City of Davis Archives - Page 408 of 455

Subcommittee Policy on Commission Review of Development Proposals is Completely Inadequate

By David GreenwaldApril 13, 20105 comments

During the course of the debate over Wildhorse Ranch last fall, there were complaints by the opposition to the project that various commission had not had time to adequately review aspects of the proposal.

Councilmember Stephen Souza even cited lack of commission review as one of the reasons he was reluctant to support the Wildhorse Ranch proposal at the time it came to a vote in late July. The developers and representatives for the development also expressed frustration at the existing policy. This was particularly notable at the Finance and Budget Commission meeting the day before council would be asked to approve the development agreement along with the fiscal analysis.

Candidate Watts Gets Victory as City To Repeal Unconstitutional Portions of the City Municipal Code

By David GreenwaldApril 12, 201011 comments

Candidate Claimed Such Laws Were Used to Harass Homeless People –

Daniel Watts, a UC Davis law student, had made it one of the centerpieces of his campaign to “Repeal unconstitutional ordinances banning “annoying” conduct and “bawdy” language (Municipal Code Sections 26.01.010 and 26.01.100).”

While Davis Columnist Bob Dunning may rate Mr. Watts as having a 22 billion to one shot at the city council, Mr. Watts has achieved what none of the other candidates have achieved to date, he has changed city law or he will if a consent agenda item passed on Tuesday night that introduces an ordinance repealing Section 26.01.010 of the Davis Municipal Code addressing annoying persons on streets and amending Section 26.01.100 addressing obscene language.

City Manager and Community Services Director Explain Why DACHA is Failing

By David GreenwaldApril 11, 201010 comments

In today’s Davis Enterprise, City Manager Bill Emlen and Community Services Director Elvia Garcia-Ayala offer their explanation as to why DACHA, the Davis Area Cooperative Housing Association is facing financial trouble.

In the past week, we have learned that the city has indeed foreclosed on DACHA and it has put the entire property up for auction. Neighborhood Partners/ Twin Pines on Tuesday indicated that they were still willing to negotiate with the city and DACHA. However, DACHA is supportive of the foreclosure procedure as is the council.

City Staff Pushes Forward on Development As Though It Were Business As Usual

By David GreenwaldApril 10, 201021 comments

On an item that might seem to be a relatively mundane status report on development, a few things really jump out as staff seems to be pushing for new development and following the council 1% growth guidelines despite 362 units that city staff admits have been approved but “stalled” due to current housing market conditions. That’s what the council faces on Tuesday night as it considers an item entitled “Residential Development Status Report” but is actually not merely the informational item the title implies, but rather an action plan that could Davis on a path to far more development in the next three years.

Despite admitting that the housing market is in poor shape, the city would appear to be pushing for 692 units through 2013, a number that apparently includes 362 units that are already approved.

Vanguard Analysis: Candidates Forum Mostly a Lackluster Performance

By David GreenwaldApril 9, 20106 comments

Format Also Contributed to Lack of Substance on the Part of City Council Candidates –

The community on Tuesday got their first real exposure to the council candidates as the Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual candidate’s forum. For the most part, it was a disappointing affair with poor questions, a difficult format, and answers lacking both substance and real understanding for the underlying problems facing Davis.

Part of the problem was coming up with a substantive answer in sixty seconds to often very complex questions. Another problem was that each candidate did not get to answer every question. For example, Rochelle Swanson never got any of the fiscal questions that she believes will be the hallmark of her campaign.

DACHA Board Supports City’s Foreclosure of DACHA

By David GreenwaldApril 8, 20103 comments

Last week the Vanguard reported that the city of Davis had initiated foreclosure procedures against DACHA and put the entire array of properties up for bidding, the Davis Area Cooperative Housing Association which had been formed as a cooperative affordable housing project. DACHA has been beset by lawsuits and back in 2008 the city loaned DACHA 4.15 million dollars in an effort to shore up its finances.

That loan reduced the carrying charges for its membership but also brought on more controversy and accusations. The downfall of DACHA appears to be nearing completion. Last year, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation had won a judgment against DACHA. Because of that judgment, they were assessed with a levy on their assets and have been unable to pay their loan repayments to the city.

Sac Bee Gets Into the Act; Sticks Its Nose into Davis Internal Matters

By David GreenwaldApril 8, 201098 comments

The Sacramento Bee yesterday ran a story under the headline, “Davis Councilman Won’t Budge, May Force Costly Special Election.” In it, the Sacramento Bee firmly sticks its nose into an internal Davis political dispute as Don Saylor who ran unopposed in a supervisor’s race this year, has said repeatedly he intends to remain in office in Davis until he takes office as a member of the County Board of Supervisors.

Writes the Bee: “A city councilman’s decision to stay in office could cost Davis taxpayers $100,000 or more – even as the city faces a $1 million budget deficit. Don Saylor is running unopposed for Yolo County supervisor in June. But he says he won’t resign from the council until he is sworn in as supervisor in January. That could force an expensive special election for his seat in early 2011.”

2010 Chamber of Commerce City Council Forum

By David GreenwaldApril 7, 201016 comments

The 2010 candidates for Davis City Council met on Tuesday for the first time in a debate as the Davis Chamber of Commerce hosted them for a luncheon. Not surprisingly the questions focused on the economic and fiscal environment for Davis.

Debbie Davis, editor of the Davis Enterprise was the moderator for this event that was well attended by members of the Davis business community. All five candidates, Joe Krovoza, Jon Li, Rochelle Swanson, Sydney Vergis, and Daniel Watts participated.

Commentary: Why is the City Council So Unpopular?

By David GreenwaldApril 6, 201018 comments

In 2007, the city commissioned a survey on citizen satisfaction with municipal services. At that time, satisfaction was off the charts with 94% of residents reporting satisfaction with current city services, 83% reporting a positive experience with Davis City Staff when they had interactions, 98% were satisfied with the appearance of the city of Davis, 92% with recreational opportunities, and 97 percent reporting satisfied with the overall feeling of safety in the neighborhoods.

At the same time, about a 47% rated the current financial situation of the City as Excellent or Good. That translated back in 2007 to 70% support for a renewal of the sales tax and 50% support for an increase in the sales tax.

Stanford Study Suggests Davis’ Pension Crisis Has City and Much of State on the Brink

By David GreenwaldApril 6, 201049 comments

Last week the Vanguard reported that the city of Davis was about to take a hit both in terms of pensions and retiree health benefits. The projections offered by finance director Paul Navazio show that PERS contributions rates would climb by about 8.5% on the safety side and a mitigated five percent on the non-safety side.

Using those numbers which are aided by CalPERS rate-smoothing mechanism, the city of Davis is looking at paying out between 9 and 10 million dollars from the general fund by 2013-14.

Will the Davis Fire Department Merge with UC Davis?

By David GreenwaldApril 5, 201021 comments

Last year, the city commissioned the consultants, Citygate to do a study of fire staffing needs. Much to the chagrin of those who have advocated for a fourth Davis firestation, Citygate found that such an expensive endeavor may not be necessary.

Their findings agreed that Davis needs more than 12 firefighters on-duty. However, the report concludes that “In the combined developed area of Davis and UCD, four fire stations staffed with a total of 15 firefighters on duty are wholly adequate to cover the entire area, if deployed as one system.” Therefore, for the foreseeable future there is no need to build an additional station in North Davis.

Commentary: April Fool’s Day Comes Late to the Enterprise

By David GreenwaldApril 4, 201047 comments

Okay I just read the Enterprise editorial on how to solve the “problem” of Don Saylor leaving the council, and my first reaction is that this must be a late April Fool’s Joke. Talk about a solution in search of a problem, this is one.

But apparently the Enterprise has gone the comedic route, because they came up with a hare-brained scheme if I ever saw one.

How Do We Distinguish Between the Candidates? Follow the Money

By David GreenwaldApril 4, 20104 comments

There is one huge question facing the city of Davis. It is not the issue of growth, which while important in this election has largely been focused on the question as to whether Measure J (in the form of Measure R) gets renewed.

No the biggest issue is that of the fiscal health of the city and it will define the entire course of the election. The question question is who will take firefighter money?

Neighbors Ask For More Assurances on Willowbank Fearing the Weakness of Relying on Developer Agreement

By David GreenwaldApril 2, 20104 comments

Swainson Hawk Incident Illustrates the Futility of Relying on Developer Agreements –

On March 16, the Davis City Council by a series of 3-2 votes approved the Willowbank Park development with some proposed changes that Councilmember Stephen Souza helped put into place. At the time the neighbors while seemingly appreciative of those proposed changes, were leery of the council doing this without ironclad assurances that they would be enforceable and carried out.

The problem here is that while developer agreements are binding, they are only binding between the council and the developer. There is no assurance to the neighbors that conditions will be adhered to. Moreover, as one neighbor raised this past Tuesday, by going ahead with the project before the council even saw concrete proposals for the townhomes, the council was effectively surrendering its leverage.

City Puts DACHA Up For Sale

By David GreenwaldApril 2, 201018 comments

In December, the Davis City Council behind closed doors approved bringing foreclosure procedures against DACHA. Now in the Davis Enterprise is the public notice of the public sale of DACHA.

The notice in part reads, “Davis Area Cooperative Housing Association, A California Nonprofit Corporation, as Trustor, in favor of Redevelopment Agency of The City of Davis as Beneficiary, WILL SELL AT PUBLIC AUCTION TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER.”

City Fuse is Lit on Retirement Benefits

By David GreenwaldApril 1, 201010 comments

Mixed into the discussion on Tuesday night on organizational restructuring and additional budget cuts by the city as the result of the failure to achieve the cost-savings needed through the recent round of employee bargaining agreements, was a very alarming discussion on what will become sky-rocketing costs for city retirees.

It appears based on the calculations that the city is looking at as much as four to six million dollars in additional costs for retirees over the next five years. That will put a huge strain on the yearly budget and probably force additional service cuts considering projections of a fairly flat revenue. All of this will be to pay for increases to employee compensation from the middle part of the last decade.

City Offers More Smoke and Mirrors With Regards To the Budget

By David GreenwaldMarch 31, 201014 comments

If you have watched Davis City Council Meetings for the past several months and certainly longer, one gets the impression that there are seldom consequences for policy actions and in particular policy decisions made by council, as though we can balance the budget in a manner that is fairly painless to the community.

The reality now is that the failure of the council to achieve the targeted cash savings has immediate and very serious consequences for city services.

Latest Council Financial Reports Released

By David GreenwaldMarch 31, 20103 comments

The Vanguard back in early February analyzed the early filings by the Council candidates where Joe Krovoza had a small lead over Sydney Vergis. At that time, they were the only declared candidates. Now that number is up to five, however, only three appear to be spending money.

The big question that looms in this race is who will the firefighters back and how will that impact this race. In the meantime, Mr. Krovoza has maintained his small lead primarily drawing from a wide variety of individuals in the community. Sydney Vergis continues to draw from her pro-growth and pro-development core of supporters, while Rochelle Swanson emerges with her first filings, many of them from business interests and individuals who have worked with her on the Blue and White Foundation.

Council Candidates Responses to Brief Vanguard Questionnaire

By David GreenwaldMarch 30, 20109 comments

The Council election is less than three months away and most of the public knows very little about most of the candidates. The Vanguard will have extensive coverage of the City Council campaign. Today each of the candidates have addressed five questions from our questionnaire we sent out. The answers here are unedited and complete. They are printed as submitted.

1. Describe in a paragraph your vision for Davis on June 30, 2014

City of Davis Files Complaint Against NewPath with Public Utilities Commission

By David GreenwaldMarch 29, 20107 comments

The strange saga of NewPath continues as now the city of Davis has filed a complaint with the California Public Utilities Commission CPUC) alleging that the telecommunications company had begun construction on four of its facilities prior to receiving a Notice of Proposed Construction and Application for Determination of Exemption from CEQA (“NPC”) from the Energy Division of the CPUC.

NewPath is a competitive local exchange carrier, authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission under a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, to provide “full facilities-based competitive local exchange and access services… for the entire state of California.”

Format Also Contributed to Lack of Substance on the Part of City Council Candidates –

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