricane Katrina had an effect in that area. After Katrina, people were suddenly aware that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was in fact at greater risk than New Orleans. And look what happened to New Orleans, so that recognition has helped us with flood protection, it’s helped us with environmental legislation in the Delta; it’s helped us get resources to the Delta. Every cloud has a silver lining, Katrina really the knowledge of how fragile this area is. We have to continue that because we need resources from those who might want to put those resources elsewhere.

Transportation is always a major issue—this district really has two major thoroughfares cutting through it, in the northern part we are particularly concerned with the congestion along the I-80 corridor. This is no longer just an issue however about transportation it is also now an issue of the environment, oil supplies, global warming, etc. In your view, what should the state do to address transportation problems in the region?

The state has to take a very active role in addressing these problems. One of the first steps was this extraordinary $18 billion bond that was passed by California. We have worked very hard to assure our fair share of funding. We have roads that are bottlenecks. We have a port; why not use more sea transportation as opposed to truck transportation on the roads? We have achieved funding to dredge the port, to make certain that it can be used increasingly for transportation. We have to fund trains and transit. I’ve been a very strong supporter of all modes of transit and we need resources to do it.

We people seem to be very willing to put money into transportation, into transit. But this remains a very difficult problem because what’s happened is without jobs in the areas where people live, people will commute. That’s what you have between San Joaquin and the Bay Area. That’s what you have between Solano County and the Bay Area. You have people who want to live in these areas because they are pleasant to live in, and housing is a little cheaper, but that means that they have a commute. So we need every form of transportation to be at its best. And to do that we need resources.

Part 2: Transparency in Government, Flood Protection, Working in a Bipartisan Manner, and the Needs of Local Government

One of my biggest concerns is transparency in government. I think the state of California does an extremely poor job in the area of open government, particularly with regards to public records access. As a state senator, what changes would you like to make, if any, to California’s open government policies?

Having been a member of the city council and board of supervisors, we worked under the Brown Act and we made an effort to be transparent and where we weren’t, citizens would remind us that we needed to be and they had access to whatever they needed under the law. I support that; I always have. When I got to the legislature, I was amazed at the very different way we conduct business and the lack of accountability that you see with departments.

I support and have supported every effort that has come before me to increase transparency. I think it is important to do that. There is enough distrust of government that we don’t need to add to it by keeping things secret. It’s just not anybody’s interest.

The newspaper publishers are the ones that come forward with some legislation each year that extends the right to have open records. I support that strongly.

Many communities seem to develop housing in flood prone areas. What steps do you believe are needed to ensure protection from floods given growing population pressures?

That’s one of the areas that I have been the most active in—flood protection. I am very proud of the package that we put together. It was landmark legislation, signed by the governor last year that connects land use to local government decision making. Beginning in 2011 and ending in 2016, there will be no more development in flood plains by local government in deep flood plains, without adequate protection. That is the keystone of a flood protection policy for the Sacramento-San Joaquin area that frankly is well overdue.

There has been tremendous growth just in the last twenty years since the last floods in the 80’s and the 90’s. There has been tremendous growth in areas that were under 10 and 12 feet of water twice in the last twenty years. That’s foolhardy and that’s a major safety risk. Natomas, Plumas Lake, River Islands—these are areas that do not have sufficient protection and need to have protection. We are in the flood plain. We flood all the time. We aren’t on a hill. Davis is, we have a slight elevation. But the fact is most of the area, especially on the rivers, a very beautiful area, but not the place you want to put housing.

I am very proud of this package it includes a change in the relationship between local government and the state. We negotiated it with the governor, with local government, with the developers, it took us three years, but it’s a good piece of legislation. I’m looking forward to watching it so that it doesn’t get weakened in any way.

I am going to ask two specific but related questions. The first is, tell us why a Democrat should vote for you rather than your Republican opponent? The second part, is tell us why someone who is in the middle should vote for you, as opposed to your Republican opponent?

I suggest that if you look at my record, you’ll see someone who has spent years in public service trying to solve problems and I do it with anybody in any part of the spectrum. If there are problems and concerns, I try to work through those. If you look at my legislation, you will see a focus on seniors, children, the environment, education, health care; areas that I think are very strong Democratic values. But they are also values that transcend party. I think that record is one that I’m very proud of. Those are the same issues that I would take to the Senate.

I also work in a bipartisan fashion; I don’t let party get in the way of good legislation. Whether it is flood protection or transportation, I make it a point to convince those, persuade those, and involve those who have an interest in a particular area. For instance Route 12, which was a major safety problem in Solano and San Joaquin County. I represent Solano as do many Democrats, but as you cross into San Joaquin, Route 12 is represented by Republicans—Senator Cogdill, Allen Nakanishi, Guy Houston. I convened the meeting, we talked about safety problems on Route 12 and we worked to fix them. They did the things they could do on their side of the aisle; I did what I could do on my side of the aisle. And when it came down to the final votes, they were there and we were there together. That’s how that unity achieved success on Route 12—a road in which people were dying, in fact there was one week in which there was a death almost every day because of the head on collisions.

I think it’s important to note that the values that attract Democrats to me are the same that would attract Republicans or Independents to me. That is that I solve problems and I do it with whoever is at the table or whoever is effective.

How can the state better get money to local jurisdictions such as cities or counties?

There is a difference between them. I started my career in the Davis City Council and I went to the board of supervisors, so I’m very much aware of local government and its needs. Cities are more independent from the state than counties, which are more and more the arm of the state taking care of many of the services that the state provides certain health and social services and justice. The state took a great deal of funds away from local government when I was in City Hall and I vowed that when I got to state that I would do what I could to protect the city sources of revenue and the county ones and we did that through Prop. 1A.

The result is that in downturns of the economy like now, they will be more protected than they’ve ever been. That doesn’t mean that in a time of economic recession, they will feel no hurt. They will. They should tighten their belts, just as we’re going to have to. Counties, just because of who they serve, I have spent a good deal of time making certain that the kinds of cuts we’re going to be forced to make, will not affect the federal funding we get. We get a lot of funding that is put together through many different sources at the county level. All of it is focused on those who are the poorest, the most in need, aged, blind, the disabled, children, and all with the fewest resources. We have combinations of funding from the federal government. I want to make sure that we are careful to maximize the resources that we get from the federal government, and not leave any of those dollars on the table. Make sure that we get as much as we possibly can down to the local level.

This is an unusual year. We are in a very serious recession, no matter what the President tells us. We are in a very serious recession and we have a budget deficit that is approaching $14 billion. While we can make cuts in some areas, and will, $14 billion worth of cuts would be devastating to many of the poorest among us, and I don’t intend to see that happen. I don’t intend to see education harmed either. But in order to protect local government, or anyone else, it is important to recognize that there are three states that have a two-thirds budget requirement. It is the only vote where we cannot vote what we wish to do as Democrats. We need Republican support and right now they’re not willing to put any revenues on the table. So that really creates a standoff at this point in time. I don’t know how that’s going to come off.

We’re certainly going to fight for the areas that I think people care deeply about—education, health care, transportation, all of these areas are so important to people’s live. There are more and more needs that people have. People want more and more. There are problems that need to be solved, and our revenues are declining. If you adjust for inflation and population growth, in fact over the last twenty years we are spending less per capita in the state of California, the eighth largest economy in the world, than we did twenty years ago. It is an untenable situation.

Stay tuned for the final segment.

Doug Paul Davis is a resident of the city of Davis and has created the People's Vanguard of Davis, a progressive blog that covers mainly Yolo County but also some California news where this article originally appeared. It is republished with his permission.