City of Davis Archives - Page 419 of 462

Why is the City Not Investigating DACHA Situation?

By David GreenwaldJanuary 11, 20106 comments

Back in October, the Davis City Council opted against a third part review of city actions involving the refinance of DACHA by a 3-2 vote. The majority of council, opted instead to focus city efforts on saving DACHA which was in critical danger of defaulting on the city’s loan that could cause the homes to go into foreclosure.

Since that time the city has taken the additional step of initiating foreclosure proceedings against the residents of DACHA. This action could eventually mean that the residents lose their homes and the property and assets are dissolved in order for them to repay the city’s 4.15 million loan granted in June of 2008. DACHA has not been able to make its payments to the city on the loan due to a judgment against them by Twin Pines Cooperative Foundations who were awarded a nearly $350,000 judgment in June for breech of contract.

Vanguard Commentary: City Manager Skirts Real Issues and Papers Over Real Problems

By David GreenwaldJanuary 10, 201010 comments

We have had a busy week this week and we are just now getting to the City Manager’s State of the City Address. Bill Emlen concluded his speech suggesting that he saw his critic in the audience and poking fun at the fact that he had a critic, but the fact is, he needs a critic. The average person listening to his speech might have thought the city was on top of key issues and problems.

The reality is that the city has a long way to go to even begin addressing the long term problems. They have shown that now twice first with the firefighters MOU and now with the management MOU which goes much further in addressing the issues of the cafeteria payout and possibly even the pension crisis, but fails to adequately deal with the looming $42 to $65 million unfunded liability for health insurance.

City and Management Group Agree to New labor Contract

By David GreenwaldJanuary 9, 20102 comments

Yesterday the City of Davis announced that the city had agreed with another labor group on a tentative agreement, the Individual Management Group representing 49 employees from all departments in the city.

While the agreement still falls short of what is needed, it goes much further than the firefighter agreement in beginning to address the long-term sustainability issues the city faces. There is still a good deal of spin that the taxpayer will have to cut through. As was the case with the fire department, the amount of savings was factored from the original baseline rather than from the actual budgeted amount from year zero. According to the city’s release,

Guest Commentary: New Allegations Leveled Against DACHA and Calls For City Investigation

By David GreenwaldJanuary 8, 201027 comments

The DACHA Board of Directors In Action

by Luke Watkins –

The sad saga of the Davis Area Cooperative Housing Association (DACHA) has been covered a number of times now in the press. In this article I want to focus only on one particular DACHA board meeting on August 24, 2006 to shine light on specific examples of where I believe that the DACHA board of directors has violated the law. This should give the public a chance to observe the nature of the DACHA leadership at that time.

DACHA was formed in 2002 by my firm Neighborhood Partners. We recruited a group of community members to serve as the initial board of directors. The plan was for resident board members to be added to the board over time as the cooperative grew from its initial 7 units to an intended size of approximately 60 units. The founding board president was Dallas Kassing. Dallas was a UCD research scientist, who previously served as the president of the Davis Food Co-op, and is a long-time DJ at KDVS.

Rifkin’s Column Argues Fire MOU Fails to Solve Long-Term Budget Issues

By David GreenwaldJanuary 8, 201021 comments

For those who have been following the budget and firefighter saga in Davis, it should have been little surprise that Davis Enterprise Columnist Rich Rifkin on Wednesday would write that the MOU agreement between the city and firefighters “doesn’t solve long-term mess.”

In a way, I debated whether I really needed to highlight his column on these pages, most of the arguments have been made before. But I do so, because in a lot of ways, I think he raises a crucial point about the changing landscape in Davis.

Planning Commission Votes To Recommend Full Alcohol Licence for Westlake IGA Market

By David GreenwaldJanuary 7, 20102 comments

A series of strange circumstances led the Davis Planning Commission to need to make a determination that the public convenience or necessity will be served by authorizing issuance of an alcohol license for Westlake IGA Market. The Commission did so by a 4-0 vote and added findings that there would be an enhanced economic viability of the neighborhood and such an issuance would not interfere with the enjoyment of the surrounding neighborhood.

All of this was necessary because of a bizarre ruling by the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control board that had initially ruled the market as residing in a crime area making it eligible only for a conditional license.

City Manager Delivers State of the City Address

By David GreenwaldJanuary 6, 20106 comments

City Manager Bill Emlen delivered Davis’ State of the City Address to the Davis Chamber of Commerce Tuesday afternoon. Apparently it was the first such speech in a few years. It was only about a 25 minute speech overall, and for that reason he was not able to get into detail on some of the issues that he might have otherwise preferred. He addressed a good deal of the budget and employee compensation issues.

Here are some of the highlights from the speech.

Davis Police Chief Landy Black Talks About Tasers and Their Use in Davis

By David GreenwaldJanuary 5, 201015 comments

Last week a California circuit issued a ruling on the use of Tasers. The court limited the use of Tasers to situations where a suspect poses an actual threat. The court ruled that simply disobeying orders or acting strangely is not enough. Those officers who fail to adhere to these rules can be sued for excessive force.

On Wednesday, the Sacramento Bee had an interview with Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness about their department’s policies on the use of Tasers. The Vanguard has asked similar questions of Davis Police Chief Landy Black. Chief Black also directed us to the Davis Police Department’s policies on the use of Tasers and the use of deadly force.

Saylor and Souza Claim in Op-Ed “Contract is a Fair Deal For City Employees, Taxpayers”

By David GreenwaldJanuary 4, 20109 comments

In Sunday’s Davis Enterprise, Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor and Councilmember Stephen Souza write an op-ed in which they argue that the contract ratified on December 15, 2009 by City Council with the Davis Professional Firefighters Association, Local 3494 “is a fair deal for city employees, taxpayers.”

They contend that the contract makes significant progress in addressing both long and short-term issues.

Editor’s Picks: Most Important Vanguard Articles of 2009

By David GreenwaldJanuary 2, 20101 comments

Yesterday we listed out the most read Vanguard Articles of 2009, today I select most important news stories or commentary from my perspective. I have chosen a list of the most important from my perspective stories, most of which the Vanguard either covered exclusively or broke the news for. I have put them in chronological order rather than ranking them in importance.

Clearly this was a busy year, as we identified 19 key articles from the course of the year.

Vanguard Year in Review: Ten Most Read Stories of 2009

By David GreenwaldJanuary 1, 20101 comments

On March 3, the Vanguard moved its website from the blogger site to its own server. One thing that the new site can do is track the number of people who read a particular article. Here are the top 10 most read stories for 2009.

One thing that we learn quickly is that those with the most comments are not necessarily those that are the most read. Measure P articles definintely generated the most discussion but only two of them land in the top 10.

My Last Rant of the Year: Report on Open Government in Davis

By David GreenwaldDecember 31, 20098 comments

I would have liked to have compiled the Vanguard’s second annual City Council Scorecard for 2009 but there is one big problem, to do so, I would have to reconstruct votes from Vanguard articles and memory. Why is that? Because if you go to the council Agendas and Minutes webpage, you see that the last minutes posted from Tuesday, December 9 of 2008!

That makes it a little difficult to go back and look at how people voted. I know it has been brought up during the council meetings at least once.

The Year Ahead in Davis Figures To Be Action-Packed

By David GreenwaldDecember 30, 20093 comments

As we wind down on 2009, the city of Davis has dealt with a few looming issues, but has also failed to deal with several looming issues that figure to escalate in 2010. This is our look ahead to 2010 to examine what issues we are likely to face, but as always we will not anticipate some of the biggest and most burning issues in this community.

2010 Elections: Here’s what we know so far, there is one vacancy on the Davis City Council as Lamar Heystek has announced he will not seek re-election. That means that for the first time since 2006, we will have a new councilmember. Ruth Asmundson is believed to be running for re-election and the Vanguard has heard through credible sources that Sydney Vergis who ran and finished fourth in 2008 will also run for election and do so on a “ticket” with the Mayor. Newcomer Joe Krovoza has announced he will run. But we figure that there will be more than three when the dance cards are punched.

City’s Failure to Deal with Pension Issues Will Come Back to Haunt It

By David GreenwaldDecember 26, 200911 comments

The city of Davis had an opportunity to deal with its long term structural problems when addressing the new collective bargaining agreement with its various bargaining units. However, if the fire MOU is any indication, the city has failed to deal with the long term implications. Instead it has traded short-term budgetary needs in lieu of dealing with the bigger issues.

As Councilmember Heystek put it late last week,

Affordable Housing Issues and Scandals Need to be Addressed in Workshop

By David GreenwaldDecember 24, 20093 comments

The first council meeting in January has one major item and that is an affordable housing workshop. It appears to be the first of two parts after the council receives information and provides feedback. However, like most staff reports, it seems to fail to raise a number of important issues.

Of interesting note, while the staff report seems to provide a history of affordable housing, it does not supply any information or even acknowledge the affordable housing scandals of the early part of this decade, where the affordable housing program was abused in part by city staff.

Spinning the State of the City Address

By David GreenwaldDecember 23, 200913 comments

Yesterday by virtue of the fact that the Vanguard is a member of the Davis Chamber of Commerce, we received an invitation to the January 5, 2010 speech by Bill Emlen highlighting the state of the city. Sounds like a neat idea for the Chamber, but unfortunately, they have asked an individual to give a speech who is in absolute denial about the condition of the city that he oversees.

While it is true that Mr. Emlen will likely acknowledge some of the challenges that Davis faces, he will also downplay the severity of a number of problems.

Vanguard Tours New Grocery Store

By David GreenwaldDecember 22, 20092 comments

ABC Determines Westlake a High Crime Reporting District –

The Vanguard toured the new Westlake IGA Market yesterday with owner Harley DeLano and Eric Nelson from DANG and while there are some astonishing bumps in the road that will be discussed shortly, the Vanguard was told that the plan is to open the store on January 15.

The Vanguard however was floored to learn that currently, the Westlake Market is having trouble obtaining a liquor license because the State Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) has deemed the district to be a high crime reporting district.

Planners Galore Working on What Exactly and at What Cost?

By David GreenwaldDecember 21, 200916 comments

The city of Davis has a new feature on their Community Development Department website, where it gives an update on the status of current projects. In it is a description and update of all current projects. While this may be an interesting tool for the public and those curious about what projects are underway or those curious about a specific project, there are some interesting tidbits to be gleaned from a more critical perspective.

The first astonishing fact is that for the city, we have 14 different planners working on these projects. That is an astonishing number. Think about how few projects and developments that we approve and somehow we need 14 different planners.

Update: Carlton Plaza Davis Moves One Step Forward Despite City Staff Opposition

By Elaine Roberts MusserDecember 21, 20090 comments

by Elaine Roberts Musser –

City Staff recommended against approving the proposed Carlton Plaza Davis assisted living facility for our seniors in Davis. The reasons given were the proposed project would somehow negatively impact Davis Waste Removal (DWR) and the Davis Police Department (DPD) in their ability to operate effectively, especially if either of them decided to expand operations. On December 16, 2009, the Planning Commission listened to both sides, and passed the following two motions:

The Planning Commission rejected the Staff recommendation not to approve the proposed Carlton Plaza Davis project.

Covell Partners: The Best Publicity Money Can Buy

By David GreenwaldDecember 19, 200926 comments

Facing a daunting landscape for trying to get a project approved in Davis, Tandem Properties has turned to trying to achieve positive publicity by donating to the schools–a worthy endeavor, particularly for a group that is about to submit an application for a new Measure J project.

For those who like, neat, tidy packages, the pieces here fall to place ever so conveniently.

The DACHA Board of Directors In Action by Luke Watkins –

ABC Determines Westlake a High Crime Reporting District –

by Elaine Roberts Musser –

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The DACHA Board of Directors In Action

by Luke Watkins –