Just When It Seemed Over, Noise Ordinance Issue Reemerges
When last we saw it in early December, the Davis City Council unanimously voted to direct the City Staff to fulfill its agreement with the neighbors of the Montessori Day Care Center and determine if problems still exist with noise levels two years after the construction of the sound wall and three years after all parties (daycare center, neighbors and the City) had agreed to implement a list of mitigation measures to reduce noise.
The agreement between all parties on August 24, 2007 was that after the soundwall was constructed, there were be a re-evaluation of the noise levels to determine if other measures needed to be taken.
A Yolo County Man, Robert Ferguson is facing life in prison for a third strike in part for stealing cheese from Nugget Market. Prior to that he was convicted for petty theft at a 7/11 for stealing a woman’s wallet. Sentencing will occur on March 1 to see if indeed he is given his third strike in which he would spend 25 years in prison, essentially a life sentence for a man in his mid 50s.
For the past year and a half these pages have been a bit critical of Davis Teachers. This was not due to any animus towards the teachers. Nor was it from any widely held belief about teacher salaries. We have been very critical of the salaries and escalation of the upper tier of city employees, but that clearly does not extend to teachers who we feel are underpaid.
While the economy across the nation and even in California to a lesser extent seems to be very slowly turning the corner, one has to wonder if it’s too late. The news on the local level is devastating. We have focused much of our attention on the follies of the Davis City Council. The news there is not great, plans are underway to cut spending should the sales tax measure not pass in June.
I read the op-ed in the Enterprise written by Robert Chason a few days ago entitled “Political Ills Found Locally, Too” and I came away completely perplexed by its purpose. Was he trying to criticize local government? Was he resigning as a paid consultant to the Covell Village developers John Whitcombe and Bill Streng? Was he decrying the problems of local governance?
On Tuesday night it became clear that despite the vote to continue to pursue options, that the idea of annexing West Village is on life support. The problem is logistical and financial.
After nearly five years, the trial opens for Fermin Galvan-Magana and his brother Ernesto who face counts of resisting arrest and battery on police officers for an incident that occurred back in 2005.
All eyes of the city were undoubtedly on last night’s city council meeting. The meeting itself went off relatively smoothly, although one councilmember privately suggested that everyone was walking on eggshells.
By Elaine Roberts Musser – 
The Vanguard along with Councilmember Sue Greenwald and Lamar Heystek have criticized the contract agreements that have come forth out of the collective bargaining process in part because they have failed to take on the most serious of the structural problems. Much time has focused on city pensions that exploded in the last decade as the city expanded their PERS coverage for public safety employees giving them 3% at 50 and giving other employees 2.5% at 55.
