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Author: davisite2

  • Letter: Former councilmember endorses Dillan Horton

    As one of the oldest former City Councilmen of Davis I am pleased to endorse my friend, Dillan Horton, for Davis City Council District 2. During the past few years we have benefited from work that Dillan has done to assist us here in Winters, where I now live. I know Dylan as a smart hard worker with great ideas that he will use to shape the future of Davis.

    Ever since 1972 I have unsuccessfully tried to get a Black person elected and or appointed to the Davis City Council. Hopefully, getting Dillan elected this year will be a delightful change, a tremendous benefit, and source of pride to Davis. This old barrier will finally be broken. This will be a great year to make this happen and Davis will benefit from his knowledge and sensitivity.

    Cheers

    Dick Holdstock

  • Letter: Linda Deos for Councilperson for Davis District 2

    I write to recommend Linda Deos for Councilperson for Davis District 2.

    Linda is an excellent listener and her work as a legal mediator has provided her great experience in working with people who may not immediately perceive their mutual interest, realize a positive solution to resolve their conflicts. This skill will be invaluable in leading the community as Davis develops its new general plan.

    Over the fifteen years I have known Linda, she and I have had long conversations about her approach to public service and her understanding of the work required to successfully execute each of the positions she has held in city and county government. As others have noted, Linda takes her work for the community very seriously, spending the time to learn exactly the responsibilities and processes involved in each position.  The breadth of her experience, from chairing the Yolo County Cannabis Business Tax Oversight Commission, chairing the Utilities Commission and serving on the Davis Planning Commission and the Davis Personnel Board, when combined with her role on the Yolo Basin Foundation Executive Committee means she will come to the City Council with a deep understand of how various parts of Davis work.  Moreover, Linda has developed a detailed knowledge about how the parts of local government—advisory boards, city and county agencies—complement each other. Understanding of how these levels of government interact is imperative to successfully craft and implement policy.

    Linda is also a fun-loving person who enjoys and values people, an excellent addition to the City Council.

    Helen Roland Cramer

  • Dillan Horton notes Biased Endorsement Process from Davis Firefighters Local 3494

    (From press release) Throughout the campaign cycle, Dillan’s team arranged four meetings with the leadership of Davis Firefighters Local 3494. During these meetings, union leaders expressed their operations were in disarray as a result of the sudden departure of their longtime past president. Notably, there was neither a formal interview with union members nor a questionnaire for candidates, standard practice for union endorsements. If the candidates were properly interviewed and assessed, it would have revealed that Linda Deos, the endorsed candidate, has no substantial record of standing up for the right to organize, and has not presented serious plans for addressing the persistent labor rights issues that exist in Davis.

    When 3494’s new leadership called the campaign to communicate their endorsement decision, they shared that union leadership already promised it to Linda in a “backroom deal” months prior. This undermined the endorsement process, which should be based on thorough evaluation. This diversion sidelined Dillan, the candidate who’s worked in solidarity with unions his entire adult life, for a candidate who’s most extensive labor experience is working as an attorney for the state correctional officers union to represent prison guards accused of wrongdoing.

    As someone whose entire adult life has involved solidarity with organized labor, Dillan finds the sloppy & blatantly biased engagement in this council election troubling. It undermines the interests of 3494 members, and betrays the interests of the broader labor movement.

  • Follow the Money – Part II

    No on Q Banner Artwork 2

    The Davis Employee Unions are Filling the Yes on Measure Q Campaign Coffers

    by the No on Measure Q Campaign Committee -  – FPPC No. 1470874

    Last week, we reported on the $22,482.20 that Davis firefighters and their union paid to or spent on behalf of 4 sitting Davis City Council member campaigns in the 2020 (Josh Chapman and Will Arnold) and 2022 (Gloria Partida and Bapu Vaitla) election cycles (see Follow the Money – Part I at https://newdavisite.wordpress.com/2024/10/04/follow-the-money/).

    These direct contributions preceded huge, retroactive salary increases given to the Davis firefighters pushing their compensation well in excess of what neighboring, similar-sized cities are paying their firefighters.

    As Davis Enterprise columnist Rich Rifken once wrote: "No segment of the Davis' labor force is gorging at the trough more voraciously than the Fire Department…"

    Well, not to be outdone, other Davis city employee unions are joining the firefighters' union in rapidly filling the coffers of the Yes on Measure Q campaign committee. Following are their campaign contributions to the Yes on Measure Q campaign committee reported thus far:

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  • Letter: Linda Deos for City Council

    I endorse Linda Deos for election to City Council based on the experience I have had serving with her on the City of Davis Planning Commission for the past two years.  During that time the commission has engaged in long and difficult deliberations that resulted in approval of important development projects and policies, often after significant modifications by the commission.  Linda has been a fully engaged and vital participant in reaching those decisions.

    Evaluating this type of complex subject matter requires familiarity with the principles of land use, planning, zoning, housing and the applicability of continually evolving State law.  These are precisely the same topics about which a councilmember must be intimately knowledgable, meaning Linda will be ready to "hit the ground running" on her first day in office.

    In working with Linda, I have found her to be consistently well informed, articulate, and prepared to ask penetrating questions of project applicants and City staff.  Linda is also sensitive to community values and concerns- – a vitally important trait for serving on City Council. 

    Based on my experience working with Linda on issues similar to those that lie ahead, I strongly urge voters to elect Linda to City Council. Although I am chair of the Planning Commission, the opinions expressed in this letter are strictly my own.

    Greg Rowe

  • Vote to Heal a Divided Davis

    Preface to thinking about Measure Q Tax and council election

    2 map housing along freeway

    By Alan Hirsch   

    I write this having attended more City Council and Commission meetings than all current council members, and all but a few community members.

    For years now, I have seen city government fail to harness our community’s education and social capital wealth since the failure of the 2014 R&D Business Park initiative.  The community has not leveraged its charmed geography—a unique rural area highly accessible via I-80 & rail service between the Bay Area & State Capitol. And proximity to UC Davis, a major research university that brings billions in grant dollars to our community. We are ideally located to incubate a wealth of startups and attract businesses. This should be giving us a robust tax base and providing a rich offering of city services.

    Instead, we are failing. So, we now need to raise our sale taxes and we seem to have been forced to site new affordable housing next to the freeway, land that should have been used for new startups and businesses to build our city’s tax base.  I note council decided not to site housing on Russell at a redone Trader Joes Mall across from the University this year. And Community resistance to student housing on Russell Fields 6 year back, close to our downtown, forced students to live in dorms in West Village 1 mile from our downtown shopping area- where they don’t feed out sales tax base.

    It used to be noted at council meetings that Davis’s greatest asset is its involved and educated residents. No longer. Instead, city staff and council, though their actions, indicate they don’t believe this anymore. It used to be residents could express their insight and expertise by being involved in an independent city commission.  Full commissions used to bring up new ideas, and even vote to disagree with the council, even over ballot measures. No more.  People volunteering for commissions are told by staff that their role is to serve the current council’s policy, even though this contradicts the not-yet-updated official Commission Handbook that recalls the old way: “Commissions are independent.”

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  • 3 Different Voices Raised Marking October 7th

    By Scott Steward

    I attended three October 7th events. First, I attended the noon UCD Students for Justice in Palestine demarcation of “One Year of Genocide." – it was well attended, and the students chanted a series of edgy truths about Palestinian rights to land taken by Israel, 76 years of takings and oppression, and the most recent accelerated genocide.  

    YA-protest

    October 7th, students attending "One Year of Genocide" Students for Palestinian Justice protest at UCD Memorial Union

     

    A small group of counter-protestors was noticeably attended by non-student senior adults. The senior adults led the harassment of masked Justice for Palestine student protestors. With phone cameras pointed, they would home in on a student and attempt to get a response with a series of derisive questions. The students were well-disciplined and would not let themselves get drawn into a quarrel.  Repeatedly, the pro-Israeli counter-protestors chanted, “Rape (see footnote) is not resistance,” in a useless attempt to shout down the much larger group of Students for Justice in Palestine. I left the group before they marched through campus.

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  • Free climate lecture on UCD campus, Tues Oct 22

    Storer Lecturship in the Life Sciences: How Decades of Climate Denial, Disinformation and Doublespeak by Big Oil Fueled the Climate Crisis

    ClimateLectureTuesday October 22, 4:00 – 7 pm ARC Ballroom (and Zoom)

    Register here: https://bit.ly/102224StorerReg (or use QR code in flyer).   All are welcome.  Please register soon to help ensure an accurate headcount.

    Speakers:

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  • Davis’s most recent financial audit was not “clean”

    By Matt Williams

    In one of the Measure Q threads on NextDoor, Council member Donna Neville and I have been having a dialogue about whether the City’s most recent financial audit by their independent auditors was “clean.” The dialogue starts here (https://nextdoor.com/p/8q75t9X4mtRY/c/1232060918?utm_source=share&utm;_campaign=1728246745147)

    As you can see from the comments in the dialogue, Donna asserts that the audit was “clean,” and I believe the audit was not. For those of you who prefer not to wade through long threads, here are the reasons I believe what I do. In the interests of transparency, I have sent this to Donna as a personal email as well as posting it here.

    Donna, reasonable people can agree to disagree reasonably.  I have always found you to be very very reasonable, and this is no different.  And I the spirit of that reasonability let me explain why I do not believe the audit is “clean.” When the 2021 audit arrived in January 2024, the concerns the auditor had raised in the 2020 audit were no longer 4 “Significant Deficiencies,” but rather 5 even more serious “Material Weaknesses” plus 5 “Significant Deficiencies.” Even more concerning was the fact that the City had made no meaningful progress in addressing 3 of the 4 Significant Deficiencies in the three years between audits.

    So, with the carry over of those 3 unaddressed Significant Deficiencies there really were 6 Significant Deficiencies in the January 2024 Audit’s Memorandum.

    Those factual realities appear to indicate that the Auditor and the City were having conflicts getting the 2021 audit done because (1) the City didn’t appear to be taking the Auditor’s 2020 concerns seriously, and (2) in three years the situation had gotten significantly worse both in the gravity of the problems and their quantity. That is what the auditor’s written report tells anyone who reads it, and it is impossible for me to see that as a “clean” audit.

  • Soroptimists giving women education grants

    (From press release) Women who serve as the primary wage earners for their families and seek financial assistance to further their education or training are encouraged to apply for the Soroptimist Live Your Dream: Education and Training Awards for Women.

    The application deadline is Friday, Nov. 15. This year, Soroptimist International of Davis will present one or more awards ranging from $1,000 to $4,000. The top recipient’s application will advance to regional and possibly the international level, where she could receive up to $15,000 more. Recipients may use the Live Your Dream Award to offset any costs associated with their efforts to attain higher education or additional skills and training. This may include tuition, books, childcare, transportation or other education-related expenses.

    Applications are available at https://bit.ly/LYDA-apply.

    The Live Your Dream Award provides more than $2.8 million in cash awards to head-of-household women in need each year. Since the program’s inception in 1972, more than $35 million has helped tens of thousands of women achieve their dreams of a better life for themselves and their families.

    Soroptimist is a global volunteer organization that provides women and girls with access to the education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment. Learn more at https://www.sidavis.org/.