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Guest Commentary: Welcome to Davis! – A Free-Burning, Toxic Wood Smoke Laboratory! Part II

By David GreenwaldAugust 5, 200918 comments

by Alan Pryor –

Previously in Part I of this 2-part series, the general wood burning problem in Davis was discussed and a summary of the latest regrettable City Council decision was presented. Additionally, a detailed chronology of events from the initial Council discussions on the matter through the inception of the recent Cahill-Staff study was presented. This Part II continues with a discussion of the objectives and results of that study and further discusses recent discussions and decisions at the Council level (see Part I).

Fifth Street Project Could Get SACOG Money

By David GreenwaldAugust 4, 200910 comments

The Davis City Council yesterday met during the morning for their annual August meeting before taking their annual August break. Council is required to meet at least once per month. The Council is scheduled to resume in just four weeks on September 1, 2009. Ordinarily this meeting is ceremonial and has limited items, however this year, due to a backlog of items from last week, the council actually had items to discuss including possible funding for the Fifth Street project.

Members of the community came forward during the item to ask council to include 5th Street among the projects that they would seek money for.

Guest Commentary: Welcome to Davis! – A Free-Burning, Toxic Wood Smoke Laboratory!

By David GreenwaldAugust 3, 200918 comments

by Alan Pryor –

Part I –

Two very different philosophies were shown and two very different regulatory actions toward restricting wood burning were taken by two otherwise very similar college towns in 2009 in Davis and Chico as exemplified by the following quotes.

“I am really interested by this idea that Dr. Cahill could use Davis as a laboratory. I think this would make a tremendous contribution to mankind…This is the type of environmental leadership we are known for…I know this is frustrating to people who have health issues who want a ban right now but it is a sacrifice that might be able to help people later.”

Vanguard Response to Dunning

By David GreenwaldAugust 3, 200939 comments

The following is the Vanguard’s response to Bob Dunning’s Sunday Column and has been submitted to the Davis Enterprise as a letter to the editor.

In his August 2nd Sunday column, Davis Enterprise Columnist Bob Dunning refers to the People’s Vanguard of Davis. We want to take the opportunity to introduce the community to The Vanguard and correct some possible misconceptions arising from Mr. Dunning’s column.

Late Meeting on Tuesday Was Entirely Avoidable

By David GreenwaldAugust 2, 2009159 comments

On Thursday, Davis Columnist Bob Dunning lamented the lateness of the Davis City Council Meeting which ran until nearly 2 am on Tuesday night. He got it right when he suggested that late meetings compromise democracy.

In fact, I agree with much of what he had to say, although I do believe that ending a meeting at 10 pm is impractical given that councilmembers, or at least two of them, have 9 to 5 jobs meaning that on a regular basis starting a meeting at 5 pm is impractical.

The End of the Senior Housing Strategy Committee?

By David GreenwaldJuly 31, 200915 comments

Very quietly on Tuesday’s meeting, the Davis City Council voted for a consent agenda item that would allow for the delay of initiation of the work by the Senior Housing Strategy Committee. This was the committee created at the behest of Councilmember Stephen Souza that would study the issue of senior housing that was pushed forward this spring by the lobbying efforts of the Covell Partners as they seek to bring back Covell Village.

This is another example of Councilmember Stephen Souza coming up with a clever idea during the council meeting but not having throught through the implementation of the process. The form and structure of the committee changed drastically throughout the process, but the goal was for the committee to make a recommendation to the City Council by the end of 2009. To do that, it was scheduled to meet nine times between July 30 and November 19.

On a Strange Night, a Strange Coalition of Three Supports Wildhorse Ranch

By David GreenwaldJuly 29, 2009184 comments

In a long and meandering meeting that began at 5 pm with a joint discussion with Woodland City Council on water, ended just before 2 am with a 3-2 vote to deliver the Wildhorse Ranch Project for a Measure J vote in November 2009.

Councilmembers Sue Greenwald and Stephen Souza repeatedly attempted to delay this discussion, in part based on the lateness of the hour and in part based on not only the complexity of the issues but also problems that they had with the project.

Odd Staff Report Recommends Go-Head with Wildhorse Ranch Project

By David GreenwaldJuly 27, 2009168 comments

On Tuesday, the Davis City Council will decide whether or not to approve the 191 unit, 25.8 acre Wildhorse Ranch project and forward it to the voters for an election per Measure J requirements.

Staff recommends full approval of the project in each of its component parts. The request is to change the land use designations for the site from agriculture, where the property currently contains a horse farm, to residential.

After a lengthy period of outreach by the developers to the Wildhorse Each Neighborhood Association and other adjacent neighborhoods as well as the community at large, and working with city staff, the neighborhood association opted to oppose the project. Nevertheless, city staff believes that “this site plan configuration is acceptable, and addresses most of staff concerns expressed about previous plans.”

Commentary: Maybe Saylor Ought To Worry About His Own Fiscal Mess

By David GreenwaldJuly 26, 200927 comments

All eyes in the past few weeks have been on the current budget crisis in the state of California. There are many good reasons for that as the state figured to try to balance part of the budget on the backs of local government. Fortunately, unlike the past, local government proved to be effective lobbyists and put enough pressure on state legislators to win back some of the worst cuts.

At the same time, the city has had to close an immediate 3.5 million dollar deficit. We have spent a good deal of time detailing that deal and criticizing it for looking at the budget in terms of a short-term budget shortfall rather than dealing with the longer term structural issues. The state of California, for what it’s worth, now faces similar criticism.

Citizens Beware: Emails Sent to Public Officials Are Public Documents

By David GreenwaldJuly 24, 200947 comments

Member of the Davis City Council Leaks A Constituent Communcation to Bob Dunning –

An unfortunate civics lesson was learned this week by a member of our community when a letter sent to all five of the Davis City Council Member’s city of Davis email addresses ended up in Bob Dunning’s column on Tuesday. We can certainly debate the propriety of a Davis City Councilmember leaking an email from a constituent to a journalist in an effort to embarrass them, however from the standpoint of the law, they have every right to do it.

Written communications either sent via letter or electronically are considered public documents which are subject to the California Public Records Act. In fact, city staff often reads them, prints them out, and disseminates them as well.

City Approves Additional Grant Funding for Rancho Yolo

By David GreenwaldJuly 23, 200949 comments

At Tuesday’s City Council Meeting, the Davis City Council approved by a 4-0 vote a grant to the Rancho Yolo Association for 43,900 dollars. This follows a grant of 50,000 that was approved in April. Councilmember Sue Greenwald abstained from this vote.

The motion approved by council was made by Councilmember Lamar Heystek and represented a compromise over the original staff recommendation which would require 10,000 dollars for a third party review of the process but come outside of the grant money. This would come from the 43,000 but reduce the cost of the third party review to 5,000.

Planning Commission Puts the Kibosh on Business Park Exemption Proposal for Measure J

By David GreenwaldJuly 23, 20097 comments

If the June vote by the Business and Economic Development Commission was not a strong enough message to Councilmember Stephen Souza’s proposal for a business park exemption to Measure J, the voter approved measure that gives the voters of Davis the ability to vote on proposed land use designation changes that would pave the way for development, on Wednesday, the Planning Commission unanimously voted against placing any exemptions before the Davis voters.

During the course of discussion there seemed to be no great sense to exempt a specific property for a business park proposal. There was some concern that it would lead to an overly complicated process and a member of the public, Pam Nieberg, pointed out from the original legal advice that any exemption for a specific property could lead to a lawsuit unless all properties were considered for exemption.

Word to the Wise – The Creation of Artificial Debt

By Elaine Roberts MusserJuly 23, 200916 comments

by Elaine Roberts Musser –

On July 8, 2009, I had the honor of being interviewed here in Davis by Tom Vacar of KTVU Fox 2, Oakland. The story to be covered is about the growing problem in the homeowner association arena of artificial debt created by subsidiary debt collectors, working in concert with their affiliated law firms and homeowner association industry managers. The reason I was chosen as one of several persons interviewed, was my intimate knowledge of this practice, because of several cases I have worked on as both a volunteer attorney and board member of the Oakland based Center for California Homeowners Association Law.

Here is how the scam works. When a homeowner tries to tender a check to pay for their monthly assessment to the homeowners association through its hired management company, the check is either not accepted or not posted to the homeowner’s account in a timely manner. The result is a determination by management the payment is now suddenly “overdue”. This triggers the collections process, with the homeowners “delinquency” immediately sent to collections. Here, the money meter begins to run, racking up huge collections costs and late fees. If the total debt owed, including all collections costs and late fees, is not paid posthaste and in toto, the homeowner’s house is held hostage with a threatened foreclosure. The collections process is tantamount to a train rolling downhill on the tracks – almost impossible to stop once begun.

Davis Faces Huge Budget Impact From State Budget Deal

By David GreenwaldJuly 22, 20097 comments

Proposals Might Push Another 2.4 million hit to General Fund and 2.5 Million to Redevelopment –

On Tuesday night, Finance Director Paul Navazio briefed the Davis City Council on the impact of the recently agreed upon budget on the city’s finances. As he pointed out however, at this point they only have a vague notion of what is in that budget which was scheduled to be voted upon on Thursday, however, on Tuesday complications arose about a prison release plan the Republicans claim not to have known about.

At this point this is preliminary information that is subject to approval by the legislature. The intent of the item on Tuesday was to translate what has been talked about into the impact on the Davis City Finances.

Planning Commission to Hear Measure J Discussion Wednesday

By David GreenwaldJuly 20, 200961 comments

It was nearly a month ago that the Business and Economic Development Commission (BEDC) considered whether Measure J should have a business park exemption during their vote to place a renewal on the ballot that would sunset in 2020. At that time, the BEDC did not feel comfortable with the vague lack of direction that the council provided them. They would vote by a 7 to 1 vote to recommend no exemption at this point in time. The one dissenting vote actually wanted the qualifier “at this point in time” removed.

The BEDC was reluctant to permanently recommend against this consideration based on the notion that they are in the midst of receiving a staff report on the city’s business park land needs. Depending on the outcome of that study, they might wish to revisit the issue should the study show the definitive and immediate need for a business park.

Others Implement Cost-Recovery For At-Fault Parties

By David GreenwaldJuly 17, 20098 comments

During the course of Councilmember Lamar Heystek’s presentation of the alternative budget, one of his proposals for possible additional revenue was the idea of billing the party at fault when it requires fire or ambulance service.

Councilmember Heystek called it cost-recovery for at-fault party for public safety response. He projected it could produce an additional 25,000 dollars in revenue for the city which would enable it to off-set some of the cuts to service for the public. The city and the city council seemed to reject it almost on principle, but it established the idea of looking for alternative means by which to fund city services.

Wildhorse EIR Shows Need To Update City Fire Policies

By David GreenwaldJuly 15, 200916 comments

Reading the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for the proposed Wild Horse Ranch development gives one a little insight into how the city operates. Specifically the designation of the “unavoidable cumulative impact” on the fire service. EIR concludes: “consistent with the analysis of the Davis General Plan and General Plan EIR, the proposed project would have a significant impact to fire protection services.”

Specifically the project is said to lie outside of the five minute response time area. Moreover,

UNSUSTAINABLE: City PERS Contributions Skyrocketed Over Last Decade

By David GreenwaldJuly 14, 200915 comments

For those who have closely followed the debate on the blog, the chart you are about to see should come as little surprise. Over the course of 2000 until 2009-10, the City’s PERS contribution has increased dramatically from just under one million dollars per year, up close to seven million by the end of the decade.

Obviously that rate of increase is unsustainable. Thanks to the city of Davis and Finance Director Paul Navazio, we have the latest projections as well. The key question is whether PERS contributions will continue to increase at the rate that they have and the second question is what the city can do about it.

Whose Side is the Council On?

By David GreenwaldJuly 10, 200940 comments

Employee Contracts Are the Last Piece to the Puzzle –

For those who read Rich Rifkin’s column this Wednesday in the Davis Enterprise, it was a nice summary of where we are and where we stand. He makes a few points that bear repeating and further discussion. But let us back up a second for starters.

Last week, the Davis City Council passed a budget that calls for cutbacks in salary and benefits that equals around 3.8 percent of employee compensation. The raw number is 1.25 million dollars, less than the number that Councilmember Lamar Heystek pushed which represented around 5 percent at 1.575 million dollars. At the same time, it was greater than the 850,000 dollars that the city was proposing.

Planning Commission Hears Wildhorse Ranch Application and Moves it To City Council

By David GreenwaldJuly 9, 200961 comments

A bare quorum of the Davis Planning Commission was on hand on Wednesday evening in Davis, but they agreed to approve the staff report unanimously with a 4-0 vote on all measures except the Final EIR which was inexplicably only received from city staff on Monday. Commissioner Ananya Choudhuri voted against approving the Final EIR due to her not reading it (she probably should have abstained rather than voted no, but that’s largely a moot point).

The actions taken by the Planning Commission on Wednesday were fivefold. First, they certified the Final EIR for the Wildhorse Ranch proposal, including findings of fact, statement of overriding considerations, and mitigation monitoring plan in the staff report. Second, they approved the General Plan Amendment Resolution that establishes the land use designations for the Wildhorse Ranch. Third they introduced the ordinance that rezones and establishes the use and development standards for the Wildhorse Ranch site. Fourth, they approved the Affordable Housing Plan. And finally they introduced the ordinance to approve the Development Agreement between the City and the Developer, Parlin Whildhorse Ranch. Again, this item was approved as received as it was not complete at the time of the meeting.

by Alan Pryor –

by Alan Pryor –

Member of the Davis City Council Leaks A Constituent Communcation to Bob Dunning –

by Elaine Roberts Musser –

Proposals Might Push Another 2.4 million hit to General Fund and 2.5 Million to Redevelopment –

Employee Contracts Are the Last Piece to the Puzzle –

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