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Category: Money

  • Letter concerning the Lumberyard Revised Affordable Housing Plan

    [The following letter was shared for posting to the Davisite by the author]

    October 12, 2025

    Dear Mayor Vaitla, Social Services Commission Chair Sverdlov, Planning Commission Chair Weiss and to all the council and commission members and Community Development Director Sherri Metzker.

    I saw last week in a recent Davis Enterprise the city’s public notice re

    The Lumberyard Revised Affordable Housing Plan.

    The core elements of the revision are as follows;

    The number of units will drop from 226 units to 205 units

    A reduction of 21 units

    However, the number of bedrooms will increase from 322 to 444

    An increase of 122 bedrooms and therefore at least 122 more people at one person per bedroom but many more if any of the bedrooms allow 2 people

    If various fees are based upon people and vehicle usage, then the project will; 

    Reduce project income to the city by about 10% 

    While increasing the number of noncontributing municipal users by 37+%.

    It appears to me therefore that the reduction of 21 units, the city will have a measurable loss of project-based income to cover the long-term costs while substantially subsidizing and increasing dollars spent on the wear and tear on the city.

    I would like one of you to pose this question to the Community Development Director;

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  • Antisemitism and Trump Defunding UC

    By Alan Hirsch, Chair Social Justice Committee

    As the Social Justice Committee of Davis’s Congregation Bet Haverim, we cannot be silent as we witness the cultural appropriation of antisemitism by voices in our country that pander to and promote bigotry, racism, and intolerance. We challenge Trump’s claim he is protecting Jews by slashing University scientific research, both at UC Davis and academic institutions throughout the country. $8 Billion in cuts in university grant funding from the National Institute of Health for cancer and other bio-medical research is not even plausibly related to fighting antisemitism.

    We object to stripping students and faculty of the right to free speech and court hearings in the name of antisemitism, particularly as part of deportation and visa issuance/renewal processes. Students have been arrested at home and on the street with no transparency as to why they are being held or deported, and in certain cases with the implication that they are being punished for their constitutionally protected freedom of speech.

    We affirm that as Jews we support diversity and the right to freedom of inquiry and dissent, as we ourselves so long dissented in Christian and Muslim religious-majority-societies where we have lived.

    We affirm a core Jewish value is  to welcome the stranger. Therefore, we challenge the mistreatment and extrajudicial deportations and family separation of refugees and those seeking asylum on our shores from repressive regimes in Asian, and Central and South America.

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  • On Education, Accountability, and the Price of Pretending: Part One

    By David Taormino

    It has often been said, sometimes in reverence and other times in jest, that the Davis Joint Unified School District is “doing the Lord’s work on Earth.” And perhaps, in part, that is true. There is no higher calling than the education of our children—no greater trust than that which we place in those who shape young minds.

    But let us not, in our admiration, lose sight of the facts.

    The School District, noble though its mission may be, is also a business. It employs administrators, staff, and teachers, all of whom depend upon the continued operation of schools—regardless of whether the children who fill those classrooms live in Davis or are brought in from elsewhere. This is not criticism. It is recognition of reality. But reality, too, must be subject to the rule of law.

    That is why I have filed suit—on behalf of myself and future homeowners of Palomino Place—to challenge the District’s newly-adopted fee on new development. The total for a 2,000 square-foot home now exceeds $10,000. This fee, and the rationale for it, strain both legal boundaries and public trust.

    The Law Is Clear—and It Is Not Being Followed

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  • Clarifying the Realities of Downpayment Assistance in Davis

    By Barbara Clutter

    In their August 11 piece in The Davisite, Dan Carson and Elaine Roberts Musser rely on a preliminary report from the City’s Fiscal Commission subcommittee on Downpayment Assistance to argue that Davis should align with existing state programs, such as CalHFA (CA Housing Finance Agency), which assisted 30,000 California homebuyers in 2025. Carson/Musser point out that only two of those recipients were from Davis, implying a missed opportunity for our city. However, what they do not acknowledge is the underlying reason so few Davis residents qualify for CalHFA is the high cost of housing. Families working under CalHFA's income limits generally find that qualifying housing is virtually nonexistent in Davis, making the program largely inaccessible in Davis.

    Musser and Carson also highlight SB 417, a proposed $10 billion statewide housing bond measure which would primarily fund rehabilitation of infrastructure and existing housing. While it earmarks $1 billion for downpayment assistance, no community is guaranteed any of these prospective funds, even if the bond measure is passed in 2026.

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  • Fiscal Commissioners Propose the State Pay for New Housing Program Instead of Davis Taxpayers

    By Dan Carson and Elaine Roberts Musser

    We were disappointed when the Davis City Council adopted an ordinance last January authorizing a new city-funded downpayment assistance program for lower-income Davis homebuyers. It put on the books a potentially expensive new program city taxpayers can ill afford. It did so with a blank-check ordinance lacking normal programmatic limits, like how much money would be given to a potential homebuyer. 

    At the time, advocates of the new downpayment assistance program lobbied for an annual allocation of new General Fund monies of $1 million or more from Measure Q.  Measure Q was an increase in the city sales tax approved by city voters last November. 

    That didn’t happen once the full impacts of out-of-control spending by the City Council became clear. Excessive pay hikes and bonuses for city staff, including another round of new contracts rushed through in May, have gotten the City of Davis into very serious financial trouble. A new fiscal forecast shows that within the next couple of years the city will have zero financial reserves, with spending exceeding General Fund revenues by millions annually. 

    Essentially, all that new money from Measure Q has gone up in a puff of smoke. This, despite campaign promises by the Council of new housing programs and fixes to our city infrastructure. Promises that were made in public statements and official ballot arguments the Council signed and that were sent to every registered city voter.

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  • Mass Starvation Used to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza, Our Federal Representatives Are Responsible

    Gaza15

    Photo modified from multiple sponsored USCPRACT.ORG

    By Scott Steward

    This has to stop.  I could not continue my regular day after listening to the 15-minute interview on Breaking Points 8/1 time mark, minute 33 to minute 48 with Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, Urogynecologist and Executive Director of the International Medical Response Foundation. Dr. Sleemi returned this week from volunteering for several weeks at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza. (Note: Breaking Points newscast produces lengthy reporting, and therefore, readers should skip to the time stamp to hear her interview.  The excerpts that follow my editorial are from Democracy Now and have much of the same content as the Breaking Points interview).

    As a taxpayer to the US federal government and a constituent of three US federal representatives, Mike Thompson (Congressman District 4) and two Senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, it is the least I can do to publish an excerpt of this firsthand account of the conditions of mass deliberate starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. 

    Mr. Thompson, Padilla and Schiff are guilty of aiding in the mass extermination of a national ethnicity and in the case of Padilla and Schiff, guilty of having recently voted against two Senate Resolutions to block more than $675 million in weapons sales to Israel — only weapons that were offensive in nature, the resolution did not seek to block defensive weapons.

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  • The General Plan won’t be a Genial Plan

     

    Screenshot 2025-07-30 8.22.55 PM"The goal is to manipulate

    Heavy hands to intimidate

    Snuff out the very idea of clarity

    Strangle your longing for truth and trust

    Choke wisdom sapience and prudence

    The war economy is inviolable violently

    Suppresses all intelligence that conflicts

    With the stakes of those who drive it."  - 

    From "Melodie is a Wound" by: Laetitia Sadier, Tim John Gane. Performed by Stereolab. Album: Instant Holograms On Metal Film. Released: 2025.  https://youtu.be/Nndpg90P2O8?

  • City of Davis Fails to Meet Model County Standards for Budget Management

    By Elaine Roberts Musser

    The County Board of Supervisors has set for itself a series of excellent budgeting principles they are following in a very responsible way.  Below in italics are the ones most applicable to the City of Davis budget.  What follows are comments under each sensible standard briefly explaining how our City Council is faring.

    “The budget should be structurally balanced…” With the adoption of the new two year budget cycle, the City’s General Fund expenditures will have exceeded revenues for 5 years in a row, which is just not fiscally sustainable.

    “Ongoing expenditures should not be funded by one-time or non-recurring revenue sources.” American Rescue Plan funds were used to create new programs, with no discernible plan on how to continue funding them once the money dried up, other than new taxes.  Citizens don’t have money trees growing in their collective backyards to fund continual demands for new taxes every time the City runs out of money.

    “Reserves… shall be funded at levels consistent with best practices…” The General Fund reserve is about 11%, $4 million dollars short of the city’s target of 15%. So what happens if there is another fiscal emergency?

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  • Let’s celebrate the 4th of July another way

    The following open letter is posted here with consent of the author.

    Honorable Council Members and staff,

    It is that time of year again for me to respectfully ask that we permanently eliminate the use of fireworks in Davis.

    Now is the time to NOT enter into another contract to convert our tax money into terrifying explosions and toxic smoke in 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026* and beyond. (*please don’t make me cross out another and send this again next year)

    It is a disservice to our community to purposefully add air and noise pollution, litter and fire danger. Better, cleaner, safer ways to spend public funds include: Dancing, drone shows, musical performances or just free drinks and ice cream. How can we declare a climate emergency and then pay money to purposefully pollute the air merely for the entertainment of a few? We should not be celebrating a prettied-up depiction of war when there are genuine bombs currently “bursting in air” and killing people in real conflicts, using American-made bombs. The noise and pollution from a fireworks show is terrifying and deadly for the animals that live with us, and for wildlife. Your choice of patriotic entertainment is not appropriate in this era and this climate and with the knowledge we have.

    Other communities are managing to move away from this polluting spectacle. I’m running out of patience with the “other forms of entertainment are more expensive” mantra. Because supplying a full contingent of security and emergency personnel, plus the money for fireworks is also “more expensive” than not doing the fireworks show. But somehow, doing this destructive thing is deemed an appropriate use of sparse (we’re constantly told) tax money.

    Offer free (locally-made) ice cream. Offer free (local) live musical performances. Offer daylight fun that doesn’t terrify, injure and kill other things. Please spend my tax money more responsibly in a way that terrifies nobody.

    A final ask: Refrain from sending out patronizing official notices that seek to instruct me on how to protect my dog from this city-sponsored terrorism. There is no way to prevent her reaction: trembling, drooling and fearing for her life. I know how to take care of my dog. And there is no place in my home where she feels safe when the fireworks go off. She is terrified of the feel of them, as well as the sound.

    Please, let’s find an appropriate way for Davis to Celebrate our country’s independence next year. Burning up money and resources to celebrate war and endangering everybody is not the way.

    Darell Dickey

  • Speak Out at June 17, 2025 City Council Meeting to Increase Funding for Roads and Bike Paths

    By Elaine Roberts Musser & Dan Carson

    On June 17, 2025 the City Council will “finalize” the 2025-2027 city budget, although it is not written in stone and subject to change. The grim reality is the lion’s share of Measure Q funding (recently approved sales tax increase) has already been spent on employee compensation, and there is absolutely no Measure Q funding left. 

    Thus there is zero money to front load more funding for roads and bike paths as recommended by both City Council and City Staff.  $14 million is needed, but only $8.6 million has been set aside, the same inadequate pavement management funding as before. So the pavement will further deteriorate from its current abysmal state, and be exponentially more expensive to fix, adding tens of millions of dollars to the already huge backlog of pavement projects. And it will present particularly unsafe conditions for bicyclists, especially children going to school.

    It should be noted the Yes on Q ballot statement, signed by all five sitting City Council members at the time, declared Measure Q was: “To support essential city services, such as…pothole repair… and bike path maintenance”.  Instead, the City Council devoted Measure Q funds to increased employee compensation, while the draft budget plan released May 20 would spend nothing more on roads and bike paths.

    This is a bait and switch, an abject betrayal of the voters who approved Measure Q.

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