As my longtime readers know, I have taken Thanksgiving off, really the only days most years I take completely off.
The big news this year is that on January 2, 2014, we will launch the new website – finally. As many know, we created this site as the second Vanguard website in March 2009. We are running it on aging software and there have been functionality problems.
The Davis City Council went behind closed doors for over an hour and a half before Mayor Joe Krovoza poked his head out the door and told the two members of the public – actually reporters – that there was no reportable action. That means that City Manager Steve Pinkerton will most likely retain his job and have his contract renewed, but beyond that we know little and that is not right.
In a city manager form of government, the most powerful figure is the city manager. This is not simply a personnel action, because, while the city council hires the city manager and makes policy decisions, the city manager is in charge of enacting the policy. The city manager is the single most powerful figure in city hall.
By UC Davis News ServiceThe University of California at Davis, West Village, the nation’s largest planned zero net energy community, racks up an impressive list of achievements in its initial year of review. The first formal analysis of West Village shows that, even in its initial phases, it is well on the way to the ultimate goal of operating as a ZNE community.
The report released today from UC Davis, and its partner West Village Community Partnership LLC, outlines major milestones including West Village producing 87 percent of the energy it consumed in a one-year period — well in advance of the project’s full completion.
While many believe that Davis Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk is the frontrunner for the 2014 open Assembly Seat currently held by Mariko Yamada, the Wolk campaign has to thread a rather perilous needle.
On the one hand, they want to avoid the linkage between Dan Wolk and his mother, the current State Senator Lois Wolk. But on the other hand, they need to be able to take advantage of her reputation, experience and network in order to bring in endorsements, money and ultimately votes.
We have learned that there is an active effort underway to terminate the contract of City Manager Steve Pinkerton before the December 1 deadline, after which would enable him to receive nine months of severance for early termination.
The terms of the agreement, signed in 2011, “shall automatically renew and extend” for an additional three year term beginning on September 1, 2014, unless “written notice not to renew and extend is given by City to Employee no later than nine (9) months prior to the renewal date (i.e. not later than December 1, 2013).”
The discussion over Mace 391 has much larger ramifications than simply what the city does on that site. In a very real way, it frames the way the city handles land use policies going forward.
One of the key variables in the Mace 391 deal was the idea that the city would be able to develop a parcel of land, Mace 391, as a business park, while at the same time being able to secure other key areas of land such as the Shriner’s Property as a permanent easement.
Last week tragedy struck the small town of Winters when William Gardner allegedly gunned down his ex-grilfriend in downtown Winters, in broad daylight, just days after being released from custody at the Yolo County jail, where he had been held on charges that he stalked and threatened the victim in this case, Leslie Pinkston.
Her friend, Katie Winkler, wrote this week that Ms. Pinkston was “terrorized by an abusive ex-boyfriend. Harassed, stalked and threatened via social media, through email, phone and in person, Leslie tried to prevent and stop this behavior on her own and with the help of family and friends. She changed her number, she moved, she stayed under the radar, all in an effort to keep herself and her daughter safe.”
Earlier this week, a letter from four current officials and a fifth former elected official publicly challenged the city on a City of Davis – UC Davis Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) for shared management services in the fire department. However, that fight, which will play out during the Tuesday, December 3, 2013, city council meeting, is nothing compared to what is going on behind the scenes.
The council met last Tuesday behind closed doors on City Manager Steve Pinkerton’s performance evaluation. At that time there was no reportable action, but the council, two days before Thanksgiving, will have another special closed session meeting on the same topic.
After nearly three days of deliberation in the multi-defendant case, jurors told Judge David Rosenberg they could not reach a decision. The jury foreman was asked by Rosenberg whether, if they had more time to deliberate, they could reach a decision, but only one of twelve said yes.
But what we would learn from what they struggled with signaled a pause. Defense Attorney Jeff Raven explained to the family of one of the defendants, Jose Jimenez, that the jurors felt intimidated by the groups of family present during trial.
At its December 3, 2013 meeting, the Davis City Council will hold a workshop on the Downtown Parking Management Plan. Staff will then return in February or so to seek council direction on formal action.
In October 2012, the council appointed a Downtown Parking Task Force to “identify issues and solutions for addressing downtown parking issues including identifying short-, mid-, and long-term actions to address parking management and supply.”
On Tuesday, the Davis City Council did what they had to do, in fact they did what they were elected to do – make tough decisions with regard to the city budget. The process is broken, it took way too long, it cost way too much money.
But there was no mistake this time – the council dotted their “i’s” and crossed their “t’s.” There will be no 11th hour PERB board ruling to turn this back.
By Kaiti CurryKevin Ellis, who was found guilty of molesting two young boys and failing to register as a sex offender in October, may be in luck. The 55-year-old man could have been sentenced to multiple life imprisonment sentences by Judge Mock on November 22, but instead the case has been continued while a mistrial issue is being investigated.
One of the jurors allegedly spoke to his or her neighbor about the case while actively involved in Ellis’s trial. This is unfortunate, and is grounds for a mistrial.
The Davis firefighters’ union may have lost their influence and hold over the city government, but the power and influence that they have outside of the city boundaries was on ready display earlier this week when four current and on past elected officials co-wrote a letter to the Davis City Council filled with concerns about the proposed Fire JPA.
Unfortunately for them, they did not do their homework. There were numerous errors in the structure and content of the letter. The most stunning thing is that not one of those individuals met with either the city of Davis or UC Davis Vice Chancellor John Meyer to express their concerns or learn more about the process.
There is no getting around the fact that the process involved in the original discussion on Mace 391 in June was less than ideal. There is plenty of blame to go around for that debacle, and I think, or at least hope, that those involved learned critical lessons to prevent future such debacles.
The shame here is that we could not have had a discussion on the merits in June, when going forward with an alternative path might have been seen as viable.
City Objects – Letter Contains Inaccuracies and Misinterpretations of the Proposed JPA: Tuesday was supposed to mark the meeting in which the city council would formally approve the Joint Powers Agreement for shared management services between the city of Davis and UC Davis Fire Department. Early on Tuesday morning, the Vanguard learned that Senator Lois Wolk, Assemblymember Mariko Yamada, Supervisors Don Saylor and Jim Provenza and former Supervisor Helen Thomson wrote a letter to the Davis City Council opposing the agreement.
The letter argues, “We believe that governance of public safety is and must remain a core function of the elected City Council of Davis. Community oversight and accountability is an important element of municipal services.”
Meeting Punctuated by Verbal Jousts between Assembly Seat Rivals: The meeting ended late Tuesday night – or early in the morning depending on your perspective. In the end, it was a split decision with Mayor Joe Krovoza wanting additional assurances on the connectivity aspect of the project, while Brett Lee felt, in the end, that the project did not offer enough in moderately-priced homes and zero net energy.
The question is now whether this will go to a vote. The Vanguard immediately reached out to one potential source for such an effort, Mike Hart. Mr. Hart, who is the CEO of Sierra Pacific and who spoke out against the project on Tuesday, indicated that they are currently looking into the costs associated with such an effort and the likelihood of success.
Monday night was the first in a series of 16 symposia to be held around the state and produced by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) (www.business.ca.gov), the University of California and SARTA (Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance) (www.sarta.org), which is one of the 16 California Innovation Hubs (iHubs) (http://business.ca.gov/Programs/Innovation.aspx).The UC Innovation Series was conceived by several of the leadership of GO-Biz almost a year ago, most notably Louis Stewart, GO-Biz Deputy Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. For the Davis Edition, he was assisted by UC Davis representatives, most notably Dean Steven Currall from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and Marjorie Dickinson, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Government and Community Relations, as well as Meg Arnold, SARTA CEO. AS with all of these types of collaborations, there were many other from GO-Biz, UC Davis and SARTA that helped to make the event possible and demonstrates the partnership that exists in this region.
by Antoinnette BorbonAs the morning began, all four defense attorneys asked Judge Rosenberg to consider an [Penal Code section] 1118 motion to dismiss charges against the four young men accused of second degree robbery and assault on a Woodland man.
The prosecutor had added a gang enhancement to two of the counts against all four young men. But, despite an exhaustive effort by Attorney Jeff Raven, the motion was denied. Judge Rosenberg felt there was sufficient evidence to allow a jury to decide on the charges, and ruled against the 1118 motion.
By Matt WilliamsWith the exception of Mike Hart, who used public comment twice during the evening to make the same argument he has frequently made here in the Vanguard (a passionate plea for using the Cannery site for an Innovation Park rather than for housing), and Mayor Krovoza, who strongly argued for an additional $1,150,000 of concessions from the project applicant at the very end of the meeting, everyone who spoke in Council Chambers supported the project. After a short delay as Mayor Krovoza’s substitute motion for the additional concessions was discussed and then voted down by a 1-4 tally, the final vote approving the Cannery was entered into the ledger as 3-2, with Brett Lee entering a message vote as follows:
I feel that the project applicant has been very thoughtful and very responsive, and the project has made dramatic improvements over the past three months. Further, I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but because there are clearly three votes in support, I want my vote to say that I believe the project could be even better if there were more moderately priced homes (below $400,000) and if the project also was also a net zero energy community like West Village. Unfortunately, right now it isn’t quite there. If it were, it would be a regional/national draw. So I am voting NO to remind people “how close we were to the great.”
The meeting was packed with folks, many of whom lined up to speak on the issue of the Mace 391/Leland Ranch Ag Easement. A large number of them came out in support of moving forward with the easement, though members of the business and tech community offered powerful counter arguments.
In the end, the handwriting was on the wall and despite people providing strong questions about the actual impact on the closing efficiency of the city and Yolo Land Trust, the council was simply unwilling to take that chance and voted 5-0 for option one – finalizing the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) conservation easement.
