City Council

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.

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).”

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.

This week, someone passed on a message that declared that Davis was really nuts.  Actually I believe there was an expletive in front of the “nuts” but you get the idea.  This led me to wonder if Davis really is nuts, or if it is simply misunderstood.

The reputation, while perhaps well-earned, is probably based on two rather isolated incidents from the early 1990s.

In 2010, the Davis City Council was represented by two retired people, a third person who did not work, a business owner who took considerable business cutbacks in order to serve the community, and a relatively young politician who worked full time while serving on the council.

Three years later, the Davis City Council has completely turned over and the makeup of the council has changed drastically.  The oldest councilmember now is 50, whereas before, there was only one member below the age of 50.  All five councilmembers now work a full-time job in addition to their council duties.

by Rob White

I had to stay home the last few days with my sick daughter. Though I did do some work, it’s difficult to “entertain” a bored teenager, especially when she is sick! So I made her watch several History and Science Channel shows with me. That will teach her to stay home sick!

What was interesting is that there seemed to be a theme in the shows we watched. Namely, each show dealt with some sort of branding at different times in history. I use the word branding loosely… maybe symbols or signs would be more accurate, but bear with me for a few.

For years I have heard people lament that Davis has priced many young families out of this community.  And those critics are not altogether wrong.  As I watch my friends, in similar situations to us, buy their own homes, it is a stark reminder that in a sense my family has made the sacrifice to live in this community.

We have done so for two reasons.  First, the schools – and for all that we might criticize our schools, watching the improvement in my nephew’s recent STAR Test results drives home that we made the right decision there.  The second is that I have lived in an urban environment before – whether it be Washington, DC, or Sacramento, and while I don’t have a particular problem living in a big city, I realized that I much prefer the atmosphere and pace of a smaller college town.

When the Davis City Council passed this year’s budget – a sobering and eye-opening moment that shows that, even as we move more firmly into recovery, we remain vulnerable to huge budget deficits that grow larger not smaller as we attempt to fix problems such as water and infrastructure and roads that had been unfunded for years during the economic downturn – there was open lament about the lack of public input and engagement.

Both Councilmember Lucas Frerichs and his colleague Rochelle Swanson lamented the lack of public comments and interest in the topic of vital importance.

On Wednesday morning Judge Dan Maguire issued a tentative ruling, ruling that former Davis Fire Chief Rose Conroy’s request for a preliminary injunction was denied on the grounds that she has not been able “to demonstrate that she is likely to prevail on the merits of her claims at trial.”

By itself that would have been enough to lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) and allow the city to finally, after four and a half years, release the full and unredacted fire report.  But for good measure, at the same time as the judge was issuing that ruling, Ms. Conroy and her attorney moved for dismissal.

Earlier this week in response to a commentary on the budget, impasse and the firefighter’s union, one of our readers made the comment that the column was akin to gloating.  While in some ways I can appreciate that sentiment, I would argue that, more broadly, the column should be read as a fear and not a gloat.

Following several different and unrelated discussions yesterday, my real fear is that governance on the Davis City Council will take a backseat to political ambition and elections.  Already, in June, a year out from the next council election, I am talking to people considering running for council.

My earlier hope that somehow cooler heads might prevail is probably out the window.  In the last day or so, the rhetoric out of both campaigns is already amping up.  The message coming from the elected officials in Davis – and probably this county as we start expanding outward – is that they do not want to get in the middle of this.

To a person, the three members of the Davis City Council not running for Assembly all expressed concerns about the impact on the council’s ability to do the work that they are needing to.  These are not good times yet.  The city of Davis is not yet over the hump.

When Mayor Joe Krovoza and Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk announced late last week that they would each be seeking the open 4^th Assembly District, along with Matt Pope from Napa and Anthony Farrington from Lake County, the question was how this would impact the Davis City Council and who would have the advantage.

As things develop rapidly, the smart money may be on neither candidate.  Within the city of Davis, most elected officials have decided to avoid the fray.  The Vanguard was able to talk to nearly all of the elected officials and could identify just three committed to Dan Wolk.  However, one is his mother, Senator Lois Wolk, and a second is Cass Sylvia, the Public Guardian, married to Craig Reynolds, who is Lois Wolk’s chief of staff and Dan Wolk’s likely campaign consultant.

For some, the very notion of innovation in government is an anachronism, where government is the stifling force of innovation, and all that is truly innovative comes from the private sector.

A recent interview in Government Technology a publication geared toward “solutions for state and local government,”  with Rancho Cordova City Manager Ted Gaebler poses another possibility.  In 1992 Mr. Gaebler wrote the book, Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming the Public Sector. Written with co-author David Osborne, it “influenced a generation of public policy experts and managers. Gaebler and Osborne argued that governments needed to rethink industrial-era bureaucracies and develop new techniques suited to the Information Age.”

First of all, I want to start with an apology to both Anthony Farrington and Matt Pope – this site, being that it is the Davis Vanguard is a bit Davis-centric.  However, the public should make no mistake here, both Anthony Farrington, a Lake County supervisor, and Matt Pope, a staffer for Noreen Evans who is backed by the State Senator, are very formidable candidates.

I got a lot of correspondence on this topic this weekend as one might imagine.  The overwhelming sentiment was agreement with my Saturday column, that a Dan Wolk – Joe Krovoza showdown will not be in the best interests of Davis.

Sometimes in this business you have to criticize your friends and if you cannot do that when the time comes, then you might as well hang up your hat, your gloves, shut down your computer and find a different line of work.

So at the outset here, I am going to state that I personally like both Joe Krovoza and Dan Wolk.  I have gotten to know both a lot better, over the last four years for Mr. Krovoza and three years for Mr. Wolk.  I think both have tremendous compassion, not only for our community but also their families.