Month: March 2009

California Supreme Court To Hear Oral Arguments to Invalidate Proposition 8

Today in San Francisco, the California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments from the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), ACLU, and Lambada legal challenging the November 5 passage of Proposition 8 which sought to overturn the Supreme Court ruling from last year granting rights to same sex partners.

On Vanguard Radio last night, the Vanguard spoke to Elizabeth Gill Staff Attorney from the ACLU in San Francisco and Natalie Wormeli from the Yolo County ACLU. They informed the Vanguard that the central argument that will be made comes down to the fact that the California Constitution does not permit the fundamental constitutional rights of a minority to be stripped away by a simple majority vote.

Second UC Davis Police Officer Files Suit Against University and Police Chief Spicuzza

Last month we reported that Former UC Davis Police Officer Calvin Chang had filed suit against the university claiming breach of the settlement agreement and a variety of harassment and discrimination charges.

We also reported that this would likely be the first in a string of complaints against the departments. The Vanguard has now learned that on February 26, 2009, a second UC Davis Police officer, Officer Chithien Le has filed suited against the UC Davis Police Officer.

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School Board Votes To Cut Nearly 40 Teaching Positions

The final toll at Tuesday night’s meaning was probably best and succinctly summed up by an off-hand comment from School Board Member Richard Harris who proclaimed, “the whole thing sucks.”  He quickly followed up that the school district is “not going to be as good as it was, but it’s going to be as good as we can possibly make it.”

The toll of nearly 40 teachers really understates by a large magnitude the final decision of the school board.  In addition to that there were 17 classified positions lost, they that during closed session to decision that another 35 temporary position would be terminated.

Can City Hold Line on New Employee Contract Negotiations?

We have been talking about this for months, but the Enterprise is starting to see the light of day on the issue of city contract talks with six of the employee bargaining units with the city.

One of the big questions that will need to be determined is the extent to which this process will have transparency.  Often what has happened in the past is that the first time either the council or the public knows about the contract is after the city’s “negotiators” usually the city manager, HR person, and finance director reach agreement with heads of the employee bargaining units.

City Continues to Withhold Full Fire Report from Council and Public

Redacted Version is Heavily Censored Revealing Little New Information

On January 13, 2009, the Davis City Council listened to investigator Bob Aaronson and City Manager Bill Emlen discuss very different interpretations of the Mr. Aaronson’s investigation into allegations present in the June of 2008 Grand Jury Report.

It was a report that the elected members of the Davis City Council did not get to read in full. The Vanguard subsequently filed a California Public Records Act Request for both the full unredacted report and a redacted report. The city of Davis, as expected has denied the Vanguard access to the full version of the report.

Guest Commentary: Prioritizing the DHS Stadium

By Mike Satre –

It is understandable that questions arise when reading headlines about prioritization of a track and stadium renovation on the same page describing possible cuts to teaching positions and/or salaries.  The most important fact in this seemingly incomprehensible situation is that by law, District facilities funds are completely separate and distinct from general operations funds used for teacher salaries and programs.  Further, a loan for facility projects has no connection to funds used for the operations budget, and funds to pay the loan come from school facility tax assessments, not parcel taxes for teachers and programs.

Judge Orders Defendants to Cease Delay Tactics in Buzayan Case

It was summer of 2005 when then 16 year-old Halema Buzayan was arrested by Davis Police Officer Pheng Ly. Much has happened since that time both within the city and the police department. But one thing that has not happened is that the Federal Lawsuit filed by Ms. Buzayan’s family has not gone to trial. That may finally change shortly as a Federal Judge last week ordered the defense to quit stalling and allow the case to move forward.

Halema Buzayan and her family allege 16 causes of action against the Davis Police Department, individual police officers, the Yolo County District Attorney and several individual’s from the DA’s Office, and the City of Davis. Specifically the list of defendants include: City of Davis, former Davis Police Chief James Hyde, Assistant Police Chief Steven Pierce, Officer Pheng Ly and Ben Hartz, Former DA David Henderson, Deputy DA Patricia Fong, and Counsel for Yolo County and the City of Davis Douglas Thorn who is himself a defendant in this case.

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