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Category: Politics

  • Grieving Mother of 5 Seeks Answers After Son’s Suicide; Says Son Needed Mental Health Services Instead of Felony Prosecution by Yolo D.A.

    RallyForPape
    (Press release) Patti Pape – mother of recently-deceased UC Davis student Eric Pape – wants answers about why the Yolo County D.A.’s office pressed serious felony charges against her late son for an incident that occurred when he was having a panic attack while receiving treatment in a hospital.

    “The D.A.’s office should have realized that this was a mental health case and should never have charged my son. I believe that the stress of his felony trial contributed to his eventual suicide,” she said.

    Ms. Pape and a few others will make brief comments at rally this Thursday, May 17 at Noon at the UC Davis MU Patio.

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  • Davis Councilmember Lucas Frerichs Endorses Dean Johansson for District Attorney — citing ‘values’ and ‘leadership’

    B3299730-8163-40E3-ACE5-8313E0EC8D91(Press release)

    Davis City Councilmember Lucas Frerichs has announced his endorsement of Dean Johansson for Yolo County District Attorney. Frerichs, who has served on Davis’ City Council since 2012, emphasized that Johansson represents the values of community members in Davis and in Yolo County more broadly.

    Frerichs said, “Citizens of Davis and Yolo County have consistently and overwhelmingly voted for statewide criminal justice reforms, such as Three Strikes Law Reform (Prop. 36), Sentencing Reform (Prop. 47), Reducing Mass Incarceration (Prop. 57), and most recently, Legalization of Adult Use of Cannabis (Prop. 64). These measures represent progressive change in California, and it is time that we are represented by a District Attorney who shares these types of values of our community.”

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  • Getting the Nishi Discussion Out of the Rabbit Hole: Part 2 of 2 (Red herrings? No, bad planning)

    MeasureJ-forum

    By Colin Walsh and Matt Williams

    In Part 1, we detailed the three main reasons to vote against Nishi 2.0/Measure J that we gave at the CivEnergy forum on May 6: 1) bad air quality, 2) costs, and 3) lack of integrity in the process. If the City and the developer could rectify these three concerns by demonstrating that the air quality was acceptable for housing with an onsite study, by fixing the budget shortfall, and by returning integrity to the process, then housing could be built at Nishi – but then the project should be far larger than it is.  The current proposal is too small and does not make proper use of the site.

    Instead of addressing these three serious concerns, the Vanguard spends the entirety of its May 9, 2018 article addressing the so-called “Red Herrings,” all of which were points of discussion stemming from audience questions. Here in Part 2, we show how each of the points the Vanguard raised are examples of bad planning on the part of the city, possibly due to the rush to put this matter on the June ballot at the request of the developer. Each of these concerns are real problems with the ordinance the City Council voted to put on the ballot. Clearly this ordinance should have been better vetted before going to Council. 

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  • Brody for Beeman for Davis City Council

    EzraGreetings fellow residents of Davis, I hope this message resonates with all of you. The City Council race in Davis will be such an important choice for this City going forward. I myself have lived in Davis for only 2 years as a current student. However, contrary to popular belief, I do not wish to leave abruptly after my academic tenure here at UC Davis. This is such a great place to live, and that’s why it’s imperative that the City elect a leader that will speak for all Davis residents, young and old, student and non-student alike. That’s why I’m backing Beeman.

    Shortly after I left the race several months ago, Ezra was the first candidate to reach out in solidarity, in an effort to hear what my concerns and platform issues were in this highly contested race. After our conversation, and several to follow, I concluded that Ezra Beeman would suit the city's needs and speak for all of its residents. In a field full of diverse and qualified candidates, I think Ezra has the perfect amount of salt and pepper in his hair to get the job done. Although Ezra was not the only candidate to reach out to me, he was the only one I felt that could truly resonate a tangible connection with my cohort of young students and professionals.

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  • Getting the Nishi Discussion Out of the Rabbit Hole: Part 1 of 2 (air quality, finances, lack of integrity)

    MeasureJ-forum
    By Colin Walsh and Matt Williams

    The Davis Vanguard’s article of May 9, 2018 (“Commentary: Enough with the Weird Red Herrings”) is a disservice to the Davis Community. Instead of addressing the main body of the CivEnergy Measure J Forum (held on May 6), the article goes down a rabbit hole of answers given in response to audience questions.

    Let’s start with the basics. As we stated at the CivEnergy forum, there are three main reasons to vote against this project: 1) bad air quality, 2) costs, and 3) lack of integrity in the process.

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  • Fact Checking Claims by Opponents of Measure H – Parks Tax

    Park
    Photo credit: Davis Wiki


    By Alan Pryor

    Measure H is a 20-year parcel tax for Parks Maintenance at $49 per year per residential parcel (or per apartment for multifamily dwellings) increasing at 2% per annum.

    The signers of the Argument Against the Measure and the Rebuttal to the Argument For the Measure are all the same, as follow;

    Michael Nolan, Acting President of Yolo County Taxpayers Association,

    John Munn, Former Member of the Board of Education of the Davis Joint Unified School District,

    Don Price, Emeritus Professor of History, University of California Davis,

    Pam Nieberg, Former Co-Chair, Yes on Measure O (City of Davis Open Space Ordinance)

    These signers are a disparate group of individuals representing fiscal conservatives and social progressives in Davis.

    In their Arguments Against Measure H and their Rebuttal to the Argument in Favor of Measure H, these signers made some serious claims and allegations against the City as a fiscally responsible agent and the trustworthiness of the statements made by the Measure’s proponents in fairly assessing the Measures’ impacts and honestly reporting them to the electorate.

    This article investigates these claims and attempts to quantitatively verify their accuracy. In doing so, some independent investigations and fact-checking were done and some of the information was obtained in response to direct inquiries to the campaign.

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  • Davis Police Officers PAC Pours Money into Reisig’s DA Campaign

    Pileofmoney-croppedBy Gilbert Coville and Roberta Millstein

    The Davis Enterprise has reported that the "Davis Police Officers PAC” donated $500 to Jeff Reisig’s campaign for Yolo County District Attorney.  Jeff Reisig, the incumbent, is being challenged by Deputy Public Defender Dean Johannson. However, the article only covers contributions up through April 21, 2018. 

    Since then, the PAC (officially called “Davis Police Officers’ Association Political Activities Committee”) donated $2000 on April 27 and another $14,000 on May 3, according to two Form 497 24-hour contribution reports filed with the Davis City Clerk.  Such forms must be filed when a PAC donates more than $1000 to a candidate’s campaign.

    In total, then, the Davis Police Officers PAC has donated $16,500 to Reisig’s re-election campaign so far.

    Readers may draw whatever conclusions from this information that they wish.

  • Former Mayor Joe Krovoza Endorses Larry Guenther and Ezra Beeman

    Larry-Ezra

    Joe Krovoza (Davis City Council 2010-2014, Mayor of Davis 2011-2014) has given the Davisite permission to publish the following letter, distributed to his friends via email.

    Hello, Friends.  I hope and trust this note finds you well.  I am being asked who I support for City Council in 2018 — for the two open seats and it's Larry Guenther and Ezra Beeman.  Larry and Ezra will work tirelessly for Davis.  They understand and will advance what makes Davis unique: school-city connections; supporting seniors; parks; partnerships with UC Davis; a vibrant downtown; and so much more.

    Feel free to forward this on.

    My view is Larry and Ezra will be the best match for the leadership our new mayor Brett Lee will provide.  Brett will be outstanding; he has all the right values for Davis and the conviction to do what's best for Davis long-term; I want Brett to have a strong council that will contribute to his visionary and his pragmatic approaches. 

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  • Why the Nishi Site is Worse than Other Sites

    Nishi-overall-satelliteSouthwest-nishi-satellite Northeeast-nishi-satelliteIn a recent letter to the editor in the Enterprise, Bill Wagman asks, "What is the difference [between Nishi and Olive Drive] and why do there seem to be no concerns voiced about Olive Drive. Or are there concerns which have not been made public?"

    The answer is: It is possible that there are health concerns at other near–freeway sites such as Olive Drive. Peer-reviewed studies have found elevated health risks at many near-freeway sites. But the Nishi is of particular concern because it is adjacent to where the freeway goes from six lanes to three lanes, and so there are often backups on that portion of I-80, especially during weekend Tahoe traffic. More backups mean more car and truck braking. Braking releases ultrafine particulate matter into the air, and that causes health risks such as an increased risk of ischemic heart disease, an increased risk of lung damage, an increased risk of cancer, and an increased risk of developmental problems.

    Also, Nishi is of particular concern because the freeway is elevated next to Nishi, so the pollutants travel further, as peer-reviewed studies of similar sites have shown.

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  • How High Should the Downtown Go – And Why?

    IMG_1296In a recent post, Jon Li decried the process used by "Downtown Davis Plan Team Participatory Design Workshop." In addition to those concerns about process, in his view the right solution to Davis's economic problems is to turn the Downtown into 10,000 residences by building six stories, and higher, and having jobs and housing downtown."

    In reply, one commenter thought that "the charrette consultants went straight to tall, dense downtown buildings as a first solution" and that that "would probably gentrify downtown to the point where all the small independent businesses would be forced out because rents would go too high."

    Interestingly, then, we have agreement that there were problems with the process, but disagreement with the desired outcome: a tall, dense downtown.

    Would a tall downtown in fact improve Davis's economy?

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