When Dan Wolk submitted his paperwork to apply for the Davis City Council vacancy on Friday afternoon – he became the fifth individual to submit his name and easily the most recognizable of the names on the list, if only because he is the son of Senator Lois Wolk.
Dan Wolk, an Attorney for Solano County, was himself a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Davis as he worked under Harriet Steiner at her former law firm.
What is clear now that the appointment process is winding down, and with the last day to file approaching rapidly on Tuesday, we have a lot of learning to do about the current applicants.
One of the more intriguing candidates may be Paul Boylan, an attorney who currently serves as general counsel for the Orland Unified School District and Glenn County Office of Education.
On his application form, he states, “I am proud of my pro bono practice, often representing individuals at no cost.”
We note an article from January of 2010 where he represented a woman who sued Fortuna to gain access to public records on its water system – and she prevailed.
Writes the North Coast Journal from Humboldt County, “And that inquiry led her straight into a protracted public records battle with the City of Fortuna. At the peak of the engagement, last January, Egger sued the city under the California Public Records Act to compel it to provide documents she’d repeatedly requested. She prevailed, and in March got her documents — including one the city had withheld citing Homeland Security concerns — and last June Humboldt County Superior Court Judge John Feeney ordered the city to pay her attorney, Paul Boylan of Davis, $22,728 for his fees and court costs.”
In August, there was an article in the California Lawyer that describes Paul Boylan with his 67-year-old client Tim Crews. The article describes them as an odd couple that share one common passion.
“They love to shake down recalcitrant bureaucrats for undisclosed government documents. In fact, Boylan has represented Crews in more than two dozen cases over the past five years when the publisher has either sought government records under the California Public Records Act or pursued violations of the state’s open meetings law. Their objective, they say, is a simple one: to shed light on the dimly lit machinery of government.”
He suggests he would be a temporary candidate. Mr. Boylan may not be the best versed candidate when it comes to the issues.
He writes, “However, in all honesty, the ones I feel are most important may not be issues I, as a temporary City Council Member, will be able to address or affect. This isn’t a cop out – it is just the truth.”
“For example, I could say I want to see more parking downtown (who doesn’t?) and I could promise I will fight to get it and that it will be free (free parking for everyone!) but that would likely be an empty promise because I don’t know what we can afford and what we can’t.”
Walter Bunter Jr. describes himself as a senior citizen and a 37-year resident of East Davis who has been a member of the Slide Hill Park Neighborhood Association Steering Committee since 2001.
He seems clearly well-versed in current Davis issues.
Like many, he talks about working to reduce “the City’s long-term unfunded liability by developing alternatives for employee compensation and retirement benefits in preparation for contract negotiations in 2012 with the help of the Finance and Budget Commission and a representative from each bargaining unit.”
He also talks about working “to attract more clean and green industries with the help of the Business and Economic Development Commission and the Davis Chamber of Commerce to provide more jobs and expand the tax base.”
He seeks improvement to the railroad crossing at 8th Street, improving the transparency of the redevelopment agency, helping to “improve cooperation with UC Davis regarding police and fire protection” and supporting increased outreach to Neighborhood Associations.
Robert Smith is a retired resident since March of 2000, he has a “M.A. and Professional Diploma in music and music education from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, where I was born and grew up. I also have an M.B.A. from Lincoln University in San Francisco, and a diploma in computer business administration from Heald Business College in San Francisco. For 27 years and 10 months I was a letter carrier, parcel post driver, and acting foreman in the U.S. Postal Service in San Francisco.”
He describes himself as having “no political connections, other than a casual acquaintance with former Mayor Ruth Asmundson, former council member Ted Puntillo, and former Mayor Don Saylor. I am willing to work with the members of the City Council and other elected and appointed officials.”
Kari Fry was born and raised in Davis. She writes, “I represent three generations of Davis citizens. I want to continue this tradition of innovative and responsible decision making to benefit our residents now and for generations to come.”
She has a “State of California Life Accident and Health License, B.S. in Business Administration with an Honors Concentration in Financial Services, and a minor in Economics from Saint Mary’s College of California.”
“Like the vast majority of our Davis citizens, I would like to maintain and improve our high quality of life. I want our city to make choices today that benefit, not burden, future generations,” she writes.
She focuses on fiscal responsibility, economic development and downtown Davis.
“Fiscal Responsibility is an important issue/goal facing the Council, if not the most important due to its long reaching impacts to the well-being of Davis, its employees and its citizens. The largest issue we face regarding fiscal responsibility and planning is that of our unfunded liabilities with regard to CalPERS pension plans and retiree medical benefits,” Ms. Fry writes.
She lists five details. First, she says, we need to find a way to fully fund now, rather than pay as we go. She floated the idea of a “Pension Obligation Bond.”
Second, she says we “need to create a new fair compensation package that can work for the city and its current and future employees and safety workers—it is a painful process, but we all need share the pain and come up with a fair and workable long-term solution.”
Third, “We need to be open-minded and look at ALL possible solutions—we need to look outside our city and find models and examples of how this issue is being handled elsewhere and the effectiveness of various solutions.”
Fourth, “we need to find solutions for the current unfunded liabilities and create a better strategy moving forward (possibly a 2-tiered plan).”
Finally, she says, we have to value these employees and workers and have frank and open discussions with them.
That leads us back to Dan Wolk, who was also born and raised in Davis.
He also lists budgetary challenges as our top priority.
“Although the city has weathered the economic downturn somewhat better than other communities, we face daunting short- and long-term challenges. In the short-term, revenues continue to be beset by the poor economy and sluggish real estate market. Moreover, the state’s actions on this year’s budget could severely impact the city, notably in the potential elimination of its redevelopment agency and the millions in “tax increment” dollars it brings,” he writes.
In the long-term, the challenges are even more daunting. The city confronts a host of “unfunded liabilities” from an estimated $53 million in retiree health care costs, to millions in pension costs (resulting in a substantial increase in CalPERS contributions), to delayed infrastructure projects,” he continues. “These challenges must be addressed in a systematic and proactive manner. And as much as we would find it easier to cobble together a short-term plan and cross our fingers hoping for larger economic forces to come to our rescue, that only delays the tough decisions we have to make.
Growth and land use issues may not be on top right now, but they still are basic factors driving Davis city involvement.
We will have to wait and see if other candidates emerge.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Dan Wolk! Get me a lawn sign!
Fiscal and land use issues are related. If a project does not pay for itself, and many do not, then we should oppose.
While they have some relation, the bigger issue of land use is primarily not about the fiscal implications but rather the aesthetic and other implications of growth.
I hardly think “growth” is an issue at the moment. The dire budget situation is what should be front and center, period. Everything else is secondary…
dmg: “When Dan Wolk submitted his paperwork to apply for the Davis City Council vacancy on Friday afternoon – he became the fifth individual to submit his name and easily the most recognizable of the names on the list, if only because he is the son of Senator Lois Wolk.
Dan Wolk, an Attorney for Solano County, was himself a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Davis as he worked under Harriet Steiner at her former law firm.
Whether his relationship with the region’s Senator helps his appointment or creates a potential charge of political favoritism remains to be seen.”
I think Dan Wolk will be judged on his own merits, and he certainly has every right to put his hat in the ring to fill Saylor’s vacancy just like anyone else. Dan currently sits on the Social Services Commission, so is no stranger to Davis politics and policies…
He’s hot , I’ll vote for him !!!!!!
“He’s hot , I’ll vote for him !!!!!! “
You’re a complicated man.
Elaine: Growth is not an issue? We aren’t going to decide ConAgra? CHA? Business Parks? Don’t you want to know who CHA is backing? Isn’t that an issue of some import to you?
[i]”One of the more intriguing candidates may be Paul Boylan, an attorney who currently serves as general counsel for the Orland Unified School District and Glenn County Office of Education.”[/i]
So you are saying that Mr. Boylan drives 187 miles round trip every day to and from his job in Orland? And you approve of this?
In dozens of Vanguard opinion columns*, David Greenwald has vigorously stated his opposition to the business model employed by Target, largely because Target (according to Monsieur Greenwald) moves its goods from Point A to Point B to Point D, rather than selling locally manufactured goods. Dave sees this as environmentally destructive. It is unsustainable, he has said. Dave prefers locally owned union-shop merchants who only retail affordable goods which were manufactured by high-paid local workers.
I would have to imagine that The Vanguard is going to vigorously oppose Mr. Boylan’s candidacy on the basis of his “unsustainable” use of petroleum?
*[i]”The problem with a place like Target,” Mr. Greenwald wrote, one of many times, “from both an environmental and an economic standpoint, is the habits that people will have to undertake to get there, to get merchandise there, to work there, and to purchase products there. … [b]The majority of the products sold there will be imported from elsewhere[/b].”[/i] Oh, my!!!
“So you are saying that Mr. Boylan drives 187 miles round trip every day to and from his job in Orland? And you approve of this?”
Do you know that he does that? Does Harriet Steiner drive to Davis every day? I don’t believe so. Lawyers for school districts rarely attend school board meetings unlike city attorneys.
With regard to Dan Wolk, it is interesting to me that Davis has rarely had, if ever, a legacy candidate who won a seat on the council.
A few months after Board President (what we now call Mayor) John Anderson–namesake of the Anderson Bank Building at 2nd & G Streets downtown-moved out of the city limits (to what became known as Anderson Road), his brother, Gordon Anderson–father of Don Anderson and grandfather of Jennifer Anderson of Davis Lumber fame–became what could be called our first and only legacy. Gordon served as mayor from 1918-1931.
We also have had two different women of the Poulos family-by-marriage who have served on the City Council, but I don’t think the latter Poulos, Debbie Nichols-Poulos was any sort of legacy.
Maybe one could say that Ruth Asmundson was a legacy of her late husband, Vigfus Asmundons, Jr. But then again, maybe her husband, an attorney, was a legacy of his famous father, namesake of Asmundson Hall on the campus of UC Davis.
I should note that I have no objection to legacies. If the individual is the best qualified according to the electorate, then he or she deserves the job, same as anyone else.
Oh, I’m sure he takes Amtrak to Chico, and then rides the Glenn Ride over to Orland.
It’s surprising the extent to which growth issues have receded in recent elections. But it is very worthwhile to ask each candidate their general views on ConAgra, senior housing, and whether they would follow the lead of Folsom in abandoning “affordable housing” policies that don’t work: [url]http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/17/3330251/folsom-to-scrap-affordable-housing.html[/url]
David
sorry but when it comes to land use ut I think economics trumps aesthetics for most voters and fiscal impact is part of that
Given that land use is a polarizing issuesone also must consider that smart candidates may wish to avoid the issue but Don is right —we must ask
[i]”follow the lead of Folsom in abandoning “affordable housing” policies that don’t work:”[/i]
I don’t know anyone who supports “low-income housing requirements” [i]because[/i] they are designed to help low-income people as a class. They can, in some cases, benefit a lucky minority of low-income winners, while leaving the rest out in the cold (pardon the pun). I think the majority of people who support low-income housing (and know how they operate) are the people enriching themselves off of this scam.
If you look at the Davis experience, there are three narrow groups of winners from low-income housing: the middlemen corporations* who get the subsidies to build and operate these projects; the contractors and tradesmen who are paid supra-market profits and wages to work on these projects; and the $100,000 a year and more bureaucrats who work for cities like Davis who become experts at grabbing and spending state and federal “low-income” housing funds.
Poor people here would be much better served by simply taking the millions of dollars out of the hands of the middlemen and giving them the cash. I suggested recently to one of our city council members that the members of the council should just walk around downtown and give out the money to people who are badly dressed. (I would qualify!) That would have a much bigger chance of benefitting people who have no money.
As Don Shor has said many times (and I share his view), if we built more market-rate apartments, increasing the supply of rentals relative to the demand, renters (and hence lower income people as a class) would all benefit.
We could do this by zoning for large developments, requiring say 1 square foot of market-rate apartment rentals for every 1 sq. ft. of new detached housing. (That ratio could be adjusted from time to time based on the long-term apartment vacancy rates.)
What is really shocking–if you step back and look at the big picture–is the huge amounts of money poured into these low-income projects relative to the very small number of people who get to live in them. Last year, when a project was proposed for 5th Street in Mace Ranch, Stephen Souza objected to it once he realized that for every unit built, the subsidy (correct me if I am wrong, going on memory here) was something like $250,000 per. How it is fair to give that much to fewer than 20 people, when everyone else who is equally poor gets nothing?
*There are, of course, better and worse operators. Based on my observations, the people who run the Solar Co-op Housing in Davis are not thieves out to enrich themselves.
dmg: “Elaine: Growth is not an issue? We aren’t going to decide ConAgra? CHA? Business Parks? Don’t you want to know who CHA is backing? Isn’t that an issue of some import to you?”
The developers are making growth an issue, but the City Council SHOULD NOT TAKE THE BAIT. The City Council should be concentrating on the budget first and foremost. For instance, do we really need to be wasting time on the ConAgra proposal right now, a proposal to build 600 new homes, at a time when the housing market is virtually in the proverbial toilet?
Exactly. So don’t you want the candidates to have addressed their views on growth and whether they would support ConAgra or CHA or whatever else comes down the pike?
What’s the big deal about finding out how the candidates feel about all the issues? I agree with David, I want to know about growth, budget and any other pressing concerns for Davis.
This is big fun.
I am not sure if I have ever been referred to as being “intriguing” – at least not in a good way.
Rifkin – I don’t just drive to Orland every day, I do it in a 1963 Nenschke (Russian for “swift and sure”). The Nenschke is a Soviet Era automobile that is perhaps the most fuel inefficient automobile ever mass produced. Moreover, they were all painted a luminescent lime-green color using paint pigments that smell awful when it gets wet.
But it isn’t all bad news. Because the Nenschke isn’t recognized legally as an automobile, per se, California and federal environmental laws do not regulate its use, which means my Nenschke is exempt from smog certification testing. Which is sort of lucky because it would never pass such a test.
So even though my car guzzles gas with more gusto than anything General Motors ever engendered, and it fouls the air (and water) with shocking proficiency, it is actually a lot of fun to drive.
Wow , Paul Boylan , your nuttier than people already on the council , sorry dude !
[i]”Rifkin – I don’t just drive to Orland every day, I do it in a 1963 Nenschke (Russian for “swift and sure”). The Nenschke is a Soviet Era automobile that is perhaps the most fuel inefficient automobile ever mass produced.”[/i]
Sounds excellent. Note that I have no problem with your driving pattern. (Hell, my own office is in San Francisco, though I don’t have to be there too often.) It’s Mr. Greenwald who abhors travel.
FWIW, I Googled Nenschke and couldn’t find anything. I wanted to see a picture of what the car looks like. If you could post an image of it or let me know a URL to see one, please do so.
Good luck in your pursuit of the City Council seat.
–Rich
P.S. I have an Orland connection. My mother’s brother married into the famous Iverson family of Orland many years ago. The Iversons, like a number of other Norwegians, were pioneer farmers in Glenn County.
[img]http://www.carandclassic.com/uploads/cars/volga/1585627.jpg[/img]
Looking around the Web, I found this excellent looking 1963 GAZ-21. If your Nenschke looks like it, you have a nice-looking car.
Avatar – No need to apologize. I will take the comparison as a compliment. If you think those currently sitting on the Davis City Council are “nutty” then you don’t get out much. For elected officials they are unusually and unexpectedly educated, experienced and competent. Take my word for it.
Rifkin – I sort of made the whole thing up. I drive a Honda Accord. It is fuel efficient and just passed a smog test. Even then don’t drive much. I have a home office and do most of my work via telephone and internet.
However, I am morally opposed to recycling because it is a gateway activity leading to socialism.
However, this is a photo of the Trebant – the Soviet era car that I had in mind when I fabricated the Nenschke:
/Users/paulboylan/Desktop/trabant.jpg
Okay, that didn’t work. Go to http://www.volipindarici.it/appunti/germania1/trabant.jpg and see what I am talking about.
Spectacular, no?
This is awesome. Please please please appoint Boylan.
Recycling paper does add to global warming so are you sure you want to argue its only a gateway? Don’t you think a totalitarian plot to destroy our way of life is more accurate?
I suspectvboylan has already lost the vanguard vote– and in one day! Avatar and I agree on few things but yes he sounds like a nut job… Not for driving this car but for bragging about it
Dr. Wu: I think he was joking around.
He later said, “I sort of made the whole thing up. I drive a Honda Accord. It is fuel efficient and just passed a smog test. Even then don’t drive much. I have a home office and do most of my work via telephone and internet. “
[i]”I sort of made the whole thing up.”[/i]
After I could not find one mention of the Nenschke on-line in any website, including ones on Soviet cars, I knew something was not right, but wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, nonetheless.
About 20 years ago or so (not long after the USSR broke up), I read an excellent magazine article (in The Atlantic?) about Soviet cars. The article was rife with quotes from automotive engineers who had fled from Russia and Eastern Europe to the West. What I got from their words was that while most Soviet cars were a piece of sh!t–they purchased second rate fabrication facilities, including all the machine tools, from Fiat, Opel and other Western European makers–they did make a number of cars which, no matter what, lasted and were easily repairable.
They said Russians like things very simple but durable. Russains are good engineers after the fact. So even if the initial workmanship s*cks, Soviet mechanics modified them to keep a cheap Russian car on the road forever.
Also, if you look at the body designs of most Soviet cars, they copied whatever was available in the U.S. or Europe at the same time. This is a 1941 GAZ-11, which to me looks like the body was copied from an early 1930s Ford:
[img]http://www.oldrussiancars.com/wp-content/uploads/gaz-11-73.jpg[/img]
The body of this 1954 Moskvich 410 looks to me similar to U.S.-made cars of that era:
[img]http://www.oldrussiancars.com/wp-content/uploads/moskvich-401-420.jpg[/img]
And this 1960 ZAZ-965 looks exactly like most early 1960s Fiats:
[img]http://www.oldrussiancars.com/wp-content/uploads/zaz-965.jpg[/img]
I will gladly lose the vanguard vote if they think I was serious. I refuse to be associated with any individual or enterprise that has no sense of humor.
Mr. Toad – I heartily agree. Recycling will lead to the complete destruction of the earth. But let’s be reasonable. It also provides for jobs, and isn’t that a benefit that weighs in favor of any prospect that places the planet at risk?
Rifkin – Incredibly awful Soviet era automobiles! I absolutely love/hate the ZAZ. Take a look at http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/07/zaz_auto_customs.jpg for a more modern style. I would gladly drive it – but not very far for fear of explosion or inadvertent lift-off.
How do you post pics in this place? I can’t figure out how to do it. My son is away at college and he used to show me how to do that kind of thing.
Dr. Wu – My inability to determine how to post photos on in this comments section is a much greater reason for me to lose the vanguard vote than my joking about driving a nonexistent car. You, and the rest of the vanguard, should seriously consider making technological competency a litmus test for any political support.
Matt – Thank you. I appreciate your support.
My efforts to secure the non vanguard vote is progressing according to plan.
I just told my wife that someone suggested that my comments here have resulted in my losing the vanguard vote. She said “I didn’t know there is a city council member named Vanguard.”
Gosh, I love my wife.
rusty49: “What’s the big deal about finding out how the candidates feel about all the issues? I agree with David, I want to know about growth, budget and any other pressing concerns for Davis.”
Normally I would agree w you, but the problem is discussions about growth overwhelm the political conversation, so that the issue of the budget becomes secondary or virtually nonexistent. Right now we need discussion of the budget to be front and center, and talk about growth AS IT RELATES TO THE BUDGET. Just my opinion, FWIW…
We comrades are very serious. Humor is the enemy of the people.
Mr. Boylan in a moment of lucidity and candor you acknowledge driving a Honda. Wasn’t the Honda Japan’s answer to Fat Boy? Their own secret weapon that could wipe out an entire U. S. city named Detroit.
Dr. Wu – Surely, you jest (in a serious and dignified manner, of course).
Mr. Toad – Only one moment of lucidity and candor?
It wasn’t the Honda that destroyed Detroit. It was Detroit’s stubborn insistence on building an inferior product and then trying to force domestic consumption through trade barriers that spelled Detroit’s doom as follows: “l-o-s-t-m-a-r-k-e-t-s-h-a-r-e.” Well, in candor – and not without a bit of lucidity – I admit that is an overly simplistic explanation, but the American automobile industry’s dogged resistance to change is a big part of what went wrong.
Mr. Boylan
Because of the way many of the council members have been treated here losing the Vanguard vote might be just the thing you need to propel you onto the council.
Paul, I 100% agree with your 3:49 post. And while I feel the ultimate blame should fall on the people who ran our Big 3 automakers and the poor designs they regularly approved, the UAW played no small part in the downfall of the US auto industry. Management of Ford, GM and Crysler continually caved to what the UAW wanted, and that was incompatible with manufacturing quality products efficiently.
Mickey Kaus ([url]http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/kausfiles/archive/2008/12/12/where-do-unproductive-work-rules-come-from.aspx[/url]) has written regularly in Slate about how debilitating the UAW was to the Big 3 with its thousands of pages of work rules which hampered efficient production.
I asked a friend of mine, who now works exclusively for Toyota–in Belgium, though he is French–when he was employed by NUMMI in Fremont about the UAW and he just shook his head. He said (paraphrasing), “The UAW tries to destroy GM. They are not about making cars. They are about making rules so no one gets anything done.”
That friend had experience in auto plants all over the United States and told me that the productivity is great in all non-union U.S. plants and at the same time terrible, both for throughput and quality, at all UAW plants in the United States. Five years ago he predicted GM would go bust at some point, because you cannot run a company in which the union is set up to destroy that company.
The union part of the equation aside, I once talked with UC Davis engineering guru Andy Frank about his PHEV technology ([url]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-iCrgpX1jNM/TTzkJHsDvlI/AAAAAAAAAco/l-66D1OzzUY/s1600/PHEV.jpg[/url]) and the US automakers’ resistance to adopting it*. He was dumbfounded by their resistance to better technology, better fuel economy and innovation in general. Andy told me that the American auto companies were run by men who could not play chess–that is, they could not think a few moves in advance. By contrast, the Japanese companies–esp. Toyota and Honda–were always adopting new technologies and figuring out ways to do things better for their customers. Prof. Frank travelled many times to Detroit to try to get them interested in the PHEV.
It was only after the top management changed, not long after I interviewed Prof. Frank, that GM got started on the Volt. They could have started a decade earlier, but they were too busy making money on big trucks which would soon enough lose all appeal when gas prices jumped up.
[img]http://www.evworld.com/images/calcarsPHEV_woolsey_frank.jpg[/img]
Davis needs Boylan.
Come on, Rifkin: how do I post pics here like you do? My personal brand of invective can only improve through illustration.
I’ve gotten as far as clicking on the “Image” icon above. After that I am lost.
Paul, if you click on the image icon (next to the quote icon), you see the bracketted notations of “img.” In between those, paste a url of a graphic or photo image. Some images don’t work, so press the preview icon below to see what will appear.
My guess is you know who these two gentlemen are:
[img]http://www.callawyer.com/fileserver/DJICText/News/Images/E910837-boylan_crews_feature.jpg[/img]
Nope. Haven’t the foggiest notion. But whoever they are, they appear untrustworthy and shifty, especially the bald guy.
It’s Frank Claus, brother of Santa Claus, and his attorney, Shifty McGee.
Oh yeah, now I recognize them.
Both of those guys owe me money.