In the last week, the news has come forward that the Gottschalks department store chain, which filed for bankruptcy in January will be headed for liquidation.
Last week the Davis Enterprise quoted Sarah Worley, the economic development coordinator with the City of Davis saying:
The city actually had some grant money at one point from SACOG but squandered it through inaction.
Last week from March 15-21, 2009 marked "Sunshine Week" across the country. This is the celebration and a reminder of the need to advance the cause of "open government." Since the foundation of the People’s Vanguard of Davis, we have strived to uphold a very simple principle–notion that the public has the right to know what the government is doing and the duty to hold the government accountable. Our focus has primarily been on the city of Davis with extensions into Yolo County, the region, and even the State of California from time to time.
Many Comparable Cities Have Gone To Three Person Engines –
IPM Coordinator Calls For Cessation of Usage
On Thursday, the Vanguard followed up on its story from last year on the number of 100K employees in the City of Davis. As the Davis Enterprise reported on Wednesday, the number has risen from 61 to 72 this year. As useful as these data are however, they only tell part of the story. In many ways, in fact, they overstate the magnitude of the problem. We now follow up on Thursday’s story and examine total compensation by department.
On Tuesday night, the council by a 4-1 vote decided to push back consideration of the General Plan update until at least July as the city grapples with a serious budget deficit. The lone dissenter was Mayor Pro Tem Saylor.
Saylor spoke as though he were in a different time from the rest of us.
When a business that sells among other things, tobacco related paraphernalia moved to the prominent location at Second and G in the corner space of the Anderson Bank building some members of the council responded by considering an urgency ordinance to create a conditional use permit prohibiting such businesses from that location. However, it became clear that this would not affect the current occupant who moved to the new location in an expedited manner.
As the staff report reads:
Word To The Wise
A Bombshell Was Dropped – What’s Next?
By E. Roberts Musser
In our Davis Senior Citizens Commission meeting on Thursday, March 12, 2009, our City Council liaison Sue Greenwald dropped a bombshell. At least it felt that way to some of us on our commission. Councilmember Greenwald said there was a “cost saving” move afoot to consolidate the city’s commissions – yet again. The rationale behind this move is supposedly to cut down on city staff expense.
The Vanguard was pleased to see the Davis Enterprise reporter Claire St. John on Wednesday run a story which highlighted the 100K Club of Davis for 2008, updating the work the Vanguard did on August 5, 2008 with 2007 data.
Davis Enterprise Columnist Rich Rifkin also ran an analysis in his column on the Davis Fire Department.
In a letter that Mayor Pro Tem Saylor read aloud at last night’s council meeting, Lewis Properties told the city:
After criticism at the last workshop on the General Plan the city staff has pared down the costs of the proposed projects. The concern was expressed during the last meeting that a traditional general plan update would cost between $1 and $3 million. Concern focused on what city priorities ought to be during difficult fiscal times. Moreover, this would necessitate “a commitment to the multi-year process would need to be made at the beginning as it would be potentially wasteful and costly to stop after the process begin.”
So the staff is looking at creating a general plan update program that can adapt the tasks to the current fiscal situation.
Neighbors Have Long Battled Friend of Mayor Pro Tem To Abate Noise From Montessori Day Care CenterHowever, what Mr. Saylor did not discuss was the ongoing problems that a specific group of neighbors have had with a specific facility whose noise and other problems has been anything but delightful.
One of the big questions that often arises is whether Davis should continue to outsource their City Attorney Services to the law firm of McDonough, Holland & Allen who employ City Attorney Harriet Steiner.
The Vanguard engaged in extensive analysis through a series of public records requests. In the fiscal year of 2004-05 Davis paid its City Attorney and law firm $514,154.10. In 2005-06 it was $535,664.50. In 2006-07 it was $641,025.70. And in 2007-08 it $464,145.50.
Move Smacks of Political Retribution Rather Than Sound Fiscal PolicyRemember, the firefighters pumped in $30,000 into the last campaign to reelection Councilmembers Don Saylor and Stephen Souza.
At last night’s council meeting, Finance Director Paul Navazio looked toward an aggressive cost savings plan as the city faces an immediate deficit, a longer-term structural deficit, and an impending problem of unfunded liabilities for health care and pensions.
Despite the rosey picture that City Manager Bill Emlen attempted to play at the outset, these projections may actually represent a best-case scenario as became clear as the conversation and discussion progressed.
In a communication to the owners of the Westlake Plaza Shopping Center, Davis Advocates for Neighborhood Groceries (DANG) strongly admonished the owners of the Westlake Shopping Center for reneging on a previous agreement which has resulted in their failure to secure the Delanos in an effort to bring a viable Grocery Store to West Davis.
As the Vanguard reported two weeks ago, DANG along with consultants for the owners had found a grocer willing to move a grocery store into the spot vacated by Food Fair in May of 2006. However, when the majority owner, Farrokh Hosseinyoun pulled his promised $250,000 in capital, the deal fell through.
Not everyone is or was convinced by the show. The residents from Old North Davis Neighborhoods who have to deal with the congestion and dangers on a regular basis certainly would like to see the change. The business community however is not convinced that the changes would not impact the ability of people to get to downtown.
In some ways, I found it interesting reading the Davis Enterprise Columnist Bob Dunning’s column yesterday and the repeated references to Mayor Ruth Asmundson and Councilmember Sue Greenwald fighting during council meetings. There is definitely a rather toxic clash of personalities going on here. On the other hand, it’s a bit of a cop out to view it as both sides fighting. But that is clearly what the public sees.
I see a larger problem and it extends beyond the issue of interpersonal relations. I feel like the Mayor is systematically shutting down discourse and discussion in the name of expediency of getting home on time. If she were somewhat equal-handed about it, it might be less of a problem. But I have never seen her tell anyone else to stop talking other than Councilmember Greenwald.
We have been talking about this for months, but the Enterprise is starting to see the light of day on the issue of city contract talks with six of the employee bargaining units with the city.
One of the big questions that will need to be determined is the extent to which this process will have transparency. Often what has happened in the past is that the first time either the council or the public knows about the contract is after the city’s “negotiators” usually the city manager, HR person, and finance director reach agreement with heads of the employee bargaining units.