They Said It: Nora Davis

Nora Davis Said It-

"These People Need To Be Recalled, Their Incompetency Is Unacceptable"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.

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Back in the late 1990's, Emeryville mayor Nora Davis headed up a search committee formed to find a new school superintendent and after a nation-wide search, they recommended that the Emery School Board hire former Compton School District superintendent, JL Handy.  Even though he had overseen the bankruptcy of the district in Compton, the committee felt Mr Handy would work out well here.

'People who are guilty
of what I've done
should be recalled'

The School Board dutifully accepted the advice from the search committee and hired Mr Handy.  After he was hired, Mr Handy also bankrupted Emery Unified School District and he engaged in improper personal use of district funds and other crimes.   Superintendent Handy fled Emeryville in 2000, leaving the School District in ruins, ultimately to be taken over by the State.

Following this fiasco, a new search began; this time it was the search for the guilty.  A very vocal effort to recall the School Board was initiated since they had hired Mr Handy.  The  successful recall was headed up by non other than council member Nora Davis.  Ms Davis was vociferous in her indignation: "These people need to be recalled, their incompetency is unacceptable" she said at a council meeting. Ms Davis lent her name to the recall literature.  But nowhere was it mentioned by Nora Davis, not in the recall literature nor by her at any public event, that she had been the chair of the superintendent search committee and that she herself was guilty of what she said was an unpardonable offense by the School Board.  Ms Davis kept quiet and hoped no one would remember that she was responsible for the School Board recommendation to hire Mr Handy.