The following is the text of my comments to Council on Tuesday night:
As Councilmember Sue Greenwald said on multiple occasions last week, the council’s discussion completely ignored the largest sources of expenditures and the areas that we must address, not only to close the multi-year, multi-million dollar deficit, but to address the structural issues that underlie our current predicament.
It is also more than a bit distasteful that a person such as yourself, with a public safety, enhanced retirement package, receiving full benefits, and 3 percent at 50, would be complaining about a council health care package, that would aid your colleagues less fortunate than yourself. At the very least, you could have stepped up and offered to pay for your own travel expenses, for League of Cities conferences.
Mayor Asmundson, while at times I have applauded your fiscal prudence, last week was not one of them. You chose to focus your energies on the dollars and cents involved in council meetings. At the same time you failed to mention the hundreds of thousands if not millions that the city is spending on compensation packages that you yourself have acknowledged as problematic. I am frankly tired of standing up here complaining about your efforts to speed up meetings, cutting off public discussion and council discussion on critical issues. We need more open government and transparency, not less. You complained last week about people wasting time discussing issues and then proceeded to waste everyone’s time discussing issues of almost no import.
Paul Navazio, I am most disappointed at you, because I know you understand the big picture here and recognize the problems facing our city if we do not get our fiscal house in order. You and the City Manager are ultimately responsible for setting the tone for council to follow.
It is instructive to note the difference in how the city council has handled budget challenges versus how the school district has chosen to handle their sizable fiscal challenges. When school board members suggested cutting travel expenses, Bruce Colby stood up and said you can do that if you want, cut it to zero, but that is not going to balance the budget or address our problems.
Like the school district, the city puts most of its resources into staff. That means in order to balance the budget we must either cut staff and programs or cut salaries. Don Saylor, I know you spent many years on the school board. You know that cutting teaching positions is a horrible thing to do. You also know that the school district did the only thing it could do. Now I am asking you as the Mayor Pro Tem to step up and do the only thing you can do here. That means you either have to layoff staff, cut positions, or for godsake step up and help us solve our larger structural issues with more sensible employee bargaining group contracts.
Councilmember Greenwald has been literally screaming for this for as long as I have been watching and before. I know many of you do not like her, but she was right then and she is right now. Follow her lead.
The citizens of Davis have been asked to step up to save education. They will apparently be asked to take a hit on their wallets with increased water rates. We have funded parks. We are hurting. We cannot step up anymore. I ask all of you to do your jobs and make the tough decisions. The longer this lingers, the worse off we will be, the more we will have to cut.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Great speech. Now who is going to step up as a volunteer to run for the city council during our recall efforts to get rid of Ruth and Don? They are only council members because no one cares to run for election.
awesome and well said!
DPD, I think you eloquently expressed the growing collective concerns of the community, that is feeling very frustrated right now. None of us believes for one second that upcoming bargaining for new employee contracts is going to be done in the best interests of the city. The City Manager refuses to admit the city has a financial problem, a signal that he will not be doing any tough negotiating. There is no question Bill Emlen and his minions are working hand in hand w the rest of city staff to get the absolute fattest deal possible for city employees at taxpayer expense. (Why not? Bill Emlen doesn’t live here in Davis, and won’t have to pay our city taxes.)
Of course the budget will not handle the rising costs of city employee salaries and benefits, so the only recourse will be for City Council to raise taxes. Between new taxes and the added collosal “tax” of sewer/water rate increases, middle income folks will be driven out of Davis, including many seniors on fixed incomes and young families w children. What will Davis look like in the future if this is allowed to happen? The “new” Davis will have its fair share of federally mandated low income housing, and then the wealthy – an ugly inequitable two-tiered system. That’s about it. This is where we are headed folks! Probably a wealthy enclave of mostly seniors w money, w a sprinkling of low income folks for effect.
It is time for citizens to leave their apathy behind, and think of creative ways to get the message across that if the City Council and City Staff do not start acting fiscally responsible and in the best interests of the city – instead of their own best interests – there are going to be dire consequences from collective citizen indignation. Let’s come up with some powerful options on how to get things moving. DPD got the ball rolling, but now is the time to increase the momentum of outrage at what is going on…
Wow! Good!
Was there any reaction to your comments during the rest of that meeting?
For a long time I’ve thought that if there were only some way to eliminate the huge cost of running for CC we might get better representation. There are many qualified candidates out there who can’t cough up the $25K or whatever it costs to print up thousands of mailers that just wind up in the recycle bin anyway.
Great speech. Very concise and to the point.
As for stepping up and actually addressing the problems the city faces, along with a lot of other cities, I find humans usually do what must be done only when they have no other choices. Apparently the city council follows that pattern as well.
I gave information regarding changes which can and should be made in communities to Vashek Cervinka, Sierra Club. I think he was putting together a draft to present to the city. The information was on Britain’s “Transition town” which is actually being implemented in many parts of the world. (google it)
While we aren’t in “end of oil” “end of resources” mode quite yet, Changes are called for in the way we manage our cities. Davis is unique in having abundant smart folks who could, if they only would, begin resolution on some of the problems which are impacting the area.
You nailed it! The City has been put on notice and the community should hold every Councilmember responsible to make sure that new affordable labor contracts are put in place. The City’s labor negotiators are currently in “negotiations” with all city employee labor groups. The City Council must insist that City Manager Bill Emlen, Assistant City Manager Paul Navazio, Human Resources Administrator Melissa Chaney and City Attorney Harriet Steiner who make up the negotiating team representing the City close the budget gap caused by previous MOU contracts with the employee bargaining units, including their own. The problem is that these very same people have all mightily contributed to the city’s current and long-term fiscal instability because they “gave away the store” in previous labor negotiations. They agreed to salaries, benefits and retirements that the City could not afford. None of the current MOU contracts were affordable (especially the lavish upper management and fire fighter contracts) or sustainable, yet Emlen & Co. did it anyway and previous city councils that included Ruth Asmundson and Don Saylor approved them. We will watch what they do over the next few weeks and see if our city leaders will provide the LEADERSHIP necessary to change past behavior or will they just do as they have always done—increasingly put the City in financial peril.
David, thank you for your willingness to confront the “pink elephant” in the room.
We should collectively show up and reinvigorate democracy in Yolo county
Thanks for acknowledging Sue Greenwald’s lone voice in the wilderness! She has consistently been an outspoken advocate for the common sense views that no one else on the council seems willing or able to tarticulate. In fact, most of the rest of the council seem so simply want to shut her up. Fortunately, she won’t be silenced! And thank you too (for the umpteenth time) for taking a stand for Davis! I applaud you for that.
Lamar Heystek has been outspoken on this too issue to along with Sue. He has not tried to shut her up, but the other three council members have. I applaud Lamar for speaking up and standing firm on this issue.
If you are reading the Vanguard Lamar I want to tell you that I hope you run for re-election. I will vote for you.
Why did you bring up Don Saylor’s pension? Why is that relevant? Isn’t that in poor taste?
“Why did you bring up Don Saylor’s pension? Why is that relevant? Isn’t that in poor taste?”
No, Don Sayor is being a hypocrite. Read what DPD wrote –
“It is also more than a bit distasteful that a person such as yourself, with a public safety, enhanced retirement package, receiving full benefits, and 3 percent at 50, would be complaining about a council health care package, that would aid your colleagues less fortunate than yourself. At the very least, you could have stepped up and offered to pay for your own travel expenses, for League of Cities conferences.”
There’s a different and well-tried model for community residents to fully and take responsibility for community finance and budget deliberations and decisions. Just google “participatory budgeting” – let’s give it a try.
Nancy
No, its more of a snide little dig. Don earned those benefits after working for many years. He owns them and played by the rules to get them. If you want to say that Davis employees should not have them or that councilmembers deserve them that is fine but to attack Don for having them is a truly cheap shot.
Yawn….
Then you contradict yourself David you complain about the few thousand Don spent going to league of cities meetings and then cite Navazio for saying such expenses are insignificant so why bring it up if its insignificant?
Why bicker about the insignificant amounts Don Saylor wasted, when we could be talking about the millions Saylor has voted to waste on unsustainable city employee salaries and benefits!
Get Real said:
04/18/09 – 01:40 PM…
“Why bicker about the insignificant amounts Don Saylor wasted, when we could be talking about the millions Saylor has voted to waste on unsustainable city employee salaries and benefits!’
Indeed!
Vehemently! Way to put it, DPD. From the dungeons of words, you are a master of elements and style and the occasional proper comma placement. To be you … to be strunk with genie … how I wish I could be the great DPD, the great DuPeD! So inciteful–I mean, insightful–no, I mean, incite fool.
! I have no idea what you said, so I will take it as a compliment. Thanks for reading (watching).