The series hopes to shine light on the work city staff does for the community
By KATELIN PANG — city@theaggie.org
On Jan. 9, the city of Davis’s Facebook page posted a teaser for their new series released at the end of January called, “What Do You Do?”
These videos should be posted biweekly, each being about five to six minutes long. These posts would be telling a day in the life of different city of Davis employees. This would entail an interview with the guest employee and a step-by-step process of their day and what their jobs require of them.
The city of Davis production will have a host and interviewer, Jenny Tan. Tan works for the city and as the director of Community Engagement, she said her job allows her to work behind and in front of the scenes, gathering perspective on the inner workings of city departments.
Tan explained her goals for the channel are to address people’s confusion about local government and to allow the public to get to know their city employees.
“I want to give a face to government work and for the people of Davis to learn about some of the jobs that are available here,” Tan said. “But also the different things that we do when there is a lot of confusion between what the city of Davis does and what UC Davis does.”
She also emphasized that these interviews will be with everyday people such as people who fill potholes in the streets, engineers, front desk workers, people who work for the parks and unhoused people and positions people don’t necessarily think about.
Tan carries a lot of responsibilities herself such as running the city’s social media, press, interviews, surveys, graphics for communities, branding, public relations and even working with organizations like Hate-Free Together and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
“In the last year from 2022 to 2023, I increased our social media reach by almost 400%, with engagement being around 200%, and that really revolves around what our community wants to see and hear,” Tan said.
These posts will help keep positive interactions with the public and Tan also shared the importance of the Davis atmosphere.
“We have a really unique community that speaks up and speaks up often and so there are a lot of great interactions that I have with residents,” Tan said.
Tan said that she hopes to make two videos a month, and with there being six departments the majority of the videos will be city staff. But there will be a few special edition interviews with people from the community and organizations or even potentially UC Davis staff.
Rohit Mantramurti, a second-year history major at UC Davis, talked about how important it is to highlight unseen staff in the city.
“As a club organizer for Davis Revolutionary Student Union, I understand that a lot of the behind-the-scenes workers go unappreciated, but in reality, the club we work hard to build wouldn’t exist without them,” Mantramurti said.
Tan hopes this is educational for people in Davis but also a chance for people to see potential positions of interest and to encourage people to seek jobs within the city of Davis, or Yolo county government.
Saralynn Staub, a second-year biological science major, is also looking for internships and opportunities at Davis.
“I am super interested in city work and working for local organizations,” Staub said. So I think the channel will be a good way for students and community members to get a good look at possibilities for career options.”
Tan also shared a little about the first episode which drops on Jan. 29. She will include an introduction to the series explaining her idea and the first interview will be with someone high up in leadership.
“I think this will encourage more city staff to take an interest in the video, which will make staff more enthused to take part in the series,” Tan said.
The video will be streamed on the city YouTube channel, @cityofdaviscalif, along with a series playlist. Other ways to see what’s happening in the city of Davis are on Facebook, X and Instagram (@cityofdavis).
Written by: Katelin Pang — city@theaggie.org
