City and Management Group Agree to New labor Contract
Yesterday the City of Davis announced that the city had agreed with another labor group on a tentative agreement, the Individual Management Group representing 49 employees from all departments in the city.
While the agreement still falls short of what is needed, it goes much further than the firefighter agreement in beginning to address the long-term sustainability issues the city faces. There is still a good deal of spin that the taxpayer will have to cut through. As was the case with the fire department, the amount of savings was factored from the original baseline rather than from the actual budgeted amount from year zero. According to the city’s release,
The DACHA Board of Directors In Action
For those who have been following the budget and firefighter saga in Davis, it should have been little surprise that Davis Enterprise Columnist Rich Rifkin on Wednesday would write that the MOU agreement between the city and firefighters “doesn’t solve long-term mess.”
The Davis School District is conducting a survey to determine whether parents think teachers are assigning too much homework to their kids. They sent out surveys to parents and district administrators now plan to use the findings to reshape the district’s homework policy. We will find out officially next week what the results of the more than 2000 parental responses.
A series of strange circumstances led the Davis Planning Commission to need to make a determination that the public convenience or necessity will be served by authorizing issuance of an alcohol license for Westlake IGA Market. The Commission did so by a 4-0 vote and added findings that there would be an enhanced economic viability of the neighborhood and such an issuance would not interfere with the enjoyment of the surrounding neighborhood.
City Manager Bill Emlen delivered Davis’ State of the City Address to the Davis Chamber of Commerce Tuesday afternoon. Apparently it was the first such speech in a few years. It was only about a 25 minute speech overall, and for that reason he was not able to get into detail on some of the issues that he might have otherwise preferred. He addressed a good deal of the budget and employee compensation issues.
Last week a California circuit issued a ruling on the use of Tasers. The court limited the use of Tasers to situations where a suspect poses an actual threat. The court ruled that simply disobeying orders or acting strangely is not enough. Those officers who fail to adhere to these rules can be sued for excessive force.
In Sunday’s Davis Enterprise, Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor and Councilmember Stephen Souza write an op-ed in which they argue that the contract ratified on December 15, 2009 by City Council with the Davis Professional Firefighters Association, Local 3494 “is a fair deal for city employees, taxpayers.”
But No One is Asking Where the Oversight Was – 
Yesterday we listed out the most read Vanguard Articles of 2009, today I select most important news stories or commentary from my perspective. I have chosen a list of the most important from my perspective stories, most of which the Vanguard either covered exclusively or broke the news for. I have put them in chronological order rather than ranking them in importance.
