enterprise THE DAVIS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2022
COVID in sewage nearly matches January peak By Anne Ternus-Bellamy
Vice Chancellor Kelly Ratliff addresses grand opening ceremony at The Green at West Village in July 2021.
Enterprise staff writer
In 2013, as associate vice chancellor for Budget and Institutional Analysis, Ratliff helped implement a new budget model for UC Davis, a major undertaking which she, along with a small team, accomplished in less than a year and a half. The new model gave campus leaders more predictability and transparency in the annual
Levels of COVID-19 in Davis wastewater are nearly as high as they were during the peak of the January Omicron surge — the worst surge the city has seen during the pandemic — according to the county’s health officer. And while the COVID-19 case rate and test positivity rate are rising quickly, they have not reached the peaks seen in January. That, said Dr. Aimee Sisson, provides an indication of just how many cases of COVID-19 the county is missing in its data given the increasing popularity of home antigen tests, the results of which are not included in the county’s case rate and test positivity data. “We get a sense of just how many cases we might be missing,” she told the Yolo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. That said, both the county case rate and the test positivity rate are rapidly rising. Last Friday’s case rate was 26.3 cases per 100,000 residents, representing a 57 percent increase from the week before, Sisson said. On Tuesday, the case rate had climbed
See RETIRES, Page A5
See COVID, Page A5
Gregory Urquiaga, UC Davis/Courtesy photo
Vice chancellor retires after 35 years By Caleb Hampton Enterprise staff writer Kelly Ratliff, UC Davis vice chancellor of Finance, Operations and Administration, retired May 13 after a 35-year career at the university. Through her work managing campus budgets and finances, Ratliff left a lasting impact on many aspects of UC Davis, including the Mondavi Center, Aggie Square and the Healthy Davis Together COVID-19 testing program. After graduating from high school in San Jose, Ratliff came to UC Davis as an undergraduate student in 1982. A
zoology major, Ratliff lived in the Tercero dorms and put herself through school by working at Bank of America. After graduating, she got a job on campus as a principal clerk for the California Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System. Ratliff earned a master of business administration (MBA) from UC Davis’ Graduate School of Management. In 1996, she began working as a budget analyst in the campus Planning and Budget Office. “As a budget analyst and then budget director, Ratliff quickly became an expert in specific campus budget and financing issues, with impacts that helped
raise many of today’s major campus buildings,” a retrospective of Ratliff ’s career published by UC Davis stated. She helped with the financing plans to build the Mondavi Center, which broke ground in 2000, and her expertise was vital to the construction of the $95 million Genome and Biomedical Sciences Building, which opened in 2004 and has recently been home to the lab that processes the campus’ COVID-19 saliva tests. Ratliff was especially skilled at breaking down a complicated billion-dollar budget into an accessible explanation for her colleagues, her office said. “The
way we tell the story of the budget from a campus level, that’s something I really gave a personality to,” Ratliff said in the retrospective article. “I can explain it in a way that people understand it.”
Former Aggie water polo coach released on bail
Police seek 2 in pricey plant pilfering
By Caleb Hampton Enterprise staff writer
By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer Davis police are on the lookout for two late-night thieves who may also have green thumbs. They’re suspected of stealing a rare, pricey plant from The Growing Groves, a newly opened shop at 219 E St. in downtown Davis. “I think it was very targeted. They knew what that plant was valued at,” shop co-founder Larry Groves said of the Monstera Thai Constellation worth an estimated $2,000.
See PLANT, Page A2
VOL. 124 NO. 62
INDEX
Business Focus B6 Forum �������������� A4 Obituaries �������� A5 Classifieds ������B4 The Hub ������������B1 Sports ��������������B2 Comics ������������B3 Living ���������������� A3 The Wary I �������� A2
Courtesy photo
Plant-shop owner Larry Groves believes thieves targeted this $2,000 Monstera Thai Constellation plant in Saturday’s break-in.
WEATHER Thursday: Mostly sunny, coooler. High 86. Low 56.
Daniel Joseph Noble, former assistant coach for UC Davis men’s water polo, was released Monday from Sacramento County Jail after payment of his $100,000 bond. Federal agents arrested Noble at his Sycamore Lane home in Davis on Thursday in connection with an undercover child pornography investigation. On Friday, he was charged with knowing distribution of visual depiction of prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Deborah L. Barnes ordered several conditions of Noble’s release, including GPS location monitoring, restricted travel and a ban from using computers or other devices capable of accessing the internet. He will stay at his parents’ Southern California residence under home detention during the court process. “I can tell you, you have a lot to do to make sure you’re not sitting across the street for the next year, year-and-a-half
HOW TO REACH US www.davisenterprise.com Main line: 530-756-0800 Circulation: 530-756-0826
http://facebook.com/ TheDavisEnterpriseNewspaper http://twitter.com/D_Enterprise
See BAIL, Page A5
WED • FRI • $1