There are no surprises so far, five candidates have now pulled paperwork and two candidates, Stephen Souza and Dan Wolk, have filed their papers.
Stephen Souza was the first to return his papers – he returned his paperwork to run for a third term last week. Dan Wolk filed his paperwork to run for his first full term on Tuesday. Mr. Wolk was appointed last February to replace Don Saylor on the Davis City Council.
Make no mistake about it, the entry of Lucas Frerichs into the Davis City Council race is a major shakeup. There is no doubt that Mr. Frerichs is a formidable candidate, and his endorsement sheet was filed with practically the entire Davis School Board and a who’s who of Davis politics for the last two decades.
With three incumbents on the ballot, we may well see the first incumbent in Davis to lose since 2004 when Michael Harrington – yes that Michael Harrington – was unseated by a combination of the strength of Stephen Souza and Don Saylor and the dirty tricks of Steve Gidaro.
Lucas Frerichs, currently the Chair of the City of Davis Planning Commission. has long been active in Davis city and community involvement. Now he becomes the fifth known candidate for the Davis City Council, as he joins Brett Lee in challenging the three incumbents Sue Greenwald, Stephen Souza and Dan Wolk for three available seats on the city council.
“I have served our community for more than 12 years in volunteer leadership capacities,” said Mr. Frerichs in a Sunday evening press release. “Now is the time for new vision, experience, and direction for the City of Davis. We stand at the threshold of a new era in city-state financing, investment in city infrastructure, sustainable budgeting, environmental planning and community caring. I want to lead us into that era prepared and ahead of the game.”
by Brett Lee
Candidate for Davis City Council
It was interesting that the City Council decided to place the Parks Tax renewal on the ballot at $49 a year in spite of the fact that the Parks and Recreation Commission had requested $75 a year. City staff suggested that $49 would be easier to sell to the public than $75. Choosing $49 because it is politically expedient seems misguided. Shouldn’t we be willing to fight for what is needed?
But here’s the problem: we have the City asking for more funds to protect our amenities, but at some level each of us wonders how well they are currently spending our money. There is a cynicism about how our city is operating that is not without merit. $49 versus $75? Let’s choose $49 because it is easier to sell. How are we the public supposed to know how much is really needed? Why would we want to support $49 or even $75 if we are not sure where those amounts came from and what they will and will not cover?
The City Council earlier this year voted to place a measure on the June 5, 2012 ballot which will renew the existing Parks Maintenance Tax.
The city staff has developed “a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sheet to answer questions [to] provide background information for voters or others who may be interested in learning about the ballot measure.”
Filing Disclosure Gives Answer To Perpetual Question As to Who Bankrolled the Referendum DriveOne of the most persistent questions of the petition drive to roll back the Davis City Council’s decision on September 6, 2011 to increase water rates by at least 14% and to move forward with the surface water project was who was funding the referendum drive. The answer is that they were who we were thought they were.
There were no surprises – a few small donors and three principals accounted for the entire funding mechanism that we now know raised a total of $9248.57, $4738.57 of which came after October 1. They spent nearly $7000 to gain the $3800 signatures that ended up with the council rescinding the rate hikes three months to the day of having passed them.
If the smart money is that Dan Wolk is the odds-on favorite to finish first and become the next Mayor Pro Tem of the City of Davis, it was dealt no blow by the initial filing statements filed on Tuesday, indicating that Dan Wolk has a huge lead over the two other candidates that filed financial forms in the 2012 Davis City Council Election.
According to his filings, Dan Wolk brought in $13,319 to date, and he has already spent $7890 for a total cash balance of $5028. His cash balance is larger than the total contributions received to date by either Stephen Souza or Brett Lee.
The January 31 filing deadline was the unofficial first major marker on the calendar. So far, we have four candidates who have announced – the three incumbents Sue Greenwald, Stephen Souza and Dan Wolk are joined by Brett Lee, as the first announced challenger. We have heard rumblings of additional candidates, but this is all that filed paperwork on Tuesday and all that have formally announced.
Right now it is a quiet campaign, and if we had to speculate with this current field, we believe the incumbents would win reelection. But a lot both can and will change between now and June.
The tax levies about 49 dollars per year per parcel which produces an overall amount of 1.36 million dollars in general fund revenue to the city that is used to offset the cost of parks maintenance costs. According to staff reports, this accounts for about one-fifth of the overall annual park maintenance costs to the city.
There is no truth to the rumor that Mayor Joe Krovoza was actually the one who ordered the pepper spraying attack on students last Friday in an effort to take the water issue off the front page.
Anger and outrage emerged over the city’s last-second legal brief by City Attorney Harriet Steiner who wrote, “In our opinion, the City’s newly-adopted water rates are not subject to challenge by referendum.”
More than two months after the September 6 vote, after a signature-gathering campaign garnered over 5000 signatures, over 3800 of which actually counted, Mayor Joe Krovoza dropped a bombshell in an email to the Vanguard as he questioned the legality of the referendum in overturning a 218 process.
It turns out the water referendum needed every one of those 5124 signatures and probably needed to spend every dime that it did on the petition drive. That is because 1258 of the signatures, around one quarter, were found insufficient by the Yolo County Clerk’s Office.
A few minutes after Mr. Souza and a small handful of supporters took off on their bicycles to tour the city, four fire engines pulled up to the Davis Bicycle Hall of Fame.
The Vanguard reported on Monday that many see the water initiative as currently worded to be problematic at best.
A number of people who have been among the core supporters of the water referendum are expressing concerns about the wording of the initiative and have explicit concerns that the initiative may actually doom the water referendum.
Davis residents Ernie Head and Jim Stevens have drafted an initiative that they will circulate to Davis voters. Unlike the referendum, which will be a simple up or down vote on the council approved rate hikes, the initiative, if it gains enough signatures to qualify and wins, would actually update existing laws regarding water rate hikes.
Vanguard Further Evaluates Rate Hike Claims – Supporters of the petition and Michael Harrington turned in 5,124 signatures yesterday to the city clerk’s office. In the petition receipt, City Clerk Zoe Mirabile certified that “Michael Harrington submitted to my office petitions for referendum against an ordinance passed by the city council, ordinance no. 2381-Ordinance of the city of Davis amending chapter 39 of the Davis municipal code related to water rates to increase the base rates and metered rates.”
The Vanguard has learned from several sources well connected that the referendum committee has collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Supporters of the referendum will turn the signatures in to the city clerk’s office this morning.
To put 250 people at an event, an announcement for a candidacy where the election is still eight months away, is an impressive feat. Then again, Dan Wolk probably had about a 20-year head start on the competition. Many, if not most, of the attendees at this event probably have attended Lois Wolk events in the past.
