Asamblea Estatal de CaliforniaCandidato para Distrito 4

For more than 40 years, Don has served in local government and both the legislative and executive branches of California state government.  Don Saylor currently serves as an elected member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors representing the cities of Davis and Winters, the campus of the University of California at Davis, and the farming areas in southwestern Yolo County. Before joining the Board of Supervisors in 2011, he served as Mayor and City Council Member for the City of Davis from 2004-10 and as a Trustee of the Davis Joint Unified School District from 1995-2003.

As a Supervisor, Saylor fights to strengthen our community’s safety net.  He expanded health coverage to more than 2000 low-income residents, strengthened mental health care, and improved ambulance services. He launched Yolo Food Connect to fight hunger and strengthen the agricultural economy.  He has worked to protect our communities through smarter crime policies, including improved jail facilities, increased electronic monitoring of those on parole and targeting repeat offenders by providing rehabilitative drug and mental health.

On the Davis City Council, Saylor helped establish sound fiscal policies that created a 15% General Fund reserve and launched economic development strategies that brought new companies to the area and enhanced the vitality of the downtown area.  Don was a key leader in the creation of the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency that will improve local water quality and reliability for 120,000 people.   He pushed for a visionary affordable housing plan and championed the building of five housing projects with more than 230 units for seniors, mental health consumers and low-income families.  In 2014, Don was recognized by the Sacramento Housing Alliance as the Affordable Housing Advocate of the Year

Prior to his time on the City Council, Saylor served as the President and Trustee of the School Board for the Davis Joint Unified School District.  He helped the district construct three new schools, modernize all schools, and implement academic programs to support reading instruction, improve special education services, and create stronger learning opportunities in music, language, arts, math and science.  

Don continues to help his community by coordinating annual “Soups On” events. These local events have helped raise money for many worthy groups, including local foster care, food banks, suicide prevention programs, outdoor youth education programs, and support for those dealing with mental illness.

Since 2008, Don has been a Board Member of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. In 2015, as SACOG Board Chair, he led the 31-member Board of this six-county agency to a unanimous adoption of a land use and transportation plan that allocates over $38 billion in transportation investments over a 20-year period.  

Don has served as Chair of the Yolo Habitat Conservancy, the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District, the Yolo County Children’s Alliance, and First 5 Yolo. He was President of the 58-city Sacramento Valley Division of the League of California Cities and served as Vice Chair of the Mayors and Councilmembers Department representing elected officials in over 550 cities. 

Don currently represents the California State Association of Counties as a member of the statewide Leadership Council of the Cities, Counties, Schools Partnership focused on safe routes to school and other community school partnerships. 

Don’s 24-year California state service career began in 1979 as a fiscal analyst for the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office where he provided advice to legislators and legislative committees on matters related to health and human services programs and policies affecting California’s most vulnerable populations.  Don managed state construction projects with total costs of well over $500 million, managed a statewide delinquency prevention program, and directed an eight-site comprehensive medial and mental health delivery system. From 1988-2003, he administered high school programs in six youth facilities.  That education program was recognized by the Ford Foundation as one of 25 Innovations on American Government in 2003 and Don was honored as Education Administrator of the Year in 2002.

Don is a graduate of the University of Wyoming and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as a Research Assistant to Barbara Jordan.  Don the recipient of a Moody Foundation Fellowship, a LBJ Research Fellowship and the Award of Outstanding Academic Achievement.  Don, a lifelong Democrat, and his wife, Julie, moved to Davis in 1987 to raise their children, Aaron and Kate.  The 4th Assembly District includes Lake and Napa Counties, most of Yolo County, and part of Colusa, Solano, and Sonoma Counties.

I’m running for Assembly, because I want all Californians to thrive, I want our state’s economy to prosper and I want to steward our natural environment. Our economy should work for everyone, not just those at the top.  I will work for you to build on our economic assets, protect our environment, invest in our future through infrastructure and education, strengthen our commitment to our most vulnerable populations and ensure our communities are safe.

I have a wide range of real public service experience and a record of achieving real results for the people I represent.  For more than 40 years, I have dedicated my life to public service.  I have served as a local elected official for the past 21 years, as a county supervisor, city council member, and school board trustee, I have built a record of responsible fiscal stewardship and advocacy for our most vulnerable populations. I have made tough decisions with heart and voted to approve 21 balanced annual budgets with reserves.

I believe that people should have a voice in their government and that our Legislature should be transparent and accountable to the residents of our state.  I want to increase the presence of Legislators in the communities we serve.  I believe that the Legislature should hold more policy discussions in open committee discussions in the public view, rather than in closed caucus meetings that result in pre-determined outcomes.

I believe government performs a valuable role.  We form governments to pursue outcomes, provide services, protect individuals and the public at large, and structure laws for a civil society that we cannot achieve individually.  Californians expect, demand and deserve high quality public services. Safe and vibrant communities, clean air and water, education, roads and transit, environmental protection all cost money. We must align our revenue framework and our service demands.  Our state is dependent on personal income taxes as a primary source of revenue.  This results in a perpetual boom and bust cycle as the stock market rises and falls. I favor modernizing our revenue structure to smooth out these cycles.