March 2012 - Page 4 of 5 - Davis Vanguard

Bad to Worse: Chief Actuary Recommends Deep Cuts in PERS Earnings Forecast

By David GreenwaldMarch 9, 201231 comments

Alan Milligan, the chief actuary of the California Pubilc Employees’ Retirement System, is once again urging it to lower its assumed rate of returns. Mr. Millgan last year was rebuffed by the CalPERS board, after a recommendation that the pension fund cuts its rate from 7.75 percent to 7.5 percent. This time he is recommending an even deeper cut, dropping the return from 7.75 percent to 7.25 percent.

The proposed reduction will be considered by a committee Tuesday, and by the full board on Wednesday.

Was there a settlement offer extended by the City in April 2010?

By David GreenwaldMarch 9, 201245 comments

No good deed goes unpunished. We have been asking for the city to come clean on DACHA for quite some time. And in a remarkable step for a public agency facing multiple lawsuits, the City of Davis released a strong statement about DACHA on Thursday morning that was covered in an article and an op-ed in the Enterprise, and an op-ed in the Vanguard.

Unfortunately, what transpired late on Thursday will undoubtedly muddy an already unclear record. There can be little doubt that Harriet Steiner, the city attorney, if she were monitoring the exchange between Councilmember Stephen Souza and the principals David Thompson and Luke Watkins, was thinking this is precisely why I do not want such statements to be made.

WAC Update: More on Palmdale

By David GreenwaldMarch 9, 20125 comments

by Matt Williams –

Let me start by saying that the opinions and perspectives presented here in this article are those of the author and are not the opinions and perspectives of the Water Advisory Committee (WAC).

Like the meetings before it, meeting number 5 of the WAC contained considerable discussion of how the WAC should conduct its activities, votes and recommendations. Bill Kopper presented to the Committee a Resolution that put into words how he (in consultation with a Brown Act compliant number of WAC members and alternates) believed the WAC should chart its course. After one friendly amendment that aligned the description of the three Council Check In items to the actual wording of the actual WAC motion sent to Council, Bill’s Resolution failed to pass with a 5-5 vote.

City Makes Settlement Offer to Resolve DACHA‐Related Litigation

By uptownstudiosMarch 8, 201254 comments

Davis Mayor Joe Krovoza,
Mayor Pro Tem Rochelle Swanson,
Councilmember Sue Greenwald,
Councilmember Stephen Souza,
Councilmember Dan Wolk

In response to public interest regarding the Davis Area Cooperative Housing Association (DACHA), the City has decided to release information about settlement offers the City has made to David Thompson, Luke Watkins and the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation (Twin Pines).

Mr. Thompson and Mr. Watkins are the principals of Neighborhood Partners, and Mr. Thompson is the president of the Twin Pines Board of Directors. Neighborhood Partners sued DACHA in 2006. In 2011, Neighborhood Partners filed a new lawsuit against DACHA and the City. Twin Pines has sued both DACHA and the City in litigation that began in 2008.

City of Davis – UC Davis Fire Merger “Paused”

By David GreenwaldMarch 8, 20123 comments

UCD Vice Chancellor Cites Compensation Disparity as Officials Insist Reports of Its Death Are Premature

The Vanguard has recently obtained a letter through a Public Records Act request from UC Davis Vice Chancellor John Meyer, dated January 12, 2012, that effectively pauses the merger process until the 2012-13 fiscal year.

In a letter to City Manager Steve Pinkerton, Mr. Meyer, who is also a former Davis City Manager, wrote, “Both of our agencies remain committed to a unified fire department to serve our shared community. However, I believe that we have reached a point of limited progress and that for a variety of reasons, most particularly the City’s pending negotiations with its firefighters, we should pause this process as described below and then reconvene in the 2012-13 fiscal year.”

Shot in the Face: Pepper-Sprayed UC Davis Students Tell Their Story

By uptownstudiosMarch 8, 201260 comments

Fatima Sbeih was riding her bike after afternoon prayer, when she came across a large crowd of demonstrators, onlookers, and campus police in riot gear gathered on the Quad at UC Davis. She joined them, sitting down on the Quad to show that she was demonstrating non-violently. Seated near her was David Buscho, a Mechanical Engineering student, participating in demonstrations for the first time.

In a now infamous incident, UC Davis police walked up and down the line of seated protesters, including Fatima and David, dousing them with military-grade pepper spray in the face at close range.

Council Still Not Ready to Go Forward with Minor Alcohol Preclusion Ordinance

By David GreenwaldMarch 7, 201239 comments

Police Chief Landy Black was back before the Davis City Council to push for passage of the Minor Alcohol Preclusion Act, that would make it an infraction, payable with what would ultimately be a 240 dollar fine for an individual under 21, to be caught having consumed enough alcohol to register a .01% blood alcohol content, in the City of Davis.

However, Mayor Joe Krovoza’s motion to adopt the staff report died for a lack of a second and the remaining three members, in the absence of Councilmember Stephen Souza, were not ready to pass the ordinance, citing the lack of support and buy-in from students who had assembled, as well as concerns about the civil liberty implications of the ordinance.

Judge Delays Release of Pepper Spray Report At Least Until March 16

By David GreenwaldMarch 7, 201221 comments

Critics Question the Use of Police Bill of Rights in This Case

An Alameda County judge has ordered the University of California to withhold a UC Davis task force report on the pepper-spraying incident at the campus, at least until after a hearing that is scheduled for March 16.

“In granting the temporary restraining order requested by a UC campus police union attorney, Judge Evelio M. Grillo emphasized that he was not ruling on the merits, but only preserving the status quo until the hearing on March 16,” University of California General Counsel Charles Robinson said in a statement to the media on Tuesday.

Measure C Surges to Resounding Win At Polls

By David GreenwaldMarch 7, 201233 comments

In the end, it was over early on election night as the first polls showed, with 16,000-odd votes cast, Measure C passing with 72.5% of the vote. And while the final numbers dipped slightly, it was effectively over at that point, with the final score 72.3% and 12,435 yes votes to only 4,756 no votes.

Unlike the razor-thin margin of Measure A, 1000 votes would have had to switch hands to have changed the outcome of this election.

Threat of Police Restraining Order Delays Release of Pepper Spray Report

By David GreenwaldMarch 6, 201226 comments

The university was all set for the Tuesday release of the report from Kroll and the Task Force, however late yesterday UC Davis and the University of California Office of the President announced that the union representing UC campus police and a police officer at the center of the pepper-spraying incident at UC Davis will request a court order to halt public disclosure of a report by a task force headed by former California Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso.

The request for the temporary restraining order will be presented today in Department 31 of the Alameda County Superior Court. As a result, Cruz Reynoso, acting on advice from counsel, made the decision to postpone the public release of the report.

Commentary: Election Day Thoughts and Analysis

By David GreenwaldMarch 6, 201232 comments

It is a weird thing to be talking about Election Day, when just about everybody other than me has voted, but that is where we are. I have had numerous conversations in the last few days with people in all sorts of capacities.

I still predict that Measure C passes. I do not think it will get three-quarters of the vote as Measure W did back in 2008, but I also do not think this is going to be the squeaker that Measure A was last year.

Thousands Descend on Sacramento to Protest Education Cuts and Tuition Hikes

By David GreenwaldMarch 6, 20127 comments

While Dozens Were Arrested for Trespassing, No Violence is Reported

While thousands of protesters and demonstrators gathered around the Capitol on Monday, a small group stayed inside of the building and achieved their goal of getting arrested. About 68 arrests occurred when the protesters refused to exit the building at the close of business hours.

But spokespeople for law enforcement called the day a success, as there was no violence, no tear gas, no batons.

Occupiers Converge on Capitol Demanding the One Percent Pay Their Share and Help Reduce Tuition Costs

By David GreenwaldMarch 5, 201218 comments

Today, thousands of students and workers will converge on the Capitol in Sacramento, where students and others will call for the one percent to pay to re-fund higher education. The day is about building on the victories of the fall and holding off future tuition increases in the UC system.

ReFund California, “a state-wide coalition of homeowners, community members, faith leaders and students working to make Wall Street banks pay for destroying jobs and neighborhoods with their greedy, irresponsible and predatory business practices,” has organized the day’s events at the Capitol.

Commentary: Opposition to Measure C Has Let Us Down

By David GreenwaldMarch 5, 201285 comments

Democracy is not an outcome, it is a process, and I will always argue that the most important part about an election is not the outcome but rather the interchange of ideas. Granted, in a lot of places, the idea of an interchange of ideas is a pipe dream, but in Davis we are still old fashioned enough to have a campaign based on ideas rather than simply slinging mud around and finding out what sticks.

And that is the part of the opposition to Measure C that has let me down. We need to have a conversation in this community about education and not just about how great our schools are – which they are.

Executing the Innocent

By David GreenwaldMarch 5, 20122 comments

They all talk about the fiscal costs of the death penalty, and indeed the fiscal cost matters when the cost of execution is three times the cost of regular imprisonment. And it really matters when you are not executing people and you really never have.

But at the end of the day, what is driving this new push to end the death penalty is a very unsettling feeling – the unsettling feeling that innocent people have been and will be put to death. DNA testing has given us a glimpse at the possibilities. DNA testing is only a factor in a tiny percentage of cases overall, and yet it has enabled hundreds of people to be exonerated who were wrongly imprisoned.

Sunday Commentary: Fundamental Distrust Between Youth and Police Underlies Current Issues on Campus and in the City

By David GreenwaldMarch 4, 201254 comments

On Tuesday we will find out the long-awaited results of the pepper-spray report. Many are bracing themselves for a whitewashing, but I don’t think that is going to happen. The reason that is not going to happen is that Cruz Reynoso is not going to allow it to happen.

I know that he would have preferred to have been able to speak with, or at least have the Kroll investigators speak with, Lt. John Pike and the police chief, but apparently they have enough to know who did what and who ordered whom to do what.

Commentary: When We Talk About Contraception Rather than Jobs

By David GreenwaldMarch 4, 201246 comments

Every so often it is necessary to poke one’s head out from the local scene to watch what is unfolding nationally. If you had asked me in December, I would have told you I thought that President Barack Obama would lose re-election. But the last two months have really solidified in my mind that this will not happen.

I have said this before, but 2012 is basically 2004 all over again, with the parties reversed. In 2004, Democrats thought that they would defeat President George Bush. Even with the selection of liberal Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, I honestly believed he would win, up until the networks took back their projection that Senator Kerry would win Florida, which was based on faulty exit polls.

Despite Unanimous Opposition From Student Commission, Police and Staff Push For Adoptions of Minor Alcohol Preclusion Ordinance

By David GreenwaldMarch 3, 201229 comments

On January 10, 2012, Davis Police Chief Landy Black and city staff caught the Davis City Council off-guard by presenting an ordinance to preclude minors from drinking.

Chief Black told the Council, “We’re trying to do this in our efforts for 2012’s Picnic Day.” He added, “Regardless of when it’s adopted it’s a good ordinance, it’s not going to be just a Picnic Day ordinance.”

Pepper Spray Report to Be Released on Tuesday

By David GreenwaldMarch 3, 201234 comments

The twice pushed-back report will finally be released at noon on March 6. Downloadable task force findings, recommendations and background documents will be available on the UC Davis home page.

Former California Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso, chair of the task force investigating the pepper-spray incident on Nov. 18, said today (March 2) that the group will outline its findings and recommendations to the UC Davis community – students, faculty and staff – on Tuesday (March 6) from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the UC Davis Conference Center Ballroom.

Bill Would Effectively End Life Without Parole For Juvenile Offenders

By David GreenwaldMarch 3, 201216 comments

On Thursday, the Sentencing Project released a report that examined juveniles serving life without parole. According to California State Senator Leland Yee, over 300 youth offenders have been condemned to spend their entire lives and to die in California’s prisons for crimes committed when they were teenagers, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Wednesday

The United States is the only country in the world where people who were under age 18 at the time of their crime serve sentences of life without parole. Nationally, more than 2,500 youth offenders are serving these sentences.

Month: March 2012