Avi Singh

Avi Singh successfully ran for ASUCD Senate as an independent in the Winter 2005 ASUCD Election. Andrew Bianchi was his intern. Avi was the President of the Davis College Democrats campus organization from 04-05. During 2005, Singh had been campanging actively with Davis Citizens for Representation with respect to the Choice Voting issue. Singh was also attempting to write a childrens book.

Avi's election as a Senator for ASUCD may have stretched him a little thin schedule-wise. His appointment to the Davis City Social Services Commission was in jeopardy due to missing too many meetings. Appointed in June 2004, Avi missed 9 out of 11 monthly meetings - 5 of which were unexcused. The Social Services Commission advises the City Council on matters relating to issues of social services including health, affordable housing, homelessness, hunger, transit and low income needs. The Davis City Council decided at its June 28, 2005 meeting whether to remove him as a commissioner. Commissioner's are only allowed up to three unexcused absenses from commissions. At the time, Avi was the only UCD student serving on a city commission by appointment of the City Council (as distinct from the City-UCD Student Liaison Commission where students serve by virtue of their various campus memberships). A few years later, Steven D. Lee joined Avi in the distinction of serving as a City Council-appointed Commissioner while being a UC Davis student (first to the Human Relations Commission then to the Social Services).

The City Council decided....??

Note: This information was taken entirely from the staff report included in the Council packet for the July 28, 2005 City Council meeting as posted on the City of Davis website. Information from Avi was not available, though staff's difficulty in contacting Avi about meetings was alluded to in the staff's report. It was posted here in an effort to alert supporters of Avi of the pending action to remove Avi from an important commission. As UCD student representation on commissions is a rare thing, it is important to support these appointments when they occur. There is no official information on the outcome of the meeting available (???). If Avi was indeed removed, it is hoped that he will continue to attend Social Services Commission meetings and provide input from the student community regarding housing needs and issues. (Did he?)

"[In regards to] my poor attendence record as a member for the Social Services Commission for the City of Davis: While this person is correct in claiming that I did miss meetings, she has failed to point out that the city of Davis staff failed to notify me prior to meetings. I need to be notified about meeting times and locations. I also need to be provided with an agenda in order to be up to date on the issues for consideration. The city had postponed meetings when members of the commission were not notified in advance. It is important to note that I was notified for the meetings that I attended and then this stopped. In order to be excused for a meeting, the commissioner must notify the city staff that he or she is unable to attend the meeting. There was no way for me to be excused because I was not even aware of the meetings.

I took reasonable steps in an attempt to learn about the schedule when I did not receive notification by going to the office of the city clerk frequently. These points are rather significant because the person who took the time to update my page attempted to highlight the frequency of unexcused absences without discussing the failure of the city staff. I would like to note that I was the only student on the commission and coincidentily, I was the only member to be treated in this manner by the city of Davis. This experience has been rather negative for me, but the social services commission has done some tremendous work. It has only made clear how hard I must work in any capacity available to me. Despite my preceding remarks, I must make clear that I appreciate the concerns of the writer and that I will use this experience to serve the community of Davis more effectively regardless of any obstacles to service. You can find the comments that I am responding to above. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter with anyone who is interested." —Avi Singh

More information

• Avi's personal page
• Avi went on to attend Harvard Law School and as of 2010 is working for the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office.

- Far be it from me to come to the defense of a liberal Democrat but is this really necessary? The wording on this stuff against Avi is obviously tilted to one side. And also does this issue genuinely describe Avi Singh as an article? It really looks like someone just had an axe to grind and is abusing the wiki to get their point across. I’m reminded of the Gabe Bang debate when I read this stuff - I recall the Gabe Bang debates see this - http://www.daviswiki.org/Wiki%20Ethics:Archive - GeorgejAndrews

- I think it's relevant. How often is a UCD student one of the commisioners? The user said it is rare, but that paragraph isn't exactly horribly 'tilted'. It's hard to tilt numbers. If you missed 9 out of 11 meetings, you missed 9 out of 11 meetings. 5 of which were unexcused. That seems a fact no matter what side of the issue you're on. Reading it again and I still don't think it's unneccessary. "Is in jeopardy", it gives a date about it, it references some log where it's mentioned, etc. Where is the bad part? Obviously the poster wasn't running to his defense with a reason, but isn't that Avi's role in this wiki? He could argue the legitamacy of them being "unexcused" but that still doesn't change the fact that as of right now, they're officially noted as unexcused (I believe). That would be a matter for him to take up with the commision. You could say if the person was so tilted and with an axe to grind they'd say that after so many meetings missed, saying he wasn't notified is a poor excuse. By that time he should have known to go find out himself, etc, etc. The user didn't. Given his role in both campus and city politics I definitely think it's worthy. Just because something is negative about someone doesn't mean it should be censored out. -ES

- I have no axe to grind. I have never met Avi, I am not a UCD student, and I have never attended a Social Services commission meeting. I am a supporter of choice voting and appreciate his work on this issue. I couldn't be more neutral. This is what happened - I noticed the action in the City Council packet and looked up Avi on wiki. I noted that Avi was a politician (ASUCD, but nevertheless a politician) who promoted his appointment to the commission in his ASUCD Senate campaign. It was a concern to me that something had gone awry that threatened his representation on the commission and, since it was summer, I guessed that very few, if any, students would be aware that his removal was up for consideration by the City Council. Maybe I should have put this up on a breaking news page or a "gather the troops / call to action" type page, but it is my understanding that the Wiki is about providing information, not advocating one way or another. I do agree with Avi that removal of a commissioner is very, very unusual and suspect that there is more to know about what happened. I've seen a person on another commission purposely and openly miss meetings month after month and yet was not removed from his commission appointment despite requests to that effect. I believe Avi's statement that he was not treated well and with consideration to his needs as a student. It's really unfortunate that he was removed. -Sharla