December 2009 - Page 2 of 3

Annual Apartment Vacancy Survey Out

By David GreenwaldDecember 17, 20094 comments

Davis Apartment Vacancy Rate Increases Fourfold –

Every year at this time, the UC Davis Office of Student Housing conduct an annual survey of vacancy and rental-rate information to provide the campus and the Davis Community with information for future planning.

Last year, the apartment vacancy rate was .8 percent, this year it quadrupled to 3.2 percent. At the same time, rental rates also rose by an average of 1.05%.

Mayor and Council Cut Off Debate on Fire Contract

By David GreenwaldDecember 16, 200931 comments

The City Council last night approved the Firefighters Contract by a 3-2 vote ending a prolonged battle that may define the future of this city and its fiscal sustainability.

In a heated discussion, Councilmember Sue Greenwald pressed the Finance Director to explain where the inflated savings figures came from. During the course of that discussion, Councilmember Greenwald demonstrated that the level of savings was actually considerably less in year three than the 3.6 percent trumpeted by city staff.

Council Directs Exemption of Homeless Service Limitations for Davis Community Church

By David GreenwaldDecember 16, 20098 comments

On December 1, the Davis City Council voted by a 4-1 vote to approve an MOU with Davis Community Church regarding the provision of services for homeless at their facility. This was in response to increasing frustration expressed by the neighbors on and around D Street regarding what they describe as an over-concentration of homeless services in their neighborhood.

One of the key provisions of the MOU was a 25 person limitation on services provided both in terms of cold weather shelter and in terms of a Brown Bag Lunch Program.

Guest Commentary: Allowing Our Churches To Serve the Homeless

By David GreenwaldDecember 15, 200910 comments

by Richard Cipian –

There is an event Tuesday at the Davis City Council chambers at 6pm. Up for discussion will be the city’s policy of limiting the ability of faith organizations to provide services for the unsheltered of Davis.

According to the United Nations and the United States constitution every citizen in America and throughout the world has a right to warm shelter as well as food and health care. Access to shelter is an integral ingredient to ensuring good health and well being for all.

In Search of An Alternative Radio Tower Location

By Matt WilliamsDecember 15, 20096 comments

by Matt Williams –

The third agenda item on Thursday’s Yolo County Planning Commission was a public hearing for Results Radio’s application for a use permit for a 335 foot tall radio tower on Mace Boulevard, three quarters of a mile south of Montgomery on agricultural land zoned A-1, which means the land should only be used for agriculture.

Because Results Radio had officially asked for a continuance, County Council told the Commissioners that the only decision they could legally make was to continue the hearing until a later date. Before they made that decision, the Commissioners heard Staff’s report on the application, as well as testimony from the applicant, the public, and Bill Abbott the land use lawyer engaged by some of the members of the Southeast Davis Coalition that formally opposes the application. After the testimony each Commissioner made comments and gave the applicant guidance. The continuance was officially until March.

Cell Tower Controversy Focus Squarely on Community Development Director

By David GreenwaldDecember 14, 200932 comments

The City Council this week is being provided a report from City Manager Bill Emlen that gives an update on the NewPath Networks Permitting Issues that nearly resulted in cell towers being placed on private residential property.

The city has now issued on a stop work notice effective November 30 and a notice of recession of encroachment permits on December 5.

Setting the Record Straight on Fire Contracts

By David GreenwaldDecember 14, 200910 comments

City and Enterprise Compete As To Who Can Be Most Misleading –

On Saturday we broke the news that the city had finally reached agreement with the firefighters union on a new bargaining contract. As expected it largely did not address the long-term issues and from our perspective the short-term fixes were insufficient.

We figured that the city would try to sell the public that this was a great deal for the city. We should have figured that the Davis Enterprise would be a willing partner to this obfuscation. However, we did not count on the magnitude of these efforts.

City Forecloses on DACHA

By David GreenwaldDecember 13, 20096 comments

Action Puts in Jeopardy the Homes of Affordable Housing Residents for Little Good Reason

The Vanguard has learned that the city has now brought foreclosure procedures against DACHA, that could eventually mean that the residents lose their homes and the property and assets are dissolved in order for them to repay the city’s 4.15 million loan granted in June of 2008.

According to the notice which was filed on November 19, 2009, they have three months to pay $59,427.28 or face the sale of the property without court action. In addition, they must make other normal payments as well.

City and Firefighter Local Reach Agreement on New Contract

By David GreenwaldDecember 12, 200911 comments

Contract Falls Well Short of Needed Savings and Allows For No Period of Public Vetting

Last night, the city of Davis announced that the city had reached a tentative agreement on a three year labor contract with the Firefighters Union, Local 3494. The proposed contract is on the City Council’s agenda for ratification on December 15.

The contract includes a decrease in salary over the next three years including a 6% decrease over the REMAINDER of the current fiscal year, in July of 2010 the salaries will be reduced by 4% over the current salary and in July 2011, a 3% reduction from current salaries.

The Fight is on for Federal Education Money

By David GreenwaldDecember 11, 20099 comments

California is trying to pass legislation that will clear the way for Calfiornia to compete in the Race to the Top program which would make the state eligible for up to 700 million. The money would go to reform the nation’s worst-performing schools. However, a fight has emerged on what role Charter Schools should play in this effort.

Earlier this week, the Assembly approved legislation by Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica). This legislation would lift the cap on the number of charter schools in California, at the same time revamping the state’s academic standards and target federal funding to those schools most in trouble.

Responding to Matt Rexroad on Gutierrez Shooting

By David GreenwaldDecember 10, 20094 comments

This past weekend, the Woodland Daily Democrat printed an op-ed of mine on the issue of the District Attorney’s Office report on the shooting of Luis Gutierrez. I did not replicate the article here due to the fact that I have said everything on these pages that I did in the op-ed and more so. The op-ed generated 144 comments on the Daily Democrat site.

Today, Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad, a former Mayor of Woodland, has written a response that was published on the Daily Democrat site. When I first met Mr. Rexroad, I told him that he and I would likely be adversaries quite a bit. What I have found is that there are times when I disagree with him, but there have also been times when we have been on the same side of the issue. This is probably the issue of the biggest disagreement between the two of us.

Heystek Opposes Sales Tax Extensions Without Financial System Overhaul

By David GreenwaldDecember 10, 20094 comments

On Tuesday, the Vanguard reiterated its opposition to the renewal of the city’s half-cent sales tax that first approved back in 2004. At Tuesday night’s Davis City Council meeting, Councilmember Lamar Heystek also reitreated his opposition to the sales tax extension that the City Council is currently considering placing on the June 2010 ballot unless the city’s financial system is fundamentally overhauled.

He cited among his reasons a lack of priority that the personnel cost savings target of 1.25 million dollars has taken in city negotiations that he believes will fall well short of that type of savings and will occur so late in the fiscal year that any cost savings realized with be mitigated in impact on the budget shortfall.

Council Agrees To Leave Measure J Largely Untouched

By David GreenwaldDecember 9, 200922 comments

During the course of the discussion of Measure J, there was a good deal of concern about whether the proposed changes by staff were really technical and non-substantive or whether they actually represented something that could undermine the basic integrity of the measure.

At issue were two sections proposed by staff to clarify provisions of Measure J.

Council Begins To Consider Sales Tax Renewal

By David GreenwaldDecember 8, 20092 comments

Tonight the Davis City Council will begin to assess the potential for renewing the half-cent sales tax. Staff is hoping the council will approve placement of the tax renewal on the June 2010 ballot.

In March of 2004, the Davis voters passed a one-half cent sales tax that will sunset on December 31, 2010 unless voters reauthorize the measure. According to the city’s staff report, the tax currently generates approximately 2.9 million dollars in annual general fund revenues, representing around 8% of the city’s overall General Fund.

City Staff Attempts to Backdoor Changes to Measure J at Last Moment

By David GreenwaldDecember 7, 200949 comments

Back in June, the Davis City Council agreed to place Measure J on the ballot as currently written with the current ten year sunset extended to 2020. At the same time they entertained the idea at the behest of Councilmember Stephen Souza to look into a business park exemption. The idea was to have commissions such as Business and Economic Development, Open Space, and the Planning Commission consider such an exemption. However, none of the commissioners were very interested in such a change.

In September, the City Council directed staff to return with necessary administrative documents prior to the end of the year to place the renewal of Measure J on the June 2010 ballot for voter consideration. At that time, Council also directed that the language of Measure J should remain unaltered, however they did provide for “technical edits” that were in fact discussed at the time.

UC Protest Becomes PR Fodder for University, District Attorney

By David GreenwaldDecember 6, 20093 comments

While all of the newspaper headlines presented the gleeful headline, “No Charges Against UC Davis Protests.” The subtext of that release from District Attorney Jeff Reisig is much more subdued, “DA will monitor future demonstrations.”

UC Davis announced right before Thanksgiving last week that an agreement was reached whereby the protesters would end their occupation of Mrak which was done peacefully and without incident.

With Furloughs and Fees Hikes Underway, UC Under Major Scrutiny

By David GreenwaldDecember 6, 20093 comments

With the University of California imposing a 32% fee increase to students and implementing furloughs and layoffs as a means to cut costs, the UC System is now under increased scrutiny from a variety of fronts. On November 23, 2009, the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) issued a complaint regarding unfair labor practices and bad faith negotiations.

This week, UC Associate Vice President for Information Resources and Communications, David Ernst was exposed for for misusing $150,000 in public moneys to finance lavish overseas trips, meals, and stays at expensive resorts under the guise of official business while he was employed at the California State University.

Larger Classes or Fewer Days, The Choice Is Now Up To Teachers

By David GreenwaldDecember 5, 20098 comments

It has come to this, the Davis School District needs to cut an additional $3.5 million to fill the latest budget gap in the never ending cycle of budget cuts at the local level due to the never ending budget crisis at the state level.

Now the teachers in Davis have a choice–they have until December 15 to negotiate possible employee concessions that would include furloughs with decreases in salary. If they do not agree to do this, they will face the loss on top of 33 teaching positions already proposed in the budget efforts that would total $2.5 million. With concessions, they can avoid an additional million in cuts to programs.

Novel H1N1 Vaccine Clinics in Yolo County

By uptownstudiosDecember 4, 20090 comments

(Woodland, CA) – The Yolo County Health Department, in partnership with the cities of Davis, West Sacramento, Woodland and Winters, is pleased to announce a series of free Novel H1N1 flu vaccination clinics. Because H1N1 vaccine supplies are currently very limited, vaccinations will only be offered to the following priority groups:

* pregnant women
* parents of children under 6 months of age
* children and young people ages 6 months to 24 years

Staff Presents Revisions to Latest Draft Climate Action Plan to NRC

By David GreenwaldDecember 4, 20090 comments

By Alan Pryor –

On November 30, the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) met in City Chambers for their monthly meeting delayed by one week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. The meeting was attended by Commissioners Herman Boschken, Dean Newberry, Adrienne Kandel, and Chairperson Jennifer Holmes.

The two main items on the agenda were an informational report from staff to the NRC advising of the timelines for the 2010 City of Davis Environmental Recognition Awards and a staff presentation on the current status of the city’s Climate Action Plan.

Month: December 2009