END GAME … the news just keeps getting worse for EMQ FamiliesFirst, which seems to be fighting a losing battle to keep open its Davis facility that allegedly helps adolescents with serious emotional problems … first it was the state revoking the group home’s license, then it was the Yolo County mental health department yanking FamiliesFirst’s certification to provide mental health services to children covered by Medi-Cal, and now a wrongful termination lawsuit has been filed by a former employee who makes a number of serious allegations about how the facility was run …

In the lawsuit, plaintiff Robert Oldham charges FamiliesFirst with wrongful termination, violation of the labor code and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other causes of action … so the state and the county, and now a former employee, are all engaged in a pitched battle with FamiliesFirst, but the citizens of Davis seemingly have absolutely no say about this clear and present danger in our midst …

Yes, these are troubled youths who deserve our attention and our concern, no matter where they come from and no matter the difficult life histories that brought them here … but the safety of the community also should be in play … if FamiliesFirst cannot come up with a workable plan that both serves its residents and guarantees the safety of the community, it should not be allowed to continue functioning in our town …

WOLK ME WHEN IT’S OVER … it’s interesting that Dan Wolk, the mayor in waiting of this beautiful town, is passing up his opportunity to become mayor of the Most Relevant City in America to seek a job across the river … I suppose he can still be mayor in the unlikely event he loses, but it would be a bitter consolation prize at that point, especially if Joe Krovoza is the victor …

Some say Dan is much too young to be so ambitious and should have waited his turn in line … I say nonsense … in fact, I told him long ago he should have run for Congress straight out of the chute … why mess around with playpen politics when you’re clearly destined for greater things? … you think Barack Obama would have wasted his time on the Davis City Council, deciding how many free parking spots to give to Zipcar or whether or not 7-Eleven can wrap your six-pack of Bud in a plastic bag? … this kid has bigger fish to fry …

COACHING CAROUSEL … a concerned parent — one of many, by the way — writes to ask: “What’s going on with the Davis High athletic program?” … you mean where popular, talented and successful coaches are shown the door behind closed doors and are left to wonder what on Earth they did wrong? … “Everything is secretive,” the writer goes on accurately … indeed, the veil of “confidentiality” is thick, even when the deposed coach in question is willing to waive confidentiality for a full public hearing … rumor has it the school board may yet revisit several of the recent coaching changes and demand answers … things could get very interesting in the next several weeks …

A GUARANTEED WIN … after reading the details of the Yolo Ratepayers lawsuit, my friend Luther says he now realizes that “the Yolo Ratepayers are both the defendants and the plaintiffs in this lawsuit.” … he would be right … “How can they lose?” … they can’t … but if I were to lay a bet in this legal showdown, I’d bet on the plaintiffs …

— Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected]

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