A few weeks ago the Vanguard printed the ballot statements for and against Measure P.
Signing the ballot statement for Measure P were Jay Gerber, Business Owner/ former President Davis Chamber of Commerce; Tansey Thomas, former City Council Candidate and Community Activist; Stan Forbes Business Owner and former Davis City Councilmember; Pam Nieberg, Environmental Activist; and Ken Wagstaff, Former Mayor of Davis.
Hardly a day or week goes by without hearing about a complaint of media bias, generally from the nation’s right. To the right wing, there is little doubt that the nation’s media appear to be biased in one direction. What is perhaps not as well publicized, perhaps due to the fact that the left do not have their own FOX Noise to response, but to the left, the nation’s mainstream media appear biased in the other direction.
The truth as usual is probably found somewhere in between. However, from my perspective one of the most interesting observations made by leftist critic Noam Chomsky in his book “Manufacturing Consent” was the reliance on the media for official government sources. At a national level depending on the regime, that may taint news coverage, although these days media attempt to balance most reports by covering the views of the opposition.
On August 8, 2009, the Vanguard ran a story on its court battle to protect the anonymity…
Key provisions that would have changed the way we do sentencing and incarceration have been swept aside. These include a plan that would have allowed some prisoners to finish their sentences at home–which would have freed up huge amounts of jail space and saved money. They also removed provisions that would have changed some felonies to misdemeanors and would have created a sentencing commission to revamp sentencing rules.
Yesterday’s article discussed the issue of housing affordability in Davis. At that time, we chose to separate the overall issue of housing affordability from the hot button issue of Wildhorse Ranch that voters will vote on come November. One of the crucial questions voters will have to determine is to what extent, Wildhorse Ranch provides housing that meets our needs in Davis.
As we discussed yesterday, the problem of affordability of housing in Davis has no simple solution. Indeed each of the three solutions that we threw out as possible answers had serious shortcommings.
Last week the Vanguard broke the news that a Yolo County District Attorney Investigator Randy Skaggs has filed a lawsuit against Yolo County, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, DA Jeff Reisig and Chief District Attorney Investigator Pete Martin for among other things a violation of right to privacy and whistle-blower retaliation.
The key charge was a breach of privacy related to a personnel investigation and the allegation that the DA’s office had initiated this investigation in retaliation for Mr. Skaggs’ involvement in whistle-blowing in a case where he believed the DA’s office had failed to turn over exculpatory evidence.
In recent weeks there has been an active and persistent discussion on the Vanguard about the issue of workforce housing. The discussion has been interesting and impassioned. The emerging consensus places the number somewhere around $200,000 as housing that a substantial portion of the workforce can afford. While I am sympathetic to the viewpoint of the people who are advocating for more affordable housing for the Davis workforce, I think the discussion to this point has focused too narrowly on one number and one population segment.
I have long been an advocate of slow growth in Davis, and I think the 1% growth requirement set by the council majority is currently set too high. I also believe that any actual growth should not be based on a requirement number, but rather on two concepts: first, internal demand and second, quality of the project.
The argument by those who were skeptical about the prospects of a new store coming to West Lake was simple, no one would simply allow their property lie vacant intentionally and take financial losses. That would be illogical. However, on November 24, 2008, right before Thanksgiving, I was looking for a topic and somewhat casually I listed out top goals for the coming year and there I decided to put getting a grocery store at the top of the list.
by Eric Alfaro – It is very clear that local politicians can easily become interconnected with other politicians for the sake of re-elections. This process becomes rather vulgar when convictions and ideals are ignored for the sake of political endorsements and alliances. This is already evident in Woodland. Political parties are blurred, almost indistinguishable-only one political party really exists, the party of the opportunist. It is no surprise that this sacred covenant has attracted much attention. Recently, the Yolo District Attorney was sued for obstruction of justice; a multi-layer allegation. What this means is that corruption, if at the highest point of Yolo County authority, is most likely also in small areas within the subordinate ranks. Sheriff Ed Prieto is no rookie to allegations of mismanagement, just recently he fired a sheriffs deputy for killing a dog.
While the exemption from the city never occurred, the noise problem remains and has actually worsened. A letter signed by at least five residents was recently sent to City Manager Bill Emlen and copied to the the Police Chief Landy Black, each of the councilmembers, the Davis Enterprise and the Vanguard.
News about the ongoing negotiations with the city’s bargaining groups have been slow and quiet. While the Vanguard clearly understands that bargaining cannot take place in a public setting, there also could have been mechanisms put into place to have public updates on the process to hold our leaders accountable for the decision that necessarily have to be made behind closed doors.
The state pension crisis in the meantime is beginning to take on a life of its own. There is huge amounts of political pressure coming to bear to reform the pension system. This is exactly what some of us who remain pro-union but also believe that the current system is unsustainable have feared–a solution that will be draconian and will harm the people who are really not causing the current problem, those who make less than $40,000 and struggle for their meager paychecks and hope for enough to have a secure retirement. It is those people that I worry most about and who are most at risk with the current political culture that will likely throw all the babies out with the dirty bathwater.
On the Vanguard, we often focus on the negative–offering criticism to public entities for their service to the public and acting as a watchdog. For much of the early years on the Vanguard, we were critical of the Davis Police Department. At the same time, we have often stated that things have improved under the leadership of Chief Landy Black who was hired in early 2007.
Recently, I was a first hand witness to a situation that could have been very negative, but because it was handled promptly, became a net positive for all involved.
On Friday, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs Lawrence Pitts sent out a letter announcing that the proposed faculty furloughs will not occur on instructional days–those “days for which a faculty member is scheduled to give lectures, lead classes or workshops, have scheduled office hours, or have other scheduled face-to-face responsibilities for students.”
In some ways, this might seem to a no-brainer as it mitigates the impact of what should be the university’s primary duty–the education of students. However, not surprisingly this has trigger criticism from faculty leaders and representation.
At least 200 people and as many as 300 showed up on a Saturday night in Woodland with the County Fair in full swing. They boisterously but peacefully exercised their First Amendment rights to protest against their government.
It seems like not long ago, I was sitting down and handicapping the races for 2010 and the general conclusion was that District Attorney Jeff Reisig would probably escape without serious challenge. It seemed he built up enough protection and that no one would be particularly eager to challenge him. The sense is at this point however that Mr. Reisig is much more vulnerable than one might think and a credible challenger could emerge with a good shot of knocking him off.
In 2006, Jeff Reisig earned the support of the outgoing District Attorney David Henderson and along with him nearly the entire DA’s office, the entire law enforcement establishment, and most of the political establishment. Indeed, if you looked at the list of endorsements alone, you would assume that Reisig would win in a landslide. And yet, it was a hard and at times bitterly fought race against fellow Deputy DA Pat Lenzi. It was a race marked by outright lies and distortions of Ms. Lenzi’s record. But it was a race that came down to a very narrow victory for Mr. Reisig.
On Monday that agreement was officially signed according to Harley DeLano, the company’s CEO.
Yolo County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Randy Skaggs has filed a lawsuit against Yolo County, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, DA Jeff Reisig and Chief District Attorney Investigator Pete Martin for among other things a violation of right to privacy and whistle-blower retaliation.
In September of 2008, Mr. Skaggs, a ten year veteran DA Investigator was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an administrative inquiry into allegations of misconduct. Details of the discipline case were then disclosed to Dave Markss, Chief DA Investigator for Colusa County’s DA’s Office who sent the details of the conversation to no less than thirteen other Chief District Attorney Investigators.
by Elaine Roberts Musser –I wrote an article for the Davis Vanguard last month, decrying the shady practices of debt collectors in the homeowner association arena. You can access this article in the Davis Vanguard archives. It is entitled ” Word to the Wise: The creation of Artificial Debt”. In it I referred readers to a link to see news coverage on the subject by KTVU in Oakland at the following website: http://www.ktvu.com/news/20138028/detail.html. Now there is an important update to the story.
The legislature returned this week from their August break by taking up what is undoubtedly the most contentious topic this side of the budget, and perhaps even including the budget, water and what to do about the Delta.
Facing the legislature are five bills, packaged together to address critical issues of facing California Water and the Delta. Tuesday was largely an informational that saw the issues laid forth.
The Ballot statements for and against Measure P have been submitted to the County Clerk. These are both of them verbatim.
Signing the ballot statement for Measure P are Jay Gerber, Business Owner/ former President Davis Chamber of Commerce; Tansey Thomas, former City Council Candidate and Community Activist; Stan Forbes Business Owner and former Davis City Councilmember; Pam Nieberg, Environmental Activist; and Ken Wagstaff, Former Mayor of Davis.