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My View: FBC’s $1.4 Million Is a Dartboard Number
A few weeks ago the Finance and Budget Commission had some concerns about the fiscal analysis of Nishi. To their credit, the developers went back to the drawing board with the city and looked into...
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Mayor Wolk Re-Opens the Fire Issue
Despite continued data showing that fire service has improved under Shared Management, Boundary Drop, and staffing changes, the firefighters’ union President Bobby Weist continues to attempt to...
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Vanguard Analysis: 30% Total Compensation Gap Problematic For Fire Merger
When Mayor Dan Wolk at last week’s city council meeting called for a “check-in to see what’s happening on the merger front,” he was re-opening a can of worms on the firefighter issue. The city and...
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Commentary: In Need of an Evidence-Based Approach
As we finally have a small but likely short-lived lull in the flurry of activity we have seen in the first two months of this year, I want to circle back to the inability of the council to put a...
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My View II: When Will We Address $655 Million in Infrastructure Needs?
The council did somehow find $800,000 to renovate Rainbow City even after they failed to fund it in February through the parcel tax Two years ago, as we first began to earnestly plan for the...
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Sunday Commentary: Should Rainbow City Have Been the Priority?
Sometimes in this business you have to be the bad guy in order to point out problematic governance. Everyone loves Rainbow City and the loss of it to this community obviously was a sore spot for many....
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Sunday Commentary II: Why Change Something That Is Working?
Davis Firefighters Union President Weist speaks out in 2012. In April of 2013, the Davis City Council on a 3-2 vote, with Dan Wolk and Lucas Frerichs dissenting, voted to reduce fire staffing from 12...
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Council Says It Supports Shared Management but Votes to Study It Further
Chief Trauernicht on Tuesday night The Davis City Council on Tuesday declared its support for the continuation of shared management of the fire department with UC Davis, but, in a conversation that...
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Commentary: Council Won’t End Fire Charade
Union President Bobby Weist addresses council To say the discussion on Tuesday night on the shared management of the fire department was odd and strained defies the conventional meaning of those words....
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City Council Candidate Question 2: Measures to Increase City Revenue
Candidates Forum on March 12/ Photo by Eunah Cho of Davis Media Access For the next eight weeks, the Vanguard will be sending the Davis City Council candidates weekly questions. They have 250 to 350...
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Nishi Project’s Fiscal Benefits Extend to the City of Davis and Beyond
By Dan Carson Critics of Measure A and the Nishi Gateway project are making up imaginary fee numbers, shouting about giveaways to developers, and claiming that the project is a money loser for our...
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Commentary: Can We Grow Our Way out of Our Problems?
I got the idea for this column from a number of conversations I have had over the last few days. Part of the problem that I think we face in this community is that most people really do not know the...
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Council Receives Report on Capital Improvement Projects for 2016-17
The Davis City Council on Tuesday received a report on the proposed Capital Improvement Projects for next year. According to staff, the total budget for these projects is around $59 million, with 70...
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Monday Morning Thoughts II: Council Carving Out One-Time Money for Capital...
The good news for the city is that the immediate budget picture has improved to the point where the council has decided to use one-time monies, basically its fund balance, to address some of the...
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2016-17 Budget and Long-Term Projectionss
By Dan Carson (The following is a memo from Dan Carson to the Finance and Budget Commission. The bullet points listed at the beginning of this analysis were adopted by the Finance and Budget Commission...
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Commentary: Is Davis Sustainable?
In the aftermath of the defeat of the Nishi project, the Vanguard has sought to continue a community conversation about growth and development. In so doing, I think Matt Williams is correct when he...
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Commentary: Is Davis Really One of the Worst Places to Live?
We always talk about Davis as a great place to live – low crime, relatively speaking, affluent and engaged population, progressive policies, great schools – so it may come as some surprise that when...
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Commentary: Sign of the Times
Civic Pool was leaking in 2014 In the past week, we have been talking about the lack of sustainable future we have in Davis. One example is the lack of money to maintain current facilities or to...
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My View: The Hope of the New
Robb Davis taking the oath of office This week a new mayor, a new councilmember and a new mayor pro tem were sworn into office – as I have suggested before, the changing of the guard has a more...
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Monday Morning Thoughts II: When Should We Built a New Sports Complex?
Does Davis need a public funded Sports Complex My concern at the time when this process was initiated last fall was that I did not believe at that time nor do I believe now that the top need in the...
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