BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A Palo Alto City Council candidate has dropped out of the city’s largest debate with less than 24 hours notice.
Yudy Deng, who is on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, said she had “a number of scheduling conflicts” and couldn’t attend Thursday night’s debate hosted by Palo Alto Neighborhoods.
“I’m disappointed to miss the opportunity to speak with your members, as I know how important our neighborhoods are to the future of Palo Alto,” Deng said in an email to the debate organizer on Wednesday at 7:21 p.m.
Palo Alto Neighborhoods is a networking organization for all 36 neighborhoods, founded in 1998.
The debate was yesterday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Mitchell Park Community Center. Former Councilwoman Hillary Freeman was the moderator.
Deng pulled out of the debate after receiving the candidate guidelines from the organizers. One guideline was that candidates couldn’t use notes.
She didn’t return a request for comment Thursday.
Resident Annette Glanckopf was upset with Deng for dropping out.
“I find it disrespectful and unprofessional to decline at the last minute. The organizers have spent considerable amount of time, effort, and expended their own personal finances to create a thoughtful meaningful evening,” Glanckopf said in an email Thursday.
Glanckopf said Deng has known about the debate for weeks, and Palo Alto Neighborhoods isn’t a member organization like she said.
Thank you, Annette G for calling out Deng for rudely canceling at the last minute and for referring to the audience as “members” when PAN serves everyone in PA not just those who choose to join. Deng is obviously unaware that PA relies on a PAN and the neighborhood leaders to communicate with residents!
Her ignorance of this simple fact shows that A) she didn’t do her homework, B) is unaware that PAN serves her own neighborhood and C) lacks the basic knowledge needed to serve.
The fact that she abruptly pulled out upon learning she couldn’t bring notes shows how unqualified she is and her refusal to comment shows her lack of respect for the local residents her out-of-town backers paid so heavily for her to represent.
This is disappointing and makes it more obvious that she is all about the outside money and influence. She will not have my vote.
It’s very unfortunate that Ms Deng declined at the last moment without indicating there was an emergency or even urgent issue she needed to attend to.
This shows a disregard for the organization, Palo Alto neighborhoods, and the concerns of those neighborhoods.