Budget/Fiscal Archives - Page 54 of 70

Sunday Commentary: LET THEM EAT CAKE

By David GreenwaldAugust 14, 201119 comments

Nothing Like the Smell of Rank Hypocrisy in the Morning –

let-them-eat-cake

As we all know, the state budget that was passed at the end of June has forced the UC Board of Regents to enact more student fee hikes. Those who believe that the legislature passed the budget with no taxes need to rethink the definition of taxation, because what happened and has happened is a huge education tax placed squarely on the backs of middle-class parents of college students, along with the college students themselves.

As UC President Mark Yudof writes in a recent letter to parents and students on that very subject of tuition increases, “In addition to an outright reduction of $650 million, the budget failed to provide funding for an additional $350 million in mandatory cost increases over which the university has no control, thus creating a total shortfall in state funds of $1 billion. Adjusted for inflation and enrollment growth, UC now receives nearly 60 percent less funding per student from the state than it did in 1990.”

Business As Usual Continues Despite Warning Signs

By David GreenwaldAugust 11, 201112 comments

If you believed that the Great Recession and the lessons of Bell and Vallejo would force wiser heads to prevail, then you like me were apparently fooled into complacence. Earlier this week, we reported on the hiring of the new city manager in Sacramento, a city that has cut law enforcement and other services, and yet somehow manages to justify giving the new city manager a huge raise over the previous one.

The contract comes on the heels of Davis giving their new city manager a bump in salary, leading to our criticism that, as shocking as the Sacramento City Manager salary and raise are, it is really not that much higher than ours, especially when you consider the population difference and the revenue difference in the communities.

Prop 218 Process A Flawed Democratic Process

By David GreenwaldAugust 11, 20117 comments

A normal democratic process goes something like this, every registered voter has the right to vote. Those who choose to return a ballot, either by mail or at the polls, have their preferences tallied. Everyone 18 years of age, who is not currently incarcerated for a felony or on probation, has the right to vote. The person or issue position with the most votes cast by the voters wins.

On the surface, Proposition 218 sounds like a tool for expanding democratic rights. In fact, it passed in 1996 as the “Right to Vote on Taxes Act.”

Sunday Commentary: Pay Increase to City Manager Makes Delicate Situation More Difficult

By David GreenwaldAugust 7, 201154 comments

One thing that becomes clear this week – a surprisingly tumultuous week given that it was the first week of August and council has now begun their month-long vacation – is that anyone who believes that things are going to get better needs to take some time to re-assess.

The economy, which has barely been above the recession level for a year now, could be about to turn into the negative range again, giving us a second recession. With cuts to federal spending, and a still-moribund tax revenue at the state level, things are not going to get better any time soon.

As Talk of Another Recession Grows, Reality Must Hit Home Locally

By David GreenwaldAugust 5, 201184 comments

City Employees Must Make Concessions or Face Layoffs by September 30 –

City employees who hope they are going to ride out this council and hope for better days are in for a strong dose of reality. In June, the council approved a budget that will cut 2.5 million dollars in personnel costs from the budget. The hope of council is that concessions can be made before a self-imposed September 30 deadline to avert layoffs.

The reality is that layoffs are coming, as are more cuts. For too long, the city employees’ salaries and benefits increased to the point where they became unsustainable. While many were warning of this problem for years prior, reality finally hit home with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

New City Manager Contract – Too High?

By David GreenwaldAugust 2, 201114 comments

On the surface it would appear that new City Manager Steve Pinkerton is getting a hefty raise over both his current contract and the contract of Bill Emlen, Davis’ previous City Manager. But from the start, both Mayor Joe Krovoza and Mayor Pro Tem Rochelle Swanson disputed that notion.

According to the Mayor’s press release last week, Mr. Pinkerton’s salary, as proposed, will be $188,000 per year. The proposed contract includes provisions that he will pay two percent of the eight percent employee contribution towards his pension, and is required to take three unpaid furlough days in the upcoming fiscal year.

Water Rate Advisory Committee – Paper Tiger or Meaningful Oversight?

By David GreenwaldAugust 2, 20118 comments

Pressure on the Davis City Council to do something about the magnitude of water rates continues to mount. At the largely ceremonial August City Council meeting that met in the morning yesterday and fulfilled the statutory requirement for the council to meet at least once a month, Councilmember Stephen Souza asked to agendize on the next meeting’s agenda an item about creating a Water Rate Advisory Committee.

Mr. Souza told the council it should be styled after Dixon’s committee formed this spring in response to concerns about rate hikes there.

Sunday Commentary: Council’s Blind Spot on Water

By David GreenwaldJuly 31, 201137 comments

This column should be on the great decision that the Davis City Council made in hiring Steve Pinkerton as the new city manager. It should be on the responsibility that the council showed in implementing a new budget, even the face of heated criticism from city employees.

Sadly, we cannot highlight these great moments because one blind spot threatens to undo it all. When I met with developer and property manager Randy Yackzan earlier this week, he told me that he had long known that there were going to be rate increases in the water project.

Vote on Parking Lot Illustrates Fundamental Lack of Transparency in City of Davis

By David GreenwaldJuly 28, 201128 comments

Last week the Davis City Council by a narrow 3-2 vote approved using RDA funds for the construction of a new parking lot between E and F and 3^rd and 4^th Streets in Davis.

It has since been pointed out by, the Vanguard, that the public had no idea what the council had just approved and the language itself appeared to be hastily written and ambiguous.

Should the City of Davis Go to Three-Person Fire Engines?

By David GreenwaldJuly 26, 201122 comments

One of the most awaited studies to date will be the CityGate report on fire staffing. Back in 2009 the city commissioned CityGate, a well-respected but industry-led consultant company to do a fire staffing study.

Out of that report, came the move to merge the Davis and UC Davis fire departments. While the study was basically favorable toward existing policies, it did end whatever possibility remained for a fourth fire station, as they argued that “for the foreseeable future there is no need to build an additional station in Northern Davis until there is significant growth in that area.”

Sending the Message to Council on Water Rate Hikes

By David GreenwaldJuly 22, 201123 comments

The phrase “canary in the coal mine” has often been used and abused in public discourse, using the metaphor to explain a leading indicator of a problem, just as the canary was the first to feel the impacts of harmful gas in the coal mine to alert the miners, hopefully with enough time to avert disaster.

In many ways, Bob Schneider is the reverse of that canary in the coal mine. With strong environmental credentials, he has nevertheless often been a strong advocate for development and was a vocal supporter of the water agreement and the project, both at the city level as well as at the county level.

Commercial Rental Rates An Impediment to Davis Sales Tax Revenues and Economic Development?

By David GreenwaldJuly 22, 201134 comments

Earlier this week, when the Vanguard spoke with Sarah Worley from the City of Davis’ Economic Development Department, the hope was that Davis would be spared from the impending doom of Borders. The Davis site was said to be profitable.

Unfortunately, efforts to stay in business unraveled last week and this week they suddenly announced they would liquidating all of the stores.

Did Council Panic and Force Through Poorly Thought-Out Redevelopment Projects?

By David GreenwaldJuly 21, 201129 comments

When the state pondered raiding Redevelopment, the City of Davis like many cities, moved quickly to encumber as much money on existing projects as necessary. While RDA still looks uncertain, it appears more likely than not at this point that RDA will survive in one form or another.

Nevertheless, the council appears to have made two questionable decision that will account for more than half of all RDA funds, including the largest project, a new parking structure on E and F between 3rd and 4th Streets.

Water Issue May Be Starting To Turn

By David GreenwaldJuly 20, 201115 comments

It was only a week ago, when writing a column like this, we asked where the business community was on the proposed water rate increase. Now we are starting to hear rumblings of discontent, at the moment brewing just below the surface.

Last night at the City Council meeting both Bob Schneider and Randy Yakzan spoke at public comment. Mr. Schneider has been a strong supporter of what he has called a visionary and pioneering water deal that the city was able to negotiate for water rights with Tsakopoulos.

Elimination of the Integrated Pest Management Position Creates a Stir

By David GreenwaldJuly 18, 20116 comments

From the start, I have not been a fan of the so-called tiered cuts. These seemingly arbitrary cuts have been used by the city to cut from the budget. What they do is pick and choose positions that the city believes are not tied to core services, and get them to add up to a certain amount of money.

The problem with that approach is, first, you are not considering the system from a full perspective. I have argued against this nickel-and-dime approach even as I recognize that there is money tied into the provisions of non-core services that could be cut.

From Budget Cuts to the People’s Budget Participatory Budgeting

By uptownstudiosJuly 18, 20111 comments

How would you like to decide along with your fellow citizens how to spend $1.3 million?! That’s what residents of Chicago’s 9^th Ward have done by enacting Participatory Budgeting beginning in 2009.

by Nancy Price

The current Council Five have finally taken the first steps needed to deal with the budget. What about the people of Davis? What role can we play now in making tough budget decisions? Can we participate together in deciding how to balance the budget, run the city efficiently, and provide essential services? For example, if we want to save the Integrated Pest Management program because using harmful chemical pesticides or doing nothing is worse, can we as a community together agree to defer or eliminate another program or service instead?

The City’s Chip Seal Fiasco

By David GreenwaldJuly 16, 201131 comments

City Forced to Rely on Efficient Cost-Savings Devices Which Did Not Work As Advertised –

Lost in the shuffle during the budget debate and the employee response was an interesting tidbit in which numerous residents came forward to complain about the use of chip seal on their streets.

The city had been using the product as a way to forestall the inevitable repavement that would be needed on a number of residential streets, but that the city could not afford at this time.

The Alternative To Prop 218 For Stopping Rate Hikes

By David GreenwaldJuly 13, 201110 comments

In yesterday’s column, Bob Dunning praised (sort of) the efforts by the Davis City council to simplify the protest form for a Prop 218 Protest.

Wrote the columnist, “It may have taken them all of the spring and part of the summer to get it done, but the Davis City Council finally came up with a simplified form to allow citizens to protest the proposed increase in our water rates.”

Davis Businesses Quiet About the Water Rate Hikes

By David GreenwaldJuly 12, 201112 comments

While the city council has taken additional steps to ensure full transparency in the propsed water rate hike and the Proposition 218 process, going well above and beyond the statutory requirements, we remain concerned that the council has not fully assessed the impact of those rate hikes.

Last week, among other instances, we noted the disconnect in the business park land strategy versus the desire to convert Cannery Park into residential and mixed uses. In particular, we noted that the city’s one existing and reliable business park site of 100 acres would be converted to mostly residential uses, at the same time the council and city are moving toward a serious approach to economic development.

New Regulations on Pensions Might Cost Cities Like Davis Millions

By David GreenwaldJuly 12, 201115 comments

Last week, GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) announced bold new government accounting principles that propose improvements to financial reporting of pensions by state and local governments.

According to their July 8 press release, “The documents would propose amendments to the existing pension standards to improve how the costs and obligations associated with the pensions that governments provide to their employees are calculated and reported.”

Nothing Like the Smell of Rank Hypocrisy in the Morning –

by Nancy Price

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