City of Davis Archives - Page 418 of 470

Neighbors Complain About AT&T U-Verse Box Encroachment onto Property

By David GreenwaldJune 24, 201019 comments

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When AT&T began what they said was laying underground cable for their U-Verse network a few months ago, neighbors thought little of it. They had bought their home in the Stonegate community two years ago knowing full well that AT&T had a utility box discreetly tucked away in the bushes next to their home.

“We peacefully coexisted with AT&T until recently when they started work to bring U-Verse programming into West Davis,” they wrote in a letter to the city.

Governmental Accounting Board Examines Pension Issues

By David GreenwaldJune 22, 20103 comments

In July 2004, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) implemented GASB 45 due to growing concern over the potential long term obligations of government employers for post-employment benefits. According to GASB 45, government employers were required to measure and report the liabilities associated with postemployement benefits which could include medical insurance and other benefits that are not associated with a pension plan.

For the city of Davis, the result of this new accounting practice showed that the city had a $40 to $60 million unfunded liability in its retirement health care benefits. As a result the city of Davis is now taking steps to insure full funding of retiree medical benefits. The process will take roughly thirty years at around a $4 million annual cost over and above the cost to fully fund the current year.

Changing the Way the Council Does Business

By David GreenwaldJune 21, 201016 comments

It was Tuesday night and there was yet another over-packed council agenda. There again Mayor Ruth Asmundson was trying to hasten the pace, but instead of doing this by limited the number of items on the agenda or sending the item back to staff to re-work, she simply attempted to cut off debate.

As per the usual, she applied this standard unevenly shutting down Councilmember Sue Greenwald, only to have Councilmember Lamar Heystek offer his lengthy comments which led to everyone else offering their thoughts. The irony is that by the time she tried to impose discipline, the cat was already out of the bag, the council had spent over two hours negotiating and wordsmithing and development agreement they had already approved just three months before.

City of Davis Prepares EIR on Sports Park

By David GreenwaldJune 19, 201036 comments

Project Scope Generates Fiscal, Transportation, and Land Use Concerns –

According to a press release from the city of Davis released earlier this week, the City is preparing an EIR for a Sports Park on the periphery of town at one of three locations. The locations are County Roads 105 and 32A, property north of Covell Boulevard and east of Wildhorse and the Old Davis Landfill on County Road 102.

According to the release, because the Sports Park provides replacement fields for both Civic and Davis Little League the city is required to address the environmental impacts that would be associated with the fields being converted to housing. On November 5, 2009, the Davis City Council adopted an Updated Housing Element for the General Plan. Included in the Housing Element Update were designation of the Civic Center ball field and Davis Little League Complex as future infill housing sites in the General Plan.

UPDATE: McDonough, Holland and Allen to Close; City Attorney Said To Be Unaffected

By David GreenwaldJune 18, 201017 comments

We have been hearing for weeks about turmoil at the law firm of McDonough, Holland and Allen, where City Attorney Harriet Steiner is employed. As we have discussed in the past, the city has a contract City Attorney with an agreement with the law firm to retain the services of Harriet Steiner along with various support staff.

We have now learned that McDonough, Holland and Allen will close by September. The Sacramento Bee reported on Saturday, “The sagging economy apparently contributed to the imminent demise of a legal powerhouse in Northern California.”

Vanguard Study: Vacation Cash Out by City Employees

By David GreenwaldJune 18, 20108 comments

As part of their contract, City of Davis employees can take their vacation time and cash it out. How much and under what circumstances that can occur depends on the employee and their contract. There are in fact substantial differences in the various contracts in terms of the restrictions and at times even encouragement to cash out vacation time.

This practice may be seen as problematic for a number of different reasons. First each contract has a line that declares, “The purpose of annual vacation leave is to enable each employee annually to return to work mentally refreshed.” This stated purpose would seem to be contradicted by the notion of being able to get cash in lieu of vacation time.

Council Unanimously Passes Budget But Acknowledge Work Needs To Be Done

By David GreenwaldJune 17, 201010 comments

On Tuesday night, the Davis City Council unanimously passed the 2010-11 budget which while they believe is sufficient, they also acknowledged that more work lays ahead to fix the city’s overall fiscal picture and prevent or reduce future deficits.

This particular budget, closes a nearly million dollar gap in funding, and also restores the general fund reserve, that the city dipped into this fiscal year due to their inability to achieve the cost-savings from the employee bargaining agreements.

Council Allows Three Story Lofts in Willowbank but Limits Them to 32 Feet

By David GreenwaldJune 16, 20103 comments

Despite objections from the neighbors, the Davis City Council allowed for third story lofts among other issues that they took up on Tuesday night regarding the Willowbank development proposed along the Putah Creek channel.

There are a number of procedural issues that arose during the lengthy discussion that I will discuss in the commentary portion of this article.

Bankruptcy Court Issues Summary Motion To Dismiss Involuntary Bankruptcy Proceeding Against DACHA

By David GreenwaldJune 16, 201012 comments

City Attorney Harriet Steiner last night at the Davis City Council Meeting announced that the Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of California had ruled in summary judgment to dismiss involuntary bankruptcy proceedings against the alleged debtor, Davis Area Cooperative Housing Association, Inc. Ms. Steiner also reported that the petitioning party, Neighborhood Partners and Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation may also be sanctioned for attorney’s fees and court costs.

Summary judgment is appropriate in cases where there is “no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” In this case, the key question was whether DACHA was a “moneyed, business, or commercial cooperation,” that may be an involuntary debtor under section 303(a).

Finance and Budget Commission Examines Fiscal Impact of Changes To Verona

By David GreenwaldJune 15, 201016 comments

As we have been discussing, the Davis City Council will now weigh in on June 29 as to whether to amendment the Development Agreement approved in July of 2008 by the Davis City Council in conjunction with the Verona Subdivision, an 83 unit single family subdivision to developed on a vacant 8.55 acre parcel located at the southwest corner of Fifth Street and Alhambra.

As we have reported, of issue in this revision to the Development Agreement is the elimination of the middle income affordable requirement of 17 units per the city’s amendment policy that suspends that ordinance, the reduction of Supplemental Fees from $12,000 to $5,000 per unit, the elimination of the Parkland Dedication, the imposition of a park in-lieu fee and change in the timing of the water/ sewer connection fee.

Final Analysis: A Look At Media Coverage in 2010 Council Elections

By David GreenwaldJune 14, 201020 comments

On April 27, we ran an article entitled, “Slow Council Campaign About to Heat Up.” Up until that point, the council election had draw a handful of stories from the Vanguard and not much attention. From April 27 until today, about a month and a half period of time, the Vanguard has published 43 articles, commentaries, and other stories about the Davis City Council election.

We extensively covered every single candidate’s forum. We have had extensive analysis of the election after the fact. That does not even include numerous analyses that we did about issues that were vital to the campaign. I do not want to harp on this point for too long, but the Davis Enterprise continues to disappoint with regards to covering local issues.

Commentary: Failure or Success For Davis’ Left in the 2010 Elections?

By David GreenwaldJune 14, 201012 comments

It definitely caught my eye when Bob Dunning wrote on Friday, that it was time to pity the town’s “regressives.” In some ways, I suppose one could in fact suggest that this might mark the end of progressive era in Davis. But I would argue if that were the case, then the progressives have won.

Writes Bob Dunning: “STUCK IN LEFT FIELD – it’s really time to pity the town’s regressives – first they were unable to find anyone to oppose a completely vulnerable Don Saylor for county supervisor, then in the council race they finally decided to throw their ‘weight’ behind a McCain supporter who had no problem taking campaign donations from – you’d better sit down – developers – generally, taking money from a developer will earn eternal damnation from these folks, but not this time – turns out their new enemy is not developers, but firefighters – another sure sign The End is near – “

Council To Once Again Listen To Report on Wood Burning

By David GreenwaldJune 13, 20108 comments

It is in the 90s and June, therefore it must be a good time to discuss the consequences of wood burning smoke. As those who read the Vanguard a week ago already know, eastern portions of Davis had a number of complaints (see Part One of Alan Pryor’s articles and Part Two). On Tuesday we will hear the views of city staff and the council.

The city of Davis has been hearing this issue now going on two years. We know that wood smoke, a contributing source of Particulate Matter 2.5 is harmful to the health of people above certain concentrations. The Natural Resources Commission has examined the issue and believes that Federal standards are not protective enough due to the regional nature of the standard and measurements that do not capture the micro or neighborhood effect of wood smoke exposure.

Commentary: Can You Win in Davis for Less Than $25,000?

By David GreenwaldJune 13, 201028 comments

On Election Night, it was 9:30 pm, we still had a long way to go, but one thing that was very very obvious, Joe Krovoza would at the very least for certain be elected to the City Council and barring a huge surprise, finish first and be elected as Mayor Pro Tem. And so in the middle of his living room he gave a brief political speech, thanking his supporters and introducing his team.

One thing that he mentioned in his speech was how they did it, and the biggest surprise of all is that despite finishing first, despite spending the most money in the campaign, he did not send out a single mailer. Instead they ran a very grassroots oriented campaign, organizing around neighborhoods and having neighbors talk to neighbors.

Lame Duck Council Should Let New Council Make Major Decisions on Two Projects

By David GreenwaldJune 12, 201050 comments

For the third time, the Verona revisions will be on the agenda and yet again only to push it off until June 29, 2010. That will be the second to last meeting of the lame duck council between Mayor Ruth Asmundson and Councilmember Lamar Heystek are replaced by newly elected Joe Krovoza and Rochelle Swanson.

But as we see there is a good amount of last second dealing going on. From my perspective the biggest question before council on the Verona project is whether to give back to the developer more than half a million dollars in impact fees. It is greatly ironic that Verona has been pushed back so many times.

Vanguard Analysis: Saylor Skates In Unopposed, But With Relatively Low Percentage of Support

By David GreenwaldJune 11, 201029 comments

Don Saylor as expected is now County Supervisor Elect Don Saylor, in a few weeks on July 13 he will be sworn in as the new Mayor of Davis while in a few months he will resign to become County Supervisor, representing the second district in Yolo County which serves much of Central and most of West Davis.

In the coming weeks and months, it figures to be a hot-buttoned issue just how Don Saylor handles that transition. He has taken increasing criticism for his decision to wait until January to resign which would force the council to either appoint a replacement or cost a good deal of money to have an election.

Davis Street Condition Deteriorating – A Street Level View

By David GreenwaldJune 11, 20100 comments

We have reported for several weeks about Davis’ deteriorating road conditions. The bad news is that the current road condition is only in the Good to Fair range, rating at a 71. The bad news is that with funding levels as currently projected, our roads will continue to decline.

However to this point, we have only reported on the aggregate view of the city’s streets. We have not had the data to look at it in terms of a few blocks at a time. However, we now possess that data, and not surprisingly it is alarming. We find that right now there are 220 streets in Davis receiving failing grades (out of 1021) in terms of their Pavement Condition Index (PCI). Three are another 150 streets that will probably or possibly fall into the failing mark if they do not get repaired in the near future.

Vanguard Analysis: A Look At the Council Election

By David GreenwaldJune 10, 201036 comments

As I was making my rounds on Tuesday night, mainly trying to cover election night news, a public official who shall remain nameless made a snarky comment to me. He or she said that the race was basically over when the people who stand against everything flocked to Rochelle Swanson. He or she said, that he or she could not wait to get to the Graduate to see people like Bill Kopper and Ken Wagstaff along with the more usual suspects supporting Ms. Swanson.

However one defines the “progressive” vote in Davis, it was a group without a natural candidate who could have either stayed home or picked out the best candidate or the least bad candidate. Joe Krovoza early on seemed the natural fit for this group. But in the last month or so, it was prominent progressives like Sue Greenwald, Bill Kopper, Ken Wagstaff, Mike Harrington, among many others that probably swung the election toward Rochelle Swanson and away from Sydney Vergis.

Krovoza and Swanson Bring New Energy and Passion to Council

By David GreenwaldJune 9, 20101 comments

We knew one thing going in, whoever won a seat on the council would have to hit the ground running to focus on the challenges facing the city of Davis – challenges that we pointed out yesterday that will be monumental in shaping the future of this community.

While both candidates had slightly different focuses on Tuesday night and the timing as a little different, both agreed that this would be a new council and while they see challenges ahead, seemed pleased with the results and up to the challenge.

NEW COUNCIL IN DAVIS: Joe Krovoza and Rochelle Swanson Elected To The Davis City Council

By David GreenwaldJune 9, 201031 comments

Measure R and Measure Q Both Pass Overwhelmingly –

It was a late night Tuesday night as the results very slowly trickled in, but it was largely one without drama or suspense as leads by Joe Krovoza and Rochelle Swanson in the absentee ballots held up and actually expanded as the night and then the morning progressed. The first precincts did not report until 10:30, by 12:30 am the 300 vote lead for Ms. Swanson expanded to nearly 600 and by 2:21 am it was over.

Joe Krovoza to no one’s surprise finished a strong first to win the Mayor Pro Tem. He will serve as Mayor beginning in 2012. Whether he serves earlier will be a point of intrigue in the next six months. Mr. Krovoza who appeared to be the front runner to finish first through out, received 7,284 or 37.6% of the votes. He finished first in every precinct but one around campus and Olive Drive.

Project Scope Generates Fiscal, Transportation, and Land Use Concerns –

Measure R and Measure Q Both Pass Overwhelmingly –

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