Month: July 2013

This weekend the Davis Enterprise came out against the water rate initiative put forward by Michael Harrington, Pam Nieberg and Ernie Head.

“Let the court decide whether rates are proportional under the law,” they argue.  “The people have spoken. Now, it’s time to move on.”

It is easy to view everything through the lens of electoral politics, especially when an announced candidate for the  State Assembly makes a very public statement on a rather controversial issue.  On Sunday, Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk became the first Davis City Councilmember to public endorse the idea of fluoridated water.

His campaign insists he did so because it was the right thing to do, but at the same time, he has waded into turbulent waters of an issue that has divided the Davis community for over 50 years.  As our analysis suggested on Sunday, we believe there is a good possibility that fluoridation – if placed on the ballot – would fail in an up or down vote.

In an op-ed in the local paper, Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk joins with the executive director of First 5 Yolo, Julie Gallelo, and former Woodland Mayor Art Pimentel to argue, “The partnership between Davis and Woodland on our surface water project provides both communities the most cost-effective solution to do what we should have done years ago: fluoridate our water.”

But despite the fact that “across the nation, more than 70 percent of people utilize community fluoridation,” the topic has proven to be highly controversial, not just this year, but for the last fifty years in the city of Davis.

My sense is that people in City Hall and some of the posters on this site are underestimating the severity of the threat posed by the litigation, and now the initiative, that Michael Harrington has filed with the help of Ernie Head and Pam Nieberg.

This is going to be the first of a two-part commentary that lays out, in the best way I can, the potential danger here.  For its part, the city seems to believe that the litigation will not stop the water project, and that it will only make it far more expensive.  Unfortunately, we still have not seen the figures but the city’s current estimate of the impact on the bond ratings is about $50 to $60 million.

Yolo County Judge Dan Maguire dealt at least a procedural blow to the city’s efforts to build its surface water project when he denied the city’s motion formally on Wednesday and implemented his tentative ruling.  The city had attempted to bifurcate the portion of the lawsuit filed by the Yolo Ratepayers for Affordable Public Utility Services (YRAPUS) that dealt with the city’s water rates.

Judge Maguire ruled that the city “fails to show that bifurcation, as proposed, would promote judicial economy or convenience.”  Furthermore, he ruled that the city, “was aware of the current lawsuit when it entered into the joint powers agreement with the City of Woodland on February 26, 2013.”