I caught Bob Dunning’s column this morning, in which he gave press to some guy name Greg who is ranting about a representative government that represents nobody. He is speaking of the Davis City Council.
For whatever reason, this seemed a good day to launch a new feature that may or may not become a regular feature. These are some more or less random musings that really did not make for a good full column…
At a November 10 open house, PG&E acknowledged that there had been 42 gas leaks in its distribution lines since 2006 in the Stonegate subdivision in west Davis.
When the new council was elected last June and they replaced Mayor Don Saylor eventually with Dan Wolk, it appeared that the city was about to turn the corner after nearly a decade of irresponsible and wasteful fiscal policy.
I am always interested in reading Rich Rifkin’s take on the city’s fiscal and labor issues, mainly because he comes from a very different starting place than I do. And that is, I think, a problem for people attempting to demonize the pushback against employee compensation, pensions and retirement in municipal government.
Last week the Vanguard reported that the Public Employment Relations Boards (PERB), in a tentative decision, had ruled that the city had violated labor laws in imposing the last, best and final offer to the Davis City Employees’ Association (DCEA).
Vanguard Believes Rate Hikes Will Be Disastrous To Local EconomyThe Davis Enterprise is reporting today that the Yolo County Elections Office has yet to complete their count and yet to have verified the 3705 signatures necessary to certify the referendum.
Last month, the Vanguard reported on the “boycott” of Westlake Market by the Davis Firefighters. It remains to be seen what will happen as the result of those revelations, but one thing of interest is the response from perhaps city employees, perhaps the firefighters, on an otherwise obscure website.
The notion that the city could solve its employee compensation through the use of impasse and an imposition of last, best, and final offer finally comes crashing to the ground in the wake of the Pubilc Employee Relations Board tentative ruling.
In a tentative ruling handed down by the Public Employment Relations Board, they ruled that the city improperly canceled fact-finding and imposed the last, best and final offer on DCEA.
Whatever name and scope the council eventually chooses for the utility committee, the question is what value…
City Needs to Find Funding Sources For Road Maintenance To Avoid This Problem in the FutureA press release late last week announced that the City of Davis and International Surfacing Systems (ISS) have reached an agreement to address problems with double chip seal installed on several local streets last fall. The double chip seal was originally intended to prevent intrusion of water into the asphalt on the roads and to extend the life of the driving surface.
The Vanguard had been hearing rumblings of this since late last week, but apparently, according to our sources, it is a done deal that Whole Foods Market will attempt to move into the Davis Commons space that was previously occupied by Borders.
Last Sunday at the Democratic Bean Feed in Davis, first Assemblymember Mariko Yamada and the newly-redistricted Congressman John Garamendi sung the praises of local firefighters’ union president Bobby Weist.
The water issue, for all its divisions and acrimony, really boils down to two very separate but equally important questions: do we need the project and what is the best and most affordable way to deliver surface water to the ratepayers in a time of economic crisis?
The Vanguard has spent quite a bit of time sitting down with city staff and water consultants to understand this complex water project and the stakes.
There has been no bigger critic of the Davis Enterprise’s Bob Dunning than myself. However, I will say, when he’s right, he’s right. Today he comes out with one of his most scathing criticisms of city council that I have seen, calling the city, “not honest about water rate increase.”
He writes, “Much of the animosity could have been avoided had the Davis City Council and city staff simply been completely honest with us from the get-go.”
In the last few weeks we have finally seen the outcry from the left that has been muted far too long, based perhaps on their misplaced faith or misplaced admiration for Barack Obama.
In a bit of irony, Elaine Roberts Musser used her monthly Vanguard column to argue, among other things, “Every expert willing to speak publicly seems to agree we need the surface water project sooner rather than later. All the Davis and Woodland City Council members agree we do need the surface water project.”
As many who read the comment section yesterday figured out, the city’s advertised water rate hikes include an assumption that the residents will conserve an average of 20% of their water. Failing to do this by hook or by crook, the resident could see water rates increase far more than 14% annually.
