July 2013 - Page 4 of 5 - Davis Vanguard

Should the City Modify Its Wastewater Proposal?

By David GreenwaldJuly 9, 20137 comments

wastewater-treatment In late May, the city council approved a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) on the wastewater project for what is estimated to be a 95 million dollar project. However, critics claim that there may be more cost-effective alternatives to the locally designed Charrette Design Plan, that are specifically precluded by the stringent language of the RFQ.

A June 13, 2013, letter from PERC Water, a water recycling corporation, to Project Manager Michael Linquist informs the city that the firm does not intend to submit a proposal, based on the likelihood “that our firm will likely be disqualified from the process, or at a minimum be considered non-qualified to receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Project.”

Two Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputies Caught Lying in Separate Traffic Stop Cases

By David GreenwaldJuly 9, 201334 comments

A Yolo County judge threw out two cases and strongly rebuked sheriff’s deputies, in two unrelated cases that came before him in early June after videotaped evidence showed the deputies were being untruthful in their justifications for searches during traffic stops, according to court transcripts obtained by the Vanguard.

“What is really troublesome to the Court is the deputy’s misrepresentation in the incident report, which brings into question the deputy’s credibility from the get-go,” Judge David Rosenberg said in a court transcript from one of the cases, in granting a motion to suppress evidence that led to Deputy DA Jared Favero dismissing the case due to lack of evidence.

Councilmember Puts Forth Compromise on Fluoridation

By uptownstudiosJuly 8, 2013139 comments

by Brett Lee

The Water Advisory Committee recently made their recommendation on the issue of water fluoridation for our future drinking water system. Over the course of three meetings, they had several presentations made to them. At the first meeting a presentation was made by those in favor of fluoridation. At the second meeting, a presentation was made by those opposed to water fluoridation. The third meeting was devoted to general discussion amongst the members of the WAC as they tried to decide what recommendations to make.

As a member of the City Council and a member of the community, I watched these proceedings with great interest. We will soon be deciding what path we should take regarding this issue in the near future. And while the WAC is not composed of experts in this specific area of science or health policy, the WAC is composed of very knowledgeable and thoughtful members of our community. Their recommendations do carry a lot of credibility.

Eye on the Courts: Judicial Error Lies at the Heart of Dev Appeal

By David GreenwaldJuly 8, 201319 comments

That Yolo County Judge Timothy Fall does not suffer fools lightly is a truth that is known throughout the Yolo County legal community and beyond. Judge Fall runs the tightest and strictest courtroom in the county, bar none, and has no problem taking to task defense attorneys and prosecutors alike when they step out of line.

But, while counsel fear making a misstep in his presence, at the same time most respect his intellect and command on the law. Long ago, he gained our respect when he tossed aside a Deputy DA’s attempt to close the courtroom to the Vanguard, arguing that freedom of the press was the hallmark of a free society.

Sunday Commentary: Experts Have Weighed in on Fluoridation, Now Bring on Politicians to Make Final Call

By David GreenwaldJuly 7, 201336 comments

In an op-ed this weekend, Dr. Michael Wilkes asks whether “a few (can) still block a benefit for the many?” At first, it seems like an odd question.

Dr. Wilkes, after all, is an expert in public health. He is a researcher, a professor of medicine and public health at UC Davis, and he chairs the Yolo County Heath Council.

Sunday Commentary II: Errors and Misperceptions Dog Plastic Bag Debate

By David GreenwaldJuly 7, 201327 comments

The debate against an ordinance related to carryout plastic bags has been dogged by misperceptions and outright errors. I will fall on the sword for some of this. One of our readers for months has been telling me to stop calling it a plastic bag ban.

The reason I had been insisting on calling it a proposed plastic bag ban is, frankly, I do not believe in using sanitizing language – let us call a spade a spade, and then debate the merits of the proposal. The problem is that I was wrong. It is not a ban on plastic bags at all or at least all kinds of plastic bags from all businesses; it is in fact an ordinance that deals much more generally with single-use carryout bags.

Former Chief Responds to Release of Fire Report, Charges City Reneged on Promise to Employees

By David GreenwaldJuly 6, 201313 comments

“On April 24, 2013 I was told by the City of Davis that it intended to release the 2008 confidential report on the investigation of the Fire Department, unedited, which it had hired attorney Bob Aaronson to conduct,” wrote former Davis Fire Chief Rose Conroy on June 19 in a piece that was published on June 24 on the Friends of Davis Firefighters website. “I had never been given or even seen an unredacted copy of the report while employed as the Fire Chief; in fact, I had only seen the redacted version when it was released to the public last year. “

What the chief does not tell her readers, of course, is that that was by her own doing and that she had been offered the opportunity by the city to read the full report at the time of its release, and she declined to do so.

Small Business Owners Emerge As Powerful Force Supporting Climate Change Initiatives

By David GreenwaldJuly 6, 20139 comments

Nearly two weeks ago the Obama Administration finally responded to critics that he lacked an aggressive policy on climate change, and unveiled a sweeping plan to slow carbon emissions. The plan, which bypasses Congress, calls for, among other things, tougher emissions standards for power plants; raising efficiency standards for appliances, buildings and trucks; speeding up the leasing of public land for renewable energy projects; and shoring up infrastructure to protect it from more fierce storms and higher sea levels.

“We can choose to believe that superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence, or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late,” President Obama said.

Immigration Reform and Sheriff Arpaio

By uptownstudiosJuly 6, 20133 comments

By Cecillia Wang, ACLU

Last month, a U.S. District Court in Phoenix issued a 142-page decision against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) in Ortega Melendres v. Arpaio.

After a three-week trial, the court found that MCSO had an unconstitutional policy of targeting Latinos for traffic stops and of detaining Latinos based on nothing more than a suspicion of being undocumented immigrants.

My View: Does Buzayan Case Still Matter?

By David GreenwaldJuly 5, 201330 comments

Closure is a word that, more and more, I think should not exist. The more I live and observe, the more I recognize in human psychology there is no such thing as closure – at some point, people just move on with their lives. But there is never closure and in most ways they are never the same.

And so this week, I too am forced to deal with one of the pivotal moments of my past, as the Buzayan family made a decision to end their case.

Revolutionary Ideas

By uptownstudiosJuly 5, 20133 comments

By Rob White

It’s the 4^th of July and our experiment in a new form of government is now 237 years old. And over two and 1/3 centuries later we are still working through how this government works through the fine points in a system of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Several days ago, I had the privilege of speaking at a lunch-time brown bag with members of the Davis Downtown Business Association. We talked about many topics at the brown bag, but Lincoln’s words (above) now resonate in my mind… like our federal government system that is constantly striving for a more perfect union, our efforts in Davis-centric economic development should be analogous. And perhaps, they should be revolutionary.

UCD Professor Worries That Prop 8 Decision Will Harm Initiative Process

By David GreenwaldJuly 4, 201311 comments

“It was completely understandable, justifiable and even predictable that the Supreme Court would dispose of the challenge to California’s voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, by saying that the sponsors/proponents of the measure lacked legal ‘standing’ to defend it in federal court, even when the State Governor and Attorney General failed to defend,” UC Davis law professor Vikram Amar writes in an article published in Verdict this week.

His article argues that the Supreme Court could have found a way to have “avoided unnecessary damage to the initiative device,” even as he believes it somewhat reasonable that the court find a “principled legal way to bypass until another day the big question of whether there is a national right to same-sex marriage.” He simply felt that the court needed to explore alternatives ways to do so.

Commentary: Once a Proud Progressive Legacy, Davis Finds Itself Behind the Times, Playing Catch Up

By David GreenwaldJuly 4, 201330 comments

There was a time when Davis was the environmental leader, the innovator. But those days are long over. Davis finds itself fighting some remarkably rear-end fights on issues like plastic bags where more than sixty jurisdictions already have ordinances in place, or green waste containerization where it is perhaps twenty years behind the curve, and even on issues like fluoridation where most communities have long since come to a solution – one way or another.

Green Waste Containerization: On Tuesday, during the integrated waste management portion of the discussion, Councilmember Brett Lee put forward an interesting suggestion for creating an on-call program to deal with the few times when citizens have excessive amounts of green waste.

Seven Years Later: Buzayan Case Ends with a Whimper

By David GreenwaldJuly 3, 201323 comments

In June of 2005, a witness reported to the Davis Police Department what they believed to be a hit and run accident in the parking lot of Safeway in South Davis. The witness did not report seeing contact between the two vehicles, but noticed some damage to the car as the family’s SUV pulled away.

Investigating a misdemeanor crime, Davis Police Officer Pheng Ly made the fateful decision to arrest the 16-year-old high school student Halema Buzayan at 10 pm at night, despite the family’s request that they bring her to the police station for questioning the next morning.

Council Sends Plastic Bag Ordinance Back; Looks at Removing Exemptions to Apply More Evenly

By David GreenwaldJuly 3, 20134 comments

It was Councilmember Brett Lee who seemed to derail some of the discussion on the Single Use Carry-Out Bag ordinance, when he argued that the plastic bag ban was “misnamed.”

“It’s a plastic bag ban if you happen to be a supermarket, drug store, or liquor, there’s a whole broad group of businesses that are not touched by this approach,” he said. “Are plastic bags bad or are they only bad when they come from a supermarket?”

Council Gets Assurance from Dennis Diemer on Surface Water Project

By David GreenwaldJuly 3, 20136 comments

General Manager of the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency Dennis Diemer came the the Davis City Council on Tuesday night to discuss the progress of the surface water project. While he discussed in general the entire project, much of the questions from the public and council related to the withdrawal of two of the three DBO (Design-Build-Operate) teams.

Mr. Diemer discussed the delays to the schedule, mostly the result of the Davis vote on the surface water project, while he noted a number of positives from the delays including the acquisition of easement and land and environmental permitting; the state and federal funding for the intake and money from the State Revolving Fund; and project optimization in terms of capacity, the water transmission main, local facility requirements and DBO price ceiling.

Commentary: Dennis Diemer to Defend DBO Process at Council Meeting Tonight

By David GreenwaldJuly 2, 20138 comments

It won’t exactly be Oliver North facing down Democratic legislators at the Joint Congressional Committee from 26 years ago. But then again, Dennis Diemer, the General Manager of the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency, presumably won’t be lawyered up, ready to take the Fifth either.

The real question is whether anyone on council, this side of Brett Lee, actually cares that much about this issue.

Despite Valiant Fight by Congressman Garamendi, Student Loan Rates to Double

By David GreenwaldJuly 2, 201337 comments

Congress failed to strike a deal to keep student loan rates low on Monday, meaning that the subsidized Stafford loan interest rates will soar to 6.8 percent despite increasing concerns that the current generation of college students will be saddled with student loans that they might never be able to pay off.

Congressman John Garamendi, who represents much of Yolo County in Congress, fought hard against these changes and said on Monday he was “outraged by the shameful failure of Congress to stop the subsidized Stafford Student Loan interest rate from doubling.”

Judge Denies Strike in Wolfington Case, Defense Moves For New Trial

By Vanguard Court Watch InternsJuly 2, 201313 comments

by Antoinnette Borbon

Billy Wolfington, who was recently found guilty of second degree murder, was back in court for a hearing pertaining to case enhancements. Just last month, a Yolo County jury found Mr. Wolfington, the sole named defendant in the 2005 West Sacramento Gang Injunction, guilty of second degree murder.

His co-defendant, Shannon Silva, was acquitted on all charges. Yolo County Deputy DA Ryan Couzens had sought first degree murder charges on both defendants.

Open For Business: Same Sex Couples Can Wed in Yolo County

By David GreenwaldJuly 1, 20132 comments

County Clerk Describes the Long and Yet Rapid Road from Protest to Legalized Marriage – It was February of 2007, more than 18 months before voters would pass Prop 8 banning same-sex marriage, when Yolo County Clerk Freddie Oakley said she was frustrated with the system and decided to do her own protest.

“I had already been county clerk for a number of years and I took it upon myself to be the person who addresses folks who came to demonstrate on Valentine’s Day,” Freddie Oakley recounted on Friday, noting that most county clerks would simply hide away in their offices rather than face the protesters.

Month: July 2013

Should the City Modify Its Wastewater Proposal?

Two Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputies Caught Lying in Separate Traffic Stop Cases