Sunday Commentary: Council’s Blind Spot on Water
This column should be on the great decision that the Davis City Council made in hiring Steve Pinkerton as the new city manager. It should be on the responsibility that the council showed in implementing a new budget, even the face of heated criticism from city employees.
Sadly, we cannot highlight these great moments because one blind spot threatens to undo it all. When I met with developer and property manager Randy Yackzan earlier this week, he told me that he had long known that there were going to be rate increases in the water project.
At the outset here, I will admit I am philosophically opposed to term limits. I believe the public has the right to vote for whomever they choose to vote for. I oppose term limits on Presidents as well, as all it has done is turn the second term into a dead zone.
What should have been a simple case involving the sale of a single ounce of marijuana and the possession of another ounce of marijuana, has been blown into a case where the defendants are facing 13 years in prison, due to gang enhancements and gang charges.
by Ken Wagstaff – 
President Yudof disagrees but vows to improve transparency – 
Generally speaking, the August 1 meeting, typically held in the morning, is ceremonial. However, there will be an important item of business this year, in the approval of the City Manager Contract that will appoint Steve Pinkerton as Davis’ City Manager, effective September 2, 2011.
Last week, five people in Yolo County were acquitted by juries, another person the jury hung on, and a seventh person was convicted but only after acquittal on the most serious charge.
Last week the Davis City Council by a narrow 3-2 vote approved using RDA funds for the construction of a new parking lot between E and F and 3rd and 4th Streets in Davis.
Last week, Yolo County jurors acquitted five defendants in four different trials, hung on the verdict of another, and convicted just one, acquitting on the most serious charge of aggravated mayhem in the case that we covered earlier this week.
By Assemblymember Mariko Yamada – 
One of the most awaited studies to date will be the CityGate report on fire staffing. Back in 2009 the city commissioned CityGate, a well-respected but industry-led consultant company to do a fire staffing study.
Britt Davis faces multiple felonies for making threats to and dissuading a witness. It would appear to be a domestic violence case, as there is a protective order signed providing for no contact with two individuals. However, in this case, at least at this time, that is secondary.
The events of the last few weeks with the scandal in the British tabloids have focused renewed attention on Fox News. While the phone hacking scandal that has ensnared Mr. Murdoch is salacious, it is the type of story news people live for, particularly since it is happening to Fox News, who has become the voice of the anti-media.
In a case beset by identification problems and a grainy surveillance video that yielded few real clues about who did it and what did they do, it ended as it only could, in a split verdict – two acquittals, one hung jury, and one conviction of the lesser charges.