The MarkeTech Group and Davis Diamonds Gymnastics have proposed to jointly purchase and develop parcels located on Chiles Road, formerly occupied by a Ford auto dealership that has since vacated and taken tax revenue with it.According to the city staff, these parcels are located in the Auto-Center zoning and the proposed uses require a Conditional Use Permit.
When California originally put in the Three Strikes Law, back in 1994, judges had little to no discretion at all to remove past strikes. However, a Supreme Court decision in 1996 changed that. In what became the Romero Decision, the sentencing court was granted the discretion to strike prior conviction allegations (strikes) “in the interest of justice.”
While a Romero motion gives judges the right to strike prior strikes, depending on the judge, that discretion may rarely be exercised. Last week, Yolo County Judge Timothy Fall, in ruling on a Romero motion, noted that since 1996, the year after he was appointed to the bench, he had granted a Romero motion just once in a contested hearing (meaning the prosecution opposed the motion), and that decision was later overturned by an appellate court.
David Thompson,
President, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation
My apologies to all for not commenting on the Vanguard about the DACHA blog this past Thursday. I had left Davis last Thursday at 5am for a conference in Massachusetts about cooperative development. Until today (Monday) I was not aware that a blog has been done about DACHA. A lot was written and I appreciate the opportunity by the Vanguard to respond to a number of the comments and questions raised.
About $2.5 in Public Funds used for DACHA now spent or lost by City staff
We think that City staff have now spent or wasted about $2.4 million on DACHA; $700,000 on 22 lawyers billing up to $375 per hour; $200,000 on public funds paid to DACHA for their 8 lawyers billing up to $350 per hour; $140,000 still owed by DACHA for work done by lawyers in co-ordination with City Attorney; at least $600,000 in staff time for the past six years; $250,000 in illegal payments to DACHA members of interest, debts paid and refunds made against Co-op law; $300,000 in lost income when City staff set new rents at 80% of median income (for which no DACHA resident was qualified) rather than the 110% for which they did qualify (loss of $7,668 per month in income to the City); $400,000 in lost income (the first DACHA home became vacant in September 2009), All through 2011 there were ten empty homes all year, the vacancy losses are running at about $20,000 a month.
The debate over the water project has perhaps shifted from a debate over need, to a debate over whether the Surface Water Project as proposed is optimal. Feeding into those concerns are the problems with what the council passed on September 6, with the lack of a rate study and the perplexing and confusing 14% rate hike that wasn’t.One of the reasons for the push for televised Water Advisory Committee hearings is the notion of transparency and accountability that has been lacking.
As many know, I grew up in San Luis Obispo County. San Luis Obispo County, though coastal and more isolated, is in many ways similar to Yolo County – a liberal college town surrounded by more conservative rural areas. The main difference is that Woodland and West Sacramento are sizable urban areas and the rest of Yolo County is far more liberal than the rest of San Luis Obispo County.San Luis Obispo County’s waste board banned plastic bags by an 8-5 vote.
A group called Occupy Colleges, fashioning themselves after Occupy Wall Street, has issued a statement denouncing what they are calling the “police shooting and beating of students at UC Riverside.”In a statement they argue that students were “brutally and unnecessarily injured” at a peaceful demonstration at UC Riverside.
I debated long and hard whether this was an appropriate topic for today’s column, but finally was pushed into it by a comment made last night by the chair of the Water Advisory Committee on the Vanguard.
Elaine Roberts Musser said: “With such open hostility shown to WAC members, as expressed in the above two comments, is it any wonder the WAC members made the decision they did? Perhaps if some of you toned it down and asked nicely…”
For those of us who believe that school funding cuts are criminal and that we are risking our future investment for momentary illusive fiscal balance, the results of the last parcel tax election were too close for comfort.
The district knew it was a close call before entering the fray – the final results were actually almost identical to the polled level of support. But it did not help that the district and supporters of the parcel tax committed a series of errors or perceived errors along the way. That was coupled with the fact that the district was asking for a $200 increase in the tax, and we had a dog fight.
Staff Recommends Against a One-Year Water Rate IncreaseWhen the city council met on December 6 – three months after the fateful September 6 water meeting – and passed their compromise, staff was directed to return by January with recommendations about a ballot initiative and a rate study.
City staff is now recommending that Council direct them to return with proposed language for an advisory measure to be placed before the voters at the November 2012 General Election, adopting a resolution to ask Bartle Wells Associates to undertake a comprehensive water rate study, and direct the Water Advisory Committee to return to Council by July 1 “with a recommendation for the appropriate rate structure and multi-year rate requirements in support of the City’s water utility.”
After weeks of quiet, student demonstrations re-emerged in the news. On the local front came the not-unexpected news that the Yolo District Attorney had declined to file charges against the UCD protesters who were pepper sprayed.
For the most part, the district attorney has declined to involve his office in the politics of student protests.
In news that likely will surprise no one, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office declined to file charges against the protesters that Lt. Pike and one of other police officers fired pepper spray at during UC Davis protests on November 18, 2011.
In a brief statement, the DA’s office said, “District Attorney Jeff Reisig announced today that there was insufficient information contained within the police reports submitted by the UC Davis Police Department to justify the filing of criminal charges against those individuals arrested during the November 18, 2011, confrontation with UC Davis Police during the ‘Occupy UC Davis’ protest.”
A group of students from UC Riverside attempted to storm the UC Regents meeting on Thursday, and were confronted by riot police. Numerous YouTube videos showed that they were fired upon with paint-filled bullets and other projectiles that injured several at the scene.
According to a news report from the local ABC affiliate, the protests were more peaceful than most, with people peacefully protesting inside. However, things started to go downhill after students refused to stay within the time allotted to speak at public comment to the Board of Regents.
Mock Rules the Violation Harmless and Sentences Defendant to 45 Years to Life in PrisonThis week, the District Attorney’s office proudly sent out a press release trumpeting the conviction of Christopher Smith, who was sentenced to 45 years to life in state prison for the murder of Gidd Robinson on November 3, 2009.
The facts of the case can be found in the Vanguard’s original article back in December. The two men had a confrontation that resulted in the shooting of Mr. Robinson by Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith would claim self-defense, but critical errors in judgment by the defendant leading up to and following the shooting led the jury to a second degree murder conviction.
The District estimates that they save $200,000 by having an all-mail ballot versus the more traditional election, where people have to go to the polls and the county provides polling workers.
Moreover, the last election, in May of 2011, saw the parcel tax matter go to the voters in an all-mail ballot with no reported incidents. Nevertheless, Jose Granda, who was flagged for improperly bringing up peripheral issues on the ballot statement by the opposition to the parcel tax, Measure C, continues to bring up the issue of the all-mail ballot, accusing leaders of “stealing our secret ballot right.”
EASTIN: “Few cities have had really big irresponsible actions like this”Recently, former California Superintendent of Education Delaine Eastin weighed into the city’s leadership on affordable housing and DACHA.
Writes Ms. Eastin, “The previous city councils have worked closely with a local small business specializing in creating nonprofit and cooperative housing called Neighborhood Partners, LLC. This business has successfully built more than 650 units of affordable housing in the Davis area over the past 25-plus years.”
“California is on the mend,” Governor Brown began his State of the State address, arguing that because of last year’s actions, “we shrunk state government, reduced our borrowing costs and transferred key functions to local government, closer to the people. The result is a problem one-fourth as large as the one we confronted last year.”
“California has problems but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated,” the governor said.
By E. Roberts Musser
The following are interesting tidbits emanating from the Penn State University sex abuse scandal (in which former football coach Joe Paterno only reported molestation allegations of a minor, by one of his defensive coordinators Jerry Sandusky, to his immediate superiors but not to law enforcement):
Like the alcohol issue that we covered last week, this issue of the noise ordinance appears be dividing the city’s residents from the student population.
Bob Dunning a frequent critic of both the school district’s parcel tax efforts last year as well as the all-mail ballot, came out in noted defense this week, at least of the integrity of the process.He writes, “On occasion I’ve noted that I much prefer voting in person as opposed to the current trend toward an all-mail ballot … I like waiting until the final day, then packing up the kids and walking to our polling place for this simple yet profound exercise in democracy … but never have I ever suggested that my preference has anything to do with a fear that the electoral process may be compromised by all-mail voting.”
