The end of this week has seen an interesting confluence of events involving UC Davis and the city in general. The basic prognosis is this: the city of Davis needs revenue generators and needs a partner in UC Davis to make some of it happen.
As Mayor Robb Davis laid out in his State of the City speech before the Davis Chamber this week, regarding the city of Davis: “On the face of it, it appears that revenue has more than kept pace with expenditures,” the mayor said. “However, when we dig into the expenditures or rather what we’re not spending money on, we see that the picture is not at all positive.
“Essentially, we have balanced the budget over the years by not including many infrastructure projects that really should be covered,” the mayor stated.
Mayor Davis laid it out squarely and unequivocally: “Our greatest weakness as a city right now is our inability to fund the maintenance of our infrastructure. That is true for our roads. That is true for our parks. That is true for our pools. That is true for just about every city building.
“It’s not that we’re not putting any money into those things,” he explained. “It’s that we’re not putting sufficient money into it, year on year, to really maintain the things that we already have.”
The bottom line here is that the city needs to take measures to contain costs, while finding new revenues to help pay for existing infrastructure and unfunded liabilities.
There are lots of ways that we are going to have to go about generating revenue. There is not one single answer. We will see a tax proposal this year – there is no doubt. We will see about maximizing existing commercial space and expanding hotel tax revenue.
And we need to look once again toward research parks as one of the answers to our revenue needs.
This fall the Vanguard, noting the change in chancellors at UC Davis, pushed for the idea of the World Food Center staying at Davis as a driver for technology transfer from the university, startups and other companies coming to Davis.
Earlier this week, it appeared there was good news, with newly-elected Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry stating that she would support a UC Davis consideration for building the World Food Center “on its land and there are other parcels like the (on-hold) Mace Ranch Innovation Center proposal.”
She told the Vanguard, “I want to see Yolo County as a hub for ag-tech, including value added product manufacturing. AgPlus (Central Valley Food and Beverage Manufacturing Consortium) is one initiative I’m involved with that is a good model here.”
But UC President Janet Napolitano appears to have other plans. She told the Sacramento Bee on Wednesday that “she hopes whoever gets picked as the new chancellor of UC Davis can pull off an expansion of the campus into Sacramento.”
That would appear to include the World Food Center.
In my view, an expansion of UC Davis into Sacramento in and of itself is a good thing. It raises the profile of the university. There is a natural nexus between UC Davis and the legislature that can only enhance the importance of the university.
The World Food Center could be part of this move – but it doesn’t have to be. The key would appear to be the next chancellor of UC Davis. She told the Bee: “I really think the next chancellor should be able to weigh in on that.”
One of the big questions is what the World Food Center looks like in a future vision. Right now, it appears that there is a center in name only, with a looser affiliation of faculty and non-faculty policy oriented individuals.
Is the World Food Center going to be a research center or is it going to be a lobbying center? As a research center, it makes a lot more sense to leave it on the main campus or put it out in a research park like MRIC (Mace Ranch Innovation Center).
The advantages of MRIC for such a center are enormous. It would have the space to develop a hub of ag-tech companies that could grow and develop near agricultural land. Already there is Mace 391, a conservation easement that could become a huge boost for agricultural research and experimental agriculture.
Those are advantages that the WFC would not have in a more urban environment like the railyards.
The Vanguard has now privately spoken with each of the members of council and there seems to be an emerging view from many that the WFC is something that we want to keep in Davis as a billion dollar research center that can hopefully be a driver for further economic development.
Already Rochelle Swanson and Robb Davis, as the council subcommittee, have been working hard behind the scenes to bolster relations between the city and university. There is some thought about the need to formalize the relationship into a formal two-by-two.
In addition to council movement, the community – if it wants to house a prestigious center like the World Food Center – needs to get behind the concept and the need to create land and commercial space for the center and potential spinoffs.
That would appear to put a proposal like the Mace Ranch Innovation Center back on the main page for future discussions.
There are a lot of moving parts here including the need for the community to embrace a Measure R project that right now is on the back burner, but, given the timeline for the new chancellor, we appear to have at least until the fall to get our act together here.
The resignation of Katehi created an opportunity for the city leaders to refocus, but we need to take advantage of it because, as the UC President’s comments made clear, Sacramento is already angling for another slice of the pie.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
I heard an interview this week with Steve Hammond, outgoing CEO of Visit Sacramento, in which he said the “Farm to Fork” brand is critical for growing tourism and new business for the city. I’m sure city officials realize that a World Food Center in downtown Sacramento would add to that brand.
Interesting slant… thanks…
David
In the DV’s article “Napolitano May Have Dealt a Blow to Davis’ WFC Chances” Mark West pointed to you that” The decision will ultimately be made by the Office of the President and the Board of Regents whether there is a new Chancellor in place or not.” Seems to me that you and Tia long time ago fell in love with Janet Napolitano’s and SacBee reporter Diana Lambert’s their “ Soviet Pravda “ stories. The two most recent SacBee articles about WFC and the third UC Davis Campus in Sacramento bashing which are not only bashing the former UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi but also indirectly the UC Davis as a entity . One of the readers commented the SacBee’s article with words:
You and others have to understand that Napolitano was brought by Feinstein , Blum and Brown to the UC system with Steinberg’s blessing to protect corrupted to the bones UC political establishment after Napolitano with Haag took care of the California “Bernie Sanders” Senator Leland Yee . Senator Yee dedicated his life to fight the corrupted UC and Sacramento political swamp since 2002. In January 2004 Blum with other regents recruited John Lohse to watch closely Leland Yee and the others UC cronies’ adversaries. John Lohse was recruited after his c career with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), where he served as a chief division counsel and supervisory special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigations from May 1975 to January 2004 (28 years and 9 months) in the San Francisco area. Lohse took action with his former colleagues from the FBI and Haag to help Blum, Feinstein , Brown other UC regents and some Yee’s colleagues from the California legislature like Steinberg and Perez to neutralize Senator Leland Yee and take him out of picture forever by framing him and throwing into prison for five years.
You probably know what Steinberg did to Yee in 2010 as a warning for Yee and to push him back not to mess with UC and Sacramento’s swamp. The World Food Center and the third UC Davis Campus is the billions of dollars business. This business means Senator Feinstein and her billionaire husband who is regent for life since 2002 and three others regents for life with lot of money in the banks. They are Monica C. Lozano, Sherry Lansing, and Norman Pattiz . Napolitano . Feinstein , Brown , Steinberg regent Blum , regent John Perez is the Trojan Horse for UC Davis and not only for UC Davis . They are decision makers what is good for UC Davis, UC and Sacramento swamp and what is not . This is the Yolo Leaks issue but looks like Yolo Leaks is disabled by the Yolo Leaks founder who is two ways patriot.
Mark West in his other comment wrote : Tia – Why do you have such difficulty with reading comprehension?
Tia has no difficulties with reading comprehension. Tia is exercising her First Amendment rights and supporting wrong causes placing herself on the side of the oppressors by in the wrap of the chameleon’s camouflage.
Jerry
“Seems to me that you and Tia long time ago fell in love with Janet Napolitano’s and SacBee reporter Diana Lambert’s their “ Soviet Pravda “ stories”
This is one of the most ridiculous assumptions you have ever made. First, I do not typically read the Sacramento Bee, and I do not believe that I have ever read an article by reporter Lambert. It is very hard to “fall in love” with what you do not know exists. I try very had to make judgements based on the words and actions of the individual. I never wrote one word in support of Ms. Napolitano. I never criticized former Chancellor Katehi for anything that she had not admitted to doing. I was never impressed by the nepotism and other dubious charges, but was very critical of her thoroughly vetted and admitted handling of the quad incident and its subsequent attempted white washing as I was of her board activities.
You are right in that I have no difficulty with reading comprehension. I do not agree with your assessment of me placing myself on the “side of the oppressors” since I was not a fan of the actions of Ms. Napolitano. However, oppression takes many forms. Some might see it as “oppression” to implement a policy whereby foreign students less qualified but having to pay out of state admission are accepted over more qualified in state students even though one is in charge of a public institution whose primary mission is to educate qualified in state students. That was a decision made and supported by former Chancellor Katehi which I found quite “oppressive” when it affected my own son after my generous support of the university through taxes and alumni gifts for years.
Tia
I had a liberty to read your vindictive posts about Chancellor . Don’t give your smile on this one . Could you elaborate a little more about the oppressive Katehi’s action which affected your son . I am not Katehi’s supporter. I am against framing , scapegoating and prosecuting people for political reason and to cover up political cronies crimes. You are intelligent person and I thought that you will figured out that something is wrong when Katehi was prosecuted by the same two individuals , Napolitano and Haag who framed and prosecuted Leland Yee and threw him into federal prison for five years . The Yee was socialist like a Bernie Sanders with ideology I left behind leaving Poland in 1982 and I don’t like to do anything with . However , I will stand firmly with my principles and against these who are being victimized and their life being ruined by thugs like Napolitano , Steinberg , Haag and others like them .
In 2013 I seriously considered to add Katehi and Hexter to my lawsuit . I decided not to because I found out that Katehi and Hexter were no involved in destruction of my life and order to destroy me came from the UCOP. If I would add Katehi to my lawsuit than Katehi today would be still working as UC Davis Chancellor and she would be defended by the Porter Scott notorious law firm as the other five individual Defendants in the lawsuit and she would be facing 1 year in jail and fine if I would have her in the lawsuit. Chancellor of UC Davis has less power than her subordinate CEO of the UC Davis Medical Center who made over 1 million dollars a years, more than twice than UC Davis Chancellor . You have to look at the big picture. You know very little about UC system .
If Yee was framed, why did he plead guilty?
Darn good question…
If Yee was framed, why did he plead guilty?
Jim and Howard
He was forced or convinced by his lawyer and Haag to sign plea agreement on July 1, 2015 because he was successfully framed. What kind question is it? He would not survive 20 years in prison . Maybe he will survive 5 at his age Why Yee was framed is more important than his plea agreement. Shortly after signed plea agreement , Haag resigned and resurfaced next to Napolitano to take care of Katehi or Katehi case was a total hoax to divert the California Senate and Assembly Yee’s colleagues attention from the Yee’s prosecution , his sentencing at the end of February 2016 in and his reporting to the US Marshal at the end of March 2016. This is at least 20 pages story to explain why he was framed and how he was framed . FBI did excellent job. It took FBI 3 years to prime Yee’s and convince him to swallow the hook. Yee’s worse mistake after he was framed and arrested in 2014 was to fire his first attorney and hire the former U.S. attorney’s and San Francisco district attorney James Lasart who cut 5 five years deal for Yee with another US Attorney Malinda Haag . The first Yee’s attorney Paul DeMeester was on the right track to get Yee out of the trap set for him by FBI .
This is off topic.
Jerry
“I had a liberty to read your vindictive posts about Chancellor .”
I have no desire to rehash our conversation about the former Chancellor. Her policy of favoring less qualified foreign students over more qualified in state students disadvantaged my son as I have stated previously. I did not favor this at a public institution. However, she had many positive attributes and accomplishments in her career which I applauded here on the Vanguard. She also made a number of decisions and took actions of which I disapproved. I do not do the “cult of personality” thing. There is no human being with whom I have always agreed or disagreed and I tend to be honest in my assessment of others based on the entirety of the knowledge available to me, preferably their own words and actions. You defended all of her actions seemingly without regard to their impact on others. That is your right to do so. But our disagreement over some of her actions does not make my accurate comments “vindictive” anymore than if I were to call your comments “sycophantic” which I have not and do not.
I was and am, of necessity neutral at this point in time about the World Food Center. This is because we do not yet have enough information about what it will entail, who will be partnering, whether the emphasis will be on basic agriculture which I feel is best suited to this location, or whether it will be primarily based on ag manufacturing which I feel would be better placed at a third campus. There is simply too much that we do not know at this point in time to make a judgement about optimal location.
Tia
Is that was the reason that you paired yourself on the DV with SacBee and five smart legislators to help Napolitano and Haag in their unsuccessful attempt to throw Katehi into prison as they did to Leland Yee .I don’t believe this . You know very little how the UC system works and where the decisions are made . You aimed your anger and personal vendetta to wrong direction . The tuition and foreign students and corruption among the UC cronies were a few of many reason that Senator Yee was taken out . Foreign students were not the Katehi’s policy and decision. Katehi was the UCOP’s policies enforcer, especially the policies where the big money were in play . The Katehi worse mistake was that she as the outsider found herself in 2009 in the middle of crisis turmoil and students protest in UC campuses. Her second worse mistake was that she did not quit after the pepper spray attack. However with such publicity she got, I doubt if she could find any job after 2011 especially with the pending lawsuit against her , Hexter and others in the Federal Court. Impossible. If she would be one who make the decision to attack students in 2011 than UCOP would dump her right away after the lawsuit was settled or even before to have Katehi as a scape goat. This was unfortunate that this lawsuit was quickly settled to cover up bigger scandal that we had a liberty to watch on TV and read in newspapers.
In regards to World Food Center , I believe that Katehi’s 2013 WFC project was killed in 2013 and Katehi fate as well was decided in December 2013 just three months after Napolitano’s was brought by Feinstein and Blum to UC system . After Vanderhoef died in October 2015 Katehii was finished.
Jerry
“Is that was the reason that you paired yourself on the DV with SacBee and five smart legislators to help Napolitano and Haag in their unsuccessful attempt to throw Katehi into prison as they did to Leland Yee “
First, in order to have a conversation, we need to agree on what each other are actually saying. Please show me any quote from me stating that I favored any action by any legislator or Napolitano or Haag. You will not find any, because I never wrote one word on these topics. I never favored the incarceration of anyone. My strongest statement ever was that I thought it would be the best move for Chancellor Katehi to resign as chancellor and continue on with what I see as the strengths of her career as a scientist, researcher, teacher, and supporter of women in STEM.
I had and have no personal animosity for former Chancellor Katehi at all. I simply did not and do not believe that her perspective and actions were the best for a public institution. The same attitudes and actions might very well have been very constructive at a private institution. While it is certainly true that I may be mistaken about how much the policy of pushing acceptances of lesser qualified foreign students was her own, or how much she was merely implementing and/or defending a policy determined by others, I did not hear her vocally opposing this policy.
I fail to see how you cannot see the difference between believing that a person is not the best fit for their position which is and has always been my position and having a personal vendetta or even any animosity towards them. I actually believe that Chancellor Katehi and I have stood on the same side on many academic issues, most notably our belief in advancing opportunities for women in STEM fields. However, that does not mean that I need approve of every decision she has made or every action that she has taken just as I would anticipate that she would not agree with all of mine.
Tia
This was your personal vendetta because you thought that she is responsible for disadvantage of your son and you with out any mercy attacked Katehi over and over on DV forum . You admitted it. Don’t deny it now. Too late.
What difference it is makes now whether you mention Napolitano’s or Haag’s name . Katehi would be wasted regardless of your consistent non stop clapping and admiring Napolitano’s and other brutal and inhumane assault aimed at Chancellor Katehi at her family. Read your posts you wrote . Especially what blown my mind was yours unconditional waves of attacks on DV forum against chancellor and it was was done in supporting the person who deported 2.2 million people including thousands of families and children you cried about because Trump was elected President . Katehi did not deport anybody and is no record that she has done any harm to anybody . I have record what Katehi has done and what she did not do it. I don’t Katehi , I never met her , I never talk to her , I was fired when she was Chancellor and I could say that she could stop the attacks against me and blame her for destruction of my and my family life and sue her because she was Chancellor. It does not work this way Tia. Making a false accusations or repeating the false accusations accusations after SacBee provided for Lambert by Napolitano and Klein is same as to make the unfunded accusations . Kicking someone when they are <a title="down"
Tia
The last statement should be :
Kicking someone when they down is not in the doctors’ canon of ethics definition
Jerry
When I started my commentary on the behavior of Chancellor Katehi was at the time of the pepper spraying incident which was years before my son every applied to UCD. We did not know until a year ago that he had not been accepted to UCD but had been accepted to Cal State Sac, so although I know you think that you have “caught me” in something, your time line is completely wrong.
I have not lied. I think that former Chancellor Katehi’s own statements and the investigation have revealed what she has done. As I have said repeatedly, I approve of some of her actions and disapprove of others.
“regardless of your consistent non stop clapping and admiring Napolitano’s and other brutal and inhumane assault aimed at Chancellor Katehi at her family.”
I note a lack of quotes from me to support any of your claims that I ever supported any action of Ms. Napolitano.
“Especially what blown my mind was yours unconditional waves of attacks on DV forum against chancellor”
I regret that your mind “was blown” by something that never occurred. My comments on former Chancellor Katehi have included the elements of her career that I admire, and those that I think were handled poorly. Hardly “unconditional waves of attacks”. Again, I simply do not share your ” cult of personality approach to former Chancellor Katehi.
Tia
We could argue who is who and who is responsible for quite while . This is not the point . I have more important business with UC to finish. You know who Janet Napolitano was and who she is now and you know who Melinda Haag and her colleague McGregor Scott was is in relation to the Napolitano’s professional background. Janet Napoliatano and her colleagues knows everything about every chancellor, every , every California legislators who got himself into their spotlight , governor etc. Something went wrong for these three amigos in their attempt to turn over Katehi to the District Attorney or US Attorney in 2016. When I noticed what Napolitano, Haag and Scott were trying to do than I sent a several complaint to US Attorney Office in Sacramento and to Feinstein and FBI. I got three responses from Feinstein, from FBI and from US Attorney . I am not sure how it is going to end because it is not of this story . Katehi is still around. Napolitano did not go back to DC as the next US Attorney General because unfortunately for her and many others Donald Trump won the election and she stuck powerlessly with her sins in UC . She is not eligible yet to receive her UC retirement and she needs another 2 years. This is a big chunk of money . She just announced that students tuition fees would be increased. This is not a god sign for her. Maybe the planned tuition increase was the part of the game with Katehi not to have major turmoil and uprising in the UC Davis. Napolitano is very well train and skilled professional to deal with turmoils and protests but students eventually will send her out. I already see some reactions on the twitter about planned tuition increase from the students activists . . You know what did happen in 2009-2011 in UC Campuses. Katehi is still around . Lets wait and see.
According the SacBee article the Katehi ‘s goals to make UC Davis the 21 Century University were well planned and were discussed with UCOP and and the regents . Somehow and for the unknown reason Napolitano killed the projects and she wasted Katehi.
Something drastic must have occurred or took place between October 2015 and February 2016 that Napolitano turn the UC Davis into the war zone in 2016.
The SacBee’s article was written by same Diana Labamert who in 2016 launched massive concerted attacks against the UC Davis Chancellor Katehi and still continue to bash her long after the Kathi’s forced resignation in August 2016.