Category: Politics

Preface to thinking about Measure Q Tax and council election

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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Four Davis City Council Members Accepted Large Campaign Contributions from the Firefighters Union and its Members that Preceded Excessive Salary Increases

By the No on Measure M Campaign Committee

I. Large contributions were accepted by current Davis City Councilmembers’ campaign committees over 2 election cycles from firefighters and their union.

All current Davis City Councilmembers, except Donna Neville, have accepted substantial bundled contributions from individual firefighters and Davis Firefighters Union Local 3494. Additionally, in Gloria Partida’s and Bapu Vaitla’s case, the firefighters’ union also printed and sent out a mailer for each of their campaigns, as well as door hangers. These door hangers were then distributed by firefighter volunteers on behalf of the campaigns in 2022.

Following is a summary of the total contributions accepted by the 2020 campaigns of Will Arnold and Josh Chapman from the Davis Firefighters Union and their members, and by the 2022 campaigns of Gloria Partida and Bapu Vaitla. See Appendix A for a full detailed listing of the contributions as reported on the City of Davis’ and the California Secretary of State’s campaign finance  reporting portals.

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by the No on Measure Q Campaign Committee

This article factually analyzes and discusses patently false claims made by the Yes on Measure Q campaign in their ballot statements presented to voters.

Introduction and Background

This article is the 3rd in a series presented by the No on Measure Q campaign committee about the significant problems associated with the new tax measure. The first article (see here) provided three good reasons for citizens to vote No on Measure Q including a decided lack of transparency and disclosures by the City Council in bringing the measure to a vote. The 2^nd article (see here) gives additional reasons to vote No on the tax measure, discussing the mismanagement of city finances by the current administration.

About Measure Q

If passed on the November ballot, Davis Measure Q would double the extra sales tax from 1% to 2% imposed by the City of Davis on all goods purchased or used within the City except for some food and medicines. Based on the expected $11 million per year generated by the new tax and a Davis population of about 66,000, this works out to be approximately $165/year tax for every man, woman, and child in Davis. And like the previous two ½ percentage point sales and use tax hikes, this tax is permanent.  It doesn’t matter if the City’s financial condition substantially changes for the better in the future, this tax never goes away!  

In the Past Decade, City of Davis Revenues and Expenses Soared Far in Excess of the Inflation Rate or Population Growth.

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Mismanagement of City Finances by the Davis City Council

by the No on Measure Q Campaign Committee

Introduction and Background

This article is the second in a series presented by the No on Measure Q campaign committee about the new tax measure. The first article (see here) provided three good reasons for citizens to vote No on Measure Q  including a decided lack of transparency and disclosures by the City Council in bringing the measure to a vote   This 2^nd article discusses the mismanagement of city finances by the current administration, which is attempting to get their financial house in order by encouraging citizens to approve forking over millions of dollars annually rather than addressing the root causes of the city’s financial problems. The best way to describe this effort is that it is a “Bailout of financial and operational mismanagement!

About Measure Q

If passed on the November ballot, Davis Measure Q would double the extra sales tax from 1% to 2% imposed by the City of Davis on all goods purchased or used within the City except for some food and medicines. Based on the expected $11 million per year generated by the new tax and a Davis population of about 66,000, this works out to to be an approximately $165/year tax for every man, woman, and child in Davis. And like the previous two ½ percentage point sales and use tax hikes, this tax is permanent.  It doesn’t matter if the City’s financial condition substantially changes for the better in the future, this tax never goes away!   

Reason 4 –  The City Council suspended paying down $42 million of unfunded employee benefits.

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