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Instead of taking a class to learn rock climbing, cross-country skiing, snow-cave building or CPR, she signed up to teach them. A quick instruction session was all she needed, and from there she learned as she taught others.

"I just enjoy embracing these different opportunities," Vergis said. "You learn a lot that way."
Now Vergis, 26, is jumping in to city politics with both feet, running for one of three seats opening in June on the City Council. But she's not just satisfying an interest in how a city is run or adding to her résumé. Vergis said she saw an opening for her on the council, a place where her experience and talent could make a difference.

A patient teacher

At Rocknasium, Vergis is teaching a student to climb. She is easy-going, friendly and helpful, offering compliments and support to her nervous charge as she makes her way slowly and shakily up the wall.

"Ring the bell!" Vergis shouts up as her student reaches the top before slowly lowering her back down.

Vergis and her boyfriend, Anthony Eggert, have climbed rocks in Thailand, and had one frightening episode in which Eggert's grip slipped and Vergis went rocketing upward. No one was hurt, and Vergis remembers it as an exciting experience, although one she'd prefer not to repeat. Vergis isn't looking to embark on any wild adventures in the near future. Between her job as a Sutter County senior land use planner during the day and campaigning for City Council on nights and weekends, her schedule is full. She talked to Mayor Pro Tem Ruth Asmundson about the time commitment that serving on the City Council demands, and decided she was up to the task. Retired people haven't always made up a majority of the council, after all, she said.
"That's a new thing. We've had gainfully employed people on the council, too. If I can work toward making this community better and building consensus, I'll find the time."

She also made sure she would be seen as a viable candidate with a chance to win. She talked to her Rotary Club and several council members before she announced her intentions, listening to their suggestions and asking questions.

"In terms of being a representative voice, I saw that as being a real possibility," she said.
Her endorsements include some heavy hitters, including former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, Mayor Pro Tem Ruth Asmundson, a couple of current school board members and many other easily recognized names.

A precipitous rise

Vergis' résumé reads like that of a much older person. After graduating from UC Davis in 2004 with a double major in economics and environmental policy, analysis and planning, she worked as a policy analyst for the California Commission on Aging and as an assistant financial adviser for Morgan Stanley.

In 2005, she worked as an assistant planner for Quad Knopf Inc., where she managed projects and prepared documents that adhered to the California Environmental Quality Act such as environmental impact reports. Soon after, she took a job as a senior planner for Pacific Municipal Consultants in Davis, at which she was responsible for advising cities and counties on their general plans and assisting in municipal financing and annexation efforts. This year, she took her current job, as a senior land use planner in Sutter County.

Her quick rise, she said, came from being involved, first joining groups on campus when she was in school, and then joining planning associations as a professional.

"I got to the point very quickly where I could manage projects," Vergis said. "I just enjoy embracing these different opportunities."

Vergis sees her experience as wholly applicable to the city of Davis as it faces an updated General Plan in 2010 and the possible renewal of Measure J — which allows voters to make the final decision on any periphery growth proposal that would change agricultural land to urban use.
"Right now we are setting our direction for the next 20 years, and that's no small thing," Vergis said. "During this council rotation, I realized there are a lot of issues coming up that I have experience in, land use, consensus building, financial planning. I think in the long term. Long-range municipal financing is also in my professional purview."

Plans for everything

Vergis has three-point plans to address several Davis issues, including one to increase biking in and around the city, and another to make Davis more environmental.

"Sydney's Go Green Three Point Plan" includes city facilities, alternative transportation and energy efficiency measures, some simple, like weatherizing all city buildings and installing compact florescent light bulbs; others more complex, like creating a program to provide financing for property owners to take on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

In fact, Vergis (along with Dick Dorf and Benjamin Finkelor) have already proposed and submitted such an initiative to the City Council.

Vergis also wants to see the city help businesses apply for utility rebates and encourage them to use energy efficient technologies, require solar energy in new retail or commercial buildings and parking lots and garages, and require new residential development to include solar panels and passive heating/cooling systems.

She is also interested in the concept of green roofs, living gardens on top of buildings that can reduce heating and cooling costs and produce vegetables and herbs.

"In this age of global warming and peak oil, these are things we have to explore," she said.
But she doesn't want to see environmental policy done piecemeal, she said.

"I want to see Davis back on the environmental forefront, implementing greener polices that allow us to save taxpayer dollars and contribute to a cleaner environment. The best way to accomplish this goal is through our General Plan, and over the course of the next four years, Davis will be going through its General Plan update."

How to keep it all in balance

Vergis spent her 26th birthday last week at a Davis Business and Economic Development Commission meeting. As an alternate member, she has been filling an empty seat, so attends most meetings.
Despite the fact that not even a birthday warrants a day off, Vergis is always seen in good humor, without a trace of stress. She says she's able to strike a balance between her career, civic pursuits and social life with little difficulty.

It helps that Eggert is similarly driven. A senior policy adviser to the state Air Resources Board, he and Vergis often talk off the clock about the intersections between land use planning and air quality.

Plus, she said, "I just got a kitten."

Vergis isn't thinking about multiple terms on the City Council or going on to higher office, as some local leaders have managed.

"I'm not a career politician," she said. "If people want my experience for the next four years, fantastic. I have the experience and the energy."

Six candidates are vying for three seats in the June 3 election. They are incumbents Sue Greenwald, Don Saylor and Stephen Souza; Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald, a labor relations representative; Rob Roy, a Ben & Jerry's manager and substitute teacher; and Vergis.

1. Reach Claire St. John at cstjohn@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8057. Comment on this story at www.davisenterprise.com

Sydney Vergis
Occupation: Senior land use planner
Personal/professional: Age 26; Works for Sutter County, developing a habitat conservation plan spanning two counties that will preserve contiguous wildlife corridors; worked for private environmental consulting firm, responsible for advising various cities and counties on their general plans and assisting in their municipal financing and annexation efforts; worked for Morgan Stanley, the California Commission on Aging and Assembly Committee on Agriculture; graduated from UC Davis with double major in economics and environmental policy, analysis and planning with water quality emphasis; served as Davis Tree commissioner, Economic and Business Development commissioner and on the Davis Sunrise chapter of Rotary International; chair of the Yolo County Young Democrats.

Endorsements: Former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, Davis Mayor Pro Tem Ruth Asmundson, Jay Gerber, Lea Rosenberg, Andy Frank.