Month: October 2013

While some have been concerned about the prospect that the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency (WDCWA)  lost two of its bidders on the water project, on Thursday the General Manager of the WDCWA, Dennis Diemer, announced that the negotiations have ended and the contract will come before the board on October 10 in Woodland for final approval.

According to a press release, the Board of Directors “is to consider awarding a $141.2 million service contract to CH2M Hill, the sole bidder able to meet the Agency’s requirements for project costs, quality assurances and performance guarantees.”  That price proposal is 25 percent lower than what the agency originally estimated costs to be.

In response late Tuesday night to the Vanguard tweet declaring that fluoridation had gone down by a vote of 4-1 on the Davis City Council, Supervisor Matt Rexroad, a strong proponent of fluoridation, tweeted, “pathetic” and followed it up, “The City of Davis and State of Jefferson both can fight fluoridation of water. Let them be one.”

Later on Facebook he would post, “Davis is going to oppose fluoridation of water. I am no longer listening to anything coming from that community regarding public health.”

The handwriting was on the wall when Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk made a motion to approve staff recommendation number one, in support of fluoridation, and his motion received no second.  Eventually the council would approve a motion by Rochelle Swanson to support staff recommendation number two, which would turn down fluoridation and instead direct staff to engage with folks in the community for access to preventative care.

The 4-1 vote would buck the near-unanimous support of the public health community, the school district and the county.  However, the council had to weigh in politics.  They understood that over the more than 50 speakers who came for public comment, nearly two-thirds were against fluoridation.

Tonight, unless something drastically changes, the roughly six-month debate on fluoridation – which is only the latest episode in a half-century saga in Davis on this issue – will end tonight.  Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk came out in favor of fluoridation early in the process, but unless something changes he does not have three votes, and may not even have a second vote.

Truth be told, when the issue emerged, I thought I would end up supporting fluoridation.  I grew up in a community with fluoridated water and, to be quite blunt, it was not a big deal in the least.  My perception of the anti-fluoridation folks was painted by images of the 1950s, where the John Birch Society railed against fluoridation, arguing that it would make it easier for the communists to put us under their control.