Welcome to MAY on Al's Corner. Where you MAY discuss the clown-show that is Davis politics. At 5:30pm on Tuesday, the AWARDS will be given out. Maybe we'll finally learn who the person nominated is who does "good" and "bad" according to at least one commenter, and what "bad" they did.
But I doubt it.
So talk about anything 😐
Something scandalous appears to be going on with the choice of a Thong Hy Huynh Award by the Human Relations Commission. If you're looking for the answer, you won't find it here. But that's not because I'm dancing around the issue, it's because I honestly don't know what the issue is, and for some reason those who do know what it is only want to imply to the public that there's a issue, but they don't want to say what person they have an issue with, why, or give any details.
by Elaine Roberts Musser
Finally the City of Davis commission merger issue is being brought back to some of the affected commissions for their feedback. Unfortunately city staff and some of the City Councilmembers are acting as if their terribly flawed plans for merged commissions are a done deal.
For example, last week the city began recruiting members for two of the proposed merged commissions (Fiscal Commission; Transportation Commission). And, this Wednesday, the first of an expected series of hearings will be held at the Utility Commission, to review a mission statement drafted by the City Council Subcommittee (Vaitla; Chapman) for the new Finance Commission that would be created by combining Utilities Commission with the Finance and Budget Commission. The Utilities Commission staff report states that it is seeking feedback on the proposed scope of work for what it calls the “newly created commissions.”
These commissions have not been “newly created,” as the full City Council only approved them in concept last January. It did not provide final approval in the form of official council resolutions and, in some cases, new city ordinances, that are needed to actually implement such mergers.
none of it becomes official until the City Council adopts updated authorizing resolutions.”
The proposal to merge commissions is still extremely flawed:
Disparate skill sets – Merging two commissions will require an incredibly steep if not impossible learning curve for commissioners to become well-versed in disparate commission missions.
More difficulty recruiting applicants – Because applicants for the proposed merged commission need expertise in both commission missions and meetings are apt to run long to cover all the ground required, it will be difficult to recruit citizens to serve on the merged commissions.
Time constraints – The agendas of commissions are often quite full. A merging of two commissions will result in half as much time spent on critical issues and much longer meetings.
Proposed scope inadequate, vague and unclear – The proposed scoping statements appearing in the city’s press release and staff reports for the new Finance Commission and Transportation Commission omit many functions of existing commissions and has been simplified so much that they are vague and unclear. The draft mission statements for the other commissions remain secret as of now.
ONCE AGAIN, PLEASE VOICE YOUR CONCERNS ABOUT THIS TERRIBLE MERGER PLAN TO CITY OFFICIALS. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD THROUGH EMAILS TO THE FULL COUNCIL (citycouncilmembers@cityofdavis.org), AT COMMISSION MEETINGS (the Utilities Commission meets Wednesday, April 17, in the City Council chambers conference room), PUBLIC COMMENT AT CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS (next meeting is April
23) AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (to the Davis Enterprise, Davisite, and Davis Vanguard).
By Elaine Roberts Musser
If you parse through Councilmember Vaitla’s statements appearing in the Davis Enterprise, it shows: a lamentable lack of understanding about how commissions work; a complete disregard for the opinion of commissioners who are the ones effected by merging commissions; and an extremely questionable and ill informed rationale for what he is proposing. Furthermore, because of his refusal to appoint applicants to commission vacancies, the FBC is no longer providing citizen oversight of the city budget. That, together with his proposal the city pay to create new city public health services that are the responsibility of the county, will sink the chances of any tax increase proposed for the November ballot.
Sung at Tuesday February 21st City Council meeting, to the Tune of 'Matchmaker' from 'Fiddler on the Roof':
Parody Live at City Council (time – 20:15):
https://davis.granicus.com/player/clip/1665
Original Song:
By Alan "Lorax" Hirsch
I have again compiled my thought on voting in Davis for the March 5th election.– the 10th edition of my Davis Neighborhood Ballot flier ™
The two pages are posted below and at Facebook's Davis Ballot Talk (scroll down) where you can find this and lot of other free advice. Or download here: Download Davis Neighborhood Ballot Rec v3 2 page 2024 03 05
My thoughts may be helpful….or not?
Occasionally people think I get it right …but more usually its left.
These dark forces are believed to be funded by the Dark Underbelly of Davis.
In true Davis Vanguard journalistic style, no information on who the dark forces may be or why they are suing, but the Vanguard did ask for money to the tune of $100k. Statement:
By Scott Steward
I think we are over the attempt to confuse antisemitism with calls for a ceasefire. The implication that candidates must choose between fighting antisemitism or calling out genocide is false. It is untenable that hate speech and aggression directed at Jews, Muslims, and Arab groups are on the rise in this country. The coalition of Jewish voices for Peace, the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, Yolo for Palestinian Justice are united around stopping hate-motivated aggression and bias.
While actual hate speech and alleged hate speech are confusing Mike Thompson's decision to call for a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, more than 2 million people are dying from starvation and disease, trapped in the "safe zone" of Rafah recently declared the next "military" target of Israel. Israel's anticipated aggression does not improve the chances of the return of hostages or the cessation of hostilities in the future. I conclude it's not meant to, Netanyahu stays in power only so long as Gaza is being attacked.
Mike Thompson can do his part to stop the killing of Palestinians and vote against unconditional $14 Billion to Israel's far-right government. Israel is about to launch another "over the top" (Biden) military massacre. Pressure to do something to end this episode of the Palestinian trail of tears forced the Senate to include $9.1 Billion for civilians living in Gaza and the West Bank. There should be no confidence that Israel would allow aid to be delivered without the possibility of the US conditioning military aid with proof of distribution of humanitarian aid.
The Davis City Council Should Reverse Course on Merging Advisory Commissions
The Subcommittee on Commissions (Vaitla, Chapman) process for introducing the merging commissions concept was not accomplished in good faith.
The proposal was first made available to the public late on the Friday before last Tuesday’s City Council meeting and was quickly put to a council vote Tuesday night. Even other council members were kept in the dark about the specific proposal until Friday. This was a devious, unfair and terrible process.
There was no material input from commissioners. Some commission chairs and vice-chairs were consulted about what was and wasn’t working in their respective commissions. But some commissioners said they were never asked about the radical plan to merge their commissions, and some commission chairs and vice-chairs testified that they were not consulted at all by Council members Chapman and Vaitla.
The Subcommittee on Commissions has refused to appoint applicants to fill commission vacancies for the last six months, causing commission quorum problems. The Finance and Budget Commission has not met for months and is now down to two members and effectively out of business. After months of waiting to be appointed, applicants move on to other things rather than sit around and wait. The claim that commissions must be merged because there are not enough applicants is a sham.
Merging commissions with two disparate areas of expertise would make them less able to accomplish either mission. If the mergers happen, the workload will double, and there will either be less time for discussion of issues or the meetings will have to run very long. A commissioner is not likely to have expertise in both missions. For example, the Utility Commission has almost nothing in common with the Finance and Budget Commission, and the Human Relations Commission has nothing in common with the Civics Art Commission.
We, the undersigned commissioners, request that the City Council:
(Note: Anyway wishing to add their name to this petition can log on to change.org and search for the petition title, Reverse City Council Decision to Move Forward With Merging Commissions.)
Jim Cramer – Member, Tree Commission Member
Elaine Roberts Musser – Member, Utilities Commission
Gerry Braun – Member, Utilities Commission
John Reuter – Member, Tree Commission
Alana Gamage – Member, Tree Commission
NJ Mvondo – Member, Human Relations Commission
Sheila Allen – Former Chair, Human Relations Commission
Colin Walsh – Vice Chair, Tree Commission
Margot Loschke – Former Chair, Senior Citizens Commission
Alan Pryor – Former Member, Natural Resources Commission
Eileen Samitz – Former Member, Planning Commission
Roberta Millstein – Former Chair, Open Space & Habitat Commission
Larry Guenther – Former Member, Tree Commission
Connor Gorman – Member, Human Relations Commission
37 Davis residents and activists
The City Council needs to re-think and re-do its current plan
By Roberta Millstein
Elaine Roberts Musser has put together a petition protesting the City Council's recent decision to move forward with merging some commissions, which would reduce expert citizen input into City matters and effectively eliminate some of the issues that commissions currently are able to address. The petition asks for the City Council to stop its current direction and to give the proposed commission merging a better, more thorough, and more inclusive analysis. I have no connection with petition, other than having signed it myself — I am just passing along the word.
The petition is located here: https://www.change.org/p/reverse-city-council-decision-to-move-forward-with-merging-commissions-1e9f0d8d-0697-4f45-85ad-6a7720e2b8b3
(There are more signers than it would seem from the webpage, as ERM was collecting signatures prior to putting the Change.org online).
If you follow the link, you will see the reasons given for objecting to the Council's decision. The petition ends with the follow requests:
Davisite 