September 2011 - Davis Vanguard

Clean Water Agency Names New General Manager; Vanguard Continues to Question PR Expenditures

By David GreenwaldSeptember 30, 201122 comments

The Board of Directors for the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency (WDCWA) Thursday named Dennis Diemer as its new General Manager. However, it is the fact that the communication came from Kim Floyd, or Kim Floyd Communications, that has drawn the attention of the Vanguard.

According to the release, Mr. Diemer has 36 years of experience including more than 15 years as the General Manager of East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD).

Poll Shows Continued Strong Support For the Death Penalty in California, or Does It?

By David GreenwaldSeptember 30, 20116 comments

The Field Poll conducted earlier this month and released yesterday shows consistent and substantial public support in California for keeping the death penalty as a form of punishment for capital crimes.

68 percent of those polled support the death penalty, which just 27 percent favor doing away with.

Documents Show Clean Water Agency Spends Hundreds of Thousands on PR Firm

By David GreenwaldSeptember 29, 201145 comments

Ratepayers Paying Nearly $300,000 in Two Years For Communications Firm To Sell Water Project to Public –

In a series of documents obtained by the Vanguard recently, it is seen that the Clean Water Agency has contracted with Kim Floyd Communications, Inc. to engage in outreach efforts that can better be characterized as public relations in nature.

In the agency’s July 2010 minutes, Don Saylor, then a member of the Davis City Council and a director on the Clean Water Agency Board, asked for a description of these “outreach efforts.”

Commentary: New City Manager’s Straight Talk A Reason For a New Hope

By David GreenwaldSeptember 29, 20117 comments

Davis got its first view of its new city manager, Steve Pinkerton, on Tuesday night, and we could already see a huge change in the nature of the fiscal analysis coming out of city hall. Gone were the days of rosy projections and papering over serious problems.

Instead, what we got was a lot of straight talk from the city manager, who acknowledged for the first time that the figures that we have been viewing for the past few years are not only bleak, but things are actually worse than we feared.

Council Will Take Slower and More Methodical Approach To Deal With Worse Problem Than Previously Articulated

By David GreenwaldSeptember 28, 201134 comments

Last night for the first time, Davis got to watch its new city manager, Steve Pinkerton, at work. At this budget workshop, there would be no rosy and hopeful projections, only straight, hard facts.

If anything, City Manager Steve Pinkerton would argue, the gap between current levels of funding and what we will owe in the next few years is understated by the numbers presented on Tuesday evening.

Council Delays Action on DACHA Dissolution Until February

By David GreenwaldSeptember 28, 201144 comments

The City Council ended their discussion on DACHA (Davis Area Cooperative Housing Association) in much the same way it began – they acknowledged concerns for the residents but at least four members of the council decided to follow the advice of their legal counsel, and to err on the side of caution.

Thus, due to a complaint of improper noticing by the city to Twin Pines, due to a single word discrepancy constituting an improper noticing that the city vehemently denies, the council opened a public hearing and will continue it until February 7, 2012, which will allow 120 days to be properly re-noticed.

Nursing Home Nightmares Recur As California Enables More Customers

By uptownstudiosSeptember 28, 201113 comments

35,000 poor, frail elders slated to lose adult daycare benefit December 1

By Assemblymember Mariko Yamada

Recent front-page Sacramento Bee headlines about tragedies in California nursing homes should be glaring reminders about the reasons California pioneered the Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) alternative to nursing home care forty years ago. If you are old, or are planning to be – pay attention – because this system is about to vanish.

Facing severe budget pressures, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is currently dismantling the ADHC program in California. This proven cost-effective program that has worked well to keep Californians out of nursing homes for the past four decades has fallen victim to an annual game of “budget chicken”.

Urgency: Why Council Must Act Sooner Rather than Later on the Budget

By David GreenwaldSeptember 27, 201112 comments

Back on June 28, the Davis City Council passed, by a narrow 3-2 vote, a budget that started to fix what had been decade-long fiscal mismanagement of the city. Over the course of the last decade, the city council has allowed total compensation, salaries, benefits, other post-retirement benefits (OPEB) and pensions to become unsustainable.

Even when the city was riding the wave of the real estate bubble and seeing double-digit growth in property taxes, even then the increases were unsustainable. To fund a 36% salary increase for fire, the city enacted a half-cent sales tax, for example. The city also had to pass a parks tax.

Problems in the Legal System and Costs Undermine the Death Penalty

By David GreenwaldSeptember 27, 20117 comments

The case of Troy Davis and his execution amid serious doubts about his actual guilt focused the nation on the death penalty last week, but the truth is the focus has been on the death penalty for a lot longer than that.

A month ago, opponents of the death penalty launched an effort in California to commute all death sentences to life without parole, to put more resources into law enforcement efforts, and to work to help the families of murder victims.

Commentary: The War Against People by Our Own Government

By David GreenwaldSeptember 26, 2011105 comments

I was reading an excellent piece from Jonathan London’s op-ed in the Davis Enterprise, “War on the Poor.”

In it he juxtaposes two pieces of mail that he got – his property tax bill and the “Spare Changer.”

D-Day Approaches for AB 109 and Realignment – No One Sure What It Means

By David GreenwaldSeptember 26, 20115 comments

The October 1 date is rapidly approaching. That is the date when AB 109 takes effect, the date that whole classes of low-level offenders get sent to local counties, where there is not the capacity to handle them, and no one knows exactly what that means.

At the local level, we have heard much in the way of conjecture, rumors, and idle talk. It is a wholesale change in strategy. What we had hoped is that the transfer of prisoners who commit drug and other non-violent crimes would mean that local District Attorneys would be less likely to prosecute such cases, that we would turn away from the punishment model of low-level criminals and toward rehabilitation.

Clock Begins As Opponents of Water Rate Hikes Have 30 Days to Protest Its Adoption

By David GreenwaldSeptember 25, 201189 comments

Ordinance Number 2381 was attested by the City Clerk after hours on Thursday, September 22, 2011. Therefore, the official day of attestation shall be Friday, September 23.

According to Elections Code section 9237, “If a petition protesting the adoption of an ordinance, and circulated by a person who is a registered voter or who is qualified to be a registered voter of the city, is submitted to the elections official of the legislative body of the city in his or her office during normal office hours, as posted, within 30 days of the date the adopted ordinance is attested by the city clerk or secretary to the legislative body, and is signed by not less than 10 percent of the voters of the city according to the county elections official’s last official report of registration to the Secretary of State, or, in a city with 1,000 or less registered voters, is signed by not less than 25 percent of the voters or 100 voters of the city, whichever is the lesser, the effective date of the ordinance shall be suspended and the legislative body shall reconsider the ordinance.”

Sunday Commentary: Skeptical UC Davis’ Vision Will Pencil Out

By David GreenwaldSeptember 25, 201117 comments

In the world of innovation, I see three possibilities – good ideas, bad ideas, and I don’t get it ideas. In some ways, the UC Davis plan that was unveiled this week fits into all three categories at once.

Here is what I get and support. First of all, I want to see UC Davis and this region develop into an innovative and high-tech hub. From the standpoint of economic development, I think the university has been underutilitized, and I appreciate that Chancellor Katehi has the drive and ambition to pursue policies that other chancellors have not.

Council Pushes Back Budget Discussion

By David GreenwaldSeptember 24, 20116 comments

Last week, the Davis City Council pushed the September 30^th deadline back. They will now begin with a Budget Workshop, which appears focused on reviewing the current status of unfunded liabilities related to the City’s pension and retiree medical benefit plans, along with unfunded liabilities related to major infrastructure components including streets, sidewalks, bikepaths, parks and city facilities.

The budget plan that was passed back in June looked to take $2.5 million in current personnel costs and put it “toward CalPERS and OPEB unfunded liabilities ($1.5 million), street maintenance contracts ($850,000), and unallocated contingency appropriations ($150,000).”

Did We Execute an Innocent Man in Troy Davis?

By David GreenwaldSeptember 24, 201181 comments

We Cannot Answer that Question Now – But Enough Doubts Exist That We Should Never Have Executed Him –

The execution of Troy Davis should haunt any reasonable person that is concerned about the possibility of executing an innocent person. This is not a case of Cameron Todd Willingham, where we know for a fact that the forensic evidence used at the time of his execution to determine that it was an arson fire was flawed.

But an evaluation of the evidence in the Troy Davis case is enough to make a reasonable person concerned that we sent an innocent man to his death.

Is UC Davis’ Plan for Growth Pressuring Davis to Grow As Well?

By David GreenwaldSeptember 23, 201175 comments

This week UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi unveiled a major campus initiative that would increase the number of students and faculty by large numbers in the next five years.

According to a release earlier this week from the UC Davis News Service, “Specifically, the campus is in the early stages of studying whether it can add 5,000 more qualified undergraduate students in the next five years – with an appropriate and responsible mix of instate, out-of-state and international students – and support 300 new tenure-track faculty positions. The campus currently has 24,700 undergraduates (nearly 32,300 total students) and about 1,500 faculty.”

Will West Sacramento Murder Suspects Face the Death Penalty?

By David GreenwaldSeptember 23, 201118 comments

Billy Wolfington and Shannon Silva were in court on Thursday before Judge Janet Gaard, as their attorneys asked for a four to six week continuance due to what they said was new discovery.

The suspects stand accused of stabbing a 29-year-old black male at the Town House Motel, located in the 900 block of West Capitol Ave. The victim was transported to the hospital and later died from his injuries.

City Defends Need for Project, Increased Water Rates

By David GreenwaldSeptember 22, 201175 comments

Davis public officials, including three members from the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency, on Wednesday held a question and answer session about the new water project and the accompanying rate hikes associated with the project.

In addition to Davis’ representatives, Mayor Joe Krovoza and Councilmember Stephen Souza, Woodland Councilmember Martie Dote came down from Woodland to speak, as well.

Deputy District Attorney to Challenge Judge in Yolo

By David GreenwaldSeptember 22, 20117 comments

Deputy District Attorney Clinton Parish surprised many on Wednesday when he suddenly announced he would challenge the newest judge, Judge Daniel Maguire, appointed just last year by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In a press release, Mr. Parish said he has criminal experience that Judge Maguire lacks. Furthermore, the prosecutor criticized, in both the Sacramento Bee and Daily Democrat, the political nature of Judge Maguire’s appointment.

Council Adopts Five-Year Rates on Second Reading of the Ordinance

By David GreenwaldSeptember 21, 201127 comments

It did not end at 3:30 am, and it did not have a long line of public comments. In fact, no one from the public spoke, but on Tuesday night, the council took the next step in raising residents’ water rates by adopting a five-year plan of rate increases and pledging to return next year in order to pass the sixth year.

The rate hikes were approved with a 3-1 vote in Councilmember Dan Wolk’s absence, Councilmember Sue Greenwald dissenting.

Month: September 2011