June 2010 - Page 2 of 5 - Davis Vanguard

School Board Finds Their New Superintendent in Winfred Roberson

By David GreenwaldJune 23, 201030 comments

It did not take long for the school board to find their replacement for James Hammond, it was a guy that they had just hired a year ago to help change the direction at Davis High School. And while he only spent a year at Davis High School, the results were encouraging. Now they will have to go back to the drawing board and find another Principal because late on Monday night, the Davis School Board named Winfred Roberson, the new Superintendent.

It was just over a year ago, June 18, 2009 when the Davis School Board introduced Mr. Roberson as the new Principal of Davis High. Now just 43, he is just four years older than the departing James Hammond, and the district hopes it struck gold again.

Students Files Grievance Against University For Elimination of Sports Teams

By David GreenwaldJune 23, 20106 comments

Around 100 UC Davis athletes have filed a “grievance” with the Student Judicial Affairs alleging that the university has engaged in “arbitrary treatment in elmination of teams.” According to a five page release, the University, “announced their plans without sufficient advance notice for us to make alternate plans or to seek redress within the normal academic calendar, we seek not only a permanent reversal of their plans but also interim reinstatement of our teams before the effective date of their elimination.”

The grievance asks the university to reinstate the Men’s Swimming and Diving Team, Wrestling Team, Varsity Crew Team, Novice Crew Team, and the Men’s Indoor Track Team. It asks the university to reinstate the teams for at least one year while the decision is reviewed.

Control of Labor and Fetuses

By David GreenwaldJune 22, 20103 comments

A Dirty Little Secret of the Uncivil War for Freedom of Labor –

by Jack D. Forbes

The “Uncivil War” (U.S. Civil War) was not a romantic defense of southern freedom, nor was it a protest against a power-hungry federal government. It was in the main a struggle over the status of women and labor and specifically the control over unborn fetuses. Women who were held to be slaves (captives or private prisoners, in fact) were not only workers without pay; they were also the source of future unpaid workers, workers already in their wombs as well as workers not yet conceived.

State Employees Are Not the Cause of the State’s Budget Problems

By David GreenwaldJune 22, 201043 comments

One of the key differences that people need to understand is that the composition of the state budget is very different from the local budget. Locally, employees make up over 70% of the city’s costs. The result is that increases in compensation both in terms of salaries but also in terms of promises for pensions put a huge strain on the budget.

The city of Davis managed to survive first through the collection of a half-cent sales tax that produced around three million per year in revenue and also because property tax revenue was increasing at a very robust rate during the last decade. However once the real estate market flatlined in Davis and busted in the rest of the state, revenues could no longer keep pace with increases in employee salaries.

Never Again, Says Senator Mark Leno Aiming To Avoid a Repeat of PG&E’s Prop 16

By David GreenwaldJune 22, 20106 comments

Two weeks ago, the voters of California said no to PG&E’s attempt to buy marketshares and avoid competition from public power. Davis residents saw through the charade, voting against the measure by nearly an 80-20 margin. However, PG&E pumped in more than 46 million dollars into a campaign aimed at deceiving the voters into support. It nearly worked, but not quite.

Still Senator Mark Leno wants to prevent another close call. Last week, he announced legislation that would prevent PG&E from using ratepayer funds to finance future political campaigns. The bill allows the corporation to continue participating in political campaigns, but stipulates that money derived from ratepayers cannot be used for political or public affairs expenditures.

Governmental Accounting Board Examines Pension Issues

By David GreenwaldJune 22, 20103 comments

In July 2004, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) implemented GASB 45 due to growing concern over the potential long term obligations of government employers for post-employment benefits. According to GASB 45, government employers were required to measure and report the liabilities associated with postemployement benefits which could include medical insurance and other benefits that are not associated with a pension plan.

For the city of Davis, the result of this new accounting practice showed that the city had a $40 to $60 million unfunded liability in its retirement health care benefits. As a result the city of Davis is now taking steps to insure full funding of retiree medical benefits. The process will take roughly thirty years at around a $4 million annual cost over and above the cost to fully fund the current year.

Changing the Way the Council Does Business

By David GreenwaldJune 21, 201016 comments

It was Tuesday night and there was yet another over-packed council agenda. There again Mayor Ruth Asmundson was trying to hasten the pace, but instead of doing this by limited the number of items on the agenda or sending the item back to staff to re-work, she simply attempted to cut off debate.

As per the usual, she applied this standard unevenly shutting down Councilmember Sue Greenwald, only to have Councilmember Lamar Heystek offer his lengthy comments which led to everyone else offering their thoughts. The irony is that by the time she tried to impose discipline, the cat was already out of the bag, the council had spent over two hours negotiating and wordsmithing and development agreement they had already approved just three months before.

Katehi Claims Renaissance in the Air for Higher Education

By David GreenwaldJune 21, 201010 comments

Last week Brice Harris chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District, and Linda Katehi, chancellor of the University of California, Davis wrote an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee in which they argue against those who “worry that California – mired in one of the worst financial crises in the state’s history – can no longer sustain its commitment to its students or the master plan.”

Instead they argue that “there is a renaissance in the air.”

Daily Democrat’s Editor Responds to Vanguard Criticism of Reprinting Press Releases

By David GreenwaldJune 20, 20107 comments

On Wednesday the Vanguard ran the story, “Media Bias in Local Court Coverage” which described how the District Attorney’s Office effectively gets to write their own stories. To illustrate the point, we ran the DA’s Press Release side-by-side with the Woodland Daily Democrat’s article covering the same story.

The article went on to point out several inaccuracies or omissions that the Daily Democrat reprinted without fact-checking. From our standpoint this is a problem as the public receives a very slanted view of what actually transpired and there is no effective media check against the DA’s PR campaign.

Yolo County’s Problems Responding to Requests For Public Information

By David GreenwaldJune 20, 20106 comments

There is a good article this morning in the Woodland Daily Democrat on the problems that the Yolo County Counsel’s Office had with responding to public records requests.

Earlier this year, I had made a request for information from the County Counsel’s office, it took several months and every so often I would send Assistant County Counsel Dan Cederborg an email asking for an update on the status. He stopped responding, did not return my calls, etc. After awhile, I finally asked Supervisor Matt Rexroad to intercede, he made some calls and within a few days I got exactly what I was asking for.

City of Davis Prepares EIR on Sports Park

By David GreenwaldJune 19, 201036 comments

Project Scope Generates Fiscal, Transportation, and Land Use Concerns –

According to a press release from the city of Davis released earlier this week, the City is preparing an EIR for a Sports Park on the periphery of town at one of three locations. The locations are County Roads 105 and 32A, property north of Covell Boulevard and east of Wildhorse and the Old Davis Landfill on County Road 102.

According to the release, because the Sports Park provides replacement fields for both Civic and Davis Little League the city is required to address the environmental impacts that would be associated with the fields being converted to housing. On November 5, 2009, the Davis City Council adopted an Updated Housing Element for the General Plan. Included in the Housing Element Update were designation of the Civic Center ball field and Davis Little League Complex as future infill housing sites in the General Plan.

UPDATE: McDonough, Holland and Allen to Close; City Attorney Said To Be Unaffected

By David GreenwaldJune 18, 201017 comments

We have been hearing for weeks about turmoil at the law firm of McDonough, Holland and Allen, where City Attorney Harriet Steiner is employed. As we have discussed in the past, the city has a contract City Attorney with an agreement with the law firm to retain the services of Harriet Steiner along with various support staff.

We have now learned that McDonough, Holland and Allen will close by September. The Sacramento Bee reported on Saturday, “The sagging economy apparently contributed to the imminent demise of a legal powerhouse in Northern California.”

BP Protest Rescheduled for July 8

By David GreenwaldJune 18, 201029 comments

Yolo Progressive Democrats of America will sponsor a demonstration to boycott Arco/ampm on Thursday, June 24 July 8 between 4:30 PM and 6 PM at the Arco/ampm station at Russell and Anderson. Arco and ampm are retail brands of BP.

While we await action on the disaster in the Gulf, we can play our part. We can stop rewarding BP. It is our purchases at Arco Stations that give BP its profits and power.

Freddie Oakley’s Benefit For Cancer Victim

By David GreenwaldJune 18, 20100 comments

The following letter was sent by County Clerk Freddie Oakley to her fellow Department heads…

Dear Colleagues,

Lupe Ramirez, a Woodlander and a valued long-time employee in our Clerk/ Recorder’s office has a wonderful 20 year-old daughter, Leanna, who is fighting a courageous battle against a virulent form of cancer, Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors, that has now spread to her lungs.

Davis Wiki Wins Knight News Challenge Grant

By uptownstudiosJune 18, 20100 comments

The creators of the Davis Wiki were among this year’s winners of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight News Challenge, a contest that funds ideas that use technology to inform geographic communities.

The LocalWiki project, created by Davis Wiki founders Philip Neustrom and Mike Ivanov, will create the next generation of wiki software tailored to the needs of local communities. The new software, to be tested in several “pilot” communities, will allow citizens a to easily collaborate on a common repository of local information, providing the context behind the people, places, and events that shape our communities.

Vanguard Study: Vacation Cash Out by City Employees

By David GreenwaldJune 18, 20108 comments

As part of their contract, City of Davis employees can take their vacation time and cash it out. How much and under what circumstances that can occur depends on the employee and their contract. There are in fact substantial differences in the various contracts in terms of the restrictions and at times even encouragement to cash out vacation time.

This practice may be seen as problematic for a number of different reasons. First each contract has a line that declares, “The purpose of annual vacation leave is to enable each employee annually to return to work mentally refreshed.” This stated purpose would seem to be contradicted by the notion of being able to get cash in lieu of vacation time.

Case Illustrates Even Admitted Gang Membership Does Not Necessitate Gang Enhancement Charges for Every Crime

By David GreenwaldJune 18, 201024 comments

One of the main complaints about the charging of cases by the District Attorney’s Office in Yolo County is that the DA overuses the gang enhancement charge. There are times when we believe non-gang members or questionably gang members are given extended sentences or charges by the DA’s office. But there is another interesting set of cases, where the individuals are actually gang members, they commit a crime, but the crime should not be enhanced with a gang enhancement.

In March of 2009, the victim was walking to the store when he ran across a friend along with Angel Sanchez. The victim did not know Mr. Sanchez prior to this date but was introduced by their mutual friend. Together they walked back to Mr. Sanchez’s apartment and decided to start drinking alcohol. In total there were individuals inside the apartment drinking.

Council Unanimously Passes Budget But Acknowledge Work Needs To Be Done

By David GreenwaldJune 17, 201010 comments

On Tuesday night, the Davis City Council unanimously passed the 2010-11 budget which while they believe is sufficient, they also acknowledged that more work lays ahead to fix the city’s overall fiscal picture and prevent or reduce future deficits.

This particular budget, closes a nearly million dollar gap in funding, and also restores the general fund reserve, that the city dipped into this fiscal year due to their inability to achieve the cost-savings from the employee bargaining agreements.

Board and Community Say Goodbye to Superintendent Hammond

By David GreenwaldJune 17, 20104 comments

Last night at a special Davis School Board Meeting, the Board formally voted to accept the resignation of Superintendent James Hammond, in what is most likely his final board meeting as Superintendent. While the board jokingly threatened to vote no on the resignation, and the community lamented the loss of their superintendent, everyone involved understood and appreciated that this was something that Dr. Hammond had to do for his family and himself.

We will have to wait until June 21, 2010 to find out who the interim Superintendent will be, but the smart money right now would be on Kevin French, Associate Superintendent of Human Resources and Secondary Education. In a Vanguard interview with Ingrid Salim, that will be published later on, she told the Vanguard that the teachers had mixed feelings on a move only because Kevin French has been such an outstanding advocate for teachers and from what we have heard has an excellent relationship with the classified staff, which has not always been the case.

Who Needs Arizona?

By David GreenwaldJune 17, 201030 comments

ACLU Sues ICE and Sonoma County Sheriff For Exceeding Local Authority in Immigration-Related Arrests –

While many in the nation including members of our community and adjacent jurisdictions have protested and boycotted Arizona’s immigration law that gives law enforcement the legal ability to racially profile in an effort to identify potential undocumented workers and residents, a lawsuit in the neighboring county of Sonoma is moving forward alleging much of the same activity.

Last week, a federal judge in San Francisco allowed a lawsuit to move forward that charges the unlawful collaboration between the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to unlawfully target, arrest, and detain Latinos in Sonoma County.

Month: June 2010